Poem of the Day
Yellow Striped Pajamas
By Shamsher Bahadur Singh
walking silently on his paws, he emerges from the semidarkness and disappears into it.
Poetry: A-C
A Long Encounter
By John Ash
Only the dead don’t know
what heaven’s like. For the rest
extrapolation is possible.
In the Street
By John Ash
Destruction follows from the first premise.
In the sunsets you can see it happening.
Methodical Sonatas
By John Ash
The page no longer lies flat, it blinks and rises.
The words assume green or yellow vestments,
and officiously obstruct the way forward
My Egypt
By John Ash
The river tows its dreams,
consigned to the dim edge of existence,
reciting dull epics to desolate piers.
Party Damage
By John Ash
The invitations were returned
or people arrived on the wrong evening,
so your worst fears were fulfilled
Scenes From Schumann
By John Ash
As in an old memoir, the rhododendrons were over.
Hunger persisted, and the light was weak—
the light of music and books, the light paintings cast
Smoke
By John Ash
It was late in the year
and forests were burning a long way off
the day the smoke arrived, almost unperceived.
The Monuments
By John Ash
Each year the monuments grew larger.
The citizens demanded this.
As their lives got worse they wanted
The Seventeenth Sermon
By John Ash
In this respect the patriarch was almost certainly
mistaken
The Ungrateful Citizens
By John Ash
No, we cannot be the amorous ballet the tourist
requires for a backdrop—