Brother, you jaywalked your way out of the womb. I could recognise you anywhere from the hiccup in your swagger. Tell me, where in the world did you find all that thunder? There have never been any seat-belts on your side of the car. You have always known the better magic tricks. You told me once that I was just the first draft, and I’m inclined to believe you but you came with a lot more pieces to assemble than … Read More

Lately… lately I’ve been living with spiders, but as roommates go they haven’t been too bad. The one in the bathroom keeps to his side of the tile, and the one in the bedroom… well he can get a little bit grabby but for the most part he keeps his hands to himself. I guess all those car engines and hairsprays finally caught up with us, because the pollution here is so bad it makes the sky glow orange from … Read More

After Hanif Abdurraqib & Frank O’Hara It is the last class of the day and I am teaching a classroom of sixth graders about poetry and across town a man has walked into a Starbucks and blown himself up while some other men throw grenades in the street and shoot into the crowd of civilians and I am 27 years old which means I am the only person in this room who was alive when this happened in New York … Read More

    Βυθίζομαι μα τώρα μόνο στα ρηχά και αυτό το χέρι άσπρο που δεν ματώνει πια σαν ίσκιος κουβαλάει το φώς που γύρω-γύρω βγαίνει ρηχά νερά μικρή ζωή που αγάπη δεν χορταίνει  

  i miss the rain sometimes when i’m with you and don’t remember what to do for love The way it runs down on hotel glass how you lie on the whites of well-made beds like desert water How it catches the brown of your hair with small diamonds of light This fire will put the water out, clear the clouds, and stop us i miss the rain

  Look at this, look at all this snow. Does anyone in town know how to use a shovel? Well I guess the answer is no. Shit I fumbled my gloves, oh no I dropped my keys. Now they’re probably buried at the bottom of the snow bank and I bet that they’re gonna freeze. Cos Providence is miserable in winter. Providence won’t let me go on walks. Providence might ruin my semester, I might have to change my locks. … Read More

I wish I could describe her moodiness in words, like it really is, like it really makes me feel… It is such an elusive feeling yet so tangible at the same time. Tangible not as in the feeling itself, but the effects that it has on me are so evident they are impossible to hide.  If I were to paint it, I would paint a shore full of seashells and seaweed in the retreating tide. A shore almost choked into … Read More

When Max Planck was going to start his Ph.D. in Physics they told him that he really need not apply and that he shouldn’t bother because “all of physics has really been discovered”. Undaunted -of course- the bright young scientist went on with his studies and -when they finally found someone who could read and understand his thesis- formulated an equation containing Planck’s Constant whose immense validity and application wasn’t appreciated until twenty five years later, when Quantum Mechanics was … Read More

He fills me up in so many ways my D., I find it hard to describe it though I know exactly what it is. I know what He is. He is with whom I want the sun to find us in the morning, he whom his face I see everywhere during the day, even at work, on my desk on my screen. He makes me open up to him easily, wantingly, like an unpicked flower he travels my body like … Read More

I am a city girl to my core. The first time my parents took me outside of New York City to visit my uncle in New Jersey, I was standing on the front porch of their lovely suburban home when a fast-moving shadow caused my three-year-old heart to damn near beat out of my chest, and I shouted, That’s the biggest rat I’ve ever seen. My uncle calmly responded, That’s a cat, sweetie. And I shot back, Oh yeah? Well what’s it doing outside? My … Read More

How did we get stuck in this empty v-generation? In this brand-spanking new games stagnation? Where rash regurgitation of hip-hop leads to celebration- that intelligence constipation, where kids are losing all concentration in trying to suppress their hard-earned education, and planting instead a language mutation of slang words and curse words to give the sensation of pure teenage anger and social frustration. With the stipulation that articulation is a dying form of communication, so leading to the misconstrued idea that … Read More

Dear Dennis, I still think of you. Dear Andre, I saw you kiss her. I haven’t looked back. Dear Patrick, You’re just too young. Dear Eric, I said horrible things about you. Your teeth are fine, it’s the rest of you I don’t like. Dear Greg, Thank you for the poem for every single scar. Dear William, I loved you simple. I liked that we would never be “we.” Dear Jay, The bruises fell off eventually. Dear Michael, I’ll never … Read More

