Lion
The lion is called the king
Of beasts. Nowadays there are
Almost as many lions
In cages as out of them.
If offered a crown, refuse.
poem by Kenneth Rexroth from A Bestiary (1956)
Added by Dan Costinaş
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Cat
There are too many poems
About cats. Beware of cat
Lovers, they have a hidden
Frustration somewhere and will
Stick you with it if they can.
poem by Kenneth Rexroth from A Bestiary (1956)
Added by Dan Costinaş
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Vulture
St. Thomas Aquinas thought
That vultures were lesbians
And fertilized by the wind.
If you seek the facts of life,
Papist intellectuals
Can be very misleading.
poem by Kenneth Rexroth from A Bestiary (1956)
Added by Dan Costinaş
Comment! | Vote! | Copy! | In Spanish | In Romanian
Deer
Deer are gentle and graceful
And they have beautiful eyes.
They hurt no one but themselves,
The males, and only for love.
Men have invented several
Thousand ways of killing them.
poem by Kenneth Rexroth from A Bestiary (1956)
Added by Dan Costinaş
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Wolf
Never believe all you hear.
Wolves are not as bad as lambs.
I've been a wolf all my life,
And have two lovely daughters
To show for it, while I could
Tell you sickening tales of
Lambs who got their just deserts.
poem by Kenneth Rexroth from A Bestiary (1956)
Added by Dan Costinaş
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The Bad Old Days
The summer of nineteen eighteen
I read The Jungle and The
Research Magnificent. That fall
My father died and my aunt
Took me to Chicago to live.
The first thing I did was to take
A streetcar to the stockyards.
In the winter afternoon,
Gritty and fetid, I walked
Through the filthy snow, through the
Squalid streets, looking shyly
Into the people’s faces,
Those who were home in the daytime.
Debauched and exhausted faces,
Starved and looted brains, faces
Like the faces in the senile
And insane wards of charity
Hospitals. Predatory
Faces of little children.
Then as the soiled twilight darkened,
[...] Read more
poem by Kenneth Rexroth
Added by Poetry Lover
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