An Old Man’s Winter Night All out of doors looked darkly in at him Through the thin frost, almost in separate stars, That gathers on the pane in empty rooms. What kept his eyes from giving back the gaze Was the lamp tilted near them in his hand. What kept
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I’m singing in hell
I’m singing in hell This is a place where my City Councillor invokes UN property rights instead of human rights for the 130 people evicted from a rundown apartment block destined for demolition, where the Mayor, hell-bent on the erection of Pat’s Palace and a domed stadium over social housing,
Continue readingThe Skwib: A Bottle and a Friend
There’s nane that’s blest of human kind, But the cheerful and the gay, man, Fal, la, la, etc. Here’s a bottle and an honest friend! What wad ye wish for mair, man? Wha kens, before his life may end, What his share may be o’ care, man? Then catch the
Continue readingThose Emergency Blues: Favourite Poems XLIV
To a Locomotive in Winter Thee for my recitative, Thee in the driving storm even as now, the snow, the winter-day declining, Thee in thy panoply, thy measur’d dual throbbing and thy beat convulsive, Thy black cylindric body, golden brass and silvery steel, Thy ponderous side-bars, parallel and connecting rods,
Continue readingcentre of the universe: With
Fill these empty spaces These interstitial echoes of wheres we’ve been. Here is the crucible Opening before you, Incandescent. See this sandpaper scar, this winsome grin. Here are my arms Here my lips, parted Here is my short-gasped breath
Continue readingcentre of the universe: Sodium
I imagine Your face bathed in the diffuse orange glow of a sodium street lamp The curvature of your jawline casts sharp shadows You shrug into a light leather jacket Where are we? Where are we going? Your only answer … Continue reading →
Continue readingcentre of the universe: Sodium
I imagine Your face bathed in the diffuse orange glow of a sodium street lamp The curvature of your jawline casts sharp shadows You shrug into a light leather jacket Where are we? Where are we going? Your only answer … Continue reading →
Continue readingcentre of the universe: Winter Wind
It seems today is the first day of winter I turned my back away, thinking I would not feel the chill of your leaving Still, it blasts through me. Your heart full to bursting I wasn’t there to wish you … Continue reading →
Continue readingcentre of the universe: Right Now
It seems I will never sleep again Or else sleep too deeply for the rest of time Today I hate Sundays because Sundays are a day of goodbyes My soul is raw and tender with your leaving We created the … Continue reading →
Continue readingThings Are Good: Haikus in NYC for Pedestrian and Cyclist Safety
City of New York Makes streets safe with poety Haikus may save lives!
Continue readingcentre of the universe: Hibernia Burning
Words won’t let me settle I held you under water My mouth covered yours Not in passion, but to steal your last breath I have been Cassiopeia tumbling inverted through the winter sky I have been Hibernia burning yet nothing … Continue reading →
Continue readingcentre of the universe: To Speak Without Speaking
Let us have this conversation, then The one that begins in separate rooms with averted glances. Let us cross paths as less than strangers In great wide swaths and arcing patterns Thank God for passageways. Every word is a strategy. … Continue reading →
Continue reading350 or bust: Poet For the Planet, Drew Dellinger, At Occupy Oakland
“It’s time to rock the nation, rock this occupation! Our communities need us. We are all leaders. How could we ask for anything less than the future?“ A powerful video of the Occupy poem by acclaimed spoken word artist Drew Dellinger, by award winning filmmaker Velcrow Ripper, set to the
Continue readingThose Emergency Blues: Favourite Poems XLIII
Now Winter Nights Enlarge Now winter nights enlarge The number of their hours, And clouds their storms discharge Upon the airy towers. Let now the chimneys blaze, And cups o’erflow with wine; Let well-tuned words amaze With harmony divine. yellow waxen lights Shall wait on honey love, While youthful revels,
Continue readingThose Emergency Blues: Poem for a Saturday
I am really pleased to offer another poem by Michèle Katrina Thorsen. I have a couple more to offer over the next while. my dreams of your recovery died waiting in windows, at last disbelieving the roar of medical swank; the unraveling, dazzling myth of an exquisite, impossible) remission. — Michèle Katrina Thorsen Filed under: Michèle […]
Those Emergency Blues: Favourite Poems XLII
Two poems on the theme of Autumn. Autumn Valentine In May my heart was breaking- Oh, wide the wound, and deep! And bitter it beat at waking, And sore it split in sleep. And when it came November, I sought my heart, and sighed, “Poor thing, do you remember?” “What heart was that?” it cried. […]
centre of the universe: Catch-up
Autumn smells sweet when it rains “You’ll catch your death”, she screamed at me from a gaping doorway. All the faster I ran If I could catch my death, keep it safe, put it away, I would always know where … Continue reading →
Continue readingcentre of the universe: Economist
Corded muscles and a tight-lipped grin “I’m listening,” says the set of your shoulders. Oh, it’s not listening I’d like from you. My tongue slipping along your jawline unbuttoning, unbuckling, unzipping. I undo you. As I undress you, your eye…
Continue readingcentre of the universe: Deeper
There was vibration a gentle buzz from head to toe when I heard your voice when I felt your arms around me It was at once more than lust and less than love of a different sort I don’t remember … Continue reading →
Continue readingSketchy Thoughts: A Moment of Silence
The best poem i have ever read in my life; click here to listen to the poet reading it out loud:Before I begin this poem, I’d like to ask you to join me in a moment of silence in honor of those who died in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on S…
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