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TRUE POETS DON’T NEED TO WRITE POEMS
True poets don’t need to write poems. Not being a true poet, I give you this. Poems need their poets, and so the rumor started Crazy rumor! That poems mark the poet, And next to a sad poem you find a...
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JEALOUSY IS LOVE
This may be a truth difficult to face—but there’s usually more problems the more something is valid, and the less we admit to it. Here is a truth so overwhelming, and felt inside by so many, but never...
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TOURIST PICTURES
I am in tourists’ pictures, Since I walk around my tourist town, Pictures I will never see, Taken by tourists with me in them, accidentally. They come to see the seven gables; the Seven Gables is...
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NOT FROM HERE
Not from here, this train, Nor the darkness we hurtle through, The sun going down, I don’t have to explain; We all know the sun is miles away, And the conductor, is he from Spain? These passengers, or...
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WHY IS EVERYONE SAD
Why is everyone sad? I know Everyone is sad. They are sad wherever I go. The girls are sad, who soon have breasts, Lovely childhood gone, bringing grownup jests And cruelty, and if she isn’t rude,...
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NEVER TELL YOUR LOVER
Never tell your lover you love love. She will think her eyes Must compete with a whole forest of sighs, Each sigh betokening music. She will think her one face Must be compared to a human race Of...
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THE MUSE NEEDS TO HATE YOU
The Muse who hates you is the best inspiration. Poems are work, they want to explain How love is best, love that vacation From real work—that work unsung, done to attain Poetic worth, laboring for the...
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I CAN’T SPEAK OF THIS
I can’t speak of this Here, or anywhere. It will ruin my poem, as it ruined my poems published before; It is for my understanding alone. To concede you are wrong when you are wrong is sometimes wrong,...
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HELLO TO ASHBERY, THEN
John Ashbery. His fame began with Japan. Twentieth Century Modernism rebelled against the quaint 19th century anthology—poems on Friendship, Nature, Love, etc. This rebellion was largely a failure. A...
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I LOVED YOU SO I DIDN’T NEED TO LOVE ANYBODY ELSE
So here I am, the great lover, confessing to be a fraud. Not that I didn’t love you. I did. But why? I loved you so I didn’t need to love anybody else. I was tired of smiling at the people next door....
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NOT FOR YOU
Not for you, her, or the scented belief Which carries a memory to you on a burning leaf, Not for you, this faint chaos of smoke escaping gravity, Not for you, the meaning attempting to escape the...
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TO SEE HER SUFFER
To see my love suffer Is more pleasurable than when I loved her. There is no greater pleasure In love, than to see one who made you suffer, suffer, For lovers always doubt, and love can be feigned, As...
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A POEM DESCRIBES NOTHING
A poem describes nothing. My words Fool you. A poem is my reaction to the thing, Not the thing. There are no birds Who fly from branch to branch and sing. If you want to be fooled, I certainly cannot...
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THE IDEAL CAFÉ
The ideal café allows me to write Quietly in the morning, and stealthily at night. The ideal café feeds me caffeine Which makes my mind muscular and lean. In the ideal café, Eric Satie drops From the...
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MOTHERWORT
Dreaming in the garden, I lie Between rows of flowers, Ashamed before those with keen, scientific noses Who know the names of flowers. All I recognize are roses. Motherwort is not contained By...
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WHEN EVERY LINE IS BEAUTIFUL
When every line is beautiful, And love honestly expressed, Only then may the poet rest And forget the beauty of her naked breast. But the sleep the poet earns Is brief; the sleepless poet learns...
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POLITE HATE
Since they civilized me, it has been my fate To sleep between the covers of polite hate. There is such a bed and there is such a life. There is such a trap. And there is such a wife. To sit...
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NAHID ARJOUNI TRANSLATED BY SHOHREH LAICI
Nahid Arjouni is an Iranian-Kurd poet and Scarriet is proud to publish the following four poems of hers— for the first time in English. A Lock of My Hair Snip a lock of my hair. Take it with you....
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PLAGIARISM WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE
Repeat what others say, if you want to get ahead, Use “political” and “social” and “religious” and “marginalized” But never say, “I think.” You’ll be fucking dead. The queen has secrets, and they are...
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THE AUTUMN CROWN
The autumn crown is worn by many, Discarded riches hiding a monarchy Once young. Yet, even then, you found Blind worshipers don’t stick around. To acquire a certain amount of gold This amount of soul...
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