Self-Portrait Poem by Linda Pastan
After Adam ZagajewskiI am child to no one, mother to a few,wife for the long haul.On fall days I am happywith my dying brethren, the leaves,but in spring my head…
After Adam ZagajewskiI am child to no one, mother to a few,wife for the long haul.On fall days I am happywith my dying brethren, the leaves,but in spring my head…
Some sayit was a pearEve ate.Why else the shapeof the womb,or of the celloWhose single song is grieffor the parent tree?Why else the fruit itselftawny and sweetwhich your loverover breakfastlets…
Age saw two quiet children Go loving by at twilight, He knew not whether homeward, Or outward from the village, Or (chimes were ringing) churchward, He waited, (they were strangers)…
An upright abutment in the mouthof the Willis Avenue bridgea beige Honda leaps the dividerlike a steel gazelle inescapablesleek leather boots on the pavementrat-a-tat-tat best intentionsgoing down for the third…
Be who you are and will belearn to cherishthat boisterous Black Angel that drives youup one day and down anotherprotecting the ploace where your power risesrunning like hot bloodfrom the…
Billie Holiday's burned voicehad as many shadows as lights,a mournful candelabra against a sleek piano,the gardenia her signature under that ruined face.(Now you're cooking, drummer to bass, magic spoon, magic…
Don't lower your eyesor stare straight ahead to whereyou think you ought to be goingdon't mutter oh nonot another oneget a job fly a kitego bury a bonewith her oldfashioned…
Fall fell: so that's it for the leaf poetry:some flurries have whitened the edges of roadsand lawns: time for that, the snow stuff: &turkeys and old St. Nick: where am…
Finding a new poetis like finding a new wildflowerout in the woods. You don't seeits name in the flower books, andnobody you tell believesin its odd color or the wayits…
Gassing the woodchucks didn't turn out right.The knockout bomb from the Feed and Grain Exchangewas featured as merciful, quick at the boneand the case we had against them was airtight,both…