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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: COLLINS, MARTHA Matches Found: 194 Collins, Martha Poet's Biography 194 poems available by this author 373 EAST PARK STREET First Line: The way I see it, he waves to a neighbor A BOOK OF DAYS. 1 Poem Text First Line: In the story, she gives him everything Last Line: And where shall I go to find her? Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships A BOOK OF DAYS; 2. VETERANS DAY Poem Text First Line: The game is to kill the king, he said Last Line: Understand: I was trying to win myself Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships A BOOK OF DAYS; 10. EPIPHANY Poem Text First Line: At last, snow, flocked Last Line: Its breath that breathes Subject(s): Religion; Spirituality; Theology A BOOK OF DAYS; 25. PENTECOST Poem Text First Line: The sun gone for a moment, air Last Line: Of the word that was, that was to be Subject(s): Religion; Spirituality; Theology AFTER First Line: At night, the multiple shadows AFTER First Line: After the scattering, after the nights of shattered Last Line: The paper bridges that bridge the most the best we can AFTER ONTARIO First Line: That fall morning, in owen sound Last Line: Part of what's good is letting go. %the other part is holding on. %today I lean, in this mid-june wi ALONE, ONE MUST BE CAREFUL First Line: Alone means finding stranger ways to get AS BOATS, OVER THAT DARKNESS First Line: The underboat is upside down, blurred, like a reflection Last Line: The undersea holding it up AS IF YOU HAD PROMISED First Line: Not to steer but to steady Last Line: The house come home to BACKGROUND/INFORMATION First Line: As if a child dialed 411 Last Line: --but I got a neat idea %that day, I decided to paint a war BAD AIR First Line: No one is climbing the mountain %streaks of red on the heaving chest Last Line: Sleep till we wake them %snakes curled up in jars BEFORE THE PLANES First Line: We will/we won't they will/they won't Last Line: Aims to please to kill to please bang bang BLUE ROSES First Line: Someone brought me blue roses BODIES First Line: A man runs toward me, long Last Line: Something is not enough BOOK OF DAYS 1 First Line: In the story, she gives him everything Last Line: And where shall I go to find her BOOK OF DAYS 10 First Line: At last, snow, flocked Last Line: That whimpers that turns that catches %its breath that breathes Variant Title(s): Epiphan Subject(s): Religion; Spirituality BOOK OF DAYS 11 First Line: Late afternoon, the eight-chimneyed building Last Line: Nothing slips through the net, falls from the basket. %the earth, inside its porous skin, is whole BOOK OF DAYS 12 First Line: Like two sides of a leaf Last Line: That's skin, or pollen, %to the belly Variant Title(s): Lea BOOK OF DAYS 13 First Line: A man in a little white truck Last Line: The heart, warm, in a safe place, lies %and goes, little machine, about its work BOOK OF DAYS 14 First Line: On a train I rarely take, I look up Last Line: Who can think of ending everything, %as if won't were another, greener side of won't do BOOK OF DAYS 16 First Line: Last night I woke with a great fright Last Line: I loved her. %and then I let go Variant Title(s): Before Sprin BOOK OF DAYS 17 First Line: This is one of those days of days Last Line: A brilliantly opened and entered %and living space BOOK OF DAYS 18 First Line: The sign taped to the telephone pole Last Line: It keeps on raining. %it keeps on raining rain BOOK OF DAYS 19 First Line: The facade of the building across the yard Last Line: Here are my days, my prayers, my penance, %my breath, my unburned sins, my undone loves BOOK OF DAYS 2 First Line: The game is kill the king, he said Last Line: Now we remember the ones who fought. %understand: I was trying to win myself BOOK OF DAYS 20 First Line: Once, running for life, having nothing Last Line: Should wish the whole world %to die with him, wife for his pyre BOOK OF DAYS 21 First Line: The sycamores down by the river lean Last Line: The bark from the bone-white trees, %is clean BOOK OF DAYS 22 First Line: In the rain, the bark of the plane trees shines Last Line: In the largest rains, borders emerge- %a puzzle coming apart, becoming the world BOOK OF DAYS 23 First Line: Light! Light! The white inside Last Line: The place we are going %to now, through the clear rain BOOK OF DAYS 24 First Line: Waiting, one feels time Last Line: That scoops %the fat black seeds BOOK OF DAYS 25 First Line: The sun gone for a moment, air Last Line: Of the body the tongue of the holiest ghost %of the word that