The Poetry Foundation

Filter Results

West Altadena
By Jessica Abughattas
Neighbors
pass, two lines of smoke
in hooded sweatshirts,

from the sober living house
next door, as I stand in the front yard
watering dirt.

I ask little of the garden—
mere inspiration—working
my shovel into bare earth.

While witnesses in neckties
carry scriptures, county sheriff
circles the block.

A couple fights
in...
In my next life let me be a tomato
By Natasha Rao
lusting and unafraid. In this bipedal incarnation
I have always been scared of my own ripening,
mother standing outside the fitting room door.
I only become bright after Bloody Mary’s, only whole
in New Jersey summers where beefsteaks, like baubles,
sag in the yard, where...
- Activities
- Gardening
Field Notes
By Tim Tim Cheng
from the soil
We make our son. From the soil we make our son biscuits. From the soil we make our son biscuits stored in ceramic bowls. From the soil we make our son biscuits stored in ceramic bowls made with...
Black Earth
By Osip Mandelstam
Translated By Peter France
Too black, too much indulged, living in clover,
all little withers, all air, all charity,
all crumbling, all massing in a choir—
damp clods of soil, my land and liberty...

With early plowing it is black to blueness,
and unarmed labor here is glorified—
a thousand...
The Flowering Memories
By Jesús Papoleto Meléndez
If some nice person
Were to be walking by the front of my house
and would pick a flower from the breasts
of my small garden,
I would notice every single one that would be missing.
I would be able to notice their long necks...
The Pardoning Hour
By Khaty Xiong
Here at my parents’ farm
trumpeting bees scoring in the ears
of all flowerkind
chilies and kabocha
3,400 searing stakes
of Indian bitter melon
Nkauj Hnub in her hot prison
...
Lockdown Garden
By Arvind Krishna Mehrotra
1

Close to each other,
socially undistanced,
the mulberry leaves,

uniformly green,
shall turn brown together.
It’s like a herd dying.

2

Firm to begin with,
the mud clod
could’ve injured you.
It crumbles in your hand.

3

In the heap of dead
leaves crinkly as
brown skins, those
breathing things
foraging around
the bamboo stand
are jungle babblers.

4

It...
The Artichoke
By James McMichael
The Artichoke

She bore only the heart,
Worked at the stem with her
Fingers, pulling it to her,
And into her, like a cord.

She would sustain him,
Would cover his heart.
The hairy needles
And the bigger leaves,

These she licked into shape,
Tipping each with its point.
He is...
“The Complicated Sex Life of Primula ...
By Marion McCready
A Mardi Gras of primroses line my driveway.
Pin-eyed, thrum-eyed, natural selection in action;

the carnival of primroses grow in number daily.
Every spring they perform street theater, they perform

the Easter story with beads, feathers, and leather tongues.
Yellow vests, they agitate against the...
Gazetteer of the Backyard (In Which Pedanius Dioscorides Takes Stock)
By Sylvia Legris

part 1. uprooted the early sky

1
Luminous flowers and luminous insects. Fire lilies and fireflies. Heat confined on the Earth by the Air. Evening star in the low west. Northern flickers, starlings, phosphorus and August.

Perseids seed the 3b hardiness zone. A...
Quiescence
By Alyse Knorr
Between us bobs the baby, solemn in her infant wet suit.
The pool is the only place where
screaming does not indicate terror.

The neighbor’s pansy beds—O to lie down in those beds
and doze. Greener than grass, says Sappho,
originator of envy.

My...
The Wire Fence Was Bent Where a Deer Jumped Over
By Carolyn Guinzio
Neighbor, your mower
cast dust over the edge
where the field meets
the field, toy-sized ring-
necked snakes halved
and flattened by blades
among blades, and now
our things are mingled.
What do you covet
that is mine? Chigger-
riddled passion
blooms, a glint
of beetles loitering
under their anther eaves,
a car idling...
Talisman
By Susan Stewart
Who are you? Where are you hiding?

Were you thrown,

tumbling through space,

aleatory,

radiant, only

...
BEDS: N 42° 44’ 33” / E 84° 29’ 47”
By Divya Victor
We are on our knees. We are saying that the tulips have had it hard this week.
Tree Elegy Across the Biosphere in Memory of W.S. Merwin
By John Kinsella
Pollination against the seed to grow canopy
and mark place in shades of green—dry here to reflect
in glassine quartz chips in the off-red dirt where trees tree
as the forest is difference there green-inflected light you nurtured far
where volcanic would give name...
The Definitions
By Fanny Howe
Monostich: a long sentence
Sternum: a little chest
Heart: upside down

Location of the unconscious:
Empty window seat

Horizon: gone at night
Thought: given
Prison: a perversion

—

Our earth can’t live without holy rites.
You can see this from the sky.

Lots of hills to climb up and down.
A straight...
The Garden Body: A Florilegium
By Sylvia Legris
1

A pepper of bees opens the pupils.
An ensemble of aromatics
Chorus aphrodisia, mariner’s root,
bright sky and night star, heavenly
rainbow. Amethyst, azure, blue
flower-de-luce. Flowering ring.

•

White archangelic the bee nettle,
the dead nettle. A hide of nettle cloth,
of finely-nerved sedge. Take heed
the edges, the...
The Lilies
By Karenne Wood
When I learned I might have cancer,
I bought fifteen white lilies. Easter was gone:
the trumpets were wilted, plants crooked with roots
bound in pots. I dug them into the garden,
knowing they would not bloom for another year.
All summer, the stalks stood...
Apricot Lament
By Tacey M. Atsitty
Just when he thought to loom the backyard for bud &
Just when he came to admire, or thought to dote over
Already he rues stick-thin arms, whose petals brave the late
Whose middles freeze; we’ve gone without
All ramose till now, empty skirts...
Witch Wife
By Kiki Petrosino
I’ll conjure the perfect Easter
& we’ll plant mini spruces in the yard—
my pink gloves & your green gloves

like parrots from an opera over the earth—
We’ll chatter about our enemies’ spectacular deaths.
I’ll conjure the perfect Easter

dark pesto sauce sealed with lemon
long...

Quick Tags

poetry-magazineWest Altadena

In my next life let me be a tomato

poetry-magazineField Notes

Black Earth

The Flowering Memories

poetry-magazineThe Pardoning Hour

poetry-magazineLockdown Garden

poetry-magazineThe Artichoke

poetry-magazine“The Complicated Sex Life of Primula ...

poetry-magazineGazetteer of the Backyard (In Which Pedanius Dioscorides Takes Stock)

Quiescence

poetry-magazineThe Wire Fence Was Bent Where a Deer Jumped Over

poetry-magazineTalisman

BEDS: N 42° 44’ 33” / E 84° 29’ 47”

poetry-magazineTree Elegy Across the Biosphere in Memory of W.S. Merwin

poetry-magazineThe Definitions

poetry-magazineThe Garden Body: A Florilegium

The Lilies

poetry-magazineApricot Lament

Witch Wife

West Altadena

Field Notes

The Pardoning Hour

Lockdown Garden

The Artichoke

“The Complicated Sex Life of Primula ...

Gazetteer of the Backyard (In Which Pedanius Dioscorides Takes Stock)

The Wire Fence Was Bent Where a Deer Jumped Over

Talisman

Tree Elegy Across the Biosphere in Memory of W.S. Merwin

The Definitions

The Garden Body: A Florilegium

Apricot Lament