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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: COOPER, JANE Matches Found: 133 Cooper, Jane Poet's Biography 98 poems available by this author 95 DEGREES First Line: Lost in summer, I worry about your silence Last Line: Seem hardly real enough yet to write you about AFTER ALL First Line: He has forgotten the moon Last Line: For as long as I live on this earth AFTER THE BLACKOUT (1965) First Line: Clocks are wrong, watches Last Line: What was never done to me %outright AFTER THE BOMB TESTS First Line: The atom bellies like a cauliflower Last Line: Or virgin artist gave himself to his power ALL THE LEAVES WERE GREEN First Line: Darling, I had my hand on you khaki Last Line: Mouth open and screaming? ALL THESE DREAMS First Line: All these dreams: the dream of the mountain cabin Last Line: As all that light pours down, it is pouring down BEDSIDE RUNE First Line: Not jealousy but pale disgust complains Last Line: Life-death sighed the small heartbeat BEING SOUTHERN First Line: It's like being german Last Line: All he could vouch for. Not famous. At their backs %the six million BLOODROOT First Line: Reading your words Last Line: Releasing its unhurried freshness, %half earth, half air BLUE ANCHOR First Line: The future weighs down on me Last Line: Over the fragile human settlement CHILDHOOD IN JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA First Line: What is happening to me now that loved faces Last Line: Flights of strings above the orange trees! CHILDREN'S WARD First Line: Nanny was irish, I told my mother, born in scotland. Her sister was Last Line: Sound from across their paved field. But didn't she know we all had %something? CIRCLE, A SQUARE, A TRIANGLE AND A RIPPLE OF WATER First Line: Sex floated like a moon Last Line: Shuddered off around her CLASS First Line: How the shrimp fisherman's daughter did a handstand against the Last Line: And found only the bootleggers' empties CLEMENTENE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: I always thought she was white, I thought she was an indian Subject(s): Women CLEMENTENE First Line: I always thought she was white, I thought she was an indian Last Line: Did I feel -- do I feel still -- this complex shame? CONVERSATION BY THE BODY'S LIGHT First Line: Out of my poverty Last Line: The still not-believed-on %heartbeat of the glacier DOOR First Line: Intelligent companion Last Line: I wait for eyes, then tongues to join, %intelligent, companions DREAM IN WHICH THE ROUTINE QUALITY OF MY IMAGINATION IF FULLY EXPOSED First Line: Yes they set the house on fire, my father Last Line: Only I wanted to survive? EARTHQUAKE First Line: Two people wakened suddenly by an earthquake Last Line: She lies awake explaining her usual day ESTRANGEMENT First Line: You dream someone is leaving you, though he says kindly, it's not that Last Line: You watch your own back growing smaller up the beach EVE First Line: Now she is still not beautiful but more Last Line: While through her thigh-trees water strikes like a snake EVENING STAR (GEORGIA O'KEEFFE) First Line: Evening star unfurling like an embryo Last Line: If he saw it he didn't know it was to him FIGURE ON THE FAR SIDE First Line: Once it was my brother on Last Line: Nurse such secrets and keep still? FOR A BOY BORN IN WARTIME First Line: Head first, face down, into mercator's world Last Line: Just as we rise to slap your fluttering cry? FROM THE JOURNAL CONCERNING MY FATHER First Line: It all started with the maps. Hanging in the living room, the hall, on Last Line: Into the uncharted silences that had terrified pascal? GAZA First Line: Too calm to beg for pity yet too strained Last Line: Unmouthed, you groped like samson to be dethroned GREEN NOTEBOOK First Line: There are 64 panes in each window of the harrisville church Last Line: Now thunder joins in, scurry of leaves HOBBY LOBBY First Line: A stalwart country woman Last Line: Of the 1939 world's fair HOLDING OUT First Line: Letters come, the phone rings, you sit by your window Last Line: Your grief, his grief--these serious possessions HOW CAN I SPEAK FOR HER? First Line: First there is my little grandfather, I think he is no more than four or Last Line: Converse. That--but how can I speak for her, whose name would again %be lost-- they embraced HUNGER MOON Poem Text First Line: The last full moon of february IN A ROOM WITH PICASSOS First Line: Draw as you will there are