|
|
|
|
Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: BERRY, WENDELL Matches Found: 481 Berry, Wendell Poet's Biography 481 poems available by this author 10-OCT First Line: Now constantly there is the sound Last Line: The calling of a crow sounds %loud--a landmark--now %that the life of summer falls %silent,and the n 2-FEB-68 First Line: In the dark of the moon, in flying snow, in the dead of winter Last Line: I walk the rocky hillside, sowing clover 2-SEP-69 First Line: In the evening there were flocks of nighthawks Last Line: An acceptance of decline. Having worked, %I would sleep, my leaves all dissolved in flight 22-MAR-68 First Line: As spring begins the river rises Last Line: In the night I lay awake, thinking %of the river rising, the spring heavy %with official meaningless A HOMECOMING Poem Text First Line: One faith is bondage. Two Subject(s): Homecoming A PURIFICATION Poem Text First Line: At start of spring I open a trench Last Line: The old escapes into the new Subject(s): Christianity; Religion; Theology A THIRD POSSIBILITY Poem Text First Line: I fired the brush pile by the creek Last Line: Between the two, and liked them both Subject(s): Christianity; Religion; Theology A TIMBERED CHOIR Poem Text First Line: Even while I dreamed I prayed that what I saw was only fear and no foretelling A VISION Poem Text First Line: If we will have the wisdom to survive Last Line: Its hardship is its posibility Subject(s): Environment; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation ADZE First Line: I came out to the barn lot Last Line: I stayed back, and he went on %with what he had to do %whiledark fell round him AGAINST THE WAR IN VIETNAM First Line: Believe the automatic righteousness Last Line: With blood, the vision of jefferson %served by the agony of children, %women cowering in holes AIR First Line: This man proud and young Last Line: Is hanging from a tree AIR AND FIRE Poem Text First Line: From my wife and household and fields Subject(s): Love AIR AND FIRE First Line: From my wife and household and fields Last Line: My old love comes on me in midair Subject(s): Love ALL First Line: All bend Last Line: In one wind AN ANNIVERSARY Poem Text First Line: What we have been becomes Last Line: In the country we have married Subject(s): Christianity; Religion; Theology ANGER AGAINST BEASTS Poem Text First Line: The hook of adrenalin shoves Subject(s): Anger ANGER AGAINST BEASTS First Line: The hook of adrenaline shoves Last Line: His triumph is a wound. Spent, %he must wait the slow %unalterable forgiveness of time ANGLO-SAXON PROTESTANT HETEROSEXUAL MEN First Line: Come, dear brothers Last Line: And a few centuries of honest work ANNIVERSARY First Line: What we have been becomes Last Line: Darkened, we are carried %out of need, deep %in the country we have married Subject(s): Christianity; Religion ANOTHER DESCENT First Line: Through the weeks of deep snow Last Line: And the branches of light sing in the hills, %slowly we return to earth ANSWER First Line: What's it all about? Last Line: Don't ask %and then you'll know APPLE TREE First Line: In the essential prose Last Line: And disappear, singing %among the design APRIL WOODS: MORNING First Line: Birth of color Last Line: Luminous the gatherings %of bloodroot %newly risen, green leaf %white flower %in the sun, the dark % ARCHITECTURE First Line: Like a room, the clear stanza Last Line: As to a place, a room commenced %at the end of sleep. Around%him his singing is entire ARISTOCRACY First Line: Paradise might have appeared here Last Line: Years-is a rich, fat, selfish, %ugly, ignorant, old %bitch, airing her cat ARRIVAL First Line: Like a tide it comes in Last Line: In its extravagance we shape %the strenuous outline of enough AT A COUNTRY FUNERAL Poem Text Recitation First Line: Now the old ways that have brought us Last Line: A second and more final death Subject(s): Christianity; Religion; Theology AT A COUNTRY FUNERAL First Line: Now the old ways that have brought us Last Line: Faithful to the fields, lest the dead die %a second and more final death Subject(s): Christianity; Religion AUTUMN BURNING First Line: In my line of paperwork Last Line: Of crickets and of birds, I turn, %unburdened, to life beyond words AWAKE AT NIGHT First Line: Late in the night I pay Last Line: To learn to lie still, %one with the earth %again, and let the world go BARN First Line: While we unloaded the hay fron the truck, building Subject(s): Barns BE STILL IN HASTE Poem Text First Line: How quietly I BEFORE DARK First Line: From the porch at dusk I watched Last Line: The night had accommodated him %--at the place he was headed for %or where, led by his delight, %he BELL CALLS IN THE TOWN Last Line: The life that steps and sings in ways of death BELOW First Line: Above trees and rooftops Last Line: What I stand for %is what I stand on BENT TREE First Line: I find a young ash bent to the ground Last Line: It holds, mild as a flower, %the force of the sky BEST REWARD First Line: The best reward in going to the woods Last Line: Or answered by a certainn one, or two Subject(s): Nature; Solitude BIRD KILLER First Line: His enemy, the universe, surrounds him nightly with stars Last Line: Who love light, he lets go free to die in the broad woods %in the dark the notes of his song BIRTH (NEAR PORT WILLIAM) First Line: They were into the lambing, up late Last Line: And the thought of the wild creatures warm %asleep in their nests, deep underground BLUE ROBE First Line: How joyful to be together, alone Last Line: Beautiful in her blue robe! BOONE First Line: Beyond this final house Last Line: In the speckled thickets %-obedient %to darkness, %be innocent of my dying BREAKING First Line: Did I believe I had a clear mind? Last Line: That the rising water has broken %the ice, I see that what I thought %was the light is part of the d BROKEN GROUND First Line: The opening out and out Last Line: What is left %is what is Subject(s): Farm Life BUILDINGS First Line: The buildings are all womanly. Their roofs Subject(s): Buildings And Builders CANTICLE First Line: What death means is not this Last Line: In the altar rails make a jukebox of the world, %the mind paying its gnawed coins for the safety of CATHEDRAL First Line: Stone %of the earth Last Line: Of its own weight %light CHILD UNBORN, THE COMING YEAR CLEAR DAYS First Line: The dogs of indecision Last Line: When the mind's an empty room %the clear days come CLEARING RESTS IN SONG AND SHADE CLEARING: 1 First Line: Through elm, buckeye, thorn Last Line: Of honeysuckle, tangles %of grape and bittersweet, %sing, steel,the hard song %of vision cutting in CLEARING: 10 First Line: We pile the brush high Last Line: It goes into the air. %what bore the wind %the wind will bear CLEARING: 11 First Line: An evening comes Last Line: When we finish work and go, %stumblers under the folding sky, %the field clear behind us CLEARING: 2 First Line: Vision must have severity Last Line: The dread of too much to do, %the wish to make desire %easy,the thought of rest CLEARING: 3 First Line: We don't bother nobody Last Line: Like a cloud upon vision: %to be free of labor, %the predicament of other lives, %not to be bothered CLEARING: 4 First Line: Vision reaches the ground Last Line: We leave the walnut trees, %graces of the ground %flourishing in the air CLEARING: 5 First Line: A man who does not ask too much Last Line: This union makes him small, %a part of what he would keep CLEARING: 6 First Line: As the vision of labor grows Last Line: Leave the body to die %in its time, in the final dignity %that knows no loss in the fallen %high hor CLEARING: 7 First Line: In the predicament of other lives Last Line: Lie. Hunger will find it, %the bones divide by stealth, %theblack head with its star %drift into the CLEARING: 8 First Line: Streets, guns, machines Last Line: Where the time of rain is kept %take what is half ruined %and make it clear, put it %back in mind CLEARING: 9 First Line: February. A cloudy day Last Line: A kingfisher utters %his harsh cry, rising %from the leafless river. %again, again, the old %is newl COLD First Line: How exactly good it is Last