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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: BERSSENBRUGGE, MEI-MEI Matches Found: 145 Berssenbrugge, Mei-mei Poet's Biography 145 poems available by this author ABORTION First Line: When we walked outside at sunset Last Line: From behind a playground fence %the rampant light AEGEAN Poem Text First Line: Tang tang tang tang tang tang tang Last Line: Odor of sea shell Subject(s): Aegean Sea AEGEAN First Line: Tang tang tang tang tang tang tang Last Line: Into emptiness %like and empty goat skull %odor of sea shell Subject(s): Aegean Sea ALAKANAK BREAK-UP First Line: To find out the temperature, she tosses a cup of water into the air Last Line: Your shirt near the snow machine. It is the initial color on the tundra AUDIENCE Poem Text First Line: People think, at the theatre, an audience is tricked into believing it's looking at life. BEAUTY First Line: I can't represent the ideal beauty of a view through a break in the hills Last Line: Fingermails coated with oil were used for this prophecy BLOSSOM First Line: A stem needing to blossom Last Line: Those veins in your wrist are already %a brave distance from the heart BLUE TAJ First Line: There is your 'dream' and its 'approximation' BOG First Line: In black sweet mulch I saw a mushroom shine out Last Line: The great subterranean arms %of trees and small skeletons embrace BOOK OF THE DEAD, PRAYER 14 First Line: Good-bye %try to stay awake now you're dead Last Line: I tell you so you won't worry %try to stay awake CARMELITES First Line: Like the camera, memory is a device and feeling is a device, or a souvenir CHINESE SPACE Recitation by Author Subject(s): Family Life; Houses; Beijing. China; Ancestors & Ancestry; Relatives; Heritage; Heredity CHINESE SPACE First Line: First there is the gate from the street, then some flowers inside CHRONICLE First Line: I was born the year of the loon %in a great commotion. My mother-- Last Line: Even today I get proud %when I remember %this all took place in chinese COMBUSTION First Line: Given the depth of the colors of the mineral, whose source is an oscillation of Last Line: It is one of the rules that do not form a system, but an experienced person can apply it COMMISSION First Line: The reflection of san marco on rainy illuminated paving stones at night-a Last Line: By trying to externally communicate his regret? CONCORDANCE [OUR CONVERSATION IS A WING] Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Our conversation is a wing below my consciousness CONCORDANCE [WORKING BACKWARD IN SLEEP] Poem Text Recitation by Author DAUGHTER Recitation by Author Subject(s): Dreams; Daughters; Nightmares DAUGHTER First Line: An angel swims silently to a flat rock in the night, where seabirds are Last Line: Material like cellophane, achieves a cohesive tension exactly beside the contemporary DOLL First Line: Discourse on death contains a rhetoric of borders Last Line: The face of her longing, to a mother inconsolable before a blessing DRESSING UP OUR PETS Recitation by Author First Line: I sew a bright hood for my pet mouse Subject(s): Pets; Clothing & Dress DURATION OF WATER First Line: So that I make you a microcosm or symbolic center of the public Last Line: Tracking the last aria, like a duration of water %which is apiece of white silk EL BOSCO First Line: If you offer your bag of butterflies Last Line: Even if you sweep a little home for yourself %in a broken jug EMPATHY First Line: First, I see roses in the dark with him, a compaction of spare light Last Line: To deny this is to deny the struggle to make certain meanings stick ENDOCRINOLGOY: 1 First Line: The bird watches the man and woman dance Last Line: The form of her body is important, as how she is here, though there's no physical evidence of her ph ENDOCRINOLOGY: 2 First Line: Hormones provide a mechanism by which the body relays chemical signals through Last Line: With iron rocks in crevices, as in a story she accepts not knowing if her lost child is alive ENDOCRINOLOGY: 3 First Line: The bird sings on a strawberry the size of a melon Last Line: She concentrates on manipulating her organs to pull the white square of light precisely into the nic ENDOCRINOLOGY: 4 First Line: The woman leans