March, 2026
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Two poems – Yehuda Amichai
“The Place Where We Are Right”
From the place where we are right
Flowers will never grow
In the spring.
The place where we are right
Is hard and trampled
Like a yard.
But doubts and loves
Dig up the world
Like a mole, a plow.
And a whisper will be heard in the place
Where the ruined
House once stood.
“A Man Doesn’t Have Time in His Life “
A man doesn’t have time in his life
to have time for everything.
He doesn’t have seasons enough to have
a season for every purpose. Ecclesiastes
Was wrong about that.
A man needs to love and to hate at the same moment,
to laugh and cry with the same eyes,
with the same hands to throw stones and to gather them,
to make love in war and war in love.
And to hate and forgive and remember and forget,
to arrange and confuse, to eat and to digest
what history
takes years and years to do.
A man doesn’t have time.
When he loses he seeks, when he finds
he forgets, when he forgets he loves, when he loves
he begins to forget.
And his soul is seasoned, his soul
is very professional.
Only his body remains forever
an amateur. It tries and it misses,
gets muddled, doesn’t learn a thing,
drunk and blind in its pleasures
and its pains.
He will die as figs die in autumn,
Shriveled and full of himself and sweet,
the leaves growing dry on the ground,
the bare branches pointing to the place
where there’s time for everything.
Poetry
- A Dog Has Died – Pablo Neruda
- A Moment of Silence – Emmanuel Ortiz
- A Quiet Life – Baron Wormser
- A Wreath to the Fish – Nancy Willard
- Alone – Jack Gilbert
- Another Planet – Dunya Mikhail
- Be Kind, Rewind – Neil Silberblatt
- Black Momma Math – Kimberly Jae
- Boplicity or Jimmy Throws a Houseparty for Huey Newton – Daniel B. Summerhill
- Capitol Air – Allen Ginsburg
- Combat Primer – Charles Bukowski
- Crow Blacker Than Ever – Ted Hughes
- Dismiss Whatever Insults Your Own Soul – Walt Whitman
- Don’t fall in love with a woman who reads – Martha Rivera-Garrido
- Failing and Flying – Jack Gilbert
- Feel Mo – Michael Korson
- Footprints In Your Heart – Eleanor Roosvelt
- For Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in Its Human Feet – Joy Harjo
- Forgetfulness – Billy Collins
- Growing Old – Emma Rosenberg
- Half-light – Dāshaun Washington
- Homesick: A Plea for Our Planet – Andrea Gibson
- How She Heard It – Todd Davis
- How to Slay a Dragon – Rebecca Dupas
- I Talked to a Lady – Tanya Howden
- If You Knew – Ellen Bass
- Instructions before visiting Earth – James McCrae
- KINDNESS – Naomi Shihab Nye
- Love is Not All – Edna St. Vincent Millay
- Men – Maya Angelou
- Millennium Blessing – Stephen Levine
- my brain and heart divorced ~ john roedel
- Ode to Those Who Block Tunnels and Bridges – Sam Sax
- Old Man Eating Alone – Billy Collins
- Relax – Ellen Bass
- Shoveling Snow With Buddha – Billy Collins
- Sleeping in the Forest – Mary Oliver
- Small Stack of Books – Blake Nelson
- Soliloquy of the Solipsist – Sylvia Plath
- Squirrel – Lynn Ungar
- Tangled Up In Blue – Bob Dylan
- The Caveman’s Lament – Brian Bilston
- The Four Noble Truths – Jake Onami Agnew
- The History of One Tough Motherfucker – Charles Bukowski
- The Layers – Stanley Kunitz
- The Long Boat – Stanley Kunitz
- The Moon is Full Tonight – Billy Collins
- The Shyness – Sharon Olds
- The War Works Hard – Dunya Mikhail
- To Diego with Love – Frida Kalko
- Tryst with Death – Gina Puorro
- Two poems – Wendell Berry
- Two poems – Yehuda Amichai
- Two-bloods – Rolando Kattan
- Wage Peace – Mary Oliver
- War Primer – Bertholt Brecht
- We are the Trees – J Raymond
- We will meet, don’t be in such a rush – Hala alShrouf
- What I Learned From Listening to a Stutterer – Ellen Zorin
- Who Says Words With My Mouth? – Jalal ad-Din Rumi
Boplicity or Jimmy Throws a Houseparty for Huey Newton – Daniel B. Summerhill
