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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: BLY, ROBERT Matches Found: 623 Bly, Robert Poet's Biography 623 poems available by this author 23-DEC-26 First Line: I was born during the night sea-journey Last Line: With sticks on the log walls. And when they are drunk, %theyfight over water, and spill it on the pl A CATERPILLAR ON THE DESK Poem Text First Line: Lifting up my coffee cup, I notice a caterpillar crawling Subject(s): Caterpillars; Postage Stamps A CHRISTMAS POEM Poem Text First Line: I saw you nearly at dawn in a bath Last Line: Certain if our family tonight was worthy Subject(s): Christmas A CONVERSATION WITH A MOUSE Poem Text First Line: One day a mouse called to me from his curly nest Last Line: Of the century when a sleepy mouse brings in the milky way Subject(s): Mice; Milky Wau A DREAM OF WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS Poem Text First Line: You were dead, but how sleek and darkly calm you were! Last Line: Lying, saying I cared nothing about form.... Subject(s): Creative Ability; Dreams; Irony; Play; Williams, William Carlos (1883-1963); Inspiration; Creativity; Nightmares A DREAM ON THE FIRST NIGHT OF SNOW Poem Text First Line: I woke from a first-day-of-snow dream Subject(s): Snow A FARM IN WESTERN MINNESOTA Poem Text First Line: When I look at childhood, I see the yellow rose bush Last Line: Was work to do, but no one learned how to say goodbye Subject(s): Farm Life; Minnesota; Agriculture; Farmers A JOURNEY WITH WOMEN Poem Text First Line: Floating in turtle blood, going backward and forward Subject(s): Turtles; Tortoises A LATE SPRING DAY IN MY LIFE Poem Text First Line: A silence hovers over the earth A MAN AND A WOMAN AND A BLACKBIRD Poem Text First Line: When the two rivers Last Line: And the blackbird are one Subject(s): Birds; Man-woman Relationships A PRIVATE FALL Poem Text First Line: Mots of haydust rise and fall Last Line: And we tell no one Subject(s): Autumn; Nature; Seasons; Fall A RAMAGE FOR AWAKENING SORROW Poem Text First Line: The grackles stroll about on the black floor of sorrow Subject(s): Grief; Sorrow; Sadness A RAMAGE FOR THE STAR MAN, MOURNING Poem Text First Line: The star man, mourning, floats above the stars Subject(s): Mourning; Bereavement A THIRD BODY Poem Text First Line: A man and a woman sit near each other, and they do not long Subject(s): Love A WEEK AFTER YOUR DEATH Poem Text First Line: I dreamt last night you Last Line: Your dream he did Subject(s): Death; Dreams ABAN KAVOST AND IVAR OAKESON First Line: What you love is gone; the worst have got it Last Line: Have you put bonds on me? Are you that strong? ABOUT HISTORY First Line: One march day I walked down to the lake shore to listen Last Line: Like an old memory gradually changing into you ADAM AND THE CAMPFIRE First Line: I am worried about the five ways of knowing the world Last Line: How joseph rose up from the bottom of his well ADVENTURES IN THE SIMIC WOODS First Line: I spent a night in the simic woods Last Line: They are throwing great loaves to the blushing parents ADVICE FROM THE GEESE Recitation by Author AFTER A FRIEND'S DEATH First Line: It must be summer. Push the dock out Last Line: Even though people die, it must be summer AFTER A LONG DRY SPELL First Line: The summer is gray now strange evening Last Line: It's all right to live by your own code AFTER DRINKING ALL NIGHT WITH A FRIEND First Line: These pines, these fall oaks, these rocks Last Line: So we drift toward shore, over cold waters, %no longer caring if we drift or go straight AFTER LONG BUSYNESS Poem Text First Line: I start out for a walk at last after weeks at the desk AFTER LONG BUSYNESS First Line: I start out for a walk at last after weeks at the desk Last Line: Every day I did not spend in solitude was wasted AFTER MY FATHER'S FUNERAL First Line: As people walk from the cemetery, they speak amiable words Last Line: Door hinges pulled out, nails and dishes scattered AFTER THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION, ALL THINGS HAPPEN AT ONCE First Line: Now we enter a strange world, where the hessian christmas Last Line: Like turkeys are singing from the tops of trees! %and the whiskey boys are drunk outside philadelphi AFTER WORKING Poem Text First Line: After many strange thoughts AFTER WORKING First Line: After many strange thoughts, thoughts Last Line: We know the road. As the moonlight %lifts everything, so in a night like this %the road goes on ahea AFTERNOON SLEEP First Line: It was descending from the mountains of sleep Last Line: Inside were old abandoned books, %and instructions to norwegian immigrants ALL THESE STORIES First Line: There are so many stories. In one, a bear Last Line: Turn into swallows, and agree to live in longing ALONE A FEW HOURS First Line: Today I was alone a few hours, and slowly ALONG THE LINES First Line: Sun glints from the frozen river Last Line: Which are now being painted by silence %that paints them over AN AMERICAN DREAM Poem Text First Line: Accountants hover over the earth like helicopters AN OPEN ROSE Poem Text First Line: Why do we say that the rose is open? It opens as the Last Line: Water, far inside the rose's petals. Where you go, I go.... Subject(s): Desire; Flowers; Roses; Travel; Journeys; Trips ANDREW JACKSON'S SPEECH First Line: I heard andrew jackson say, as he closed his virgil Last Line: His voice rose in the noisy streets of detroit ANT MANSION First Line: The rubbing of the sleeping bag on my ear made me dream Last Line: My father's labor who sees? It is in a pasture somewhere %not yet found by a walker Variant Title(s): Finding An Old Ant Mansio Subject(s): Ants; Insects ANTS First Line: Behind the church in the isleta pueblo, there is a court Last Line: Est impulses we have, that want to live, and will, if we %agree to put ourselves in the hands of the APPROACHING WAR First Line: The sorrow of a horse standing in a stable goes on Last Line: Go by in the space of a single heartbeat APRIL AND SILENCE First Line: Spring lies abandoned Last Line: Like the family silver %at the pawnbroker's ARTIST AT FIFTY First Line: The crow nests high in the fir AS THE ASIAN WAR BEGINS First Line: There are longings to kill that cannot be seen Last Line: Give us a glimpse of what we cannot see, %our enemies, the soldiers and the poor ASIAN PEACE OFFERS REJECTED WITHOUT PUBLICATION First Line: These suggestions by asians are not taken seriously Last Line: About to be buried in snow! %its long hoot %making the owl in the douglas fir turn his head AT A MARCH AGAINST THE VIETNAM WAR First Line: Newspapers rise high in the air over maryland Last Line: Like a man anointing himself Subject(s): Antiwar Movements; Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975 AT A MARCH AGAINST THE VIETNAM WAR (LATER VERSION) First Line: Newspapers rise high in the air over maryland Subject(s): Antiwar Movements; Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975; Anti-war Protests AT A MARCH AGAINST THE VIETNAM WAR (LATER VERSION) First Line: Newspapers rise high in the air over maryland Last Line: Now we pour it over our heads Subject(s): Antiwar Movements; Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975 AT BARSTOW First Line: Nervy with neons, the main drag AT MIDOCEAN Poem Text First Line: All day I loved you in a fever, holding on to the tail of the horse Subject(s): Love AT MIDOCEAN First Line: All day I loved you in a fever, holding on to the tail of the horse Last Line: The rainstorm retires, clouds open, sunlight %sliding over ocean water a thousand miles from land Subject(s): Love AT THE FUNERAL OF GREAT-AUNT MARY First Line: Here we are, all dressed up to honor death! Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives AT THE FUNERAL OF GREAT-AUNT MARY First Line: Here we are, all dressed up to honor death! Subject(s): Family Life AT THE TIME OF PEONY BLOSSOMING First Line: When I come near the red peony flower Last Line: Behind the leaves of the peony %there is a world still darker, that feeds many ATTEMPTING TO ANSWER DAVID IGNATOW'S QUESTION Poem Text First Line: We are beautiful to the mother as we go Last Line: Sleeping bodies are not alone. Subject(s): Death; Fate; Ignatow, David (1914-1997); Rebirth; Rites & Ceremonies; Dead, The; Destiny AUGUST RAIN First Line: After a month and a half without rain, at last, in late august Last Line: The hole open that lets the water in at last AWAKENING Poem Text First Line: We are approaching sleep: the chesnut blossoms in the mind AWAKENING First Line: We are approaching sleep: the chestnut blossoms in the mind Last Line: Cries, half-muffled, from beneath the earth, the living awakened at last like the dead BACH'S B MINOR MASS Poem Text First Line: The walgravian ancestors step inside trinity church Subject(s): Music & Musicians; Churches; Cathedrals BAD PEOPLE Poem Text Recitation First Line: A man told me once that all the bad people BAD PEOPLE First Line: A man told me once that all the bad people Last Line: Poems with lies in them, but they help a little BALAKIREV'S DREAM (1905) First Line: The black grand piano, the gleamy spider Last Line: Carriages for hire rolled swiftly through the night BARN AT ELABUGA First Line: What is it like to 'get killed'? Getting killed Last Line: In the nearest barn, without telling anyone BARNFIRE DURING CHURCH First Line: And as we spoke the nicene creed we were called out BARRED ISLANDS First Line: Between their sandspit ends BED OF TULIPS First Line: Why should these BLACK FIGURE BELOW THE BOAT First Line: We hear phrases: 'he made me do it.' Last Line: Don't say you didn't want it. Just get ready.' BLACK HEN First Line: What we have loved is with us ever Last Line: Before I agreed to be born Variant Title(s): The Condition BLACK PONY EATING GRASS First Line: Near me a black and shaggy pony is eating grass Last Line: A star is also a stubborn man %the great bear is seven old men walking BLACK POSTCARDS First Line: The calendar all booked up, the future unknown Last Line: The suit in the silence BLESSINGS ON THE STOMACH, THE BODY'S INNER FURNACE First Line: I think the stomach must have gone to the dark goblins given grace Last Line: When we meet our lover on the dance floor at someone else's %wedding BLIND DATE First Line: He waited, trying to look self-possessed Last Line: With his inept desire to break through BOARDS ON THE GROUND Poem Text First Line: I love to see the boards lying on the ground in early spring BOOKCASE First Line: It was moved out of the apartment after her death. It stood Last Line: Head is not allowed BOUQUET OF TEN ROSES First Line: The roses lift from the green strawberry-like leaves, their Last Line: And the rose windows of chartres,the umber moss %on the stag's antlers BOY ON THE FARM First Line: I was one of the saved Last Line: And had better nights BRAHMS Poem Text First Line: It must be that my early friendship with defeat BUSY MAN SPEAKS First Line: Not to the mother of solitude will I give myself Last Line: The stones of cheerfulness, the steel of money, the father of %rocks CALL AND ANSWER Poem Text First Line: Tell me why it is we don't lift our voices these days Last Line: Hurry, cry now! Soon sunday night will come Subject(s): Politics & Government; War CALL AND ANSWER First Line: Tell me why it is we don't lift our voices these days Last Line: Hurry, cry now! Soon sunday night will come Subject(s): Politics; War CALLING HOME First Line: A telephone call flowed out into the night, and it gleamed here Last Line: He runs with heart pounding CALLING TO THE BADGER First Line: We are writing of niagara, and