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LES RECITATIONS DES FEMMES
The rape victims will be on display at three. The ones who are truly loved will be hiding in misery. The pedants will be putting on their makeup. The poets will be throwing up. The dress makers will...
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THE RUSSIANS DID IT
Why is 2016 starting to feel like 1860, the beginning of our Civil War? The U.S. neo-liberal Establishment is beginning to behave like the U.S. Confederacy, threatening to walk away from the United...
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THE RELIGION OF FRIDAY
If we are alive at five We practice the religion of Friday. We go to work and do it with religious observation. We are more religious than we know. In the elevator and in the cubicle we practice our...
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LOVERS HYPNOTIZE THEMSELVES
It wasn’t you, it was the breathing of slumber while awake. It was the quiet poetry of the breathing lake. It was “I love you,” shyly spoken Which made the previous world’s broken love a thing finally...
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I SHOULD HAVE LET THE RAIN FALL
I know fire’s pain. But I lit a fire against the rain. Lonely, I desired fire To light the darkness of my desire. Her eyes were a flame. Her skin, dark—but bright, all the same. I should have let the...
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THE REST I NEED
You! I want! and want, in hot desire. In lust. And foul greed. You make me mad with desire. The rest I need. The rest are food and shelter. Cool water and advice. The rest are sanity. The rest are...
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SHE IS MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN THAT
You thought you had it when that song was learned, The summer, tan, when you first lost your baby fat And your limbs were lithe and your teeth were pretty but she is more beautiful than that. You...
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TOP TEN THINGS ON YOUR MIND THIS SEASON
10. Cold. Where’s global warming? Fuck. 9. Dark. According to science, which only I believe in, this promises to get better. 8. Trump. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. 7. Romance? Not really in the fucking mood for...
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WHAT I DO TO HER BY DOING NOTHING
What I do to her by doing nothing Is more than anyone has ever done. I was a rare flower she held. Now I am the sun. I am silent and far away, No longer kissing her ear And telling her how lovely she...
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SHE PAINTS
She paints, and when she paints I love her more. She paints her face so beautifully That art critics who enter by the back door Know all at once what painting and poetry is for. They sadly recognize...
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SENSITIVE
The young Proust I was a sensitive child. Shy. Scared of everything. I was sexually assaulted in an elevator by an old guy when I was in the third grade, and I was so innocent I didn’t understand what...
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THE AGE OF THE SNOWFLAKE
Happy individuals know 1. how to get mad. And then 2. turn the anger off, calm down, and move on. Unhappy people either 1. never get mad: never muster enough energy to overcome a difficulty, make...
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LITERATURE EXISTS
for Robert Ritzenthaler Literature exists, because reconciliation is sweet In imagination’s heaven—even as the hellish school boy squirms in his seat. Literature exists, and we know literature well:...
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THE RIVER REFLECTS NOTHING. THE POEM IS THE POET
Many people are terrified of the question “So what do you do?” Everyone hates superficial judgement. Is this not the greatest social fear? And because 99% of our conscious lives are social, isn’t this...
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YOU TOOK THE OTHER STAIRS
You went down the other stairs Instead of the usual way, to avoid me—so you could show How much you hate me. I saw you. I know. A friend told me the future is unpredictable. And I said no. I’ve seen...
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THIS COUNTRY HAS MILLIONS OF BEAUTIFUL WOMEN
This country has millions of beautiful women And all of them are sad. In my dreams, I walk through shadows of mango trees Covering the boulevard, and the harmonious music Gradually fades away. Are...
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WHEN YOU, A STRANGER
When you, a stranger, came on too strong, I immediately thought there was something wrong. But how much beauty fails to speak Because we are too wise and weak? How much love by caution killed? A...
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HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2017 SCARRIET POETRY HOT 100
1 Bob Dylan. Nobel Prize in Literature. 2 Ron Padgett. Hired to write three poems for the current film Paterson starring Adam Driver and Golshifteh Farahani. 3 Peter Balakian. Ozone Journal, about the...
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TELLING YOU I LOVE YOU MADE ME LOVE YOU
Telling you I love you made me love you. That’s what poetry can do. It doesn’t matter if you or I ever meant this to be true. Love has a sister: desire. And desire looks for a way. But desire, being...
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THE ONE YOU LOVE IS ALWAYS THE ONE WHO LOVES YOU
The one you love is always the one who loves you. Your thinking is always—someone else thinking inside of you. And that’s what love is. Love is desire. Desire is, and already is, what you do. Did I...
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