Poetry

This page collects poems that I found moving or memorable.

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, And Mourners to and fro Kept treading - treading - till it seemed That Sense was breaking through -

And when they all were seated, A Service, like a Drum - Kept beating - beating - till I thought My mind was going numb -

And then I heard them lift a Box And creak across my Soul With those same Boots of Lead, again, Then Space - began to toll,

As all the Heavens were a Bell, And Being, but an Ear, And I, and Silence, some strange Race, Wrecked, solitary, here -

And then a Plank in Reason, broke, And I dropped down, and down - And hit a World, at every plunge, And Finished knowing - then -

I waited so long for love and suddenly, here it is standing in the garden, hands full of heirlooms hot from the sun.

Soon, we’ll make a supper of them. Salted slabs between slices of bread. Your beard silvers. My hips ripen. The mail piles up.

Phone calls go unanswered. Forgive us. Our mouths are full of tomatoes. We are so busy being small and hungry and alive.

— Joy Sullivan