For the ephemeral, from Poetry 180, edited by Billy Collins.
from Listen / by Miller Williams
I threw a snowball across the backyard.
My dog ran after it to bring it back.
It broke as it fell, scattering snow over snow.
20th-Century American Poetry
DPF / Quintana
For salt and wedding anniversaries, from Poetry 180, edited by Billy Collins.
from Poem for Salt / by Leroy V. Quintana
Only on a day such as this does salt overshadow gold.
DPF / Phillips
For a moment’s peace, from Poetry 180, edited by Billy Collins.
from The Panic Bird / by Robert Phillips
just flew inside my chest. Some
days it lights inside my brain,
but today it’s in my bonehouse,
rattling ribs like a birdcage.
DPF / Carver
For great storytellers, from The Book of Luminous Things, edited by Czeslaw Milosz.
from Wine / by Raymond Carver (1938-1988)
Alexander, who later
on the campaign trail into Persia, carried a copy of
The Iliad in a velvet-lined box, he loved that book so
much.
DPF / Gallup
For sci-fi poetry, from The Best American Poetry 1997, guest editor James Tate, series editor David Lehman.
from Backing into the Future / by Dick Gallup
It’s like the doors
Suddenly fret open & I am deep underground
With Ted Berrigan and we both have an intense
Distrust of the future we are looking forward to
DPF / Ai
For men and women, from The Best American Poetry 1997, guest editor James Tate, series editor David Lehman.
from Back in the World / by Ai
I begin to paint, first a black background,
then starting from the left side,
a white line, beside a red line
beside a white, beside a red,
each one getting smaller and smaller,
until they disappear off the edge of the canvas.
DPF / Alexie
For the eagles and ravens, from The Best American Poetry 1997, guest editor James Tate, series editor David Lehman.
from The Exaggeration of Despair / by Sherman Alexie
and this is my father, whose mother died of tuberculosis
not long after he was born, and so my father must hear coughing ghosts
DPF / Ammons
For the galaxies, from The Best America Poetry 1997, guest editor James Tate, series editor David Lehman.
from Strip / by A.R. Ammons
how am I sagely to depart from
all being (universe and all — by
that I mean material and immaterial
stuff) without calling out
DPF / Halpern
For children, from The Best American Poetry 1997, guest editor James Tate, series editor David Lehman.
from Her Body / by Daniel Halpern
the smallest finger poking the air, pointing toward the first heat
of the single sun, pointing toward the friendly angels
who sent her, letting them know contact’s made.
DPF / Andrews
For angels, from The Best American
Poetry 1997, guest editor James Tate, series editor David Lehman.
from That Cold Summer / by Nin Andrews
When the feathers
became more plentiful and blew around the rooms,
I swept them out the door, and they rose and drifted
like earthbound clouds.
Daily Poetry Fragments {Semi-Daily} 