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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: COLE, HENRI Matches Found: 173 Cole, Henri Poet's Biography 173 poems available by this author 26 HANDS First Line: Thus are we when gathering together Last Line: So hard to swallow it unshackles us 40 DAYS AND 40 NIGHTS Poem Text First Line: Opening a vein he called my radial Last Line: Rubbed my arm, which, once, pricked, had tingled, then bruised Subject(s): Aids (disease); Sickness; Illness 40 DAYS AND 40 NIGHTS First Line: Opening a vein he called my radial Last Line: Rubbed my arm, which, once pricked, had tingled then bruised Subject(s): Aids (disease); Sickness A HALF-LIFE Poem Text First Line: There is no sun today Last Line: Even the gulls above the silver ferry Subject(s): Aids (disease); Sickness; Illness ADAM DYING First Line: Though the most we can say is that it is Last Line: Mothers hunt among the decomposing dead AIX First Line: Henceforth what had lain - in the detestable square Last Line: In a tapestry anonymous - and faded as the human race AMERICAN GIRL First Line: On the beachroad %to the paradise discotheque AMERICAN KESTREL First Line: I see you sitting erect on my fire escape Last Line: Nor abstract, like the moon breaking through the pines ANAGRAM First Line: Scrawling the letters of my name Last Line: Corn, rice &eel. %all I was I could feel ANAGRAM First Line: Scrawling the letters of my name Last Line: All I was I could feel AND HE KISSED ME WITH THE KISSES FROM HIS MOUTH First Line: In the yellow cottage Last Line: Undressed greedily %before me ANNULMENT First Line: After a time, because they could not love APE HOUSE, BERLIN ZOO First Line: Are the lost like this, %living not like a plant, an inch to drink each week Last Line: Spitting mouthfuls of water into the face of the loved one, %the only thing to suffer for APOLLO: 1 First Line: With a shriek gulls fled across a black sky Last Line: A fly investigating my wet face APOLLO: 10 First Line: To write what is human, not escapist Last Line: Do not be anxious. The hand remembers them APOLLO: 11 First Line: When I was a boy our father cooked Last Line: In the endless dragging of chains that signifies love APOLLO: 12 First Line: Morning of puritans. Ice on the pond Last Line: The ineffable tongue arouses itself APOLLO: 13 First Line: I am here. I will always succor you' Last Line: Poor apollo: nothing he loves can live APOLLO: 14 First Line: This is not a poem of resurrection Last Line: I might have been, not liquid, not pent in APOLLO: 2 First Line: Stay married, god said. One marriage Last Line: Of ecstasy forever. Don't fornicate APOLLO: 3 First Line: Hefting me onto him %he let me cling on Last Line: I could feel like a stump %where love had been APOLLO: 4 First Line: The search for a single dominant gene Last Line: Is a body contained by something bodiless APOLLO: 5 First Line: Knowledge enormous makes a god of me' Last Line: Like a man whose being has miscarried APOLLO: 6 First Line: On the sand there were dead things from the deep Last Line: On vellum after inking out what came before APOLLO: 7 First Line: Walking in woods, I found him bound to a tree Last Line: Smearing out the white surplices of acolytes APOLLO: 8 First Line: Dirt so fine it is like flour Last Line: In the mouth %dirt so fine it is like flour APOLLO: 9 First Line: All I want is to trust a man with plain Last Line: And sounds are not what I feel. Make me a man APOSTASY First Line: Father, when, when, when will you lift me Last Line: Dirty baby needs you to teach him how to chew ARTE POVERA First Line: In the little garden of villa sciarra Last Line: My soul-animal prefers the choke-chain AT THE GRAVE OF ELIZABETH BISHOP First Line: I, detaching myself from the human I, henri Last Line: Like hadrian reunited with the place he loved BEACH