the huron squaws Last Line: And the otter, alone on the mountain of south dakota CALM DAY AT DRAKE' BAY First Line: A sort of roll develops out of the bay, and lays itself all Last Line: Woman stomps around her house on a cane, no lamp lit %yet CATERPILLAR First Line: Lifting my coffee cup, I notice a caterpillar crawling over Last Line: Tices ordinary earth, scorned in july, with affection, as he%settles down to his daily work, to use CATTAIL IN ATHENS, OHIO First Line: This cattail seems to belong to a horse; it is CHINESE TOMB GUARDIANS First Line: Oh yes, I love you, book of my confessions Last Line: They scrowl for eternity at the half-risen. %what do you have that can get past them? CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICE AT MIDNIGHT AT ST. MICHAEL'S First Line: A cold night; the sidewalk we walk on icy; the dark sur Last Line: Stirred and calmed. A large man is flying over the water %with wings spread, a wound on his chest CHRISTMAS POEM First Line: Christmas is a place, like jackson hole, where we all agree Last Line: Be certain whether our family was worthy tonight CLEAR AIR OF OCTOBER Poem Text First Line: I can see outdoors the gold wings without birds CLEAR AIR OF OCTOBER First Line: I can see outside the gold wings without birds CLEARING First Line: In the middle of the forest there's an unexpected clearing that Last Line: As ingeniously as a parachute packed by an expert CLOTHESPINS First Line: I'd like to have spent my life making Last Line: Still fresh, and a light wind blowing COME WITH ME Poem Text Recitation First Line: Come with me into those things that have felt this despair for Subject(s): Despair COME WITH ME (1) First Line: We walk together in willows, among willows COME WITH ME (2) First Line: Come with me into those things that have felt this despair for Last Line: And those roads in south dakota that feel around in the darkness CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASSES: 1960 Poem Text First Line: There are bricks trapped in thousands of pale homes Last Line: And the curch-doors change into the faces of children standing beside the new trees Subject(s): Industry; Labor & Laborers; Work; Workers CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASSES: 1960 First Line: There are bricks trapped in thousands of pale homes Last Line: Children standing beside the new trees Subject(s): Industry; Labor And Laborers CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASSES: 1970 Poem Text First Line: You united states, frightened by dreams of guatemala Last Line: And drive their cars at a hundred miles an hour into trees Subject(s): Industry; Labor & Laborers; Work; Workers CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASSES: 1970 First Line: You united states, frightened by dreams of guatemala Last Line: And drive their cars at a hundred miles an hour into trees Subject(s): Industry; Labor And Laborers CONVERSATION First Line: I sat beneath maples, reading CONVERSATION WITH A HOLY WOMAN NOT SEEN FOR MANY YEARS First Line: After so many years, I come walking to you Last Line: Your eyes in sorrow do not laugh. %I say, 'I have come after so many years.' CONVERSATION WITH A MONSTER First Line: A man I knew could never say who he was Last Line: I may have something for you, but I can't promise.' CONVERSATION WITH A MOUSE First Line: One day a mouse called to me from his curly nest Last Line: Of the century when a sleepy mouse brings in the milky way CONVERSATION WITH THE SOUL First Line: The soul said, 'give me something to look at.' Last Line: What would you have said to her CONVICT AND HIS RADIO First Line: The child left alone on the butte calls out to his Last Line: He does not stop all night, %he cries until dawn CORNPICKER POEM Poem Text First Line: Sheds left out in the darkness Last Line: Is waiting, its its empty gas cans around it Subject(s): Farm Life; Agriculture; Farmers CORNPICKER POEM First Line: Sheds left out in the darkness Last Line: Somewhere the sullen chilled machine %is waiting, its empty gas cans around it Subject(s): Farm Life COUNTING SMALL-BONED BODIES Poem Text First Line: Let's count the bodies over again Subject(s): Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975 COUNTING SMALL-BONED BODIES First Line: Let's count the bodies over again Last Line: We could fit %a body into a finger ring, for a keepsake forever Subject(s): Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975 CRAZY CARLSON'S MEADOW First Line: Crazy carlson cleared this meadow alone Last Line: When he got down, %darkness was there, inside the folds of darkness words %hidden CRY GOING OUT OVER PASTURES First Line: I love you so much with this curiously alive and lonely Last Line: Or woman who wrote down this joy clearly, for we cannot %remain in love with what we cannot name Subject(s): Love CURRENT ADMINISTRATION: 1 First Line: Here morgan dies like a dog among whispers of angels Last Line: That carry the birds on their long roads to the poles, %and see the ghost of locke above the railroa CURRENT ADMINISTRATION: 2 First Line: Snow fell all night on a farmyard in montana Last Line: Black beetles, bright as cadillacs, toil down %the long dusty road into the mountains of south dakot CURRENT ADMINISTRATION: 3 First Line: One night we find ourselves near the giant's house Last Line: Tiny loaves of bread with ears lie on the president's table.%steps coming! The father will soon retu Variant Title(s): Near The Giant's Hous DANGER OF LOSS First Line: On a clear day, the jealous Last Line: For what he saves %he cares nothing, and goes %sullenly to a deep grave DARK EYEBROWS SWIM LIKE TURTLES DARK SHAPE SWIMMING First Line: A stone age painting %on a sahara boulder Last Line: And join his shadow again DAWN IN THRESHING TIME First Line: The heavy crow, the jay and daw Last Line: The gopher dozes in his hole; %dark turkeys loiter through the pine DEAD OF SHILOH First Line: A drowsy numbness pains my sense.' keats heard Last Line: There is nothing on this hook but farewell DEAD SEAL NEAR MCCLURE'S BEACH First Line: Walking north toward the point, I come on a dead seal. From a Last Line: The cliff and go home the other way Subject(s): Nature DECEMBER EVENING, '72 First Line: Here I come the invisible man, perhaps in the employ Last Line: Pulling us toward work in the dark and the bed at night. The %war DEFEATED First Line: This burning behind my eyes as I open a door Last Line: Served us well, shakes its bamboo bars. %it may be gone before we wake DEPRESSION First Line: I felt my heart beat like an engine high in the air DIGGING WORMS First Line: Here I am, digging worms behind the chickenhouse Last Line: Did not hurt my shoulders when they hit and went %through, %but the wall of the castle fell DREAM OF A BROTHER First Line: I fall asleep, and dream I am working in the fields Last Line: Impulses to die shoot up in the dark. %in the dark the marmoset opens his eyes DREAM OF AN AFTERNOON WITH A WOMAN I DID NOT KNOW First Line: I woke up, and went out. Not yet dawn DREAM OF RETARDED CHILDREN First Line: That afternoon I had been fishing alone Last Line: Waking up, I felt how alone I was. %I walked on the dock, %fishing alone in the far north DREAM OF SUFFOCATION First Line: Accountants hover over the earth like helicopters Last Line: Small black trains going round and round-- %old warships drowning in the raindrop DREAM OF WHAT IS MISSING First Line: I dreamt all night such glad painful exultant dreams Last Line: Water, became a lion, that prowls around the rocky edges %ofthe desert, keeping the hermit inside hi DREAM ON THE NIGHT OF FIRST SNOW First Line: I woke from a first-day-of-snow dream Last Line: Dogs pulling travois, %feathers fluttering on the lances of the arrogant men DRIED STURGEON (VERSION A) First Line: I climb down from the bridge at rock island, illinois Last Line: The big clamp of the boxcar, tapering into sleek %womanly death Subject(s): Sturgeon DRIED STURGEON (VERSION B) First Line: I climb down the bank at rock island, illinois, and cross Last Line: And humorless as railway schedules or the big clamp of the %boxcar, tapering into sleek womanly deat Subject(s): Sturgeon DRIVING MY PARENTS HOME AT CHRISTMAS First Line: As I drive my parents home through the snow DRIVING NORTH FROM SAN FRANCISCO Poem Text First Line: We cross the sleeping water onyje san rafael bridge Subject(s): Driving & Drivers DRIVING THROUGH MINNESOTA DURING THE HANOI BOMBINGS Poem Text First Line: We drive between lakes just turning green Subject(s): Minnesota; Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975 DRIVING THROUGH MINNESOTA DURING THE HANOI BOMBINGS First Line: We drive between lakes just turning green Last Line: In the helicopter like wild animals, %shot in the chest, taken back to be questioned Subject(s): Minnesota; Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975 DRIVING THROUGH OHIO Poem Text First Line: We slewpt that night in delaware, ohio Subject(s): Driving & Drivers DRIVING TO TOWN LATE TO MAIL A LETTER First Line: It is a cold and snowy night. The main street is deserted DRIVING TOWARD THE LAC QUI PARLE RIVER Poem Text First Line: I am driving; it is dusk; minnesota. Subject(s): Driving & Drivers; Minnesota; Rivers DRIVING TOWARD THE LAC QUI PARLE RIVER First Line: I am driving; it is dusk; minnesota Last Line: A few people are talking low in a boat Subject(s): Minnesota; Rivers DRIVING WEST IN 1970 Poem Text First Line: My dear children, do you remember the morning Subject(s): Driving & Drivers; Memory; West (u.s.); Southwest; Pacific States DWELLER First Line: There is a dweller in the dark cabin Last Line: There is dweller in the dark cabin EARLY MORNING First Line: The world is its usual rich self. Disturbed news Last Line: The rest they give back, to the hospitals and the poor EARLY MORNING IN YOUR ROOM Poem Text First Line: It's morning. The brown scoops of coffee, the wasplike Subject(s): Home; Morning; Said He Was Melancholy, He Meant He Was Hom EARLY MORNING IN YOUR ROOM First Line: It's morning. The brown scoops of coffee, the wasplike Last Line: Said he was melancholy, he meant he was home Subject(s): Home; Morning EARLY SPRING BETWEEN MADISON AND BELLINGHAM First Line: When our privacy starts over again Last Line: The drowned sailor appears at the foot of his mother's %bed,%the grandfather and grandson sitting to EASTER ISLAND First Line: Please tell me what the shoehorn does to keep Last Line: When I heard the sound of iron hitting the ground EEL IN THE CAVE First Line: Our veins are open to shadow, and our fingertips Last Line: To slip into the alhambra by night ELEVEN O'CLOCK AT NIGHT First Line: I lie alone in my bed; cooking and stories are over at Last Line: Fore they came. I change every day. For the winter %dark of late december there is no solution EMPTY PLACE First Line: The eyes are drawn to the dusty ground in fall Last Line: This is the palace, the place of many mansions, %which christ has gone to prepare for us EVENING WHEN THE FULL MOON ROSE AS THE SUN SET First Line: The sun goes down in the dusty april night Last Line: And the life of faithfulness goes by like a river, %with no one noticing it EVENING-MORNING First Line: The moon-mast has rotted, and the sail crinkled Last Line: Near the earth. Half-suffocated summer gods grope in the sea %mist EVOLUTION FROM THE FISH First Line: This grandson of fishes holds inside him Last Line: Not hold my hands down! Let me raise them! %a fire is passing up through the soles of my feet! EXECUTIVE'S DEATH First Line: Merchants have multiplied more than the stars of heaven Last Line: Like the sound of horns, the sound of thousands of small wings EXTRA JOYFUL CHORUS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE READ THIS FAR First Line: I sit alone late at night Last Line: All the sleepers in the world join hands FACE IN THE TOYOTA First Line: Suppose you see a face in a toyota Last Line: And you stand on some mountain road weeping FALL Poem Text First Line: From far out in the center of the naked lake FALLEN TREE First Line: After a long walk I come down to the shore Last Line: It is so mysterious, waters below, waters above, %so little of it we can ever know! FALLING ASLEEP First Line: I have been alone for two days, and still everything is Last Line: I was for three days inside a warm-blooded fish. %a whale bore me back, home, we flew through the %a FAMILY PHOTOGRAPH, SUNDAY MORNING, 19940 First Line: They've gathered on the farm lawn, ten people, all ages Last Line: Take nothing on trust. 