RattleBag and Rhubarb

What Kinds of Times are These

What Kinds of Times are These by Adrienne Rich There’s a place between two stands of trees where the grass…

8 years ago

Lard

A Facebook friend wanted some crowd-sourcing help for a piece she was editing. Her query asked readers to end the…

8 years ago

The Journey

The Journey  by Mary Oliver One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices…

8 years ago

Purgatory

This poem is for anyone who has ever sat through a Shakespeare play and found it too long. Purgatory by…

8 years ago

Subway Rush Hour and Modern Art

Subway Rush Hour by Langston Hughes Mingled breath and smell so close mingled black and white so near no room…

8 years ago

Art and Treason: War Crimes and Responsibility

The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.…

8 years ago

Coming

Coming by Philip Larkin On longer evenings, Light, chill and yellow, Bathes the serene Foreheads of houses. A thrush sings,…

8 years ago

Sea Fever

Here's another wonderful old chestnut: Sea Fever by John Masefield I must go down to the seas again, to the…

8 years ago

Before Disaster

"Fool and scoundrel guide the State." That's true enough. In the early 1930's when this was written speeding traffic on…

8 years ago

Stalin’s Heirs

Stalin’s Heirs by Yevgeny Yevtushenko Mute was the marble. Mutely glimmered the glass. Mute stood the sentries, bronzed by the…

8 years ago