was, that was to be Variant Title(s): Pentecos Subject(s): Religion; Spirituality BOOK OF DAYS 26 First Line: As if the windows Last Line: I were the very first %of my kind Variant Title(s): Wing BOOK OF DAYS 27 First Line: Beautiful is what she was Last Line: After pearl after pearl against %her skin, making sure BOOK OF DAYS 28 First Line: A simple plot Last Line: At night, when the story's over, a light goes out BOOK OF DAYS 29 First Line: The roses are washed out, the iris brown Last Line: A bee disturbs its surface. %nothing's whole BOOK OF DAYS 3 First Line: After nine years,' you said last night Last Line: Over meaning again, and never again, and I have spoken BOOK OF DAYS 30 First Line: Heavy the leaves, burdens Last Line: Can this be power, this open BOOK OF DAYS 4 First Line: Ice this morning, cracked, by the curb Last Line: To someone who's always someone else %on the other side of the space, the air we breathe BOOK OF DAYS 5 First Line: The screen grids, grays a little the dappled sky Last Line: Life's below, where snow patches grass. %I have held on BOOK OF DAYS 7 First Line: On the plane the babies are starting to sing Last Line: No harness %to no balloon, no plodding thing BOOK OF DAYS 8 First Line: They've drained the old pond, they're digging it deeper Last Line: Everyone alive in the world is very nearly the same age. %I am still the baby in that house BOOK OF DAYS 9 First Line: People with two dogs run in the yard with their two dogs Last Line: Starts %and stops an starts and stops and claps her hands BORDER First Line: Hasta luego and over you go and it's not Last Line: Border? You crossed the border hours ago BURN First Line: A slow, to feel the pain as if or from Last Line: Cinders, bones, charred head on a post CAR IS RED CATASTROPHE OF RAINBOWS First Line: We are killed all day long CHAIN LETTER First Line: There is no penalty this time CLEFT First Line: Cut in half, the breast bone broken, opened Last Line: Bones of the child's small back, wings, %she could fly, she could walk out the kitchen door Subject(s): Absence; Love; Man-woman Relationships; Women CLOUD-PLAY FOR FOUR HANDS First Line: Let's play clouds. %let's play clouds Last Line: He played %into her hands COAST First Line: Eucalyptus stripping %itself, scenting the air Last Line: Pacific night, arms find %arms in the blank bed CONCRETE MIXER First Line: The clapboard house, %lined like paper. Shadows Last Line: Gray, between the lines CONJUGATION First Line: The latin teacher wore flowers Last Line: Violets on that blouse, in little bunches CONVEYANCE First Line: We rend, undo, blather still Last Line: Dust whom light cannot quicken COPY CENTER First Line: Stars and planets on one %side, darkness on Last Line: All the way back %before there was darkness CURRENT AFFAIRS First Line: Man in desperate Last Line: To knock-out night CUTS First Line: A mother holds a girl's legs Last Line: The name he gave her DEER CROW FOX First Line: Fox from woods to woods across Last Line: It back, no door to open DISCOURSE First Line: Still night. Still %stars. But the chart Last Line: Better to think of the arrow, %and the bow. There, that's the way DOOR Poem Text First Line: Sound me out Last Line: Myself - / you Subject(s): Relationships DOOR First Line: Sound me out Last Line: Myself- %you DOWN THE ROAD First Line: You think food and you're fed Last Line: But only the road is passing by ECLIPSE First Line: Not nothing, not space, not EXPOSURE First Line: Exposed roots, pond, swamp, somebody's Last Line: If she was good like me her time would come FARM First Line: It's important not to say gold when I mean fields FIELD First Line: The window fell out the window Last Line: With particles stirred %into being where we touch FINDINGS First Line: Find me out %of this dark place Last Line: I found myself %at the bottom %nothing's sound FLOOR STUDY First Line: Sorry, kids, you messed Last Line: To clean-slate work again. %then it's a question of Subject(s): Schools FOREST FOR THE TREES First Line: You think trees you think Last Line: The forest, the water %absorbs the stone GLYPHS: 1 First Line: A woman strokes her finger with her finger Last Line: Who came with his fat black bag GLYPHS: 2 First Line: A woman makes tiny cuts on her arm Last Line: What do you do with your rage? GLYPHS: 3 First Line: Bitten thumb %to be in touch with Last Line: What if there's no way to (something) %keep watching this spot GLYPHS: 4 First Line: What is touched? %things we have done, left, undone Last Line: Please note here %inscriptions in a cave GLYPHS: 5 First Line: Hands at rest %do