Poetry

Reading: Theory of Prosody by Philip Levine
Philip Levine (1928-2015) was an American poet. As a boy, he worked in the factories of Detroit and was fascinated by the events of the Spanish civil war. He was among the most important poetic voices of the industrial poor of the twentieth century. I read a seemingly playful piece of his that is not ...
Cloud Watching with my Child
We lie still on a silent green slope watching the clouds for hours in their unending transformation You see a crocodile, I see a monkey, you see a turtle, I see a tiny fish then there is silence and I think of you Much later, attuned to thoughts of grief oblivious of the highs and ...
Reading: Lost Love by Gregory Djanikian
Gregory Djanikian (b. 1949) is an Egyptian born American poet with Armenian roots. He writes about the emigration experience, in particular about the way the English language is enriched by immigrants. I read a love poem today: Lost Love Someone is walking up and down the street crying “My lost love, my lost love!” without ...
Reading: Between the Sultan and His Statue by Yusuf al-Saigh
Yusuf al-Saigh (1933-2006) was an Iraqi poet who has published poetry since the 1950s. He also worked as an illustrator and painter. I read a short verse that nicely renders the working of symbolic authority: Between the Sultan and His Statue A wily sculptor Cut several pounds off the sultan’s figure And added several pounds ...
Reading: Dark Eyes Touching Clear Sky by Kattya Janssen
Kattya Janssen (b. ?) is a Dutch poet and artist. I read a poem from the section 'Lust' on her website: Dark bodies touching clear sky Underneath crisp pearly grass Feverish shadows Oakwood touching hands Capricious patterns of roughness The sliding of a foot Fanciful flowers crushing Aurora shows up The cold whim of the ...
identity
strap me down on a vivisection table study my humors, my bile, my spleen I'm keen to know who I am and if I'm able but don't forget to stitch me up again.
Cheer up well done
So I have come to an inversion: your recognition will feel like an insult, (This is a defense mechanism) I have accomplished officially accomplished close to nothing, and I am still closing in to nothingness. This morning (but the diction is universal) I realized that all future things will be mere projections of the past, ...
Reading: The Work Of Happiness by May Sarton
May Sarton (1912-1995) was a very prolific writer of novels, journals and poetry. She kept reinventing herself and wrote until she was very old. According to literary critics, she is an important contemporary American author. This time, I found a poem she wrote about happiness: The work of happiness I thought of happiness, how it ...
Reading: Eating Together by Li-Young Lee
Li-Young Lee (b. 1957) is a American poet born to Chinese exiles. His father, who plays an important role in his poetry, was the personal physician to Mao Zedong. His poetry has been compared to John Keats, Rilke and Roethke and he was influenced by old Chinese poems like Tu Fu, which shows in his economic use ...