Poem – Page 5 – Princeton Writes

A Poem for You: Naïve by Tim Seibles

admin2024-03-19T09:44:04-04:00

Naïve Tim Seibles I love you but I don’t know you —Mennonite Woman When I was seven, I walked home with Dereck DeLarge, my arm slung over his skinny shoulders, after-school sun buffing our lunch boxes. So easy, that gesture, so light— the kind of love that lands like a leaf. It was 1963. We were two black boys whose snaggle-toothed grins held a thousand giggles. Remember? Remember wanting to play every minute, as if that was why we were born? Those hands that bring us shouting into this life must open like [...]

A Poem for You: Naïve by Tim Seiblesadmin2024-03-19T09:44:04-04:00

A Poem for You:Walking Beside the Cemetery, Olivia Street, Key West by Jacqueline Allen Trimble

admin2024-02-28T10:53:26-05:00

Walking Beside the Cemetery, Olivia Street, Key West Jacqueline Allen Trimble The City Cemetery was established in 1847 on “high ground, sixteen feet above sea level” in Key West following the disastrous hurricane of October 11, 1846, where the then beachside cemetery was unearthed due to the winds and seas. —“Historic Key West City Cemetery,” City of Key West Florida In Key West, the living surround the dead, who are the best neighbors silent and agreeable as well-swept porches. A fence that separates this [...]

A Poem for You:Walking Beside the Cemetery, Olivia Street, Key West by Jacqueline Allen Trimbleadmin2024-02-28T10:53:26-05:00

A Poem for You: Sea Girls by A. E. Stallings

admin2024-02-28T10:43:58-05:00

Sea Girls A. E. Stallings for Jason "Not gulls, girls." You frown, and you insist— Between two languages, you work at words (R's and L's, it's hard to get them right.) We watch the heavens' flotsam: garbage-white Above the island dump (just out of sight), Dirty, common, greedy—only birds. OK, I acquiesce, too tired to banter. Somehow they're not the same, though. See, they rise As though we glimpsed them through a torn disguise— Spellbound maidens, wild in flight, forsaken— Some metamorphosis that Ovid missed, With their pale breasts, their almost human cries. So maybe it is I who am mistaken; [...]

A Poem for You: Sea Girls by A. E. Stallingsadmin2024-02-28T10:43:58-05:00

A Poem for You: Bucolics [LIX] by Maurice Manning

admin2024-02-27T15:08:15-05:00

Bucolics [LIX] Maurice Manning when I see the shadow of the hawk but not the hawk itself do you know what it feels like Boss a stone a stone set on my chest it weighs me down it's stronger than the horse's strain against the plowlines Boss it's like the river after rain I can't hold back the pull the pull that makes me like its heft I even like the shadow's tiny yoke O Boss I feel its curve around my neck I see a flap of wings so black it binds me to the furrows Boss a shadow smarter [...]

A Poem for You: Bucolics [LIX] by Maurice Manningadmin2024-02-27T15:08:15-05:00

A Poem for You: Incognito Grief: A Blues by Allison Joseph

admin2024-02-27T10:29:26-05:00

Incognito Grief: A Blues Allison Joseph Who knows the secrets in my gaze? What holds me back when I might choke? Who sees beyond my taut hellos To see the grief etched on my face? Nobody knows what lurks within; Nobody brings me back again. Who needs to disappear for a while? Who sings my name beyond the veil? Who has my memories, my tales? Who’s lurking in my carpet’s dust? Nobody feels this weight beneath my skin. Who knows I’m grieving as I walk? Who has the list of gravity’s costs? Nobody but the man I’ve lost. Copyright © 2024 [...]

A Poem for You: Incognito Grief: A Blues by Allison Josephadmin2024-02-27T10:29:26-05:00

From “The Stuff of Hollywood” by Niki Herd

admin2024-02-27T14:50:18-05:00

From “The Stuff of Hollywood” Niki Herd After ice cream. Somewhere off Clear Creek & 196. Makeshift sign. Uncle Sam white as the lines on the flag in hand mouths love it or leave it. You must admire the gall of white men in carjacked country. Nearby a brief pond. Its skin a stillness. Then up. A bird of prey searches for its— / Goose. On a depthless pond. Deepest tunnel of unbecoming. How does one undrown from the incivility of this world? In the distant. Chimes. A musical score. A willow bends its back toward dirt & some star will [...]

From “The Stuff of Hollywood” by Niki Herdadmin2024-02-27T14:50:18-05:00

A Poem for You: Seven Steps to Heaven by Tony Medina

admin2024-02-22T16:25:15-05:00

Seven Steps to Heaven Tony Medina If every bomb Appeared in the sky a dove Shrapnel into rain If vengeance vanquished From the cursed lips of weak men An idea never taking root If every tank vanished If by chance a miracle Peace reclaims the land If laughter broke out Like wars fought with satire’s Pugilist punning What room would there be For anger what bitter root Not allowed to stretch Its tentacles Through the hearts of men hardened By indifference What will we bequeath Our children if not a world Evermore human Copyright © 2024 by Tony Medina. Originally published [...]

A Poem for You: Seven Steps to Heaven by Tony Medinaadmin2024-02-22T16:25:15-05:00

A Poem for You: Everybody’s Autobiography by Tracy K. Smith

admin2024-02-20T17:14:43-05:00

Everybody’s Autobiography Tracy K. Smith I find myself most alone When I believe I am striving for glory. These times, cool and sharp, A monument of moon-white stone lodges in place near my heart. In a dream, my children Glisten inside raindrops, or teardrops. Like strangers, like seeds of children. I will only be allowed to claim them If I consent to love everyone’s children. If I consent to love everyone’s children, Only then will I be allowed to claim them, My strangers, my seeds of children, Glistening inside raindrops or teardrops In my dream. Children Lodged in place near my [...]

A Poem for You: Everybody’s Autobiography by Tracy K. Smithadmin2024-02-20T17:14:43-05:00

A Poem for You: Theme for English B by Langston Hughes

admin2024-01-29T17:10:43-05:00

Theme for English B Langston Hughes The instructor said, Go home and write a page tonight. And let that page come out of you— Then, it will be true. I wonder if it's that simple? I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem. I went to school there, then Durham, then here to this college on the hill above Harlem. I am the only colored student in my class. The steps from the hill lead down into Harlem, through a park, then I cross St. Nicholas, Eighth Avenue, Seventh, and I come to the Y, the Harlem Branch Y, where I take [...]

A Poem for You: Theme for English B by Langston Hughesadmin2024-01-29T17:10:43-05:00

A poem for you: The Lost Breath of Trees by Colleen J. McElroy

admin2024-01-24T10:05:04-05:00

The Lost Breath of Trees Colleen J. McElroy an oratorio for vanishing voices, collapsing universes, and a falling tree. —Lena Herzog, Last Whispers 1. in the days before urban sprawl this town remained no more than cow pastures logs skidding down to the harbor gulls riding them like surfboards a green belt embraced the one road north a hundred years they say until the lease expired in those days trees lining each side threw shade over hippies and geese bound to the same direction this was the rainforest and we took for granted the trees that sheltered the sun in shimmering [...]

A poem for you: The Lost Breath of Trees by Colleen J. McElroyadmin2024-01-24T10:05:04-05:00

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