no images Last Line: Anyone, no matter how far away he is from love IRON First Line: Every morning I wake Last Line: To its red undoing JITTOKU, BUDDHIST MYSTIC--15TH CENTURY First Line: Everything is blowing, his Last Line: Moon! Old boat of the white full moon! LETTERS First Line: That quiet point of light Last Line: On the ground white petals: %my rain-soaked letters LITTLE VESPER First Line: Another day gone, and still Last Line: Breathe goodnight to the first strangers LONG VIEW FROM THE SUBURBS First Line: Yes, I'm the lady he wrote the sonnets to Last Line: Until a streetlamp yawns in reckoning LONG, DISCONSOLATE LINES First Line: Because it is a gray day but not snowy, because traffic grinds by outside Last Line: As if she gave up nothing, as if she sang MARCH 1. FEATHERS First Line: I've died, but you are still living! Last Line: Nothing can stop the huzzah of the male wind! MARCH 2.HUNGER MOON First Line: The last full moon of february Last Line: In my body, turns and turns MARCH 4.BACK First Line: I was prepared for places Last Line: With salt as I choose my elegy MARCH 5.NO MORE ELEGIES First Line: Everyone rushed into town Last Line: Fools--it's not even spring MARCH 6.IN SILENCE WHERE WE BREATHE First Line: As a boy he was so silent Last Line: But he never cried, not once MARCH 7.MIDDLE AGE First Line: At last it's still--a gray thaw Last Line: Only the miracle is real MARCH 8.CODA First Line: An air of departure. Silences Last Line: Leaving behind a breath of loves and angers MARCH: 3. EL SUENO DE LA RAZON First Line: Cousin, it's of you I always dream Last Line: Alike (your nurse told me), discreet and gentle MARY COLDWELL First Line: How short their lives were then, but how crammed! Last Line: I like to think of my mind as a machine MESSAGES First Line: Ragged and thrashing Last Line: Stones in a ring can't define it: %night. Lake. Mirror. Deep. Only METEORS First Line: Whom can we love in all these little wars? Last Line: Cartoons of wit and sex, skeletons of leaders MISSION WITH THE NIGHT First Line: She is like that man Last Line: Smiling, asking for food MOURNING PICTURE First Line: A shower of stones. Volcano? There is no color Last Line: And the abrupt head, indecipherable still MY FRIEND First Line: Sylvia said: when I was younger Last Line: Whether I'm making myself clear MY MOTHER IN THREE ACTS First Line: At the top of the hill you were muriel Last Line: Deception, who saved me once, the one who evades me still? MY YOUNG MOTHER Poem Text First Line: My young mother, her face narrow Last Line: Calling me from sleep after decades Subject(s): Mothers & Daughters; Women MY YOUNG MOTHER First Line: My young mother, her face narrow Last Line: Calling me from sleep after decades Subject(s): Mothers And Daughters; Women NIGHTMARE OF THE SUBURBS First Line: I'll be in my own room, upstairs Last Line: Now that he's here %only blood can appease him NOTHING I MEANT TO KEEP First Line: Nick said, radiant, being helped upstairs Last Line: Conversations, or nothing OLYMPIC RAIN FOREST First Line: I left the shutter open, the camera Last Line: The print of you heels that morning on the spongy forest floor, there, not there ORDINARY DETAIL First Line: I'm trying to write a poem that will alert me to my real life Last Line: The girl is walking furiously, under a mild, polluted sky P.O.W. First Line: Suffering sets us apart. We enjoy too strongly Last Line: Which keeps even the girls he kisses from touching his face PAST First Line: It seemed, when I was a child, as if you could just reach back and rum Last Line: Parent and begin to shiver apart? PENCIL SKETCH OF SELF & OTHER First Line: When you kissed me it was as if Last Line: Yet I want to forgive us both %as if it still matters POETRY AS CONTINUITY First Line: The young doctor dreamed of revolution Last Line: You are all we have left, in the end you were scarcely a man PRAISE First Line: Between five and fifty Last Line: I would live to write at fifty? RENT Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: If you want my apartment, sleep in it RENT First Line: If you want my apartment, sleep in it Last Line: Not a roof but a field of stars ROMAN DREAM First Line: She-death, my green mother, you Last Line: One will know, no one in rome %will ever know to find me S.ELIASON66:DOUBLE PORTRAIT OF EMILY DICKINSON AND THE REV.CHARLES WAD First Line: She is just leaving the room Last Line: E...I...Son! I made this. The