|
Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: ALEXANDER, ELIZABETH Matches Found: 153 Alexander, Elizabeth Poet's Biography 153 poems available by this author A POEM FOR NELSON MANDELA Poem Text First Line: Here where I live it is sunday Last Line: And I see this sunday clean Subject(s): Mandela, Nelson (1918-2013) AFFIRMATIVE ACTION BLUES (1993) Poem Text First Line: Right now two black people sit in a jury room Last Line: I am not a pinata, rodney king insists. Opw can't we all get along Subject(s): King, Rodney (b.1966); Trials; Racism; Language; Police Violence AFFIRMATIVE ACTION BLUES (1993) First Line: Right now two black people sit in a jury room Last Line: I am not a pinata, rodney king insists. Now can't we all get along? Subject(s): Baby Boom Generation; Women AFTER THE GIG: MICK JAGGER First Line: The baby cries. Mick jagger swaggers backstage Last Line: Picks the baby up, coo-coos, %and then rocks that baby down ALA First Line: At the hoop you sing 'black man!' Last Line: Fingers to the talking book: %bama. Alabama. What you said ALICE AT ONE HUNDRED AND TWO First Line: Yes, she said, I want to live a lot more years Last Line: Yes, she said, I want to live a lot more years %but not so slowly APOLLO Poem Text Recitation First Line: We pull off / to a road shack Last Line: Even than we are Subject(s): Baby Boom Generation; Women APOLLO First Line: We pull off %to a road shack Last Line: Stranger, stranger %even than we are Subject(s): Baby Boom Generation; Women ARS POETICA #100: I BELIEVE Poem Text First Line: Poetry, I tell my students Last Line: And are we not of interest to each other? Subject(s): Poetry & Poets AT THE BEACH Poem Text First Line: Looking at the photograph is somehow not Last Line: On darrell’s brown shoulder Subject(s): Aids (disease) AT THE BEACH First Line: Looking at the photograph is somehow not Last Line: Of your elbow, melvin, %on darrll's brown shoulder AUTUMN PASSAGE First Line: On suffering, which is real Last Line: As it turns to something else BABY First Line: The doctor handed me a parfait dish Last Line: I am formless and fanged, boy and girl both, %food and baby at the very same time BEARDEN First Line: One eye is larger than her two black hands Last Line: Low moons. Women taking tin-tub baths BILLY STRAYHORN WRITES LUSH LIFE First Line: Empty ice-cream carton %in a kitchen garbage can Last Line: This life, new york, piano %love, then lonely, this life, love BLACKWATER RIVER First Line: In winter the river must tunnel, as blind BLUES Poem Text First Line: I am lazy, the laziest Last Line: Or open arms saying, I forgive you, all Subject(s): Indolence; Sleep; Conduct Of Life BOSTON YEAR Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: My first week in cambridge a car full of white boys Subject(s): African Americans - Women; Alienation (social Psychology); Americans; Boston; Cambridge, Massachusetts; Dissenters; Exiles; Marginality, Social; United States; Estrangement; Outcasts; America BOSTON YEAR First Line: My first week in cambridge a car full of white boys Last Line: No one. Red notes sounding in a grey trolley town Subject(s): African Americans - Women; Alienation (social Psychology); Americans; Boston; Cambridge, Massachusetts; Dissenters; Exiles; Marginality, Social; United States BUTTER Poem Text First Line: My mother loves butter more than I do Last Line: Out, one hundred megawatts of butter Subject(s): Butter; Family Life; Relatives BUTTER First Line: My mother loves butter more than I do Last Line: Our parent's efforts, glowing from the inside %out, one hundred megawatts of butter CLEAN First Line: Dreamt of almost-viscous water Last Line: Bonjour, claude levi-strauss! %at last, I am totally clean! COMPASS First Line: I swing %the thin tin %arm to mark Last Line: To breathe in cold air, to breathe %in...Out... %breathe in CONCH CHOWDER First Line: I'm making conch chowder, says my next-door neighbor, joe. There Last Line: My eyes fill up again when she says the word, family. I sit down in front %of the tv and eat my co COUGH MEDICINE Poem Text First Line: Grape robitussen tastes like melted lollipop Last Line: Down the bathtub drain, who are frozen in place forever Subject(s): Medicine; Drugs, Prescription CRASH Poem Text First Line: I am the last woman off of the plane Last Line: With gravy and rice, to celebrate Subject(s): Airplane Accidents; Air Crashes; Aeronautics - Accidents; Airplane Collisions CRASH