on the table, forearms abnormally long Last Line: He loved her body as much as he loved her as an individual ENDOCRINOLOGY: 5 First Line: There is a space Last Line: He cannot separate from the loved person, to shed the loved body EURASIAN AT THE PARTY WOULD NOT , FR. PACK RAT SIEVE Last Line: Blanket the snow like snow on sand %but it is morning EXPERIENCE First Line: The idea of illusion suggests that existence in different worlds, Last Line: Assesses the vicissitudes of this aspiration. A consciousness outside a state of being is flooded FINN SONG TO THE BEAR GHOSTS First Line: Don't blame us %for killing Last Line: On the table %we have painted %your skulls %blue FOG First Line: Hundreds of millions of years ago, days were many hours shorter FORMS OF POLITENESS First Line: Taking advantage of the relationships and interaction which actually exist FORMS PF POLITENESS Poem Text First Line: Taking advantage of the relationships and interaction, which actually exist between what happens Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships; Male-female Relations FOUR YEAR OLD GIRL First Line: The genotype is her genetic constitution Last Line: Singularity without compromising life as a whole FRAGRANCE First Line: As if a flower were handmade in daylight with it in mind, instead of coming Last Line: Than even intersection, where 'one' does not count with children, because they do not make a sign GHOST First Line: When the indian steps Last Line: The rocks %the bent oak trees %the cranes feeding in the river GLITTER Recitation by Author GOLD First Line: A yellow apple could be a small hollow in stone that flows over and over Last Line: A leaf can fold over, placing a skin of the leaf here, in the small of his back in the heat GREEN Recitation by Author HEALTH Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: I cut the stem of the amaryllis, and water poured out so suddenly, I didn't Last Line: From new american writing Subject(s): Babies; Birth; Flowers; Infants; Child Birth; Midwifery HEARING Recitation by Author Subject(s): Compassion HEARING: 1 First Line: A voice with no one speaking, like the sea, merges with my Last Line: Hearing: transparency arms and legs arch over, nest for my limbs %when I was young HEARING: 2 First Line: A bird falls out of the air, through the anti-weave, into the anti-net Last Line: Continuous with the copresence of dresses HEARING: 3 First Line: Plum blossoms in snow give way to fragile cherry blossoms Last Line: My hearing it call and its ceasing to exist HEARING: 4 First Line: I found I could take words from one discipline and intersect them Last Line: Children retained the physical latency of hearing them HEAT BIRD First Line: A critic objects to their 'misterian' qualities Last Line: If a bright clearing will form suddenly, we will %already know of it HONEYMOON First Line: Though relations with oneself and with other people seem negotiated in terms Variant Title(s): Hiddennes HOPI BASKETWEAVER SONG First Line: I climb the mesa Last Line: I won't write this down anymore %about peaches %or runners to the sea HUDSON ICE FLOES First Line: Ice breaks in the river Last Line: Gunmetal blue bubbles %that float away over us like music I LOVE ARTISTS Recitation by Author First Line: I go her house and talk to her IDEAL Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: I did not know beforehand what would count for me as a new color. Its beauty is an analysis Subject(s): Colors IN BHAUDANATH First Line: If your eyes fall Last Line: It is clean %water %from the mountains INTENTION OF TWO RIVERS First Line: I remember the spring flowers Last Line: On the sand. When at lowest tide it is sunset %I can wade across, holding my shoes IRISES First Line: In a world which transcends the confines of her transient being, she can reach Last Line: For the space, as a halo rescued out of her life JEALOUSY First Line: Attention was commanded through a simple, unadorned, unexplained, Last Line: Claims no particular status in space, or being of its own KALI First Line: First, the beginning, presupposed as a past, goes to ground like a foundation Last Line: Its matter is ground, blue to blackness, bare as dread reality KISSES FROM THE MOON Recitation by Author