Line: And having known fully the %goodness of that, it will be %good also to melt COLD PANE First Line: Between the living world Last Line: A man who looks too close %must fog it with his breath, %or hold his breath too long COME FORTH First Line: I dreamed of my father when he was old Last Line: And strong in the sun's unshadowed excellence COME ON First Line: Come on, baby,' says %the sparrow's wife, fluttering Last Line: How much weed seed do you %have to eat to do that? COMPANIONS First Line: When he goes out in the morning Last Line: She just observes his homecoming, %lifelike in her chair %asthe shell of a wan moth %holding to the CONTRARINESS OF THE MAD FARMER First Line: I am done with apologies. If contrariness is my Last Line: I say I don't know. It is not the only or the easiest %way to come to the truth. It is one way COUNTRY OF MARRIAGE First Line: I dream of you walking at night along the streams Last Line: Again and again, and satisfy - and this poem, %no more mine than any man's who has loved a woman Subject(s): Love CREATION MYTH First Line: This is a story handed down Last Line: He said, and laid the field out clear %under mckinley's feet, and placed %the map of it in his head CROP MUST DRINK, WE MOVE THE PIPE CURRENT First Line: Having once put his hand into the ground Last Line: A young man who has reached into the ground, %his hand held in the dark as by a hand Subject(s): Spring DANCE First Line: The stepping-stones, once Last Line: At the winter's end, I dance %the history of its weather DANCE First Line: I would have each couple turn Last Line: Out of the multitude %in which you come and go. %love changes, and in change is true Subject(s): Dancing And Dancers; Love - Marital DANTE First Line: If you imagine Last Line: You are there yourself DARK AROUND US COME DARK WITH POWER First Line: Dark with power, we remain Last Line: Fed with dying, we gaze %on our might's monuments of fire. %the world dangles from us %while we gaze DESIGN OF A HOUSE First Line: Except in idea, perfection is as wild Last Line: The black swifts may come back to DESOLATION Poem Text First Line: A gracious spirit sings as it comes Last Line: Out by root and crown Subject(s): Religion; Theology DESOLATION First Line: A gracious spirit sings as it comes Last Line: Unless the solitary will forbear, %the blade enters the ground %to tear the world's comfort %out, ro Subject(s): Religion DIAGON Poem Text First Line: In the riven channel torqued in its bends Subject(s): Fish DISCIPLINE First Line: Turn toward the holocaust, it approaches Last Line: It is the time's discipline to think %of the death of all living, and yet live DO NOT BE ASHAMED Poem Text First Line: You will be walking some night DO NOT BE ASHAMED First Line: You will be walking some night Last Line: I am not ashamed.' a sure horizon %will come around you. The heron will begin %his evening flight fr DREAM First Line: I dream an inescapable dream Last Line: Where are the sleeps that escape such dreams? DREAM ENDED, I WENT OUT, AWAKE DUALITY First Line: To love is to suffer - did I Last Line: Love, and by loving live DUST Poem Text First Line: The dust motes float Subject(s): Dust DUST First Line: The dust motes float %and swerve in the sunbeam Last Line: We may be living on an atom %in somebody's wallpaper' EAGER DOG LIES STRANGE AND STILL Last Line: We stand here face to face EARTH AND FIRE First Line: In this woman the earth speaks Last Line: The winds of her knees shake me %like a flame. I have risen up from her, %time and again, a new man ELEGY Poem Text First Line: All day our eyes could find no resting place ELEGY First Line: To be at home on its native ground Last Line: Went back toward the light of day ELEGY; PRYOR THOMAS BERRY, MARCH 4, 1864 - FEBRUARY 23, 1946 First Line: All day our eyes could find no resting place Last Line: Our remembering moves from a different place ENCLOSING THE FIELD WITHIN BOUNDS ENEMIES First Line: If you are not to become a monster Last Line: Pitiable because unforgiving ENRICHING THE EARTH First Line: To enrich the earth I have sowed clover and grass Last Line: Entering the earth. And so what was heaviest %and most mute is at last raised up into song ENVOY First Line: Love, all day there has been at the edge of my mind Last Line: That you do not know. In you I know %the deep leisure of the filling moon. May I live long EPITAPH First Line: Having lived long in time Last Line: We are added to one another forever ESTRANGED BY DISTANCE, HE RELEARNS EXCEPT First Line: Now that you have gone Last Line: How good it is, tanya, %to be alone and quiet.' FACT First Line: After all these %analyses Last Line: The fact %remains intact FALL First Line: The wild cherries ripen, black and fat Last Line: When you have learned their bitterness, they taste sweet FALLING ASLEEP First Line: Raindrops on the tin roof Last Line: We have all %been here before FAMILIAR First Line: The hand is risen from the earth Last Line: Returns to be known again. Going %and coming back, it forms its curves, %a nerved ghostly anatomy in FARMER AMONG THE TOMBS First Line: I am oppressed by all the room taken up by the dead Last Line: And go free, their acres traversed all summer %by crop rows and cattle and foraging bees FARMER AND THE SEA First Line: The sea always arriving Last Line: Silently as snow, keeper and maker %of places wholly dark. And in him %something dark applauds FARMER, SPEAKING OF MONUMENTS First Line: Always, on their generation's breaking wave Last Line: Doing, standing for him, awake and orderly. %in autumn, all his monuments fall FEAR OF DARKNESS First Line: The tall marigolds darken Last Line: His birthright %is a third-hand chevrolet, %bought for too much. 'I %floorboard the son of a bitch, FEAR OF LOVE First Line: I come to the fear of love Last Line: We stand as in an open field, %blossom, leaf, and stem, %rooted and shaken in our day, %heads noddin FINCHES First Line: The ears stung with cold Last Line: May the bare sticks soon %live, and our minds go free %of the ground %into the shining of trees FIRST First Line: The first man who whistled Last Line: He went around all day %with his lips puckered, %afraid to swallow FIRST TIME I REMEMBER WAKING UP Last Line: In the dark that night, without a dime FOR AN ABSENCE First Line: When I cannot be with you Last Line: Quiet to sleep again FOR THE EXPLAINERS First Line: Spell the spiel of cause and effect Last Line: And put the white ring round his neck? FOR THE FUTURE Poem Text First Line: Planting trees early in the spring Subject(s): Trees FOR THE FUTURE First Line: Planting trees early in spring Last Line: There is no other guarantee %that singing will ever be FOR THE HOG KILLING Poem Text First Line: Let them stand still for the bullet, and stare the shooter in the eye Last Line: By our hunger, by this provisioning, we renew the bond Subject(s): Farm Life; Agriculture; Farmers FOR THE HOG KILLING First Line: Let them stand still for the bullet, and stare the shooter in the eye Last Line: For by our hunger, by this provisioning, we renew the bond Subject(s): Farm Life FOR THE REBUILDING OF A HOUSE Poem Text First Line: To know the inhabiting reasons Last Line: That the dark may come clean Subject(s): Houses FOR THE REBUILDING OF A HOUSE First Line: To know the inhabiting reasons Last Line: I build the place of my dream. %I build the place of my leaving %that the dark may come clean Subject(s): Houses FOR THE RECORD First Line: The great sports hero can remember Last Line: Now he's desperately affixed to woman number %53,671 FORTY YEARS First Line: Life is your privilege, not your belonging. Last Line: It is the loss of it, now, that you will be singing FROG WITH LICHENED BACK AND GOLDEN THIGH FROM REVERDURE Poem Text First Line: One thing work gives Last Line: To come into the presence of this time Subject(s): Labor & Laborers; Work; Workers FROM REVERDURE First Line: One thing work gives Subject(s): Labor And Laborers FROM THE CREST: 1 First Line: What we leave behind to sleep Last Line: Now in the silent keep %of stars and of my work %I lay me down to sleep FROM THE CREST: 10 First Line: Let the great song