“Night Practice” by May Swenson
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Sotto la volta del cielo,
ricordati di camminare sempre
attraverso corridoi di nuvole,
lungo corridoi di luce solare
o attraverso alte siepi
di pioggia verde.
May Swenson
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I swallow the sun.
I’m the one, the only
one in my life.
Oh, windless day
within me,
Oh, silence and sun.
May Swenson, from “I’m One,” Poetry (February 1988)
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"Distance and a Certain Light" - May Swenson
Distance
and a certain light
makes anything artistic—
it doesn't matter what.
From an airplane, all
that rigid splatter of the Bronx
becomes organic, logical
as web or beehive. Chunks
of decayed cars in junkyards,
garbage scows (nimble roaches
on the Harlem), herds of stalled
manure-yellow boxes on twisting reaches
of rails, are punched clean and sharp
as ingots in the ignition of the sun.
Rubbish becomes engaging shape—
you only have to get a bead on it,
the right light filling the corridor
of your view—a gob of spit
under a microscope, fastidious
in structure as a crystal. No contortion
without intention, and nothing ugly.
In any random, sprawling, decomposing thing
is the charming string
of its history—and what it will be next.
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Little Lion Face
Little lion face
I stopped to pick
among the mass of thick
succulent blooms, the twice
streaked flanges of your silk
sunwheel relaxed in wide
dilation, I brought inside,
placed in a vase.Milk
of your shaggy stem
sticky on my fingers, and
your barbs hooked to my hand,
sudden stings from them
were sweet.Now I'm bold
to touch your swollen neck,
put careful lips to slick
petals, snuff up gold
pollen in your navel cup.
Still fresh before night
I leave you, dawn's appetite
to renew our glide and suck.
An hour ahead of sun
I come to find you.You're
twisted shut as a burr,
neck drooped unconscious,
an inert, limp bundle,
a furled cocoon, your
sun-streaked aureole
eclipsed and dun.
Strange feral flower asleep
with flame-ruff wilted,
all magic halted,
a drink I pour, steep
in the glass for your
undulant stem to suck.
Oh, lift your young neck,
open and expand to your
lover, hot light.
Gold corona, widen to sky.
I hold you lion in my eye
sunup until night.
-May Swenson-(1913 -1989) -
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The Lightning - May Swenson
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PREGUNTA
Cuerpo mi alero
mi alazán mi alano
qué haré yo
cuando caigas
Dónde dormiré
cómo cabalgaré
qué presa cazaré
Dónde podría ir
sin mi montura
rauda y afanosa
cómo sabré si
allá en las breñas
hay trance o trofeo
muerto Cuerpo mi
buen perro astuto
Cómo será
yacer en el cielo
sin techo ni puerta
y por vista el viento
Con camisa de nube
cómo me cubriré
*
QUESTION
Body my house
my horse my hound
what will I do
when you are fallen
Where will I sleep
How will I ride
What will I hunt
Where can I go
without my mount
all eager and quick
How will I know
in thicket ahead
is danger or treasure
when Body my good
bright dog is dead
How will it be
to lie in the sky
without roof or door
and wind for an eye
With cloud for shift
how will I hide?
May Swenson
di-versión©ochoislas
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"Blue" by May Swenson
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because you believe I exist I exist
I exist in your verdant garden
you have planted me
I am glad to grow
May Swenson, You Are
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national poetry month, day 17
Ending
Maybe there is a Me inside of me
and, when I lie dying, he
will crawl out. Through my toe.
Green on the green rug, and then
white on the wall, and then
over the window sill, up the trunk
of the apple tree, he
will turn brown and rough and warty
to match the bark. But you’ll be
able to see—(who will be
able to see?) his little jelly
belly pulsing with the heart inside
his transparent hide.
And, once on the top bough,
tail clinging, as well as “hands,”
he’ll turn the purest blue
against the sky—
(say it’s a clear day, and I don’t die
at night.) Maybe from there
he’ll take wing—That’s it!—
an ARCHAEOPTERYX! Endless,
the possibilities, my little Soul,
once you exit from my toe.
But, Oh,
looking it up, I read:
“Archaeopteryx, generally considered
the first bird . . . (although)
closely related to certain small
dinosaurs . . . could not fly.”
A pain . . . Oh, I
Feel a pain in my toe!
—May Swenson
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A poem by May Swenson
Four-Word Lines
Your eyes are just
like bees, and I
feel like a flower.
Their brown power makes
a breeze go over
my skin. When your
lashes ride down and
rise like brown bees’
legs, your pronged gaze
makes my eyes gauze.
I wish we were
in some shade and
no swarm of other
eyes to know that
I’m a flower breathing
bare, laid open to
your bees’ warm stare.
I’d let you wade
in me and seize
with your eager brown
bees’ power a sweet
glistening at my core.
May Swenson
(1913-1989)
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Women by May Swenson (visual poem)
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