Subject(s): Friendship LEAVING YOUR COUNTRY First Line: Where mistletoe bursts from dead branches Last Line: Drummed up from the flowing ravine through my lips %and the tiny ear-bones LOS SANGRE DE CRISTOS, N.M. First Line: Los sangre de christos Last Line: And the rust shoulders %of day LOST RING First Line: By change, I mean fragment, continuity without context against Last Line: Margin, an other projected as remodelling, nonspecific recreational %lines and tent poles MARCH WIND First Line: The wind bends without straining the beech trees Last Line: Something that can only be seen %in infinite slender sections MARGIN First Line: Sense of being responsible for a crisis may also give a feeling of control MEMBRANE First Line: In lower orders up to the mammal %a membrane Last Line: When a dead thing cuddles into its grave %like a minute we pity ourselves %cancel our myths MIZU: 1. First Line: If the boy goes under the water, the water is thick air Last Line: On some mud, shoots had turned green. But they forgot about %him MIZU: 10. First Line: The wind blows horizontally along the bluff above the bay Last Line: That seem a little off from each other. Or he could dream and freeze %without startling MIZU: 11. First Line: The bamboo grove is filled with snow Last Line: And he became a crane, able to disguise his escape as migration, %as if an old crane would come back MIZU: 2. First Line: Standing to his waist in the water, he was dredging for crabs Last Line: Huge distances he wanted to be lazy. And the water was very bright %and made him blink MIZU: 3. First Line: And he was in reverse of the people's routine. So he could watch Last Line: Thankfully, all three hirutsakas were alive, there MIZU: 4. First Line: At first he tried to compensate for the water's colro and weight Last Line: These things happened as he breathed. The turtle increased %to his own size MIZU: 5. First Line: Richly branched stems of staghorn coral Last Line: Unique piece of dark blue starry sky strewn with tiny %pale blue lights, the marine jewel fish MIZU: 6. First Line: This was in the shallow water near shore. He forgot about Last Line: Organisms draped like spaghetti on the rocks disappeared %when he approached them, like shadow and l MIZU: 7. First Line: Every interval from every season could be found, as he walked Last Line: Light out of the tops of their heads, which was a kind of longevity %he had access to, but did not c MIZU: 8. First Line: He was running up and down the vents, approaching currents Last Line: Of his old friends, and his beloved finches in various stages %of development MIZU: 9. First Line: By the time he finished eating with them, three days Last Line: Pressure changes as he broke into air with great force. %he saw the same hills and the same shore, b NATURALISM First Line: He calls it instincts and their vicissitudes, or emotions, at the border Last Line: I had this nostalgia, this deep regret at having to return to normal, but %I could do nothing to pro NEST Recitation NEST: 1 First Line: My mother-tongue, chinese, has an immemorial history before me Last Line: One language, another without intent, translated as heart NEST: 2 First Line: I want to tell you what's difficult to admit, that I left home Last Line: Artifacts, comparison coexisting with incongruity NEST: 3 First Line: My origin is a linguistic surface like a decorated wall, no little Last Line: Borders which represent places NEST: 4 First Line: A margin can't rot, no bloated outline around memories of Last Line: Furnishings, colors, situation are sumptuous in relation to %anonymity, textiles like money NEST: 5 First Line: I feel the right to have my invitation accepted, an open house Last Line: In this, daughter, you see more than I did at your age, because you %see me OLD KNOW BY MIDSUMMER First Line: You don't know %what it is to be alive and you won't Last Line: On my fingers %when I pick them up empty from the road OLD MAN LET'S GO FISHING IN THE YELLOW REEDS OF THE BAY First Line: Our flat bottomed boat Last Line: If my two dreaming hands %were not caught happily in yours ON THE MOUNTAIN WITH THE DEER First Line: When the deer grazing upwind Last Line: There are always poisonous lizards on my back %the prey of our hands touching the