Poetry Explorer

Search Classic and Contemporary Poetry

Search Results

Back to search

Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Searching...
Author: COLLINS, BILLY
Matches Found: 421


Collins, Billy    Poet's Biography
421 poems available by this author


A HISTORY OF WEATHER    Poem Text    
First Line: It is the kind of spring morning - candid sunlight
Subject(s): Weather


A NIGHT ON EARTH       
First Line: I got home late and drank most
Subject(s): Dreams; Life; Night; Nightmares; Bedtime


A PORTRAIT OF THE READER WITH A BOWL OF CEREAL    Poem Text    
First Line: Every morning I sit across from you
Subject(s): Breakfast


A SENSE OF PLACE    Poem Text    
First Line: If things happened differently


ABSENCE       
First Line: This morning as low clouds %skidded over the spires of the city
Last Line: The moves I was making him do %over and over in my palm


ADVICE TO A NIGHTWALKER       
First Line: You do not want to linger on a bridge engulfed in fog
Last Line: And take courage from their songs, %their brave, spirited anthems


ADVICE TO WRITERS       
First Line: Even if it keeps you up all night


AFTER       
First Line: It occurred to me this evening
Last Line: The same dark, star-troubled sky


AFTER THE STORM       
First Line: Soft yellow-gray light of early morning
Last Line: To lie down beside us in our dark and quiet beds


AFTERLIFE       
First Line: While you are preparing for sleep, brushing your teeth
Last Line: And stand at a window examining the winter trees, %every branch traces with the ghost writing of sno


AFTERNOON WITH IRISH COWS       
First Line: There were a few dozen who occupied the field
Last Line: Above the wall with one wild, shocking eye


AIMLESS LOVE    Poem Text    
First Line: This morning as I walked along the lake shore


AIMLESS LOVE       
First Line: This morning as I walked along the lake shore
Last Line: And caught the scent of lavender and stone


AMERICAN SONNET    Poem Text    
First Line: We do not speak like petrarch or wear a hat like spenser
Subject(s): Poetry & Poets


AMERICAN SONNET       
First Line: We do not speak like petrarch or wear a hat like spenser
Last Line: A few square inches of where we have strayed %and a compression of what we feel


AND HIS SEXTET       
First Line: Now that all the twilight has seeped
Last Line: On october 4th, 1951


ANOTHER REASON I DON'T KEEP A GUN IN THE HOUSE        Recitation
Subject(s): Dogs


ANOTHER REASON WHY I DON'T KEEP A GUN IN THE HOUSE       
First Line: The neighbors' dog will not stop barking
Last Line: That endless coda that first established %beethoven as an innovative genius


APRIL       
First Line: I never bought the notion
Last Line: And let all the birds fly out of my body


ARISTOTLE    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: This is the beginning
Subject(s): Poetry & Poets; Aristotle (384-322 B.c.)


ARISTOTLE       
First Line: This is the beginning
Last Line: A hat on a peg, and outside the cabin, falling leaves


ART       
First Line: The way you leaned against me
Last Line: That lets them, without exertion, slip back down


ART OF DROWNING       
First Line: I wonder how it all got started, this business
Last Line: The surface, now overrun with the high travel of clouds


AXIOM       
First Line: And the two are braided together
Last Line: Feeling every ton %as they add more to the pile
Variant Title(s): Aphoris


BAR TIME    Poem Text    
First Line: In keeping with universal saloon practice
Last Line: The late edition like a flag in his pocket
Subject(s): Bars & Bartenders; Pubs; Taverns; Saloons


BAR TIME       
First Line: In keeping with universal saloon practice
Last Line: The late edition like a flag in his pocket
Subject(s): Bars And Bartenders


BEREFT    Poem Text    
First Line: I liked listening to you today at lunch
Last Line: The sound of the newcomers weeping
Subject(s): Death; Mourning


BEST CIGARETTE       
First Line: There are many that I miss
Last Line: Pointed down at all the words in parallel lines


BIOGRAPHY OF A CLOUD       
First Line: It would have been easier to follow johnson
Last Line: And feel the sun, warm and intermittent, on my face


BIRDS OF AMERICA       
First Line: Early this morning
Last Line: And fly alongside you


BIRTHDAY       
First Line: Before it was over %I took out a pencil and a notepad
Last Line: Introduction and notes by one angus ross


BLOCK       
First Line: The way to get through the block is to write about the block
Last Line: Pointing ahead to where the gulf stream was running


BLUE       
First Line: You can have egypt and nantucket


BLUES       
First Line: Much of what is said here
Last Line: But that woman's sure going to make you cry


BONSAI       
First Line: All it takes is one to throw a room
Last Line: On her annual, thousand-mile journey


BOOKS    Poem Text    
First Line: From the heart of this dark evacuated campus
Subject(s): Books & Reading


BOOKS       
First Line: From the heart of this dark, evacuated campus


BOYHOOD    Poem Text    
First Line: Alone in the basement
Subject(s): Childhood Memories


BREATHLESS    Poem Text    
First Line: Some like the mountains some like the seashore
Last Line: And no dreams to frighten me anymore
Subject(s): Death; Sleep; Dead, The


BREATHLESS       
First Line: Some like the mountains some like the seashore
Last Line: The roots of trees inching nearer %dream after dream parading slowly by
Subject(s): Death; Sleep


BROOKLYN MUSEUM OF ART       
First Line: I will now step over the soft velvet rope


BUDAPEST       
First Line: My pen moves along the page
Last Line: While I gaze out the window and imagine budapest %or some other city where I have never been


BY A SWIMMING POOL OUTSIDE SIRACUSA    Poem Text    
First Line: All afternoon I have been struggling
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


BY A SWIMMING POOL OUTSIDE SYRACUSA       
First Line: All afternoon I have been struggling
Last Line: At this special time of day, or as we say in america, now


CANADA    Poem Text    
First Line: I am writing this on a strip of white birch bark
Subject(s): Canada; Canadians


CANADA       
First Line: I am writing this on a strip of white birch bark
Last Line: And one of them, the taller one minus the straw hat, is me


CANCER       
First Line: When you need to say the word


CANDLE HAT       
First Line: In most self-portraits it is the face that dominates


CELEBRATION       
First Line: The day we walked side by side
Last Line: Maybe a national holiday in some faraway country


CENTER       
First Line: At the first chink of sunrise
Last Line: As wide awake as I will ever be


CHEERS    Poem Text    
First Line: Already tonight: I have lifted my glass to jackie


CHEERS       
First Line: Already tonight I have lifted my glass to jackie
Last Line: Here's to the wind blowing against this lighted house %and to the vast windless spaces between the s


CHILD DEVELOPMENT    Poem Text     Recitation
First Line: As sure as prehistoric fish grew legs
Subject(s): Children; Childhood