'I trust my hands, and that's all.' FARM IN WESTERN MINNESOTA First Line: When I look at childhood, I see the yellow rose bush Last Line: Was work to do, but no one learned how to say good-bye Subject(s): Farm Life; Minnesota FERNS First Line: It was among ferns I learned about eternity Last Line: Through you I learned to love the ferns on that bank, %and the curve the deer's hoof leaves in sand FEW MOMENTS First Line: The dwarf pine on marsh grounds holds its head up: a dark %rag Last Line: As the runners in white circling the track as the night comes %misting in FIASCHERINO First Line: Over an ash-fawn beach fronting a sea which keeps FIFTY MALES SITTING TOGETHER First Line: After a long walk in the woods clear cut for lumber Last Line: The dark comes down slowly, the way %snow falls, or herds pass a cave mouth. %I look up at the other FINDING SHARK'S TEETH IN A ROCK First Line: The cabin of the early snail swerves and falls FINDING THE FATHER First Line: My firend, this body offers to carry us for nothing--as Last Line: There behind the door...The eyebrows so heavy, the fore- %head so light...Lonely in his whole body, FIRE OF DESPAIR HAS BEEN OUR SAVIOUR First Line: Today, autumn Last Line: Where what is left and what goes down both bring despair. %not finding the road, we are slowly pulle FIRE SCRIPT First Line: During the heavy months my life caught fire only when Last Line: We stole milk from the cosmos and survived FIRMNESS First Line: My fierceness when I hold you belongs FOR A CHILDHOOD FRIEND, MARIE First Line: She knew a lot about life on a farm: wagon Last Line: My grandmother told her not to -- and he drank FOR MY SON, NOAH, TEN YEARS OLD Poem Text First Line: Night and day arrive, and day after day goes by Subject(s): Fathers; Men; Prayer FOR MY SON, NOAH, TEN YEARS OLD First Line: Night and day arrive, and day after day goes by Last Line: So we pass our time together, calm and delighted Subject(s): Fathers; Men; Prayer FOR RUTH First Line: There's a graceful way of doing things. Birch branches Last Line: From you this new way of letting a poem be FOR THE OLD GNOSTICS Poem Text Recitation First Line: The fathers put their trust in the end of the world Subject(s): Religion; Theology FOR THE OLD GNOSTICS Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: The fathers put their trust in the end of the world Last Line: The untempered soul grumbles in empty light Subject(s): Gnosticism FORGOTTEN COMMANDER First Line: We have lots of shadows. I was walking home Last Line: From the weight of what is to come FOUR SEASONS IN AMERICAN WOODS, SELS. First Line: Spring has come; I look up and see Last Line: Sail home. For me this season is most sweet, %and winter will be stamping of the feet FOUR WAYS OF KNOWLEDGE First Line: So many things happen Last Line: This time we live it, %and only awaken years later FRENCH GENERALS First Line: Whenever jesus appears at the murky well Last Line: Wherever there is water there is someone drowning FROST AND HIS ENEMIES First Line: When robert frost set down a poetic whim, Last Line: Or a patch of snow or the steeple of a church. Subject(s): Fate; Frost, Robert (1874-1963); Innocence; Irony; Poetry & Poets; Truth; Destiny FULL MOON, THINKING OF HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS Poem Text First Line: Smoke rising over the full moon GETTING UP EARLY First Line: I am up early. The box-elder leaves have fallen GETTING UP LATE First Line: I get up late and ask what has to be done today Last Line: Your whole life is like some drunkard's dream. %you haven't combed your hair for a whole month GLIMPSE OF SOMETHING IN THE OVEN First Line: Childhood is like a kitchen. It is dangerous Last Line: Your sister says, 'say, what's that in the oven?' GLIMPSE OF THE WATERER First Line: The cucumbers are thirsty, their big leaves turn away from Last Line: So to you waterers who love your gardens, I say, how %will you get through this night without water? GOING WITH THE CURRENT First Line: Talking and talking with friends I saw heard behind their faces %the current Last Line: Buried in the bushes-only the horns %stood up GONE, GONE, GONE First Line: When the wind-sleeve moves in the morning street Last Line: I need no %house or land, %caught in sweetness as the trout in the running stream GOOD SILENCE First Line: Reading an anglo-saxon love poem in its extravagance Last Line: What is the matter?' you say, looking over. %I answer, 'the ship saileth on the salte foam.' GRANDPARENT AND THE GRANDAUGHTER First Line: Will you rescue her?' we have dreams like that Last Line: She was all right! That's how I did my part GRASS FROM TWO YEARS First Line: When I write poems, I need to be near grass that no one Last Line: Who sits near them, and feels he has at this moment more %joy than anyone alive GRATITUDE TO OLD TEACHERS Poem Text First Line: When we stride or stroll across the frozen lake Last Line: Beneath us the teachers, and around us the stillness. Subject(s): Adventure & Adventurers; Education; Faith; Growth; Maturity; Schools; Teaching & Teachers; Belief; Creed; Students; Educators; Professors GREAT SOCIETY First Line: Dentists continue to water their lawns even in the rain Last Line: Shells, a skyful of birds, %while the mayor sits with his head in his hands GREEK SHIPS First Line: When the water holes go, and the fish flop about Last Line: Are calling to us from a hundred sunken ships GREEN COOKSTOVE First Line: A lonely man once sat on a large flat stone Last Line: My dears, we say. 'something good will come of this.' GRIEF GONDOLA #2 First Line: Two old guys, father-in-law and son-in-law, liszt and wagner Last Line: It was impossible to know which was the teacher GRIEF OF MEN First Line: The buddhist ordered his boy to bring him, new Last Line: My father is there, %sits by the bed long night after night HAIR First Line: The doctor arrives to inject the movie star against delirium tremens Last Line: The nick on the hornblade through which the mammoth escapes Variant Title(s): A Conversatio HALF-FINISHED HEAVEN First Line: Cowardice breaks off on its path Last Line: The lake is a window into the earth HATRED OF MEN WITH BLACK HAIR Poem Text First Line: I hear voices praising tshombe, and the portuguese Subject(s): Hate HATRED OF MEN WITH BLACK HAIR First Line: I hear voices praising tshombe, and the portuguese Last Line: Preserved from a trail of blood that once led away %from thestockade, over the snow, the trail now l Subject(s): Hate HAWK First Line: The hawk sweeps down from his aerie Last Line: When he finds the way %long intended for him, %he tastes through glacial water %the labrador ferns a HAWTHORNE AND THE ELEPHANT First Line: Hawthorne's walking stick -- very short -- lay Last Line: Clifford's room is the little one up the secret stairs HE WANTED TO LIVE HIS LIFE OVER Poem Text First Line: What? You want to live your life over again Last Line: I'll pretend this bat is mine … I'll climb in Subject(s): Life HE WANTED TO LIVE HIS LIFE OVER First Line: What? You want to live your life over again Last Line: I'll pretend this boat is my life ... I'll climb in Subject(s): Life HEARING MEN SHOUT AT NIGHT ON MACDOUGAL STREET First Line: How strange to awake in a city Last Line: The first new england slave-ship with the negroes in the hold HERMIT First Line: Darkness is falling through darkness Last Line: Him, we grow calm, %and sail on into the tunnels of joyful death HERONS Poem Text First Line: After trailing their bony legs the herons dance Subject(s): Herons HOCKEY POEM: 1. THE GOALIE First Line: The boston college team has gold helmets, under which the long Last Line: For the children to come home Subject(s): Hockey HOCKEY POEM: 2. THE ATTACK First Line: They all come hurrying back toward us, suddenly, knees dipping Last Line: How beautiful, like the body and soul crossing in a poem HOCKEY POEM: 3. THE FIGHT First Line: The player in position pauses, aims, pauses, cracks his stick on the Last Line: Society is wrong, the wardens are wrong, the judges hate individu- %ality HOCKEY POEM: 4. THE GOALIE First Line: And this man with his peaked mask, with slits, how fantastic he is Last Line: Developed by speed, by war HOLLOW TREE First Line: I bend over an old hollow cottonwood stump, still Last Line: Them with a fluted whitetip. Many feathers. In the silence many feathers HOME IN DARK GRASS (1) First Line: In the deep fall, the body awakes Last Line: And, dancing, find in the trees a saviour, %a home in dark grass, %and nourishment in death HOME IN DARK GRASS (2) First Line: In the deep fall, terror increases, Last Line: And, dancing, find in the trees a savior, %a home in dark grass, %and nourishment in death HONORING THE SAND; IN MEMORY OF JOSEPH CAMPBELL First Line: December's foolishness, embers fall, tempters Last Line: Forget the flower; learn to know the sand. Subject(s): Campbell, Joseph (1904-1987); Learning; Legacies; Soul; Time HORSE OF DESIRE First Line: Yesterday I saw a face Last Line: The two beings below with no %eyes at all love you %with the slow persistent %intensity of the blind HORSES COMING UP BEHIND First Line: Have you noticed the horses galloping past us? Last Line: Going by with their thin cheekbones in the night! HOW BEAUTIFUL THE SHINY TURTLE HOW THOREAU LIVED Poem Text First Line: Henry thoreau gave up his scandalous life Subject(s): Thoreau, Henry David (1817-1862) HOW THOREAU LIVED First Line: Henry thoreau gave up his scandalous life Last Line: Mostly, he lived extravagantly alone HUMMINGBIRD VALLEY First Line: I love to come near the hummingbird valley HUNTING PHEASANTS IN A CORNFIELD Poem Text First Line: What is so strange about a tree alone in an open field? Subject(s): Environment; Fields; Pheasants; Willow Trees; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation; Pastures; Meadows; Leas HUNTING PHEASANTS IN A CORNFIELD First Line: What is so strange about a tree alone in an open field? Last Line: If I were a young animal ready to turn home at dusk Subject(s): Environment; Fields; Pheasants; Willow Trees HURRYING AWAY FROM THE EARTH Poem Text First Line: The poor, the dazed, and the idiots HURRYING AWAY FROM THE EARTH First Line: The poor, and the dazed, and the idiots Last Line: Men cry when they hear stories of someone rising from the %dead I GOT TWO VIELDS First Line: I got two vields, an' I don't ceare Last Line: What squire mid have a bigger sheare! Subject(s): Environment; Fields IMAGES SUGGESTED BY MEDIEVAL MUSIC Poem Text First Line: Once more Subject(s): Music & Musicians IN A MOUNTAIN CABIN IN NORWAY First Line: I look down the mountainside. Just below my window Last Line: No one comes to visit us for a week IN A TRAIN First Line: There has been a light snow Last Line: