John Koenig
23 Emotions people feel, but can’t explain John Koenig, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows (Simon & Schuster, November 16, 2021)
Category: Reference
Li Ch’ing-Chao
Deep in the silent inner roomEvery fiber of my soft heartTurns to a thousand strands of sorrow.I loved the Spring,But the Spring is goneAs rain hastens the falling petals.I lean on the balustrade,Moving from one end to the other.My emotions are still disordered.Where is he?Withered grass stretches to the horizonAnd hides from sightAny road by… Continue reading Li Ch’ing-Chao
William Olsen
I have had days stare back at me as if to say, let’s see who will darken first. — William Olsen, from “The Day After the Day of the Dead,” Field Guide to Prose Poetry: Contemporary Poets in Discussion and Practice, ed. Gary L. McDowell and F. Daniel Rzicznek (Rose Metal Press, 2010)
Gary Provost
This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music.… Continue reading Gary Provost
Annie Dillard
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. ― Annie Dillard, The Writing Life (Harper Perennial, November 12, 2013)
Antonio Machado
Last night as I was sleeping,I dreamt—marvelous error!—that a spring was breakingout in my heart.I said: Along which secret aqueduct,Oh water, are you coming to me,water of a new lifethat I have never drunk? Last night as I was sleeping,I dreamt—marvelous error!—that I had a beehivehere inside my heart.And the golden beeswere making white combsand… Continue reading Antonio Machado
Jewelle Gomez
I want to hold youin a motel roomwith the sunshine stripeof venetian blindsacross your back.Or I want to dream of that. — Jewelle Gomez, from “At Night,” The Key To Everything: Classic Lesbian Love Poems. Edited by Gerry G. Pearlberg. (St. Martin’s Press; 1st edition December 15, 1994)
Jessica Piazza
A cloying offering: this summer’s heat, the cheerful greenery deadheaded blooms leave, a leering gaze, a heart’s alarming beat when greeted by her nearness. — Jessica Piazza, opening lines to “Too pretty for words,” The Book of Scented Things: 100 Contemporary Poems about Perfume, eds. Jehanne Dubrow and Lindsay Lusby (Literary House Press, 2014)
Thomas Moore
Sad Memory brings the light Of other days around me. — Thomas Moore, from “The Light of Other Days,” The Oxford Book of English Verse 1250–1918. Editor: Arthur Quiller-Couch. (Oxford University Press March 26, 1963)
Theodore Roethke
Your words are you. You are them and not much more. The description: The fieldness of fields, the weediness of weeds … When is description mere? Never. A freshness in the seeing, an innocency in the vision, the angle of perception, the bringing together of details, not necessarily as metaphors, even, just as objects. Be… Continue reading Theodore Roethke
The Vale of Soul-Making 