“Kleenex” by Tom Magliery on Flickr.  Licensed via the Creative Commons.
Sick
Shel Silverstein
‘I cannot go to school today, ‘
Said little Peggy Ann McKay.
‘I have the measles and the mumps,
A gash, a rash and purple bumps.
My mouth is wet, my throat is dry,
I’m going blind in my right eye.
My tonsils are as big as rocks,
I’ve counted sixteen [...]

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Night Mail
W H Auden
This is the Night Mail crossing the border,
Bringing the cheque and the postal order,
Letters for the rich, letters for the poor,
The shop at the corner and the girl next door.
Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb:
The gradient’s against her, but she’s on time.
Thro’ sparse counties she rampages,
Her driver’s eye upon the gauges.
Panting up [...]

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“Running Shoes” from Mark Steele’s Flickr stream.
Licensed via the Creative Commons.

The Runner
Walt Whitman
On a flat road runs the well-train’d runner,
He is lean and sinewy with muscular legs,
He is thinly clothed, he leans forward as he runs,
With lightly closed fists and arms partially rais’d.
Included in Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass and available online.
My first ever [...]

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“Empty Nest” via Angelina’s Flickr Stream, licensed under the Creative Commons.
As per a special request from Ariel, I present C.D. Wright this week– her poetry is amazing and I owe many thanks to Ariel for pointing me toward her work!
Lake Echo, Dear
by C. D. Wright
Is the woman in the pool of light
really reading or just [...]

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“Intertwined” from Dan Buczynski’s Flickr Stream.  Licensed via the Creative Commons.

Declaration of Independence
Lawrence S. Pertillar
Reflect the right to be who you are…
With a declaration of independence,
Defended under the eyes of God!
Achieve your greatness.
Share and bring it out of others.
Expect it from yourself,
And everyone will respect you.
This is the process much neglected.
Unmask your heart from [...]

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“Fireflies” from Jinx Etling’s Flickr stream.
Licensed via the Creative Commons.
Summer Stars
by Carl Sandburg
BEND low again, night of summer stars.
So near you are, sky of summer stars,
So near, a long arm man can pick off stars,
Pick off what he wants in the sky bowl,
So near you are, summer stars,
So near, strumming, strumming,
So lazy and [...]

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“Taking you home” from Mtsofan’s Flickr stream, licesnsed via Creative Commons.

I felt my life with both my hands
by Emily Dickinson
I felt my life with both my hands
To see if it was there –
I held my spirit to the Glass,
To prove it possibler –
I turned my Being round and round
And paused at every pound
To ask the [...]

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“Misty road to 2007” from Hans S’ Flickr stream.
Licensed via the Creative Commons.

Mist
by Henry David Thoreau
Low-anchored cloud,
Newfoundland air,
Fountain head and source of rivers,
Dew-cloth, dream drapery,
And napkin spread by fays;
Drifting meadow of the air,
Where bloom the dasied banks and violets,
And in whose fenny labyrinth
The bittern booms and heron wades;
Spirit of the lake and seas and [...]

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The Yellow Bicycle
by Robert Hass
The woman I love is greedy,
but she refuses greed.
She walks so straightly.
When I ask her what she wants,
she says, “A yellow bicycle.”
.
Sun, sunflower,
coltsfoot on the roadside,
a goldfinch, the sign
that says Yield, her hair,
cat’s eyes, his hunger
and a yellow bicycle.
.
Once, when they had made love in the middle of the night and
it [...]

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“Vintage Shot” via Ray Beaulieu’s Flickr Stream.  Licensed under the Creative Commons.

We Are Many
Pablo Neruda
Of the many men whom I am, whom we are,
I cannot settle on a single one.
They are lost to me under the cover of clothing
They have departed for another city.
When everything seems to be set
to show me off as a man [...]

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