I have awakened at missoula, montana, utterly happy IN BOWLING GREEN, KENTUCKY Poem Text First Line: The mourning dove's call woke me Last Line: The call woke me in the still night Subject(s): Death; Memory; Mourning; Dead, The; Bereavement IN BOWLING GREEN, KENTUCKY First Line: The mourning dove's call woke me Last Line: And you'll be with your mother again Subject(s): Death; Memory; Mourning IN DANGER FROM THE OUTER WORLD First Line: This burning in the eyes, as we open doors Last Line: Shakes its bamboo bars- %it may be gone before we wake IN MOURNING FOR BETRAYAL First Line: I am mourning a murder; one I have done Last Line: Pulling up from far below, the water is born, %spreading white tomb-clothes on the rocky shore IN RAINY SEPTEMBER First Line: In rainy september, when leaves grow down to the dark Last Line: We stay in the room, door closed, lights out. %I weep with you without shame and without honor IN THE MONTH OF MAY Poem Text First Line: In the month of may when all leaves open Last Line: I would like us to spend the night Subject(s): Love - Marital; May (month); Wedded Love; Marriage - Love IN THE MONTH OF MAY First Line: In the month of may when all leaves open Last Line: Along the roads, I see so many places %I would like us to spend the night Subject(s): Love - Marital; May (month) INDIGO BUNTING First Line: I go to the door often Last Line: Through the night, not swerving, %clear as the indigo %bunting in her flight, %passing over two %tho INSECT HEADS Poem Text First Line: These insects, golden Last Line: Hold sand paintings of the next life Subject(s): Insects; Bugs INSECT HEADS First Line: These insects, golden Subject(s): Insects ISAAC BASHEVIS AND PASTERNAK First Line: Old literary privacies are in danger Last Line: To norway -- tell me where I can find it ISEULT AND THE BADGER Poem Text First Line: The ink we use to write seeps in through our fingers Last Line: We are porous to the piled leaves on the ground Subject(s): Animals; Badgers; Poetry & Poets ISEULT AND THE BADGER First Line: The ink we use to write seeps in through our fingers Last Line: We are porous to the piled leaves on the ground Subject(s): Animals; Badgers; Poetry And Poets ISLAND LIFE, 1860 First Line: Down the dock she was washing clothes one day Last Line: This moment's wound that bleeds in for eternity IT IS SO EASY TO GIVE IN First Line: I have been thinking about the man who gives in Last Line: Over there on the hill. We don't need all these men IT'S AS IF SOMEONE ELSE IS WITH ME First Line: It's as if someone else is here with me, here in this room Last Line: I want nothing from you but to see you JACOB AND RACHEL First Line: The harsh bark on the calendar oaks and the bowl Last Line: The true blessing as we should to our children JEREZ AT EASTER Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Please tell me why the lamb is in love with the wolf Subject(s): Easter; The Resurrection JOHNSON'S CABINET WATCHED BY ANTS First Line: It is a clearing deep in a forest: overhanging boughs Last Line: The fiery songs, their five long toes trembling in the soaked eart JOURNEY WITH WOMEN First Line: Floating in turtle blood, going backward and forward Last Line: We are still falling like a room %full of moonlight through the air JOURNEYS IN THE UNDERWORLD: CALDERON First Line: Each mole and shoat is a shadow thrown by the sun Last Line: There are so many halibut in the net of despair JOURNEYS IN THE UNDERWORLD: THE BATTLE AT YPRES 1915 First Line: Tammuz, bright with feathers, goes to the underworld Last Line: How much will we have to pay for those? JULY MORNING First Line: The day is awake. The bark calls to the rain still in the Last Line: After that we will be alone in the deepblue reaches of %the river KENNEDY'S INAUGURATION (VERSION A) First Line: The sister hands it to me - the seed Last Line: And the president %in the cold - the old white- %haired poet nearby - %lays one hand on the bible Subject(s): Kennedy, John Fitzgerald (1917-1963) KENNEDY'S INAUGURATION (VERSION B) First Line: The sister hands it to me - the pod Last Line: And the president %in the cold - the white- %haired poet nearby -- %lays one hand on the bible KNEELING DOWN TO PEER INTO A CULVERT First Line: I kneel down to peer into a culvert Last Line: I fight--it's time, it's right--and am torn to pieces %fighting KYRIE First Line: At times my life suddenly opens its eyes in the dark Last Line: And the doors of darkness open LATE AT NIGHT DURING A VISIT OF FRIENDS Poem Text First Line: We spent all day fishing and talking LATE AT NIGHT DURING A VISIT OF FRIENDS First Line: We spent all day fishing and talking LATE MOON First Line: The third-week moon reaches its light over my father's Last Line: The earth has rocks in it that hum at early dawn. %as I turn to go in, I see my shadow reach for the LETTER TO HER First Line: What I did I did Last Line: Rises, and some- %thing strong guides the sun %over the sky until %it carries its spark down %to the LETTER TOJAMES WRIGHT First Line: My dear james, do you know that nothing has happened Last Line: That tenderness...By god, I'll try anything.' LIFE OF SAMSON First Line: Samson, grinding bread for windows and orpahns Last Line: Sinks down in the eastern ocean and is born LISTENING First Line: The goose cries, and there is no way to save her Last Line: The arts and double the madness. Are you listening? LISTENING TO PRESIDENT KENNEDY LIE ABOUT THE CUBAN INVASION First Line: There is another darkness Last Line: Of brutality in high places, %of lying reporters, %there is a bitter fatigue, adult and sad LISTENING TO THE KOLN CONCERT Poem Text First Line: After we had loved each other intently Subject(s): Love; Men LISTENING TO THE KOLN CONCERT First Line: After we had loved each other intently Last Line: Will never be quite round, %and each has to enter the nest %made by the other imperfect bird Subject(s): Love; Men LIVING AT THE END OF TIME Poem Text First Line: There is so much sweetness in children's voices LOOKING AT A DRY TUMBLEWEED BROUGHT IN FROM THE SNOW First Line: What is this wonderful thing? Brown and everywhere! Last Line: No it is a love, some love we forget every day, it is my mother Subject(s): Nature LOOKING AT AGING FACES Poem Text First Line: Some faces get older and remain who they are. Oh Last Line: Who we are Subject(s): Aging; Faces LOOKING AT AGING FACES First Line: Some faces get older and remain who they are. Oh Last Line: By glimpsing us just after we wake, %who we are Subject(s): Aging; Faces LOOKING AT NEW-FALLEN SNOW FROM A TRAIN First Line: Snow has covered the next line of tracks Subject(s): Railroads; Snow; Railways; Trains LOOKING AT NEW-FALLEN SNOW FROM A TRAIN First Line: Snow has covered the next line of tracks Last Line: Each blade of grass is a voice. %the sword by his side breaks into flame Subject(s): Railroads; Snow LOOKING AT SOME FLOWERS Poem Text First Line: Light is behind the petals, and around them Subject(s): Flowers LOOKING AT SOME FLOWERS First Line: Light is around the petals, and behind them Last Line: Or the ground this house is on, %only free of the sea for five or six thousand years LOOKING AT THE STARS First Line: I still think about the shepherds, how many stars Last Line: Eight thousand years later, and I still remember LOOKING INTO A FACE First Line: Conversation brings us so close! Opening Last Line: Existing like a light around the body, %through which the body moves like a sliding moon LOOKING INTO A TIDE POOL LOON'S CRY First Line: From far out in the center of the naked lake Last Line: The loon's cry rose. %it was the cry of someone who owned very little LOVE FROM FAR AWAY First Line: We have a hunger for the wet mud near rivers Last Line: Beneath the water we can hear the mourning dove LOVE POEM First Line: When we are in love, we love the grass Last Line: And the small mainstreets abandoned all night LOVE POEM IN TWOS AND THREES First Line: What kind of people Last Line: Standing by you, I am %glad as the clams %at high tide, eerily %content as the amorous %ocean owls MAKING SMOKE First Line: Thre was a boy who never got enough Last Line: Let me tell you a story MAN AND A WOMAN AND A BLACKBIRD (1) First Line: When the two rivers Subject(s): Nature MAN AND A WOMAN AND A BLACKBIRD (2) First Line: A man and a woman are one Last Line: And the man and the woman and the blackbird are one Subject(s): Nature MAN AWAKENED BY A SONG ABOVE HIS ROOF First Line: Morning, may rain. The city is silent still Last Line: To grope for the tool of his consciousness- %almost in space MAN LOCKED INSIDE THE OAK First Line: One man in me is locked inside an oakwomb Last Line: Ivar oakeson, whom I love so much. %others false and ghostly live wihtin me also MAN WHO DIDN'T KNOW WHAT WAS HIS First Line: There was a man who didn't know what was his Last Line: He's charming, this man who doesn't know what is his MAN WHO WANTS TO SAVE YOUR LIFE First Line: This is serious. I mean there's some guy in you Last Line: Right now he's repeating them to you MAN WRITES TO A PART OF HIMSELF First Line: What cave are you in, hiding, rained on? Last Line: Which of us two then is the worse off? %and how did this separation come about? MARCH BUDS First Line: They lie on the bed, hearing music MARCH IN WASHINGTON AGAINST THE VIETNAM WAR Poem Text First Line: Looking down, I see feet moving calmly, gaily Subject(s): Antiwar Movements; Vietnamese Conflict (1961-1975); Anti-war Protests MARCH'79, SELS First Line: Being tired of people who come with words, but no speech Last Line: Speech but no words MEDITATION ON PHILOSOPHY First Line: There is a restless gloom in my mind Last Line: The weight of his shell kept him from moving. %his jaw hung down--it was large and fleshly MEETING THE MAN WHO WARNS ME First Line: I wake and find myself in the woods, far from the castle Last Line: This joy I love is like wounds at sea MELANCHOLIA Poem Text First Line: A light seen suddenly in the storm, snow Last Line: Swirling over everything alive Subject(s): Melancholy; Dejection MELANCHOLIA First Line: A light seen suddenly in the storm, snow Last Line: Swirling over everything alive Subject(s): Melancholy MEN, WOMEN, AND EARTH Poem Text First Line: Early in the morning the hermit wakes Last Line: Earth nourishes what no one can see. Subject(s): Love; Man-woman Relationships; Mankind; Montague, John (b. 1929); Male-female Relations; Human Race MINNOW TURNING First Line: Once I loved you only a few minutes a day MINTY GRASS First Line: The ram walks over the minty grass MISSOURI TRAVELLER WRITES HOME: 1830 First Line: The spring rides down; from judith and the larb MOIST NIGHT First Line: How much I love you. The night is moist Last Line: Air still, trees silent. Tonight I love you Variant Title(s): Seeing You Carry Plants I MOOSE First Line: The arctic moose drinks at the tundra's edge MORNING BIRD SONGS First Line: I wake up my car Last Line: The poem is finished MORNING IN MARRAKESH Poem Text First Line: Even in marrakesh we still have to decide Last Line: Black tail points toward the desert Subject(s): Deserts; Food & Eating; Morning; Night; Bedtime MORNING IN MARRAKESH First Line: Even in marrakesh we still have to decide Last Line: Black tail points toward the desert Subject(s): Deserts; Food And Eating; Morning; Night MOUNTAIN GRASS First Line: Rain falls on mountain grass; we remain close all day MOURNING PABLO NERUDA Poem Text First Line: Water is practical / especially in august Last Line: Gone. Subject(s): Death; Legacies; Mourning; Nature; Neruda, Pablo (1904-1973); Usefullness; Water; Dead, The; Bereavement MOUSE First Line: It's good to have