Category: Carolyn Kizer

For Ann London As you described your mastectomy in calm detail and bared your chest so I might see the puckered scar, “They took a…

When from his cave, young Mao in his youthful mind A work to renew old China first designed, Then he alone interpreted the law, and…

He was believed by his peers to be an important poet, But his erotic obsession, condemned and strictly forbidden, Compromised his standing, and led to…

Arms and the girl I sing – O rare arms that are braceleted and white and bare arms that were lovely Helen’s, in whose name…

1. Had the ham bone, had the lentils, Got to meat store for the salt pork, Got to grocery for the celery. Had the onions,…

Tout le ciel vert se meurt Le dernier arbre brûle. The whole green sky is dying. The last tree flares With a great burst of…

The whole green sky is dying.The last tree flares With a great burst of supernatural rose Under a canopy of poisonous airs. Could we imagine…

for Maxine Kumin Where did these enormous children come from, More ladylike than we have ever been? Some of ours look older than we feel….

1 The stout poet tiptoes On the lawn. Surprisingly limber In his thick sweater Like a middle-age burglar. Is the young robin injured? 2 She…

For more than thirty years we hadn’t met. I remembered the bright query of your face, That single-minded look,intense and stern, Yet most important -how…

My mother– preferring the strange to the tame: Dove-note, bone marrow, deer dung, Frog’s belly distended with finny young, Leaf-mould wilderness, hare-bell, toadstool, Odd, small…

Midas watched the golden crust That formed over his steaming sores, Hugged his agues, loved his lust, But damned to hell the out-of-doors Where blazing…

No-one explains me because There is nothing to explain. It’s all right here Very clear. O for my reputations sake To be difficult and opaque!…