When Giving Is All We Have ~ Alberto Ríos One river gives Its journey to the next. We give because someone gave to us. We give because nobody gave to us. We give because giving has changed us. We give because giving could have changed us. We have been better for it, We have been […]
Sonnet Isolate ~ Anne Carson “I force myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste.” —Marcel Duchamp A sonnet is a rectangle upon the page. Your eye enjoys it in a ratio of eight to five. Let’s say you’re an urgent man in an urgent language construing the millions of […]
He Visits My Town Once a Year ~ Amir Khusrow He visits my town once a year. He fills my mouth with kisses and nectar. I spend all my money on him. Who, girl, your man? No, a mango. (Image: Woman with a Mango by Paul Gauguin)
Images ~ Valery Larbaud Translated from the French by William Jay Smith 1 One day in a popular quarter of Kharkov, (O that southern Russia where all the women With white-shawled heads look so like Madonnas!) I saw a young woman returning from the fountain, Bearing, Russian-style, as Roman women did in the time of […]
The Wild Iris ~ Louise Glück At the end of my suffering there was a door. Hear me out: that which you call death I remember. Overhead, noises, branches of the pine shifting. Then nothing. The weak sun flickered over the dry surface. It is terrible to survive as consciousness buried in the dark earth. Then it […]