poems Last Line: Below that awful %cat of augustine MOVING INWARD AT LAST First Line: The dying bull is bleeding on the mountain! Last Line: The air of night changes to dark water, %the mountains alter and become the sea MY DOUBTS ON GOING TO VISIT A NEW FRIEND First Line: I'm glas that a white horse grazes in that meadow Last Line: There will be no one MY FATHER AT 85 First Line: His large ears hear Last Line: He never phrased %what he desired, %and I am %his son MY FATHER'S NECK First Line: Your chest, hospital gown Last Line: This, and I do %not refuse it. %it is %in me MY FATHER'S WEDDING: 1924 Poem Text First Line: Today, lonely for my father, I saw Subject(s): Men MY FATHER'S WEDDING: 1924 First Line: Today, lonely for my father, I saw Last Line: Few friends came; he invited few. %his two-story house he turned %into a forest, %where both he and Subject(s): Men NEURONS WHO WATCH BIRDS First Line: We have to think now what it would be like Last Line: This problem: how do we die NIGHT First Line: If I think of a horse wandering about sleeplessly Last Line: We choose, and soon to be swallowed %suddenly from beneath NIGHT ABRAHAM CALLED TO THE STARS First Line: Do you remember the night abraham first saw Last Line: Since I am a man in love with the setting stars NIGHT DUTY First Line: During the night I am down there with the ballast Last Line: His fist thrown forward. Church bells NIGHT FARMYARD First Line: The horse lay on his knees sleeping Last Line: Yet we know their soul is gone, risen %far into the upper air about the moon Subject(s): Nature NIGHT FROGS Poem Text First Line: I wake and find myself in the woods, far from the castle Last Line: Night frogs give out the croak of the planet turning Subject(s): Railroads; Railways; Trains NIGHT FROGS First Line: I wake and find myself in the woods, far from the castle Last Line: And forth, looking toward the old landing. %night frogs give out the croak of the planet turning Subject(s): Railroads NIGHT JOURNEY IN THE COOKING POT First Line: I was born during the night sea-journey Last Line: I am ashamed sitting on the edge of my bed NIGHT OF FIRST SNOW Last Line: The bride is inside the basket where moses sleeps. %what is human lies in the way the basket is rock NIGHT WINDS First Line: Night winds sway the lilacs near the abandoned NO MOUNTAIN PEAK WITHOUT ITS ROLLING FOOTHILLS First Line: A man and a woman linger under a tree NORTH First Line: North is weatheer, winter, and change NOVEMBER First Line: Some aggravations include the whole world Last Line: To die. It's not an insult %to the world NOVEMBER DAY AT MCCLURE'S BEACH First Line: Alone on the jagged rock at the south end of mc Last Line: Around a mountain, we are sailing on skeletal eerie craft %over the buoyant ocean OCEAN RAIN AND MUSIC First Line: Rain falls on the shore bushes and the pawky sea Last Line: And there are certain secrets that stolen children know OCEAN RISING AND FALLING First Line: Each fall it rains a lot in the northern woods Last Line: Goes up and down saying, 'I need no more.' OLD BOARDS Poem Text First Line: I love to see boards lying on the ground in early spring Last Line: As the rooster walks away springily over the dampened hay Subject(s): Wood; Landscape OLD BOARDS First Line: I love to see boards lying on the ground in early spring Last Line: As the rooster walks away springily over the dampened hay Subject(s): Wood OLD WOMAN FRYING PERCH First Line: Have you heard about the boy who walked by Last Line: About, lighting a fire, frying some perch for the cat ON A CLIFF Poem Text First Line: Reading the master ON A FERRY ACROSS CHESAPEAKE BAY First Line: On the orchard of the sea far out are whitecaps Last Line: With golden trumpets...It must march; %and the sea gives up its answer as it falls into itself ON THE OREGON COAST; FOR WILLIAM STAFFORD Poem Text First Line: The waves come -- the large fourth wave Last Line: And figure out what to say to our children. Subject(s): Courage; Legacies; Transience; Waves; Valor; Bravery; Impermanence ON THE WORD REALITY First Line: I hate this world 'reality' Last Line: Then eat your shoes ONE DAY AT A FLORIDA KEY First Line: Here we are at whitehorse key. It is early morning. The tide is out Last Line: Boat-strewn florida waters ONE SOURCE OF BAD INFORMATION Poem Text First Line: There's a boy in about three Last Line: Five don't work. Right now he's repeating them to you Subject(s): Self ONE SOURCE OF BAD INFORMATION First Line: There's a boy in you about three Last Line: Five don't work. Right now he's repeating them to you OPEN AND CLOSED SPACE First Line: With his work, as with a glove, a man feels the universe Last Line: No, they are moving OPENING AN OYSTER First Line: We think of charlemagne Last Line: Chickens and crows...Then we know that in attics there are %cloths folded that murdered the great pr OPENING THE DOOR OF A BARN I THOUGHT WAS EMPTY ... First Line: I got there by dusk. I open the double barn doors and go Last Line: Derment of the large animal, a body with a lamp lit inside, %fluttering on a windy night ORCHARD KEEPER First Line: Snow has fallen on snow for two days behind the keilen farmhouse Last Line: And the orchard keeper, where is he? Variant Title(s): Snow Falling On Sno Subject(s): Farm Life ORIGIN OF THE PRAISE OF GOD First Line: My friend, this body is made of bone and excited pro Last Line: Arms climb above his head, and says: 'now do you still %say you cannot choose the road?' OUT OF THE ROLLING OCEAN, THE CROWD First Line: It is not only the ant that walks on the carpenter's board Last Line: Nor the meeting by the altar, nor the rising sun only Subject(s): Poetry And Poets; Whitman, Walt (1819-1891) OUT PICKING UP CORN First Line: It is late december; I walk through the pasture Last Line: What they drink is something respectable people do not %wantto take in, %walking in fog near the cli OYSTER SHELL First Line: The shell is scarred, as if it were a rushing river bottom, scratched Last Line: Dawn, calling across the snow-covered fields PARCEL First Line: It's a parcel of some sort. The exchange Last Line: The rain didn't care, but no one else %was innocent PARCEL First Line: Sometimes it's money. It's usually in a parcel Last Line: Some energy was in the car; and no one %was innocent PASSING AN ORCHARD BY TRAIN Poem Text First Line: Grass high under apple trees Last Line: To forgive me Subject(s): Bly, Robert (b. 1926); Farm Life; Agriculture; Farmers PASSING AN ORCHARD BY TRAIN First Line: Grass high under apple trees Last Line: I want to tell him %that I forgive him, that I want him %to forgive me Subject(s): Bly, Robert (b. 1926); Farm Life PAYING THE MORTGAGE First Line: You and I live here, along with many furry moles Last Line: The furry shadows are bringing gifts to the door PEOPLE LIKE US Poem Text First Line: There are more like us. All over the world Last Line: And greatness has a defender, and even in death you're safe Subject(s): Mankind; Human Race PEOPLE LIKE US First Line: There are more like us. All over the world Last Line: And greatness has a defender, and even in death you're safe Subject(s): Mankind PILGRIM FISH HEADS First Line: It is a pilgrim village; heavy rain is falling Last Line: The one from whom we must protect our nation, %the one whose dark hair hides us from the sun PLACE IN THE WOODS First Line: On the way there a couple of startled wings fluttered, and that Last Line: Light around the terrifying trophies. Woods are mild that way PLAYFUL DEEDS OF THE WIND First Line: Sometimes there's the wind. Sometimes the wind Last Line: And a boy at the table who can't say 'please.' POEM Poem Text First Line: There is dust thay is near us POEM AGAINST THE BRITISH First Line: The wind through the box-elder trees Last Line: It is also good to be poor, and listen to the wind POEM AGAINST THE RICH First Line: Each day I live, each day the sea of light Last Line: The stones bow as the saddened armies past POEM FOR ANDREW MARVELL Poem Text Recitation by Author Subject(s): Marvell, Andrew (1621-1678) POEM FOR GIAMBATTISTA VICO WRITTEN BY THE PACIFIC First Line: We were sitting there, badly blessed, and brooding Last Line: Dear friends, the joists of life are laid on the winds POEM FOR JAMES WRIGHT First Line: When I read your lines Last Line: Is still beautiful. Subject(s): Beauty; Creative Ability; Loss; Salvation; War; Wright, James (1927-1980); Inspiration; Creativity POEM FOR SAM AT ASSATEAGUE ISLAND First Line: Why does a man grieve POEM IN PRAISE OF SOLITUDE Poem Text First Line: In the deep fall, the body awakes Subject(s): Solitude; Loneliness POEM IS SOME REMEMBERING First Line: It's morning; there's lamplight, and the room is still Last Line: It was a poem about heaven, and I wept so.' Subject(s): Memory; Poetry And Poets POEM ON SLEEP First Line: Then the bright being disguised as a seal dove into ...' POEMS FOR MAX ERNST, SELS. POEMS IN THREE PARTS: 1 First Line: Oh, on an early morning I think I shall live forever! Last Line: I am wrapped in my joyful flesh, %as the grass is wrapped inits clouds of green POEMS IN THREE PARTS: 2 First Line: Rising from a bed, where I dreamt Last Line: I have suffered and survived the night %bathed in dark water, like any blade of grass POEMS IN THREE PARTS: 3 First Line: The strong leaves of the box elder tree Last Line: Where we shall sit at the foot of a plant, %and live foreverlike the dust POEMS ON THE VOYAGE First Line: Let us live inside ourselves Last Line: All night, and live %in the dancing of the bones POSSIBILITY OF NEW POETRY First Line: Singing of niagara, and the huron squaws Last Line: Folder in a faint light POTATO First Line: The potato reminds one of an alert desert stone. And it belongs Last Line: Would be a lot of plat...' Subject(s): Food Habits; Potatoes PRAISE FOR ALL DANCERS First Line: Blessed be the dancers! The dancers Last Line: In the lattices of the leaves, %in the high woods of the air, %in the wild holes of the sea PRAYER FOR MY FATHER Poem Text First Line: Your head is still Subject(s): Fathers PRAYER FOR MY FATHER First Line: Your head is still PRAYER SERVICE IN AN ENGLISH CHURCH First Line: Looking at the open page of the psalm book PRELUDES First Line: I shy from something that comes scraping crossways through Last Line: Are the doves in the backyard, their cooing PRIVATE FALL First Line: Mots of haydust rise and fall Last Line: And we tell no one Subject(s): Autumn; Nature; Seasons PRODIGAL SON First Line: The prodigal son is kneeling in the husks Last Line: Under the water there's a door the pigs have gone through Subject(s): Bible; Religion PURITAN ON HIS HONEYMOON First Line: Travelling south, leaves overflow the farms QUESTION THE BUNDLE HAD First Line: When summer was nearly over Last Line: Were we right to wait RAINY DAY; FOR JOHN LEE Poem Text First Line: Today it's raining on the trees Last Line: Received a home Subject(s): Rain RAVENS HIDING IN A SHOE Poem Text First Line: There is something men and women living in houses Subject(s): Truth; Poetry & Poets READING DR. NULAND'S BOOK First Line: We have to think now what it's like Last Line: Notice the book you're reading: how we die READING IN A BOAT First Line: I was glad to be in that boat, floating Last Line: And all that time reading a book READING IN FALL RAIN First Line: The fields are black once more Last Line: I get up and look out. %sure enough, I see %the rooster lifting his legs %high in the wet grass READING ROBERT CREELEY'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY Poem Text First Line: He adored skating on that small river as a boy Last Line: Holding to what one loves – a