First Line: I am the last woman off of the plane Last Line: At my parents', for my mother's roast chicken %with gravy and rice, to celebrate CREOLE CAT First Line: I am in new orleans with my two friends jennifer and anna, and with Last Line: Wolfe is thrilled, says he'll put her on the main stage at the joe papp %public theater. He'll make DARK ROOM First Line: Black poetry is Last Line: My brothers, go on %with your darkest, your dark %and lovely selves DEADWOOD DICK First Line: Colored cowboy named nat love Last Line: Black cowboy. Leather hat DIRT-EATERS First Line: Tra %dition %wanes %I read Last Line: Her smile %famili %ar as the %smell %of %dirt EARLY CINEMA Poem Text First Line: According to mister hedges, the custodian Last Line: No movies for months after Subject(s): Motion Pictures; School; Movies; Cinema EARLY CINEMA First Line: According to mister hedges, the custodian Last Line: There was no school that day, %no movies for months after ELEGY First Line: Motherless, fatherless Last Line: Of metal, city of black, black coal EMANCIPATION Poem Text First Line: Corncob constellation, / oyster shell, drawstring pouch, dry bones Last Line: We're free Subject(s): Freedom; Slavery; Liberty; Serfs EQUINOX First Line: Now is the time of year when bees are wild Last Line: To say, we are waiting. She is silent, light %as an empty hive, and she is breathing EVIDENCE First Line: Like everyone else, I dream I've been raped long ago and forgotten it, by Last Line: Think about that name. Arsenio, arsenic, arsenal, arsonist, a name which is %closest to fire. FAMILY STONE First Line: We drive 'the nutmeg state' in summer Last Line: As the word 'connecticut,' dream of mammoth %feet with painted toes, buckets of clabber, sirens FAREWELL TO YOU First Line: Each man on this slow train Last Line: Beloved romare bearden: %farewell to you FEMALE SEER WILL BURN UPON THIS PYRE First Line: Sylvia plath is setting my hair Last Line: The nursery tidy, the floor swept clean %of burnt hair and bumblebee husks FEMINIST POEM NUMBER ONE Poem Text First Line: Yes I have dreams where I am rescued by men Last Line: All of it, all of it, under one roof Subject(s): Women's Rights; Feminism FEMINIST POEM NUMBER ONE First Line: Yes I have dreams where I am rescued by men Last Line: All of it, all of it, under one roof Subject(s): Women's Rights FOUR BONGOS: TAKE A TRAIN First Line: The drummer wears suspenders to look like Last Line: Like changeable weather, in gabardine FUGUE: 1. WALKING (1963) First Line: You tell me, knees are important, you kiss Last Line: Into a light both brilliant and unseen FUGUE: 2. 1964 First Line: In a beige silk sari Last Line: My mother was a chignon. %my mother in her youth FUGUE: 3. 1968 First Line: The city burns. We have to stay at home Last Line: He makes the world a better place for negroes. %the year is nineteen-sixty-eight FUGUE: 4. 1971 First Line: Hey blood, my father said then Last Line: Hey blood. My father %still says that sometimes FUGUE: 5. THE SUN KING (1974) First Line: James hampton, the sun king Last Line: And the sun king lives %in washington, dc GEORGIA POSTCARD First Line: I. Atlanta Last Line: The mammoth dogwoods, %the christmas tree farm GERANIUMS First Line: In my front yard, negro Last Line: Geraniums in my front yard, %survivors, nigger red GIFT First Line: I dreamed I forgot to say thank you Last Line: It is not quite so noisy inside %and then he disappeared GRAVITAS First Line: Emergency! A bright yellow school bus Last Line: And a spine made of pearls, %and every day I speak to her in tongues HAIRCUT Poem Text First Line: I get off the irt in front of the schomburg center Last Line: Dying every day Subject(s): Barbers; Harlem (new York City) HOSEA WILLIAMS First Line: Rabble-rousing lunchbreaks Last Line: As a swamp, as a goldfish %swimming in a cut-glass bowl HOSTAGE First Line: As far as we can %determine they have been Last Line: Exciting things like this never happen to me HOUSE PARTY SONNET: '66 First Line: Small, still. Fit through the bannister slit Last Line: Hum of invisible dancers asleep ISLANDS NUMBER FOUR: 1. First Line: Agnes martin, islands number four Last Line: What looks to be perfect is not perfect. %odd oval portholes that flood with light ISLANDS NUMBER FOUR: 2. First Line: Description of a slave ship, 1789 Last Line: And sold for twelve ounces of gold apiece %or gone overboard. Islands. Aftermath JOHN COL First Line: John