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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: CERVANTES, LORNA DEE Matches Found: 94 Cervantes, Lorna Dee Poet's Biography 94 poems available by this author A UN DESCONOCIDO Poem Text First Line: I was looking for your hai Subject(s): Infatuation ABORTION First Line: Who is that keeps Last Line: Doesn't she know, there's no one %at home? Doesn't he believe %this exit's not the last? ARCHEOLOGY First Line: I can't keep my hands from stones Last Line: Graves give out; and I endure ASTRO-NO-MIA First Line: The closest we ever got BEETLES First Line: A man who once loved me, told me BENEATH THE SHADOW OF THE FREEWAY Poem Text First Line: Across the street -- the freeway Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives BENEATH THE SHADOW OF THE FREEWAY First Line: Across the street -- the freeway Last Line: And trust only what I have built %with my own hands Subject(s): Family Life BIRD AVE First Line: Life on bird Last Line: And we haven't %learned anything %since BLUE FULL MOON IN WITCH First Line: I come to you on an angel's moon Last Line: And heaven pulls its ring BUCKSHOT First Line: My man wants to kill Last Line: Of prey. He settles for my cold blood %but counts the nights before his holiday %of death CANNERY TOWN IN AUGUST Poem Text Recitation First Line: All night it humps the air Subject(s): Industry; Labor & Laborers; Work; Workers CANNERY TOWN IN AUGUST First Line: All night it humps the air Last Line: To palm them back to living Subject(s): Industry; Labor And Laborers CAPTIVE'S VERSES First Line: There is another side to you Last Line: Cocksure by doubt. By love %I swear by it. %bite by it. %swear CHILDHOOD Poem Text First Line: The man in the booth is talking Last Line: The day ouyside the window. / boom, agua Subject(s): Children; Growth; Self; Childhood CHILDHOOD First Line: The man in the booth is talking Last Line: As he watches the rain now dissolve %the day outside the window Subject(s): Children; Growth; Self COLORADO First Line: She asks the man who is absent Last Line: But can't get rid of the hex of hair %falling across his face when she turns %to the door, to the de COLORADO BLVD First Line: I wanted to die so I walked Last Line: Poised at my nipple or the ear %I expose to witches and thieves: %here it is. Will you kill for it? COMO LO SIENTO First Line: I heard an owl at midday CONTINENTAL DIVIDE First Line: If x were a stream leading clear Last Line: We shall stick the knife into %the carapace, split the claw %and ladle in every direction DAFFODILS First Line: It is true--I love Last Line: Weeds I once was when my brown soul %huddled in her winter grave of girlish earth DEATH SONG First Line: The closer I come to death Last Line: Wrecked love, demure demeaning %slush. You save. And %the body bears its choice DRAWINGS: FOR JOHN WHO SAID TO WRITE ABOUT TRUE LOVE Poem Text Subject(s): Love; Loss DRAWINGS: FOR JOHN WHO SAID TO WRITE ABOUT TRUE LOVE First Line: The writer. It's a cul-de-sac,' you wrote that Last Line: The game for the jack of all hearts, and for the queen of baguettes; %it's a cul-de-sac for a joker EMPLUMADA Poem Text First Line: When summer ended Subject(s): Transience; Impermanence EMPLUMADA First Line: When summer ended %the leaves of snapdragons withered Last Line: They find peace %in the way they contain the wind %and are gone EUROPA AND CALAFIA First Line: Sea moss and evergreen, glistening Last Line: And califia sleep, their calligraphy %of coast defines the banking surf: %no limits but air, effort FIRST BEATING First Line: What a strong little sucker you are! Last Line: Made slayer, you are mine. My strength. Your own FISHERMAN First Line: My love sleeps best Last Line: Will weave themselves into a bridge, %a crossing into life, %the greatest death of all FLATIRONS First Line: The mountains are there like ghosts Last Line: And the dripping pursuance of thawing babies-- %specters in a sunset on the heights--after massacre FOR VIRGINIA CHAVEZ Poem Text First Line: It was never in the planning Last Line: To palm them back to living Subject(s): Friendship; Women FOR VIRGINIA CHAVEZ First Line: It was never in the planning Last Line: That always lit your bookless room Subject(s): Friendship; Women FOUR PORTRAITS OF FIRE Poem Text First Line: I find a strange knowledge of wind Subject(s): Death; Dead, The FREEWAY 280 Poem Text First Line: Las casitas