WALK Poem Text First Line: I found a baby shark on the beach. Subject(s): Seaside BEARDED IRISES First Line: I was a stranger and you welcomed me Last Line: Could be as good as what came before BEAVERS AT SWEET BRIAR First Line: Big brown bats BIBLICAL GARDEN First Line: Everything looked authentic and frail BIRD SHOW AT AUBAGNE First Line: The lovebirds were shouting at us when we arrived Last Line: To which wisdom's deep voice -- 'je suis socrate' -- replied BIRTHDAY Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: When I was a boy, we called it punishment Subject(s): Childhood Memories BLACK JACKET First Line: At the hunt club, two architects Last Line: Folding over the gated prison BLACK MANE First Line: Do you hear him, how he's asking Last Line: Must remember the flesh it once was BLUE GROTTO First Line: Curlyhead was bellowing puccini Last Line: To overcome the stick that is the body BOWL OF LILACS First Line: My lilacs died today, floating in a bowl Last Line: Saturated and raw as a bowl of lilacs BOY'S LIFE First Line: Nappin pretzeled in plain old coach class BUDDHA AND THE SEVEN TIGER CUBS First Line: Holding a varnished paper parasol Last Line: Mother who abandons them forever BUOYANT ENDING First Line: On an evening slumberous as this CABBAGE BUTTERFLY First Line: Something like volcanic ash wafted in air. Last Line: To my brow, it was lighter than a dollar, %yet nourished me like manna where I stood. Subject(s): Butterflies; Insects CAESAR First Line: Nose pressed against the glass CANARD First Line: No rapture exceeds driving south in august CAPE COD ELEGY Poem Text First Line: Now it is only words CAPE COD ELEGY First Line: Now it is only words CARNATIONS First Line: At the pool he writes Last Line: Far off, an ambulance %wails on the horizon CARNATIONS First Line: At the pool he writes Last Line: Wails on the horizon Subject(s): Aids (disease); Sickness CASABLANCA LILY First Line: It has the odor of mother leaving Last Line: Caught in the stranglehold of her mind CHARITY First Line: Naked but for dainty shoes, garter Last Line: Knocked from the bed, she will not break CHERRY BLOSSOM STORM Poem Text First Line: Draping my body in the usual sterile manner, CHIFFON MORNING Poem Text First Line: I am lying in bed with my mother Last Line: If it's suffering or joy behind her tears Variant Title(s): Chiffon Morning: I Subject(s): Mothers CHIFFON MORNING First Line: I am lying in bed with my mother Last Line: If it's suffering or joy behind her tears Variant Title(s): Chiffon Morning: Subject(s): Mothers CHIFFON MORNING: II First Line: In the oily black barbecue smoke, Last Line: To sex, and peace, like an arrow, found us. CHIFFON MORNING: III First Line: How many nights did I throw my arms around Last Line: Whom she cradled. Father was out of town. CHIFFON MORNING: IV First Line: On the mowed grass, I once posed in black tie; Last Line: In a suburban dream house, for sale now. CHIFFON MORNING: V First Line: As the cuckoo clock crows in the kitchen, Last Line: My guilt seemed vain compared to what she felt. CHIFFON MORNING: VI First Line: Mother is naked and holding me up Last Line: If it's suffering or joy behind her tears. CHILDLESSNESS Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: For many years I wanted a child Subject(s): Mothers & Sons CHILDLESSNESS First Line: For many years I wanted a child Last Line: Dismal and greedy like the sea, to reclaim me CHRISTMAS IN CARTHAGE First Line: The great hobbler is pain; not age Last Line: Where there is a life, an everyman's paradise %of open-air porticoes and fruit and love and crematio CHRISTOLOGICAL YEAR First Line: The record skips in the parlor Last Line: Letting fall a kind of purple, metaphysical spray CLEANING THE ELEPHANT First Line: Thirsty and pale, her face lowered in concentration Last Line: And a red sun wraps everything