Category: Poetry

“Reusing Words” by Hal Sirowitz

On By Christina's WordsIn Poetry

Don’t think you know everything,
Father said, just because you’re good
with words. They aren’t everything.
I try to say the smallest amount possible.
Instead of using them indiscriminately
I try to conserve them. I’m the only one
in this household who recycles them. I
say the same thing over & over again,
like “Who forgot to turn out the lights?
Who forgot to clean up after themselves
in the bathroom?” Since you don’t listen
I never have to think of other things to say.

“Reusing Words” by Hal Sirowitz, from Father Said. © Soft Skull Press, 2004.

“Problems with Hurricanes” by Victor Hernández Cruz

On By Christina's WordsIn Poetry

A campesino looked at the air
And told me:
With hurricanes it’s not the wind
or the noise or the water.
I’ll tell you he said:
it’s the mangoes, avocados
Green plantains and bananas
flying into town like projectiles.

How would your family
feel if they had to tell
The generations that you
got killed by a flying
Banana.

Death by drowning has honor
If the wind picked you up
and slammed you
Against a mountain boulder
This would not carry shame
But
to suffer a mango smashing
Your skull
or a plantain hitting your
Temple at 70 miles per hour
is the ultimate disgrace.

The campesino takes off his hat—
As a sign of respect
toward the fury of the wind
And says:
Don’t worry about the noise
Don’t worry about the water
Don’t worry about the wind—
If you are going out
beware of mangoes
And all such beautiful
sweet things.

From Maraca: New and Selected Poems 1965-2000 by Victor Hernández Cruz. Copyright © 2001 by Victor Hernández Cruz. Published by Coffee House Press

Cruz reads his poem in the above embedded video. Click HERE to view on YouTube.

“Bring Me the Girls ” by Ashe Vernon

On By Christina's WordsIn Poetry

Bring me the girls still rough around the edges,
who never knew the word ‘pretty’—
girls with teeth for tearing.
Bring me the bruised knuckle girls,
the heavy-hearted girls,
the girls who got locked up in towers
and found a way out.
Bring me the girls
who kept the roses with the weeds,
the callous and the thorns.
Bring me the girls
with exoskeletons of iron,
hands worked to the bone.
You were not beautiful enough for them,
but you are beautiful.
You are viscous and hungry,
tall and terrible,
You are more than they made of you.
You are hurting.
But you are powerful.

– BRING ME THE GIRLS, by Ashe Vernon

“What Cowboys Know About Love” by Louis McKee

On By Christina's WordsIn Poetry

Last night on the sports channel
I watched the rodeo.
Those cowboys have it right;
the best and the beauty of it.
You cannot win, so you ride
for as long as you can and enjoy it.
When you dismount,
whether it be on your own or not,
it won’t look pretty. You’ll limp off.
But you’ll feel good; your heart
will be pounding like it never has,
and walking away, one crazy step
after another, your ears will ring
with the loud approval
of those who never felt so good.

–Louis McKee

“The Highway” by W. S. Merwin

On By Christina's WordsIn Poetry

It seems too enormous just for a man to be
Walking on. As if it and the empty day
Were all there is. And a little dog
Trotting in time with the heat waves, off
Near the horizon, seeming never to get
Any farther. The sun and everything
Are stuck in the same places, and the ditch
Is the same all the time, full of every kind
Of bone, while the empty air keeps humming
That sound it has memorized of things going
Past. And the signs with huge heads and starved
Bodies, doing dances in the heat,
And the others big as houses, all promise
But with nothing inside and only one wall,
Tell of other places where you can eat,
Drink, get a bath, lie on a bed
Listening to music, and be safe. If you
Look around you see it is just the same
The other way, going back; and farther
Now to where you came from, probably,
Than to places you can reach by going on.

“The Highway” by W.S. Merwin, from The First Four Books of Poems. © Copper Canyon Press, 2000.