Just can't get enough...

Billy Collins is a former Poet Laureate who not only is an 
impressive poet, but for your pleasure and convenience his 
poetry has been set to animation.

Click here to see what I mean.....

Billy Collins

About Collins, the poet Stephen Dunn has said, 

"We seem to always know where we are in 

a Billy Collins poem, but not necessarily 

where he is going. I love to arrive with 

him at his arrivals. He doesn't 

hide things from us, as I think lesser 

poets do. He allows us to overhear, 

clearly, what he himself has discovered."

Forgetfulness

The name of the author is the first to go followed obediently by the title, the plot, the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel which suddenly becomes one you have never read, never even heard of, as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain, to a little fishing village where there are no phones. Long ago you kissed the names of the nine Muses goodbye and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag, and even now as you memorize the order of the planets, something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps, the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay. Whatever it is you are struggling to remember, it is not poised on the tip of your tongue, not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen. It has floated away down a dark mythological river whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall, well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle. No wonder you rise in the middle of the night to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war. No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted out of a love poem that you used to know by heart. Billy Collins

Jorie Graham

"Soul Says"

(AFTERWORD)

To be so held by brittleness, shapeliness.
By meaning. As where I have to go where you go,
I have to touch what you must touch,
in hunger, in boredom, the spindrift, the ticket...
Distilled in you (can you hear me)
the idiom in you, the why--

The flash of a voice. The river glints.
The mother opens the tablecloth up into the wind.
There as the fabric descends--the alphabet of ripenesses,
what is, what could have been.
The bread on the tablecloth. Crickets shrill in the grass.

O pluck my magic garment from me. So.
                                          [lays down his robe]
Lie there, my art--

(This is a form of matter of matter she sang)

(Where the hurry is stopped) (and held) (but not extinguished) (no)

(So listen, listen, this will soothe you) (if that is what you want)

Now then, I said, I go to meet that which I liken to
(even though the wave break and drown me in laughter)
the wave breaking, the wave drowning me in laughter--

                                          -- Jorie Graham



Submitted by: Jennifer Petersen

About Jorie Graham

Audrey

Audrey Hepburn's Beauty Tips

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair, let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day.
For poise, walk with the knowledge you'll never walk alone.
People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived,  reclaimed, and redeemed; Never throw out anybody.
Remember, If you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm.
As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.
The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the  figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.
The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mole, but true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she shows, and the beauty of a woman with passing years only grows!


Sam Levenson 
Submitted by: Wendy

William Carlos Williams

The Red Wheelbarrow
by William Carlos Williams

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow


                                            glazed with rain
                                            water

                                           beside the white
                                           chickens.

Submitted by: Julie Keller
More works by WCW    About WCW

Portrait of a Lady

(one of my favorites)

In-FLOW

Welcome to grey box forum:

grey box is designed as a site to share your favorite poems, discuss the fundamentals of poetry and hear about different projects in support of literacy.

Please help to create awareness and appreciation of the art of language...

Accepting submissions now! Send your favorite poem to: greyboxforum@gmail.com.