A good poem haunts a reader.1 Even after a decade these poems follow me.
From Vera Pavlova:2
Why is the word yes so brief?
It should be
the longest,
the hardest,
so that you could not decide in an instant to say it…
And Khaled Mattawa:3
The rule is everyone is a gypsy now.
Everyone is searching for his tribe.
And final, John Keats:4
The poetry of earth is never dead:
When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,
And hide in cooling trees…
NOTES:
1) Coffeehousejunkie, “A good poem is like a good film — haunting,” June 14, 2010, weblog, accessed June 16, 2026, https://coffeehousejunkie.net/2010/06/14/a-good-poem-is-like-a-good-film-%e2%80%94-haunting/
2) Vera Pavlova, “If There Is Something to Desire, 9, 17, 18,” June 14, 2010, Academy of American Poets (poets.org), accessed June 16, 2026, https://poets.org/poem/if-there-something-desire-9-17-18
3) Khaled Mattawa, “Ecclesiastes,” June 14, 2010, Academy of American Poets (poets.org), accessed June 16, 2026, https://poets.org/poem/ecclesiastes
4) John Keats, “On the Grasshopper and the Cricket,” (not everything is on the internet… so times you need to unplug and find a candle and book)
Coffeehouse Junkie 