Author Archives: Don Yorty

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by Wallace Stevens with ten engravings by Francisco Toledo and a translation by Luis Roberto Vera

… I Among twenty snowy mountains, The only moving thing Was the eye of the blackbird. II I was of three minds, Like a tree In which there are three blackbirds. III The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds. It … Continue reading →

Edwin Denby reads The Climate and People on Sunday

17 Apr ’15

… … THE CLIMATE I myself like the climate of New York I see it in the air up between the street You use a worn-down cafeteria fork But the climate you don’t use stays fresh and neat. Even we … Continue reading →

Sonnet 8 from A Sonnet Sequence by Edwin Denby

15 Apr ’15

… From 1976 until 1983, Jacob Burckhardt recorded and edited Edwin Denby reading from his Collected Poems. Here is Sonnet 8 from A Sonnet Sequence. 8 Three old sheepherders so filthy in their ways Whores wouldn’t touch them with a … Continue reading →

25

13 Apr ’15

… 25 My cat and I play chasing each other. He jumps while I write and then stretches out full length in back of the warm computer to claw my hand when it comes in sight. Ouch! Ow! I say … Continue reading →

68

4 Apr ’15

… Had I left sooner or later it would all have been different, but I didn’t and got into two arguments, one in a store and one on the sidewalk about the neighborhood with two freeloaders who do nothing, yet … Continue reading →

131

31 Mar ’15

… The quiet aftermath of disaster dangling in the sunlight in a tall tree only decay to ever come after falling apart vanishing in the breeze where every now and then someone looks up to wonder what it was that … Continue reading →

21

28 Mar ’15

… The butterflies of spring are small and dark not colorful and bright like butterflies of summer hovering from flower to flower in beauty’s camouflage. Two butterflies on the asphalt road laid with silver stone though small stand out. Because … Continue reading →