in gold COASTGUARD STATION First Line: At dawn, a few recruits have a smoke Last Line: I hate what I am and I hate what I am not COCONUTS AND PINK PAJAMAS First Line: A turtle-town of quonset huts COLLOQUY First Line: All night I have slept by you Last Line: Like moths singed by flame COLOR OF FEELING AND THE FEELING OF COLOR First Line: While others were discussing %the styles of metopes Last Line: The slope of a volcano, %a dolphin cut the sea COLOR OF FEELING AND THE FEELING OF COLOR First Line: While others were discussing Last Line: A dolphin cut the sea CRAYOLA First Line: Pixilated %beneath a cloud-burst Last Line: Across blue tiles, shampoo %stinging my eyes DESERT DAYS ON THE RESERVOIR First Line: Talking town but always Last Line: Catch the rising stars!' DIANA AND THE ADDER First Line: Are asleep daintily on the lawn DOROTHY'S FOSSILS First Line: Ninety million years ago a duck-billed EATING FIGS UNDER THE WHITE ROCKS First Line: You were saying something about your father Last Line: Or even you, who would betray me -- could ever return again EMBERS Recitation by Author ETNA First Line: Who are you, whose pornographic voice Last Line: Come, unlace my boots; I chose you EX-VOTO First Line: At the garden party all talk Last Line: Peaceably into the air, like women %taking baskets home, unadmittedly heavy FATHER'S JEWELRY BOX Poem Text First Line: Home for a weekend retreat Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives FATHER'S JEWELRY BOX First Line: Home for a weekend retreat FOLLY First Line: In the doria pamphili garden Last Line: Their bloody embryos FOUND SONNET ON A POSTCARD FROM MILWAUKEE First Line: My problems with monty have abated GIALLO ANTICO First Line: None of the indolent christians could see Last Line: Who is master of pain because he is not human GONDOLAS First Line: It has been so long since he left his country Last Line: Pummelling columbus's three little ships, %trying and trying to be lifted by it Subject(s): Aids (disease); Sickness GRAVITY AND CENTER Poem Text GRAVITY AND CENTER First Line: I'm sorry I cannot say I love you when you say Last Line: Or the sound of water poured in a bowl GREEN SHADE Poem Text First Line: With my head on his spotted back Subject(s): Deer GULLS First Line: Naked, hairy, trembling, I dove into the green Last Line: I was straightening all that I had made crooked HALF-LIFE First Line: There is no sun today Last Line: Theirs is a world of joy trancing %even the gulls above the silver ferry Subject(s): Aids (disease); Sickness HARVARD CLASSICS First Line: It is the hour of lamps Last Line: Remind us one swallow %doesn't make a summer HEART OF THE MONARCH First Line: Lesser fritillaries or crescents might HOLIDAY First Line: Another gemmy beginning HOMOSEXUALITY Poem Text First Line: First I saw the round bill, like a bud Subject(s): Gays & Lesbians; Homoeroticism; Lesbians; Gay Women; Gay Men HORSES First Line: Setting out on my bicycle alone Last Line: How I yearned for my neck to be brushed HOUSE GUEST LOOKS AT LOVE AND LIFE First Line: At other people's houses, at motels Last Line: In a jar, shone its gaudy light through him HOUSEKEEPER AND THE HANDYMAN First Line: The old port's modern armada Last Line: A coded sentence of survival to the armada IMMACULATE MARY BREATHES THE AIR WE BREATHE First Line: Immaculate mary breathed the air we breathed Last Line: Even though I knew nothing could change me INSOMNIA First Line: At night by lamplight certain insects Last Line: We huddled together in the dark backward of the night IRRADIATION First Line: The evening began like any other Last Line: Like madeleine's cooing in her crib JEALOUSY First Line: I, putative poet, I Last Line: This is my autopsy KATRINA'S BEDROOM First Line: Waterpots of the sky Last Line: Ignorant thought in the mansion, %undisturbed, burns on and on KID WAS