X J Kennedy

X J Kennedy Poems

Toe after toe, a snowing flesh,
a gold of lemon, root and rind,
she sifts in sunlight down the stairs
with nothing on. Nor on her mind.
...

Ginsberg, Ginsberg, burning bright,
Taunter of the ultra right,
What blink of the Buddha's eye
Chose the day for you to die?
...

To look at this fictitious steed
You'd think some mixed-up farmer
Had crossed an eagle with a horse.
It carries knights in armor
...

Back in a yard where ringers groove a ditch,
These four in shirtsleeves congregate to pitch
Dirt-burnished iron. With appraising eye,
One sizes up a peg, hoists and lets fly—
...

X J Kennedy Biography

Poet X. J. (Joseph Charles) Kennedy was born in Dover, New Jersey on August 21, 1929. After studying at Seton Hall, Columbia University, and the University of Michigan, Kennedy served four years in the U.S. Navy’s Atlantic Fleet as a journalist, and then attended the Sorbonne in Paris for one year in 1955. In the early 1970s, Kennedy published Counter/Measures; a magazine devoted to the use of traditional form in poetry. Kennedy’s first collection of poetry, Nude Descending a Staircase (Doubleday, 1961), won the Lamont Poetry Selection. His awards include a Guggenheim fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, the Bess Hokin Prize for Poetry magazine, and a Los Angeles Times Book prize. Kennedy has taught at the Universities of Michigan, North Carolina (Greensboro), and California (Irvine), as well as Wellesley, Tufts, and Leeds. He is a former poetry editor of The Paris Review. In addition to his collections (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007); The Lords of Misrule: Poems, 1992 - 2001 (2002); Dark Horses: New Poems (1992); and Cross Ties: Selected Poems (University of Georgia Press, 1985), Kennedy has published numerous works for children, including more than ten collections of verse and two novels over the past two decades. Recently, Kennedy and his wife Dorothy have collaborated as editors on several textbooks, including Knock at a Star: A Child’s Introduction to Poetry (Little, Brown & Company, 1999). Kennedy lives in Bedford, Massachusetts, with his wife and their five children.)

The Best Poem Of X J Kennedy

Nude Descending a Staircase

Toe after toe, a snowing flesh,
a gold of lemon, root and rind,
she sifts in sunlight down the stairs
with nothing on. Nor on her mind.

We spy beneath the banister
a constant thresh of thigh on thigh;
her lips imprint the swinging air
that parts to let her parts go by.

One-woman waterfall, she wears
her slow descent like a long cape
and pausing on the final stair,
collects her motions into shape.

X J Kennedy Comments

Delilah Booze 19 March 2019

I couldn't find our cherry tree by x.j. kennedy

0 1 Reply
Destinoc 15 February 2018

I don't get your poems

1 2 Reply
Tom Billsborough 25 May 2016

I hadn't realised this was your first poem submitted. More please. I thought it was of the highest quality. So get your pen or computer out! Tom Billsborough

5 6 Reply

X J Kennedy Popularity

X J Kennedy Popularity

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