Jean Toomer


Jean Toomer

                                              portrait by Alfred Stieglitz (1925)

A Portrait In Georgia

Hair-braided chestnut, 
coiled like a lyncher's rope, 
Eyes-fagots, 
Lips-old scars, or the first red blisters, 
Breath-the last sweet scent of cane, 
And her slim body, white as the ash 
of black flesh after flame.


John Ashbery

  The New Spirit (excerpt) I thought that if I could put it all down, that would be one way. And next the thought came to me that to leave a...