triumph of faithfulness Subject(s): Biography; Children; Creeley, Robert (1926-2005); Biographers; Childhood READING ROBERT CREELEY'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY First Line: He adored skating on that small river as a boy Last Line: Holding to what one loves - a triumph of faithfulness Subject(s): Biography; Children READING SILENCE IN THE SNOWY FIELDS First Line: A word I love comes -- snow; then fencepost Last Line: Then I too speak this beautiful word you RESEMBLANCE BETWEEN YOUR LIFE AND A DOG First Line: I never intended to have this life, believe me Last Line: Doesn't particularly like you, but gives up, and comes in RETHINKING WALLACE STEVENS First Line: What can I say? You have this funny Last Line: Like a girl in a white dress RETURNING POEM First Line: Men bring the boat at night inside its slanted house by the shore Last Line: And the mountain loon returns, and soon is asleep in the mountain lake RIDERLESS HORSES Poem Text First Line: An owl on the dark waters RIDERLESS HORSES First Line: An owl on the dark waters Last Line: A man with coins on his eyes %the vast waters %the cry of seagulls ROMANESQUE ARCHES First Line: Tourists have crowded into the half-dark of the enormous Last Line: Within each of them vault after vault opened endlessly ROMANS ANGRY ABOUT THE INNER WORLD First Line: What shall the world do with its children? Last Line: To pull it out! %it is like a jagged stone %flying toward them out of the darkness ROOTS First Line: Finally in the bear's cabin I come to earth RUSSIAN First Line: The russians had few doctors on the front line Last Line: This is my life. Just shut up if you don't understand it.' RUSTY TIN CAN First Line: Someone has stepped on this tin can, which now has the shape of a Last Line: None of the characters are real but in any case they're all dead now SACRIFICE IN THE ORCHARD First Line: The man with the roman nose sits high Last Line: All the water on the planet %plunges down at once SCANDAL First Line: The day the minister ran off with the choir director Last Line: Over and over, and it's a good story SCHOOLCRAFT'S DIARY WRITTEN ON THE MISSOURI: 1830 First Line: Waters are loose: from judith and the larb Last Line: Minutes before it broke, a circling mass %of split-tail swallows came and then were gone Subject(s): Diaries SCHUBERTIANA First Line: Outside new york, a high place where with one glance you Last Line: Upward into %the depths SEA WATER First Line: Have you heard about the boy who didn't feel Last Line: Sweeps over the gunwale, and all hands go down Subject(s): Sea SECRETS First Line: I walk below the over-bending birches SEEING THE ECLIPSE IN MAINE Poem Text First Line: It started about noon. On top of mount batte Subject(s): Eclipses SEEING THE ECLIPSE IN MAINE First Line: It started about noon. On top of mount batte Last Line: Told a joke. Suns were everywhere at our feet SHACK POEM First Line: I don't even know these roads I walk on SHADOW GOES AWAY First Line: The woman chained to the shore stands bewildered as night comes Last Line: Pilots in armored cockpits finding their way home through mo SHAME First Line: A man and a woman sit SHIP'S CAPTAIN LOOKING OVER THE RAIL First Line: When a man steps out at dawn, it seems to him that Last Line: Air, it seems to him he has lived his whole life to %create something dark! SHOCKS WE PUT OUT PITCHFORKS INTO First Line: The shocks said that winter Last Line: None tired, in the heavy wagon SILENT IN THE MOONLIGHT Poem Text First Line: Silent in the moonlight, no beginning or end Last Line: Silent in the moonlight, no beginning or end Subject(s): Togetherness SITTING ON SOME ROCKS IN SHAW COVE First Line: I am in a cliff-hollow, surrounded by fossils and furry Last Line: Laughing as he runs through the stringy grasses, and gives %back to me my buttons, and the soft slee SIX WINTER PRIVACY POEMS: 1 First Line: About four, a few flakes Last Line: Feeling shoots of joy in the new cold. %by nightfall, wind, %the curtains on the south sway softly SIX WINTER PRIVACY POEMS: 2 First Line: My shack has two rooms; I use one Last Line: As if I appeared where I am now, %in a wet field, snow falling SIX WINTER PRIVACY POEMS: 3 First Line: More of the fathers are dying each day Last Line: Bits of darkness are gathering around them. %the darkness appears as flakes of light SIX WINTER PRIVACY POEMS: 4. ON MEDITATION First Line: There is a solitude like black mud! Last Line: I can't tell if this joy %is from the body, or the soul, or a third place! SIX WINTER PRIVACY POEMS: 5. LISTENING TO BACH First Line: Inside this music there is someone Last Line: Who is not well described by the names %of jesus, or jehovah, or the lord of hosts! SIX WINTER PRIVACY POEMS: 6 First Line: When I woke, a new snow had fallen Last Line: I am alone, yet someone else is with me, %drinking coffee, looking out at the snow SLEET STORM ON THE MERRITT PARKWAY Poem Text First Line: I look out at the white sleet covering the still streets Subject(s): Americans; United States; America SLEET STORM ON THE MERRITT PARKWAY First Line: I look out at the white sleet covering the still streets Last Line: The slave systems of rome and greece, and no one agreed Subject(s): Americans; United States SLOW MUSIC First Line: The building not open today. The sun crowds in through the Last Line: The stones have been gradually walking backwards out of the %sea SMOTHERED BY THE WORLD First Line: Chrysanthemums crying out on the borders of death Last Line: Long and bitter antlers sway in the dark, %the hairy tail howls in the dirt SNOW GEESE First Line: The dark geese treading blowing dakota snows Last Line: Where, alert and balancing on wide feet, %crossing rows, they walk through the broken stalks SNOW-MELTING TIME, '66 First Line: Massive waters fall, water-roar, the old hypnosis Last Line: I am on a large iron bird sailing past death SNOWBANKS NORTH OF THE HOUSE Poem Text First Line: Those great sweeps of snow that stop suddenly six feet from the house Subject(s): Men SNOWBANKS NORTH OF THE HOUSE First Line: Those great sweeps of snow that stop suddenly six feet from the house Last Line: No one knows why he came, or why he turned away, and did not climb the hill Subject(s): Men SNOWFALL IN THE AFTERNOON: 1 First Line: The grass is half-covered with snow Last Line: And now the little houses of the grass are growing dark SNOWFALL IN THE AFTERNOON: 2 First Line: If I reached my hands down, near the earth Last Line: I could take handfuls of darkness! %a darkness was always there, which we never noticed SNOWFALL IN THE AFTERNOON: 3 First Line: As the snow grows heavier, the cornstalks fade farther Last Line: And the barn moves nearer to the house. %the barn moves all alone in the growing storm SNOWFALL IN THE AFTERNOON: 4 First Line: The barn is full of corn, and moving toward us now Last Line: Like a hulk blown toward us in a storm at sea; %all the sailors on deck have been blind for many yea SNOWFALL IN THE NOVEMBER AFTERNOON Poem Text First Line: The grass is half-covered with snow Subject(s): Snow SOLITUDE LATE AT NIGHT IN THE WOODS: 1 First Line: The body is like a november birch facing the moon Last Line: Nothing but bare trunks climbing like cold fire! SOLITUDE LATE AT NIGHT IN THE WOODS: 2 First Line: My last walk in the trees has come. At dawn Last Line: To the obedient earth. %the trees shall be reaching all the winter SOLITUDE LATE AT NIGHT IN THE WOODS: 3 First Line: It is a joy to walk in the bare woods Last Line: The leaves are down, and touching the soaked earth, %giving off the odor that partridges love SOME MEN FIND IT HARD TO FINISH SENTENCES First Line: Sometimes a man can't say Last Line: There was something...' ST. GEORGE, THE DRAGON, AND THE VIRGIN First Line: The spiny dragon Last Line: And the marsh hag %who bore him STARFISH First Line: It is low tide. Fog. I have climbed down the cliffs from Last Line: Snail-like feelers waving as if nothing had happened, and %nothing has START OF A LATE AUTUMN NOVEL First Line: The boat has the smell of oil, and something whirrs all the time Last Line: When the ship sailed STORM First Line: The man on a walk suddenly meets the old Last Line: Stamping in their stalls STORM First Line: A sadness comes when we think back Last Line: And the storm says, 'here I come.' STUMP First Line: The stump stands where it is easily overlooked until you SUCH DIFFERENT WANTS First Line: The board floats on the river SUDDENLY TURNING AWAY Poem Text First Line: Some words come near SUDDENLY TURNING AWAY First Line: Someone comes near, the jaw Last Line: It cannot be stood against. %and we suffer. The gold discs %fall from our ears. %the sea grows cloud SUMMER GRASS First Line: So much has happened Last Line: I go and check in SURPRISED BY EVENING Poem Text First Line: There is unknown dust that is near us Subject(s): Evening; Sunset; Twilight SURPRISED BY EVENING First Line: There is unkown dust that is near us Last Line: But, at last, the quiet waters of the night will rise, %and our skin shall see far off, as it does u SWIMMING CHENANGO LAKE First Line: Winter will bar the swimmer soon TAKING THE HANDS Poem Text First Line: Taking the hands of someone you love TAKING THE HANDS First Line: Taking the hands of someone you love Last Line: And in the deep valleys of the hand TAO TE CHING RUNNING First Line: If we could only not be eaten by the steep teeth Last Line: Then the tao te ching would come running across the field TASTING HEAVEN First Line: Some people say that every poem should have Last Line: Are left over from some larger party TEETH MOTHER NAKED AT LAST First Line: Massive engines lift beautifully from the deck Last Line: From the chin of the protestant tied in the fire THAT STORY First Line: Have you heard about the man who didn't feel protected? Last Line: Either...I told you it wasn't a long story THE ANT ON THE BOARD Poem Text First Line: It is not only the ant that walks on the carpenter's board Last Line: Nor the meeting by the altar, nor the rising sun only Subject(s): Nature THE BEAR AND THE MAN Poem Text First Line: Suppose there were a bear and a man. The bear Last Line: Coming from far up there, near the north pole. Subject(s): Animals; Bears; Fathers & Sons; Knowledge THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN Poem Text First Line: Delicate women with eyes open Subject(s): Women THE CHINESE PEAKS; FOR DONALD HALL Poem Text First Line: I love the mountain peak Last Line: Buried in mist. Subject(s): Creative Ability; Soul; Inspiration; Creativity THE CONFUSION OF AMERICA Poem Text First Line: The lace that lay about the bones of danish kings Subject(s): United States; America THE CRY GOING OUT OVER PASTURES Poem Text First Line: I love you so much with this curiously alive and lonely Last Line: For we cannot remain in love with what we cannot name Subject(s): Love – Nature Of THE DEAD SEAL NEAR MCCLURE'S BEACH Poem Text First Line: Walking north toward the point, I come on a dead seal. From a Subject(s): Nature THE DRIED STURGEON Poem Text First Line: I climb down from the bridge at rock island, illinois Last Line: Clamp of the box car, tapering into sleek woman's death Subject(s): Sturgeon THE EXHAUSTED BUG; FOR MY FATHER First Line: Here is a tiny., hard-shelled thing. He is the length of a child's tooth, and Last Line: Father stretched out in his coffin. Subject(s): Beetles; Curiosities & Wonders; Death; Fathers & Sons; Insects; Enigmas; Oddities; Dead, The; Bugs THE FAT OLD COUPLE WHIRLING AROUND Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: The drum says that the night we die will be a long night THE GAIETY OF FORM