poems for you & for me
selections of poetry, with links to poets' websites and full poem texts
selections of poetry, with links to poets' websites and full poem texts
For your heart, for your grief, for your beautiful queerness, for your reality and for your dreams of life and of death and all that may be in-between.
if time is queer/and memory is trans/and my hands hurt in the cold/then
there are ways to hold pain like night follows day
not knowing how tomorrow went down.
it hurts like never when the always is now,
the now that time won't allow.
click to read the whole poem at the Poetry Foundation
Things Haunt
A true citizen of planet earth closes their eyes
and says what they are before the mirror.
A good person gives and asks for nothing in return.
I give and I ask for only one thing—
Hear me. Hear me. Hear me. Hear me. Hear me.
Hear me. Bear the weight of my voice and don’t forget—
things haunt. Things exist long after they are killed.
click to read the whole poem at Poets.org
Second Law
Remember love?
How it loosed its jaw to our kisses?
How it unhinged us? How it tried us
like so many keys like so many rusted
locks? How it missed its target despite its
kicking? How maybe its force could kill us?
Without it what’s left day after day
to trundle our legs? What’s left to push
breath ragged and torn from our lungs?
Who was warned
how these solar winds would leave us
brown and bruised as apples over-
-ripe host and blowsy seed dis-
appearing disappearing?
Were you?
Me too.
click to read the whole poem at Poets.org
Epithalamion
Lover,lead forth thy love unto that bed
prepared by whitest hands of waiting years,
curtained with wordless worship absolute,
unto the certain altar at whose head
stands that clear candle whose expecting breath
exults upon the tongue of flame half-mute,
(haste ere some thrush with silver several tears
complete the perfumed paraphrase of death).
Now is the time when all occasional things
close into silence,only one tree,one
svelte translation of eternity
unto the pale meaning of heaven clings,
(whose million leaves in winsome indolence
simmer upon thinking twilight momently)
as down the oblivious west's numerous dun
magnificence conquers magnificence.
click to read the whole poem (it is lovely and long) at All Poetry
There Will Be Elegance in My Ending
maybe it is naive, but that evening i moisturized my face with tears + i put on my heels + i played pretend until i believed my own performance.
in a world that dispossesses me of so much, give me that!
click to read the whole poem at Alok’s website
There is of course so very much poetry in the world, and a lot of it can be found on the internet or in libraries. I hope this small offering brings joy closer to you in this moment.
xox, Nix
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