Billy Merrell

Guest Blogger:92nd St Y

Check out my 92Y Blog post about my visit to the Unterberg Poetry Center on November 21, 2011. Poets Sapphire and Sherman Alexie gave a memorable reading.

Poem

Queered Translation of Wang Wei

Guernica has published of my poems!: “Bamboo Grove” & “A Place Named for Deer”

"Bamboo Grove," by Wang Wei; calligraphy by Kuo-Hsiung Chen

“Bamboo Grove” was translated using a “crib” found in … More >

Recommended

“Birthday Present” by May Sarton

Renewal cannot be picked
Like a daffodil
In a swift gesture,
Cannot be cut like a pussy willow
And brought into the house.
It cannot even be imagined
Like … More >

Recommended

“The Most of It” by Robert Frost

Some morning from the boulder-broken beach
He would cry out on life, that what it wants
Is not its own love back in copy speech,
But counter-love, original response.

From More >

Poem

What It’s Like Being a Rhododendron, Getting Older

My form is fixed. I have new wood, yes,
but more is hard now than soft.
No one had to beg. It just went on, feeling good.
Flower after flower, happening,
… More >

Poem

Overcast

I know it seems the dead should know more than we do,
looking back at us through a needle’s eye,
but the truth is once the eye closes it’s closed forever:

the handle … More >

Poem

I Don’t Want to Weigh In*

*As in putting my kill on the scale, to be counted.

I thought it was tanagers until I met them.
Then they ate the figs from our yard, all at once.
We were … More >

Poem

Can I Watch You Write a Poem?

Can I watch you write a poem?
Can I take a video with my phone to prove it?
Can I post it [on my blog] in the morning?

Can I know what word … More >

Status Update

I’m Back

I have decided to post poems again, for fun. Don’t hold me to it.

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