not disturb do not deface Last Line: Someone else %because of the red road GLYPHS: 6 First Line: Hand on hand on hand on Last Line: Snug little house at the end %coming soon GOOD FRIDAY First Line: The man in my mind is red Last Line: The edge where edges meet, the one %theif, the nothing between %the line that heals-- GOOD GRAY WOLF First Line: Wanted that red, wanted everything tucked inside Last Line: By love, were all she ever dreamed of GREEN HOUSE First Line: A way to begin is to name an orphan, to say HAIR Poem Text First Line: He sat on the stool waiting Last Line: Of her there Subject(s): Hair HAIR First Line: He sat on the stool waiting Last Line: The shape %of her there HAMMERS First Line: A woman, who all year has drifted Last Line: La la, the right and the left, a man %and a woman are building a house in the rain HANG First Line: As a mirror on a wall, or the fall Last Line: A shirt. Without, like an empty sleeve HER MOTHER SAID First Line: We heard it at dinner, chicken marsala, rice Last Line: Yourself, and only then your child HER RAGE First Line: Hurl hurl hurl hurl HERS First Line: Without her, we forget. But our dreams blaze with her Last Line: She named her martha. But mary is always with her HISTORY OF SMALL LIFE ON A WINDY PLANET First Line: First they came in ones %but there was not enough: %they blew away Last Line: Be long. Relax, enjoy. %one's enough. Love HOME FIRES First Line: A furnace broke, children disturbed Last Line: It's the nature of fallen bodies. %nothing's given. Nothing gives HOW IT'S BEEN First Line: Saturday night, after the rage, it was rome IN A NORTHERN STATE First Line: A woman who fled through a city park IN ARGENTINA First Line: I want to tell you everything IN BLACK AND WHITE First Line: #name? Last Line: Moved into their skin, %they saw entirely IN THE DAYS OF First Line: Once dew leapt over the dome. %a sunning wife yawned Last Line: The blunt knee nudges on IN THE MIST OF ALMOST BLUE First Line: And just when I'd thought of a trip Last Line: We're at, so early these late mornings INSIDE Poem Text First Line: This time she called across the room while the rain Last Line: She moved inside, as a woman moves into a room. Subject(s): Relationships; Snow INSIDE 1. First Line: This time she called across the room while the rain Last Line: Lost %in the verbless snow INSIDE 2. First Line: Inside, she was under someone, child Last Line: Under the dining room table, %hugging its thick legs INSIDE 3. First Line: And waht if she couldn't get out Last Line: A window faces out %on her INSIDE 4. First Line: She touched her over Last Line: She called her by her name INSIDE 5. First Line: That night, asleep, she wrapped him up Last Line: When the package arrived, she let it in. %it thumped across the room INSIDE 6. First Line: Inside, the light came on, sun Last Line: She moved inside, as a woman moves into a room JOANIE First Line: Her name was next to mine LAKE First Line: It's in there somewhere Last Line: The waves of sound light mind LANGUAGE IT WOULD SPEAK First Line: Below, on the off-white surface graphed Last Line: You were a new word LAST THINGS First Line: Cows' hooves crack, crows %gather, a hard winter Last Line: Will ever be born or cold or dead again LATER THAT DAY First Line: Your mother doesn't see the animals Last Line: And it was me. Of course I was crying LETS First Line: He let her in, he let her out, and then Last Line: A little room, our own, to live and breathe LIES First Line: Anyone can get it wrong, laying low Last Line: Dear friends. If we must lie, let's not lie around LIKES First Line: There was like this guy she said with really Last Line: Were both in both of us two like to like LINES Recitation Subject(s): Relationships LINES Poem Text First Line: Draw a line. Write a line. There. Last Line: To y, let x be me, let y be you Subject(s): Love LINES First Line: Draw a line. Write a line. There Last Line: To y, let x be me, let y be you LITTLE BOY First Line: They called the big one little boy Last Line: Man, all gone, and then we can wake up %and start over again, now can't we LOVE LETTUCE First Line: The boston lettuce sprawled Last Line: Of love, where one still throbs inside %another, also throbbing, rose to meet them LYNCH First Line: Not as in pin, the kind that keeps the wheels Last Line: Right to the prized parts, to the body undone MASS First Line: It starts when a boy, or someone Last Line: Ending nowhere but rising and being now MEANS First Line: But what does it mean, and when does it mean it? Last Line: Things. Marrying means to mean. I mean it. I do MESSAGES