"Anne Sexton in Harlem" by Alec Matthew Tonight I thought of you, Anne. A friend collected the debris of her life and strung them into bracelets. I entered the urban carnival at 125th and Lenox, Saw the shoe-shined Witnesses, the lunatic, the men in their exposure, the Saturday Shoppers in their muffs- For two weeks I have mended and given her alms,Tidied her messes, reconstructed a life, slept in the bed she made, as though I myself was not an unvetted talent for disaster, erratically medicated, harried, pulled at like a coat- I too have felt the wind shriek at Lenox, Erica, Where the subway placards hold like palisades against the downdraft And the boulevard bleeds wide. I have wanted to shout myself through the streets as you did, Telling you I would turn to everyone and no one at all when I declared it time- Tonight the snow slurries in Harlem. I think of the mind wherein I have lived like a rat for 400 days recycling thought loops, and then of the one you leapt through- Visitation has ended. aborted in that gesture, I leave here a tourist.

I loved this poem featured in The Blood Pudding: "Anne Sexton in Harlem" by Alec Matthew #poetry #poetrysky #favoritepoems
thebloodpudding.com/poetry/anne-...

Title: "A Short History of Judaic Thought In The Twentieth Century" by Linda Pastan, from her 1978 book "The Five Stages of Grief" The rabbis wrote: although it is forbidden to touch a dying person, nevertheless, if the house catches fire he must be removed from the house. Barbaric! I say, and whom may I touch then, aren't we all dying? You smile your old negotiator's smile and ask: but aren't all of our houses burning?

"A Short History of Judaic Thought In The Twentieth Century" - Linda Pastan, from 'The Five Stages of Grief' (1978)
#poetry #poem #poetrysky #favoritepoems

Michael Mecredy - 2 Short Poems (1913) Forgotten Poems #75

Thinking about this queer poem from 1913 by an author known only from five poems published in his life. "The Rushlight" by Michael Mecredy #poetry #poetrysky #favoritepoems
forgottenpoets.substack.com/p/michael-me...

I Wish I Could Remember That First Day,
Christina Rossetti
@danielfieldsreadslit on YouTube
#poetry #favoritepoems #poem #lovepoetry

Coming, David Stanford Burr #poetry #favoritepoems #poem #lovepoetry

Title: "Telemachus", poem by Ocean Vuong Like any good son, I pull my father out of the water, drag him by his hair through white sand, his knuckles carving a trail the waves rush in to erase. Because the city beyond the shore is no longer where we left it. Because the bombed cathedral is now a cathedral of trees. I kneel beside him to show how far I might sink. Do you know who I am, Ba? But the answer never comes. The answer is the bullet hole in his back, brimming with seawater. He is so still I think he could be anyone’s father, found the way a green bottle might appear at a boy’s feet containing a year he has never touched. I touch his ears. No use. I turn him over. To face it. The cathedral in his sea-black eyes. The face not mine — but one I will wear to kiss all my lovers good-night: the way I seal my father’s lips with my own & begin the faithful work of drowning.

"Telemachus", by Ocean Vuong, from his book "Night Sky With Exit Wounds" (2016) #poetry #poetrysky #favoritepoems

"Feathers or Lead", poem by Jack Gilbert Him, she said, and him. They put us in the second car and followed her back to the villa. Our fear slowly faded during the weeks. Everyone was kind but busy. We could go anywhere on the first floor and on the grounds this side of the fence. They decided on me and sent the other boy away. Before I had only glimpsed her at the upper windows. Now we ate together at opposite ends of the table. Candlelight eased her age, but not her guilt. Once she said the world was an astonishing animal: light was its spirit and noise was its mind. That it was composed to feed on honor, but did not. Another time she warned me about walking on the lawns at night. Told me of heavy birds that flew after dark croaking, "Feathers or lead, stone or fire?" Mounting people who gave the wrong answer and riding them like horses across the whole county, beating them with their powerful wings. We would play cards silently on rainy days, and have sardine sandwiches at four in the morning, taking turns reading aloud from Tolstoy. "What need do we have for consulates?" she said once before going upstairs, the grand room beginning to fill with the dawn. "Why insist on nature? A flower must be red or white, but we can be anything. Our victories are difficult because the triumph is not in possessing excellence. It is found in reluctance." Month after month we lived like that. And with me telling her what it was like out there among the living. She was steadily failing, like a Palladian palace coming apart gracefully. The last morning she stooр by the tall windows. "I will not give you my blessing," she said, "and I refuse you also my reasons. Who are you, who is anyone to make me just?" When they came for her, she smiled at me and said, "At last."

