Ah Sun-flower Ah Sun-flower! weary of time, Who countest the steps of the Sun, Seeking after that sweet golden clime Where the traveller's journey is done; Where the Youth pined away with desire, And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow, Arise from their graves and aspire, Where my Sun-flower wishes to go. William Blake (1757Ð1827) En la Sangre In the Blood La niña con ojos cafés The brown-eyed child y el abuelito con pelo blanco and the white-haired grandfather bailan en la tarde silenciosa. dance in the silent afternoon. Castañetean los dedos They snap their fingers a un ritmo oido solamente to a rhythm only those por los que aman. who love can hear. Pat Mora "En la Sangre"/"In the Blood" by Pat Mora. Copyright © 1994. From In Other Words: Literature by Latinas of the United States, Roberta Fernandez, ed. Reprinted by permission of the author and Arte Publico Press. Limits I've filled the raft with little puffs of breath, just enough so I can float. If my soul had limits so I could blow into it I wouldn't need the raft. Jack Myers "Limits" by Jack Myers. Originally appeared in The Pittsburgh Quarterly. On the Patio, Dallas The prickly pear and yucca dug from a roadside do fine in pots. Sun, sunflowers. The August heat. Petunias, pinks, and even the geranium probably don't belong. With watering they hold on. One morning I fed them organic fertilizer made entirely of sea-going fish. I hosed the place till the hanging baskets dripped and the fence soaked dark. There rose the brackish smell of bays and wharves and I turned my head to the distance as if to hear the regular slapping of the sea. Isabel Nathaniel "On the Patio, Dallas" from The Dominion of Lights by Isabel Nathaniel. Copyright © 1996 by Isabel Nathaniel. Reprinted by permission of the author and Copper Beech Press. Aspects of Eve To have been one of many ribs and to be chosen. To grow into something quite different knocking finally as a bone knocks on the closed gates of the garden— which unexpectedly open. Linda Pastan (b. 1932) "Aspects of Eve" from Carnival Evening: New and Selected Poems 1968-1998 by Linda Pastan. Copyright © 1998. Used by permission of W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. from The Love Poems of Marichiko You ask me what I thought about Before we were lovers. The answer is easy. Before I met you I didn't have anything to think about. Kenneth Rexroth (1905-1982) "The Love Poems of Marichiko" (excerpt) from The Morning Star by Kenneth Rexroth. Copyright © 1979. Reprinted with the permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation. from Romeo and Juliet Act III, Scene ii Come, night, come, Romeo, come, thou day in night, For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night Whiter than new snow on a raven's back. Come, gentle night, come, loving, black-browed night, Give me my Romeo, and, when he shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars, And he will make the face of heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with night, And pay no worship to the garish sun. Oh, I have bought the mansion of love, But not possessed it, and though I am sold, Not yet enjoyed. William Shakespeare (1566-1616) Sonnet XXIX When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state, And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, And look upon myself, and curse my fate, Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, Featured like him, like him with friends possessed, Desiring this man's art and that man's scope, With what I most enjoy contented least; Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising, Haply I think on thee—and then my state, Like to the lark at break of day arising From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate; For they sweet love remembered such wealth brings That then I scorn to change my state with kings. William Shakespeare (1566Ð1616) Sugar Hill How you like that? Quadrasonic baby When you turn these speakers up Behind this music A breeze actually blows Through the room. Man! That's how come I believe engineers Truly exist Though we cannot see them. Lorenzo Thomas (b. 1944) "Sugar Hill" from The Bathers by Lorenzo Thomas. Copyright © 1981. Reprinted with the permission of the author.