ALREADY NOXIOUS CARRION First Line: The kid was already noxious carrion Last Line: His would-be punisher, blessed be he, the holy one LAND OF LEMONS First Line: Under burnt orange ceramic roofs Last Line: Us and the wild unaffected poppies LIMO-ANGEL First Line: Zigzagwise across the beltway LINES ON SEEING A LOCK OF KEAT'S HAIR First Line: Bittersweet as fall, magnificent fall LITTLE G MINOR LAMENT First Line: At the flea market a friend paid Last Line: Atom, fission, radiation LONG VIEW First Line: What I fear most are ordinary things Last Line: Made of bronze or adirondack branches, I do not care LOOK OF THINGS First Line: If my family has regrets Last Line: Let it be love that tips the glass LOST BEE First Line: In the hills, a boy drove a donkey cart Last Line: Why must god always side with the brave? LOST IN VENICE First Line: Across the continent the operator MARBLE QUEEN First Line: Beneath the whorish scent of magnolia MARE First Line: I remember the shade where I found her MARIUS, SON OF SARKIS, NAMED FOR THE ROMAN CONSUL, SAVIOR First Line: Is feeding his canaries on the terrace Last Line: Like a babel of sailors, will sing him %some vain reply MEDUSA First Line: A vulture rose and flapped across the sand Last Line: Obscuring pleasure in a flesh tunnel MELON AND INSECTS First Line: Pedaling home at twilight, I collided Last Line: Before sleep, waiting to show my drawing MESMERISM First Line: Long afterward, people would say blandly Last Line: All tht I am was membrane and nails MIDNIGHT SAILING ON THE CHESAPEAKE First Line: The lavish canopy of crape myrtles MIMOSA SENSITIVA First Line: Polishing your eyeglasses, I try them on Last Line: And little beads run out, as from a draining bird MINIMUM CIRCUS First Line: From the marks on their coats Last Line: Well, this is what life is supposed to be MIRROR First Line: After a season of war, darkness retreated Last Line: Like a juicy's worm in straw, it wanted to be fed MY SWEETEST LESBOS First Line: Erratic fruit-bats NECESSARY AND IMPOSSIBLE Poem Text First Line: It is a nation born in the quiet part of the mind Last Line: Pushing out of their element into mine Subject(s): Nations NECTAR AND SEMEN OF CHANGE First Line: If I were a shepherd with flocks NEW LIFE First Line: Through clouds of tiny rocks Last Line: Are waving their flame-hands %in air OCTOPUS ORCHID First Line: We sit for hours at the yellow kitchen table OF ISLAND ANIMALS First Line: It's the lean-legged egrets OIL & STEEL Recitation by Author Subject(s): Fathers & Sons OLD COUNTING-GAME First Line: What's all this fuss about 1? One? Last Line: Tenderly awkward, as we all were then OLYMPIA Poem Text First Line: Tired, hungry, hot, I climbed the steep slope PAINTED EYES First Line: Dusty and treeless, the street sloped beneath us Last Line: Except those the eyes mined PALETTE First Line: Lying on the floor of anna's studio Last Line: Ahead, they say - until anna rubs it out forever PAPER DOLLS First Line: To some it might Last Line: Like shackled lions %roared at his entrance PAPILLOMA First Line: Naked, horizontal, marooned PATROCLUS: A LOVE SONG First Line: I have been thinking of the son I might have had PEARL First Line: At the ceremony commemorating me Last Line: And meaning of human existence PINK AD THE BLACK First Line: The sea a goblet of black currant liqueur Last Line: I had been so lonely, hungry as a snake PLASTILINA First Line: It was a game of truth more than dare Last Line: For what, years hence, it might blissfully be POENIES First Line: Ample creamy heads beaten down vulgarly Last Line: Those of us who hear it know the feeling POPPIES Poem Text First Line: Waking from comalike sleep, I saw the poppies, Subject(s): Poppies POWDERED MILK First Line: Come to the garden, you said Last Line: Solitude had made us her legitimate sons PRINCE ENTERS THE FOREST First Line: Full of courage and promise like the geese gone away ROMAN BATHS AT NIMES First Line: In the hall of mirrors nobody speaks Last Line: And tongue, good things, make something sweet of fear SACRAMENT First Line: On the way to mass, by chance Last Line: They wouldn't let you go again SAINT STEPHEN'S DAY WITH THE GRIFFINS First Line: Half-eagle, half-lion, the fabulous SAUNA First Line: All the beast within Subject(s): Saunas SELF-PORTRAIT AS FOUR STYLES OF POMPEIAN WALL PAINTING First Line: To become oneself is so exhausting Last Line: Imprinting me until I am born again SELF-PORTRAIT WITH HORNETS First Line: Hornets, two hornets buzz over my head Last Line: Teach me to love. Lie down on me SILVER CUFFS First Line: Might come off but for our verdict: guilty Last Line: Facing judgment, mecca and all the plundered within SNOW MOON FLOWER First Line: In this place of rice fields Last Line: Against the lonely surface of everything SUICIDE HOURS First Line: Ignorant and unabashed, I sit in a tub of gas Last Line: Toss against spent semen, saliva & tears SUPPER WITH ROY First Line: Still in a sweat from the thirty Last Line: Sit down with wine, fruit pie and your amaryllis SWANS First Line: From above we must have looked like ordinary Last Line: Yellow jackets hovering over an empty basket SWIMMING WITH THE DEAD First Line: Pink chemicals in the school pool -- not you Last Line: In a poncho showing off a dagger tattoo SYCAMORES Recitation by Author TARANTULA First Line: At a petshop in the village Last Line: Knowing a sad house has no escape THE MINIMUM CIRCUS Poem Text First Line: From the marks on their coats Last Line: This is what life is supposed to be Subject(s): Circus THREE AURELIAN MOONS: CASSIS First Line: It was a mackerel sky that engulfed them Last Line: Is so pretty there, it's the suicide's favorite leap THREE AURELIAN MOONS: LES BAUX First Line: As in some parody of fallen nations Last Line: Of maize and how a life, mine, once stopped, moved anyhow THREE AURELIAN MOONS: MONT SAINTE-VICTOIRE First Line: To village children sleeping in the basin Last Line: Where soldiers carved hearts with the heart's knife strokes TO A PRINCE First Line: At the sound of your name, I turned my head Last Line: Of private shame. Yours and hers TO SLEEP Poem Text First Line: Then out of the darkness leapt a bare hand TO THE FORTY-THIRD PRESIDENT First Line: Hip deep in the pit, wading through ruins Last Line: Circling in the dark wood TORSO First Line: Propped up in bed, my little waist a pedestal Last Line: Heart is all I am, or was, and the pink dot %on the monitor a marker for the one I sought UNE LETTRE A NEW YORK First Line: If it's spring in the city, have the marchers Last Line: In between, the first sweet cherries of the season are being%delivered V-WINGED AND HOARY First Line: All our pink and gold and blue Last Line: In little os at the spectacle of gulls VANESSA First Line: It was premonitions that kept us restless VEIL First Line: We were in your kitchen eating sherbet Last Line: Water and soil are striving to be flesh WEDDING ANNOUNCEMENT First Line: Appearing in the times Last Line: Long before one sprayed locusts %in locust valley WEST POINT REMEMBERED First Line: Such is the way with monumental things Last Line: Cut loose the very detritus of our lives Subject(s): United States - Military Academy WEST POINT REMEMBERED First Line: Such is the way with monumental things Subject(s): U.s. - Military Academy WHITE MARRIAGES First Line: Some days the white marriage has a black face Last Line: That needs no body WHITE SPINE First Line: Liar, I thought, kneeling with the others Last Line: Reason, not faith, would change him YOU COME WHEN I CALL YOU First Line: I was very rusting and very dangerous Last Line: This was the congenial state I'd awaited |
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