col- %trane's central park Last Line: John coltrane col- %trane song KEVIN OF THE N. E. CREW Poem Text First Line: From the bus I see graffiti Last Line: Weed fence pole split / kevin Subject(s): African Americans – Children KEVIN OF THE N. E. CREW First Line: From the bus I see graffiti Last Line: Weed - fence - pole - split %kevin Subject(s): Literary Form L.A. BY NIGHT First Line: We're in a postcard, driving Last Line: Light, a magnificent %planet, l.A. By night LADDERS Poem Text First Line: Filene's department store Last Line: Monkey? Girl? Answer me Subject(s): African Americans; Family Life; Department Stores LADDERS First Line: Filene's department store Last Line: Monkey, girl? Answer me Subject(s): Literary Form LAMENT First Line: We argue. I dream we live where I used to live Last Line: I share with one I have pledged to love forever, the windows %gaping open, the word armageddon har LETTER: BLUES First Line: Yellow freesia are like twining arms Last Line: Will feed my city dirt roots. Wait for me LIFE AS DINNER PARTY First Line: Tonight is a dinner party gone awry Last Line: Enough for everyone, extra for me, %so cool, so pure, so white, so sweet LYNDA HULL Poem Text First Line: The poet lynda hull, whom I did not know well Last Line: Leaving this bitch of a world for the next Subject(s): Death; Hull, Lynda (1954-1994); Dead, The MANHATTAN ELEGY Poem Text First Line: I left behind a mother, father Last Line: New york, my city of adults Subject(s): New York City; Manhattan; New York, New York; The Big Apple MANHATTAN ELEGY First Line: I left behind a mother, father Last Line: To sing this kaddish for new york, %new york, my city of adults MIAMI FOOTNOTE First Line: I could go to any city Last Line: There is no escaping the warm %water, this pink city, miami MINNESOTA FATS DESCRIBES HIS YOUTH Poem Text First Line: I've been eating Last Line: They would shoot me the grapes Subject(s): Food & Eating; Minnesota Fats (fictional Pool Hustler) MONET AT GIVERNY First Line: Iris and haystack. Japanese footbridge Last Line: Disgusting, I see everything in blue.' MOVIE STAR First Line: In the dream, I slept with jack nicholson Last Line: Brown lipstick, a boar-bristle brush, florida water, pimple cream NARRATIVE: ALI Poem Text First Line: My head so big Last Line: Myself / muhammad Subject(s): Ali, Muhammad (cassius Clay) NARRATIVE: ALI: 1. First Line: My head so big Last Line: Language, any %continent: ali NARRATIVE: ALI: 10. RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE First Line: Ali boma ye Last Line: I pound my chest but of my own accord NARRATIVE: ALI: 11. First Line: I said to joe frazier Last Line: We both bad niggers. %we don't do no crawlin' NARRATIVE: ALI: 12. First Line: They called me the fistic pariah. Last Line: Myself, %muhammad NARRATIVE: ALI: 2. First Line: Two photographs Last Line: And after that %I slept at night NARRATIVE: ALI: 3. First Line: I need to train Last Line: Hear them talk, %talk back NARRATIVE: ALI: 4. First Line: Bottom line: olympic gold Last Line: Drag the ribbon down, %red, white, and blue NARRATIVE: ALI: 5. First Line: Laying on the bed Last Line: Months with sonji, %first woman I loved NARRATIVE: ALI: 6. First Line: There's not Last Line: Is whip me, %but he can't NARRATIVE: ALI: 7. DRESSING-ROOM VISITOR First Line: He opened Last Line: Meaning niggers %like me NARRATIVE: ALI: 8. TRAINING First Line: Unsweetened grapefruit juice Last Line: Two-thirty, two-twenty, %two-ten, two-oh-nine NARRATIVE: ALI: 9. First Line: Will I go Last Line: You could be %snatched back NARRATIVE: ALI; A POEM IN TWELVE ROUNDS First Line: My head so big Last Line: Myself, %muhammad Subject(s): Ali, Muhammad (cassius Clay); Boxing And Boxers; Sports NAT KING COLE ON THE AMALFI DRIVE First Line: He signs after making the beast with two backs Last Line: My dahlias rustle, brush. A wink for me, %a smile for me, for me in black and white NAT TURNER DREAMS OF INSURRECTION First Line: Drops of blood on the corn, as dew from heaven Last Line: I am not a conjurer. Certain marks on my head and breast. %shelter me, great dismal swamp. A green-b NEONATOLOGY First Line: Is %funky, is %leaky, is %a soggy, bloody crotch, is Last Line: From silence and blood, silence %then everything, %jazz NINETEEN First Line: That summer in culpeper, all there was to eat was white cauliflower Last Line: The rain sounded just like that,' he said, 'on the roofs there.' ODE First Line: The sky