Date: March 17, 1950 [2005]
"One of those involuntary revealing thoughts one surprises, running like a rat through the muck-heap of my mind: Maybe I'll be able to afford that ikon if he goes."
preview | full record— Friend, Donald (1915-1989)
Date: 1963
"I tried to think what I had loved knives for, but my mind slipped from the noose of the thought and swung, like a bird, in the center of empty air."
preview | full record— Plath, Sylvia (1932-1963)
Date: 1965
"The ripe brain rotting like a yellow nut / Hatching / Its babel of sea-lice, sandfly, and maggot."
preview | full record— Walcott, Derek (b. 1930)
Date: 1978, 1979
"The mind is like the untrained elephant. When it is bound with the cord of mindfulness to the firm post of the previously discussed meditative object, [even] if it is unwilling to remain there, it is gradually brought under control, goaded by the hook of awareness."
preview | full record— Wayman, Alex
Date: 1981
"What's my head but a rat's nest / of dubious texts?"
preview | full record— Harwood, Gwen (1920-1995)