Clouds
by Philip Levine
1
Dawn. First light tearing
at the rough tongues of the zinnias,
at the leaves of the just born.
Today it will rain. On the road
black cars are abandoned, but the clouds
ride above, their wisdom intact.
They are predictions. They never matter.
The jet fighters lift above the flat roofs,
black arrowheads trailing their future.
2
When the night comes small fires go out.
Blood runs to the heart and finds it locked.
Morning is exhaustion, tranquilizers, gasoline,
the screaming of frozen bearings,
the failures ofwill, the TV talking to itself
The clouds go on eating oil, cigars,
housewives, sighing letters,
the breath of lies. In their great silent pockets
they carry off all our dead.
3
The clouds collect until there’s no sky.
A boat slips its moorings and drifts
toward the open sea, turning and turning.
The moon bends to the canal and bathes
her torn lips, and the earth goes on
giving off her angers and sighs
and who knows or cares except these
breathing the first rains,
the last rivers running over iron.
4
You cut an apple in two pieces
and ate them both. In the rain
the door knocked and you dreamed it.
On bad roads the poor walked under cardboard boxes.
The houses are angry because they’re watched.
A soldier wants to talk with God
but his mouth fills with lost tags.
The clouds have seen it all, in the dark
they pass over the graves of the forgotten
and they don’t cry or whisper.
They should be punished every morning,
they should be bitten and boiled like spoons.
End of the poem
15 random poems
- The Thraldom
- Whiteness I Remember by Sylvia Plath
- Evenèn Twilight by William Barnes
- Villonaud for This Yule poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Miscast I poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Easter Decorations
- Юлия Друнина – Дочери
- Альфред де Мюссе – Ива (Как придется мне покинуть свет)
- Владимир Британишский – Кваренги
- Heaven–Haven: A Nun Takes The Veil poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Николай Тихонов – Гулливер играет в карты
- Владислав Крапивин – Гонка
- Владимир Высоцкий – Говорят, лезу прямо под нож
- Владимир Высоцкий – Мартовский Заяц
- Федор Тютчев – Как он любил родные ели
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