was a street map with stars for house-parties Last Line: Now dreadlocked vendors sell mechanized monkeys %progammed to beat guaguanco OMNI-ALBERT MURRAY Poem Text First Line: (three four) the ancestors are humming: write a poem, girl Subject(s): African Americans; Ellington, Edward Kennedy ('duke'); New York City; Negroes; American Blacks; Manhattan; New York, New York; The Big Apple OMNI-ALBERT MURRAY First Line: (three four) the ancestors are humming: write a poem, girl Last Line: Omni-albert murray omni omni albert murray Subject(s): African Americans; Ellington, Edward Kennedy ("duke"); New York City OPIATE First Line: A date with michael jordan proves Last Line: I wake to a foghorn, opiate of the masses, %no memory of the feel of his dark and lovely skin ORANGE First Line: The doctor has diagnosed cancer, sees Last Line: That is how you know which ones we are ORNETTE COLEMAN AND THELONIOUS MONK AT DINNER First Line: When people smoked, and it hung over the table like magic Last Line: Jelly, just what you wanted and all you can eat OVERTURE: WATERMELON CITY First Line: Philadelphia is burning and water Last Line: To hi-life and zouk, %we burn PAINTING First Line: I've cropped the black hair diego loves Last Line: I will witness my own cremation %because ash is as lovely as fire PAPI LINDO VS THE BEAUTIFUL MAN First Line: The beautiful one is the ultimate victor Last Line: Ness, and there you are before me, in a plain %white suit with no buttons, a beautiful man PARTY First Line: Obi had a big ole party Last Line: Explode, explode, explode, %and the baby inside of me danced PASSAGE First Line: Henry porter wore good clothes for his journey Last Line: When I can, I'll come for you. I swear, %I'll come for you PAUL SAYS First Line: White people need to get a life Last Line: Was magical. Afros everywhere. I used to have a butterfly net PECCANT First Line: Maryland state correctional facility for women Last Line: Where all around me sin and not sin is scraped off tin trays %into oversized sinks, all that excess, PENMANSHIP First Line: I notice older women have better penmanship Last Line: When gold-foil stars are not enough, nor penmanship? PIG First Line: Held a whole baby pig Last Line: For word if I should swallow %because it was my dinner POEM FOR NELSON MANDELA First Line: Here where I live it is sunday Last Line: Daughters. This is philadelphia %and I see this sunday clean Subject(s): Mandela, Nelson (b. 1918) POSTPARTUM DREAM #12: APPOINTMENT First Line: I answered all Last Line: To be a good lawyer, the best, %just like my dad POSTPARTUM DREAM #2: FOLK ART First Line: It's me! Discovered in a sleeve Last Line: Basement walls suddenly bill taylor blue POSTPARTUM DREAM #8 First Line: In a hail of bazooka fire they drop Last Line: Her nipples stand out from here to st. Louis, %unsexy and mighty, full of that much milk PRAISE SONG FOR THE DAY Poem Text First Line: Each day we go about our business Last Line: Praise song for walking forward in that light. Subject(s): Obama, Barack PRELIMINARY SKETCHES: PHILADELPHIA Poem Text First Line: Fish-man comes with trout and fresh crabs Last Line: Brother brother brotherly love Subject(s): Philadelphia, Pennsylvania PRELIMINARY SKETCHES: PHILADELPHIA First Line: Fish-man comes with trout and fresh crabs Last Line: I'm listening for the philly sound-- %brother brother brotherly love RACE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Sometimes I think about great-uncle paul who left tuskegee, Last Line: Here a poem tells a story, a story about race Subject(s): African Americans; Negroes; American Blacks RACE First Line: Sometimes I think about great-uncle paul who left tuskegee Last Line: Here a poem tells a story, a story about race RADIO DAYS First Line: In the movie a latin bandleader Last Line: I saw jackie robinson hit that ball.' RANDALL, MARGARET First Line: Yes we did 'march around somewhere' and yes it was cold Last Line: Passing from hand to hand RECETA CULINARIA First Line: Make soup from this: Last Line: Cilantro to taste ROBESON AT RUTGERS Poem Text First Line: Hard to picture, but these goliath trees Subject(s): Robeson, Paul (1898-1976) ROBESON AT RUTGERS Poem Text First Line: Hard to picture, but these goliath trees Last Line: From the chemicals paul robeson’s totem face? Subject(s): Robeson, Paul (1898-1976); Robeson, Paul (1898-1976) ROBESON AT RUTGERS First Line: Hard to picture, but these goliath trees Last Line: