Description:
Gander at pictures through verse.
Contents:
Howl I by Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
For Carl Solomon I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving
hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn...
Words are streams of your mind and soul. They can calmly trickle like a brook that babbles to much or rush and gush like a raging flood.
La Vie C'est La Vie by Jessie Redmon Fauset
Jessie Redmon Fauset
On summer afternoons I sit
Quiescent by you in the park
And idly watch the sunbeams gild
And tint the as-trees' bark.
Or else I watch the squirrel frisk
And chaffer in the...
Words are streams of your mind and soul. They can calmly trickle like a brook that babbles to much or rush and gush like a raging flood.
Bag
When it's done,
all that's left is what
I've carried.
I'm one of those, over-looked
forgotten browns
yet,
when you need me
you find me
somewhere,
maybe at Krogers or,
a State Liquor...
Words are streams of your mind and soul. They can calmly trickle like a brook that babbles to much or rush and gush like a raging flood.
The Tropics of New York by Claude McKay
Claude McKay
Bananas ripe and green, and ginger root
Cocoa in pods and alligator pears,
And tangerines and mangoes and grape fruit,
Fit for the highest prize at parish fairs,
Sat in the...
Words are streams of your mind and soul. They can calmly trickle like a brook that babbles to much or rush and gush like a raging flood.
Ballad by Sonia Sanchez
Sonia Sanchez
forgive me if i laugh
you are so sure of love
you are so young
and i too old to learn of love.
the rain exploding
in the air is love
the grass excreting her
green wax is love
and...
Words are streams of your mind and soul. They can calmly trickle like a brook that babbles to much or rush and gush like a raging flood.
Providence by Natasha Trethewey
Natasha Trethewey
What's left is footage: the hours before
Camille 1969 -- hurricane
parties, palm trees leaning
in the wind,
fronds blown back,
a woman's hair. Then after:
the vacant...
Words are streams of your mind and soul. They can calmly trickle like a brook that babbles to much or rush and gush like a raging flood.
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Blues by Elizabeth Alexander
Elizabeth Alexander
I am lazy, the laziest
girl in the world.
I sleep during the day when I want to,
'til my face is creased and swollen,
'til my lips are dry and hot.
I eat as I please:...
Words are streams of your mind and soul. They can calmly trickle like a brook that babbles to much or rush and gush like a raging flood.
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wishes for sons by Lucille Clifton
Lucille Clifton
i wish them cramps.
i wish them a strange town
and the last tampon.
I wish them no 7-11.
i wish them one week early
and wearing a white skirt.
i wish...
Words are streams of your mind and soul. They can calmly trickle like a brook that babbles to much or rush and gush like a raging flood.
Lady Day [My tribute to Billie Holiday]
(Billie Holiday 1915-1959)
Momma was thirteen
when I passed through
the delta of her thighs
tho' I never played
with baby dolls -- I sho'
could crank sad
melodic sighs.
My songs...
Words are streams of your mind and soul. They can calmly trickle like a brook that babbles to much or rush and gush like a raging flood.
Still I Rise by Dr. Maya Angelou
Dr. Maya Angelou
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are...
Words are streams of your mind and soul. They can calmly trickle like a brook that babbles to much or rush and gush like a raging flood.
Renaissance: Portrait of a Son -- [My tribute to] Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes
He always wrote
with the strength & endurance
of noir silk
and sometimes, he'd die
on the same page --
he too, was America;
the darker
brother who scribed of...
Words are streams of your mind and soul. They can calmly trickle like a brook that babbles to much or rush and gush like a raging flood.
I, Too, Sing America by Langston Hughes.
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When...
Words are streams of your mind and soul. They can calmly trickle like a brook that babbles to much or rush and gush like a raging flood.
Quilts by Nikki Giovanni
Nikki Giovanni
(for Sally Sellers)
Like a fading piece of cloth
I am a failure
No longer do I cover tables filled with food and laughter
My seams are frayed my hems falling my strength no...