dark ON THE WINTER SOLSTICE First Line: Light fades at four o'clock today Last Line: I hang glass balls and their crumpled hats %button a black coat around the year PACK RAT SIEVE First Line: Never mind if he calls, the places you get Last Line: And recognize which island to land on. They are all sparkling in the sun PARALLEL LINES Recitation by Author Subject(s): Textiles; Desert PERMANENT HOME Poem Text First Line: I seek a permanent home, but this structure has an appearance of indifferent Subject(s): Houses PERMANENT HOME: 1 First Line: I seek a permanent home, but this structure has the appearance of Last Line: In which a beloved ruin is middle ground, for example PERMANENT HOME: 2 First Line: First house and space negate one another Last Line: Lightening, starting point and any second place PERMANENT HOME: 3 First Line: Rain pours out a gutter near the poor horse Last Line: (disappointment, something not seen, becomes inspiration) PERMANENT HOME: 4 First Line: The mouse in a cage is fed white beans Last Line: Path, when I was not going anywhere in particular PERMANENT HOME: 5 First Line: Materials and freedom combine, so material can't be subjective Last Line: Chinese space breaks free from the view in front of me, while my house %continues rotating on earth PERPETUAL MOTION: 1 First Line: You go to the mountains Last Line: And wait %stillness turns in its well PERPETUAL MOTION: 2 First Line: I touch your face Last Line: Of sunset on the mountain %the first cellular light of a flank PERPETUAL MOTION: 3 First Line: Walking up the mountain Last Line: Of the peak tatooed with waves %the summit moves with the tide POLLEN Recitation by Author Subject(s): Ecology POLLEN First Line: The sky and movement of clouds figure in the issue of the frame of the spring, Last Line: The child turns toward an imaginary animal PROPELLER SLEEP First Line: I've learned to recognize angels Last Line: Even if one stays by you side seven years %it is a parallel flight PROPORTIONS OF A BODY , FR. PACK RAT SIEVE Last Line: Wishbones for her, or knotholes depicting the galaxies %she understood he was making himself the gap RECITATIVE First Line: Her voice on the telephone, while she is out of town performing RED BACKS AND AUTUMN LEAVES JAM THE STREAMS First Line: Mate with mate, through water Last Line: Will flail upstream %in your hands RED QUIET, SECTION 3 Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Our conversation is a wing below my consciousness, like organization in blowing cloth SAFETY Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Increasingly in our world, forgiveness is asked for, granted, withheld, SECOND MOMENT, THE THIRD MOMENT First Line: Was yellow in a heat that held it Last Line: Like a story hummed before sleep %cold poles will slant across the sun SERISITY Recitation by Author SIZE First Line: Stones were chosen so impact of water on them makes acoustic harmony, the way Last Line: Each point is more than a limit, is in the body, incomparable to material destructions SKY First Line: Ant on the end of a pin waving at empty space Last Line: I would light them %I want to be sky over the flames SLEEP First Line: The animal sleeps and dreams %of something desired in the day Last Line: It is getting to be always just before dawn %an empty sky,shadowy with consummations SNOW MOUNTAINS First Line: A bird flies up from the mountain Last Line: Where the tiniest birds crash %it is sunset %under the big black birds SPACES ARE DEATH First Line: Between the hand reaching out Last Line: The space between a star %and the mirror holding it SPHERICITY: 1. First Line: Emphasizing not only the ground upon which her movement builds, but matter Last Line: Every other moment of an experience must push to extravagance of sphericity, of %horizon, not magnit SPHERICITY: 2. First Line: The time of having her becomes an absorptive surface, instead of when the Last Line: Her time is the center of increasing disorder, an arrow in the space SPHERICITY: 3. First Line: It is finite in extent, yet has no edges, like the surface of the earth. On Last Line: Can have content, I. E., telling something to me, or if you were telling the content of your %dream SPHERICITY: 4. First Line: The image of an apricot band of