CHILD DEVELOPMENT       
First Line: As sure as prehistoric fish grew legs


CITY OF TOMORROW       
First Line: No matter which illustrator was called on
Last Line: Waiting for the climbers of the future to seek them out


CLASS PICTURE    Poem Text    
First Line: I am the third one
Subject(s): School


CLICHE       
First Line: My life is an open book. It lies here
Last Line: And, always the student, make an asterick, a little star, in the margin


COME RUNNING       
First Line: I spot the neighbor's dog scampering across the lawn
Last Line: Hands cupped around her mouth, calling my name, %and I will leap the hedge and come running


CONSOLATION    Poem Text    
First Line: How agreeable it is not to be touring italy this summer
Last Line: A road that will never lead to rome, not even bologna
Subject(s): Play


CONSOLATION       
First Line: How agreeable it is not to be touring italy this summer
Last Line: Down a road that will never lead to rome, not even bologna
Subject(s): Play


CONSTELLATIONS       
First Line: Yes, that's orion over there
Last Line: The outline of the paddle, raised and dripping stars?


CONVERSATIONAL ITALIAN       
First Line: It seems the only reason I have come to italy
Last Line: I have lost the key. %look! There's the runway!
Subject(s): Italy; Travel


CONVERSION       
First Line: I would like to spend the day on the slope
Last Line: Flicker on the low ceiling and the walls of stone


CREATURES    Poem Text    
First Line: Hamlet noticed them in the shapes of clouds,


CREATURES       
First Line: Hamlet noticed them in the shapes of clouds
Last Line: And stop bothering innocent beachgoers like us, %stop ruining everyone's summer


DANCING TOWARD BETHLEHEM    Poem Text    
First Line: With surplice and cassock, cruet, thurible and candle


DANCING TOWARD BETHLEHEM       
First Line: If there is only enough time in the final
Last Line: And all our attention devoted to humming %whatever it was they were playing


DAYS    Poem Text    
First Line: Each one is a gift, no doubt


DAYS       
First Line: Each one is a gift, no doubt
Last Line: Place this cup on yesterday's saucer %without the slightest clink


DEAD       
First Line: The dead are always looking down on us, they say
Last Line: Which makes them lift their oars fall silent %and wait, likeparents, for us to close our eyes


DEAR READER    Poem Text    
First Line: Baudelaire sees you as his brother
Subject(s): Writing & Writers


DEAR READER       
First Line: Baudelaire considers you his brother
Last Line: Of a road we can't help traveling together


DEATH       
First Line: In the good old days news of it travelled by foot
Last Line: Ready to summon you, ready to fall from your hand


DEATH BEDS       
First Line: The ancients were talkative on theirs
Last Line: And pick out the dot of a hawk lost in the blue


DEATH OF ALLEGORY       
First Line: I am wondering what became of all those tall abstractions
Last Line: The one that winds up a green hillside and disappears %into an unseen valley where everyone must be


DEATH OF THE HAT       
First Line: Once every man wore a hat
Last Line: A lighter one of cloud and sky -- a hat of wind


DEATHBEDS    Poem Text    
First Line: The ancients were talkative on theirs
Subject(s): Death; Dead, The


DESIGN    Poem Text    
First Line: I pour a coating of salt on the table


DESIGN       
First Line: I pour a coating of salt on the table
Last Line: Touching my finger to my tongue


DESIRE       
First Line: It would be easier to compile an encyclopedia


DHARMA    Poem Text    
First Line: The way the dog trots out the front door
Subject(s): Dogs


DHARMA       
First Line: The way the dog trots out the front door
Last Line: If only I were not her god


DIRECTIONS       
First Line: You know the brick path in back of the house
Last Line: Piercing the ground with your stick


DISCOVERY OF SCAT       
First Line: Long before dizzy, %high on the rising tower at babel
Last Line: And said something %that sounded like %bop ah dooolyah bop


DOG    Poem Text    
First Line: I can hear him out in the kitchen
Last Line: Like a strange naked hermit in a cave
Subject(s): Animals; Dogs


DOG       
First Line: I can hear him out in the kitchen
Last Line: His tongue hidden in his long mouth %like a strange naked hermit in a cave
Subject(s): Animals; Dogs


DRAWING CLASS       
First Line: If you ever asked me %how my drawing classes are going
Last Line: And placed beside a luminous morning window


DREAM       
First Line: Last night I labored in a cold scriptorium
Last Line: Turning the pages of the morning paper


DRIVING MYSELF TO A POETRY READING       
First Line: Halfway there I pull on the headlights
Last Line: And begin singing every song it ever knew


DRIVING THROUGH THE LIGHT       
First Line: I woke up in the dark this morning
Last Line: And about the long watery body of that nameless swimmer


DRIVING WITH ANIMALS       
First Line: I drive this road that whips through woods at night


DUCK/RABBIT       
First Line: The lamb may lie down with the lion
Last Line: And never see the two of us together


EARTHLING       
First Line: You have probably come across
Last Line: A respectful distance from the sun.


EGYPT       
First Line: Alone under the bright swords of sunlight
Last Line: And sweeps the sand from my face with her delicate brush


ELK RIVER FALLS    Poem Text    
First Line: Is where the elk river falls
Subject(s): Waterfalls


ELK RIVER FALLS       
First Line: Is where the elk river falls
Last Line: Then feels the sudden sting of salt


EMBRACE    Poem Text     Recitation
First Line: You know the parlor trick


EMBRACE       
First Line: You know the parlor trick
Last Line: To fit you for a straitjacket, %one that would hold you really tight


END OF THE WORLD       
First Line: It is a subject so profound I feel I should
Last Line: We will behold the starry-eyed messiah of the night


ENDANGERED       
First Line: It is so quiet on the shore of this motionless lake
Last Line: The ultimate paddling of ducks and pitying of turtledoves %and, his bell tolling in the distance, th


ENGLISH COUNTRY HOUS       
First Line: I pass under the arched entrance to my hedge-maze
Last Line: I remember them all as I stand here in the dark green %center


ETYMOLOGY       
First Line: They call basque an orphan language


EVENING SHOWER       
First Line: Here I am alone at last
Last Line: And all the piercing winters yet to come


EXPLORING THE COAST OF BIRDLAND       
First Line: This time it wasn't a sea gull landing on a spar
Last Line: Shining, along the borders of my dark goatee


FEEDBACK        Recitation by Author


FIELD GUIDE    Poem Text    
First Line: No one I ask knows the name of the flower
Subject(s): Wisteria


FIELD GUIDE       
First Line: No one I ask knows the name of the flower
Last Line: Then, ad if he were giving me the time of day, a passenger %looks up from his magazine and says wist