come Last Line: Even in the rising year, %even in the spring, %the little can hope to sing %only in praise of the gr FROM THE CREST: 2 First Line: The deepest sleep holds us Last Line: For another day. I weave %round it again the kindling %tapestry of desire FROM THE CREST: 3 First Line: My life's wave is at its crest Last Line: At the final stroke %I will be a finished man FROM THE CREST: 4 First Line: Little farm, motherland, made Last Line: Plants and beasts whose lives %loop like dolphins through your sod FROM THE CREST: 5 First Line: Going into the city, coming Last Line: We will write them a poem %to tell them of the great %membership, the mystic order, %to which both o FROM THE CREST: 6 First Line: When I think of death I see Last Line: Poised upon the ground, %held in place %by vision, love, andwork, %all as passing as a thought FROM THE CREST: 7 First Line: Beginning and end Last Line: To love these things one did not %intend is to be a friend %to the beginning and the end FROM THE CREST: 8 First Line: And when we speak together Last Line: Dreams and visions flower %from these beds our bodies are FROM THE CREST: 9 First Line: The farm travels in snow Last Line: To new. The dead and living %prepare again to mate FROM THE DISTANCE First Line: We are others and the earth Last Line: Stuttered in the flame FUME AND SHOCK AND UPROAR GATHERING First Line: At my age my father Last Line: To be brother to all %my fathers, memory %speaking to knowledge, %finally, in my bones GIFT OF GRAVITY First Line: All that passes descends Last Line: In my mind, I come to what %must come to me, carried %as a dancer by a song. %this grace is gravity GOING Poem Text First Line: Like a city, lighted GOODS First Line: It's the immemorial feelings Last Line: Of a good team of belgian mares %that seems to shudder from me %through all my ancestry GRACE Poem Text First Line: The woods is shining this morning GRACE First Line: The woods is shining this morning Last Line: Is the same. Be still. Be still. %'he moves your bones, and the way is clear.' GRACIOUS SABBATH STOOD HERE WHILE THEY STOOD GRANDMOTHER First Line: Better born than married, misled Last Line: That love had led her to. They had to break her %before she would lie down in her coffin Subject(s): Labor And Laborers GREAT DEATHLY POWERS HAVE PASSED GREEN AND WHITE First Line: The wind scruffing it, the bay Last Line: There's danger in it. They fly %beyond idea till they come back GRIEF First Line: The morning comes. The old woman, a spot Last Line: Knowing, but not saying, and the living %turn back to their day, their grieving and staying GUEST First Line: Washed into the doorway Last Line: To permit me to forget him- %knowing I won't. He's the guest%of my knowing, though not asked Subject(s): Christianity; Guests; Religion HAIL TO THE FOREST BORN AGAIN HANDING DOWN: 1. THE LIGHT First Line: The mind is the continuity Last Line: It is the illumination of a passage, %no more HANDING DOWN: 10. THE FREEDOM OF LOVING First Line: After his long wakeful life Last Line: To ripeness. His love %turned away from death, freely, %is equal to it HANDING DOWN: 11. HE TAKES HIS TIME First Line: There's no need to hurry Last Line: Among the shades and neighbors %of his summer walks, %he finds time %for the perfecting of gifts HANDING DOWN: 12. THE FERN First Line: His intimate the green fern Last Line: It feeds on the sun and the dirt %and does not hasten. %it has forgotten all deaths HANDING DOWN: 13. HE IS IN THE HABIT OF THE WORLD First Line: The world has finally worn him Last Line: Among shadows like monuments, %he makes his way down, %loving the earth he will become HANDING DOWN: 14. THE YOUNG MAN, THINKING OF THE OLD First Line: While we talk we hear across the town Last Line: He has gone in the world, visioning %a house worthy of the child %newborn in it HANDING DOWN: 2. THE CONVERSATION First Line: Speaker and hearer, words Last Line: With potted plants, the foliage %staining and shadowing the daylight %as it comes in HANDING DOWN: 3. THE OLD MAN IS OLDER IN HISTORY ... First Line: I've lived in two countries Last Line: If I died now, I wouuldn't lose %much. It's you young ones %I worry about.' HANDING DOWN: 4. HE LOOKS OUT THE WINDOW AT THE TOWN First Line: Beyond the windows, past the fern Last Line: Depth and recognition-is the mind's %discovery of itself in its place %in a new morning HANDING DOWN: 5. HE HAS LIVED THROUGH ANOTHER NIGHT First Line: He begins the kowledge Last Line: Of the still town %and in the country thickets %for miles. Their voices %reach to the end of the dar HANDING DOWN: 6. THE NEW HOUSE First Line: At the foot of his long shadow Last Line: For a man knowing evil-how surely %it grows up in any ground and makes seed- %the building of a hous HANDING DOWN: 7. THE HEAVINESS OF HIS WISDOM First Line: The incredible happens, he knows Last Line: Half hidden in it HANDING DOWN: 8. A WILDERNESS STARTS TOWARD HIM First Line: The old man lives on Last Line: Ahead of him he sees, as in an old %forefather's prophetic dream, %the woods take back the land HANDING DOWN: 9. THOUGH HE CAN'T KNOW DEATH,... First Line: Knowing he must learn to die Last Line: Why should a man eighty-one years old %care how he looks?' HER FIRST CALF First Line: Her fate seizes her and brings her Last Line: Have been prepared. They have always %known each other HERE WHERE THE DARK-SOURCED STREAM BRIMS UP HERE WHERE THE WORLD IS BEING MADE HERON First Line: While the summer's growth kept me Last Line: Suddenly I know I have passed across %to a shore where I do not live HIDDEN SINGER First Line: The gods are less Last Line: But as a little bird %hidden in the leaves %who sings quietly %and waits %and sings HISTORY First Line: The crops were made, the leaves Last Line: O muse, be brought to mind HOMECOMING First Line: One faith is bondage. Two Last Line: Safe beyond the bounds %of what we know. O love, %open. Show me %my country. Take me home HORSES Poem Text First Line: When I was a boy here Subject(s): Environment; Farm Life; Fields; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation; Agriculture; Farmers; Pastures; Meadows; Leas HORSES First Line: When I was a boy here Last Line: A song, whatever is said Subject(s): Environment; Farm Life; Fields HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO MAKE THE WOODS? Last Line: Into the ease of sight, the brotherhood of eye and leaf Subject(s): Environment; Trees HOW MANY HAVE RELINGUISHED HOW TO BE A POET (TO REMIND MYSELF) Poem Text First Line: Make a place to sit down Last Line: The silence from which it came Subject(s): Poetry & Poets I GO AMONG TREES AND SIT STILL I GO FROM THE WOODS INTO THE CLEARED FIELD Last Line: Thousands of years to make it what it was, %beginning now, in our few troubled days Subject(s): Nature IN A CREASE OF THE HILL IN A MOTEL PARKING LOT First Line: The poem is important, but Last Line: You did not get IN MEMORY: STUART EGNAL First Line: A high wooded hill near florence, an april Last Line: Strangeness--here in another valley %you never lived to cometo--half %a dialogue, keeping on IN RAIN First Line: I go in under foliage Last Line: In an easy bed tonight IN THIS WORLD First Line: The hill pasture, an open place among the trees Last Line: Men are making plans, wearing themselves out, %spending their lives, in order to kill each other INDEPENDENCE DAY Poem Text First Line: Between painting a roof yesterday and the hay Last Line: Whistle opens in the air, broad and pointed like a leaf Subject(s): Christianity; Holidays; Religion; Theology INDEPENDENCE DAY First Line: Between painting a roof yesterday and the hay Last Line: In the light like a curling vine and the bobwhite's %whistleopens in the air, broad and pointed as a Subject(s): Christianity; Holidays; Religion JAYBER CROW'S SILLY SONG ABOUT JESUS First Line: What make of car will jesus drive %when he comes back again? Last Line: We will foresee him as we are, %and every time be wrong JULY, 1773 First Line: Seventeen seventy one Last Line: Left a tomahawk and fish gig %at a fine spring,and marked %agum sapling at that place JUNE WIND Poem Text First Line: Light and