light in my memory does not block out the Last Line: Called agreement in the form of life, and the lack of this necessity between time and a %collapsed s SPIRIT First Line: This straw horse and this crabshell Last Line: Let my oldest thought %be a crack: I am %tongues SPRING STREET BAR First Line: And last night a man came in Last Line: When there had been a sky, to write about the sky Subject(s): Bars & Bartenders; New York City; Pubs; Taverns; Saloons; Manhattan; New York, New York; The Big Apple STAR FIELD First Line: Placing our emotion on a field SUSIE, KIKI, ANNIE: 1 First Line: On its own terms, my project with them developed a gentle Last Line: I try to speak to her in a way in which she might take me seri- %ously and answer back SUSIE, KIKI, ANNIE: 2 Poem Text First Line: The situation is an image of her gathering a toy horse from Last Line: The horse takes a small jump in the air, and her head and shoulders arch back Subject(s): Animals; Girls; Horses; Toys SUSIE, KIKI, ANNIE: 2 First Line: The situation is an image of her gathering a toy horse from Last Line: The horse takes a small jump in the air, and her head and %shoulders arch back Subject(s): Animals; Girls; Horses; Toys SUSIE, KIKI, ANNIE: 3 Poem Text First Line: I see minnie mouse, instead of a thin girl in a cotton smock Last Line: A sense of deferral has been added to this weave of naiveté, humor, fragility, but our relationship Subject(s): Girls SUSIE, KIKI, ANNIE: 3 First Line: I see minnie mouse, instead of a thin girl in a cotton smock Last Line: Humor, fragility, but our relation has in fact ended Subject(s): Girls SUSPENSION BRIDGE First Line: You say all of us Last Line: Even on cool nights above the grasses %when it loves, victim to victim SWAN First Line: He calls it their stage, which echoes our first misrecognition TAN TIEN Poem Text Subject(s): Meditation; Tang Dynasty (618-907) TAN TIEN First Line: As usual, the first gate was modest. It is dilapidated. She can't tell TEXAS First Line: I used the table as a reference and just did things from there in register Last Line: But is a style that has got the future wrong THE NEW BOYS Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: He says problems in israel will be solved by extraterrestrials Subject(s): Boys THE RESERVOIR Poem Text First Line: The reservoir is trying to freeze over Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships; Male-female Relations THE SWAN Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: He calls it their stage Subject(s): Feminism TRACKS First Line: One day you trip and jar yourself Last Line: Try to remember now %what is a child TRANSLATION OF VERVER First Line: A roan lizard writhing on a dead leaf Last Line: Sweeping away dry ones in a rainless summer %as if the hue of the next feather were the shedding TRAVELLING THROUGH YOU COUNTRY First Line: Where peacocks scuttle Last Line: You were standing on the mountain %roots already brown and solid as her feet VALUE First Line: Your description of the amaryllis, projective, imaginary, and symbolic Last Line: Not where she stops, but an opacity from which to extend her presence WAR INSURANCE First Line: To communicate skilfully, a person must be aware of interpersonal distance WRITTEN BEFORE EASTER IN NEW YORK - 1 First Line: I've poisoned insects since I came to new york Last Line: Not a soul %wants them %nothing rots but the light WRITTEN BEFORE EASTER IN NEW YORK - 2 First Line: Life still hangs on me, a stinking Last Line: Extends into avenues %a residue of thick yellow dust WRITTEN BEFORE EASTER IN NEW YORK - 3 First Line: Single men eating their single meal Last Line: It is high noon %men too can be members WRITTEN BEFORE EASTER IN NEW YORK - 4 First Line: Eighth avenue %you are adrift today Last Line: A shredding, glittering maypole %grease, lightbulbs, pigeon feathers? WRITTEN BEFORE EASTER IN NEW YORK - 5 First Line: The river is a voice running up in the fog Last Line: Soot and light fall through me to the river %the fluttering cloth, the sirens WRITTEN BEFORE EASTER IN NEW YORK - 6 First Line: There are new shoes Last Line: Of all the days I hate friday, the world shakes %in the universe of cirles I am zero |
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