FIFTIETH BIRTHDAY EVE    Poem Text    
First Line: The figure alone is enough to keep me awake
Subject(s): Middle Age


FIFTIETH BIRTHDAY EVE       
First Line: The figure alone is enough to keep me wide awake
Last Line: That is cutting silently across the dark sky


FIRST DREAM       
First Line: The wind is ghosting around the house tonight
Last Line: To ever fall in love with the sadness of another


FIRST GEIUSSES       
First Line: It is so early almost nothing has happened
Last Line: Not the whereabouts of north or the notion of zero %not even how to sharpen a stone to a deadly poin


FIRST LINE OF A POEM       
First Line: Before it flutters into my mouth
Last Line: The color of his thread


FIRST READER    Poem Text    
First Line: I can see them standing politely on the wide pages
Subject(s): Books & Reading


FIRST READER       
First Line: I can see them standing politely in the wide pages
Last Line: Alphabetical ourselves in the rows of classroom desks, %we were forgetting how to look, learning how


FISHING ON THE SUSQUEHANNA IN JULY    Poem Text    
First Line: I have never been fishing on the susquehanna
Subject(s): Home


FIVE FONDLY REMEMBERED PASSAGES FROM MY CHILDHOOD READING       
First Line: When they had inched about as close as they dared, they crouched
Last Line: Delicate china tea things


FLAMES       
First Line: Smokey the bear heads


FLOCK       
First Line: I can see them squeezed into a holding pen
Last Line: One of the few things they already know


FLYING THROUGH CLOUDS       
First Line: Harder for me to understand than calculus
Last Line: About the ultimate purpose of life on earth
Subject(s): Clouds; Earth


FLYING TO A FUNERAL       
First Line: A realm of the visible world rolls below


FORGETFULNESS    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: The name of the author is the first to go
Subject(s): Aging


FORGETFULNESS       
First Line: The name of the author is the first to go
Last Line: No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted %out of a love poem that you used to know by


FORSYTHIA    Poem Text    
First Line: It caught my eye a while ago, lit up
Subject(s): Flowers


FORSYTHIA       
First Line: It caught my eye a while ago, lit up
Last Line: And hear the sound of yellow fill the morning air


FRANKENSTEIN POET       
First Line: Pursued by the mob of townspeople


FUR       
First Line: The night is full of the bulldog policemen


GENIUS    Poem Text    
First Line: Was what they called you in high school
Subject(s): Genius


GENIUS       
First Line: Was what they called you in high school
Last Line: Me with my head up in the light morning breeze


GENIUS       
First Line: Is standing at a stove in a bathrobe
Last Line: Which is slowly taking the shape %of an astonishing idea


GOING OUT FOR CIGARETTES    Poem Text    
First Line: It's a story as famous as the three little pigs
Last Line: Downstream, and its upturned reflection in the water
Subject(s): Alienation (social Psychology); Dissenters; Exiles; Marginality, Social; Estrangement; Outcasts


GOING OUT FOR CIGARETTES       
First Line: It's a story as famous as the three little pigs
Last Line: Nothing but the arc of the stone bridge he notices %downstream, and its upturned reflection in the w
Subject(s): Alienation (social Psychology); Dissenters; Exiles; Marginality, Social


GRAVE        Recitation by Author
Subject(s): Graves; Parents; Tombs; Tombstones; Parenthood


GREAT WALTER PATER       
First Line: In the middle of the formal gardens
Last Line: Under a smooth, translucent sheet of ice


HART CRANE       
First Line: This time when I think of his leap


HER    Poem Text    
First Line: There is no noisier place than the suburbs,
Subject(s): Suburbs


HERE, THERE, AND ELSEWHERE       
First Line: This late afternoon landscape in perigord
Last Line: Never to be seen in such exact secluded light
Subject(s): Landscape


HIGH STICK       
First Line: Bobby orr's marble
Subject(s): Sports


HISTORY OF WEATHER       
First Line: It is the kind of spring morning - candid sunlight
Last Line: At the passing of enormous faces and animal shapes, %his jacket bunched into a pillow, an open book


HISTORY TEACHER       
First Line: Trying to protect his students' innocence
Last Line: Designed to make the enemy nod off
Subject(s): Education; Schools


HOME AGAIN       
First Line: The black porcelain lamp
Last Line: Your silent fealty, your steadfast repose


HOPELESS BUT NOT SERIOUS       
First Line: These days every morning begins like a joke


HORIZON       
First Line: You can use the brush of a japanese monk
Last Line: Or standing on the ledge of a winter beach %watching the light on the water, light in air


HORSEMAN, PASS BY!       
First Line: When I show you the photograph of me
Last Line: Between me and that phantom self %who could just drive by and now was miles away


HOUSE    Poem Text    
First Line: I lie in a bedroom of a house
Subject(s): Houses


HOUSEFLY       
First Line: You never know where the floating tub
Last Line: Through my big, honeycombed eyes


HUNGER       
First Line: The fox you lug over your shoulder


HUNT       
First Line: Somewhere in the rolling hills and farm country
Last Line: Swinging their sticks and calling out to one another %as they wade through a field of waist-high bar


I CHOP SOME PARSLEY WHILE LISTENING TO ART BLAKEY'S VERSION       
First Line: And I start wondering how they came to be blind
Last Line: Cannot be said to be making matters any better


I GO BACK TO THE HOUSE FOR A BOOK       
First Line: I turn around on the gravel
Last Line: That fateful winter morning and got the book


IDIOMATIC       
First Line: It is a big question so early in the morning
Last Line: Juggling balls of cotton,' as they like to say in france


IN ALL THE EXCITEMENT I FORGOT TO ASK HIS NAME    Poem Text    
First Line: In the middle of a walk
Subject(s): Whippets


IN ALL THE EXCITEMENT I FORGOT TO ASK HIS NAME       
First Line: In the middle of a walk
Last Line: He had 11 seconds dancing in his eyes


IN THE EVENING    Poem Text    
First Line: The heads of roses begin to droop
Last Line: Nothing but an only child with two different masks
Subject(s): Time


IN THE ROOM OF A THOUSAND MILES    Poem Text    
First Line: I like writing about where I am
Subject(s): Poetry & Poets


IN THE ROOM OF A THOUSAND MILES       
First Line: I like writing about where I am
Last Line: The one that sings, %pauses, %then sings again


INDOORS       
First Line: I lose perspective in national museums


INFLUENCE    Poem Text    
First Line: All these years and I never realized


INFLUENCE       
First Line: All these years and I never realized
Last Line: Did not remind me somewhat of marianne moore


INSOMNIA (1)       
First Line: After counting all the sheep in the world


INSOMNIA (2)    Poem Text    
First Line: Even though the house is deeply silent
Last Line: The tiny hands that keep pointing this way and that
Subject(s): Insomnia; Sleep; Sleeplessness