In the second grade, every song was a handful of orange Tic Tacs rolling around my tongue: I knew all the words, could feel them tangy, round, and smooth, but didn’t care which one was which. I could sing back the Beatles perfectly with the words all smashed together. I was the first one to memorize any song the music teacher sang us. My favorite was The Ghost Ship. The words meant nothing to me, but the melody was full … Read More

Χτες βράδυ, με δύο φίλες από φέισμπουκ, κατά τις τέσσερις καταλήγουμε σε υπαίθριο rave party, στο πεδίον του Άρεως. Η οποία περιοχή είναι θρυλική και τιμημένη για rave party, από τα ένδοξα χρόνια του alsos, χρονιές 90 και κάτι. Και ενώ ακόμα έχω σπίτι φυλαγμένο frond μπλουζάκι, έχω βγει με ξώβυζο, γιατί από τότε έχουν περάσει είκοσι χρόνια και κάτι, και πλέον έχω μάθει ότι το να με εκτιμήσει κάποιος Σαββατόβραδο για τον ψυχικό μου κόσμο, είναι φενάκη. Και εκεί … Read More

20/2/2017 3:00 μμ Γύρω γύρω Ξανά κ ξανα Ο χρόνος …… γυρίζει επαναλαβανει Ανακυκλώνει αναμασαει ιστορίες…ιδιες Ακούραστα ίδιες … Εκεί ειμαι… Σε περιμένω Δεν αλλάζω. Δεν ξαναγεννιεμαι Αλλα δεν με κοροϊδεύεις Σε καταλαβαίνω… Κι εσυ ίδιος εισαι …αλλαζεις πρόσωπα Αλλα ίδιος εισαι..!!!!! by Danna

Keep your love around, like a knife. all at once you find what was in your mind, hidden nowhere Nowhere is where you went, when not alone. Somewhere is anywhere but here Somewhere is what it used to be And you, torn apart by words that always mean the same, and words that change, – like people. Like people change, to stay the same, to be the same without her Keep your love around like a knife She wears the … Read More

  La Poubelle is on the warpath again. She’s set up a one-woman roadblock outside her house, accosting every passerby indiscriminately. A small boy on a bicycle was retained for a full two minutes, and she’s even appealing, in urgent tones, to tourists, who have no interest in our neighbourhood affairs. Which is unusual. ‘What is it this time?’ says Aspasia, a little too loudly. Aspasia has no tact. But then again, she has no use for tact, which is … Read More

  Poetry is the sustaining space between half-chosen words. It lives irreverently, despite of us, and it despises us despite of those who hold the words in tiny hands at night like pieces from their heart still beating poetry begins when breathing  ends and effort is surrendered

Once in Puerto Rico, I held on to a rock ledge for fourty five minutes, refusing to jump into the lagoon below. My friends shouted encouragement and strangers offered kind advice, until finally the man I loved crawled up the rock face and stood behind me coaxing, “This is not a metaphor!” He said this because he knew that I had already found a way to equate this failure with all other failures, knew that my mind prison is a … Read More

In most of the dreams I remember from childhood, I am a boy. Rescuing a maiden from a tower, or not rescuing anyone in particular, but definitely a boy. For years, when the only language I had were the scraps tossed from the popular kids table, “lesbian” seemed as likely an explanation as anything. What does it mean to dream myself a gender? What does it mean to hold that secret beneath my tongue? The first time I kissed a … Read More

  Sit behind The windshield in your car; Its quite amazing. From behind the windshield See the movie, A movie playing in front of you All-over So sit motionless but not emotion-less And as you drive As you drive by, your life, Unfolds around you And all the circumstances Now surround you Surround you like a play, A dress rehearsal In which we all are part We play ourselves -If we are lucky- We don’t play Someone else. And the … Read More

When I am inside writing, all I can think about is how I should be outside living. When I am outside living, all I can do is notice all there is to write about. When I read about love, I think I should be out loving. When I love, I think I need to read more. I am stumbling in pursuit of grace, I hunt patience with a vengeance. On the mornings when my brother’s tired muscles held to the … Read More

