Gravity Suspended
by Ainne Frances dela Cruz gravity suspended. fowls dreaming of air. so wings. connive and beat. so dread. of pain and air. so distant. the reach from sky to earth. so pain. but after all the sun. The Tower Journal Fall 2010 Copyright ©: […]
From Death
I have never feared death Even though Its hands were more fragile Than banality. I dread, however, to die In a land where The grave digger’s wages Exceed the price of human freedom. Looking for, Discovering, Choosing freely, And transforming one’s essence Into a fortress. If the price of death is higher than all […]
Forfeiture
by Aimé Césaire As soon as I press the little pawl that I have under my tongue at a spot that escapes all detection all microscopic bombardment all dowser divination all scholarly prospecting beneath it triple layer of false eyelashes of centuries of insults of strata of madrepores of what I must call […]
For My Mother
by Afzal Moolla Someone always told me this with tears in her eyes A wife left South Africa in the 1960’s to join her husband who was in exile at the time. In 1970 the husband was sent by the African National Congress to India to be its representative […]
Fly Fly Butterfly
Fly fly butterfly, Fly fly butterfly, Fly fly butterfly, Fly up in the sky so high. CATERPILLARS! What do caterpillars do? Nothing much but chew and chew. What do caterpillars know? Nothing much but how to grow. They just eat what by and by will make them be a butterfly, But that is more than […]
Even The Rain
by Agha Shahid Ali What will suffice for a true-love knot? Even the rain? But he has bought grief’s lottery, bought even the rain. “our glosses / wanting in this world” “Can you remember?” Anyone! “when we thought / the poets taught” even the rain? After we died–That was it!–God […]
Destiny Far Away
by Akansha Singhal I hop and jump on the floating stones, stones sit on those sharks. A step and all bones, when its not even dark. Dark greens far away I can see and I am destitute the only way to get free, free I want to be but still solitude. […]
Conversation
by Ai We smile at each other and I lean back against the wicker couch. How does it feel to be dead? I say. You touch my knees with your blue fingers. And when you open your mouth, a ball of yellow light falls to the floor and burns a hole through it. […]
Calling All Angels
by Ainne Frances dela Cruz Towards bright lights and heaven, we hesitate, weakened by gravity unable to fly looping through earth. Satellites, things that catch us make us fall. Nets, I would love to catch and catch those things we lose because gravity, time, makes us give things up. Still, soul-weary […]
At The Locks Of The Void
by Aime Cesaire In the foreground and in longitudinal flight a dried-up brook drowsy roller of obsidian pebbles. In the background a decidedly not calm architecture of torn down burgs of eroded mountains on whose glimpsed phantom serpents chariots a cat’s-eye and alarming constellations are born. It is a strange firefly cake hurled […]
Anthem
Before being turned to ashes by the wrath of the thunderbolt, he had forced the steer of the tempest to kneel before his might. To test the faith of old he had worn out his teeth on the locks of ancient gates. On the most out-of-the way paths he struggled, an unexpected passer-by whose […]
All In A Word
T for time to be together, turkey,talk and tangy weather H for harvest stored away, home and hearth and holiday A for Autumn’s frosty art, and abundance in the heart N for neighbors and November, nice things, new things to remember K for kitchen, kettle’s croon, kith and kin expected soon S for sizzles, sights […]
A Teenage Pregnancy
by Agustin Antonio Why should my fun have to end? I thought that this was just the beginning. I see my friends go out to have fun. And all I can do is watch as they drive by. As they set forth to discover their youth, I’m well on my way towards […]
A Painting Morning
by Ahmad Reza Rahimi A voice in the morning calling from far away a muezzin and the Night drawing all its weapons to the hoard the sun painting the east in red and I sleeping on my bed! Poetry Monster – Home A few random poems: […]
A Child Of War
