DPF / Ryan

For those unexpected visitors, rhymes when you least expect them, from The Best of It.

from Deer / by Kay Ryan

To lure a single swivel ear,
one tentative twig of a leg,
or a nervous tail here,
is to mark this place
as the emperor’s park,
rife, I say rife, with deer.

DPF / Dietz

For dreams, from poetryfoundation.org.

from Lullaby / by Maggie Dietz

If I had a ginko tree
I’d climb it in the evening.

If I had a marmoset
He’d climb the tree with me.

DPF / Buchanan

For luck, from Must a Violence.

from The Cheshire Cat / by Oni Buchanan

‘I’ve never seen a real one!
If it bites me, that’s extremely
good luck,’ I remembered.

DPF / Lee

For fathers on their weekend, from poetryfoundation.org.

from Little Father / by Li-Young Lee

little clock spring newly wet
in the fire, little grape, parent to the future
wine, a son the fruit of his own son

DPF / Witek

For charms, from Exit Island.

from Three Times is Still the Charm / by Terri Witek

Mint? Purple clover? Memory’s
small-scale deliriums.

DPF / Ostriker

For yesterday’s visit to Santa Cruz, from poetryfoundation.org.

from The Dogs at Live Oak Beach, Santa Cruz / by Alicia Ostriker

Teeth into floating wood
Then bound back to their owners
Shining wet, with passionate speed
For nothing,
For absolutely nothing but joy.

DPF / Glück

For a belated yesterday, from Poems 1962-2012.

from A Summer Garden / by Louise Glück

Summer arrived. The children
leaned over the rose border, their shadows
merging with the shadows of the roses.

DPF / Berrigan

If you’re reading this, you may be one of those people with this particular joy in life, from Poetry Magazine, June 2016.

from As I walk patiently through life / by Daniel Berrigan, 1921-2016

As I walk patiently through life
poems follow close —

DPF / Harvey

For griffins and centaurs, from Modern Life.

from You Know This Too / by Matthea Harvey

The bird on the gate and the goat nosing the grass below make a funny little fraction, thinks the centaur. He wonders if this thought is more human than horse, more poetry than prose.

DPF / Rasmussen

For impressionism, from Black Aperture.

from Monet as a Verb / by Matt Rasmussen

The raindrop
that splatters

on a blade
of grass is

no more
worshipped

than the one