I knew exactly what love looked like – in seventh grade Even though I hadn’t met love yet, if love had wandered into my homeroom, I would’ve recognized him at first glance. Love wore a hemp necklace. I would’ve recognized her at first glance, love wore a tight french braid. Love played acoustic guitar and knew all my favorite Beatles songs. Love wasn’t afraid to ride the bus with me. And I knew, I just must be searching the wrong … Read More

People used to tell me that I had beautiful hands. Told me so often in fact that one day I started to believe them, until I asked my photographer father, ‘Hey daddy, could I be a hand model?’ To which he said ‘No way!’. I don’t remember the reason he gave me, and I would’ve been upset but there were far too many stuffed animals to hold, too many homework assignments to write, too many boys to wave at to, … Read More

Sarah Kay: It started with a sweater. Phil Kaye: I was looking fly. First day of college orientation as a freshman… plus, I’m the type of guy who’s always trying to make a good impression. Sarah: He looked like a tool. And it’s the first week of school, so I’ve got people to meet and things to try. I don’t have time to waste on this guy loitering backstage at a talent show. Phil: It started with a freshman talent show, a chance to … Read More

If I should have a daughter instead of “Mom”, she’s gonna call me “Point B.” Because that way, she knows that no matter what happens, at least she can always find her way to me. And I’m going to paint the solar system on the back of her hands so that she has to learn the entire universe before she can say “Oh, I know that like the back of my hand.” She’s gonna learn that this life will hit … Read More

I see the moon. The moon sees me. The moon sees somebody that I don’t see. God bless the moon, and god bless me, and God bless that somebody that I don’t see. If I get to heaven, before you do, I’ll make a hole and pull you through. And I’ll write your name, on every star, and that way the world, won’t seem so far. The astronaut will not be at work today. He is cold and sick. He … Read More

It was somewhere in between the last day of school and the first. Somewhere between morning and nightfall, somewhere between New York City and the very tip of long island, there was a nine-year-old girl standing somewhere between the shoreline and the sand dunes scanning the horizon like a hawk, like an amazon warrior like a great cavalry captain like char la man on the morning before he took his final enemy – jellyfish. There were jellyfish on my beach, … Read More

I had already fallen in love with far too many postage stamps when you appeared in my doorstep wearing nothing but a postcard promise. No, appear is the wrong word. Is there a word for sucker-punching someone in the heart? Is there a word for when you’re sitting at the bottom of a roller coaster and you realize that the climb is coming, that you know what the climb means, that you can already feel the flip in your stomach … Read More

I know you’ve taken to wearing around your father’s hand-me-down anger. But I wish that you wouldn’t.  It’s a few  sizes too big and everyone can see it doesn’t fit you, makes you look silly, hangs loose at all the wrong places, even if it does match your skin colour. I know you think you’ll grow into it, that your arms will beef up after all the fighting and it will sit on your shoulders if you pin it on … Read More

You would hate this song. There’s not enough guitar and the words go on too long. You would say I don’t do words, I don’t do colours, I just do naps. I just know numbers. The picture I gave you didn’t make it on your wall, and did you your roommates ever tell you just how many times I’ve called? I learned things don’t happen and then disappear. Once they happen, they still are here. And you can move on … Read More

They told me that I was meant for the cleaner life, that you would drag me through the mud. They said that you would tread all over me, that they could see right through you, that you were full of hot air, that I would always be chasing, always watching you disappear after sleeker models, that it would be a vicious cycle. But I know better. I know about your rough edges and I have seen your perfect curves, and … Read More

My grandmother’s awakened bed A language I don’t understand runs circles round her head Her words get jumbled on her lips and brought her out to play I press my head against her chest her heartbeat seems to say: Still here, still here You can miss me when I’m gone But I’ll keep on holding on as long as I’m still here I’ve seen the fire I’ve seen the storm I took a stranger by the hand and tried to … Read More

Everyone needs a place. It shouldn’t be inside of someone else. –Richard Siken If you grow up the type of woman men want to look at You can let them look at you But do not mistakes eyes for hands Or windows, or mirrors Let them see what a woman looks like They may not have ever seen one before If you grow up the type of woman men want to touch You can let them touch you Sometimes it … Read More