INSOMNIA (2)       
First Line: Even though the house is deeply silent
Last Line: The tiny hands that keep pointing this way and that
Subject(s): Insomnia; Sleep


INSTRUCTIONS TO THE ARTIST       
First Line: I wish my head to appear perfectly round
Last Line: Sign the painting on my upper lip %so your name will always be my mustache


INTO THE VALLEY       
First Line: This is the kind of valley I would be happy
Last Line: That looks like the folded arms of a sleeping giant


INTRODUCTION TO POETRY    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: I ask them to take a poem
Subject(s): Poetry & Poets


INTRODUCTION TO POETRY       
First Line: I ask them to take a poem


INVECTIVE       
First Line: Turn away from me, you, and get lost in the past
Last Line: I will stand in pastures of watercress by the salmon-lashing%sea. %I will sater into the cold, unbli


INVENTION    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: Tonight the moon is a cracker,
Subject(s): Moon


INVENTION OF THE SAXOPHONE       
First Line: It was adolphe sax, remember
Last Line: That will blow them all to kingdom come


IRISH POETRY    Poem Text    
First Line: That morning under a pale hood of sky


ISTANBUL       
First Line: It was a pleasure to enter by a side street
Last Line: Bearing my body, my clean, lucky body out to sea


IT IS BITTER COLD TONIGHT AT SEA       
Last Line: Upon julia's breasts, or even joan's


JACK       
First Line: Just when I am about to telephone her
Last Line: I will compose it while pacing back and forth %in his palm


JANUARY IN PARIS    Poem Text     Recitation
First Line: That winter I had nothing to do
Subject(s): Paris, France


JAPAN       
First Line: Today I pass the time reading
Last Line: And moves like a hinge in the air above our bed


JAPANESE WATER       
First Line: There is a quality to japanese water


JAZZ AND NATURE       
First Line: It was another clear sunny morning
Last Line: The only book I can never put down


JEALOUSY    Poem Text    
First Line: It is not the tilted buildings or the blind alleys
Subject(s): Jealousy


JEALOUSY       
First Line: It is not the tilted buildings or the blind alleys
Last Line: From a window then burying your face %in the plumage of an angel
Subject(s): Jealousy


JOURNAL       
First Line: Ledger of the head's transactions
Last Line: Have the slightest idea what they are for


KEAT'S HANDWRITING       
First Line: In print, his poems look as inert as anyone's
Last Line: And the long, billowing hair of the muses


LADYBUG    Poem Text    
First Line: I first spotted her moving across


LADYBUG       
First Line: I first spotted her moving across a copy
Last Line: The incontestable news of her tiny being


LAST MAN ON EARTH       
First Line: Once there was a time when the moon swept
Last Line: And when I walked out and heard the noise of geese %I looked up as if they were calling my name


LATE SHOW       
First Line: No wonder everyone loved the private dick
Last Line: Your hat hanging on the rack where you %tossed it on the way in


LENSES       
First Line: Take a look through these binoculars


LESSON       
First Line: In the morning when I found history


LIFE OF RILEY: A DEFINITIVE BIOGRAPHY       
First Line: He was born one sunny florida morning
Last Line: Whose life it was he was living. %he died in a hammock weighing a cloud


LIGHTYEAR       
First Line: Light did not do much travelling this year


LINES COMPOSED OVER THREE THOUSAND MILES FROM TINTERN ABBEY       
First Line: I was here before, a long time ago
Last Line: That drew to a close sometime shortly after lunch


LINES LOST AMONG TREES       
First Line: These are not the lines that came to me
Last Line: Just as I was waking up


LIST OF ANCIENT PASTIMES       
First Line: First must have come listening
Last Line: Or real, floating on the darkness of the water


LISTENER       
First Line: I cannot see you a thousand miles from here
Last Line: Of his tread and his high keening


LITANY    Poem Text     Recitation
First Line: You are the bread and the knife,
Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships; Male-female Relations


LITERARY LIFE       
First Line: I woke up this morning
Last Line: She had just finished writing her autobiography


LIU YUNG    Poem Text     Recitation
First Line: This poet of the sung dynasty is so miserable
Subject(s): Liu Yung (sung Dynasty)


LOOKING WEST       
First Line: Just beyond the flower garden at the end of the lawn
Last Line: Feet planted firmly on the ground


LOST       
First Line: Now that all road signs have disappeared


LOVE       
First Line: The boy at the far end of the train car
Last Line: Something that identifies him as god


LOVE IN THE SAHARA       
First Line: The small camel leaves his common place
Last Line: Planted in the distance, and the man %whose shirt pocket I ride in all afternoon


LOWELL, MASS.    Poem Text    
First Line: Kerouac was born in the same town
Last Line: To let him off at the next light
Subject(s): Beatniks; Kerouac, Jack (1922-1969); Lowell, Massachusetts


LOWELL, MASS.       
First Line: Kerouac was born in the same town
Subject(s): Beatniks; Kerouac, Jack (1922-1969); Lowell, Massachusetts


MADMEN    Poem Text    
First Line: They say you can jinx a poem
Last Line: Staring down at me with tiny illuminated eyes
Subject(s): Art & Artists; Poetry & Poets; Vandalism


MAN IN SPACE    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: All you have to do is listen to the way a man
Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships; Male-female Relations


MAN IN SPACE       
First Line: All you have to do is listen to the way a man
Last Line: Their breasts protected by hard metal disks


MAN IN THE MOON       
First Line: He used to frighten me in the nights of childhood
Last Line: His round mouth open %as if he had just broken into song


MAN LISTENNG TO DISC    Poem Text    
First Line: This is not bad
Last Line: As he would be with us today
Subject(s): Music & Musicians


MANY FACES OF JAZZ       
First Line: There's the one where you scrunch up
Last Line: In total and absolute agreement


MAPPAMUNDI    Poem Text    
First Line: On the pages I am turning are early pictures of the world
Subject(s): Geography


MAPPAMUNDI       
First Line: On the pages I am turning are early pictures of the world
Last Line: So wide I can feel the slight curvature of the earth %as I work effortlessly on my imaginary tan


MARGINALIA    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: Sometimes the notes are ferocious
Subject(s): Writing & Writers


MARGINALIA       
First Line: Sometimes the notes are ferocious
Last Line: Pardon the egg salad stains, but I'm in love


MATCHES       
First Line: I will smoke my next cigarette immediately


MEDIEVAL SHIPBUILDING       
First Line: I listened to the lecture of the lecturer
Last Line: Lurking ahead in one of history's blind alleys


MEDIUM    Poem Text    
First Line: The way I like to lay it down sometimes


MEDIUM       
First Line: The way I like to lay it down sometimes
Last Line: To read with your eyes shut tight, %kneeling in the sand, facing the open sea