date %name within name SCATTERED WORDS FOR EMILY DICKINSON First Line: Inside the crate, dark Last Line: There is room %for mystery SEVENTEEN QUESTIONS ABOUT KING KONG Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: If so, what does it tell us about ourselves? Subject(s): Motion Pictures; Movies; Cinema SEVENTEEN QUESTIONS ABOUT KING KONG First Line: Is it a myth? And if so, what does it tell us about ourselves? Last Line: Passed a washcloth over his face: but I've had a very good marriage SONG First Line: Here I am yours, and here, and here Last Line: Brutal before biblical innocence STARTING WITH A LINE FROM ROETHKE First Line: To have the whole air! Last Line: Cliffs ringing with the calm off tintagel. %calm off tintagel SUICIDE NOTE First Line: It's not that I'm out of touch Last Line: No trespassing beyond this point. Anyone found here with dog or %gun will be THE BLUE ANCHOR Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: The future weighs down on me THE BUILDER OF HOUSES Poem Text First Line: What was the blond child building THE FAITHFUL Poem Text Subject(s): Death; Dead, The THE FIGURE ON THE FAR SIDE Poem Text First Line: Once it was my brother on Subject(s): Chess THE FLASHBOAT Poem Text First Line: A high deck. Blue skies overhead. White distance. Subject(s): Boats THESE HIGH WHITE WALLS First Line: So now to write the journal of this house Last Line: Frozen panes stare THREADS: ROSA LUXEMBURG FROM PRISON: 1. WRONKE, SPRING 1917 Poem Text First Line: A huge white poplar half fills the prison garden Subject(s): Luxemburg, Rosa (1871-1919); Prisons & Prisoners THREADS: ROSA LUXEMBURG FROM PRISON: 1. WRONKE, SPRING 1917 First Line: A huge white poplar half fills the prison garden Last Line: Color-starved winter days-gray and resurgent green Subject(s): Luxemburg, Rosa (1871-1919) THREADS: ROSA LUXEMBURG FROM PRISON: 2. BRESLAU, NOVEMBER-DEC. 1917 Poem Text First Line: Hans is killed Subject(s): Luxemburg, Rosa (1871-1919); Prisons & Prisoners THREADS: ROSA LUXEMBURG FROM PRISON: 2. BRESLAU, NOVEMBER-DEC. 1917 First Line: Hans is killed Last Line: The mythical herdsman's call Subject(s): Luxemburg, Rosa (1871-1919) THREADS: ROSA LUXEMBURG FROM PRISON: 3. BRESLAU, SPRING 1918 First Line: My window looks on the red brick wall Subject(s): Luxemburg, Rosa (1871-1919); Prisons & Prisoners THREADS: ROSA LUXEMBURG FROM PRISON: 3. BRESLAU, SPRING 1918 First Line: My window looks on the red brick wall Last Line: The radiant skin %of the globe Subject(s): Luxemburg, Rosa (1871-1919) TWINS First Line: You ask for love but what you want is healing Last Line: Hesitate and can neither live nor die URGE TO TELL THE TRUTH Last Line: And marriage break VOCATION: A LIFE 1.DESIRE First Line: 1915 it begins in indolence Last Line: From that bed %in a crack %of the world VOCATION: A LIFE 2. ROMANCE First Line: 1909 down by the republican or little blue Last Line: By the star of her railroadman's lantern %at an open window VOCATION: A LIFE 3.POSSESSION First Line: 1925 to begin %with the window Last Line: Not possessing but %possessed VOCATION: A LIFE 4. UNFURNISHING First Line: 1927 upon this rock Last Line: Light by which the writing %was composed WAITING Poem Text First Line: My body knows it will never bear children Last Line: Filling you with poems Subject(s): Emptiness; Infertility WAITING First Line: My body knows it will never bear children Last Line: Breathe in and out of you Subject(s): Emptiness; Infertility WHAT THE SEER SAID Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: She said I would see the future Subject(s): Fathers WHAT THE SEER SAID First Line: She said I would see the future Last Line: I sat down by the water's edge, old, %deprived, at home, at peace WINTER ROAD First Line: Late winter light Last Line: This landscape is not human %I was meant to take nothing away Cooper, Jane (marvel) 1 poems available by this author ACCEPTANCES 3.THE RACETRACK First Line: Under our stillness fled the same low hooves Last Line: Slowly we learn our long wave's luminous motion Cooper, Jane Marvel 30 poems available by this author ACCEPTANCES 1. THE SUNDIAL First Line: Take out of time that moment when you stood Last Line: Spent with sane joy beyond the bees' numb drone ACCEPTANCES 2. THE GRAVEYARD First Line: Where five old graves lay circled on a hill Last Line: As free as if all guilts were closed and done BERMUDA First Line: Old man, come out in the sun Last Line: Your