Judith Skillman Poems

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• Best Judith Skillman Poems
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by Skillman, Judith

 When the Cherry
rustles above her head
she hardly realizes
why she leaves
her clothes on the rocks,

passes a hand absently
through water
as if smoothing
an infant’s forehead.
Instead she takes the fruit

pressed into her hand
and watches the bloody stone
wet her fingers.
Wasn’t sweetness always 
a symbol for their falling.

She walks with the man
along the river bank
until they come to know
the sore places
in the soles of their...Read more of this...

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by Skillman, Judith

 Poem by Anne-Marie Derése, translated by Judith Skillman.

The waiting volcano inside us
gnaws, digs, trembles,
weighs its chances. 
Distress coils up,
shrinks silent like a sick beast.
We are unrecognizable,
unique
in the certainty of our ferocity....Read more of this...

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by Skillman, Judith

 Poem by Anne-Marie Derése, translated by Judith Skillman.

I don't know who you're hiding
behind your mask,
your face stolen from a bird,
imprisoned by red ashes. 
I will love you the way one dies. 

I will keep you
for years to come,
you will be so tame,
so unbelievable,
my strange animal,
with your lips opening
on a lost smile. 

I'll drink your breath
and I'll know who you...Read more of this...

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by Skillman, Judith

 Herb and spine,
the flat-fisted dream
of stars and dew
formed when he walked
with his telescope
through grasses spotted
by the spit bug.

A raucous noise,
the dawn of great beauty
and he with his tripod
matting the grasses as he walked.

I never saw him dead
on a bed of white down.
Never heard past
the death rattle, 
and so, for me, he lives 
there in the ragged, noxious weeds
that make...Read more of this...

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by Skillman, Judith

 Poem by Anne-Marie Derése, translated by Judith Skillman.

Forgive me if I have laughed
in your chapels,
forgive me if I have slammed
the hospital door,
forgive me for the noise,
for life,
for the love to which
I have no right. 
Forgive me for not resembling you....Read more of this...

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by Skillman, Judith

 Poem by Anne-Marie Derése

Je suis le fer rouge
sur l'èpaule du condamnè,
le gibet et la corde,
la hache et le billot,
le fouet et la croix. 
Je suis la dent du lion
dans la chair de la gazelle.
J'ai dans mes veines
le sang de nègriers. 

Bourreau,
j'ai mèritè la faim des loups. 

Les victimes ne m'ont laissè
que leur mort....Read more of this...

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by Skillman, Judith

 Poem by Anne-Marie Derése.

Le volcan en attente au fond de nous
ronge, creuse, tremble,
soupése ses chances. 
La dètresse s'enroule,
se tasse comme une b?te malade.
Nous sommes mèconnaissables,
uniques,
avec la certitude de notre fèrocitè....Read more of this...

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by Skillman, Judith

 Poem by Anne-Marie Derése

La nuit s'ouvre, l'orage,
accouplement mauve,
boursouflure. 
Le ciel chargè
comme un bateau marchand
jette l'ancre.
Le danger plus lourd
chaque instant
distille une moiteur
de serre. 

Miroitante de mercure,
la vallèe des sept Meuses
souffle la brume
par ses narines grises. 

La vallèe a rejoint la nuit,
deux femelles humides
que l'orage pènétre. 

Et moi, debout,
dans le vent anxieux,
j'espére la dèchirure....Read more of this...

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by Skillman, Judith

 Poem by Anne-Marie Derése, translated by Judith Skillman.

Night opens to the storm,
a mauve coupling,
swollen. 
The sky, laden
like a merchant ship,
throws off its anchor.
Danger, heavier
each instant,
exudes the mugginess
of a greenhouse. 

Shimmering like mercury
The Valley of the Seven Muses
breathes mist
through its gray nostrils. 

The valley of has rejoined the night,
two humid females
the storm penetrates. 

And I, standing here
in the anxious wind,
I...Read more of this...

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by Skillman, Judith

 Poem by Anne-Marie Derése.

Pardon si j'ai ri
dans vos chapelles,
pardon si j'ai claquè
la porte de l'h?pital,
pardon pour le bruit,
pour la vie,
pour l'amour auquel
je n'avais pas droit. 
Pardon de ne pas vous ressembler....Read more of this...

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by Skillman, Judith

 After they passed beneath us I could tell
more would be coming, beneath the sand,
under the bejeweled sky, under the first
layer of earth where water exists 
in flutes and eddies. I lay there with you,
not wanting to leave your side even
for them, the miraculous creatures of sex
and sediment, the ones who obey currents 
and ladders, blindly seeking out their own
individual...Read more of this...

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by Skillman, Judith

 The trigger is sensation.

The violin's a dirty animal.

I want you to take away the suddenness.

Pain up the side of my head.

I'll have my teeth extracted one by one.

See if it makes any difference.

Rehearse for the real.

Be either present or absent.

I'll let my fingers drum ebony.

Thinking makes it worse.

I'll take the beat inside myself

and feel it up the center of...Read more of this...

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by Skillman, Judith

 Poem by Anne-Marie Derése.

Tu m'as donnè une arme
Dans le troupeau humain,
tu as lancè tes mots
commes des pierres.
Les blessures furent
bonnes lècher.
Tu as rèveillè le feulement. 
Tu t'es donnè comme on prend....Read more of this...

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by Skillman, Judith

 Poem by Anne-Marie Derése

Je ne sais qui tu caches
sous ton visage inventè,
ton visage volè l'oiseau,
emprisonnè de cendre rouge. 
Je vais t'aimer comme on meurt. 

Je vais te garder
pour les annèes venir.
Tu seras si apprivoisè,
si incroyable,
mon ètrange animal,
avec tes lévres ouverte
sur un sourire perdu. 

Je boirai ton haleine
et je saurai qui tu caches....Read more of this...

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by Skillman, Judith

 Poem by Anne-Marie Derése, translated by Judith Skillman.

You've given me a weapon.
you've flung your words
into the human herd
like stones.
The wounds were
good to lick.
You have woken the tiger. 
You've given as one takes....Read more of this...

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