By Ed Roberson

maybe what I saw

was the earth’s shadow rise

up a cloud

turning it toward the top pink

then fading that back

to gray      then night.

then maybe I think I see.

too much.

the tiniest gradation      of  detail

squeezed from attention

by the choke hold

on thin air     for the sublime     a blessing.

when life stinks

and your eyes have to take it in      to live.

and your eyes have to take it in to live

the exact instant you need      to jump

out of  the way.     to safety

or see danger’s vulnerable spot and hit it.

your eyes have to think

through what they are seeing     to see

how measure measures itself

when you are in it      against you to match or dis-

entangle that nascent not null of  difference.     maybe what I see

is down to the continuum     where what it is

is what it is     one thing

undifferentiated all

except as     the surface of one perfect sphere

its paris and buenos aires the same     place.

What it is     is what is seen without observer.

it is     that said   what it is.

exo-existent

thought.     without outside.

there are lines     as of  poetry

of  information between us     though.

resonant.     structure.

what is     asleep when we turn the lawn mower on

if  only the pieces we think

something has caught it for—

the turning of  attention to.

the turning of  the earth.      the earth is what is     turning.

there is no setting

of  the sun          down.

of  the sun down

some inclination to impact

at our feet as fact we stand to have

written by being here—

the rocks have source saying the same.

except they translate silent.

the word of  the wind itself      spoken everywhere

has the version of  it all as well as of  not happening ...

the sun doesn’t move.      its designation.

what it is pushes forward the appearance.

and behind—

the eastern shadow rising of  the sun’s soft down down.

its paris and buenos aires a same place.

what it is is what is seen without observer.

not the thing itself

the quality of  the hold      on things

the choke   hold on the neck of the calling     bird

may be the 🤬

of  jacob’s ladder     what it is

could be the hands in the air     air

time of  the better roller coasters

pulled out     all stops     the no hold bar & café take

out.     item name

on the menu—

the ladder being an upward

clearer approach to step.

the life     the breath.

of an answer.     the questioning.

I     eye     iamb     I am

watching the sky     read

the line below it     the landscape

get shaken by storm.

a ring iamb married into

bone dance     stone crazy.

claws of  geese shadow

scratching wild song across the sky.

chicago’s potemkin waking

gun we’re off on.     the morning

fred hampton the bobbing flock of the 1919 boy

in the inner tube float up on the 100th anniversary of  the race riot

along lake shore drive     the commuters

no idea what it is.     they say it is what it is.

anger     joy     disgust    sadness     fear

are all mountains raising in the sky

an aire     jump up shout

sound shape song response as

not if  but is

one body.

even among themselves at some distance.

all one sphere     one point

a sense of  time can be that distance’s familiar

but the mind can empathize itself  that size the dreadlocks

of  black holes                where the anger digests itself

the joy carries its brother sadness also over

and fear realizes it’s ok

and the rains come     the forests     the  jungles     the birds!

I chose this poem because I think that is roots itself in the complexity of life, which I feel is mainly what Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson wrote of. This author also wrote their experience and view on life by using figurative langue and comparing abstract ideas to physical items, similar to how Dickinson wrote in her poems. The speaker talks of positive experiences in life, like clouds and birds, but then says how their own personal experiences and attitude affects their view of life. There is an individuality in this poem, similar to how the American master wrote. Additionally, the author writes of people and natural elements similar to how Whitman wrote in his narrative style of poems.

(Sam Mathis)

The sea can do craziness, it can do smooth,
it can lie down like silk breathing
or toss havoc shoreward; it can give

gift or withhold all; it can rise, ebb, froth
like an incoming frenzy of fountains, or it can
sweet-talk entirely. As I can too,

and so, no doubt, can you, and you.

Both Dickinson and Whitman used nature as a way to express human feelings. This symbolism can also be seen in the poem "A Thousand Mornings" by Mary Oliver. Oliver uses the sea to present the diverse emotions of people in her poem. Words like "smooth", "havoc", and "craziness" are used to describe the state of the water which represents how human emotions can be powerful and contradicting. Dickinson and Whitman both also saw water as something that could be harsh and uncontrollable, which is how the sea is being used in the poem above.

By Li-Young Lee

From blossoms comes

this brown paper bag of peaches

we bought from the boy

at the bend in the road where we turned toward   

signs painted Peaches.

From laden boughs, from hands,

from sweet fellowship in the bins,

comes nectar at the roadside, succulent

peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,

comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.

O, to take what we love inside,

to carry within us an orchard, to eat

not only the skin, but the shade,

not only the sugar, but the days, to hold

the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into   

the round jubilance of peach.

There are days we live

as if death were nowhere

in the background; from joy

to joy to joy, from wing to wing,

from blossom to blossom to

impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.

Much like Dickenson and Whitman, Lee talks about the simple pleasures of nature and life in general. Lee uses the metaphor of eating peaches to illustrate the joy of moments in life. Dickinson also uses many metaphors in her poetry. He also uses the word "O" to emphasize the emotion in his line, "O, to take what we love inside", like Whitman does in his poetry. At the end, he brings the message around full circle, which is something I have noticed in Whitman and Dickinson's poetry as well. Lee goes into great detail about how happiness is precious and momentous through his metaphor and ties into the theme that simple joys in life contribute to a greater happiness.

On a planet that’s evolving.

How beautiful, she thought, what distance does

For water, the view from above or afar.

In last night’s dream, they were back again

At the beginning. She was a child

And he was a child.

A plane lit down and left her there.

Cold whitening the white sky whiter.

Then a scalpel cut her open for all the world

To be a sea."

This poem relates to the religious theming I've found in Dickinson and Whitman's poetry through similar aspects - the reverent tone and the call to "remember you are standing on a planet that's evolving" and phrases like "at the beginning" evoke a sense of newness and creation commonly found in religious views. "All the world to be a sea" also evokes openness and emptiness, similar to how religion tells us the world was before Creation.

an empty dream never known

true happiness except as such youth

watching snow at window

listening to old music through morning.

Riding down that deserted street

by evening in a lonely cab

past a blighted theatre

oh god yes, I missed the chance of my life

when I gasped, when I got up and

rushed out the room

away from you.

Much like the poems of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, this poem by John Wieners discusses the theme of death and loss. In the poem, Wieners shares how it feels to continue to live when someone you love passes away. This connects to Whitman and Dickinson because their poems also relate to the recurring theme of death and loss. Whitman focuses on the more physical and obvious aspects of death, which can be seen in the beginning of the poem as it is more straight forward and exact. However, Dickinson's approach is more abstract and works to hide the theme, which can be seen in the examples listed in Wieners' poem because they have a deeper meaning behind the loss and how nothing can be seen the same after losing a loved one.

you must be able

to do three things:

to love what is mortal;

to hold it

against your bones knowing

your own life depends on it;

and, when the time comes to let it go,

to let it go.

In my opinion, this poem represents death in a much different way than Dickinson and Whitman. Whitman's portrayal of death is often involved with the Civil War and pretty much war itself, since he wrote his poems throughout the time the Civil War was taking place. Dickinson symbolizes death using personification, as exemplified from her poem, "Because I could not stop for death." Although, "In Blackwater Woods" has a similarity with Dickinson's style of death because they both discuss that death is a natural occurrence.