Read Time < 1 mins I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear, Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong, The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam, The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work, The boatman singing what belongs […]
I Hear America Singing – Walt Whitman Read More »
Read Time < 1 mins A noiseless patient spider, I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated, Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding, It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself, Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them. And you O my soul where you stand, Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space, Ceaselessly
A Noiseless Patient Spider – Walt Whitman Read More »
Read Time < 1 mins You’ve climbed the mountain. At its top, the mountain and the climbing stop. A peak is where the climber finds his biggest step is not mankind’s. Proud of your stamina and craft you stand there being photographed transfixed between nowhere-to-go and us who give you vertigo. Well, strike your tent and have your lunch
To The President Elect – Joseph Brodsky Read More »
Read Time < 1 mins You know, I try, when darkness falls, to estimate to some degree — by marking off the grief in miles — the distance now from you to me. And all the figures change to words: confusion, which begins at A, and hope, which starts at B, move towards a terminus (you) far away. Two
For School Children – Joseph Brodsky Read More »
Read Time < 1 mins A list of some observation. In a corner, it’s warm. A glance leaves an imprint on anything it’s dwelt on. Water is glass’s most public form. Man is more frightening than its skeleton. A nowhere winter evening with wine. A black porch resists an osier’s stiff assaults. Fixed on an elbow, the body bulks
A List of Some Observation – Joseph Brodsky Read More »
Read Time < 1 mins All the huskies are eaten. There is no space left in the diary, And the beads of quick words scatter over his spouse’s sepia-shaded face adding the date in question like a mole to her lovely cheek. Next, the snapshot of his sister. He doesn’t spare his kin: what’s been reached is the
A Polar Explorer – Joseph Brodsky Read More »
Read Time < 1 mins Twice I awoke this night, and went to the window. The street-lamps were a fragment of a sentence spoken in sleep, leading to nothing, like omission points, affording me no comfort and no cheer. I dreamt of you, with child, and now, having lived so many years apart from you, experienced my guilt, and
Love – Joseph Brodsky Read More »
Read Time < 1 mins All his life he was building something, inventing something. Now, for a Cretan queen, an artificial heifer, so as to cuckold the king. Then a labyrinth, the time for the king himself, to hide from bewildered glances an unbearable offspring. Or a flying contraption, when the king figured himself so busy with new commissions.
Daedalus in Sicily – Joseph Brodsky Narrated Read More »
Read Time 2 mins Suddenly out of its stale and drowsy lair, the lair of slaves,Like lightning it le’pt forth half startled at itself,Its feet upon the ashes and the rags, its hands tight to the throats of kings. O hope and faith!O aching close of exiled patriots’ lives!O many a sicken’d heart!Turn back unto this day, and
EUROPE, The 72d and 73d Years of These States – Walt Whitman Narrated Read More »
Read Time < 1 mins Here’s a girl from a dangerous town She crops her dark hair short so that less of her has to frown when someone gets hurt. She folds her memories like a parachute. Dropped, she collects the peat and cooks her veggies at home: they shoot here where they eat. Ah, there’s more sky in
Belfast Tune – Joseph Brodsky Read More »
