I read the space
Around the poem.
It has no meaning,
But says so much.
It betrays a little secret
That no reader ever learned
Who was too concerned
With what was written,
While wholly inattentive
To
What
Was
Not.
White Space [Free Verse]
Reply
Tag Archives: Vers Libre
“Crossing 16” by Rabindranath Tagore [w/ Audio]
You came to my door in the dawn and sang;
it angered me to be awakened from sleep,
and you went away unheeded.
You came in the noon and asked for water;
it vexed me in my work,
and you were sent away with reproaches.
You came in the evening with your flaming torches.
You seemed to me like a terror and I shut my door.
Now in the midnight I sit alone in my lampless room
and call you back whom I turned away in insult.
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
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.
View all my reviews
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
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.
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
“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.
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
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.
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
Dance, Dance, Dance, Surrender [Free Verse]
Moving through the Great Spontaneous,
Blender blades barely missing --
In fact, sometimes nicking.
The accumulation of those nicks
Is aging.
It takes an ever-defter dance to keep
The damage buildup to a constant pace --
Not letting it blitz one,
Or pull one into the turbine:
Like a goose through
The turbofans of a 787.
A goose may kill a plane,
But becomes dust in the process.
When one surrenders to the choppers
One will not have the satisfaction
Of killing the vehicle,
Of bringing it all down.
The Universe will go on,
And one's molecules will become
Something new.
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
“America” by Walt Whitman
Centre of equal daughters, equal sons,
All, all alike endear’d, grown, ungrown, young or old,
Strong, ample, fair, enduring, capable, rich,
Perennial with the Earth, with Freedom, Law and Love,
A grand, sane, towering, seated Mother,
Chair’d in the adamant of Time.
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
“To a Husband” by Amy Lowell
Brighter than fireflies upon the Uji River
Are your words in the dark, Beloved.
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
“Fast Rode the Knight” by Stephen Crane [w/ Audio]
Fast rode the knight
With spurs, hot and reeking,
Ever waving an eager sword,
"To save my lady!"
Fast rode the knight,
And leaped from saddle to war.
Men of steel flickered and gleamed
Like riot of silver lights,
And the gold of the knight's good banner
Still waved on a castle wall.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
A horse,
Blowing, staggering, bloody thing,
Forgotten at foot of castle wall.
A horse
Dead at foot of castle wall.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 