Two people in a
room, speaking harshly.
Now we will
count to twelve
This house in one year fallen to decay
guarded in
elegant blackness
won’t
be forgotten
Hopes, left with
those hangers-on
All doors from their lives are entrances
like a window in a building on fire. For Jesus
And silence is
always coming,
but
nothing lasts forever
There’s a bankruptcy
that’s pure gain.
The
heat of the night is giving us new things
and the house after
all is half paid
Sources: [Adrienne Rich, Pablo Neruda, Robert
Frost, Audre Lorde, Sappho, W.D. Snodgrass, Rainier Maria Rilke, Terrance Hayes,
May Sarton, Nikki Giovanni, Jelaluddin Rumi, Mark Strand, Nikki Giovanni]
Works Cited
Frost, Robert.
“The Census-Taker.” Intro. Louis Untermeyer. New Enlarged Pocket Anthology of Robert Frost’s Poems. New York:
Washington Square Press, 1969. 179. Print.
Giovanni, Nikki.
“Age” Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day.
New York: William Morrow & Company, 1978. 45. Print.
Giovanni, Nikki.
“Poem (for Ema)” Cotton Candy on a Rainy
Day. New York: William Morrow & Company, 1978. 74. Print.
Hayes, Terrance.
“Coffin for Head of State [Trouble Sleep].” Lighthead. New York: Penguin Books,
2010. Kindle file.
Lorde, Audre.
“Timepiece.” Comp. Judy Grahn. Another
Mother Tongue. Boston: Beacon Press, 1984. 101. Print.
Neruda, Pablo.
“Keeping Quiet.” Trans. Stephen Mitchell. Full
Woman, Fleshly Apple, Hot Moon: Selected Poems of Pablo Nerudo. New York:
Harper Perennial, 1997. 155. Print.
Rich, Adrienne.
“Novella.” Poems: Selected and New,
1950-1974. New York: Norton, 1975. 65. Print.
Rilke, Ranier
Maria. “Girls.” Trans. J. B. Leishman. Possibility
of Being: a selection of poems. New York: New Directions Publishing, 1977. 9.
Print.
Rumi, Jelaluddin.
“One Who Does What the Friend…” Trans. Coleman Barks. Soul of Rumi. New York: HarperOne, 2002. N.Pag. Rumi Poetry. Web.
27 August 2014. http://peacefulrivers.homestead.com/Rumipoetry1.html#anchor_16450
Sappho. “100.”
Trans. Mary Barnard. Sappho.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1958. n.p. Print.
Sarton, May. “Of
the Seasons.” Ed. Serena Sue Hilsinger and Lois Brynes. Selected Poems of May Sarton. New York: Norton, 1978. 121. Print.
Snodgrass, W.D.
“Snow Songs.” Ed. A.R. Ammons. The Best
American Poetry 1994. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994. 169. Print.
Strand, Mark.
“The Mysterious Maps.” Ed. A.R. Ammons. The
Best American Poetry 1994. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994. 175.
Print.
