“but it’s life said he
but your wife said she”
- “may i feel said he” by e.e. cummings
“I try to conjure in mind
something that is the opposite of incompetence.”
- Anne Carson, “Wildly Constant”
“we knew, without saying anything,
we were kissing the color line
goodbye…”
- Tim Seibles, “Allison Wolff”
“Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain,
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
- Langston Hughes, “Let America Be America Again”
“Too late to ask if end was worth the means,
Too late to calculate the toppling stock:
The idiot bird leaps out and drunken leans,
The hour is crowed in lunatic thirteens.”
- Sylvia Plath, “Doomsday”
“A thinking woman sleeps with monsters.
The beak that grips her, she becomes.”
- Adrienne Rich, “Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law”
“These grand old buildings
With their spacious conference rooms
Leather padded doors,
Where they weigh life and death
Without a moment of fear
Without a moment of fear
Of ever being held accountable,
And then withdraw to dine in style
And drink to each other’s health
In private clubs and country estates,
While we linger on the sidewalk
Admiring the rows of windows
The evening sun has struck blind.”
- Charles Simic, “Sightseeing in the Capital”
