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Plush lines the metal train, making the steel
Furry and warm. And Araminta's mind
Is furry, as she paces the stone hall.
The flowers lie along her shoulder, breathing.
The pale young man trots dutifully beside.
The Terminal is smooth and proud and wide,
And a neat painted sky roofs it down from the wind.
The tastes of earth grow blander here and thinned

As Araminta clicks along the tiling,
As Araminta buys her single ticket
From a face at a window, as Araminta walks
Patiently and serenely to her train.
The young pale gentleman farewelled, she sits.
The engineer is hot; he grinds the butt at his heel.
The locomotive feels the sharp rebuke of steel on steel.

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Selected

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He isn't quite a eunuch but that's …

Hayden Carruth

The graduate students shuffle their papers. The hungry raccoon is digging for chestnuts. The chestnut trees drink carbon out of the sky. The action-blast trumpets through pixels to say Come out come out, no pipeline no pipeline, civil disobedience can keep our waters from burning! The activist schedules her speaking tour. The radio show reports a battle for fracking on the floor of the House. The lightning storm sparks Minnesota. The First Nations alliance issues a statement on sacred water and women's safety as casualties of the pipeline. The urban farmer is digging for garlic. The middle-school yard houses an untended orchard planted a hundred years ago during a public commons initiative. The pear tree grows despite its un-pruning. The banker considers joining the compost collective. The reporter tweets from the rally. The lobbyist for the dairy industry walks her dog on the lake. The police arrest a teenaged boy on a boulevard built along an 1816 treaty line between a native community and a colonial army. The grandmother writes down her recipe. The coalition for clean air drops a banner over the freeway. The energy company raises its prices. The muralist mixes his paint. The filmmaker loads a new reel. The students are digging for soil samples. The geese knit the sky with their callings. The logger takes a second job at an international bank. The badger gets under the fence. The hazelnut trees drink carbon out of the sky. …

Mónica Gomery

Something has come between us— …

A.E. Stallings

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Priscilla Bromley

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W. Wesley Trimpi

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Myrtle Eberstein

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Oh I longed, when I went in the woods today, …

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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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