Alone, yet tracked, pacifically this wolf
Has wandered through the Cascade’s mountain passes
From Oregon to California —
He hides behind the pines and in tall grasses
In mountain meadows filled with flowers, filled
With game the wolf can eat. Alone, he finds
It’s mostly rabbits, pika, squirrels that he
Can catch and eat. When full…

Savannas, deserts, forests, plains —
Environments that actions make, but have no goals
Like lion prides, each ruled by shaggy manes
And seeking to bring down for lunch weak…

“When I was a little girl,” my great-
Grandfather said.
We laughed.
When he was young
His mother clothed
Him in dresses,
Lace bonnets,
So he and his sister
Could…

LITERATURE

If you are reading this, poetry is likely for you. Few if any of the people who need to read this — people who don’t read poetry and don’t plan to read poetry and who think poetry is stupid and who hate poetry — won’t read this essay. …

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” — John Lennon

You hide in shadows cast by thick brick walls
You built around your city —…

CULTURE

In his essay “On the Uses and Advantages of History for Life” (Untimely Meditations, 79–81) Nietzsche argues that people are caught in a tension between content and form. There are times in a culture when content comes to dominate and other times when form comes to dominate — and yet…

Through snow and ice I drove to see
My family, friend — for you, I drove,
And when I come to you, you flee
Into the frozen, barren grove
I find dividing you and me.

Ice glistens branches weighted down,
The gray row sparkles in the sun —
Yet…

I dwell in this house and know I should not
Live here in the dark and dust when I know
It is nothing but unhealthy. I must
Tear down these unholy walls and rip up
The floors. I must spread kerosine and light
The roof with it. Instead, my gray…