DPF / Butson

For bus stops, from Poetry 180, edited by Billy Collins.

from Tuesday / by Denver Butson

A man standing at the bus stop
reading a newspaper is on fire

DPF / Fogel

For St. Bridget Press, from Poetry 180, edited by Billy Collins.

from The Printer’s Error / by Aaron Fogel

First: I hold that all books
and all printed
matter have
errors, obvious or no,
and that these are their
most significant moments

DPF / Gladding

For trees, from Poetry 180, edited by Billy Collins.

from Blue Willow / by Jody Gladding

swallows met over us later I dreamed
of flying with them we had all the time
in the world we had the world
how could those trees be weeping?

DPF / Menashe

For birthdays, from Poetry 180, edited by Billy Collins.

from 49th Birthday Trip (What Are You On?) / by Samuel Menashe

If I arrive at six-fifteen
Will I be seen?

DPF / Pavese

For rain, rain, rain which hides its face from us, from poetryfoundation.org.

from The Cats Will Know / by Cesare Pavese, translated by Geoffrey Brock

Rain will fall again
on your smooth pavement,
a light rain like
a breath or a step.
The breeze and the dawn
will flourish again
when you return,
as if beneath your step.
Between flowers and sills
the cats will know.

DPF / Ali

For rain, which we really, really need here, from poetryfoundation.org.

from Rain / by Kazim Ali, b. 1971

Over the echo of the water, I hear a voice saying my name.
No one in the city moves under the quick sightless rain.

The pages of my notebook soak, then curl. I’ve written:
“Yogis opened their mouths for hours to drink the rain.”

DPF / Mew

For the trees, from poetryfoundation.org.

from The Trees are Down / by Charlotte Mew

In the great gales that came over to them across the roofs from the great seas.

             There was only a quiet rain when they were dying;

             They must have heard the sparrows flying,   

DPF / Weigl

For deer, from poetryfoundation.org.

from My Autumn Leaves / by Bruce Weigl, b. 1949

        They know the boy
who lives inside me still won’t go away.
The deer are ghosts who slip between the light