Free You Drive Me Crazy by Mary D. Esselman, Elizabeth Ash Vélez Page A

surely
    Will bury their own, don't worry.
    JAMES WRIGHT
    Three Times My Life Has Opened
    Three times my life has opened.
    Once, into darkness and rain.
    Once, into what the body carries at all times within it and starts
    to remember each time it enters the act of love.
    Once, to the fire that holds all.
    These three were not different.
    You will recognize what I am saying or you will not.
    But outside my window all day a maple has stepped from her leaves
    like a woman in love with winter, dropping the colored silks.
    Neither are we different in what we know.
    There is a door. It opens. Then it is closed. But a slip of light
    stays, like a scrap of unreadable paper left on the floor,
    or the one red leaf the snow releases in March.
    JANE HIRSHFIELD
    Decade
    When you came, you were like red wine and honey,
    And the taste of you burnt my mouth with its sweetness.
    Now you are like morning bread,
    Smooth and pleasant.
    I hardly taste you at all for I know your savour,
    But I am completely nourished.
    AMY LOWELL
    This Is Just to Say
    I have eaten
    the plums
    that were in
    the icebox
    and which
    you were probably
    saving
    for breakfast
    Forgive me
    they were delicious
    so sweet
    and so cold
    WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS
    Life Is Motion
    In Oklahoma,
    Bonnie and Josie,
    Dressed in calico,
    Danced around a stump.
    They cried,
    ‘Ohoyaho,
    Ohoo’…
    Celebrating the marriage
    Of flesh and air.
    WALLACE STEVENS

Biographies of Contributors
    A NNA A KHMATOVA (1889–1966): Russian lyric poet whose work includes
Evening, Rosary
, and
White Flock.
    M ARGARET A TWOOD (1939–): Canadian novelist and poet. Her second book of poetry,
The Circle Game
, won the Governor General's Award in 1966. She lives and writes in Toronto.
    B HARTRHARI (570–651): Hindu philosopher and poet-grammarian, author of the Vakyapadiya (“Words in a Sentence”), regarded as one of the most significant works on the philosophy of language.
    K ATE B INGHAM : Her first novel,
Mummy 's Legs
, received an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors. She lives in London.
    E LIZABETH B ISHOP (1911–79): Highly regarded American poet who won every major poetry award in the United States, including the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. She served as chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 1966 until 1979.
    L OUISE B OGAN (1897–1970): Influential American poet who won the Bolligen Prize in 1955. She wrote poetry criticism for
The New Yorker
magazine for thirty-eight years.
    C AROLYN C REEDON (1969–): Creedon's poems have been included in the Best American Poetry series. She is currently an Ada Comstock Scholar at Smith College.
    E. E. C UMMINGS (1894–1962): Influential American poet know for his experimental, playful style.
    S ILVIA C URBELO (1955–): Cuban-born poet who now lives in Tampa, Florida. She is the author of two collections of poetry,
The Secret History of Water
(Anhinga Press) and
The Geography of Leaving
( S i l v e r f i s h Review Press).
    E MILY D ICKINSON (1830–86): One of the nineteenth century's greatest poets, Dickinson lived quietly at home in Amherst, Massachusetts, with her lawyer father. Only seven of her approximately one thousand poems were published during her lifetime.
    J OHN D ONNE (1572–1631): British author of religious poems and essays as well as erotic love poetry.
    M ARK D OTY (1953–): Contemporary American poet who has won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the T. S. Eliot Prize. His most recent work is
Murano: Poem.
He lives in New York City.
    G AVIN E WART (1916–1995): British comic poet, his works include
The Young Pebble's Guide to His Toes.
He also edited the
Penguin Book of Light Verse.
    L OUISE G LÜCK (1943–): Former poet laureate of the United States, whose collections have won both the Pulitzer Prize (1992) and the National Book Critics Circle Award (1985).
    D ONALD H ALL (1928–): Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Hall was a National Book Award Nominee in 1956 and 1979. He lives in