Poem Text First Line: How sweet to weight the line with all these vowels Subject(s): Comfort; Creative Ability; Play; Pleasure; Vowels; Inspiration; Creativity THE GRACKLES Poem Text First Line: Grackles stroll about on on the black floor of sorrow Last Line: Over the footprints the dreamer made last night Subject(s): Grackles THE GREEK SHIPS Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: When the water holes go, and the fish flop about THE HERMIT Poem Text First Line: Darkness is falling through darkness Subject(s): Death; Dead, The THE HOCKEY POEM: 1. THE GOALIE Poem Text First Line: The boston college team has gold helmets, under which the long Subject(s): Hockey THE HORSES AT THE TANK Poem Text First Line: Every breath taken in by the man Last Line: Where the spirit horses drink Subject(s): Horses; Love THE LIFE OF WEEDS Poem Text First Line: The cry of those being eaten by america THE MOOSE Poem Text First Line: The arctic moose drinks at the tundra's edge Subject(s): Moose; Arctic THE NIGHT ABRAHAM CALLED TO THE STARS Poem Text First Line: Do you remember the night abraham first saw Subject(s): Abraham THE PELICANS AT WHITE HORSE KEY Poem Text First Line: When you follow the spiral Last Line: Set out to float on the sea of repentance Subject(s): Pelicans; Earth; Poetry & Poets; Repentance THE POSSIBILITY OF NEW POETRY Poem Text First Line: Singing of niagara, and the huron squaws THE PRODIGAL SON Poem Text First Line: The prodigal son is kneeling in the husks Last Line: Under the water there's a door the pigs have gone through Subject(s): Bible; Religion; Old Age; Theology THE SYMPATHIES OF THE LONG MARRIED Poem Text First Line: Oh well, let's go on eating the grains of eternity Subject(s): Anniversaries THE TESTAMENT Poem Text First Line: Chrysantemums crying out on the borders of death THE THIRD BODY Poem Text First Line: A man and a woman sit near each other, and they do not long Last Line: Someone we know of, whom we have never seen Subject(s): Man-woman Relationship; Contentment THE TURTLE (1) Poem Text First Line: Rain lifts the lake level, washing the reeds Last Line: The turtle's head rises outnover the water Subject(s): Turtles; Tortoises THE TURTLE (2) Poem Text First Line: How shiny the turtle is, coming out Last Line: Lying inland on the floor of the old sea Subject(s): Turtles; Tortoises THE TURTLE EGGS Poem Text First Line: Climbing on shore to give her brood a home Last Line: Find their way to the protective sea Subject(s): Turtles THE WHOLE MOISTY NIGHT Poem Text First Line: The viking ship sails into the full harbor Last Line: Water pours down, faint flute notes in the sound of the water Subject(s): Water THE YELLOW DOT Poem Text First Line: God does what she wants. She has very large Last Line: A rembrandt drawing if you put it down Subject(s): God; Women; Death THINGS TO THINK Poem Text First Line: Think in ways you've never thought before Last Line: Been decided that if you lie down no one will die Subject(s): Reason; Intellect; Rationalism; Brain; Mind; Intellectuals THINGS TO THINK First Line: Think in ways you've never thought before Last Line: Been decided that if you lie down no one will die Subject(s): Reason THINKER'S DOG First Line: Oh well. The man whose head thinks on a pillow Last Line: The one so many men and women want to kill THINKING ABOUT OLD JOBS First Line: Well, let's say this morning is all of life there is Last Line: Have to live in the way we did then: let's talk THIRD BODY First Line: A man and a woman sit near each other, and they do not long Last Line: Someone we know of, whom we have never seen Subject(s): Love THIS WORLD IS A CONFUSION OF THREE WORLDS Poem Text First Line: The dark figures of politics hover in the air Subject(s): China; New York City; Manhattan; New York, New York; The Big Apple THOSE BEING EATEN BY AMERICA First Line: The cry of those being eaten by america Last Line: The world will soon break up into small colonies of the saved THOUGHTS First Line: There's something dangerous Last Line: Tell you that rembrandt is a good listener THREE KINDS OF PLEASURES Poem Text First Line: Sometimes, riding in a car, in wisconsin Last Line: And the ditches along the road half full of a private snow Subject(s): Environment; Fields; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation; Pastures; Meadows; Leas THREE KINDS OF PLEASURES First Line: Sometimes, riding in a car, in wisconsin Last Line: And the ditches along the road half full of a private snow Subject(s): Environment; Fields THREE PRESIDENTS: ANDREW JACKSON First Line: I want to be a white horse! Last Line: A horse that runs over wooden bridges, and sleeps %in abandoned barns THREE PRESIDENTS: JOHN F. KENNEDY First Line: I want to be a stream of water falling Last Line: And when I ascend the third time, I will fall forever, %missing the earth entirely THREE PRESIDENTS: THEODORE ROOSEVELT First Line: When I was president, I crushed snails with my bare teeth Last Line: And lets the marriage bed fall; a stone that leaps into the water, %carrying the robber down with hi THREE STANZAS: 1 First Line: The knight and his lady %turned to stone but happy Last Line: Outside of time THREE STANZAS: 2 First Line: Jesus held up a coin Last Line: A profile without love- %power recycling THREE STANZAS: 3 First Line: A wet sword %wipes out all memories Last Line: And swordbelts rusting THREE-DAY FALL RAIN First Line: The three-day %october rain blows Last Line: Being rowed to the other shore TO PRESIDENT BUSH AT THE START OF THE GULF WAR Poem Text First Line: This thin-lipped king with his helmeted head Last Line: Waves to them, gestures to the young to die Subject(s): Bush, George; Iraq War (2003) TO PRESIDENT BUSH AT THE START OF THE GULF WAR First Line: This thin-lipped king with his helmeted head Last Line: Waves to them, gestures to the young to die Subject(s): Men; War TRAFFIC First Line: The semitrailer crawls through the fog Last Line: The chain breaks and grows back together all the time TREE AND THE SKY First Line: The tree is walking around in the rain Last Line: When snowflakes will throw themselves out in space TURKISH PEARS IN AUGUST Poem Text First Line: Sometimes a poem has her own husband Last Line: As turkish pears picked in the garden in august. Variant Title(s): Snow Falling On Snow Subject(s): Poetry & Poets; Food & Eating TURNING AWAY FROM LIES First Line: If we are truly free, and live in a free country Last Line: The thieves are crying in the wild asparagus TURTLE (1) First Line: Rain lifts the lake level, washing the reeds Subject(s): Turtles TURTLE (2) First Line: How shiny the turtle is, coming out Last Line: Lying inland on the floor of the old sea Subject(s): Turtles TWELFTH NIGHT First Line: At twelfth night twilight now TWINS OF A GAZELLE WHICH FEED AMONG THE LILIES First Line: Antlers butting against the full moon Last Line: Zeugma. Zucchettol. Zoo TWO CITIES First Line: There is a stretch of water, a city on each side Last Line: It's a friend's voice: 'take up your grave and walk' TWO PEOPLE AT DAWN First Line: The sun orange and rose TWO RAMAGES FOR OLD MASTERS Poem Text First Line: Silent in the moonlight, no beginning or end Last Line: By the torah and the bible inside the naked seed. Subject(s): Immortality; Man-woman Relationships; Poetry & Poets; Religion; Teaching & Teachers; Time; Whitman, Walt (1819-1891); Male-female Relations; Theology; Educators; Professors TWO RAMAGES FOR OLD MASTERS Recitation by Author First Line: Silent in the moonlight Last Line: By the torah and the bible inside the naked seed. Subject(s): Immortality; Man-woman Relationships; Poetry & Poets; Religion; Teaching & Teachers; Time; Whitman, Walt (1819-1891); Male-female Relations; Theology; Educators; Professors TWO RIVER First Line: Inside us there is a river born in the good cold TWO SOUNDS WHEN WE SIT BY THE OCEAN First Line: Waves rush up, pause, and drag pebbles back around Last Line: The pacific islands...And the donkey the disciples will %find standing beside the white wall TWO VIEWS OF TWO GHOST TOWNS First Line: Why speak of memory and death TWO WAYS TO WRITE POEMS First Line: I am who I am.' I wonder what one has to pay Last Line: Yeats had to pay in order to do that UNANSWERED LETTERS Poem Text First Line: Strips of august sun come in thjrough shutters UNDER PRESSURE First Line: Powerful engines from the blue sky Last Line: The dark hull of society keeps on going UNEASINESS IN FALL First Line: The fall has come, clear as the eyes of chickens Last Line: Burnt, even the young sun is lost, %wandering over earth as the october night comes down Variant Title(s): Silenc UNREST IN 1961 First Line: A strange unrest hovers over the nation Last Line: And businessmen fall on their knees in the dungeons of sleep UPWARD MOON AND THE DOWNWARD MOON First Line: The sun goes down, each munute the air darker. The Last Line: Will be with him? He will meet another prisoner in the %dungeon, perhaps the baker VERMEER First Line: It's not a sheltered world. The noise begins over there, on the Last Line: I am not empty, I am open' VERMONT: INDIAN SUMMER First Line: Unseasonable %as bees in april VISITING EMILY DICKINSON'S GRAVE WITH ROBERT FRANCIS First Line: Robert francis has moved, since his stroke, into town, and he takes Subject(s): Dickinson, Emily (1830-1886); Francis, Robert (1901-1987) VISITING EMILY DICKINSON'S GRAVE WITH ROBERT FRANCIS First Line: The black iron fence closes the graves in Last Line: And we clamber out of sleep, holding on to it with our hands Subject(s): Dickinson, Emily (1830-1886); Francis, Robert (1901-1987) VISITING EMILY DICKINSON'S GRAVE WITH ROBERT FRANCIS First Line: Robert francis has moved, since his stroke, into town, and he takes Last Line: Us?...For this I have abandoned all my other lives.' Subject(s): Dickinson, Emily (1830-1886) VISITING SAND ISLAND First Line: Somebody showed off and tried to tell the truth Last Line: Tell him the fox has long since eaten his dinner VISITING THE EIGHTY-FIVE-YEAR-OLD POET First Line: The eighty-five-year-old man stands up Last Line: Who stands up and says, 'no doubt you've already lived this?' Subject(s): Old Age; Poetry And Poets VISITING THE FARALLONES First Line: The farallones seals clubbed Last Line: And other worlds I do not see: %the old people's home %at dusk, the slow %murmur of conversation WAGON AND THE CLIFF First Line: The pin fails, and the wagon goes over the cliff Last Line: These peoms are windows blown open by winter wind WAITING FOR THE STARS Poem Text First Line: How much I long for the night to come Last Line: The thirst for the dark heavens. Subject(s): Creative Ability; Desire; Legacies; Night; Inspiration; Creativity; Bedtime WAKING FROM SLEEP Poem Text First Line: Inside the veins there are navies setting forth Subject(s): Morning; Waking WAKING FROM SLEEP First Line: Inside the veins there are navies setting forth Last Line: Our whole body is like a harbor at dawn; %we now that our master has left us for the day Subject(s): Waking WAKING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT Poem Text First Line: I want to be true to what I have heard WAKING ON THE FARM Poem Text First Line: I can remember the early mornings - how the stubble Subject(s): Morning; Farm Life; Agriculture; Farmers WAKING ON THE FARM First Line: I can remember the early mornings -- how the stubble Last Line: But the water kept something in it of the early morning WALKING SWIFTLY Poem Text First Line: When I wake, I hear sheep eating apple peels just outside the scfreen Last Line: And carves oceanic waves into the dragon's mane Variant Title(s): Finding An Old Ant