MEMORIZING €ŚTHE SUN RISING€? BY JOHN DONNE    Poem Text    
First Line: Every reader loves the way he tells off
Subject(s): Donne, John (1572-1631)


METAMORPHOSIS       
First Line: If kafka could turn a man into an insect in one sentence
Last Line: I would stare over fifth avenue with a perfectly straight %face


METROPOLIS       
First Line: These are my favorite museum rooms
Last Line: Still life with wild strawberries in a wan li bowl


MODERN PEASANT       
First Line: This mourning is the same as all other mornings
Last Line: I will wonder how many thousands of days %it would take the two of us to walk to the moon


MOMENTO MORI       
First Line: There is no need for me to keep a skull on on my desk
Last Line: Like an old servant, dragging the tail of its cord, %the small circle or mourners parting to make ro


MONDAY    Poem Text    
First Line: The birds are in their trees
Last Line: The stone caught in the throat of her poet-lover
Subject(s): Poetry &n Poets


MONDAY MORNING       
First Line: The complacency of this student, late
Last Line: Dorm of nobody who would bother to pull an a or care


MONOCULAR       
First Line: I caught this morning a young hawk
Last Line: As the wind sank in the bare winter woods, %perfectly encircled in glass
Subject(s): Birds; Hawks; Photography And Photographers


MOON       
First Line: The moon is full tonight
Last Line: As the moon climbs high into the night


MORE THAN A WOMAN    Poem Text    
First Line: Ever since I woke up today


MORE THAN A WOMAN       
First Line: Ever since I woke up today
Last Line: Whose lights I can just make out through the clouds


MORNING    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: Why do we bother with the rest of the day
Subject(s): Mornings


MORNING       
First Line: Why do we bother with the rest of the day
Last Line: In the early morning


MORNING AFTER MY DEATH       
First Line: On the morning that follows my death, the sun


MOVIES       
First Line: I would like to watch a movie tonight
Last Line: My faithful, amorous wife, and my children- %molly, lucinda, and harold, jr


MUSEE DES BEAUX ARTS REVISITED       
First Line: As far as mental anguish goes
Last Line: Secure in its brown leather scabbard


MY HEART       
First Line: It has a bronze covering inlaid with silver
Last Line: Within the intricate craftsmanship of its encasement


MY LIFE       
First Line: Sometimes I see it as a straight line
Last Line: Even the heavy, leafy trees along the shore


MY NUMBER    Poem Text    
First Line: Is death miles away from this house
Last Line: I will ask, as I start talking myself out of this
Subject(s): Mortality


MY NUMBER       
First Line: Is death miles away from this house


NEUROLOGY       
First Line: I don't resent
Last Line: As he blinks into the rain
Subject(s): Reason; Thought


NEXT POEM       
First Line: Whenever the question comes up
Last Line: The final striped umbrella on the vacant beach of my soul


NIGHT HOUSE       
First Line: Every day the body works in the fields of the world
Last Line: Before bending again to its labor


NIGHT ON EARTH       
First Line: I got home late and drank most
Last Line: What you touched %and how it made you feel
Subject(s): Dreams; Life; Night


NIGHT SAND       
First Line: When you injure me, as you must one day
Last Line: Now can you see the silhouettes of ranchers' hats %and sticks raised against the pink desert sky?


NIGHTCLUB    Poem Text    
First Line: You are so beautiful and I am a fool
Subject(s): Love


NIGHTCLUB       
First Line: You are so beautiful and I am a fool
Last Line: We have become beautiful without even knowing it


NO TIME    Poem Text    
First Line: In a rush this weekday morning
Subject(s): Death; Parents; Dead, The; Parenthood


NO TIME    Poem Text    
First Line: In a rush this weekday morning
Subject(s): Cemeteries; Family Life; Death; Parents; Graveyards; Relatives; Dead, The; Parenthood


NORTON ANTHOLOGY OF ENGLISH LIERATURE       
First Line: It is easy to find out if a poet is a contemporary poet
Last Line: And I am amazed at how tall and solemn she looks %and how immaculate are her robes


NOSTALGIA    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: Remember the 1340s? We were doing a dance called the catapult
Subject(s): Wit & Humor


NOSTALGIA       
First Line: Remember the 1340's we were doing a dance called the catapul
Last Line: Where people are doing a dance we cannot imagine, %a dance whose name we can only guess


NOT TOUCHING       
First Line: The vanlentine of desire is pasted over my heart
Last Line: Just before they drifted out of the room %through a window of perfectly realistic sunlight


NOVEMBER    Poem Text    
First Line: After three days of steady rain-
Last Line: While my mother calmly tells him to lie back down
Subject(s): Death; November; Dead, The


NOVEMBER       
First Line: After three days of steady rain-
Last Line: And carrying away the bodies of the dead
Subject(s): Death; November


ON CLOSING ANNA KARENINA       
First Line: I must have started reading this monster


ON THE READING IN THE MORNING PAPER THAT DREAMS MAY BE ....       
First Line: We might have guessed as much, given the nightly
Last Line: Or waking up to the chilling evidence on the bedroom floor: %a small pile of sand, a white bow tie


ON TURNING TEN       
First Line: The whole idea of it makes me feel
Last Line: I skin my knees. I bleed


ONE LIFE TO LIVE       
First Line: This is the only life I have, this one in my head
Last Line: The rope flying around me, moving up to encircle my head %like an equator of a halo or a zero


ONE SELF       
First Line: I am trying to imagine that I am someone else
Last Line: Somewhere on the outskirts of columbus, ohio


ONLY THING I BROUGHT TO READ       
First Line: On this winter evening
Last Line: They would stop being so idle and begin to fall


OSSO BOCO    Poem Text    
First Line: I love the sound of the bone against the plate
Subject(s): Food & Eating


OSSO BUCO       
First Line: I love the sound of the bone against the plate
Last Line: Into the broken bones of the earth itself, %into the marrow of the only place we know


PAPERWORK    Poem Text    
First Line: Enough tea and cigarettes have been consumed here
Subject(s): Writing & Writers


PAPERWORK       
First Line: Enough tea and cigarettes have been consumed here
Last Line: On a roadside bench and he begins to recount %his etymology - the long, sad, wondrous story of his %


PARADELLE FOR SUSAN       
First Line: I remember the quick, nervous bird of your love
Last Line: Darken the mountain, time and find was my into it was with to to


PARIS    Poem Text    
First Line: In the apartment someone gave me
Last Line: As they float down the river of this momentous day
Subject(s): Baths & Bathing; Paris, France; Tourists; Showers & Showering


PARIS       
First Line: In the apartment someone gave me
Last Line: The boats of the strange %as they floated down the river of whatever day it was
Subject(s): Baths And Bathing; Paris, France; Tourists