by Afzal Moolla as she lies bleeding the girl who skipped and hopped to school all of nine and a half years old with ribbons in her hair and a laugh that was her father’s pride as she lies bleeding the warm bullet lodged in her […]
Your Dream
A poem by Aeschylus (c. 525 – c. 456 Before Christ ) by Ajmer Rode If you have forgotten your dream don’t worry I saw it with my own eyes. The figure that stood before you with a bouquet of fresh roses was not me The arm that wrapped round your […]
Ars Poetica
A poem by Aeschylus (c. 525 – c. 456 Before Christ ) by Ainne Frances dela Cruz No, the poet does not live in a beautiful world, a perfect world, does not always see the bright side Nay, too often it is the dark she sees, Not rainbows and stars, […]
The Vision Of Cassandra
A poem by Aeschylus (c. 525 – c. 456 Before Christ ) CASSANDRA Phoebus Apollo! CHORUS Hark! The lips at last unlocking. CASSANDRA Phoebus! Phoebus! CHORUS Well, what of Phoebus, maiden? though a name ‘Tis but disparagement to call upon In misery. CASSANDRA Apollo! Apollo! Again! Oh, the burning arrow through the brain! Phoebus […]
The Sacrifice Of Iphigenia
A poem by Aeschylus (c. 525 – c. 456 Before Christ ) Now long and long from wintry Strymon blew The weary, hungry, anchor-straining blasts, The winds that wandering seamen dearly rue, Nor spared the cables worn and groaning masts; And, lingering on, in indolent delay, Slow wasted all the strength of Greece away. […]
The Lament Of The Old Nurse
A poem by Aeschylus (c. 525 – c. 456 Before Christ ) NURSE Our mistress bids me with all speed to call Aegisthus to the strangers, that he come And hear more clearly, as a man from man, This newly brought report. Before her slaves, Under set eyes of melancholy cast, She hid her […]
The Defiance Of Eteocles
A poem by Aeschylus (c. 525 – c. 456 Before Christ ) MESSENGER Now at the Seventh Gate the seventh chief, Thy proper mother’s son, I will announce, What fortune for this city, for himself, With curses he invoketh:–on the walls Ascending, heralded as king, to stand, With paeans for their capture; then with […]
The Decree Of Athena
A poem by Aeschylus (c. 525 – c. 456 Before Christ ) Hear ye my statute, men of Attica– Ye who of bloodshed judge this primal cause; Yea, and in future age shall Aegeus’s host Revere this court of jurors. This the hill Of Ares, seat of Amazons, their tent, What time ‘gainst Theseus, […]
The Complaint Of Prometheus
A poem by Aeschylus (c. 525 – c. 456 Before Christ ) PROMETHEUS (alone) O holy Aether, and swift-winged Winds, And River-wells, and laughter innumerous Of yon Sea-waves! Earth, mother of us all, And all-viewing cyclic Sun, I cry on you,– Behold me a god, what I endure from gods! Behold, with throe on throe, […]
The Beacon Fires
A poem by Aeschylus (c. 525 – c. 456 Before Christ ) A GLEAM – a gleam – from Ida’s height, By the Fire-god sent, it came; From watch to watch it leapt, that light, As a rider rode the flame! It shot through the startled sky, And the torch of that blazing glory […]
The Battle Of Salamis
A poem by Aeschylus (c. 525 – c. 456 Before Christ ) The night was passing, and the Grecian host By no means sought to issue forth unseen. But when indeed the day with her white steeds Held all the earth, resplendent to behold, First from the Greeks the loud-resounding din Of song triumphant […]
Song Of The Furies
A poem by Aeschylus (c. 525 – c. 456 Before Christ ) Up and lead the dance of Fate! Lift the song that mortals hate! Tell what rights are ours on earth, Over all of human birth. Swift of foot to avenge are we! He whose hands are clean and pure, Naught our wrath to […]
Prometheus Amid Hurricane And Earthquake
A poem by Aeschylus (c. 525 – c. 456 Before Christ ) Earth is rocking in space! And the thunders crash up with a roar upon roar, And the eddying lightnings flash fire in my face, And the whirlwinds are whirling the dust round and round- And the blasts of the winds universal leap […]
Prayer Artemis
A poem by Aeschylus (c. 525 – c. 456 Before Christ ) STROPHE IV Though Zeus plan all things right, Yet is his heart’s desire full hard to trace; Nathless in every place Brightly it gleameth, e’en in darkest night, Fraught with black fate to man’s speech-gifted race. ANTISTROPHE IV Steadfast, ne’er thrown in […]
