"Skylights," by Hans Ostrom

"Helen," by H.D.

"The Dance," by William Carlos Williams

"Sunken Gold," by Eugene Lee-Hamilton

"In an Artist's Studio," by Christina Rossetti

"Lesson 1," by Julie Alger

["Well, Spring overflows the land"], by Lorine Niedecker]

"Work Without Hope," by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Adam and Jack, Jill and Eve

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Jack and Jill in Eden


Jack and Jill
went up the hill
and ended up
in Eden.

Jack looked 'round.
And so did Jill.
A few stray goats
were feeding.

Jack looked at Jill.
There she stood.
Jack said to Jill,
"You're looking good."


Copyright 2011 Hans Ostrom

Poets and Society

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Poets and Society


Society doesn't owe the poet
anything. Even if it did,
what leverage does the poet
have to collect what's due?

Do poets owe society
anything? If they want
something from or for
society, then they owe

society poetry that
satisfies something in
parts of that mass. Other-
wise, poets are free. Free

to be sojourners of the
interior, dedicated to
introspection; and to inspection
of the exterior--if they

so choose. Society will
support a relatively few
poets (chosen from a list)
at a time--a mere gesture.

The rest are on their own.
(How wonderful to be on
one's own.) They follow
their own way, which may

(but may not) feature
a sense of
duty to others. Poets owe
themselves poetry.


Hans Ostrom Copyright 2011

Crows, Contented

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>
<
^

Crows, Contented


Each time crows
gather I
get glad. They
focus.
They are black.
Their
feathers shine. They
look forward.
Have brows.
Are big
and awkward and
deft and smart.
They
glide well.
They
are not satisfied.
I do sense,
though,
that crows
are
contented
with their
determined
irascibility, their
conflicts
with each other and
the world. And
such nests they build.


Hans Ostrom 2011 Copyright

W. H. Auden - The Unknown Citizen

"Love," by Elizabeth Barrett Browning