PASSENGERS    Poem Text    
First Line: At the gate, I sit in a row of blue seats
Subject(s): Travel; Journeys; Trips


PASSENGERS       
First Line: At the gate, I sit in a row of blue seats
Last Line: At least quietly wrote something down


PAST       
First Line: There is no doubt we all had one


PAVILION    Poem Text    
First Line: I sit in the study
Last Line: A kind of smile on my long dark lips
Subject(s): Books; Writing & Writers; Weariness


PENNSYLVANIA       
First Line: When I spotted the hex sign
Last Line: When crossed by a sudden breeze


PENSEE       
First Line: All of paris must have been away on holiday
Last Line: To make our lives seem more complex, more arduous, %to make our leaving the room seem heroic


PERSONAL HISTORY       
First Line: A long time ago when cataclysms were common


PHILOSOPHY       
First Line: I used to sit in the cafe of existentialism
Last Line: Her tail straight back, her body low to the ground


PIANO LESSONS       
First Line: My teacher lies on the floor with a bad back
Last Line: This curious beast with its enormous moonlit smile


PICNIC, LIGHTNING    Poem Text    
First Line: It is possible to be struck by a meteor
Last Line: To burrow back under the loam
Subject(s): Accidents; Death; Dead, The


PIE MAN    Poem Text    
First Line: I am carrying my homemade pies down a cobblestone road
Last Line: The shapes of clouds, the wooden sign above the cheese shop
Subject(s): Food & Eating; Pies


PIE MAN       
First Line: I am carrying my homemade pies down a cobblestone road
Last Line: Think of the color of the shutters, the painted bridge, %theshapes of clouds, the wooden sign above
Subject(s): Food And Eating; Pies


PIN-UP    Poem Text    
First Line: The murkiness of the local garage is not so dense
Subject(s): Pin-ups


PINUP       
First Line: The murkiness of the local garage is not so dense
Last Line: Upturned palm extended coyly into the rain


PLIGHT OF THE TROUBADOUR       
First Line: For a good hour I have been singing lays


POEM       
First Line: Some poems name their subjects


POEM       
First Line: It's like writing a short letter
Last Line: Or of a blooming flower to speed it on its way


POEM WITH A PROPELLER       
First Line: The prow is a simple up-curving
Last Line: Past a red buoy clanging in the night


PORLOCK BEACH       
First Line: The horizon is clear enough to show


PORTRAIT OF THE READER WITH A BOWL OF CEREAL       
First Line: Every morning I sit across from you
Last Line: Your spoon dripping milk, ready to listen


PRINT    Poem Text    
First Line: In the dining room there is a brown fish


PRINT       
First Line: In the dining room there is a brown fish
Last Line: With his one, small, spellbound eye


PROGRAMS    Poem Text    
First Line: Even the earth I am balancing on feels thin
Last Line: Accusing each otgher of murder
Subject(s): Doubt


PROGRAMS       
First Line: Even the earth I am balancing on seems thin


PURITY       
First Line: My favorite time to write is in the late afternoon
Last Line: Passing stone walls,farmhouses, and frozen ponds, %all perfectly arranged like words in a famous son


PUTTI IN THE NIGHT       
First Line: It is raining so hard and the jazz on the radio
Last Line: It makes you stop and listen to bud powell pounding %in the silence and feel the old embrace of eart


PUTTING DOWN THE CAT       
First Line: The assistant holds her on the table


QUESTIONS ABOUT ANGELS    Poem Text    
First Line: Of all the questions you might want to ask
Subject(s): Angels


QUESTIONS ABOUT ANGELS       
First Line: Of all the questions you might want to ask
Last Line: To glance at his watch because she has been dancing %forever, and now it is very late, even for musi


RAIN        Recitation by Author
Subject(s): Censorship


RAINY DAY       
First Line: It has been raining all morning
Last Line: As we all go bobbing out to the open sea
Subject(s): Day; Rain


RCA VICTOR       
First Line: The dog is seated by the victrola
Last Line: The dog wonders %trembling slightly
Subject(s): Animals; Dogs


READING AN ANTHOLOGY OF CHINESE POEMS OF THE SUNG DYNASTY, I PAUSE TO ADMIRE THE LENGTH AND CLARITY     Poem Text    
First Line: It seems these poets have nothing
Last Line: Cross my legs like his, and listen
Subject(s): Poetry & Poets


READING IN A HAMMOCK       
First Line: With one arm raised, I am holding
Last Line: Condemned to swing gently in the shade until dead


READING MYSELF TO SLEEP       
First Line: The house is all darkness except for this corner bedroom
Last Line: In the morning when I surface, wet and steaked with %daylight


REINCARNATION AND YOU       
First Line: To come back at all would be outlandish enough
Last Line: Covered with deep snow, all year round


REMEMBERING DREAMS       
First Line: No one seems to be a champ at this


REMISSION       
First Line: The neurologist begins his visit


REPORT FROM SICILY       
First Line: We are staying for a week in a stucco house
Last Line: In low voices, chairs tilted back against their cabin wall


RETRACTION       
First Line: There should be no problem with me
Last Line: When I began these frightful lines
Subject(s): Death


RIP VAN WINKLE       
First Line: The illustrations always portray him outdoors
Last Line: As I open my eyes after a paltry eight hours %pointlessly alert, gaudy with consciousness


RIVAL POET       
First Line: The column of your book titles


ROMANTICISM    Poem Text    
First Line: There are the sick rooms of the nineteenth century


ROMANTICISM       
First Line: There are the sick rooms of the nineteenth century
Last Line: Hands locked behind your back %in the manner of vasco nunez de balboa


ROOM IN WINTER       
First Line: As I lie in bed in the dark
Last Line: The icy surface of a lake together


ROYAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY       
First Line: Will finance no more expeditions


SARTRE       
First Line: This is the only reality, wrote sartre
Last Line: Dark wings spread, and their sharp teeth flashing


SATURDAY MORNING       
First Line: I wonder if I have become smaller or has the bedroom
Last Line: But no matter. The television is right next to the bed %and donald duck is taking his nephews ice-sk


SCHOOLSVILLE    Poem Text    
First Line: Glancing over my shoulder at the past
Last Line: Quizzing the chandeleir, reprimanding the air
Subject(s): Education; Schools; Students


SCHOOLSVILLE       
First Line: Glancing over my shoulder at the past
Last Line: Quizzing the chandelier, reprimanding the air
Subject(s): Education; Schools


SCIENTIFIC STUDY       
First Line: Has shown that laboratory rats exhibit


SCOTLAND       
First Line: It was a weekday afternoon, around two
Last Line: And a woman in a drab raincoat walking over to see
Subject(s): Scotland