Without question, you are the worst thing that ever happened to my poetry. And I’m serious, I’ve herd about writer’s block but this- is ridiculous. My poetic fluidity has dried up faster than a woman hitting menopause to the point where this dry spells got me praying for some inspirational discharge to leak from the folds of grey matter in my brain and…shit! See what I mean? I’ve been thinking for far too long with my heart instead of my … Read More

The colourful light in your eyes does not always set in the night, and shadows that hold deeper secrets, they dance where you gaze. In a second in life or a year in some dream, the beauty, the pain, is the same. Those loving eyes, like ancient people that sleep on some hill, their armies are resting and history seems to stand still. Beauty and pain rest always in a timeless sea: in our soul. for when something is burned there … Read More

Desert hills in your eyes, gentle lows, smallest sighs.I am descending upon you, inside.Into this sea of calm, beauty’s child in my arms, smallest winters, that dance by your side.Tears that run down your face, salty kisses; small oceans with planets of life. Lips that meet are not sealed, secret destinies fill, the small of your back as you rise.Spiral galaxies spread, in a small flower stay; so suspended.Like the animate truth of our temple of flesh, now fiery, severed … Read More

I thought the time between us was a lot, i thought he lived forever and had not, fought all those wars in vain: for freedom only. lived all those deaths in vain: for country only. I thought the time between us was a lot, when I would able be to say what’s not, easy to write when said; to say as written. To spend a whole small life and never say i love you for whatever i don’t know, I … Read More

I spent some time in silence, and the pictures of you that were screaming by. wild horses in my brain. Then all the suffering and tormenting animals inside me, they gathered around me, their eyes cold, unmoving, like sacred felines from the Pyramids. They are waiting for you. They will creep silently inside you, move like a bad dream, coming alive under your skin. They don’t precede my love, they don’t follow it, they come with it. This is the … Read More

These words will get deeper and the safety of space space inside, around, between us, space like fancy packaging, wrapping our soul, selves, lives, will not save us. The heart will get sharper with small hands will push all that we love, hearts have small hands. they need space to hold, like ships with cargo. Hearts like ships in the ocean carrying, like women protecting, in a storm, proud in calm, unknown waters. Those hearts will get sharper. With small … Read More

Φλογάτη, γελαστή, ζεστή, από τ’ αμπέλια απάνωθεν εκοίταγε η σελήνη· κι ακόμα ο ήλιος πύρωνε τα θάμνα, βασιλεύοντας μες σε διπλή γαλήνη. Bαριά τα χόρτα, ιδρώνανε στην αψηλήν απανεμιά το θυμωμένο γάλα, κι από τα κλήματα τα νια, που της πλαγιάς ανέβαιναν μακριά-πλατιά τη σκάλα, σουρίζανε οι αμπελουργοί φτερίζοντας, εσειόντανε στον όχτο οι καλογιάννοι, κι άπλων’ απάνω στο φεγγάρι η ζέστα αραχνοΰφαντο κεφαλοπάνι… Στο σύρμα, μες στο γέννημα, μονάχα τρία καματερά, τό ‘να από τ’ άλλο πίσω, την κρεμαστή τους … Read More

  “In darker days, I did a corporate gig at a conference for this big company who made and sold accounting software. In a bid, I presume, to inspire their salespeople to greater heights, they’d forked out 12 grand for an Inspirational Speaker who was this extreme sports guy who had had a couple of his limbs frozen off when he got stuck on a ledge on some mountain. It was weird. Software salespeople I think need to hear from … Read More

Ἐμεῖς οἱ χτίστες τῶν μουγγῶν ἐρώτων τῶν σκληρῶν, δεν πᾶμε ἐμεῖς γιὰ ἕνα φιλί, δεν πᾶμε για ἕνα γέλιο· για τα καρφια που μάτωσαν στις ἄκριες τῶν σταυρῶν ἕνα βαρύ ἀπο ἐντολές σηκώνομε Εὐαγγέλιο. Τη γλύκα βαρεθήκαμε τῶν ἥσυχων ὡρῶν, ὁ Ἀπρίλης εἶναι πίσω μας, βγήκαμε ἀπ’ το λιμάνι κι ἀδειάσαμε στα κύματα, βορά τῶν χαλασμῶν, το βιός που στοργικά ἡ ζωή δῶρο μᾶς εἶχε κάνει. Μακριά ἀπ᾿ τη γῆ πλανιόμαστε στήν ἅπλα τῶν Ὠκεανῶν… Και πια στη νύχτια τη … Read More