wind are running JUNE WIND First Line: Light and wind are running Last Line: As though the hill had %melted and now flowed KENTUCKY RIVER JUNCTION Poem Text First Line: Clumsy at first, fitting together Subject(s): Nature KENTUCKY RIVER JUNCTION First Line: Clumsy at first, fitting together Last Line: The bright day %shines in my head %like a coin %on the bed of a stream. %you left %your welcome LAW THAT MARRIES ALL THINGS First Line: The cloud is free only Last Line: The redbird sings, %here here here here Subject(s): Religion LEADER First Line: Head like a big %watermelon Last Line: Frequently thumped %and still not ripe LETTER: 1. First Line: To search for what belongs where it is Last Line: I flow from your bonds, a stream risen %over the hold of its stones LETTER: 2. First Line: Turning always in my mind toward you Last Line: Beauties I will not know in satisfaction, %but in the sharp clarity of desire LETTER: 3. First Line: In place with you, as I come and go Last Line: Now in the long curve of a journey %I spin a single strand, carried away %by what must bring me home LIFE FORGIVES ITS DEPREDATIONS LILIES First Line: Hunting them, a man must sweat, bear Last Line: Found, unfound, they breathe their light %into the mind, year after year LILIES First Line: Amid the gray trunks of ancient trees we found Last Line: For all that time. Does my land have the health %of this, where nothing falls but into life? LONG HUNTER First Line: Passed through the dark wall Last Line: Like a pod, and from the height %he saw a place green as welcome %on whose still water the sky lay w LOWLAND GROVE First Line: And now the lowland grove is down, the trees Last Line: This ground to pray again its finest prayer Subject(s): Nature; Trees MAD FARMER IN THE CITY First Line: As my first blow against it, I would not stay Last Line: Its streets and corners fading like mist at sunrise %above groves and meadows and planted fields MAD FARMER MANIFESTO: THE FIRST AMENDMENT First Line: That is the glimmering vein Last Line: Or fail to bear its weight MAD FARMER REVOLUTION First Line: The mad farmer, the thirsty one Last Line: With farmers and their brides sowing %and reaping. When they died %they became two spirits of the wo Subject(s): Christianity; Farm Life; Religion MAD FARMER'S LOVE SONG First Line: O when the world's at peace Last Line: O and I may go down %several times before that MAD FARMER, FLYING THE FLAG OF ROUGH BRANCH, SECEDES FROM THE First Line: From the union of power and money Last Line: And the croak of the night heron over the river at dark MAN BORN TO FARMING First Line: The grower of trees, the gardener, the man born to farming Last Line: Like a vine clinging in the sunlight, and like water %descending in the dark? MAN WALKING AND SINGING: 1 First Line: It is no longer necessary to sleep Last Line: I know they know as surely as I live my death %exists, and has my shape MAN WALKING AND SINGING: 2 First Line: But the man so forcefully walking Last Line: Of all he sees, %leaving the street behind him %runged as a ladder %or the staff of a song MAN WALKING AND SINGING: 3 First Line: To his death? Yes Last Line: As though no flight %or dying could equal him %at his momentary song MANIFESTO: THE MAD FARMER LIBERATION FRONT First Line: Love the quick profit, the annual raise Last Line: Practice resurrection MARCH SNOW First Line: The morning lights Last Line: Under the still fall of the snow %only the river, like a brown earth, %taking all falling darkly %in MARRIAGE Poem Text First Line: How hard it is for me, who live Subject(s): Love, Marital MARRIAGE First Line: How hard it is for me, who live Last Line: We hurt, and are hurt, %and have each other for healing. %itis healing. It is never whole MARRIAGE SONG First Line: In january cold, the year's short light Last Line: Our mary in her day of days MARRIAGE, AN ELEGY First Line: They lived long, and were faithful Last Line: The serene gravity of the rain, %the hill's passage to the sea. %after long striving, perfect ease MAY SONG First Line: For whatever is let go Last Line: Making use %of the useless-a beauty %we have less than not %deserved MEADOW First Line: In the town's graveyard the oldest plot now frees itself Last Line: Ungrieved, the town's ancestry fits the earth. They become %a meadow, their alien marble grown nativ MEDITATION IN THE SPRING RAIN Poem Text First Line: In the april rain I climbed up to drink Subject(s): Christianity; Religion; Theology MEDITATION IN THE SPRING RAIN First Line: In the april rain I climbed up to drink Last Line: For a time I was lost and free, speechless %in the multitudinous assembling of his word Subject(s): Christianity; Religion MEETING First Line: In a dream I meet Last Line: I been eating peaches %off some mighty fine trees.' MORNING'S NEWS First Line: To moralize the state, they drag out a man Last Line: And the summer's garden continues its descent %through me, toward the ground Subject(s): Christianity; Religion MUSIC First Line: I employ the blind mandolin player Last Line: This is not the pursuing rhythm %of a blind cane pecking in the sun, %but is a singing in a dark pla MY GREAT-GRANDFATHER'S SLAVES First Line: Deep in the back ways of my mind I see them Last Line: I am owned by the blood of all of them %who ever were owned by my blood. %we cannot be free of each NECESSITY OF FAITH First Line: True harvests no mere intent may reap Last Line: But they live through the night by grace %that no intention can efface NEW ROOF First Line: On the housetop, the floor of the boundless Last Line: Thus like a little ledge a piece of my history %has come between me and the sky NINE VERSES OF THE SAME SONG Poem Text First Line: The ear finely attuned NOW THOUGH THE SEASON WARMS OBSERVANCE First Line: The god of the river leans Last Line: His mind contains %the river as its banks %contain it, in a single act %receiving it and letting it OLD ELM TREE BY THE RIVER First Line: Shrugging in the flight of its leaves Last Line: The strength by which we held to it %and stood, the daylight over it %a mighty blessing we cannot be Subject(s): Environment; Trees ON THE HILL LATE AT NIGHT First Line: The ripe grassheads bend in the starlight Last Line: The hill has grown to me like a foot. %until I lift the earth I cannot move ONE OF US First Line: Must another poor body, brought Last Line: Of us, here with us, who now is gone OUR CHILDREN, COMING OF AGE First Line: In the great circle, dancing in Last Line: Our names will flutter %on these hills like little fires OUR CHRISTMAS TREE Poem Text First Line: Our christmas tree is Last Line: Christ come into the world Subject(s): Christmas Trees; Nativity, The OUR CHRISTMAS TREE First Line: Our christmas tree is Last Line: Christ come into the world Subject(s): Christmas OUR HOUSEHOLD FOR THE TIME MADE RIGHT OVER THE RIVER IN LOUD FLOOD PASSING THE STRAIT: 1. First Line: Forsaking all others, we Last Line: Anywhere. Seed or song, work %or sleep, no matter the need, %what we let fall, we keep PASSING THE STRAIT: 2. First Line: The dance passes beyond us Last Line: The woven circuits of desire, %which leaving here arrive here. %love moves in a bright sphere PASSING THE STRAIT: 3. First Line: Past the strait of kept faith Last Line: Circle of all lovers. On this height %our labor changes into flight PASTURE, BLEACHED AND COLD TWO WEEKS AGO PEACE OF WILD THINGS First Line: When despair for the world grows in me Last Line: I rest in the grace of the world, and am free Subject(s): Animals; Anxiety; Despair; Nature; Peace; Wilderness PLAN First Line: My old friend, the owner Last Line: And the new boat %and our sudden thought %of the water shining %under the morning fog PLANTING CROCUSES: 1 First Line: I made an opening Last Line: Sleep and silence, to new %heat, a new rising, %a yellow flower opening %in the sound of bees PLANTING CROCUSES: 2 First Line: Deathly was the giving Last Line: Of that possibility %to a motion of the world %that would bring it %out, bright, in time PLANTING CROCUSES: 3 First Line: My mind pressing in Last Line: Bloom, I thought of you, %glad there is no escape, %it is this we will be %turning and %returning to PLANTING TREES Poem Text First Line: In the mating of trees Last Line: And the sound of the wind in them Subject(s): Environment; Trees; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation PLANTING TREES First Line: In the mating of trees Last Line: Shining, and their shadows on the ground, %and the sound of the wind in them Subject(s): Environment; Trees POEM First Line: Willing to die Last Line: Your will, keep still %until, moved %by what moves %all else, you move POEM FOR J. Poem Text First Line: What she made in her body is broken Last Line: And made light, the dark seed of her pain Subject(s): Pregnancy POEM FOR J. First Line: What she made in her body is broken Last Line: She has taken back into her flesh, %and made light, the dark seed of her pain Subject(s): Pregnancy POEM OF THANKS First Line: I have been spared another day Last Line: Through you I rise, and you %through me, into the joy %we make, but may not keep PORCH OVER THE RIVER First Line: In the dusk of the river, the wind Last Line: With the water's inward life. What has %made it so?