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Blog entries by Merry
from "Autonomy of the Mind"
by Tsering Wangmo Dhompa
Mrs. Dhondyo says life is not a happy lollipop
and she has said that before. Not in so many words
but when her brother lost his house in a neighborhood fire,
and she went out to save what she could; while he went
to his buddies...
Styrofoam Cup
by Brenda Hillman
thou still unravished thou
thou, thou bride
thou unstill,
thou unravished unbride
unthou unbride
Brenda Hillman (1951, American) is called in her Poetry Foundation bio an "electic formalist." The entry goes on to say: "Brenda Hillman is known for...
from Mille et un sentiments
by Denise Duhamel
401. I feel open to writing in general.
402. I feel open to free writing, sestinas, and haiku.
403. I feel open to sonnets and canzones, villanelles and pantoums.
404. I feel open to collages and centos.
405. I feel open to memory...
from A Voice Through a Cloud
by Denton Welch
The pain, like some huge grizzly bear, seemed to take me between its paws. I screamed from sheer shock at its sudden increased violence.
"Stop it!" the nurses said together. "You'll wake the others." They seemed about to stifle me if I dared to...
Berkeley in the Time of Plague
by Jack Spicer
Plague took us and the land from under us,
Rose like a boil, enclosing us within.
We waited and the blue skies writhed awhile
Becoming black with death.
Plague took us and the chairs from under us,
Stepped cautiously while entering the...
A Mown Lawn
by Lydia Davis
She hated mown lawn. Maybe that was because mow was the reverse of wom, the beginning of the name of what she was -- a woman. A mown lawn had a sad sound to it, like a long moan. From her, a mown lawn made a long moan. Lawn had some of the letters of man...
from "Findings", Harper's Magazine, March 2011
Luc Montagnier, corecipient of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine for discovering HIV, claimed to have teleported DNA. Montagnier described an experiment wherein DNA's faint electromagnetic signature made an "imprint" in the water of one test...
Age
by Kay Ryan
As some people age
they kinden.
The apertures of their eyes widen.
I do not think they weaken;
I think something weak strengthens
until they are more and more it,
like letting in heaven.
But other people are
mussels or clams, frightened.
Steam or knife blades mean...
Music
by Robert Walser
Music is the sweetest thing in the world. I absolutely adore notes. I'll run a thousand paces just to hear one. Often when I'm walking through the hot streets in summer and hear the sounds of a piano from an unknown house I stop in my tracks, ready to die on the...
from "Wants"
by Grace Paley
I saw my ex-husband in the street. I was sitting on the steps of the new library.
Hello, my life, I said. We had once been married twenty-seven years, so I felt justified.
He said, What? What life? No life of mine.
I said, O.K. I don't argue when...
On Occasion
by Grace Paley
I forget the names of my friends
and the names of the flowers in
my garden___ my friends remind me
Grace___it's us___the flowers just
stand there stunned by the sun
A long time ago my mother said
darling___there are also wildflowers
but look___these I...
"Who was Mary Shelley?"
by Lorine Niedecker
Who was Mary Shelley?
What was her name
before she married?
She eloped with this Shelley
she rode a donkey
till the donkey had to be carried.
Mary was Frankenstein's creator
his yellow eye
before her husband was to drown
Created...
Teaching About Diseases
by Miroslav Holub
Puppet diseases are tiny and thread-like, with funereal fur coats and huge ears. And little clawed feet.
There is no fever, just sawdust sifting from the sleeves.
Diarrhea is like intellectual melancholy.
Irregular heartbeats is like...
"The fineness of things gives the universe nobility"
by Jean Follain
The fineness of things gives the universe nobility. Behind each thing a password lies hidden. These fragile cups, these crystal glasses, how carefully they must be put into the cupboard! The maid gets up on a chair...
from "Findings" in Harper's Magazine, April 2010
Bees can remember human faces, but only if they are tricked into thinking we are strange flowers.
The Bee Tapping Inside Your Car's Back Window
by David Shevin
He say we goin to the same place tonight?
He say I'm a worker just...
from The Songs of Kabir
II. 22. man tu pr utar knh jaiho
To what shore would you cross, O my heart? there is no traveller before you, there is no road:
Where is the movement, where is the rest, on that shore?
There is no water; no boat, no boatman, is there;
There is not so much...
SciFaiku
by Tom Brinck
after the rockets
* * * * depart ... a resistor*
* * * * on the windowsill*
Bathing*
her reptilian skin --*
small bubbles on glossy green.*
summer heat:*
your brainslug*
abruptly loses its grip*
birth defect:*
he comes out kicking, screaming,*...
A Clear Midnight
by Walt Whitman
This is thy hour O Soul, thy free flight into the wordless,
Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson done,
Thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the themes thou lovest best,
Night, sleep, death, and the stars...
1.
Reveal thyself, reveal thyself
but I am the one
from whom God's face
remains hidden.
2.
In every field
I searched
and into the woods
and cried,
Where are the pink rimmed eyes
of that white faced cow?
3.
By night
with fever
I dreamed a dream full of longing...
from Invisible: A Memoir
by Hugues de Montalembert
I lost my friends along with my sight.
My girlfriend at that time refused to see me.
Some people can't cope with it - that's all.
But I didn't think much about it at the time.
I was too absorbed in my fight to go back to life...