Robert P. Cooke | The Sun Magazine #1

Robert P. Cooke

Robert P. Cooke is a retired teacher and safety trainer. He enjoys sitting at the kitchen table, writing poetry and looking out the window at his wife’s flowers. He lives in Highland, Indiana.

— From March 2024
Poetry

Mountain Flowers

When I was sixteen, / pickup truck, load of hay, / there was nothing I’d rather see / from the window than women’s underwear / hanging on a backyard clothesline.

March 2024
Poetry

Lumps of Coal

He was ten and drove a team of mules / through the shadows in mine shafts, / pulling a wagonload of coal / that glinted in the carbide light / anchored to his cotton cap.

January 2024
Poetry

Selected Poems

from “Reading Lu Yu in Winter” | I wonder how he was able to bear the cold of China, / Traveling the rivers and outpost roads. / The fires he wrote about were always small, / A few willow twigs or scraps of bark.

October 2012
Poetry

Leaning Back In My Chair, Feet Up On The Garden Table

I find nothing to do / And fall asleep under the sun / Near my wife’s peony beds.

August 2011
Poetry

In The Third Century B.C.

I’m growing fatter at each winter’s coming. / My wineglass filling up again / As I sit behind the wall of my garden.

November 2009
Poetry

An Anthology Of Chinese Poetry

“All has come to nothing,” he writes. / In old age his clothes are tattered and thin, / His hut without a door; sick, / He suffers bad dreams.

April 2007
What Do You Think? Has something we published moved you? Fired you up? Did we miss the mark? We'd love to hear about it. Send Us A Letter