Back in 1929 the brilliant and persistent astronomer Edwin Hubble made discoveries that proved that our universe was expanding, with all the heavenly bodies moving away from each other in a straight dance, like coloured dots on the surface of an ever inflating balloon. Something that is well known today and taken for granted, but back then it was pretty amazing to just discover that our Milky Way galaxy was not the only one in the universe, let alone that … Read More

There is nothing bigger or older than the universe. The questions I would like to talk about are: one, where did we come from? How did the universe come into being? Are we alone in the universe? Is there alien life out there? What is the future of the human race? Up until the 1920s, everyone thought the universe was essentially static and unchanging in time. Then it was discovered that the universe was expanding. Distant galaxies were moving away … Read More

    Have you forgotten yet? …For the world’s eventshave rumbled on since those gagged days,Like traffic checked while at thecrossing of city-ways: And the haunted gap in your mind has filled withthoughts that flowLike clouds in the lit heaven of life;and you’re a man reprieved to go, Taking your peaceful share of Time, with joy to spare. But the past is just the same–and War’s a bloody game…Have you forgotten yet?… Look down, and swear by the slain of the War … Read More

Physicists nowadays adopt an approach called  “model-dependent realism” when using theories or models to explain how the world  around us, from the sub-atomic level to the entire universe, works. The idea is that when a theory or model used is successful in explaining a particular physical situation/observation then we assume that it is true and valid. By “successful” we mean that the results predicted by the model agree with experimental results. It may be that an entirely different model for … Read More

  Καρδιὰ τοῦ χειμῶνος. Χριστούγεννα, Ἅις−Βασίλης, Φῶτα. Καὶ αὐτὸς ἐσηκώνετο τὸ πρωί, ἔρριπτεν εἰς τοὺς ὤμους τὴν παλιὰν πατατούκαν του, τὸ μόνον ροῦχον ὁποὺ ἐσώζετο ἀκόμη ἀπὸ τοὺς πρὸ τῆς εὐτυχίας του χρόνους, καὶ κατήρχετο εἰς τὴν παραθαλάσσιον ἀγοράν, μορμυρίζων, ἐνῷ κατέβαινεν ἀπὸ τὸ παλαιὸν μισογκρεμισμένον σπίτι, μὲ τρόπον ὥστε να τὸν ἀκούῃ ἡ γειτόνισσα: − Σεβτὰς εἶν’ αὐτός, δὲν εἶναι τσορβάς …· ἔρωντας εἶναι, δὲν εἶναι γέρωντας. Τὸ ἔλεγε τόσον συχνά, ὥστε ὅλες οἱ γειτονοποῦλες ὁποὺ τὸν ἤκουαν τοῦ … Read More

An electron can spin both clockwise and anti-clockwise at the same time. If you were to go round in a circle at a speed close to the speed of light, you will end up traveling forward in time. GPS systems work accurately only because they take into account that time on earth runs more slowly on earth than it does in outer space, as the earth’s gravity slows time down. As already predicted by the general theory of relativity. Two … Read More

It is so hard to see where it is, but it is there even in the morning when the miracle of shapes assemble and become familiar, but not quite; and the echo of a voice, now changed, utterly dissociated, as though all warmth and shared sweetness had never been. It is this alien space, not stark as the moon, but lush and almost identical to the space that was. But it is not. It is another place and you are … Read More

turn up the volume The Curse of Minerva by Lord Byron Slow sinks, more lovely ere his race be run, Along Morea’s hills the setting sun; Not, as in northern climes, obscurely bright, But one unclouded blaze of living light; O’er the hush’d deep the yellow beam he throws, Gilds the green wave that trembles as it glows; On old Aegina’s rock and Hydra’s isle The god of gladness shed his parting smile’ O’er his own regions lingering loves to … Read More

