This one’s from Puerto del Sol, Spring 1999. Lovely to share an issue with this poet. I will pretend that a rain poem is like a rain dance, and I will consider it successful if our valley sees rain any time in the next month. I hear that the total rainfall for this region these past twelve months is lower than it’s ever been in recorded history. Here’s a bit more:
http://www.poemhunter.com/nancy-cherry/

from Rain Storm / by Nancy Cherry

imagines lichens rising as he passes
the receiver to the other hand as if

From Poetry, October-November 1999. More here:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/david-schloss

from Figures in the Carpets / by David Schloss

At the center, a meditative medallion
making a moving immortal-flowered ground

Instead of his coy mistress, here’s a different poem, but an anthologized one as well. From The Norton Anthology of Poetry, 4th edition, edited by Ferguson, Salter, and Stallworthy (1970). More on Marvell here:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/andrew-marvell

from Bermudas / by Andrew Marvell (1621–1678)

From a small boat that rowed along,
The listening winds received this song:

This one’s from The Norton Anthology of Poetry, 4th Edition, ed. by Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, and Jon Stallworthy (1970). The end word in many of the lines of this poem becomes a harbinger for the first word in the next line where some of its letters and sounds are echoed. More here on MacNeice:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/louis-macneice

from The Sunlight on the Garden / by Louis MacNeice (1907-1963)

The sky was good for flying
Defying the church bells

This one’s from Poetry magazine, May 2012. More here:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/rae-armantrout

from And / by Rae Armantrout b. 1947

the sour grass flower;
the yellow moth.

This one’s from the Antioch Review, Winter 1988, Vol. 56, Number 1. One of my poems is in this issue as well. Lovely to share a space with her! More here at her blog:
http://keniston.blogs.unr.edu/

from Matter and Spirit / by Ann Keniston

      Wouldn’t anyone prefer to dwell
beyond the last outpost of the represented word

One thing I’ve noticed in attempting not to repeat anyone until I can’t take not going back to Berryman, for one example, is that the number of poets in the world, those here and those here only in print, will continue to exceed the days with new poets appearing daily. Russian Nobel laureate Pasternak, of course, is not one of these “new poets,” but as Alice Fulton’s quote goes, “It will be new//whether you make it new/or not.” This one’s from his Penguin Selected Poems (1983). More here:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/boris-pasternak

from The Weeping Garden / by Boris Pasternak (1890–1960) translated by Jon Stallworthy and Peter France

It’s terrible: dripping and listening
If it’s as much alone as ever —

This one’s from Poetry, June 2012. More on Dybek here:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/stuart-dybek

from Their Story / by Stuart Dybek b. 1942

Each page turned was torn and fed
to flames