From the chemicals paul robeson's totem face? Subject(s): Robeson, Paul (1898-1976) ROLLERBLADE, INC. First Line: Ex-husband arrives on rollerblades Last Line: I think: I have burned my caramel. %I think: rollerblade, inc. A trade man SABER-TOOTHED First Line: What a fabulous living room! Last Line: Queen of my house, no tiger, %no squirrel, no cockroach, no mouse STRAVINSKY IN L.A. Poem Text First Line: In white pleated trousers, peering through green Last Line: Watts, los angeles, aspiration Subject(s): Watts Towers, Los Angeles (1921-1955) SUMMERTIME First Line: Where we live there are caged peacocks Last Line: Could bounce to the sky and stick Subject(s): Baby Boom Generation; Women THE DIRT-EATERS Poem Text First Line: Tra / dition Last Line: Of / dirt Subject(s): African Americans; Negroes; American Blacks THE FEMALE SEER WILL BURN UPON THIS PYRE Poem Text First Line: Sylvia plath is setting my hair Last Line: Of burnt hair and bumblebee husks Subject(s): Plath, Sylvia (1932-1963) THE VENUS HOTTENTOT Poem Text First Line: Science, science, science! Last Line: Geometric, deformed, unnatural Subject(s): Circus; Women - African TODAY'S NEWS First Line: Heavyweight champion of the world mike tyson Last Line: This is your life. Get up and look for color, %look for color everywhere TOMATO First Line: My friend amy has a jones for pregnant women Last Line: A million months pregnant, %and her lover is feeding her chocolate, square by square TONI MORRISON DREAMS: 1 First Line: Toni morrison despises %conference coffee, so I offer Last Line: Nuns go by, quiet as lust %everything in silver-gray and black TONI MORRISON DREAMS: 1. First Line: Toni morrison despises Last Line: Nuns go by as quiet as lust %everything in silver-gray and black TONI MORRISON DREAMS: 2 First Line: She does not love %my work, but she loves Last Line: My baby, tells me %to have many more TONI MORRISON DREAMS: 2. WORKSHOP First Line: She asks us to adapt Last Line: Oh %the work is hard TONI MORRISON DREAMS: 3. First Line: She does not love Last Line: To have many more TONI MORRISON DREAMS: 3. A READING AT TEMPLE UNIVERSITY First Line: Love,' she wrote %and 'love' and 'love' and 'love' Last Line: She whispered it %love TONI MORRISON DREAMS: 4. A READING AT TEMPLE UNIVERSITY First Line: Love, she wrote Last Line: She whispered it, %love TOUR GUIDE First Line: We have discovered indian cliff dwellings Last Line: The objects of people who lived here and disappeared. %but we know who was here first. We have photo UNTITLED First Line: If you win a macarthur genius grant Last Line: Like a simple, well-executed thought VAN DERZEE First Line: I say your name: james van derzee Last Line: You're drinking ginger ale and scotch VENUS HOTTENTOT First Line: Science, science, science! %everything is beautiful Last Line: It was shriveled and hard, %geometric, deformed unnatural VISITATION First Line: Pablo neruda still lives in my dream Last Line: Of course you fall asleep, he says, and waves. %adios carina. You're off to write a poem VISITOR First Line: The city rocks at close of day Last Line: Vacuum-packed coffee beans, ebony fists, %black soap that lathers up creamy, and white WAR First Line: In the dream there was goo Last Line: My newest, pulsing word %in a dream where I do not picture enemies WASHINGTON ETUDE First Line: After rain, mushrooms %appear in the park Last Line: Regard the flare %of blooming stars, %the cicada's maraca WEST INDIAN PRIMER First Line: On the road between spanish town Last Line: Lamps. I write this west indian primer WHAT I'M TELLING YOU First Line: If I say, my father was betty shabazz's lawyer, the poem can go further Last Line: Candy, something dim and unspoken, expectation WHEN First Line: In the early nineteen-eighties, the black men Last Line: Then all the men's faces were spotted WHO I THINK YOU ARE First Line: Empty out your pockets nighttime, daddy Last Line: Cigar bands and glinting, dimestore lockets Subject(s): Literary Form YOUR EX-GIRLFRIEND First Line: Is hollering from her new york tenement window Last Line: Joy is so important, your ex-girlfriend says, and smiles %you've got to keep your life absolutely fu ZODIAC Poem Text First Line: You kissed me once and now I wait for more Last Line: Again, I thin. I want you yo kiss me Subject(s): Kisses ZODIAC First Line: You kissed me once and now I wait for more Last Line: Again, I think. I want you to kiss me Subject(s): Literary Form |
|