I Worried by Mary Oliver I worried a lot. Will the garden grow, will the rivers flow in the right direction, will the earth turn as it...

It Began by Mary Rose O'Reilley It began, then, the war that never ended, though for a while we kept doing the old things: shopping...

First Alzheimer’s Sonnet by Marilyn Nelson A wave enters the membrane labyrinth, and something mushrooms from nothing to now. Enacted...

Having checked the Egyptian Book of the Dead out of the library by Amy Gerstler I'm seized by a form of remorse. Is this the best...

After Reading Tu Fu, I Go Outside to the Dwarf Orchard by Charles Wright East of me, west of me, full summer. How deeper than elsewhere...

The Grief Meal by Joan McMillan After you left, I stopped eating. My body refused everything. I knew it wouldn't be long before I...

Case in Point by June Jordan A friend of mine who raised six daughters and who never wrote what she regards as serious until she was...

Strange Comforts by Meredith Davies Hadaway Because tom kah gai is just another kind of chicken soup--a healer--lemongrass and galangal...

The Geometry of Dandelions by Jo Angela Edwins Google the phrase, and notice in magnified precision so many lines criss-crossed like...

In Summer by Lord Alfred Douglas There were the black pine trees,          And the sullen hills          Frowning; there were...

Oh Nature by Bruce Weigl Today some things worked as they were meant to. A big spring wind came up and blew down from the...

How the Worst Day of My Life Became the Best by Andrea Gibson When I realized the storm was inevitable, I made it my medicine. Took two...

I Won’t Be Able to Write from the Grave by Fanny Howe I won’t be able to write from the grave so let me tell you what I love: oil,...

Wild Turkeys by Richard Taylor Rushed to reach the dentist's and scratch one more item off my list of things to do, I hurry down the...

Sonnet to Basil by Anne Pierson Wiese The seeds in the packet were so tiny and dry, all fallen into the bottom fold like blue grit-- it...

America by Tony Hoagland Then one of the students with blue hair and a tongue stud    Says that America is for him a maximum-security...

Sunrise by Budd Powell Mahan It amazes that this cosmic burst, the very fan of orange that lighted dinosaurs, ignites this...

Sonnet XXIV by Louise Labé Do not blame me, ladies, if I have loved, If I have felt a thousand burning torches, A thousand labors, a...

Knoxville, Tennessee by Nikki Giovanni I always like summer best you can eat fresh corn from daddy's garden and okra and greens and...

Bent to the Earth by Blas Manuel De Luna They had hit Ruben with the high beams, had blinded him so that the van he was driving, full of...