Author Archives: finnoffield

Ha Jin My notebook has remained blank for months thanks to the light you shower around me. I have no use for my pen, which lies languorously without grief. Nothing is better than to live a storyless life that needs no writing for meaning— when I am gone, let others say they lost a happyContinue reading “Missed Time”

Finn Offield Under the glistening moonlight, a magician awaits his audience The souls follow the starlight to a broad clearing in the forest with loud and vigorous foot steps They glimpse up at the man, his tall form draped in luxurious cloth, a plan satchel rests at his side Soon the show began The magicianContinue reading “14 Word Poem”

Naomi Shihab Nye The river is famous to the fish. The loud voice is famous to silence, which knew it would inherit the earth before anybody said so. The cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds watching him from the birdhouse. The tear is famous, briefly, to the cheek. The idea youContinue reading “Famous”

John Ashbery The room I entered was a dream of this room.Surely all those feet on the sofa were mine.The oval portraitof a dog was me at an early age.Something shimmers, something is hushed up. We had macaroni for lunch every dayexcept Sunday, when a small quail was inducedto be served to us. Why doContinue reading “The Room”

Dorothea Lasky This is a world where there are monstersThere are monsters everywhere, racoons and skunksThere are possums outside, there are monsters in my bed.There is one monster. He is my little one.I talk to my little monster.I give my little monster some bacon but that does not satisfy him.I tell him, ssh ssh, don’tContinue reading “Monsters”

Gwendolyn Brooks    The Pool Players.        Seven at the Golden Shovel.            We real cool. We               Left school. We             Lurk late. We            Strike straight. We             Sing sin. We        Continue reading “We Real Cool”

Jacqueline Woodson My mother has a gap betweenher two front teeth. So does Daddy Gunnar.Each child in this family has the same spaceconnecting us. Our baby brother, Roman, was born pale as dust.His soft brown curls and eyelashes stoppeople on the street.Whose angel child is this? they want to know.When I say, My brother, the peoplewear doubtthick asContinue reading “Genetics”

Ilya Kaminsky And when they bombed other people’s houses, we protestedbut not enough, we opposed them but not enough. I wasin my bed, around my bed America was falling: invisible house by invisible house by invisible house. I took a chair outside and watched the sun. In the sixth monthof a disastrous reign in theContinue reading “We Lived Happily During the War”

Margarita Engle On an island of musicin a city of drumbeatsthe drum dream girldreamed of pounding tall conga drumstapping small bongó drumsand boom boom boomingwith long, loud stickson big, round, silverymoon-bright timbales. But everyoneon the island of musicin the city of drumbeatsbelieved that only boysshould play drums so the drum dream girlhad to keep dreamingquietsecretdrumbeatdreams. At outdoor cafésContinue reading “Drum Dream Girl”