Poets Against the War Poets Against the War
Here The Nation presents a few of the works posted on "Poets Against the War," (www.poetsagainstthewar.org), the website set up by Sam Hamill, poet and editor, when he ca...
Feb 19, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Alfred Corn, Sam Hamill, W.S. Merwin, Maxine Kumin, and Rita Dove
The Orchid Flower The Orchid Flower
Just as I wonder whether it's going to die, the orchid blossoms and I can't explain why it moves my heart, why such pleasure comes from one small bud on a long spindly stem, one blood red gold flower opening at mid-summer, tiny, perfect in its hour. Even to white- haired craggy poet, it's purely erotic, pistil and stamen, pollen, dew of the world, a spoonful of earth, and water. Erotic because there's death at the heart of birth, drama in those old sunrise prisms in wet cedar boughs, deepest mystery in washing evening dishes or teasing my wife, who grows, yes, more beautiful because one of us will die.
Nov 1, 2001 / Books & the Arts / Sam Hamill
Seducing the Sparrow (poem) Seducing the Sparrow (poem)
Why must the noble rose bristle before it blooms, and why must the frost declare allegiance to the dew? Don't tell me the robin's forlorn invit...
Nov 2, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Sam Hamill