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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: ALEXANDER, MEENA Matches Found: 74 Alexander, Meena Poet's Biography 74 poems available by this author AFTER THE FIRST HOUSE First Line: Father's father tore it down AFTERMATH First Line: Subtle after spent fire ASYLUM First Line: Late at night, on a bed with many pillows Last Line: Badr shakir al-sayaab--'I wish to die' %is how you end your poem--do you know? AUNT CHINNA First Line: Death seizes you BLACK RIVER, WALLED GARDEN First Line: The garden of my childhood flees from me Last Line: Our earthly world slit open CENTRAL PARK, CAROUSEL Poem Text First Line: June already, it's your birth month, Last Line: If I die leave the balcony open! Subject(s): World Trade Center Tragedy (9/11/2001); Merry-go-rounds; New York City - Terrorist Attack, 9/11 CHENNAI AFTERNOON First Line: Flinty hot, two stones could have raised a fire. Three of us Last Line: Thrust the little one apart something burst in me, slow and %terrible like the sea CHORIC MEDITATION First Line: I know where I saw the pasteboard wall Last Line: As if you were a girl again and find me CIVIL STRIFE First Line: The ink was very old, %palm leaf brushed with the bruise of indigo Last Line: At the water's edge I set out in search of my self DAFFODILS First Line: Kasuya eiichi, poet of japan Last Line: His thighs cut from river mud, %belly gold with longing DEER PARK AT SARNATH First Line: It seems impossible to begin Last Line: There is no grief like this, %the origin of landscape is mercy DIALOGUE BY A CITY WALL First Line: He. I need to smell you Last Line: I am not fit for burning DIARY OF DREAMS First Line: Before my birth %a republic was dreamt Last Line: Salt fumes %in a red desert ELEGY FOR MY FATHER First Line: Father, when you died, your bones %were brittle, fit to burn Last Line: Pointing to a cloud streaked with pink, %a leaping indigo wave, %almav avide avide, avide! EVERYTHING STRIKES LOOSE First Line: In the end %everything strikes loose Last Line: And flat barges driven by men %bear cinnamon cloves, dried pepper FIELD IN SUMMER First Line: I had a simple childhood Last Line: Father, mother, ink dark stars, %singing stones FRAGMENTS First Line: I start to write fragments %as much to myself as to another Last Line: The slash in it bright gentian, %cupped in a bracelet of dew GIVING NAMES TO STONES First Line: Was it the silence in his head that touched you so? Last Line: Butterflies could have bored through GLYPHS First Line: I went by cascadilla gorge and slid down to water Last Line: Out my days, or where I must go GOLD HORIZON First Line: She waited where the river ran Last Line: I hear voices of children %whisper from red hills: %an angel you have caught an angel! HEAT WAVE First Line: The body has marks on her %body marks Last Line: From my father %scorched into gold HONEST SENTENCE First Line: I cannot see my mother Last Line: Or: someone will swim farther %and farther from what she feels is the shore HOUSE First Line: You set it up: an armature of bamboo Last Line: What pitch of gravity? % what squaring of loss? HOUSE OF A THOUSAND DOORS First Line: This house has a thousand doors Last Line: Who will not let her in ILLITERATE HEART First Line: One summer holiday I returned Last Line: Cries out at kurtz, thrusts skulls aside, %lets the floodwaters pour INDIAN APRIL Poem Text First Line: Allen ginsburg on a spring day you stopped Last Line: I hear you call: govinda, aaou, aoou! Subject(s): Ginsberg, Allen (1926-1997); India; Family Life; Poetry & Poets INDIAN APRIL First Line: Allen ginsberg on a spring day you stopped Last Line: I hear you call: govinda, aaou, aaou! INDIAN APRIL: 1 First Line: Allen ginsburg on a spring day you stopped Last Line: Into terrible light where the ganga pours Subject(s): Ginsberg, Allen (1926-1997) INDIAN APRIL: 2 First Line: I was born at the ganga's edge Last Line: Teach us to clear our throats Subject(s): Ginsberg, Allen (1926-1997) INDIAN APRIL: 3 First Line: Kaddish, kaddish I hear you cry Last Line: From the misericordia of attachment? Subject(s): Ginsberg, Allen (1926-1997) INDIAN APRIL: 4 First Line: Holy the cord of death, the sensual palaces Last Line: I hear you call: 'govinda, aaou, aoou!' Subject(s): Ginsberg, Allen (1926-1997) INDIGO First Line: Already it's summer %a scrap of silk floats Last Line: I search for my self %in the map of indigo LANDSCAPE WITH DOOR First Line: Was sankara right? %is the world a forest on fire? Last Line: A makeshift house %lacquered in flame LOW HILLS OF BAVARIA First Line: The streets of erlangen are very still Last Line: Lichen scrawled, gray-gold for forgetfulness, %I approach a river dark with ash MAN IN A RED SHIRT First Line: We are poor people, %a people without history Last Line: Touching you, %will I know how the wind blows? MAP First Line: I am writing a simple set of directions Last Line: Into splinters of molten wood: %eternal evanescence MIRROR OF EARTH First Line: Drawing on ground is not what it seems Last Line: I was whispering: that one is called death's head MUSE Poem Text First Line: I was young when you came to me. Last Line: This is pure transport Subject(s): Language; Inspiration