| inertia’s at the front door lobbying for a way into the funk but packed the wrong tools, left blues back where bebop jumped over the hammer. sold God’s imagination short. now we’re here dancing again, Bessie’s song got my hips loose & what goods a revolution without a two-step? beloved, there’s a party tonight & everybody gon’ be there tonight, in Oakland, we carve up maplewood in steel-toe boots, stomp keys into the myth of whiteness. uncle sam’s teeth rattle. Huey clinks the bars with Plato’s Republic between here and LA, conjures the one & three count. american chaos. bass haunts the dichotomy, counterproduces the violence. troubles innocence. tonight in Oakland, the party is everywhere & we cant distinguish one riff from another. black smoke funnels out the attic & the lamp shade’s crooked from the kickdrum beloved, (i said) there’s a party tonight & everybody gon’ be there i’m trading in my gold tooth for a hand grenade at the back door: morning glory, milkweed, poppy. the rest have names too, distinct & communal as sin. would you believe me if i told you miracles were small enough to hold? scorched amber. night blooms. forgive me, sometimes the light blinds me to the light. beloved, it’s a party tonight. everybodys here |
Poetry
- A Dog Has Died – Pablo Neruda
- A Moment of Silence – Emmanuel Ortiz
- A Quiet Life – Baron Wormser
- A Wreath to the Fish – Nancy Willard
- Alone – Jack Gilbert
- Another Planet – Dunya Mikhail
- Be Kind, Rewind – Neil Silberblatt
- Black Momma Math – Kimberly Jae
- Boplicity or Jimmy Throws a Houseparty for Huey Newton – Daniel B. Summerhill
- Capitol Air – Allen Ginsburg
- Combat Primer – Charles Bukowski
- Crow Blacker Than Ever – Ted Hughes
- Dismiss Whatever Insults Your Own Soul – Walt Whitman
- Don’t fall in love with a woman who reads – Martha Rivera-Garrido
- Failing and Flying – Jack Gilbert
- Feel Mo – Michael Korson
- Footprints In Your Heart – Eleanor Roosvelt
- For Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in Its Human Feet – Joy Harjo
- Forgetfulness – Billy Collins
- Growing Old – Emma Rosenberg
- Half-light – Dāshaun Washington
- Homesick: A Plea for Our Planet – Andrea Gibson
- How She Heard It – Todd Davis
- How to Slay a Dragon – Rebecca Dupas
- I Talked to a Lady – Tanya Howden
- If You Knew – Ellen Bass
- Instructions before visiting Earth – James McCrae
- KINDNESS – Naomi Shihab Nye
- Love is Not All – Edna St. Vincent Millay
- Men – Maya Angelou
- Millennium Blessing – Stephen Levine
- my brain and heart divorced ~ john roedel
- Ode to Those Who Block Tunnels and Bridges – Sam Sax
- Old Man Eating Alone – Billy Collins
- Relax – Ellen Bass
- Shoveling Snow With Buddha – Billy Collins
- Sleeping in the Forest – Mary Oliver
- Small Stack of Books – Blake Nelson
- Soliloquy of the Solipsist – Sylvia Plath
- Squirrel – Lynn Ungar
- Tangled Up In Blue – Bob Dylan
- The Caveman’s Lament – Brian Bilston
- The Four Noble Truths – Jake Onami Agnew
- The History of One Tough Motherfucker – Charles Bukowski
- The Layers – Stanley Kunitz
- The Long Boat – Stanley Kunitz
- The Moon is Full Tonight – Billy Collins
- The Shyness – Sharon Olds
- The War Works Hard – Dunya Mikhail
- To Diego with Love – Frida Kalko
- Tryst with Death – Gina Puorro
- Two poems – Wendell Berry
- Two poems – Yehuda Amichai
- Two-bloods – Rolando Kattan
- Wage Peace – Mary Oliver
- War Primer – Bertholt Brecht
- We are the Trees – J Raymond
- We will meet, don’t be in such a rush – Hala alShrouf
- What I Learned From Listening to a Stutterer – Ellen Zorin
- Who Says Words With My Mouth? – Jalal ad-Din Rumi
Who Says Words With My Mouth? – Jalal ad-Din Rumi
All day I think about it, then at night I say it.
Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing?
I have no idea.
My soul is from elsewhere, I’m sure of that,
and I intend to end up there.
This drunkenness began in some other tavern.
When I get back around to that place,
I’ll be completely sober. Meanwhile,
I’m like a bird from another continent, sitting in this aviary.
The day is coming when I fly off,
but who is it now in my ear who hears my voice?
Who says words with my mouth?
Who looks out with my eyes? What is the soul?
I cannot stop asking.
If I could taste one sip of an answer,
I could break out of this prison for drunks.
I didn’t come here of my own accord, and I can’t leave that way.
Whoever brought me here will have to take me home.
This poetry, I never know what I’m going to say.
I don’t plan it.
When I’m outside the saying of it,
I get very quiet and rarely speak at all.
