Anne Spencer – Translation

We trekked into a far country, My friend and I. Our deeper content was never spoken, But each knew all the other said. He told me how calm his soul was laid By the lack of anvil and strife. "The wooing kestrel," I said, "mutes his mating-note To please the harmony of...

Anne Spencer – At the Carnival

Gay little Girl-of-the-Diving-Tank,I desire a name for you,Nice, as a right glove fits;For you—who amid the malodorousMechanics of this unlovely thing,Are darling of spirit and form.I know you—a glance, and what you areSits-by-the-fire in my heart.My Limousine-Lady knows you, orWhy...

Anne Spencer – Dunbar

Ah, how poets sing and die!Make one song and Heaven takes it;Have one heart and Beauty breaks it;Chatterton, Shelley, Keats and I—Ah, how poets sing and d...

Anne Spencer – Gilgamesh

IWe lived on a lake with Muscovy ducks.Interior decorators flush with furniture plans,the ducks thrust with the thrust of youth.IIWe met at the gay community center, called Compass,in Lake Worth, where they sponsored “The Coming Out Group,”with Forest, our skilled leader. Transsexuals...

Anne Spencer – Lines to a Nasturtium

        A lover muses Flame-flower, Day-torch, Mauna Loa,I saw a daring bee, today, pause, and soar,Into your flaming heart;Then did I hear crisp crinkled laughterAs the furies after tore him apart?A bird, next, small and humming,Looked into your startled...