SERPENTINE       
First Line: This morning I saw suddenly
Last Line: Forming millions of tiny squares


SHADOW       
First Line: The sun finally goes down like the end
Last Line: And a passing cloud darkens my page


SHAKESPEARE       
First Line: I get up from the couch and move outside
Last Line: Above a line of luminous clouds
Subject(s): Dramatists; Plays And Playwrights; Poetry And Poets; Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)


SHOVELING SNOW WITH BUDDHA       
First Line: In the usual iconography of the temple or the local wok
Last Line: Deep into the sparkling white snow


SICK ROOM    Poem Text    
First Line: Every time canaletto painted venice
Subject(s): Canal, Giovanni (canaletto) (1697-1768)


SICK ROOM       
First Line: Every time canaletto painted venice
Last Line: And its monstrous wallpaper, is not venice


SILENCE    Poem Text     Recitation
First Line: There is the sudden silence of the crowd
Subject(s): Silence


SILENCE       
First Line: Now it is time to say what you have to say
Last Line: His cold hearing-horn inserted in one ear


SNOW       
First Line: I cannot help noticing how this slow monk solo
Last Line: The snow would even go perfectly with that


SNOW DAY    Poem Text     Recitation
First Line: Today we woke up to a revolution of snow
Subject(s): Snow


SOME DAYS    Poem Text    
First Line: Some days I put the people in their places at the table,


SOME DAYS       
First Line: Some days I put the people in their places at the table
Last Line: Staring straight ahead with your little plastic face


SOME FINAL WORDS       
First Line: I cannot leave you without saying this
Last Line: A thin reed blowing in the night


SONNET    Poem Text    
First Line: All we need is fourteen lines, well, thirteen now
Last Line: Blowout the lights, and come at last to bed
Subject(s): Poetry & Poets


SONNET       
First Line: All we need is fourteen lines, well, thirteen now
Last Line: Blow out the lights, and come at last to bed
Subject(s): Poetry And Poets


SPHERE       
First Line: I listen in a small rectangular
Last Line: Of a geometrical embrace in which %men play ball


SPLITTING WOOD    Poem Text    
First Line: Frost covered this ages ago
Subject(s): Wood Cutting


SPLITTING WOOD       
First Line: Frost covered this decades ago
Last Line: That, once opened, can never be closed


STARE       
First Line: With a basin of warm water and a towel
Last Line: A pinpoint caught in the very glass itself


STATUES IN THE PARK    Poem Text    
First Line: I thought of you yesterday
Last Line: Forever begging for just one more day
Subject(s): Statues


STILL LIFE       
First Line: Here I am in westchester among ordinary things
Last Line: Grow hard and black against the background of the sky


STRANGE LANDS       
First Line: The photographs of the summer trip are spread


STUDENT OF CLOUDS    Poem Text    
First Line: The emotion is to be found in the clouds
Subject(s): Clouds


STUDENT OF CLOUDS       
First Line: The emotion is to be found in the clouds


STUDY IN ORANGE AND WHITE    Poem Text    
First Line: I knew that james whistler was part of the paris scene
Last Line: Some water into the glass, milky-green
Subject(s): Paintings & Painters


SUNDAY MORNING WITH THE SENSATIONAL NIGHTINGALES       
First Line: It was not the five mississippi blind boys
Last Line: Caught up in the annunciation %of these high, most encouraging tidings


SWEET TALK       
First Line: You are not the mona lisa
Last Line: Upon the dark green lawn, baby


TAKING OFF EMILY DICKINSON'S CLOTHES    Poem Text    
First Line: First, her tippet made of tulle
Subject(s): Dickinson, Emily (1830-1886); Love - Erotic; Love


TAKING OFF EMILY DICKINSON'S CLOTHES       
First Line: First, her tippet made of tulle
Last Line: That looks right at you with a yellow eye
Subject(s): Dickinson, Emily (1830-1886); Erotic Love; Love


TEACHER       
First Line: There is that part of us that believes
Last Line: Like ripples moving toward the center instead of away


THE AFTERLIFE    Poem Text    
First Line: When you are preparing for sleep, brushing your teeth
Subject(s): Death; Dead, The


THE ART OF DROWNING    Poem Text    
First Line: I wonder how it all got started
Subject(s): Drowning


THE BEST CIGARETTE    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: There are many that I miss
Subject(s): Cigarettes


THE BIOGRAPHY OF A CLOUD    Poem Text    
First Line: It would have been easier to follow johnson
Subject(s): Clouds


THE BREATHER    Poem Text    
First Line: Just as in the horror movies


THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM OF ART    Poem Text    
First Line: I wil now step over the soft velvet rope
Last Line: My steps toward the misty vanishing point
Subject(s): Brooklyn Museum Of Ar


THE CHAIRS THAT NO ONE SITS IN    Poem Text    
First Line: You see them on porches and on lawns
Subject(s): Chairs


THE DEATH OF ALLEGORY    Poem Text    
First Line: I am wondering what became of all those tall abstractions
Subject(s): Allegory


THE END OF THE WORLD    Poem Text    
First Line: It is a subject profound I think I should
Subject(s): Doomsday


THE FIRST NIGHT    Poem Text    
Subject(s): Night; Death; Bedtime; Dead, The


THE GENIUS    Poem Text    
First Line: Is standing at a stove in a bathrobe


THE GOLDEN YEARS    Poem Text    
First Line: All I do these drawn-out days
Subject(s): Old Age


THE HANGOVER        Recitation by Author
Subject(s): Hangover; Wit & Humor


THE HISTORY TEACHER    Poem Text    
First Line: Trying to protect his students' innocence
Subject(s): Education; Schools; Students


THE IRON BRIDGE    Poem Text    
First Line: I am standing on a disused iron bridge
Last Line: With no end or name, some boundless province of water
Subject(s): Cormorants; Bridges; Mothers; Water; Death


THE LANYARD    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: The other day I was ricocheting slowly


THE LISTENER    Poem Text    
First Line: I cannot see you a thousand miles from hear
Subject(s): Sound


THE LONG DAY    Poem Text    
First Line: In the morning I ate a banana
Subject(s): Human Behavior; Conduct Of Life; Human Nature


THE MOMENT    Poem Text    
First Line: It was a day in june, all lawn and sky


THE MORNING AFTER MY DEATH    Poem Text    
First Line: On the morning that follows my death, the sun
Last Line: And low gray clouds will sweep over this neighborhood
Subject(s): Death; Life


THE MOST COMMONLY USED WORDS IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN POETRY       
First Line: That light is again number one surprises me
Subject(s): Poetry & Poets


THE MOVIES    Poem Text    
First Line: I would like to watch a movie tonight
Subject(s): Motion Pictures; Movies; Cinema