Poetry
- A Dog Has Died – Pablo Neruda
- A Moment of Silence – Emmanuel Ortiz
- A Quiet Life – Baron Wormser
- A Wreath to the Fish – Nancy Willard
- Alone – Jack Gilbert
- Another Planet – Dunya Mikhail
- Be Kind, Rewind – Neil Silberblatt
- Black Momma Math – Kimberly Jae
- Boplicity or Jimmy Throws a Houseparty for Huey Newton – Daniel B. Summerhill
- Capitol Air – Allen Ginsburg
- Combat Primer – Charles Bukowski
- Crow Blacker Than Ever – Ted Hughes
- Dismiss Whatever Insults Your Own Soul – Walt Whitman
- Don’t fall in love with a woman who reads – Martha Rivera-Garrido
- Failing and Flying – Jack Gilbert
- Feel Mo – Michael Korson
- Footprints In Your Heart – Eleanor Roosvelt
- For Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in Its Human Feet – Joy Harjo
- Forgetfulness – Billy Collins
- Growing Old – Emma Rosenberg
- Half-light – Dāshaun Washington
- Homesick: A Plea for Our Planet – Andrea Gibson
- How She Heard It – Todd Davis
- How to Slay a Dragon – Rebecca Dupas
- I Talked to a Lady – Tanya Howden
- If You Knew – Ellen Bass
- Instructions before visiting Earth – James McCrae
- KINDNESS – Naomi Shihab Nye
- Love is Not All – Edna St. Vincent Millay
- Men – Maya Angelou
- Millennium Blessing – Stephen Levine
- my brain and heart divorced ~ john roedel
- Ode to Those Who Block Tunnels and Bridges – Sam Sax
- Old Man Eating Alone – Billy Collins
- Relax – Ellen Bass
- Shoveling Snow With Buddha – Billy Collins
- Sleeping in the Forest – Mary Oliver
- Small Stack of Books – Blake Nelson
- Soliloquy of the Solipsist – Sylvia Plath
- Squirrel – Lynn Ungar
- Tangled Up In Blue – Bob Dylan
- The Caveman’s Lament – Brian Bilston
- The Four Noble Truths – Jake Onami Agnew
- The History of One Tough Motherfucker – Charles Bukowski
- The Layers – Stanley Kunitz
- The Long Boat – Stanley Kunitz
- The Moon is Full Tonight – Billy Collins
- The Shyness – Sharon Olds
- The War Works Hard – Dunya Mikhail
- To Diego with Love – Frida Kalko
- Tryst with Death – Gina Puorro
- Two poems – Wendell Berry
- Two poems – Yehuda Amichai
- Two-bloods – Rolando Kattan
- Wage Peace – Mary Oliver
- War Primer – Bertholt Brecht
- We are the Trees – J Raymond
- We will meet, don’t be in such a rush – Hala alShrouf
- What I Learned From Listening to a Stutterer – Ellen Zorin
- Who Says Words With My Mouth? – Jalal ad-Din Rumi
We are the Trees – J Raymond
I see now, growing old is a luxury.
We ought to focus more on aging gratefully,
than gracefully.
Life isn’t a tree we’re meant to carve our
name into the trunk of.
We are the trees,
and life leaves its mark upon us.
My body will betray me
long before my spirit breaks.
Each wrinkle, a well-earned reminder of all
the ways by face wears happiness.
I’ve lost too many people,
seen enough lights snuffed out early,
to walk these roads begrudgingly.
Or with envy.
Or with anything other than appreciation.
I’ll take every step left affectionately.
When the day comes,
feed the earth our flesh and bones,
knowing that from where we lie
love grows.
