Other Poets/Other Poems

Anonymous, Issue 17

Antler, Issue 36

Amy Beeder, Issue 16

Boyd W. Bensen, Issue 31

Donna Biffar, Issue 15

Kimberly Blaeser, Issue 27

P. W. Boisvert, Issue 39

Rick Cannon, Issue 28

Jared Carter, Issue 24

David Chorlton, Issue 40

Billy Collins, Issue 1, Issue 18

Philip Dacey, Issue 6

Denise Duhamel, Issue 13

Stephen Dunn, Issue 34

Stuart Dybek, Issue 41

Dave Etter, Issue 14

Norma Hammond, Issue 22

David Hernandez, Issue 23

Susan Holahan, Issue 12

Tim Hunt, issue 42

Angela Just, Issue 32

Lisa Kadous, Issue 20

Julie King, Issue 30


Lyn Lifshin, Issue 19

Louis McKee, Issue 5

Eve Merriam, Issue 7

Pamela Miller, Issue 8

Lisel Mueller, Issue 29

D. Nurkse, Issue 9

Alexis Orgera, Issue 35

James Reiss, Issue 26

Len Roberts, Issue 2

Kristopher Saknussemm, Issue 10

R. T. Smith, Issue 38

Cathy Song, Issue 21

Judith Valente, Issue 37

Charles Harper Webb, Issue 25

Mary Ann Waters, Issue 11

J. D. Whitney, Issue 33

Bayla Winters, Issue 3

Lila Zeiger, Issue 4

Return to Sample Poems

Learning the Piano

This was before the Beatles, even before
I first heard Elvis and already I knew
I didn’t want to play the piano.

The cover of the book is red—Thompson’s
Teaching Little Fingers to Play. The black
dots with their stiff tails march the lines
and my right hand picks at “Row, Row,
Row Your Boat” like picking at the peas
on my dinner plate after the pork chop is gone.

Already I know that what I want is a guitar.
Please, God, not plink, plink, plink. Please,
God, Merle Travis and Tennessee Ernie Ford.
Oh, please do not make me sit up straight
on this stupid bench when what I want
is to slouch and learn how to syncopate
an alternating bass, how to get that bit of twang.

Please, God, I will put my toys away each
night; I will, I swear, even eat my peas
without bribes and threats of no dessert.
Please, God, make her give me a guitar.

--Tim Hunt
Copyright © 2009 by Free Lunch Arts Alliance