Date: 1922
"I plucked my soul out of its secret place, / And held it to the mirror of my eye, / To see it like a star against the sky, / A twitching body quivering in space, / A spark of passion shining on my face."
preview | full record— McKay, Claude (1889-1948)
Date: 1959
"O quiet deed! / This is the breaking of the bread; / On this the leanest heart may feed / When by the stiffly-linened priest / All wounds of light are newly dressed, / Healed by the pouring-in of wine / From bitter — as from sweet — grapes bled."
preview | full record— Hill, Geoffrey (b. 1932)
Date: 1959
"And so my heart has ceased to breathe / (Though there God's worm blunted its head / And stayed.)"
preview | full record— Hill, Geoffrey (b. 1932)
Date: August, 1965
"His mind's all black thickets / and blood."
preview | full record— Harrison, Jim (1937-2016)
Date: 1990
"now you see the / two doctors, behind / you, in mind's eye, / probe into your anus, / or ass, or bottom, / behind you, the roto- / rooter-like device / sees all up, concludes / 'like a worn-out inner tube'"
preview | full record— Creeley, Robert (1926-2005)
Date: 1990
"I did not know the soul / is cleaved so that the soul might be restored. / Live wood hewn, / its sap springs from a sticky wound."
preview | full record— Lee, Li-Young (b .1957)
Date: 1994
"Pigsty for a brain, / Stop them [the body and soul] from making faces at each other / In the mirror!"
preview | full record— Simic, Charles (b. 1938)