Narrative

Poem of the Week

Stephen Berg is the author of numerous collections of poetry and translations, including 58 Poems (2013), Here (2014), and Steam Rising from a Full Bowl of Rice: Zen Master Dogen: Versions (2013), and has been awarded the Frank O’Hara Memorial Prize and a Columbia University Translation Prize. Berg has taught at Princeton and Haverford and is a professor of humanities at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

Formless Stanza

by Stephen Berg

Idiots call it death

Calm permanent bright as it is

Lunatics call it annihilation

Think of it as not doing a thing

Any idea of what it is is wrong

Fake names invented to help you talk

Only people whose minds are where they are

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