near the gray cannery Last Line: Or a loose seed Subject(s): Canneries; Canners FREEWAY 280 First Line: Las casitas near the gray cannery Last Line: Or a loose end Subject(s): Canneries FROM THE BUS TO E.L. AT ATASCADERO STATE HOSPITAL First Line: Fall. Peppercorns %rouge into salmon roe Last Line: In this life, the lockdown %of nothing FROM THE CABLES OF GENOCIDE First Line: Who gave you permission to detonate Last Line: The only gas breathed %is you HOTEL Poem Text Subject(s): Loss; Disappointment HOTEL First Line: I couldn't see in this light Last Line: Like clots seeping through a wound, %our collision of tensi ons, a viscous %rendered fat, divorced, HOUSE HE FALLS IN LOVE WITH First Line: Its greatest virtue is how it hides its emptiness Last Line: An empty shell built for an island. %house for sale. There for the asking. %your property for a pri INTERPRETATION OF DINNER BY THE UNINVITED GUEST First Line: In the evening dusk when earth Last Line: And who knows what country %their bodies dwell in ISLA MUJERES First Line: There's an arch in your heart Last Line: Sun and the devil wind; a matrimony LAPIZ AZUL First Line: A blast of the bluest Last Line: How it is to dissolve %out of duty and air %and the thick grief %of the expendable LAST MEAL First Line: Towards midnight our bodies turn into themselves Last Line: Amaranth and maize, they're pulling in the nets, %the fresh haul, the first scent LATIN DELI: AN ARS POETICA First Line: Presiding over a formica counter Last Line: Closed ports she must trade with LE PETIT MAL First Line: Love, if I die Last Line: Bird, my murmuring heart, %my quiver and arrow; %my shot--I'm shot %full of you. Dead LEVEE: LETTER TO NO ONE First Line: Today I watched a woman by the water Last Line: For this silt and salt, this reservoir, %depository bank, for piss %and beauty's flush LITOST First Line: I keep hoping she'll die but I think Last Line: Of the pot it's stuck in, bonsai to the bone, I break it %atthe neck as I look at her, spitting spid LOTS: 1 First Line: He told her LOTS: 2 First Line: I picked myself up ignoring LOVE OF MY FLESH, LIVING DEATH Poem Text Subject(s): Love LOVE OF MY FLESH, LIVING DEATH First Line: Once I wasn't always so plain Last Line: It's you! Sang the heart upon its mantel %pelvis. Blush of my breath, catch %of my see--beautiful bi MACHO Poem Text First Line: Slender, you are, secret as rail Last Line: Remember: the word for machismo is real Subject(s): Machismo MACHO First Line: Slender, you are, secret as rail Last Line: Your potent lure links hunger to flesh %as a frail eagle alights on my chest, %remember: the word fo Subject(s): Machismo MEDIUM'S BURDEN First Line: In the morning kitchens of my friends Last Line: And I am tormented forever %by knowing MEETING MESCALITO AT OAK HILL CEMETARY First Line: Sixteen years old and crooked %with drug, time warped blissfully Last Line: The last of the sweet fruit, sucked the rich pit %and thought nothing of death MY DINNER WITH YOUR MEMORY First Line: A woman's scent is nothing Last Line: Who would hunger at the brink of this %feast? Who would go, uninvited, %but you and your ghost of a MY GRANDFATHER'S HAT First Line: I cannot stop thinking of that old hat Last Line: Glad that he could take it with him NIGHT STAND First Line: Onions, lettuce, leeks, broccoli Last Line: And here, writing, wearing things %the discarded dead have %bought and sold: we know ODE TO A RANGER First Line: My poet, my fisherman, my lifesaver Last Line: Who would rather die, cold as copper %death to touch; my solitary range, %my pen ON FINDING THE SLIDE OF JOHN IN THE GARDEN, 1973 First Line: Half my life I have slept beside a man Last Line: My half-life, final delivery, a shucked single %kernel of care, my you and me transparency ON LOCOMOTION First Line: If I gave you release you wouldn't like it Last Line: As the exploded pods of weeds; the sear %of your eyes in a dim room, an ignition %of spark, of steam ON LOVE AND HUNGER First Line: I feed you Last Line: First word. %first sight. %food is love %in trust ON SPEAKING TO THE DEAD First Line: Did you love them enough? Last Line: The red and black surmise, %orderly, filed, and eat %the heart that ails them ON THE FEAR OF GOING DOWN First Line: Boats on the bay cull the willing Last Line: For arrival. They are leaning %on their nets. They are taking %what comes to them: the catch %of the ON THE LAST ANNIVERSARY First