Words are streams of your mind and soul. They can calmly trickle like a brook that babbles to much or rush and gush like a raging flood.
Can You, Dear Laureate
What would you think,
Mr. Laureate, if you were reading
this over my shoulder,
capturing each word
as I typed.
Would you sigh to yourself
in exasperation, and mumble
in profane versified...
Words are streams of your mind and soul. They can calmly trickle like a brook that babbles to much or rush and gush like a raging flood.
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This Is a Photograph of Me by Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood
It was taken sometime ago.
At first it seems to be
a smeared
print: blurred lines and grey flecks
blended with the paper;
then, as you scan
it, you see in the left-hand...
Words are streams of your mind and soul. They can calmly trickle like a brook that babbles to much or rush and gush like a raging flood.
Take-off
Taken off
from life's see-saw
he's hitched a ride
on the tail of cumulus
up, up he goes, beyond
troposphere,
and stratosphere,
leaving exosphere
with the click of his heels.
I see him...
Words are streams of your mind and soul. They can calmly trickle like a brook that babbles to much or rush and gush like a raging flood.
inebriation
this afternoon
a lemon-faced drunk
slumped
into a daily stupor
no doubt
fatigued
from continuous
radiance
stupefied
he ignored the two
pie-faced girls
whose braided antennae
and jean clad...
Words are streams of your mind and soul. They can calmly trickle like a brook that babbles to much or rush and gush like a raging flood.
Persephone, Falling --by Rita Dove
--Rita Dove is one of America's top Black poets. She once was the U.S. Poet Laureate from 1993-1995 and won the honor of all honors, the Pulitzer Prize in poetry. Her poetry delves deep into the...
Words are streams of your mind and soul. They can calmly trickle like a brook that babbles to much or rush and gush like a raging flood.
Haiku
storm clouds--
homeless man shivers under
a newspaper coat
Most haiku in English consist of three unrhymed lines of seventeen or
fewer syllables, with the middle line longest, though today's...
Words are streams of your mind and soul. They can calmly trickle like a brook that babbles to much or rush and gush like a raging flood.
You, Reader -- By Billy Collins
Billy Collins
I wonder how you are going to feelwhen you find outthat I wrote this instead of you.
that it was I who got up earlyto sit in the kitchenand mention with a pen
the rain-soaked...
Words are streams of your mind and soul. They can calmly trickle like a brook that babbles to much or rush and gush like a raging flood.
Burnt Offerings
You've lost me
within myself,
to levitate
within acidic clouds.
They're pungent
as old worn socks;
oh, bitter bride at the alter,
euphoric as
death's calm.
A need whirls, swirls
in desperation
and...
Words are streams of your mind and soul. They can calmly trickle like a brook that babbles to much or rush and gush like a raging flood.
Curtain
I saw you slip past
the curtain of my eyes,
and stoop
in the garden
among the collards, black-eyed peas
and corn.
Your back shunned the sun,
as your gnarled hands picked
their tender leaves,...
Words are streams of your mind and soul. They can calmly trickle like a brook that babbles to much or rush and gush like a raging flood.
intrusive vagabond
if only you were
just an illusion,
pretentious pain,
intrusive vagrant
who leaves braille-etched
taunts on my skin.
opportunistic hobo,
who hitch-hikes
and implodes every nuclei
and cytoplasm
up...
Words are streams of your mind and soul. They can calmly trickle like a brook that babbles to much or rush and gush like a raging flood.
Plum
I know who
you really are.
though euphemisms
may run and scurry
for cover, refusing
to abdicate desire.
I know the real you
sitting
on my lifeline
smooth and moist
tantalizing.
With each nip
I...
Words are streams of your mind and soul. They can calmly trickle like a brook that babbles to much or rush and gush like a raging flood.
It's 3AM
They sat across from each
other at the back of Fred's Bar
the corner was dim
and choked
with furls of cigarillos
screwing virginia slims.
An antique table hoisted
her elbows and white...
Words are streams of your mind and soul. They can calmly trickle like a brook that babbles to much or rush and gush like a raging flood.
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