No, this time I'm not kidding around.
There's some half-shattered outdoor furniture,
then crowds of dianthus and pink hydrangeas,
honeysuckle going wild over the bright blue door,
and zinc buckets and coal carriers overflowing
with pansies, lavender, and some kind of soft fern
just the right combination of growth and neglect.
And you don't have to wish for a brick wall,
a gravel path or a leaning disused shed
to complete the picture because they're all right here
as well as a concrete statue of a maiden
holding a jug, one breast exposed, overgrown with ivy.
The only thing you might not think of,
being in another place so far away,
is this one bee who just refused to wait
for all the morning glories to unfurl in the early sun,
and instead, pushed her way into the white flute
of a blossom, disappearing for a moment
before she flew off in her distinctive gold
and black uniform like a player on a team,
heading over the hedge toward a core of honey.
-
Winter Feature 2010
-
Feature
- Poets in Person An HD video visit with Stephen Dunn in Frostburg, MD
-
Poetry
- Jonathan Aaron
- Michael Blumenthal
- Billy Collins
- Philip Dacey
- Carl Dennis
- Gregory Djanikian
- Stephen Dobyns
- Stephen Dunn
- B.H. Fairchild
- Kathleen Graber
- Jane Hirshfield
- Tony Hoagland
- Dorianne Laux
- Thomas Lux
- D. Nurkse
- Alicia Ostriker
- Lawrence Raab
- J. Allyn Rosser
- Dave Smith
- Gerald Stern
- Ellen Bryant Voigt
- C.K. Williams
- Robert Wrigley
-
Essay
- Gregory Djanikian Stephen Dunn's Compositional Strategies: Verse And Reverse
- David Rigsbee The Despoiled And Radiant Now: Ambivalence And Secrets In Stephen Dunn
-
Book Review
- David Rigsbee reviews Here and Now: Poems
by Stephen Dunn
- David Rigsbee reviews Here and Now: Poems