Mansion Subject(s): Art & Artists WALKING SWIFTLY First Line: When I wake, I hear sheep eating apple peels just Last Line: That lasts forever. The artist walks swiftly to his studio, %and carves oceanic waves into the drago WALLACE STEVENS AND MOZART First Line: Oh wallace stevens, dear friend Last Line: No one screaming, no one in pain, no one afraid WALLACE STEVENS IN THE FOURTH GRADE First Line: In the fourth grade he sat on his school bench Last Line: The boy on the bench can become in poems a god WALLACE STEVENS' LETTERS Poem Text First Line: Wallace stevens comes hurrying down from the mountain Last Line: Hurries in, stiff and stern and almost like a hero. Subject(s): Doubt; Freedom; Immortality; Stevens, Wallace (1879-1955); Skepticism; Liberty WALTZ (1) First Line: There's a man -- you know whom I mean Last Line: To say goodbye -- even just going to the grocery WALTZ (2) First Line: One man I know keeps saying that we don't need Last Line: To say goodbye -- even just going to the grocery WANTING MORE APPLAUSE AT A CONFERENCE First Line: It's something about envy. I won't say I'm envious Last Line: Much, want more, even what belongs to the poor WANTING SUMPTUOUS HEAVENS Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: No one grumbles among the oyster clans Subject(s): Contentment WANTING TO EXPERIENCE ALL THINGS First Line: The blind horse among the cherry trees Last Line: To light the road. Suddenly I am flying, %I follow my own fiery traces through the night! WAR AND SILENCE First Line: The bombers spread out, temperature steady Last Line: Filaments of death grow out. %the sheriff cuts off his black legs %and nails them to a tree WARNING TO THE READER Poem Text First Line: Sometimes farm granaries become especially beautiful when all the oats Last Line: So I wouldn't perish, and that's a lot more important to me Subject(s): Books; Poetry Readings; Reading WARNING TO THE READER First Line: Sometimes farm granaries become especially beautiful when all the oats Last Line: A skull on the open boardwood floor Subject(s): Books; Poetry Readings WATCHER First Line: Inside us there is a listener who listens for what we Last Line: And growth, and I pour more wine into my glass than into %yours WATCHING TELEVISION First Line: Sounds are heard too high for ears Subject(s): Television; Tv WATCHING TELEVISION First Line: Sounds are heard too high for ears Last Line: The spirit breaks, a puff of dust floats up, %like a house in nebraska that suddenly explodes Subject(s): Television WATER First Line: The bird dips to take some water in its bill WATER DRAWN UP INTO THE HEAD First Line: Now do you understgand the men who laugh all night in their sleep Last Line: Leaving only the other one WATER UNDER THE EARTH First Line: O yes, I love you, book of my confessions Last Line: Who can feel his children through all distance and time WATERING THE HORSE Poem Text First Line: How strange to think of giving up all ambition Subject(s): Ambition WATERING THE HORSE First Line: How strange to think of giving up all ambition! Last Line: The white flake of snow %that has just fallen on the horse'smane! WE LOVE THIS BODY First Line: My friend, this body is made of energy compacted and Last Line: Face, fresh after love-making,more full of joy than a wag- %onload of hay WEEK OF POEMS AT BENNINGTON: FRIDAY. WOUNDING OTHERS First Line: Well I do it, and it's done Last Line: In time. That's what you say WEEK OF POEMS AT BENNINGTON: MONDAY. WHEN THE CAT STOLE THE MILK First Line: Well there it is. There's nothing to do Last Line: Posters, and we would never be found WEEK OF POEMS AT BENNINGTON: SATURDAY. NOTHING CAN BE DONE First Line: Don't tell me there's nothing that can be done Last Line: You weren't going anywhere WEEK OF POEMS AT BENNINGTON: SUNDAY. THE DOG'S EARS First Line: A little snow. Coffee. The bowled-over branches Last Line: And bits of ice hung on the dog's ears WEEK OF POEMS AT BENNINGTON: SUNDAY. WHAT TO DO WITH OBJECTS First Line: A little snow. Coffee. The bowleld-over branches Last Line: All these joys? Someone says, 'you take them' WEEK OF POEMS AT BENNINGTON: THURSDAY. WE ONLY SAY THAT First Line: There are so many things to love around here Last Line: Let's flirt and not flirt. Let's play cards and laugh WEEK OF POEMS AT BENNINGTON: TUESDAY. BEING HAPPY ALL NIGHT First Line: It's as if the mice stayed warm inside the snow Last Line: We took dew from the grass and washed our eyes WEEK OF POEMS AT BENNINGTON: WEDNESDAY. THE WIDOWED FRIEND First Line: I hear rustlings from the next rooms; and he is ready Last Line: Stay, friend, be with us, tell me what happened' WEEK ON THE OREGON COAST First Line: Being born at all amounts to peering out from a cliff Last Line: That so many jellyfish spread their arms on the sea WHAT BILL STAFFORD WAS LIKE First Line: With small steps he climbed very high mountains Last Line: #name? WHAT FRIGHTENED US First Line: Drops of rain fall into black fields WHAT IS SORROW FOR? Poem Text First Line: What is sorrow for? It is a storehouse Last Line: Or in the valley of sorrows spread your wings Subject(s): Grief WHAT KEPT HORACE ALIVE Poem Text First Line: Men and women spend only a moment in paradise Subject(s): Mortality WHAT KEPT HORACE ALIVE First Line: Men and women spend only a moment in paradise Last Line: Of death that kept horace alive so long WHAT MOVES AND DOESN'T MOVE First Line: At night desire and longing enter, and we feel water WHAT THE ANIMALS PAID Poem Text First Line: The hampshire ewes standing in their wooden pens Last Line: In the farm way, I am writing this poem today Subject(s): Animals; Farm Life; Agriculture; Farmers WHAT THE ANIMALS PAID First Line: The hampshire ewes standing in their wooden pens Last Line: In the farm way, I am writing this poem today Subject(s): Animals; Farm Life WHAT THE FOX AGREED TO DO: 1 First Line: Herbs, turtle-faced porcupine babies Last Line: Fur, pawmarks on shore, %the hair in the mouse's ear WHAT THE FOX AGREED TO DO: 2 First Line: This descent is the wheeling of the inexhaustible Last Line: Bear, whose furry tail %dips again and again into the ocean WHAT THE FOX AGREED TO DO: 3 First Line: And we are rheumatic pilgrims, stalking Last Line: In the night air, %driving flocks of angel cattle before them WHAT THE FOX AGREED TO DO: 4 First Line: Long seeds drop into november loam Last Line: The mother throws off her clothes, descending- %the virgin is lost among the other stars WHAT THE FOX AGREED TO DO: 5 First Line: And the shells, the mollusc shells, grow large Last Line: Smoke twists up through water, %the moon rockets up from the sea floor WHAT THE FOX AGREED TO DO: 6 First Line: The fox agrees to leap into the ocean Last Line: The human being feels a splash around him. %hebrews straddle the slippery dolphins WHAT THINGS WANT Poem Text First Line: You have to let things WHAT WE PROVIDE First Line: Every breath taken in by the man WHEN I AM WITH YOU Poem Text First Line: When I am with you, two notes of the sarod Subject(s): Childhood Memories; Mortality WHEN I AM WITH YOU First Line: When I am with you, two notes of the sarod Last Line: Of the fence. Tell that boy it isn't time WHEN I WAS TWENTY-SIX Poem Text First Line: Why god allowed montserrat to fall Last Line: I was unfaithful even to infidelity Subject(s): Change; Growth WHEN I WAS TWENTY-SIX First Line: Why god allowed montserrat to fall Last Line: I was unfaithful even to infidelity Subject(s): Change; Growth WHEN MY DEAD FATHER CALLED First Line: Last night I dreamt my father called to us Last Line: Forget he was alone in winter in some town? WHEN THE DUMB SPEAK Poem Text First Line: There is a joyful night in which we lose WHEN THE DUMB SPEAK First Line: There is a joyful night in which we lose Last Line: The house fallen, %the gold sticks broken, %then shall the talkative be silent, %and the dumb shall WHEN THE MASTER IS UNTIED Poem Text First Line: As soon as the master is untied, the bird soars WHEN THE MASTER IS UNTIED First Line: As soon as the master is untied, the bird soars' Last Line: An old sadness returns in the sorrowing dust WHEN THRESHING TIME ENDS First Line: There is a time. Things end Last Line: The fire has moved WHERE WE MUST LOOK FOR HELP First Line: The dove returns; it found no resting place Last Line: The crow, the crow, the spider-colored crow, %the crow shall find new mud to walk upon WHO IS THIS ONE First Line: Who is this who is constantly coming closer WHOLE MOISTY NIGHT First Line: The viking ship sails into the full harbor WHY WE DON'T DIE First Line: In late september many voices Last Line: Let's go get it WILDEBEEST IN THE SERENGETI First Line: Once more the lower world is becoming confused. Oh Last Line: The moses of the beaver does not see the promised land WINDY NIGHT IN SUMMER First Line: The weeping willow sends its shadows out WINTER AFTERNOON BY THE LAKE First Line: Black trunks, black branches, and white snow Last Line: Ready to re-enter that stillness. 'not yet.' WINTER NIGHT First Line: The storm puts its lips to the house Last Line: The storm will blow everything inside us away WINTER OF 1947, SELS First Line: Daytime at school: the somber swarming fortress Last Line: Sent me each morning off to sleep WINTER POEM Poem Text First Line: The quivering wings of the winter ant Last Line: To breathe, to sense another, and to wait Subject(s): Winter; Ants; Relationships WINTER POEM First Line: The quivering wings of the winter ant Last Line: The winter ant, the way of those %who are sounded and want to live: %to breathe, to sense another, a WITHIN THE ONION First Line: When you follow the spiral Last Line: The other worships water. %from then our sun rises Subject(s): Bly, Robert (b. 1926) WOMAN BEWILDERED First Line: I see birds below me with massive shoulders Last Line: My mother's bed looms up in the dark. %the woman in chains stands bewildered as night comes WORDS BARELY HEARD First Line: The bear in his heavy fur rises from the bed WORDS RISING Poem Text First Line: I open my journal, write a few Last Line: Who sleeps at night inside his volin case Subject(s): Language WORDS RISING First Line: I open my journal, write a few Last Line: His bearded words, and on the setter of songs %who sleeps at night inside his violin case Subject(s): Animals WORDS THE DREAMER SPOKE TO MY FATHER IN MAINE Poem Text First Line: Ocean light as we wake reminds us how dark Last Line: We could be there if we could lift our eyes Subject(s): Conversation; Language; Maine (state); Sea; Words; Vocabulary; Ocean WORDS THE DREAMER SPOKE TO MY FATHER IN MAINE First Line: Ocean light as we wake reminds us how dark Last Line: We could be there if we could lift our eyes.' Subject(s): Conversation; Language; Maine (state); Sea WORDS WITH WALLACE STEVENS First Line: You were so rash. I'd play saying Last Line: Dress, lolling in the garden, longing.... Subject(s): Collaboration; Courage; Faith; God; Innocence; Stevens, Wallace (1879-1955); Valor; Bravery; Belief; Creed WRITTEN AT MULE HOLLOW, UTAH First Line: After three days of talk, I long for silence and come Last Line: We sustain the brilliant glass skeleton on which we %hang WRITTEN IN DEJECTION NEAR ROME First Line: What if these long races go on repeating themselves Last Line: Surrounded by bankers whose fingers have grown long and %slender, %piercing through rotting bark for WRITTEN NEAR ROME Poem Text First Line: What if these long races go on repeating themselves YELLOW DOT First Line: God does what she wants. She has very large Last Line: A rembrandt drawing if you put it down Subject(s): God; Women |
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