Anna Karenina in Fifty-Two Words [by David Lehman]

Beyond deep forest road dips to a silent space where blueness of sky yields to grey mist leaning over the opulence of blanket bog. Here I trace covert tracks of insects, animals and birds, and the men who fought a battle in this place, their bleached bones breathing now within the slender cotton stems and…

This moment is the one where we know there is a connection point, a constellation of experience. One must simply connect the dots, appreciating the nuances of shade. No one can be put on pillars anymore, the truth always comes out, the messiah figure with the drug problem. Today’s crime is an expression of yesterday’s…

Go to Source Author: Poetry Foundation

Layaway After offices are flushed, we workers go home or to a nearby bar, museum, or movie house that fills the blanks left decades ago, last year, or yesterday. A wind kicks up again, displacing our own weight, edging purple between red and gold on a small pad. She draws a man who looks down…

Dominic Symes’ “Intimacy” was first published in the bi-annual journal Meniscus in 2021, an issue of the magazine in which the specter of Australia’s covid-lockdowns understandably hangs over many of the poems and short-stories included. It is difficult not to read Symes’ poem in this context: for many of us, the lockdowns transformed intimacy into…

Too many hopes deferred Expecting some sudden change Too many hurtful words hurled Regrettablyly exploded in haste Too many injustices collected Like I-wasn’t-gonna-say-but I-always-you-never, you=always-I-never Irretrievably launched into space We couldn’t imagine there’d be flowers Because of so much fallen snow The post The Grand Finale | Stan Morrison appeared first on Best Poetry. Go…