MUSE First Line: I was young when you came to me Last Line: This is pure transport NO AUTUMN IN MY COUNTRY Poem Text First Line: Tu fu wrote 'clustered Last Line: In his autumn meditation Subject(s): Autumn; Seasons; Tu Fu (712-770); Fall; Du Fu NO AUTUMN IN MY COUNTRY First Line: Tu fu wrote 'clustered Last Line: Quickens their palms %these white chrysanthemums %are tumid.No autumn %in my country Subject(s): Autumn; Seasons; Tu Fu (712-770) OPENING THE SHUTTERS First Line: The faux windows are delectable Last Line: Leading him into darkness PAPER FILLED WITH LIGHT: 1 First Line: Under a plum tree, a stone that weeps water Last Line: But there's no distance between us now; you who lived %by the word are wholly immortal, your lines b PAPER FILLED WITH LIGHT: 2 First Line: Under a plum tree, a stone that weeps water Last Line: Silk torn so the blackness of the fram can remember %the limbs, the bloodied stuff that makes us a n PAPER FILLED WITH LIGHT: 3 First Line: Above the plum tree this northern sky is streaked with pink Last Line: Your daughters could not clamber down the edge %to hook father's syllables from whorlord water, blac PAPER FILLED WITH LIGHT: 4 First Line: Uma shankar, I ask you now, what is the sun at midnight? Last Line: How could I dream of paper filled with light? PASSION First Line: After childbirth POEM BY THE WELLSIDE Poem Text First Line: Body, you're a stranger here Last Line: At nightfall, in your mother's country Subject(s): Asian Americans; Immigrants POEM BY THE WELLSIDE First Line: Body, you're a stranger here Subject(s): Asian Americans POEM IN LATE OCTOBER First Line: I watch you-hair ruffled, shirt tucked in Last Line: There is nothing in my hands %and you must walk through water PORT SUDAN First Line: I hear my father's voice on the phone Last Line: Underwater moorings, %and the black sun of death PROVENANCE First Line: The bowl on the ledge has a gold mark %pointed like a palm Last Line: And on damp ground, pitchers of gold %holding clear water RAW MEDITATIONS ON MONEY: 1. SHE SPEAKS: A SCHOOL TEACHER FROM ... First Line: Portions of mango tree the storm cut down Last Line: Set your feet into broken stones %&this red earth &pouring rain. %for us there is no exile RAW MEDITATIONS ON MONEY: 2. HE SPEAKS: AN ESCAPED SLAVE FROM .... First Line: A fire, a flag, an earthen jug %something white, something light Last Line: Something white, something bright %her cut hands waving RAW MEDITATIONS ON MONEY: 3. SHE SPEAKS: A SEVENTY-YEAR-OLD WOMAN .. First Line: By the blue nile, in your childhood %there was talk often of slavery Last Line: Since I saw you last. I feel my house is on fire RAW SILK Poem Text First Line: Open the door or I'll faint hearing amma's voice Last Line: Raw silk turned to smoke in the night's throat Subject(s): Children; Death; Family Life; Memory; Poetry Readings; Childhood; Dead, The; Relatives RAW SILK First Line: Open the door or I'll faint hearing amma's voice Last Line: Raw silk turned to smoke in the night's throat Subject(s): Children; Death; Family Life; Memory; Poetry Readings READING RUMI AS THE PHONE RINGS First Line: Mother's old sewing machine starts its crick-crack Last Line: Alcohol from the hospital wards %of delhi, crude machine oil, %attar of wild roses RED PARAPET First Line: Sister, you live in a very private place %an extremity of sense Last Line: The whole darting heat of him, %the blessing RITES OF SENSE First Line: In twilight as she lies on a mat Last Line: Stitch my woman's breath %into the mute amazement of sentences ROADSIDE MUSIC First Line: I do not know for the life of me Last Line: If the river called, she'd go, I think SHE HEARS A GOLD FLUTE First Line: I am walking over snow %no, not toward you Last Line: My heart is so hot %on this great hill of bones SITA'S STORY First Line: All during the night journey SOFTLY MY SOUL First Line: Softly my soul, softly o so softly Last Line: The asphalt shimmering with scales is indigo Subject(s): Soul SOUTH OF THE NILGIRIS First Line: My son who is young Last Line: Overwhelm even the distant hills STORM First Line: In darkness %the curtains drawn TAXICABWALLAH First Line: I crouched in the back of the taxicab, sleeves sweaty Last Line: Stumbled with me to west fourth, the street thick with %taxicabs THE YOUNG OF TIANANMEN Poem Text First Line: If I had crimson I would write with it Last Line: What ink can inscribe them now / the young of tiananmen? Subject(s): Tiananmen Square Incident, 1989 TRANSLATED LIVES First Line: The past we make presumes us Last Line: Must the past we make consume us? TRAVELLERS First Line: A child thrusts back a plastic seat UNDER THE INCENSE TREE First Line: Come, you said to me VALLEY First Line: Be grateful for the rain when it falls Last Line: As a parachute string, picked clean by sun, %drawn sharp by earthly gravity WATER TABLE First Line: A river flows under my window Last Line: I have set a table for you, %come, come, quick! Subject(s): Rivers; Water YOUNG OF TIANANMEN First Line: If I had crimson I would write with it Last Line: What ink can describe them now %the young of tiananmen? Subject(s): Tiananmen Square Incident, 1989 |
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