--a quietness in it %no question can be asked in Subject(s): Rivers POSITION First Line: I'm philosophically opposed to iced drinks Last Line: Last should equal first, for a man who thinks PRAISE First Line: His memories lived in the place Last Line: Keeps with me in harsh days, %the shell of his breath dimming away %three summers in the earth PRAISE: 1 First Line: Don't think of it Last Line: Be here. Here %is the root and stem %unappraisable %on whose life %your life depends PRAISE: 2 First Line: Be here Last Line: Comes to, to leave %with a sound %that is a part %of local speech PRAYER AFTER EATING Poem Text First Line: I have taken in the light PRAYER AFTER EATING First Line: I have taken in the light Last Line: May I be worthy of my meat PRAYERS AND SAYINGS OF THE MAD FARMER Poem Text First Line: It is presumptuous and irresponsible to pray for other people. A Last Line: Grown immortal in his mind Subject(s): Farm Life; Prayer; Agriculture; Farmers PRAYERS AND SAYINGS OF THE MAD FARMER First Line: It is presumptuous and irresponsible to pray for other people. A Last Line: Make the human race a better head. Make the world a better %piece of ground Subject(s): Farm Life PURIFICATION First Line: At start of spring I open a trench Last Line: The deathless earth. Beneath that seal %the old escapes into the new Subject(s): Christianity; Religion RAIN First Line: It is a day of the earth's renewing without any man's doing or Last Line: My life stands in place, covered, like a hayrick or a mushroom RAIN CROW Poem Text First Line: The pendulum sun swung REASSURER First Line: A people in the throes of national prosperity, who Last Line: Has been wakened in the night by a dream of the calamity of peace Subject(s): Environment; Nature RECOGNITION First Line: You put on my clothes Last Line: Going through, the lyrical %changes, the strangeness %in which I know again %what I have known befor RECORD First Line: My old friend tells us how the country changed Last Line: Dead at last, it will be too late REMEMBERING MY FATHER First Line: What did I learn from him? Last Line: And I have not forgot REQUIEM; OWEN FLOOD, JANUARY 13, 1920 - MARCH 27, 1974 First Line: We will see no more Last Line: Returning, and long rest RETURNING First Line: I was walking in a dark valley Last Line: The sheen of bounty was on the grass, %and the spring of the year had come RIPENING Poem Text First Line: The longer we are together Last Line: To know you by the signs of this world Subject(s): Men RIPENING First Line: The longer we are together Last Line: The bitter way to better prayer, we have %the sweetness of ripening. How sweet %to know you by the s Subject(s): Men RISING: 1. First Line: Having danced until nearly Last Line: That social life don't get %down the row, does it, boy?' RISING: 2. First Line: I worked by will then, he Last Line: He troubled me to become %what I had not thought to be RISING: 3. First Line: The boy must learn the man Last Line: Starts from, journeys in, %returns to: the fields %whose past and potency are one RISING: 4. First Line: And that is our story Last Line: In spring of the year, %going to the fields, %visionary of seed and desire, %is timeless as a star RISING: 5. First Line: Any man's death could end the story Last Line: There is nowhere to stand but in absence, %no life but in the fateful light RISING: 6. First Line: Ended, a story is history Last Line: In all springs. Nameless, %ancient, many-lived, we reach %through ages with the seed RIVER BRIDGED AND FORGOT First Line: Bridged and forgot, the river Last Line: Past holding or beholding, %in whose flexing signature %all the dooms assemble %and become the lives Subject(s): Religion RONSARD'S LAMENT FOR THE CUTTING OF THE FOREST OF GASTINE First Line: Old forest, tall household of the birds, no more Last Line: All forms will pass, matter alone remain Subject(s): Environment; Trees SABBATH, 1985, VI Poem Text First Line: We have walked so many times, my boy Last Line: Nothing of the season but to be Subject(s): Forests; Fields; Nature; Conservation SABBATH, 1985, VIII Poem Text First Line: I go from the woods into the cleared field Last Line: Beginning now, in our few troubled days Subject(s): Time SABBATH: 1985, V Poem Text First Line: How long does it take to make the woods? Last Line: Into the ease of sight, the brotherhood of eye and leaf Subject(s): Forests SABBATHS First Line: After the slavery of the body, dumbfoundment Last Line: In light's ordinary miracle Subject(s): Environment SABBATHS 1989 First Line: In early morning we awaken from Last Line: The stone, the light upon the stone; %and day and dream are one SABBATHS 1994 First Line: I leave the warmth of the stove Last Line: And now this leaf lies brightly on the ground SABBATHS 1998 First Line: Whatever happens, %those who have learned Last Line: So, I would do it all again SABBATHS 2001 First Line: He wakes in darkness. All around Last Line: Forever, this instant, and may be SABBATHS, 1985, VII Poem Text First Line: Where the great trees were felled Last Line: The woods' floor starred with bloom Subject(s): Nature; Deforestation SABBATHS, SELS. First Line: Where the great trees were felled Last Line: They have no fear. Their fate %is faith. Birdsong %is all they've wanted, all along Subject(s): Nature SABBATHS: 1979 II SABBATHS: 1980 VI SABBATHS: 1985 I Poem Text First Line: Not again in this flesh will I see Last Line: Is here, shaping the seasons of his wild will Subject(s): Christianity; Religion; Theology SABBATHS: 1985 I First Line: Not again in this flesh will I see Last Line: Is here, shaping the seasons of his wild will Subject(s): Christianity; Religion SABBATHS: 1985 III Poem Text First Line: Awaked from the persistent dream Last Line: We are all praising, praying to the light we are, but cannot know Subject(s): Christianity; Religion; Theology SABBATHS: 1985 III First Line: Awaked from the persistent dream Last Line: The lights we are, but cannot know Subject(s): Christianity; Religion SABBATHS: 2001 Poem Text First Line: He waits in darkness all around Subject(s): Sabbath; Sunday SATISFACTIONS OF THE MAD FARMER First Line: Growing weather; enough rain Last Line: I have always expected to be %a great relisher of this world its good %grown immortal in his mind SEEDS First Line: The seeds begin abstract as their species Last Line: Like a tree, he has given roots %to the earth, and stands free SERENADE IN BLACK Poem Text First Line: This crow, my love, black bird SETTING OUT First Line: Even love must pass through loneliness Last Line: Lead him on. He can no longer be at home, %he cannot return,unless he begin %the circle that first w SEVENTEEN YEARS First Line: They are here again Last Line: They open our eyes %to the dark, and we marry again SIGHTS First Line: The tourists, having come from afar Last Line: Taking pictures of each other SILENCE First Line: Though the air is full of singing Last Line: Like a root. Let me say %and not mourn: the world %lives in the death of speech %and sings there SILENCE First Line: What must a man do to be