To the Gods I don’t believe in(Which is all of them)Please hear me nowListen with your void-rapt earsAnd answer me this:How can a man tell his beloved dog“The summer of your life is over”? How can I say it?Those long, sun-soaked days we thought would never endGone, spent, never returningHow can I say“Not that toy, […]
The night I learnedthat the cinema in our townwas closing,I wept. I sifted memories, turned back timetrying to reclaim all those momentsof awesadnessexhilarationjoysitting in shadow with folksjust plain Americansin our nothing special, sometimes faulty cinemait’s janky but it’s ours. We lost ourselves in that third spacehappily together but each in our separate worldsthe dark, the […]
Moonlight on the Ōyodo RiverDances same as moonlight on any morningOn any waterThe early cold, breath becomes fogAnd disappears Footsteps on the Ōyodo RiverFall same as footsteps on any eveningOn any pathThe late warmth, day becomes nightAnd disappears The sounds of the Ōyodo RiverFlow same as sounds on any dayOn any riverThe midday heat, sweat […]
Summary: Charlie D. Hankin’s Break and Flow examines the language, culture, history, and politics of hip hop in Cuba, Brazil, and Haiti. Organizing his chapters around a series of themes––yearning, raplove, uprooting, scale, writing, and violence––Hankin invites the reader to consider the many ways that hip hop culture and rap music have influenced (and been influenced by) […]
At the top of the hill of possible grief, Is where I meet it, Or it meets me. We join in mutual expiration, Breath comes ragged, If it comes, At all. In the haze of the night of possible grief, Is where we feel it, A loving ambush, all prepared. It watches, companionable Offering the […]
My Dear and Honoured Rilke, I have received your letters We all did–– Joyce’s “general postoffice of human life” was Not too late After all Your letters, first posted Then unposted–– Wash us clean across the generations Bring us the quiet and careful wisdom You sought in Solitude Criticism won’t bring us near to art […]
Bury your life in bookends for a bookend eases things A start and a beginning both will carry you as wings Bring your callous calling forth whisper through the wall A crackling caterwaul awaits the generous recall You haven’t made it out just yet your anchor still resides But brilliant was the time we met […]
it’s a wave that blows and blasts us, sends us out, tousled, enduring the marred matter of motive it’s a hum that rides and wrecks us, pulls us home, spent, wandering the cobbled course of confusion when i stepped, and you stepped, and we stepped, creases ceased and blood began when i stepped, and you […]
The next word is the word of wonder–– the word we wait for, and wait again. The next sigh is the sigh of smoke–– the sigh set off by our soft trigger. The next call is the call of condolence–– the call we put off, just forget it. The next leap is the leap of […]
Abandonment is childhood’s end For leavers and for stayers both The quick lash of window’s light Meets malice at the door Castles turned to trees arrange For leaf’s bright toss And air’s cool whisper In the bright den of dawn Losing time to bed’s fine folds Enwrapped in raptured coverlets This lonely joy kills across […]