THE NEXT POEM    Poem Text    
First Line: Whenever the question comes up
Subject(s): Poetry & Poets


THE ONLY DAY IN EXISTENCE    Poem Text    
First Line: The morning sun is so pale


THE PARADE    Poem Text    
First Line: How exhilarating it was to march
Subject(s): Parades


THE TEACHER        Recitation
Subject(s): Death; Maps; Future Life; Dead, The; Retribution; Eternity; After Life


THE THREE WISHES    Poem Text    
First Line: Because he has been starving
Last Line: A decent bottle of italian or even chilean red
Subject(s): Story-telling; Wishes


THE TROUBLE WITH POETRY        Recitation by Author
Subject(s): Poetry & Poets


THE WAITRESS    Poem Text    
First Line: She brings a drink to the table
Last Line: Beyond these late-night, practically empty streets
Subject(s): Life; Night; Waiting; Bedtime


THE WIRES OF THE NIGHT    Poem Text    
First Line: I thought about his death for so many hours,
Subject(s): Death; Dead, The


THEME       
First Line: It's a sunny weekday in may
Last Line: But met only and always with frosty disregard


THESAURUS    Poem Text    
First Line: It could be the name of a prehistoric beast
Subject(s): Thesaurus


THESAURUS       
First Line: It could be the name of a prehistoric beast
Last Line: A small chapel where weddings like these, %between perfect strangers, are known to take place


THIS MUCH I DO REMEMBER       
First Line: It was after dinner
Last Line: That we pace through every day


THREE WISHES       
First Line: Because he has been starving
Last Line: A decent bottle of italian or even chilean red
Subject(s): Story-telling; Wishes


THREESOME    Poem Text    
First Line: Two drakes and one duck standing still


THREESOME       
First Line: Two drakes and one duck standing still %on a frozen pond
Last Line: In the cold on your thin orange legs


TO A STRANGER BORN IN SOME DISTANT COUNTRY       
First Line: Nobody here likes a web dog
Last Line: Even the children, pushes her away


TODAY    Poem Text    
First Line: If ever there were a spring day so perfect
Last Line: Well, today is just that kind of day
Subject(s): Spring


TOMES    Poem Text    
First Line: There is a section in my library for death
Last Line: That foams around my waist
Subject(s): Books


TOURIST: DROMAHAIR, CO. SLIGO       
First Line: After dinner you stroll from the hotel


TRAVELING ALONE    Poem Text    
First Line: At the hotel coffee shop that morning
Subject(s): Travel; Journeys; Trips


TROMPE L'OEIL       
First Line: It was one thing to notice
Last Line: The reality of its succulent green tips


TUESDAY, JUNE 4, 1991       
First Line: By the time I got myself out of bed, my wife has left
Last Line: Offering a handful of birdsong and a small cup of light


TUESDAY, JUNE 4TH, 1991    Poem Text    
First Line: By the time I get myself out of bed, my wife has left
Subject(s): Paintings & Painters; Chores


VADE MECUM       
First Line: I want the scissors to be sharp


VANISHING POINT       
First Line: You thought it was just a pencil dot
Last Line: This is the nostril of the ant that inhaled the universe


VELOCITY       
First Line: In the clubcar that morning I had my notebook
Last Line: And from the edges of her perfectly motionless body


VICTORIA'S SECRET       
First Line: The one in the upper left-hand corner
Last Line: Still burning from all the glossy lights of day


VODKA       
First Line: Cold as water drawn from the bottom of a winter fyord


WAITRESS       
First Line: She brings a drink to the table
Last Line: Beyond these late-night, nearly empty streets
Subject(s): Life; Night; Waiting


WALKING ACROSS THE ATLANTIC       
First Line: I wait for the holiday crowd to clear the beach


WATER TABLE    Poem Text    
First Line: It is on dry sunny days like this one that I find myself
Subject(s): Water


WATER TABLE       
First Line: It is on dry sunny days like this one that I find myself
Last Line: Lost for a while in the home of the rain


WEDDING ANNIVERSARY       
First Line: The restaurant said it overlooked the wide river
Last Line: And to lift our wineglasses and toast the night shift
Subject(s): Anniversaries


WEIGHING THE DOG       
First Line: It is awkward for me and bewildering for him
Last Line: And now we are both lost in strange and distant %neighborhoods


WHAT I LEARNED TODAY    Poem Text    
First Line: I never heard john bernard flannagan
Subject(s): Knowledge


WHAT I LEARNED TODAY       
First Line: I had never heard of john bernard flannagan
Last Line: A million forgotten hours


WHAT SHE SAID    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: When he told me he expected me to pay for dinner
Subject(s): Wit & Humor


WHERE I LIVE       
First Line: The house sits at one end of a two-acre trapezoid
Last Line: In pools on the ground


WHILE EATING A PEAR    Poem Text    
First Line: After we have finished here


WHILE EATING A PEAR       
First Line: After we have finished here
Last Line: Light on one smooth green side %shadow on the other


WHY I WOULD RATHER BE A PAINTER    Poem Text    
First Line: For one thing
Subject(s): Paintings & Painters; Likes & Dislikes


WHY I WOULD RATHER BE A PAINTER       
First Line: For one thing %instead of just sitting in a straight back chair
Last Line: As the new perfect title for my new painting


WILLIES       
First Line: There is no known cure for them
Last Line: But don't expect miracles: %the willies are the willies


WINTER NIGHT       
First Line: I would not bother to point out the moon
Last Line: Burning warm and yellow in the night
Subject(s): Night; Winter


WINTER SPARROW    Poem Text    
First Line: The first thing I heard early that morning
Subject(s): Sparrows


WINTER SPARROW       
First Line: The first thing I heard early that morning
Last Line: A light snow tumbling through the windless dark


WINTER SYNTAX       
First Line: A sentence starts out like a lone traveler


WIRES OF THE NIGHT       
First Line: I thought about his death for so many hours
Last Line: And all the days to follow, and it moved into the future %like the sharp tip of a pen moving across


WOLF       
First Line: A wolf is reading a book of fairy tales
Last Line: Later that night, lost in a town of pigs, %he knocks over with his breath


WONDER OF THE WORLD       
First Line: It is now just coming into view
Last Line: As you glide closer and closer to it %ocver the cold streaming surface of these waters


WORKSHOP    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: Might as well begin by saying how much I like the title.


WORKSHOP       
First Line: I might as well begin by saying how much I like the title
Last Line: Maybe that's just the way I read it


WRITING IN THE AFTERLIFE    Poem Text    
First Line: I imagined the atmosphere would be clear
Subject(s): Death; Future Life; Writing & Writers; Dead, The; Retribution; Eternity; After Life


YOU, READER       
First Line: I wonder how you are going to feel
Last Line: Near some blue hydrangeas, reading this