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Interests: Alfons Mucha, Archibald Leach, big words, Bob Hicok, Brian Eno, Cat Power, Charles Bukowski, Charlotte Masaryk, cheese, clarity, dark chocolate, David Byrne, David Foster Wallace, Dorothy Parker, Douglas Adams, Edna St. Vincent Millay, E.E. Cummings, Frank O’Hara, Fred Rogers, garlic, Gaudi, Gertrude Stein, ginger, Gustav Klimt, Iva Pekarkova, Jane Austen, Jaromir Nohavica, Jeanette Winterson, Josef Skvorecky, Joseph Campbell, Joss Whedon, Just a Minute, Kate Bush, Kurt Vonnegut, laughing until it hurts, Laurie Anderson, Leonard Cohen, little kids singing, Lloyd Alexander, mandarin oranges, making lists, Margaret Atwood, Miss Manners, New Yorker, Paul Simon, performance, P.G. Wodehouse, poetry, Rebecca Solnit, Rob Brezsny, Robert Anton Wilson, Robert Creeley, salt, Salvador Dali, secrets, silence, Star Trek, Stephen Dunn, Talking Heads, Terry Gilliam, things that stain, This American Life, Tom Waits, T.S. Eliot, vegetable juice, veiled cultural references, vinegar, water, wine, W.H. Auden

Category: POETRY

  • The Layers, by Stanley Kunitz

    I have walked through many lives,some of them my own,and I am not who I was,though some principle of beingabides, from which I strugglenot to stray.When I look behind,as I am compelled to lookbefore I can gather strengthto proceed on my journey,I see the milestones dwindlingtoward the horizonand the slow fires trailingfrom the abandoned camp-sites,over…

  • Poem For People That Are Understandably Too Busy To Read Poetry by Stephen Dunn

    Relax. This won't last long.Or if it does, or if the linesmake you sleepy or bored,give in to sleep, turn onthe T.V., deal the cards.This poem is built to withstandsuch things. Its feelingscannot be hurt. They exist somewhere in the poet,and I am far away.Pick it up anytime. Start itin the middle if you wish.It is…

  • Protest, by Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1914)

    To sin by silence, when we should protest,Makes cowards out of men. The human raceHas climbed on protest. Had no voice been raisedAgainst injustice, ignorance, and lust,The inquisition yet would serve the law,And guillotines decide our least disputes.The few who dare, must speak and speak againTo right the wrongs of many. Speech, thank God,No vested…

  • F40.0

    Although it's not a fear of crowds, sincegetting around them isn't so bad; no,or a fear of open spaces, I like a big skyrather more than a tunneland I even like people okay, though I prefer them one at a time; however I have refused to goout in the cold, wishing to avoid the cruelbite…

  • August by Barbara Crooker

    Summer sings its long song, and all the notes are green.But there's a click, somewhere in the middleof the month, as we reach the turning point, the apex,a Ferris wheel, cars tipping and tilting over the top,and we see September up ahead, school and schedulesreturning. And there's the first night you step outsideand hear the…

  • reverof enog

    Dear Sissy,   I guess you figured out by now that I ain't coming back, which means you're in charge now. The good news is I ain't dead, which anybody with half a brain could have figured but clearly neither Pa nor that poet have half a brain, so I have a clean getaway behind…

  • Some Days the Sea by Richard Blanco

    The sea is never the same twice. Today the waves open their lions-mouths hungry for the shore and I feel the earth helpless. Some days their foamy edges are lace at my feet, the sea a sheet of green silk. Sometimes the shore brings souvenirs from a storm, I sift spoils of sea grass: find…

  • I Wonder by Derek Tasker

    I wonder what would happen ifI treated everyone like I was in lovewith them, whether I like them or notand whether they respond or not and no matterwhat they say or do to me and even if I seethings in them which are ugly twisted pettycruel vain deceitful indifferent, just acceptall that and turn my attention to…

  • Recipe for Happiness, Khaborovsk or Anywhere Else, by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

    One grand boulevard with treeswith one grand cafe in sunwith strong black coffee in very small cups. One not necessarily very beautifulman or woman who loves you. One fine day.

  • And Now it’s October by Barbara Crooker

    the golden hour of the clock of the year. Everything that can runto fruit has already done so: round apples, oval plums, bottom-heavypears, black walnuts and hickory nuts annealed in their shells,the woodchuck with his overcoat of fat. Flowers that were once brightas a box of crayons are now seed heads and thistle down. All…