at home in the world? Last Line: Before him, weeds bearing flowers, and the dry wind %rain! What songs he will hear! SIX DAYS OF WORK ARE SPENT SLEEP First Line: I love to lie down weary Last Line: Under the stalk of sleep %growing slowly out of my head, %the dark leaves meshing SLIP First Line: The river takes the land, and leaves nothing Last Line: On what remains. Seed will sprout in the scar. %though death is in the healing, it will heal Subject(s): Christianity; Religion SLOWLY, SLOWLY THEY RETURN SMOKE IS BETTER THAN A SMUDGE First Line: Sex, it appears, has just about %run its course. The rich Last Line: To tobacco's timely intercon- %glomerization with food SNAKE First Line: At the end of october %I found on the floor of the woods Last Line: Big with a death to nourish him %during a long sleep Subject(s): Farm Life SOME FURTHER WORDS First Line: Let me be plain with you, dear readers Last Line: Myself, though for realization we %may wait a thousand or a million years SONATA AT PAYNE HOLLOW Poem Text First Line: We never stopped here before Last Line: Out of all the time we were apart Subject(s): Music & Musicians; Play SONATA AT PAYNE HOLLOW First Line: We never stopped here before Last Line: Out of all the time we lived apart Subject(s): Music And Musicians; Play SONG First Line: I tell my love in rhyme Last Line: With their bright songs depart. %then we will go without art, %without measure, or words SONG (1) First Line: In ignorance of the source, our want Last Line: Truth keeps us though we do not know it. %o spirit, our desolation is your praise SONG (2) First Line: My gentle hill, I rest Last Line: In a place warmed by my body, %where by ardor, grace, work, %and loss, I belong SONG (3) First Line: I stood and heard the steps of the city Last Line: Of flesh with flesh, time with time, our bliss, %the earthly song that heavenly is SONG (4) First Line: Within the circles of our lives Last Line: And then we turn aside, alone, %out of the sunlight gone %into the darker circles of return SONG IN A YEAR OF CATASTROPHE First Line: I began to be followed by a voice saying Last Line: And at last came fully into the ease %and the joy of that place,%all my lost ones returning SONG SPARROW SINGING IN THE FALL First Line: Somehow it has all Last Line: I will go free of other %singing, I will go %into the silence %of my songs, to hear %this song clear SORREL FILLY First Line: The songs of small birds fade away Last Line: And look at her a long time, glad %to have recovered what is lost %in the exchange of something for SOWING First Line: In the stilled place that once was a road going down Last Line: I claim, and act, and am mingled in the fate of the world SPARROW First Line: A sparrow is Last Line: Reflex of his flesh %out of sight, %leaving his perfect %absence without a thought SPRINGS First Line: In a country without satins or shrines Last Line: Of the place, the deep rock, sweetness %out of the dark. He bent and drank %in bondage to the ground Subject(s): Rivers STANDING GROUND First Line: However just and anxious I have been Last Line: Better than any argument is to rise at dawn %and pick dew-wet red berries in a cup STAR First Line: Flying at night, above the clouds, all earthmarks spruned Last Line: I have no pleasure here, nothing to desire. %and then I see one light below there like a star STAY HOME First Line: I will wait here in the fields Last Line: I am at home. Don't come with me. %you stay home too STONES First Line: I owned a slope full of stones Last Line: They have taught me the weariness that loves the ground, %and I must prepare a fitting silence STORM First Line: We lay in our bed as in a tomb Last Line: The sun at noon had never made it shine STRAIT: 1. First Line: The valley holds its shadow Last Line: Of men crossing and crossing %the blank curve of heaven. I hear %the branches clashing in the wind STRAIT: 2. First Line: I have come to the end Last Line: I am well acquainted now %among the dead. Only the past %knows me. In solitude %who will teach me? STRAIT: 3. First Line: The world's one song is passing Last Line: The dead, or what will die. It is light %though it goes in the dark. It goes %ahead, summoning. What STRAIT: 4. First Line: Sitting among the bluebells Last Line: Of his throat, the song I live by %stirred my mind. I said: %'by sweetness alone it survives.' SUMMER ENDS, AND IT IS TIME SUPPLANTING First Line: Where the road came, no longer bearing men Last Line: Through the flame, and is lightened of us, and is glad SUPPLICATION First Line: O may our minds not altogether wither Last Line: We give up sex and resume smoking SYCAMORE First Line: In the place that is my own place, whose earth Last Line: I see that it stands in its place, and feeds upon it, %and is fed upon, and is native, and maker Subject(s): Christianity; Religion TERRAPIN First Line: The terrapin and his house are one. %though he may go, he's never gone Last Line: Ponder this wonder under his dome %who, wandering, is always home TESTAMENT First Line: Dear relatives and friends, when my last breath Last Line: Look on their peace, and rejoice THE APPLE TREE Poem Text First Line: In the essential prose Subject(s): Apple Trees THE ARISTOCRACY Poem Text First Line: Paradise might have appeared here THE BARN Poem Text First Line: While we unloaded the hay fron the truck, building Last Line: And we rest, having done what men do best Subject(s): Barns THE BEST REWARD Poem Text First Line: The best reward in going to the woods Last Line: Or answered by a certain one, or two Subject(s): Nature; Solitude; Loneliness THE BLUE ROBE Poem Text First Line: How joyful to be together, alone Subject(s): Weddings THE BROKEN GROUND Poem Text First Line: The opening out and out Subject(s): Farm Life; Agriculture; Farmers THE BUILDINGS Poem Text First Line: The buildings are all womanly. Their roofs Last Line: In its welcome, a vine with yellow flowers shading the door Subject(s): Buildings & Builders THE BURIAL OF THE OLD Poem Text First Line: The old, whose bodies encrust their lives Subject(s): Death; Dead, The THE COUNTRY OF MARRIAGE Poem Text First Line: I dream of you walking at night along the streams Subject(s): Love THE COUNTRY TOWN IN EARLY SUNDAY MORNING Poem Text First Line: The town has grown here, angular Subject(s): Cities And Towns THE CURRENT Poem Text First Line: Having once put his hand into the ground Last Line: His hand in the dark as by a hand Subject(s): Spring THE DANCE Poem Text First Line: I would have each couple turn Last Line: Love changes, and in change is true Subject(s): Dancing & Dancers; Love - Marital; Wedded Love; Marriage - Love THE DEAD CALF Poem Text First Line: Dead at the pasture edge Subject(s): Death-animals THE GRANDMOTHER First Line: Better born than married, misled Subject(s): Labor & Laborers; Work; Workers THE GUEST Poem Text First Line: Washed into the doorway Last Line: Of my knowing, but not asked Subject(s): Christianity; Guests; Religion; Visiting; Theology THE HABIT OF WAKING Poem Text First Line: Snow, melting, leaves the landscape pied THE HANDING DOWN: 1. THE CONVERSATION Poem Text First Line: Speaker and hearer, words Subject(s): Ancestors & Ancestry; Heritage; Heredity THE LAW THAT MARRIES ALL THINGS Poem Text First Line: The cloud is free only Last Line: Here here here here Subject(s): Religion; Theology THE LOWLAND GROVE Poem Text First Line: And now the lowland grove is down, the trees Last Line: Of year with year, time with returning time Subject(s): Nature; Trees THE MAD FARMER REVOLUTION Poem Text First Line: The mad farmer, the thirsty one Last Line: Practice resurrection Subject(s): Christianity; Farm Life; Religion; Agriculture; Farmers; Theology THE MORNING'S NEWS Poem Text First Line: To moralize the state, they drag out a man Last Line: Through me, toward the ground Subject(s): Christianity; Religion; Theology THE OLD ELM TREE BY THE RIVER Poem Text First Line: Shrugging in the flight of its leaves Last Line: A mighty blessing we cannot bear for long Subject(s): Environment; Trees; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS Poem Text First Line: When despair for the