Poetry

  • WORDS

    In the end I was not made for this; I havenone of the pragmatic agnosticism of thosewho carry words, words, words, and yetreturn to themselves with joy and gladness.I am drowning in words, in clauses—in their present selves, the future promiseand their haunting history; they staywith me unless I destroy them, clearall memory. This is…

  • The Tree, 1964

    Today I walked with two poets through a small forest.The bugs kept yelling questions. When I tried toanswer, they denied asking me the questions. The air isso wet here that it only knows how to touch my lipsassertively. The bugs are loudest behind me. Theysound like fractions of pain, like Agnes’s tree, which isvisible because…

  • Transmigration

    Translated by Ming Di  My body is a dovecote. Doves howl in my gut,flapping. I want them all to go, even though they hang in the air, wireless, andwait for a certain soulto receive them. Then, I return to earth an empty self, empty dovecote.

  • Irreconcilable

    After Lucie Brock-Broido Am the midnightzone, pelagic and unstudied. Am classical, the heart’s distracted secretary. Was unbaptizedand addicted to sparks. Am horny for self-awareness,a slut for emotional work, and am still unsolved. Was anonymous, even under my nightgown,even in your hands. Was nailed tight,like the seam of a velvet couch. Was muddied with the river’s…

  • Mirrors in the elevator

    Translated by Ming Di  Mirrors in the elevator from all directions—shed light on those with ghosts in their hearts. A man and a woman lower their heads, admitting no guilt.There are two other people behind them defending them from the mirror.They seem to come from different cities, years. But here, in the elevator, they arriveat…

  • October

    Blood on snow is the cardinal in the yard.The sudden deep freeze.A glittering.Listen!Here we are among the gloved leaves.No wings.Only the slow blades which break awayinto the snowmelt water.Between two junipers, a child blinksinto the glass of the moon.I do not dare disturb the water.I listen as she breathes, aware of nothingoutside the circle of…

  • to care this way

    is turning me off. so i take a walk.plums fall from trees in protest& i can’t see the color greenanymore & just last night yojust last night god went SPLATon my window like a fluttery lickspittle & told me all love startsin a garden. what am i supposed to dowith that? another friend goes. goneenough….

  • THE GUEST

    As if I carried a palace of glassAnd crept up slowly with it in my hand To slip over your sleepingBody your innocence adhering To the wall as you tripped insideNot unlike the way you once arrived Within my icebox among maroon leavesOf radicchio and voluptuous beets I slept nights with you beside meYou neither…