shaking plumes, step out! BLIND GIRL First Line: I take your hand. I want to touch your eyes Last Line: Only to know a little more what love is BUILDER OF HOUSES First Line: What was the blond child building Last Line: And sovereign childhood with its unrelenting hand CALLING First Line: All the voices of the sea called muriel! Last Line: I a lost voice %moving, calling you %on the edge of the moment that is now the center. %from the ope DISPOSSESSIONS: 1. THINGS First Line: Things have their own lives here. The hall chairs Last Line: It was no one's voice, perhaps it came from the umbrella stand DISPOSSESSIONS: 2. SOUVENIRS First Line: Anyway we are always waking Last Line: Even of our violent and faithful lives DISPOSSESSIONS: 3. INHERITANCES First Line: Malte laurids, peevish: and one has Last Line: Must turn to blood inside you FAITHFUL First Line: Once you said joking slyly, if I'm killed Last Line: At my blameless life and shaking its flamelike head? FLASHBOAT First Line: A high deck. Blue skies overhead. White distance Last Line: A rope ladder drops over. My voice with its crunch of bone %wakes me: I choose %the flashboat! %work Subject(s): Kent State University - Riot, 1970 FOR A VERY OLD MAN, ON THE DEATH OF HIS WIFE First Line: So near to death yourself Last Line: Or praise her uncovered hair FOR MY MOTHER IN HER FIRST ILLNESS, FROM A WINDOW OVERLOOKING NOTRE DA First Line: Why can I never when I think about it Last Line: I try to read. Which one of us is absent? FOR THE RECORDER OF SUICIDES First Line: With a pocketful of stones Last Line: Composure wears the heart out. Child-- %where he stopped thecar, the stones FOR THOMAS HARDY First Line: But you were wrong that desolate dusk Last Line: Took life from the same dawn HOTEL DE DREAM First Line: Suppose we could telephone the dead Last Line: How to relish yet redress %my sensuous, precious, upper-class, %unjust white child's past IN THE HOUSE OF THE DYING First Line: So once again, hearing the tired aunts Last Line: Upstairs she lies, washed through by the two miracles IN THE LAST FEW MOMENTS CAME THE OLD GERMAN CLEANING WOMAN First Line: Our last morning in that long room Last Line: The door pressed, dutiful, idiot INFUSION ROOM First Line: Mercy on maryanne who through a hole beneath her collarbone drinks Last Line: On our black recliners. %it is almost time for the soaps KNOWLEDGE THAT COMES THROUGH EXPERIENCE First Line: I feel my face being bitten by the tides Last Line: It seems to me I maybe capable %once I'm a skeleton, of love and wars LEAVING WATER HYACINTHS First Line: I see you, child, standing above the river Last Line: Music that cradles grief to an atlantic MORNING ON THE ST. JOHN'S First Line: This is a country where there are no mountains Last Line: Or mirrored in a river brings delight %and shakes a man as dawn shakes birds and flowers OBLIGATIONS First Line: Here where we are, wrapped in the afternoon Last Line: And our defense, which we cannot evade POEM WITH CAPITAL LETTERS First Line: John berryman asked me to write a poem about roosters Last Line: And even princeton struts like one god's betters? Subject(s): Berryman, John (1914-1972); Man-woman Relationships; Poetry And Poets; Women's Rights PRACTICING FOR DEATH First Line: Monarch and fritillary, swallowtail Last Line: Once more, live butterflies? Ablaze, scared child! RIVER IN ALL LIGHTS, FROM AN UPSTAIRS WINDOW Last Line: We call the river. Now there is only sky Subject(s): Rivers ROCK CLIMBING First Line: Higher than gulls' nests, higher than children go Last Line: And looking back to hillsides build %imaginary houses SNOW IN THE CITY First Line: Snow is a process of thinking. Down the street Last Line: Looking through snow, you can't see the end of the street WANDA'S BLUES First Line: Wanda's daddy was a railroadman, she was his little wife Last Line: Wanda-a-a-a the steam whistle hollered. O my american refrain! Subject(s): Blues (music); Jazz; Music And Musicians WEATHER OF SIX MORNINGS First Line: Sunlight lies along my table Last Line: Why should I sign %my name? Cooper, Jane Todd 4 poems available by this author FOR A BIRTHDAY First Line: Something is dragging me backward Last Line: And the book of impersonal love NAZI'S WIDOW First Line: I want his skin again SONOGRAM First Line: Before she left, the tech Subject(s): Sonograms TOUCHING WOMEN First Line: Twice I never touched a woman |
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