Elizabeth Bishop

I caught a tremendous fishand held him beside the boathalf out of water, with my hookfast in a corner of his mouth
He didn't fight
He hadn't fought at all
He hung a grunting weight,battered and venerableand homely

The tumult in the heart keeps asking questions
And then it stops and undertakes to answer in the same tone of voice
No one could tell the difference
Uninnocent, these conversations start, and then engage the senses, only half-meanin...

Earliest morning, switching all the tracksthat cross the sky from cinder star to star, coupling the ends of streets to trains of draw us into daylight in our beds;and clear away what presses on the brain: put out the neon shapes that float and swe...

In Worcester,
Massachusetts,
I went with Aunt Consueloto keep her dentist's appointmentand sat and waited for herin the dentist's waiting room
It was winter

For Thomas Edwards Wanning Think of the storm roaming the sky uneasilylike a dog looking for a place to sleep in,listen to it growling
Think how they must look now, the mangrove keyslying out there unresponsive to the lightningin dark, coarse...

Remembering the Strait of Belle Isle orsome northerly harbor of Labrador,before he became a schoolteachera great-uncle painted a big picture
Receding for miles on either sideinto a flushed, still skyare overhanging pale blue cliffshundreds of...

This is the time of yearwhen almost every nightthe frail, illegal fire balloons appear
Climbing the mountain height,rising toward a saintstill honored in these parts,the paper chambers flush and fill with lightthat comes and goes, like hearts...