First Line: Hello, this is your mama calling Last Line: I was just I was okay sometime bye-bye MIDDLE First Line: Start in the middle. Stay Last Line: While the small hand %of under tugs and tugs MORE First Line: So what do you want, another Last Line: You, you, you, all the way home MORE ABOUT THE BEAR First Line: This winter I live in a small house at the edge MOZART First Line: Pigeons walk a green-white line MYSTERY RIDES First Line: Mystery rides the train to work Last Line: Mister angel, is that you? NEWS OF THE WORLD First Line: The election was won, the game Last Line: Going to die. Someone you know NOTES ON First Line: No the no a no no Last Line: Are empty full %of space %o moon o o NOTHING DOING First Line: Dull afternoon, summer sun, it doesn't Last Line: It's in is what. Something's brewing. %front burner. Something's up OKAY SO WHAT First Line: Okay so there was a gun okay so what Last Line: Those dreams I didn't even kill him ON THE TRAIN First Line: What new york is this ON YOUR WALL First Line: The mountains are clouds OPEN Poem Text First Line: That yard half-blue with scylla, Last Line: Between its banks -- I am waiting for you Subject(s): Relationships OPEN First Line: That yard half-blue with scylla Last Line: In your arms all night, a river %between its banks - I am waiting for you ORANGE ROOM First Line: Today is pentecost, in the calendar of my mind OWL First Line: Owl leans into the tree and disappears Last Line: But just before dawn he may answer if you call PASSAGE First Line: Jacket, tie, trousers, vest PHASE THREE First Line: Driving with her eyes closed Last Line: What you ate-and honey, it was good PINKS First Line: If you wanted flesh you had to wait Last Line: As pink as riven snow PLOT First Line: Just the cabbages POEM IN THE FOURTH DIMENSION First Line: As if space itself had moved POINTS First Line: Knife, sword, gun, we meet at some Last Line: Knows. We know better. That's our point PURPLE TREE First Line: Dear friend, there's nothing else to be done RACES First Line: The race is on the run, you said. It's not Last Line: Even the time you run against is on your side RE: HOUSE(S) First Line: I'm in the doghouse now, he used %to say, and he often was Last Line: Wh at if you haven't %got a door to close? REMEMBER THE TRAINS? First Line: The friendly caboose. The whistle Last Line: In the field, while they wept, %they waited, they asked for water RETREAT First Line: I would say a band Last Line: Like a whisper before the fall %of the thin baton RETURNS First Line: Excuse me you have mistaken me for your page Last Line: These words are mine RIGHTS First Line: He had no rights, they beat him up, you've got Last Line: Of the body's on the other side of the heart RIVER Poem Text First Line: As the plane flew in I followed Last Line: Somewhere and now I am saying goodbye Subject(s): Rivers; Childhood Memories RIVER First Line: As the plane flew in I followed Last Line: Of the river islands as if they were going %somewhere and now I am saying goodbye RUINS First Line: Worn stones, broken walls Last Line: As you walk, a little %too quickly, back to the station SCRIBE, DISTRACTED FROM HER LABORS First Line: The letters grow on the page Last Line: That fell on those branches. It's that deep SEVERAL THINGS SHOOT First Line: To kill. To more than kill. To kill again Last Line: How many bullets in it? Go ahead, tell SIDES First Line: All you need is two and an angle, a side Last Line: Just siding with, beside, not out or in? SLEEP, BABY, SLEEP! First Line: Gotcha! She cried and grabbed a wolf Last Line: Bless mother and father, the lambs, %the good gray wolf, oh love bless you SLUG First Line: Organ adrift in a chipped dish, dime- %store item at garden's edge Last Line: Without a face, sliding into the slot SMALLEST SONG First Line: For the days that are left the smallest song SNOW First Line: Gloves on the table. A walnut table SOME THINGS WORDS CAN DO First Line: Play. Teach us Last Line: Leave us. Leave %us wanting STORY WE KNOW First Line: The way to begin is always the same. Hello Last Line: Good-bye is the only story. We know, we know TESTIMONY First Line: There was no paper Last Line: Then I remembered: there was no paper THAT TIME First Line: The trees were filled with tiny worms -- caterpillars, I guess -- that hung Last Line: Do you want? He asked, and I wasn't sure %when the child came in from play, it was almost dark THE GOOD GRAY WOLF Poem Text First Line: Wanted that red, wanted everything tucked inside Last Line: By love, were all she ever dreamed of Subject(s): Wolves THE STORY WE KNOW