Poem poems



It's 11 p.m. and I have this strange headache. I can't remember the last time I had one, and something's telling me it's because I've been in front of the computer for hours. Nine, exactly. But I just had to post this: I think those subway poems are really neat. Inspired by London’s Poems on the Underground, the MTA began posting poetry in subway cars in 1992. I feel like an idiot whenever I'm in a train with a Poetry in Motion poster because I always, always tend to look up and read it again and again. It's like how I always watch the numbers go up on the elevator even if I just get off on the second floor. Anyway, my favorite is last year's Beware of Things in Duplicate:



Beware of things in duplicate:

a set of knives, the cufflinks in a drawer,

the dice, the pair of Queens, the eyes

of someone sitting next to you:

Attend that empty minute in the evening

when looking at the clock, you see

its hand are fixed on the same hour

you noticed at your morning coffee.

These are the moments to beware

when there is nothing so familiar

or so close that it cannot betray you:

a twin, an extra key, an echo,

your own reflection in the glass.



from "Daily Horoscope", Dana Gioia (1950)



Oh oh! And this year's This Is Just to Say:



I have eaten

the plums

that were in

the icebox



and which

you were probably

saving

for breakfast



Forgive me

they were delicious

so sweet

and so cold



William Carlos Williams (1962)



{High and Dry, Radiohead} - And what did the two chimps do in the wicker basket?