Rob Baker’s Reviews > The Asking: New and Selected Poems > Status Update
Like flag
Rob’s Previous Updates
Rob Baker
is on page 242 of 368
The Perfection of Loss
Like a native speaker
returned
after long exile,
quiet now in two tongues.
— Feb 03, 2026 02:54AM
Like a native speaker
returned
after long exile,
quiet now in two tongues.
Rob Baker
is on page 228 of 368
"Wrong solitude vinegars the soul,
right solitude oils it" (224)
(from "Vinegar and Oil")
— Jan 31, 2026 02:54AM
right solitude oils it" (224)
(from "Vinegar and Oil")
Rob Baker
is on page 221 of 368
"Mysteriously they entered, those few minutes.
Mysteriously, they left.
As if the great dog of confusion guarding my heart,
who is always sleepless, suddenly slept.
It was not any awakening of the large, not so much as that,
only a stepping back from the petty" (214).
— Jan 30, 2026 03:13AM
Mysteriously, they left.
As if the great dog of confusion guarding my heart,
who is always sleepless, suddenly slept.
It was not any awakening of the large, not so much as that,
only a stepping back from the petty" (214).
Rob Baker
is on page 204 of 368
"Only then, without you, are we able to see you completely,
lie those wandering monks
who, calling nowhere home, are everywhere home" (198).
(From "To Speech: An Assay")
— Jan 26, 2026 02:31AM
lie those wandering monks
who, calling nowhere home, are everywhere home" (198).
(From "To Speech: An Assay")
Rob Baker
is on page 185 of 368
I've read and enjoyed this poem before...didn't know it was by this author!
A Cedary Fragrance
Even now,
decades after,
I wash my face with cold water--
Not for discipline,
nor memory,
nor the icy, awakening slap,
but to practice
choosing
to make the unwanted wanted.
— Jan 22, 2026 04:02AM
A Cedary Fragrance
Even now,
decades after,
I wash my face with cold water--
Not for discipline,
nor memory,
nor the icy, awakening slap,
but to practice
choosing
to make the unwanted wanted.
