A Sleepless Night
by Philip Levine
April, and the last of the plum blossoms
scatters on the black grass
before dawn. The sycamore, the lime,
the struck pine inhale
the first pale hints of sky.
An iron day,
I think, yet it will come
dazzling, the light
rise from the belly of leaves and pour
burning from the cups
of poppies.
The mockingbird squawks
from his perch, fidgets,
and settles back. The snail, awake
for good, trembles from his shell
and sets sail for China. My hand dances
in the memory of a million vanished stars.
A man has every place to lay his head.
End of the poem
15 random poems
- Song—Fragment—Leezie Lindsay by Robert Burns
- Civil War Songs
- A HYMN TO BACCHUS by Robert Herrick
- Exodus by Michael Nikoletseas
- Владимир Корнилов – В прачечной
- “When the reaper lays the sickle by ” poem – Alfred Austin
- Eudaemon
- Sonnet Xvi Who Shall Invoke Her
- John Anderson by Robert Burns
- Wit
- zen: a very short history by Raj Arumugam
- Федор Сваровский – Путешественники во времени. свидетель зиндийского удара
- The Dreadful Has Already Happened by Mark Strand
- On the Burning of Lord Mansfield’s Library by William Cowper
- Эмиль Верхарн – Вот лампа зажжена
Some external links:
Duckduckgo.com – the alternative in the US
Quant.com – a search engine from France, and also an alternative, at least for Europe
Yandex – the Russian search engine (it’s probably the best search engine for image searches).
Philip Levine ( 1928 – 2015) was an American poet best known for his poems about working-class Detroit. He taught for more than thirty years in the English department of California State University, Fresno and held teaching positions at other universities as well. He served on the Board of Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets from 2000 to 2006, and was appointed Poet Laureate of the United States for 2011–2012