Poem Text Recitation Last Line: Good-bye is the only story. We know, we know Subject(s): Conduct Of Life THEIR HOUSES THERE WITHOUT THEIR BODIES First Line: No one is there but someone will be there Last Line: And breathing without their bodies they are home Subject(s): Home; Houses, Deserted THEIR WORK First Line: These are the ones who don't Last Line: For there is no work more difficult %than theirs, sitting and waiting Subject(s): Idleness; Unemployment; Waiting THEM First Line: They sit in a circle, a semi Last Line: Are center, circumference, everyone THINGS First Line: Someone has taken my mirror Last Line: I could see it all. So clear THINKING OF NEED First Line: First you see the two gray shapes THROUGH First Line: Clouds broke and through %dreamed her hands on Last Line: Press my body down %through her body into light TIMES First Line: The times is right, he said at breakfast, time Last Line: Time, one time, her own sweet time of life? TRAINS ARE RUNNING, WE WILL NOT MISS THEM First Line: The silver train on the first track the last TRANSGRESSION First Line: Thick green thighs birch bones shining %through is she trying to hide them Last Line: Anyone ever %later a loss of mind TREE First Line: Tree tree tree tree leaf tree tree tree Last Line: Heavenly o u o me-oh-my oh you oh my-o VACANT LOTS First Line: That's it, the gunshots said Last Line: Is altogether, is what's what VALLEY First Line: As the sun slid Last Line: I have learned there is no promise I can keep VALSE TRISTE First Line: Not full but gibbous, she said Last Line: Would have to do, to round things out WARMER First Line: Red eye, red foot: the pigeons are finding Last Line: The single eye of the pigeon's the eye, %in the dream, of a cheap stuffed toy. Variant Title(s): A Book Of Days 1 WHEREVER YOU FIND IT First Line: Where do I find jesus, he asked Last Line: She needed you WHITE ROOM First Line: A woman sits in a white room WIND CHILL Poem Text First Line: The snow blowing across the road Last Line: Of snow blowing like god across the road Subject(s): Snow WIND CHILL First Line: The snow blowing across the road Last Line: Of the organs, the chords, the rush %of snow blowing, like god across the road Subject(s): Snow WITNESS First Line: If she says something now he'll say Last Line: What she pleases she says what she means WOMEN IN AMERICAN LITERATURE: AN INTRODUCTION: 1 First Line: This is the story some of us tell, the one Last Line: Rose. Red. Blue. And violates WOMEN IN AMERICAN LITERATURE: AN INTRODUCTION: 2 Poem Text First Line: We're deep in the hills, in the noon sun, when we come Last Line: Of the white election Variant Title(s): A Book Of Days: 6 Dickinso Subject(s): Dickinson, Emily (1830-1886) WOMEN IN AMERICAN LITERATURE: AN INTRODUCTION: 2 First Line: We're deep in the hills, in the noon sun, when we come Last Line: And opposition's %complement is opposition still Variant Title(s): A Book Of Days 6; Dickinso Subject(s): Dickinson, Emily (1830-1886) WOMEN IN AMERICAN LITERATURE: AN INTRODUCTION: 3 First Line: At the edge of the next state she waits in a house Last Line: Trying to think-your hand like clouds- %the hills inside-sarah and danny-'oh!' WOMEN IN AMERICAN LITERATURE: AN INTRODUCTION: 4 First Line: Look at that!' danny cries. I wake Last Line: But at last %he stands, guns on his hips, in his white hat WOMEN IN AMERICAN LITERATURE: AN INTRODUCTION: 5 First Line: This is my father's kind of place, clean Last Line: They are not willing that I should write %sometimes, susan, I struggle in deep waters WOMEN IN AMERICAN LITERATURE: AN INTRODUCTION: 6 First Line: Now we're headed west again, sarah Last Line: I'll take him back %to his mother,' you say; 'then we'll be on our way' WOMEN IN AMERICAN LITERATURE: AN INTRODUCTION: 7 First Line: This is someone else's land, we've crossed Last Line: Because there was something she had to learn. %because, she thought, he was different: it might be h WORDS First Line: Axes %after whose stroke the wood rings Last Line: From the bottom of the pool, fixed stars %govern a life WRAPPED First Line: Sweater, jacket, patchwork quilt, chair Last Line: In flames, wrapped in god, dear shoulder, %father, ashes in the warming, swaddling ground [WHITE PAPER #14] Poem Text First Line: Black keys from trees white keys locked Last Line: Https://www.Poets.Org/poetsorg/poem/14 Subject(s): Racism; Racial Prejudice; Bigotry [WHITE PAPER #28] Poem Text First Line: Could get a credit card loan car Last Line: Before me where to choose to and I Subject(s): Race Awareness |
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