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Progression

Given a point on the circumference
Of life: this point is death, an inference
Of rest where no rest is possible, where
Atomic rush is ceaseless in still air.
Sun in the due course of change
Becomes moon, and possibilities range
Beyond the impossible. Death
Is but a swimmer's holding of the breath.
Life has no end. Man, with greatest and least,
Progresses to some outlandish god or beast,
In what unknown condition of sensory wealth or dearth,
To rule what polished planet unseen to earth.

41,493

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4,155

poets

207

poetic terms

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Selected

Poems worth returning to

in time two points, …

Cathy Song

The blades of grass are writhing …

Alice Pettway

Does the spider study Quintilian? …

Maurya Simon

Your voice crawls across the dashboard of Grandma’s Dodge Dynasty on the way home from Lilydale First Baptist. You sing a cocktail of static and bass. Sound like you dressed to the nines: cowboy hat, fur coat & alligator boots. Sound like you lotion every tooth. You a walking discography, South Side griot, keeper of crackle & dust in the grooves. You fell in love with a handmade box of wires at 16 and been behind the booth ever since. From wbez to V103, you be the Coolest Gent, King of the Dusties. Your voice wafts down from the ceiling at the Hair Lab. You supply the beat for Kym to tap her comb to. Her brown fingers paint my scalp with white grease to the tunes of Al & Barry & Luther. Your voice: an inside-out yawn, the sizzle of hot iron on fresh perm, the song inside the blackest seashell washed up on a sidewalk in Bronzeville. You soundtrack the church picnic, trunk party, Cynthia’s 50th birthday bash, the car ride to school, choir, Checkers. Your voice stretch across our eardrums like Daddy asleep on the couch. Sound like Grandma’s sweet potato pie, sound like the cigarettes she hide in her purse for rough days. You showed us what our mommas’ mommas must’ve moved to. When the West Side rioted the day MLK died, you were audio salve to the burning city, people. Your voice a soft sermon soothing the masses, speaking coolly to flames, spinning black records across the airwaves, spreading the gospel of soul in a time of fire. Joycetta says she bruised her thumbs snappin’ to Marvin’s “Got to Give It Up” and I believe her. …

Jamila Woods

Marie's face is a weathered sign …

Lola Ridge

Without leaving the room …

Donald W. Baker

Singular, …

Ardyth Bradley

For Larry Apple on his birthday …

Steve Kronen

The glossary

The language about poetry

From aubade to zuihitsu, 207 definitions of the forms, figures, and schools that shape the line.

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