On November 4, 1918, Wilfred Owen (b. March 18, 1893) was killed in action. Owen wrote some of the best poetry on World War I, with imagery that unflinchingly detailed the terrors of trenches and gas warfare. Imbued with confidence from mentor Siegfried Sassoon, much of his poetry also refuses to shy away from his feelings as a gay man. A mere five of his poems were published during his lifetime. When Owen died one week before the Armistice, he was only 25 years old.
Tag: poetry
favorite poems about greek myth?
elucipher-deactivated20151112:
- wislawa szymborska, “cassandra” (x)
- seamus heaney, “mycenae nightwatch” (x)
- annie finch, “chain of women” (x)
- adam zagajewski, “persephone goes underground again” (x)
- louise glück, “persephone the wanderer” (x) and “the empty glass” (x)
- kathleen raine, “medea” (x)
- elizabeth ballou, “ariadne and the minotaur” (x)
- p.k. page, “this heavy craft” (x)
- peter kline, “minotaur” (x)
- alfred lord tennyson, “demeter and persephone” (x)
- ted hughes, “prometheus on his crag” (x)
- margaret atwood, “orpheus (1)” (x), “orpheus (2)” (x), “eurydice” (x) and “siren song” (x)
- H.D., “sea-heroes” (x), “delphi” (x), “eurydice” (x), “helen” (x), “thetis” (x), “leda” (x), “hermonax” (x), “apollo at delphi” (x), pallinode, and eidolon
- jack conway, “the agamemnon rag” (x)
- marina tsvetaeva, “praise to aphrodite” and “the sibyl” and “eurydice to orpheus” (x)
- blas falconer, “to orpheus” (x)
- jorge luis borges, “to the one who is reading me” (x) and “oedipus and the riddle” (x)
- sappho, “hymn to aphrodite” (x) and fragment 102, “blame aphrodite” (x)
- william carlos williams, “landscape with the fall of icarus” (x)
- muriel rukeyser, “waiting for icarus” (x)
- josé emilio pacheco, “new sisyphus” (x)
- anne sexton, “to a friend whose work has come to triumph” (x)
- edna st. vincent mallay, “daphne” (x)
- shakespeare, venus and adonis and “orpheus” (x)
- christopher marlowe, “hero and leander”
- derek walcott, omeros and “sea grapes” (x) and “europa” (x)
- denise levertov, “hymn to eros” (x)
- judy grahn, “paris and helen” (x)
- alice oswald, memorial
- dorothy parker, “penelope” (x)
- anne carson, autobiography of red
- yusef komunyakaa, “infidelity” (x)
- rainer maria rilke, “orpheus. eurydice. hermes.” (x)
- gregory orr, “betrayal/hades, eurydice, orpheus” (x)
Don’t you dare, for one minute,
believe that my kindness makes me
anything but insurmountable.
I did not unzip my chest to every kind of hurt,
and stagger back, wounded and alive,
just to hear you call me weak for trying.
i am a storm.
i am night, i am darkness, i am fear and i am fearless.
i am a predator.
i speak to no one, i answer to nothing, i rip out flesh with my teeth and paint my lips red with blood.
i am unholy.
i laugh in the face of death, i thrive in destruction, i tear down the world bit by bit.
i am iron.
i will not bend, i cannot break, i am a threat to the titans and the gods.
i am ruthless.
i hold a leather leash in my hand, i have all goodness attached to the other end, i yank it as hard as i can and watch hope fade away.
i am a flame.
i live to burn, i cannot be touched, i get stronger in the face of danger.i am a queen
and i rule all that is broken.
girl,
with an accent of blood
who speaks in foreign tongues
whose vowels are the sound of metal clashing.warrior,
with fire in her veins
and armor beneath her skin
who crushes the earth beneath her feet.immortal,
hair streaked with daggers
and iron filling her lungs
each breath invitingly toxic.princess,
with lips made of glass
and a voice cut from steel
features born from thunder and battle.heroine,
a grin made for war
and eyes flecked with ash
striding, powerful, into the arms of death.