Lament Two Brothers Slain Each Other039s Hand
A poem by Aeschylus (c. 525 – c. 456 Before Christ ) Now do our eyes behold The tidings which were told: Twin fallen kings, twin perished hopes to mourn, The slayer, the slain, The entangled doom forlorn And ruinous end of twain. Say, is not sorrow, is not sorrow’s sum On home and […]
Lament For The Two Brothers Slain By Each Others Hand
A poem by Aeschylus (c. 525 – c. 456 Before Christ ) Now do our eyes behold The tidings which were told: Twin fallen kings, twin perished hopes to mourn, The slayer, the slain, The entangled doom forlorn And ruinous end of twain. Say, is not sorrow, is not sorrow’s sum On home and […]
Fragment From Aeschylus
A poem by Aeschylus (c. 525 – c. 456 Before Christ ) The man who rightly acts without coercion Will not be grieved, can never wholly sink in wretchedness; While the lawless criminal is forcibly dragged under In the current of time when from the shattered mast The elements rip down his sails. He […]
Complaint Prometheus
A poem by Aeschylus (c. 525 – c. 456 Before Christ ) PROMETHEUS (alone) O holy Aether, and swift-winged Winds, And River-wells, and laughter innumerous Of yon Sea-waves! Earth, mother of us all, And all-viewing cyclic Sun, I cry on you,– Behold me a god, what I endure from gods! Behold, with throe on throe, […]
Battle Salamis
A poem by Aeschylus (c. 525 – c. 456 Before Christ ) The night was passing, and the Grecian host By no means sought to issue forth unseen. But when indeed the day with her white steeds Held all the earth, resplendent to behold, First from the Greeks the loud-resounding din Of song triumphant […]
A Prayer For Artemis
A poem by Aeschylus (c. 525 – c. 456 Before Christ ) STROPHE IV Though Zeus plan all things right, Yet is his heart’s desire full hard to trace; Nathless in every place Brightly it gleameth, e’en in darkest night, Fraught with black fate to man’s speech-gifted race. ANTISTROPHE IV Steadfast, ne’er thrown in […]
On Twitter
I am not a refugee from Twitter though I’ve tried it and it sucks. Besides, Twitter’s run by an evil critter. And I don’t want Twitter, not for a billion bucks. End A Poem about Twitter Related stuff: A Poem about Facebook Poetry Monster – Home A few random poems: External links […]
Victory
A poem by Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012) Something spreading underground won’t speak to us under skin won’t declare itself not all life-forms want dialogue with the machine-gods in their drama hogging down the deep bush clear-cutting refugees from ancient or transient villages into our opportunistic fervor to search crazily for a host […]
Valediction Forbidding Mourning
A poem by Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012) My swirling wants. Your frozen lips. The grammar turned and attacked me. Themes, written under duress. Emptiness of the notations. They gave me a drug that slowed the healing of wounds. I want you to see this before I leave: the experience of repetition […]
Two Songs
A poem by Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012) 1. Sex, as they harshly call it, I fell into this morning at ten o’clock, a drizzling hour of traffic and wet newspapers. I thought of him who yesterday clearly didn’t turn me to a hot field ready for plowing, and longing for that young man […]
Stepping Backward
A poem by Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012) Good-by to you whom I shall see tomorrow, Next year and when I’m fifty; still good-by. This is the leave we never really take. If you were dead or gone to live in China The event might draw your stature in my mind. I should be […]
Snapshots Of A Daughter In Law By Adrienne Rich
A poem by Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012) 1 You, once a belle in Shreveport, with henna-colored hair, skin like a peachbud, still have your dresses copied from that time, and play a Chopin prelude called by Cortot: “Delicious recollections float like perfume through the memory.” Your mind now, moldering like wedding-cake, […]