Nay, do not blush! I only heard
You had a mind to marry;
I thought I’d speak a friendly word,
So just one moment tarry.
Wed not a man whose merit lies
In things of outward show,
In raven hair or flashing eyes,
That please your fancy so.
But marry one who’s good and kind,
And free from all pretence;
Who, if without a gifted mine,
At least has common sense.
This poem is in the public domain.
I was sympathetic to language, but often it shrugged me and kept other lovers. I crawled through the commas of Romanticism and rejected the rhythms, though sometimes at night I could feel a little sad. I could emerge now into a new kind of style, but the market is already flooded and my people have lost faith in things meant to land a clear yes or no. It’s good to welcome a stranger into the house. Introduce her to everyone sitting at the table and wash your hands before you serve her, lest the residue of other meals affect your affections. “If something is beautiful we do not even experience pain as pain.” (A man said that.) “I think I owe all words to my friends.” (I said that.) “We speak to one another in circles alone with ourselves.” (He said that, too.) That’s why we go to war. We’ve gotten too big to be friends with everyone and so I like to feel the fellowship of the person next to me shooting out across a foreign plain. The streams of light on the horizon are something I share with him and this is also a feeling of love. I spoke to his widow and touched his dog. I told his daughter how his last breath was Homeric and spoke of nothing but returning home.
From The Tiniest Muzzle Sings Songs of Freedom. Copyright © 2019 by Magdalena Zurawski. Used with permission of the author and Wave Books.
Gray prinked with rose,
White tipped with blue,
Shoes with gay hose,
Sleeves of chrome hue;
Fluffed frills of white,
Dark bordered light;
Such shimmerings through
Trees of emerald green are eyed
This afternoon, from the road outside.
They whirl around:
Many laughters run
With a cascade's sound;
Then a mere one.
A bell: they flee:
Silence then: —
So it will be
Some day again
With them, — with me.
This poem appeared in Poem-A-Day on June 2, 2013. Browse the Poem-A-Day archive. This poem is in the public domain.
my friends
create the mood
by describing it
turning off all the lights
a place in our minds
wakes as in water
we dance alone and with each other
we make circles around each other
get close then step back
then get close again
my friends
the furniture is round
the furniture is covered
in bluets
there are drugs my friends
why be evasive
when you can listen to an audio book
about a biologist
on a mysterious expedition
to Area X
an area cut off from civilization
today I’ve spoken to no one
and I feel fine
but feelings aren’t facts my friends
and I’ve eaten the last of the cheese
and table water crackers
and I have no salary
but I will hold you
Copyright © 2017 by Ali Power. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on April 24, 2017, by the Academy of American Poets.
Seventeen rosebuds in a ring, Thick with sister flowers beset, In a fragrant coronet, Lucy’s servants this day bring. Be it the birthday wreath she wears Fresh and fair, and symbolling The young number of her years, The sweet blushes of her spring. Types of youth and love and hope! Friendly hearts your mistress greet, Be you ever fair and sweet, And grow lovelier as you ope! Gentle nursling, fenced about With fond care, and guarded so, Scarce you've heard of storms without, Frosts that bite or winds that blow! Kindly has your life begun, And we pray that heaven may send To our floweret a warm sun, A calm summer, a sweet end. And where’er shall be her home, May she decorate the place; Still expanding into bloom, And developing in grace.
This poem is in the public domain.
I understand what
a jump shot is,
certain mechanics
of the body, hand
positions, elbow
alignment, follow
through. Enough
player names to
mention around
the imaginary water-
cooler if I found
myself there. A body
at rest still needs
to hydrate. I cried
watching Bird
and Magic in that
documentary and
own a small collection
of expensive high-top
sneakers in various
colorways—used
exclusively to walk
my pets or to the
coffee shop for
an almond croissant.
Fresh to death. On
my mantle, four second
place trophies from
intramural wrestling
all before fifth grade.
Pitter patter sprawl.
I can’t remember
swimming. I mean,
I can’t swim. I can’t
drive. Sometimes
I miss a high five,
the pat on the ass.
I swung and missed
at tee-ball, golf. Traded
cards for the love
of the potential investment.
George Brett, I’ll always
love your name.
I appreciate highlights,
trick plays as much as
the next: The Statue
of Liberty, Flea Flickers,
The Changing Light
at Sandover. I was
born in the suburbs
of the city of brotherly
bullies, poor sports,
famous boo-ers and
stadium court houses.
I was the only boy
cut from my seventh
grade soccer team.
It’s in my blood to lose
at all games, even Uno,
especially Monopoly,
and when I do, I spit
into my palm or refuse
to shake hands.
Copyright © 2015 Brett Fletcher Lauer. Originally published in the Winter 2015 issue of Prairie Schooner. Used with permission of Prairie Schooner.
My mother loves butter more than I do,
more than anyone. She pulls chunks off
the stick and eats it plain, explaining
cream spun around into butter! Growing up
we ate turkey cutlets sauteed in lemon
and butter, butter and cheese on green noodles,
butter melting in small pools in the hearts
of Yorkshire puddings, butter better
than gravy staining white rice yellow,
butter glazing corn in slipping squares,
butter the lava in white volcanoes
of hominy grits, butter softening
in a white bowl to be creamed with white
sugar, butter disappearing into
whipped potatoes, with pineapple,
butter melted and curdy to pour
over pancakes, butter licked off the plate
with warm Alaga syrup. When I picture
the good old days I am grinning greasy
with my brother, having watched the tiger
chase his tail and turn to butter. We are
Mumbo and Jumbo’s children despite
historical revision, despite
our parent’s efforts, glowing from the inside
out, one hundred megawatts of butter.
From Crave Radiance: New and Selected Poems 1990–2010 (Graywolf Press, 2010) Copyright © 2017 by Elizabeth Alexander. Used with the permission of Graywolf Press.
Tomato pies are what we called them, those days,
before Pizza came in,
at my Grandmother’s restaurant,
in Trenton New Jersey.
My grandfather is rolling meatballs
in the back. He studied to be a priest in Sicily but
saved his sister Maggie from marrying a bad guy
by coming to America.
Uncle Joey is rolling dough and spooning sauce.
Uncle Joey, is always scrubbed clean,
sobered up, in a white starched shirt, after
cops delivered him home just hours before.
The waitresses are helping
themselves to handfuls of cash out of the drawer,
playing the numbers with Moon Mullin
and Shad, sent in from Broad Street. 1942,
tomato pies with cheese, 25 cents.
With anchovies, large, 50 cents.
A whole dinner is 60 cents (before 6 pm).
How the soldiers, bussed in from Fort Dix,
would stand outside all the way down Warren Street,
waiting for this new taste treat,
young guys in uniform,
lined up and laughing, learning Italian,
before being shipped out to fight the last great war.
Copyright © by Grace Cavalieri. Used with the permission of the poet.