Category: Poetry

Christian Bök|Poetry

"W, a poem"

for Georges Perec  To the V that stands for viewing what is all  around us, eyes turned outward, toward theconscious surface of things, surrealism hasrelentlessly opposed W. — André Breton A meaningless distinction on W …

Franz Wright|Poetry

"Visiting the Library in a Strange City"

The words reappear, slowly developing on a vast unknown but precise number of pages  as I enter: the great building empty of visitors except for me, reading the minds of the dead —  moving with …

W.S. Merwin|Poetry

"Unchopping A Tree"

"Start with the leaves, the small twigs, and the nests that have been shaken, ripped, or broken off by the fall; these must be gathered and attached once again to their respective places..." A prose poem by W.S. Merwin about how to unchop …

Adam Zagajewski|Poetry

"Describing Paintings"

We usually catch only a few details — grapes from the seventeenth century, still fresh and gleaming,perhaps a fine ivory fork, or a cross's wood and drops of blood, and great suffering that has already dried. The shiny parquet creaks. …

Allan Chochinov|Poetry

"Ode To My Toaster"

Ode to my toaster, so shiny and cleanYou’re the butterknife's foe, you're the bread's trampolineYou're the lightest, the darkest, the coolest and proudYou’re the jack-in-the-box of the countertop crowd.In the old days you had a side …

Rachel Hadas|Poetry

"The Coloring Book" (2006)

When I was a girl who worked in watercolors,both our two cats, Butterscotch and Tibby,used to lap up paint water from the glass.Then, emboldened, they would seek the source —wet little hollow oblongs, orange, blue —and avidly …

Billy Collins|Poetry

"Design" (1995)

I pour a coating of salt on the tableand make a circle in it with my finger.This is the cycle of lifeI say to no one.This is the wheel of fortune,the Arctic Circle.This is the ring of Kerryand the white rose of TraleeI say to the ghosts of …

Robert Frost|Poetry

"Design" (1936)

I found a dimpled spider, fat and white,On a white heal-all, holding up a mothLike a white piece of rigid satin cloth—Assorted characters of death and blightMixed ready to begin the morning right,Like the ingredients of a witches' …