Author: Charles Simic

for Hayden Carruth If you didn’t see the six-legged dog, It doesn’t matter. We did, and he mostly lay in […]

The obvious is difficult To prove. Many prefer The hidden. I did, too. I listened to the trees. They had […]

1. The Poet Someone awake when others are sleeping, Asleep when others are awake. An illiterate who signs everything with […]

Executioner happy to explain How his wristwatch works As he shadows me on the street. I call him that because […]

The night still frightens you. You know it is interminable And of vast, unimaginable dimensions. “That’s because His insomnia is […]

Where it says snow Read teeth-marks of a virgin Where it says knife read You passed through my bones Like […]

Seems like a long time Since the waiter took my order. Grimy little luncheonette, The snow falling outside. Seems like […]

On the road with billowing poplars, In a country flat and desolate To the far-off gray horizon, wherein obscurely, A […]

Millions were dead; everybody was innocent. I stayed in my room. The President Spoke of war as of a magic […]

Enter without knocking, hard-working ant. I’m just sitting here mulling over What to do this dark, overcast day? It was […]

As an ant is powerless Against a raised boot, And only has an instant To have a bright idea or […]

Here come my night thoughts On crutches, Returning from studying the heavens. What they thought about Stayed the same, Stayed […]

One shows me how to lie down in a field of clover. Another how to slip my hand under her […]

How much death works, No one knows what a long Day he puts in. The little Wife always alone Ironing […]

Where the path to the lake twists out of sight, A puff of dust, the kind bare feet make running, […]

1 The brightly-painted horse Had a boy’s face, And four small wheels Under his feet, Plus a long string To […]

Father studied theology through the mail And this was exam time. Mother knitted. I sat quietly with a book Full […]

Not a peep out of you now After the bedlam early this morning. Are you begging pardon of me Hidden […]

A New Version: 1980 What is that little black thing I see there in the white? Walt Whitman One Out […]