Poetry

This fine poem by Rodney Torreson, of Grand Rapids, Mich., looks into the world of boys arriving at the edge of manhood, and compares their natural wildness to that of dogs, with whom they feel a kinship. On A Moonstruck Gravel Road The sheep-killing dogs saunter home, wool scraps in their teeth. From the den […]

haiku #9 quickly, look again — bare winter trees, every bough leafed out in blackbirds © Jacqueline Jackson 2006

Every parent can tell a score of tales about the difficulties of raising children, and then of the difficulties in letting go of them. Here the Texas poet, Walt McDonald, shares just such a story. Some Boys are Born to Wander From Michigan our son writes, How many elk? How many big horn sheep? It’s […]

The poet, novelist and biographer Robert Morgan, who was raised in North Carolina, has written many intriguing poems that teach his readers about southern folklore. Here’s just one example. Holy Cussing When the most intense revivals swept the mountains just a century ago, participants described the shouts and barks in unknown tongues, the jerks of […]

countrysidepoem #1 joy comes unexpected today with friends I found myself burning a prairie already bush-hogged the stalks lying broken to prevent fire leaping to tree height fanned by a fitful wind the flames were spectacle enough in their staggered advance across the field behind them a scorched surface a pancake griddle with smoking hummocks […]

kinquotepoem #7 over the phone my brother said gratuitously what a loser but that president is building houses this one is bombing them © Jacqueline Jackson 2006

travelpoem #3 a donkey fell in the cloutie well and drowned of course the well isn’t sacred anymore for you can’t have a thing like that happen and retain sanctity they found a nearby pool with the requisite hawthorn its branches now boast the scraps of paper the ribbons the moistened handkerchiefs bearing prayers for […]

lovepoem #5 (technopoem #2) glen gould plays bach and hums hunched over the keyboard he plays bach and hums you listen for the humming you wait for the humming you smile when you begin to hear the drone bass to the partita you love the humming because glen gould loves bach so much he has […]

aroundtownpoem #9 there was this couple cruising alongside me down walnut street she was at the wheel had real spiky hair and was laffin fit to kill while he — well I don’t want to say what he seemed to be doing I could only snatch looks maybe she was having trouble with her seat […]

This poem, a response to last month’s mine  disaster in West Virginia, is written from the perspective of those waiting aboveground. The earth itself becomes a character in the story. The “black diamonds” can be seen as the miners themselves. Lonely Vigil They wait,all through the endless night, standing in small groups,praying.Trying to keep the fear […]

Here is a poem by Minnesota’s David Bengtson about the simple pleasure of walking through deep snow to the mailbox to see what’s arrived. But, of course, the pleasure is not only in picking up the mail with its surprises, but in the complete experience — being fully alive to the clean cold air and […]

aroundthecosmospoem #4 do you know that every minute of every day somewhere on this globe mozart is playing I sometimes grieve the music lost by his not doubling his thirty-five years better to banish regret be grateful he started young give a magic flute to the small grandkids laugh while they duet pa-pa-pa-pa-pa and argue […]