Στην θάλλασα Πάσχα 9/4/72 Νήστεψα για να μπορέσω να σου γράψω τούτο το γράμμα. Και προσευχήθηκα. Ο ειδωλολάτρης. Εκείνη η μικρή κάρτα που έλαβα ήταν γιομάτη από ένα κόσμο. Από χιλιάδες κόσμους. Πρώτη φορά πήρα ένα τέτοιο δείγμα ανθρωπιάς, καλωσύνης! Το φύλαξα. Θα το φυλάω, θα με προστατεύει. Το πρωινό σου τηλεφώνημα ήταν κάτι χαρμόσυνο. Με έκανε να φύγω για το πρώτο φετεινό ταξίδι πιό ήρεμος, πιό καλός και τιμιώτερος. Ταλαιπωρήθηκα στην Αθήνα. Έφυγα χρεώστης. Για πρώτη μου φορά δε … Read More

As [Stone] was growing up in rural Virginia, she would be out, working in the fields and she would feel and hear a poem coming at her from over the landscape. It was like a thunderous train of air and it would come barrelling down at her over the landscape. And when she felt it coming…cause it would shake the earth under her feet, she knew she had only one thing to do at that point. That was to, in … Read More

Οι στίχοι οι ομορφότεροι δεν γράφονται ποτές τους αναπνέει βαθιά η ψυχή σαν λούλουδα τ’ ονείρου χαμόγελα φαντάσματος, λάμψες είν’ του απείρου φωνές των κάμπων χαρωπές π’ ακούμ’ απ’ τις κορφές Η πλάση η αζωγράφιστη τραγούδ’ είν’ όπου πας απόκρυφη ερημιά η εδέμ και κήπος είν’ αγιασμένος που για της τέχνης την ντροπή πάντα ‘ναι σφαλισμένος μα που μπορείς να τον ιδής μονάχα αν μ’ αγαπάς Σαν σμίξει η αγάπη μια βραδυά τις σκέψεις μας τις δύο στη σιωπή, σε … Read More

Πέρασε δίχως συντροφιά κ’ η Κυριακή στο σπίτι βούλες στούς τοίχους έριξε το δίλι απ’ το φεγγίτη. Κ’ ήρθε του δρόμου τ΄όργανο βαθιά πολύ απ’ τα ξένα να δέσει με την έρημη καρδιά τα περασμένα, να κάμει ακόμα πιότερο καθημερνές τις σχόλες – και πήρε πόλκες ο άνεμος, ρομαντσες, βαρκαρόλες. Μάγια σα να ‘ταν του Καιρού, βγαίναν οι νότες, ίδια με ξιόρκια, με καλέσματα και μαγικά αντικλείδια. Ήχος γλυκός κι αγύριστος -που το σκοπό του χάνω- τριγύριζε στα τέλια του … Read More

De la musique avant toute chose, Et pour cela préfère l’Impair Plus vague et plus soluble dans l’air, Sans rien en lui qui pèse ou qui pose. Il faut aussi que tu n’ailles point Choisir tes mots sans quelque méprise : Rien de plus cher que la chanson grise Où l’Indécis au Précis se joint. C’est des beaux yeux derrière des voiles, C’est le grand jour tremblant de midi, C’est, par un ciel d’automne attiédi, Le bleu fouillis des claires étoiles ! … Read More

This is a true story. I am saying that not because i fear you may not believe me, -or in fact because this story has any really unbelievable moments…- but because i want to keep reminding myself of how it was back then and what events transpired, so naturally so easily like a leaf floating downstream -effortlessly, gracefully. Good times. OK, so many years ago during what Garrison Keillor calls “the age of imagination, before the age of full disclosure” … Read More

Lining the quay are stalls selling sponges. Beneath them the water, still clear and blue, although it is nearly autumn, laps at the stone pier. In the late afternoon light the sponges seem to take on the luminous gold of sun-dappled water, much, I think, as they would have looked under the sea. Tourists finger them expectantly, as if half wanting to find them alive, soft, their thousand open-mouthed pores sucking in and out the golden air like liquid. I, … Read More

The distance of the sun from the Earth is between 146 and 152 million kilometres -give or take a few million, and depending of course on the time of the year. This means that light, racing through space at about 300,000 km/sec will take an average of about 8 minutes to reach the Earth. Think about this for a minute: The Sun, the life giver, the star that holds us together and nourishes us, what gives us hope in the … Read More