world grows in me Subject(s): Animals; Anxiety; Despair; Nature; Peace; Wilderness THE PORCH OVER THE RIVER Poem Text First Line: In the dusk of the river, the wind Last Line: It has grown too dark to see Subject(s): Rivers THE REAL WORK Poem Text First Line: It may be that when we no longer know what to do THE REASSURER Poem Text First Line: A people in the throes of national prosperity, who Last Line: Has been wakened in the night by a dream of the calamity of peace Subject(s): Environment; Nature; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation THE RIVER BRIDGED AND FORGOT Poem Text First Line: Bridged and forgot, the river Last Line: Is this memory or promise? Subject(s): Religion; Rivers; Theology THE RIVER VOYAGERS Poem Text First Line: Where the light's bells ring THE SLIP Poem Text First Line: The river takes the land, and leaves nothing Subject(s): Christianity; Religion; Theology THE SNAKE First Line: At the end of october / I found on the floor of the woods Subject(s): Farm Life; Agriculture; Farmers THE SPRINGS Poem Text First Line: In a country without satins or shrines Last Line: In bondage to the ground Subject(s): Rivers THE SYCAMORE Poem Text First Line: In the place that is my own place, whose earth Subject(s): Christianity; Religion; Theology THE TERRAPIN Poem Text First Line: The terrapin and his house are one THE VACATION Poem Text First Line: Once there was a man who filmed his vacation Subject(s): Vacation; Nature; Vacation THE WAY OF PAIN Poem Text First Line: For parents, the only way Subject(s): Abraham; Christianity; Crucifixion; Pain; Parents; Jesus Christ - Crucifixion; Suffering; Misery; Parenthood THE WHEEL First Line: At the first strokes of the fiddle bow Subject(s): Christianity; Dancing & Dancers; Religion; Time; Wheels; Theology THE WILD ROSE Poem Text First Line: Sometimes hidden from me Last Line: Again what I chose before Subject(s): Christianity; Religion; Theology THEY Poem Text First Line: I see you down there, white-haired THEY First Line: I see you down there, white-haired Last Line: Once the they whom we remember THEY SIT TOGETHER ON THE PORCH Poem Text Subject(s): Aging; Togetherness THIEF First Line: I think of us lying asleep Last Line: Shining-our eyes granted to the light %again, by what chance or price %we do not even know THIRD POSSIBILITY First Line: I fired the brush pile by the creek Last Line: Between the two, and liked them both Subject(s): Christianity; Religion THIRTY MORE YEARS First Line: When I was a young man Last Line: Smaller, one among the grasses THOUGHT OF SOMETHING ELSE First Line: A spring wind blowing Last Line: The spaces among the leaves THREE ELEGIAC POEMS; HARRY ERDMAN PERRY, 1861-1965: 2 First Line: I stand at the cistern in front of the old barn Last Line: Only his hands, quiet on the sheet, keep %a painful resemblance to what they no longer are THREE ELEGIAC POEMS; HARRY ERDMAN PERRY, 1881-1945: 3 First Line: He goes free of the earth Last Line: He's hidden among all that is, %and cannot be lost THREE ELEGIAC POEMS; HARRY ERDMAN PERRY, 1881-1965: 1 First Line: Let him escape hospital and doctor Last Line: Let him go like one familiar with the way %into the wooded and tracked and %furrowed hill, his body THROWING AWAY THE MAIL First Line: Nothing is simple Last Line: Thus, throwing away %the mail, I exchange %the complexity of duty %for the simplicity of guilt THRUSH SONG, STREAM SONG, HOLY LOVE Last Line: The light one figured cloth of song TIRED MAN LEAVES HIS LABOR First Line: A tired man leaves his labor, felt Last Line: Here in this passing time and place TO A SIBERIAN WOODSMAN (AFTER LOOKING AT SOME PICTURES IN A MAGAZINE) Poem Text Recitation First Line: You lean at ease in your warm house at night after supper Last Line: Comes up the path from the river in the evening, for joy Subject(s): Siberia TO A SIBERIAN WOODSMAN (AFTER LOOKING AT SOME PICTURES IN A MAGAZINE) First Line: You lean at ease in your warm house at night after supper Last Line: Comes up the path from the river in the evening, for joy Subject(s): Siberia TO GARY SNYDER Poem Text First Line: After we saw the wild ducks Last Line: By division we speak, out of wonder Subject(s): Snyder, Gary (b. 1930) TO GARY SNYDER First Line: After we saw the wild ducks Last Line: Wavering in long lines, high, %southward, out of sight. %by division we speak, out of wonder Subject(s): Snyder, Gary (b. 1930) TO GO BY SINGING First Line: He comes along the street, singing Last Line: To be strong. His song doesn't impede the morning %or changeit, except by freely adding itself TO KNOW THE DARK First Line: To go in the dark with a light is to know the light Last Line: And find that the dark, too, blooms and sings, %and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings TO LONG FOR WHAT CAN BE FULFILLED IN TIME TO LONG FOR WHAT ETERNITY FULFILLS TO MY CHILDREN, FEARING FOR THEM Poem Text First Line: Terrors are to come. The earth Last Line: Though the pain of them is on me Subject(s): Family Life; Parents; Relatives; Parenthood TO MY CHILDREN, FEARING FOR THEM First Line: Terrors are to come. The earth Last Line: Your eyes turning toward me, %can I wish your lives unmade %though the pain of them is on me Subject(s): Family Life; Parents TO MY MOTHER Poem Text First Line: I was your rebellious son Subject(s): Mothers & Sons TO MY MOTHER First Line: I was your rebellious son Last Line: And all is undismayed TO SIT AND LOOK AT LIGHT-FILLED LEAVES TO TANYA AT CHRISTMAS Poem Text First Line: Forgive me, my delight Last Line: That rises on all I know Subject(s): Christianity; Religion; Theology TO TANYA AT CHRISTMAS First Line: Forgive me, my delight Last Line: And song. The song will tell %how old love sweetens the fields Subject(s): Christianity; Religion TO THE HOLY SPIRIT First Line: O thou, far off and here, whole and broken Last Line: Whose truth is light and dark, mute though spoken, %by the wide grace show me thy narrow gate TO THE UNSEEABLE ANIMAL Poem Text First Line: Being, whose flesh dissolves Last Line: Keeps us near you Subject(s): Christianity; Religion; Theology TO THE UNSEEABLE ANIMAL First Line: Being, whose flesh dissolves Last Line: That we do not know you %is your perfection %and our hope. The darkness %keeps us near you Subject(s): Christianity; Religion TO THINK OF THE LIFE OF A MAN Poem Text First Line: In a time that breaks TO THINK OF THE LIFE OF A MAN First Line: In a time that breaks Last Line: Or sold my voice and mind %to the arguments of power %that go blind against %what they would destroy TO WHAT LISTENS Poem Text First Line: I come to it again Last Line: I sing– to what listens– again Subject(s): Religion; Theology TO WHAT LISTENS First Line: I come to it again Last Line: I sing - to what listens - again Subject(s): Religion TO WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS Poem Text First Line: Our kind vandalize the earth Last Line: The joy and burden of our song Subject(s): Poetry & Poets; Yeats, William Butler (1865-1939) TO WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS First Line: Our kind vandalize the earth Last Line: The joy and burden of our song Subject(s): Poetry And Poets; Yeats, William Butler (1865-1939) TRAVELING AT HOME First Line: Even in a country you know by heart Last Line: Of accident. To get back before dark %is the art of going VACATION First Line: Once there was a man who filmed his vacation Last Line: Would not be in it. He would never be in it Subject(s): Nature; Vacation VERSES OF THE SAME SONG: 9 Poem Text First Line: And my love has come to me Last Line: No more sorrowing music Subject(s): Love VERSES OF THE SAME SONG: 9 First Line: And my love has come to me Last Line: My hearing suffers %no more sorrowing music Subject(s): Love VISION First Line: If we will have the wisdom to survive Last Line: Its hardship is its possibility Subject(s): Environment WALKING ON THE RIVER ICE First Line: A man could be a god Last Line: If the ice wouldn't melt %and he could stand the cold WALNUT ST., OAK ST., SYCAMORE ST., ETC Poem Text First Line: So this is what happened Last Line: Where they had gone