a heron stalks
amid rice seedlings:
mild Summer day.
Heron [Haiku]
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Tag Archives: poetry
BOOKS: “Startlement” by Ada Limón
Startlement: New and Selected Poems by Ada LimonMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher Site – Milkweed Editions
Release: September 30, 2025
This is a Greatest Hits from six of author’s previous collections, plus twenty-one new poems. The poems are clever, personal, and often whimsical. They range from short to intermediate length and employ varied approaches to free verse poetry (with a few prose poems.)
This was my first time reading Limón’s work, and I enjoyed her poems tremendously. I’d highly recommend this book for poetry readers.
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“Death” by William Butler Yeats [w/ Audio]
Nor dread nor hope attend
A dying animal;
A man awaits his end
Dreading and hoping all;
Many times he died,
Many times rose again.
A great man in his pride
Confronting murderous men
Casts derision upon
Supersession of breath;
He knows death to the bone -
Man has created death.
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Lost in a Fog [Free Verse]
Lost
in a foggy wood.
all the trees alike,
no long view,
no hint of the sun's position...
(or existence.)
just the vertical stripes of
straight pinetree trunks --
like the bars
of the cell
of a giant --
laid against a fluffy white
backdrop.
I can scurry between
the bars, like a mouse,
but am still lost
and still caged.
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“Gubbinal” by Wallace Stevens [w/ Audio]
That strange flower, the sun,
Is just what you say.
Have it your way.
The world is ugly,
And the people are sad.
That tuft of jungle feathers,
That animal eye,
Is just what you say.
That savage of fire,
That seed,
Have it your way.
The world is ugly,
And the people are sad.
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Solitary [Haiku]
solitary flower
bows in a Spring breeze --
then stands upright.
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The Wall [Haiku]
young trees curve away
from the ancient wall
of a fallen fortress.
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“Little Echoed Hills” [小重山] by Yue Fei [岳飞] [w/ Audio]
Last night chirps resounded in the cold,
Through witching hour no sleep occurred.
I rose and slowly walked, alone.
Moonlight window glow, but no one stirred.
I've grayed in service and search of fame.
On hills, back home, the pines have grown old.
That's the story I'd let my lute tell,
If a string weren't broken &
there was someone to be told.
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Jagged Coast [Haiku]
rocky fingers
stretch into the sea:
waves crash & spray.
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The End of the World as We Know It [Free Verse]
Humans have been hunters,
gatherers,
farmers,
machines,
thinkers,
and creators,
And have no idea what we'll next be.
I think that people will next be
-- simply --
Human Beings,
Full-time Human Beings --
More Human,
More Being...
And many will fail spectacularly.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 