10 Dec: "Metaphors" by Sylvia Plath

“Metaphors” by Sylvia Plath

I’m a riddle in nine syllables,
An elephant, a ponderous house,
A melon strolling on two tendrils.
O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!
This loaf’s big with its yeasty rising.
Money’s new-minted in this fat purse.
I’m a means, a stage, a cow in calf.
I’ve eaten a bag of green apples,
Boarded the train there’s no getting off.

9 Dec: "Runner" by Walt Whitman

 "Runner" by Walt Whitman

ON a flat road runs the well-train’d runner;
He is lean and sinewy, with muscular legs;
He is thinly clothed—he leans forward as he runs,
With lightly closed fists, and arms partially rais’d.

8 Dec: "Today" by Frank O'Hara

TODAY
                         
                         
   Oh! kangaroos, sequins, chocolate sodas!
   You really are beautiful! Pearls,
   harmonicas, jujubes, aspirins! all
   the stuff they've always talked about
                       
   still makes a poem a surprise!
   These things are with us every day
   even on beachheads and biers. They
   do have meaning. They're strong as rocks.


   [1950]

7 Dec: "Mushroom Hunting in the Jemez Mountains" by Arthur Sze

6 Dec: "The Night Is Freezing Fast" by A. E. Housman

The Night Is Freezing Fast The night is freezing fast,     To-morrow comes December;         And winterfalls of old Are with me from the past;     And chiefly I remember         How Dick would hate the cold. Fall, winter, fall; for he,     Prompt hand and headpiece clever,         Has woven a winter robe, And made of earth and sea     His overcoat for ever,         And wears the turning globe. A.E. Housman

5 Dec: "When that I Was and a Little Tiny Boy" by William Shakespeare

"When that I Was and a Little Tiny Boy" by William Shakespeare

When that I was and a little tiny boy,
  With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
A foolish thing was but a toy,
  For the rain it raineth every day.

But when I came to man's estate,
  With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
'Gainst knaves and thieves men shut the gate,
  For the rain it raineth every day.

But when I came, alas! to wive,
  With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
By swaggering could I never thrive,
  For the rain it raineth every day.

But when I came unto my beds,
  With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
With toss-pots still had drunken heads,
  For the rain it raineth every day.

A great while ago the world begun,
  With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
But that's all one, our play is done,
  And we'll strive to please you every day.

4 Dec: "A Long Time More" by Dara Wier

"A Long Time More" by Dara Wier

I will say to you let’s go
when we are dead together

let’s not be dead any longer,
not there with all the already gone,

not where nothing we want we’ll know,
no more I have to have this now,

no more not one time more not ever.
Back where we’ve come from,

back there we’ll go.
We will be thirsty again together

and find food and clothes and comfort,
and this time take time

this time neither too fast
this time ever more slow.

3 Dec: "Intro to Poetry" by Steven Bauer

"Intro to Poetry" by Steven Bauer

You thought it was math that taught
the relation of time and speed
but it’s farther than you knew
from that sun-lit white-walled classroom
to this darkened lounge with its couch
and overstuffed chairs. How many miles,
would you say, since you talked
as if poetry were no distorting mirror,
one-way street? But listen, sometimes
it’s like this, a stranger’s Ford pulls up,
and you, with no plans for the afternoon,
get in. He doesn’t talk, stares at the road
and it’s miles before you understand
you didn’t want to travel. His lips say no
as you reach for the radio’s knob.


In this silence you fall deeper
into yourself, and even the car
disappears, the stranger’s face blurs
into faded upholstery, and all things
being equal, you’re alone as though
you’ve wandered into a forest with night
coming on, no stars, the memory of sun
and a voice’s asking Is this my life?

2 Dec: "A Blessing" by James Wright

"A Blessing" by James Wright

Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota,

Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass.

And the eyes of those two Indian ponies

Darken with kindness.

They have come gladly out of the willows

To welcome my friend and me.

We step over the barbed wire into the pasture

Where they have been grazing all day, alone.

They ripple tensely, they can hardly contain their happiness   

That we have come.

They bow shyly as wet swans. They love each other.

There is no loneliness like theirs.   

At home once more,

They begin munching the young tufts of spring in the darkness.   

I would like to hold the slenderer one in my arms,

For she has walked over to me   

And nuzzled my left hand.   

She is black and white,

Her mane falls wild on her forehead,

And the light breeze moves me to caress her long ear

That is delicate as the skin over a girl’s wrist.

Suddenly I realize

That if I stepped out of my body I would break

Into blossom.

1 Dec: "The Sandy Hole" by Jane Kenyon

"The Sandy Hole" by Jane Kenyon

The infant's coffin no bigger than a flightbag ....
The young father steps backward from the sandy hole,
eyes wide and dry, his hand over his mouth.
No one dares to come near him, even to touch his sleeve.