Poems

Some of my favorite poems


One Source of Bad Information
by Robert Bly

There's a boy in you about three
years old who hasn't learned a thing for thirty
Thousand years. Sometime it's a girl.

This child had to make up its mind
How to save you from death. He said things like:
"Stay home. Avoid elevators. Eat only elk."

You live with this child, but you don't know it.
You're in the office, yes, but live with this boy
At night. He's uninformed, but he does want

To save your life. And he has. Because of this boy
You survived a lot. He's got six big ideas.
Five don't work. Right now he's repeating them to you.

from Morning Poems by Robert Bly, published by HarperCollins, 1998

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He Visits My Town Once a Year
by Amir Khusrow

He visits my town once a year.
He fills my mouth with kisses and nectar.
I spend all my money on him.
Who, girl, your man?
No, a mango.

********

On A Train
by Wendy Cope

The book I’ve been reading
rests on my knee. You sleep.

It’s beautiful out there—
fields, little lakes and winter trees
in February sunlight,
every car park a shining mosaic.

Long radiant minutes,
your hand in my hand,
still warm, still warm.

from If I Don't Know by Wendy Cope, published by Faber and Faber, 2001

********

This Bus Stop Was A Coral Reef, Once
by Megan Arkenberg

Twenty thousand years ago, she said,
this whole city was the floor of an ocean
six thousand feet deep.
That's why when you put your ear
to the shell of an airplane, you hear waves.
That's why the ghosts in your apartment
are so big and hungry.

From Star*Line magazine 36.3, Aug. 2013