Tag Archives: Poetry

Baudelaire’s spleen

February 16, 2023

Nicolas Roberto Robles Badajoz, Spain Figure 1. Frontispiece of the 1857 proof of Les Fleurs du Mal, annotated by Charles Baudelaire. Gallica Digital Library. Via Wikimedia. Public domain. Je suis comme le roi d’un pays pluvieux, Riche, mais impuissant, jeune et pourtant très-vieux, Qui, de ses précepteurs méprisant les courbettes, S’ennuie avec ses chiens comme […]

O Child! My Child!

December 13, 2022

Alice Ranjan Redmond, Washington, USA   A woman personifying night carries two babies over the land, representing sleep and death. Etching by F. Bartolozzi, 1764, after Annibale Carracci. Wellcome Collection. Public domain. O Child! My Child! Enter did you, into this world, incarnadine and warm. But when I held you in my arms, you did […]

Wandering lonely as a cloud

December 13, 2022

Dean Gianakos Lynchburg, Virginia, US   Photo by K. Mitch Hodge on Unsplash.  I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o’er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Continuous as the […]

To my colleagues in Ukraine whom I saw on TV

August 31, 2022

Barry Meisenberg Baltimore, Maryland, United States   Limestone fragments of the “Vulture Stele” now in the Louvre Museum, Paris, France. A stele is a stone pillar erected as a monument to some great event. This stele was created circa 2500 BC to celebrate the victory of King Eannatum of Lagash over Ush, king of Umma. […]

The grieving one: on the death of a spouse

July 8, 2022

Paul Rousseau Charleston, South Carolina, United States   “A real experience of death isolates one absolutely. The bereaved cannot communicate with the unbereaved.” – Iris Murdoch, An Accidental Man, 1971   ‘Alone’ holds the word ‘one.’ Photo by Javier Ocampo Zuluaga on Pixabay. After the death of a spouse, we are al(one). ____ One pillow […]

A poet for a patient: A tenth century poem by al Mutanabbi

June 30, 2022

Sama Alreddawi Barry Meisenberg Annapolis, Maryland, United States   “The Night Visitor”1 …عَليـلُ الجِسـمِ مُمتَنِـعُ القِـيـامِ شَديدُ السُكرِ مِـن غَيـرِ المُـدامِ …وزَائِرَتـي كَـأَنَّ بِهـا حَـيـاءً فَلَيـسَ تَـزورُ إِلّا فـي الظَـلامِ بَذَلتُ لَها المَطـارِفَ وَالحَشايـا… فَعافَتهـا وَباتَـت فـي عِظامـي يَضيقُ الجِلدُ عَن نَفسـي وَعَنهـا… فَتوسِـعُـهُ بِـأَنـواعِ السِـقـامِ …إِذا مـا فارَقَتـنـي غَسَّلَتـنـي كَأَنّـا عاكِفـانِ عَلـى حَــرامِ كَأَنَّ […]

Bone headdress

June 8, 2022

Susan Sample Salt Lake City, Utah, United States After artwork created by a person with cancer   Cow’s Skull with Calico Roses. Painting by Georgia O’Keeffe, 1931. Art Institute of Chicago. No known restrictions on publication. Why tens of bones linked with silver chain into an earthly veil? I gaze at other entries: hand-stitched quilts […]

Villanelle

May 25, 2022

Jolene Won Chicago, Illinois, United States   Photo by Sandy Torchon on Pexels. I did not know today would be your last – we see no end for those that we hold dear. If I had known I’d not have let it pass. The nurse who knows she can’t set down her tasks continues on, […]

It could be bad

April 12, 2022

Paul Rousseau Charleston, South Carolina, United States Photo by Jira on Rawpixel.     The doctor poked and probed and prodded and pinched and rubbed his chin and clicked his pen and rose from his stool and breathed a groan, “Something is wrong, and it could be bad, is plausibly bad, is certainly bad, but not […]

Battle of six feet

March 24, 2022

Mark Mosley Wichita, Kansas, United States   Sleep (w/CPAP). Artwork by Howard J on Flickr, October 19, 2020. CC BY-NC 2.0. They die alone now; jet pilots soaring solo upward muffled voices sucked into machines speaking a language we recognize but too distant to quite understand until their plastic faces harden and eyes glaze over […]