Line: Here in an immense forest of winter Last Line: As my puzzled march through time seizes %me leaping the turnstile--I know %I will go on in this life ON THE POET COMING OF AGE First Line: There was this poet %with a wandering eye Last Line: And I dare it to say it %I am a poet ON TOURING HER HOMETOWN Poem Text First Line: I'm going away to where I'm from Last Line: Last condor, last chance Subject(s): Homecoming; Farewell ON TOURING HER HOMETOWN First Line: I'm going away to where I'm from Last Line: It won't ever pay. I'm going away %to where I'm from. I'm leaving, %last condor, last chance Subject(s): Home PERSONA INGRATA First Line: It didn't matter Last Line: A simple matter %to matter as you %mean to me PLEIADES FROM THE CABLES OF GENOCIDE Poem Text First Line: Tonight I view seven sisters Subject(s): Pleiades (constellation) PLEIADES FROM THE CABLES OF GENOCIDE First Line: Tonight I view seven sisters Last Line: Who says: it happened. That's all. It just happened. %and runs on Subject(s): Pleiades (constellation) PLENOS PODERES First Line: Does it fill you with power Last Line: Do I love you less? Do I spit %in the moon's single eye? %doi survive? Do I? Plenos poderes %and sin POEM FOR THE YOUNG WHITE MAN WHO ASKED ME HOW I, AN INTELLIGENT ... Poem Text First Line: In my land there are no distinctions Subject(s): Ethnic Groups - United States; Minorities - United States; United States - Race Relations POEM FOR THE YOUNG WHITE MAN WHO ASKED ME HOW I, AN INTELLIGENT ... First Line: In my land there are no distinctions Last Line: But in this country %there is war Subject(s): Ethnic Groups - United States; Minorities - United States; U.s. - Race Relations POET IS SERVED HER PAPERS First Line: So tell me about fever dreams Last Line: Sign me over with xxxs %and passion. Seal on the lick %of a phone, my life. And pay. %and pay. And p POINT LOBOS First Line: If it's kindness you crave, here's the soft Last Line: Lips of thunderhead upon a blue shell, %pearled, found, and full of wonder, %of you, of smoke, this POLITENESS TAKES HER TURN First Line: At the fifth reconciliation Last Line: And moored in the shadow %of their receipts. I smile %at her. I answer: %you call this standing? RAISINS Poem Text First Line: Raisins are my currency Last Line: Memory, feeds / by chance Subject(s): Raisins RAISINS First Line: Raisins are my currency Last Line: As you now soak %my spit, sweet as acid, damp as rot. %this hunger, as your %memory, feeds %by chanc Subject(s): Raisins REFUGEE SHIP First Line: Like wet cornstarch, I slide Last Line: The ship that will never dock. %el barco que nunca atraca SANTA CRUZ First Line: So what of our sputtering names Last Line: What of this poet %reading season's end? %my worm heart, overwrought %as a slacked line, loses SHOOTING THE WREN First Line: He sends trophies from sunday's kill: a china Last Line: I will pray for, what you let live %we will praise, ignore it, and eat STARFISH First Line: They were lovely in the quartz and jasper sand Last Line: Splayed hands, the tide shoveled in TO MY BROTHER Poem Text First Line: We were so poor Subject(s): Poverty TO WE WHO WERE SAVED BY THE STARS First Line: Nothing has to be ugly. Luck of the dumb Last Line: Boat to your destiny. A man's whole life %may be a metaphor--but a woman's lot %is symbol UN DESCONOCIDO First Line: I was looking for your hair Last Line: Throw, if only I could have you UNCLE'S FIRST RABBIT Poem Text First Line: He was a good boy Subject(s): Childhood Memories; Hunting; Rabbits; Hares UNCLE'S FIRST RABBIT First Line: He was a good boy Last Line: And get the next train out VALENTINE Poem Text VALENTINE First Line: Cherry plums suck a week's soak Last Line: Folds and layers the %shedding petals of %my grief into a %decayed holo- %gram-my %for ever %empty % VISIONS OF MEXICO WHILE ... IN PORT TOWNSEND, WASHINGTON First Line: When I'm that far south, the old words Last Line: To gather my feathers %for quills WALKING AROUND First Line: It's the waves,' he says, 'the closest Last Line: Walk with me, will you? %you and I walk Y VOLVER Poem Text First Line: Who is to say love Last Line: Horses' manes, and rides Subject(s): Love - Nature Of Y VOLVER First Line: Who is to say love Last Line: Free. Love, in her candor, %can't explain the attraction %but nuzzles the wild %horse's mane, and ri Subject(s): Love - Nature Of |
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