Pandemic Poetry | Try to Praise the Mutilated World by Adam Zagajewski

Try to Praise the Mutilated World ADAM ZAGAJEWSKI, translated by CLARE CAVANAGH Try to praise the mutilated world.Remember June’s long days,and wild strawberries, drops of rosé wine.The nettles that methodically overgrowthe abandoned homesteads of exiles.You must praise the mutilated world.You watched the stylish yachts and ships;one of them had a long … Continue reading

Pandemic Poetry | Time for Serenity, Anyone? by William Stafford

Time for Serenity, Anyone?by William Stafford I like to live in the sound of water,in the feel of mountain air. A sharpreminder hits me: this world still is alive;it stretches out there shivering toward its owncreation, and I’m part of it. Even my breathingenters into the elaborate give-and-take,this bowing to … Continue reading

Pandemic poetry | The Birds Outside My Window Sing During a Pandemic by Lee Herrick

The Birds Outside My Window Sing During A Pandemic Lee Herrick What we need has always been inside of us. For some – a few poets or farmers, perhaps - it’s always near the surface. Others, it’s buried. It was in our original design, though – pre-machine, pre-border, pre-pandemic. I … Continue reading

Pandemic poetry | Swallows by Jens Kruse

Swallows Jens Kruse This morning, as I open my eyes,I see them,a dozen or so of them,swallows,flying in front of my windowsas only swallows can:gliding, then fluttering,with rapid, sharp turns,hunting insects,showing off to their mates,flashing white belliesin the early morningsunlight. I stand by my windowgazing at them in awethinking thatspring … Continue reading

Pandemic Poetry | Instructions on Not Giving Up by Ada Limón

Instructions on Not Giving Up Ada Limón More than the fuchsia funnels breaking outof the crabapple tree, more than the neighbor’salmost obscene display of cherry limbs shovingtheir cotton candy-colored blossoms to the slatesky of Spring rains, it’s the greening of the treesthat really gets to me. When all the shock … Continue reading