For sparrows, from The Rose Metal Field Guide to Prose Poetry.
from Pancake House Is Made of Pancakes / by Gerry LaFemina
Pancake house is made of pancakes. Treehouse is made of trees. Townhouse is made of towns
Poetry
DPF / Coolidge
For autumns, from poetryfoundation.org.
from The Country Autumns / by Clark Coolidge
Two plates, and on the other side all the
forest pieces. The clock says stay.
The books lower the earth, and in gardens
flat stones spin.
DPF / Berrigan
For Mom’s 74th birthday today, from poetryfoundation.org.
from 44th Birthday Evening at Harris ‘ s/ by Ted Berrigan.
44 years I’ve loved these dreams today
17 years since I wrote for the first time a poem
On my birthday, why did I wait so long?
DPF / Stickney
For troubled histories, from poetryfoundation.org.
from You Say, Columbus with his Argosies / by Trumbull Stickney
I then do answering say to you: The line
Of wizards and of saviours, keeping trust
In that which made them pensive and divine,
Passes before us like a cloud of dust.
Of wizards and of saviours, keeping trust
In that which made them pensive and divine,
Passes before us like a cloud of dust.
DPF / Chesterton
For cross country running, for this is what came up in the search at poetryfoundation.org.
from Elegy in a Country Courtyard / by GK Chesterton
And birds and bees of England
About the cross can roam.
For sleep, from poetryfoundation.org.
from Night in Sine / by LÉOPOLD SÉDAR SENGHOR, TRANSLATED BY MELVIN DIXON
Woman, place your soothing hands upon my brow,
Your hands softer than fur.
Above us balance the palm trees, barely rustling
In the night breeze. Not even a lullaby.
DPF / Warsh
For locks and scenes, from The Best American Poetry, 1997, edited by James Tate.
from Downward Mobility / by Lewis Warsh
I’ll probably make the same mistake at least one more time in my life before I learn there’s an alternative.
DPF / Schwartz
For dreams, from The Best American Poetry, 1997, edited by James Tate.
from Recruiting Poster / by Hillel Schwartz
Be what or who or where
ever, but be torrid.
Oh, be most, then more so, then beyond.
DPF / Walcott
An apologetic delay with some unapologetic lines from a poet with whom I ate dinner once in Florida (as did our whole graduate class) thanks to our William Logan. I sat beside Derek Walcott. He was a friendly giant. This one’s from The Best American Poetry, 1997, edited by James Tate.
from Italian Eclogues / by Derek Walcott
metaphors
breed and flit in the cave of the mind, and one hears
in the waves’ incantation and the August conifers,
and reads the ornate cyrillics
DPF / Warren
For mothers and daughters, from The Best American Poetry, 1997, edited by James Tate.
from Diversion / by Rosanna Warren
“Darling, I can’t
locate myself–” “Where
are you?”
Daily Poetry Fragments {Semi-Daily} 