"Feathers or Lead" by Jack Gilbert, from his book 'Refusing Heaven' (2005) #poetry #poetrysky #favoritepoems

Tears, Josephine Jacobsen #favoritepoems #poem #poetry #poetryofinstagram #poetrytok

Hiroshima Crewman, Dan Georgakis #favoritepoems #poem #warpoem #poetry #poetryofinstagram #poetrytok

A Noiseless Patient Spider Walt Whitman #favoritepoems #poem #poetry #waltwhitman #poetryofinstagram

A Wedding Sonnet for the Next Generation, Judith Viorst #favoritepoems #lovepoem #poem #poetry #love #poetryofinstagram #poetrytok

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To His Coy Mistress, Andrew Marvell

#favoritepoems #poem #poetry #lovepoem #lovepoetry #poetryofinstagram #poetrytok

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A Refusal to Mourn the Death by Fire of a Child in London, Dylan Thomas #favoritepoems #poem #poetry #poetryofig #poetrytok #dylanthomas youtube.com/shorts/ldN7z...

Daddy’s Eyes, by my friend Larry Brumfield #fathersday #fathers #dad #poem #poetry #poetryofig #dads #favoritepoems

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Let America Be America Again, #langstonhughes #favoritepoems #poetry #poem #poetryofig youtube.com/shorts/vXXDN...

Ballad of Birmingham, Dudley Randall #favoritepoems #poem #poetry #poetryofinstagram #poetrytok

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An Apology for Using the Word “Heart” in Too Many Poems, Hayden Carruth #lovepoem #lovepoetry #loveislove #lovewins #favoritepoems #poem #poetry #poetryofinstagram
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#OscarWilde #favoritepoems #poem #poetry #poetryofinstagram #poetrytok #books #booktube #booktok

The Time I’ve Lost in Wooing, Thomas Moore #favoritepoems #lovepoem #lovepoetry #poetry #poem

I absolutely love this poem. It addresses the parts of us we keep hidden from the world and our desire to share it with the one we love and trust the most.

The Buried Life, Matthew Arnold

#favoritepoems #poem #poetry #poetryofinstagram #poetrytok #lovepoetry #lovepoem

youtu.be/YgrnnRcAZww?...

Do You Think, Robert Creeley #favoritepoems #poem #poetry #poetrytok #poetryofinstagram

Days, Billy Collins #favoritepoems #poem #poetry #poetryofinstagram #poetrytok

Poetry, Marianne Moore #favoritepoems #poem #poetry #poetryofinstagram #poetrytok

Lines, Heather McHugh #favoritepoems #poem #poetry #poetryofinstagram #poetrytok

Billy Collins
#favoritepoems #poem #poetry #teacherlife #graduation #teacher @DanielFieldsReadsLit

Dying, Robert Pinsky #favoritepoems #poem #portry #poetryofinstagram #portrytok #dying #death

Epilogue to the Satires, Alexander Pope #Virtue #favoritepoems #poem #poetry #poetryofinstagram#poetrytok #alexanderpope

The Planned Child, Sharon Olds #favoritepoems #poem #poetry #poetryofinstagram #poetrytok

My Childhood’s Home, #AbrahamLincoln #favoritepoems #poem #poetry #poetryofinstagram #poetrytok @DanielFieldsReadsLit on YouTube

Summer in the Middle Class Daniel Halpern #favoritepoems #poem #poetry #poetryofinstagram #poetrytok