Subject(s): Environment; Trees; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation WALNUT ST., OAK ST., SYCAMORE ST., ETC First Line: So this is what happened Last Line: Where they had gone Subject(s): Environment; Trees WANT OF PEACE First Line: All goes back to the earth Last Line: And that has bent my mind %and made me think of darkness %and wish for the dumb life of roots WARNING TO MY READERS First Line: Do not think me gentle Last Line: Of fits and furies. That I %may have spoken well %at times, is not natural. %a wonder is what it is WAY OF PAIN First Line: For parents, the only way Last Line: Too bright, unsparing, whole Subject(s): Abraham; Christianity; Crucifixion; Pain; Parents WE HAVE WALKED SO MANY TIMES, MY BOY Last Line: Nothing of the season but to be Subject(s): Environment; Fields WE WHO PRAYED AND WEPT Poem Text Last Line: Send thy necessity Subject(s): Prayer; Superficiality WE WHO PRAYED AND WEPT Last Line: We have failed thy grace. %lord, I flinch and pray, %send thy necessity Subject(s): Greed WET TIME First Line: The land is an ark, full of things waiting Last Line: Drag the bottom. I was not ready for this %parting, my native land putting out to sea WHAT HARD TRAVAIL GOD DOES IN DEATH WHAT IF, IN THE HIGH, RESTFUL SANTUARY WHAT STOOD WILL STAND, THOUGH ALL BE FALLEN WHAT WE NEED IS HERE Poem Text First Line: Geese appear high over us WHATEVER IS FORESEEN IN JOY WHEEL First Line: At the first strokes of the fiddle bow Last Line: And turn with them in the dance %in the sweet enclosure %of the song, and timeless %is the wheel tha Subject(s): Christianity; Dancing And Dancers; Religion; Time; Wheels WHERE First Line: The field mouse flickers Last Line: Kept it the best they could, %thought of its good, %and mourned the good they lost WHO MAKES A CLEARING MAKES A WORK OF ART WHY Poem Text First Line: Why all the embarrassment Subject(s): Happiness; Joy; Delight WHY First Line: Why all the embarrassment %about being happy? Last Line: And for the same reasons, %and for others WILD First Line: In the empty lot - a place Last Line: Its remembrance of what it is WILD GEESE First Line: Horseback on sunday morning Last Line: For new earth or heaven, but to be %quiet in heart, and in eye %clear. What we need is here WILD ROSE First Line: Sometimes hidden from me Last Line: Again what I chose before Subject(s): Christianity; Religion WINDOW POEMS: 1 First Line: Window. Window Last Line: Traveled by snow squalls, %the trees thrashing, %the corn blades driven, %quivering, straight out WINDOW POEMS: 10 First Line: Rising, the river Last Line: Down into, knowing %he goes within the reach %of a dark power: where %the birds are, fish %were WINDOW POEMS: 11 First Line: How fine Last Line: Already his spirit %is with them, with a strange attentiveness, %hearing the grass %quietly tearing WINDOW POEMS: 12 First Line: The country where he lives Last Line: The wind will do without %corners. How difficult %to think of it: miles and miles %and no window WINDOW POEMS: 13 First Line: Sometimes he thinks the earth Last Line: He is given a fragment of time %in this fragment of the world. %he likes it pretty well WINDOW POEMS: 14 First Line: The longest night is past Last Line: In patches on the river bank, %frosty sunlight on the dry corn, %and buds on the water maples %red, WINDOW POEMS: 15 First Line: The sycamore gathers Last Line: The world is greater than its words. %to speak of it the mind must bend WINDOW POEMS: 16 First Line: His mind gone from the window Last Line: He couldn't carry it home %--another who saw %in the flaws of the moon %a woman's face %like a cameo WINDOW POEMS: 17 First Line: For a night and a day Last Line: Is back on the highway, and he sits again %at his window. Another day. %during the night snow fell WINDOW POEMS: 18 First Line: The window grows fragile Last Line: He has known his heart to rise %in glad holocaust against his kind, %and felt hard in thigh and arm WINDOW POEMS: 19 Poem Text First Line: Peace. May he waken Last Line: Peace to the man in the window Subject(s): Peace WINDOW POEMS: 19 First Line: Peace. May he waken Last Line: Peace to the porch and the garden. %peace to the man in the window Subject(s): Peace WINDOW POEMS: 2 Poem Text First Line: The foliage has dropped WINDOW POEMS: 2 First Line: The foliage has dropped Last Line: The wood of trees branching %outward and outward %to the nervousness of twigs, %buds asleep in the a WINDOW POEMS: 20 First Line: In the early morning dark Last Line: Where he sat and looked out, %the earth before him, blessed %by his dream of peace, %bad history beh WINDOW POEMS: 21 First Line: He has known a tunnel Last Line: Far off, another way, he hears %the flute of spring,%an old-style traveler, %wandering through the t WINDOW POEMS: 22 First Line: Still sleeping, he heard Last Line: The window has changed, no longer %remembering, but waiting WINDOW POEMS: 23 First Line: He stood on the ground Last Line: The window is made strange %by these days he has come to. %she is the comfort of the rooms %she leav WINDOW POEMS: 24 First Line: His love returns Last Line: In the woods. There is %no window where she is. %all is clear where the light begins %to dress the b WINDOW POEMS: 25 First Line: The bloodroot is white Last Line: Pursued by whining engines, %missing the world %as they passover it, %every man %his own mosquito WINDOW POEMS: 26 First Line: In the heron's eye Last Line: And the heat of the day %is on them, and the dark %--end and beginning %without end WINDOW POEMS: 27 First Line: Now that april with sweet rain Last Line: Rises. The window has an edge %that is celestial, %where the eyes are surpassed WINDOW POEMS: 3 First Line: The window has forty Last Line: The windy day %on one of the panes %a blown seed, caught %incobweb, beats and beats WINDOW POEMS: 4 First Line: This is the wind's eye Last Line: Winter after winter %at a wrinkle in the eave, %flowing overitself %as it comes and goes, %fluid as WINDOW POEMS: 5 First Line: Look in Last Line: What he has understood %lies behind him %like a road in the woods. He is %a wilderness looking out % WINDOW POEMS: 6 First Line: A warm day in december Last Line: Downpour. As the man works %the weather moves %upon his mind, its dreariness %a kind of comfort WINDOW POEMS: 7 First Line: Outside the window Last Line: Will take. Thus they have %enlightened him. He buys %the seed, to make it free WINDOW POEMS: 8 First Line: The river is rising Last Line: With the trash of the woods %and the trash of towns, %bearing down, and rising WINDOW POEMS: 9 First Line: There is a sort of vertical Last Line: Some pads of paper, %eleven pencils, %a leaky pen, %a jar of ink %are his powers. He'll %never fly WINTER NIGHT POEM FOR MARY First Line: As I started home after dark Last Line: The spring flowers, or he might not. But I saw him %with hisbasket, going along the hilltop WINTER NIGHTFALL First Line: The fowls speak and sing, settling for the night Last Line: Outside the walls and on the roof and in the woods %the cold rain falls WINTER RAIN First Line: The leveling of the water, its increase Last Line: And having waded all the way %across, I look back and see there %on the water the still sky WINTER WREN IS BACK, QUICK WISH TO BE GENEROUS First Line: All that I serve will die, all my delights Last Line: Or regret toward what will be, my life %a patient willing decent into the grass WOODS Poem Text First Line: I part the out thrusting branches Last Line: There is flight around me Subject(s): Blessings; Environment; Trees; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation WOODS First Line: I part the out thrusting branches Last Line: Though I am heavy %there is flight around me Subject(s): Blessings; Environment; Trees WORK SONG Poem Text First Line: By the fall of years I learn Last Line: And sweat the fields have seasoning Subject(s): Labor & Laborers; Work; Workers WORK SONG First Line: By the fall of years I learn Last Line: The end of this is not in sight. %and I come to the waning of the year %weary, the way long Subject(s): Labor And Laborers YEAR RELENTS First Line: The year relents, and free Last Line: Unmaking makes the world |
|