Poetry
- A Dog Has Died – Pablo Neruda
- A Moment of Silence – Emmanuel Ortiz
- A Quiet Life – Baron Wormser
- A Wreath to the Fish – Nancy Willard
- Alone – Jack Gilbert
- Another Planet – Dunya Mikhail
- Be Kind, Rewind – Neil Silberblatt
- Black Momma Math – Kimberly Jae
- Boplicity or Jimmy Throws a Houseparty for Huey Newton – Daniel B. Summerhill
- Capitol Air – Allen Ginsburg
- Combat Primer – Charles Bukowski
- Crow Blacker Than Ever – Ted Hughes
- Dismiss Whatever Insults Your Own Soul – Walt Whitman
- Don’t fall in love with a woman who reads – Martha Rivera-Garrido
- Failing and Flying – Jack Gilbert
- Feel Mo – Michael Korson
- Footprints In Your Heart – Eleanor Roosvelt
- For Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in Its Human Feet – Joy Harjo
- Forgetfulness – Billy Collins
- Growing Old – Emma Rosenberg
- Half-light – Dāshaun Washington
- Homesick: A Plea for Our Planet – Andrea Gibson
- How She Heard It – Todd Davis
- How to Slay a Dragon – Rebecca Dupas
- I Talked to a Lady – Tanya Howden
- If You Knew – Ellen Bass
- Instructions before visiting Earth – James McCrae
- KINDNESS – Naomi Shihab Nye
- Love is Not All – Edna St. Vincent Millay
- Men – Maya Angelou
- Millennium Blessing – Stephen Levine
- my brain and heart divorced ~ john roedel
- Ode to Those Who Block Tunnels and Bridges – Sam Sax
- Old Man Eating Alone – Billy Collins
- Relax – Ellen Bass
- Shoveling Snow With Buddha – Billy Collins
- Sleeping in the Forest – Mary Oliver
- Small Stack of Books – Blake Nelson
- Soliloquy of the Solipsist – Sylvia Plath
- Squirrel – Lynn Ungar
- Tangled Up In Blue – Bob Dylan
- The Caveman’s Lament – Brian Bilston
- The Four Noble Truths – Jake Onami Agnew
- The History of One Tough Motherfucker – Charles Bukowski
- The Layers – Stanley Kunitz
- The Long Boat – Stanley Kunitz
- The Moon is Full Tonight – Billy Collins
- The Shyness – Sharon Olds
- The War Works Hard – Dunya Mikhail
- To Diego with Love – Frida Kalko
- Tryst with Death – Gina Puorro
- Two poems – Wendell Berry
- Two poems – Yehuda Amichai
- Two-bloods – Rolando Kattan
- Wage Peace – Mary Oliver
- War Primer – Bertholt Brecht
- We are the Trees – J Raymond
- We will meet, don’t be in such a rush – Hala alShrouf
- What I Learned From Listening to a Stutterer – Ellen Zorin
- Who Says Words With My Mouth? – Jalal ad-Din Rumi
Capitol Air – Allen Ginsburg
Poetry
- A Dog Has Died – Pablo Neruda
- A Moment of Silence – Emmanuel Ortiz
- A Quiet Life – Baron Wormser
- A Wreath to the Fish – Nancy Willard
- Alone – Jack Gilbert
- Another Planet – Dunya Mikhail
- Be Kind, Rewind – Neil Silberblatt
- Black Momma Math – Kimberly Jae
- Boplicity or Jimmy Throws a Houseparty for Huey Newton – Daniel B. Summerhill
- Capitol Air – Allen Ginsburg
- Combat Primer – Charles Bukowski
- Crow Blacker Than Ever – Ted Hughes
- Dismiss Whatever Insults Your Own Soul – Walt Whitman
- Don’t fall in love with a woman who reads – Martha Rivera-Garrido
- Failing and Flying – Jack Gilbert
- Feel Mo – Michael Korson
- Footprints In Your Heart – Eleanor Roosvelt
- For Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in Its Human Feet – Joy Harjo
- Forgetfulness – Billy Collins
- Growing Old – Emma Rosenberg
- Half-light – Dāshaun Washington
- Homesick: A Plea for Our Planet – Andrea Gibson
- How She Heard It – Todd Davis
- How to Slay a Dragon – Rebecca Dupas
- I Talked to a Lady – Tanya Howden
- If You Knew – Ellen Bass
- Instructions before visiting Earth – James McCrae
- KINDNESS – Naomi Shihab Nye
- Love is Not All – Edna St. Vincent Millay
- Men – Maya Angelou
- Millennium Blessing – Stephen Levine
- my brain and heart divorced ~ john roedel
- Ode to Those Who Block Tunnels and Bridges – Sam Sax
- Old Man Eating Alone – Billy Collins
- Relax – Ellen Bass
- Shoveling Snow With Buddha – Billy Collins
- Sleeping in the Forest – Mary Oliver
- Small Stack of Books – Blake Nelson
- Soliloquy of the Solipsist – Sylvia Plath
- Squirrel – Lynn Ungar
- Tangled Up In Blue – Bob Dylan
- The Caveman’s Lament – Brian Bilston
- The Four Noble Truths – Jake Onami Agnew
- The History of One Tough Motherfucker – Charles Bukowski
- The Layers – Stanley Kunitz
- The Long Boat – Stanley Kunitz
- The Moon is Full Tonight – Billy Collins
- The Shyness – Sharon Olds
- The War Works Hard – Dunya Mikhail
- To Diego with Love – Frida Kalko
- Tryst with Death – Gina Puorro
- Two poems – Wendell Berry
- Two poems – Yehuda Amichai
- Two-bloods – Rolando Kattan
- Wage Peace – Mary Oliver
- War Primer – Bertholt Brecht
- We are the Trees – J Raymond
- We will meet, don’t be in such a rush – Hala alShrouf
- What I Learned From Listening to a Stutterer – Ellen Zorin
- Who Says Words With My Mouth? – Jalal ad-Din Rumi