poetry

Dec 15, 2010 16:41

this is just a place for me to keep track of my favorite poems.  feel free to share your own favorites if you'd like. ♥

poetry

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Comments 25

Kevin A. Gonzalez cielxinfini December 15 2010, 21:42:56 UTC
1999

We were driving to your funeral
& our father was not crying
because he has a way
of tying ribbons around grief.
It was the year we learned
the piercing that prefaces the blood
holds the most delicate of darknesses.
Then it was the year we opened
all our faucets & waited for the sea
to bleed to death. Then it was the year
we set fire to your mitt. Then, suddenly
the year we started to believe
every thorn was just a bridge.
Then the year all we talked about
was boxing. Then the year
my stomach hurt all year, & then
the year no one spoke of you.

If there were an antonym for suicide
we could all choose when to be born.
I would have been born after that day
so I could not remember you.
So my fingers would stop pointing
at all the things that aren’t there.

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Jeffrey McDaniel cielxinfini December 15 2010, 21:45:14 UTC
The Quiet World

In an effort to get people to look
into each other’s eyes more,
the government has decided to allot
each person exactly one hundred
and sixty-seven words, per day.

When the phone rings, I put it
to my ear without saying hello.
In the restaurant I point
at chicken noodle soup. I am
adjusting well to the new way.

Late at night, I call my long
distance lover and proudly say
I only used fifty-nine today.
I saved the rest for you.

When she doesn’t respond, I know
she’s used up all her words
so I slowly whisper I love you,
thirty-two and a third times.
After that, we just sit on the line
and listen to each other breathe.

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e.e. cummings cielxinfini December 15 2010, 21:46:37 UTC
it may not always be so; and i say

it may not always be so; and i say
that if your lips, which i have loved, should touch
another’s, and your dear strong fingers clutch
his heart, as mine in time not far away;
if on another’s face your sweet hair lay
in such a silence as i know, or such
great writhing words as, uttering overmuch
stand helplessly before the spirit at bay;

if this should be, i say if this should be -
you of my heart, send me a little word;
that i may go unto him, and take his hands,
saying, Accept all happiness from me.
Then shall i turn my face, and hear one bird
sing terribly afar in the lost lands.

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Li-Young Lee cielxinfini December 15 2010, 21:47:38 UTC
GoodnightYou’ve stopped whispering ( ... )

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Re: Li-Young Lee cielxinfini December 15 2010, 21:57:36 UTC
PersimmonsIn sixth grade Mrs. Walker ( ... )

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Marilyn Hacker cielxinfini December 15 2010, 21:50:56 UTC
CodaMaybe it was jet lag, maybe not ( ... )

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Coda cont. cielxinfini December 15 2010, 21:51:31 UTC
“Why did Ray leave her pipe tobacco here ( ... )

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