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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: EVERSON, WILLIAM Matches Found: 364 Everson, William Poet's Biography Alternate Author Name(s): Antoninus, Brother 364 poems available by this author ABRASIVE First Line: You know now the reason Last Line: The abrasive of change ADVENT First Line: Fertile and rank and rich the coastal rains AFTERGLOW OF THE ROSE First Line: As what goes out Last Line: Prolongs its truth ALL THE WAY TO HEAVEN Last Line: And tread thy mill with staves upon my neck ANNUL IN ME MY MANHOOD First Line: Annul in me my manhood, lord, and make Last Line: The seeker from the sought ANSWER First Line: The bruise is not there Last Line: And he touches attainment in that APPROACH First Line: Breaking back from the sea we ran through low hills Last Line: And its heavy pounding heart ATTILA First Line: On a low lorrainian knoll a leaning peasant sinking a pit Last Line: And tells an ancient story AUGUST First Line: Smoke-color, haze thinly over the hills, low hanging Last Line: And the peace is enormous AUTUMN SONG First Line: Take my hand, dear, let us wander Last Line: Out and off, and far away BABED ON THY BREAST Last Line: The suckling of infinity BARD First Line: Sing it. Utter the phrase, the fine word Last Line: It is good to the heart, it is fine in the chest to think of them listening BLACK CHRIST First Line: Heart not cry Last Line: Giddy, I live on BLOWING OF THE SEED First Line: I speak %who am come down from a glacial region north of here Last Line: The bronze bells of those death-departed years %are all awakened BLOWING OF THE SEED: EPILOGUE IN A MILD WINTER ... First Line: Woman, I sing to you now from a new season Last Line: And my manifest reasons BLOWING OF THE SEED: PROLOGUE First Line: Whenas the woman Last Line: Drinks and dissolves BONELESS, AND OF NO BONE MADE First Line: Boneless, and of no bone made, what is my flesh but fever Last Line: Keep me, o god, from thy justice, and reverse my fate %in thy mercy BROTHERS First Line: Well-husbanded, staunch Last Line: She crept to the brother's bed BUT THERE WAS NO LAMENT First Line: When he walked through the waist-high wheat Last Line: No sound of any mourning at the house CANTICLE OF THE ROSE First Line: Because in the deepnesses of night you smoulder a ray that does not Last Line: And burn upon my heart your perfect signature CANTICLE TO THE CHRIST IN THE HOLY EUCHARIST First Line: And the many days and the many nights that I lay as one barren Last Line: Where she lies in laurel and proves the wound on the slope %of mt. Tamalpais CANTICLE TO THE GREAT MOTHER OF GOD First Line: Sometimes I dream you measured of bright walls, stepped on a hill Last Line: And larger, if we believe you, even than your love CANTICLE TO THE WATERBIRDS First Line: Clack your beaks you cormorants and kittiwakes Last Line: Send up the strict articulation of your throats, %and say his name CHRONICLE OF DIVISION: PART FIVE First Line: Sea: %and in its flaw the sprung silence Last Line: From the frayed cloth CHRONICLE OF DIVISION: PART FOUR First Line: They met once morfe in the ended autumn Last Line: Bear the seed of an oncoming age CHRONICLE OF DIVISION: PART ONE First Line: That morning we rose Last Line: That bleeds from its throat CHRONICLE OF DIVISION: PART THREE First Line: All the long evening the man Last Line: And her own hurt in her eyes CHRONICLE OF DIVISION: PART TWO First Line: Each evening, the mail Last Line: And masters his hand to proceed CIRCUMSTANCE First Line: He is a god who smiles blindly Last Line: He is the god - but he sees not, nor hears CITADEL First Line: The janitor knew; %high priest of the wastebasket Last Line: And told him what all knew but he CLOUDS First Line: Over the coastal ranges slight and indefinite clouds Last Line: But the wind breeds them west forever COAST THOUGHT First Line: There is a wind from far out, and the moving sea Last Line: Knowing itself deeper and firmer, and holding the bone COMPENSATION First Line: Starve the flesh, and freeze the bone Last Line: To keep the body warm COMPLIANCE OF THE WILL Last Line: We will never let them part CONVERSION OF SAINT PAUL First Line: Jerusalem Last Line: Flakes from his eyes DANCER First Line: I have in my mind the dark expense of the northern sea Last Line: The song of the thighs, and the dance DESERTED GARDEN First Line: A naked wall to left and right Last Line: So many years ago DIVERS First Line: Wifeless at thirty Last Line: In the numb knowledge of loss DIVIDE First Line: He came in the room at day's end Last Line: And slowly discover their wives DO NOT BROOD FOR LONG First Line: Do not brood for long within these doors Last Line: And knowing the noisy wind too well to weep DO YOU NOT DOUBT First Line: Do you not doubt, being lonely of heart Last Line: Such even as that may be faced DUST AND GLORY Poem Text First Line: On the lorranian knoll a leaning peasant sinking a pit Subject(s): France DUST SHALL BE THE SERPENT'S FOOD: CANTO: 5. THE BLOOD OF THE POET First Line: My first remembrance: the yard of our earliest Last Line: Credential - his consecrated blood EASTWARD THE ARMIES First Line: E Last Line: And sprawled in exhaustion behind them EASTWARD THE ARMIES ELEGY FOR A RUINED SCHOOLHOUSE First Line: The walls down, the beams shattered Last Line: In the surge of the sun and the night ENCOUNTER First Line: My lord came to me in the deep of night Last Line: To meet the waters of eternity EPILOGUE First Line: Cold gropes the dawn. Time wavers on the interdicted face Last Line: She murmurs in her dream, and stirs herself, and sleeps EPILOGUE; WHO IS SHE THAT LOOKETH FORTH AS THE MORNING First Line: Rising among the stampings of the sea Last Line: And shutters with his lips her surging breath FACE I KNOW Last Line: One wince in the dark FALLING OF THE GRAIN: 1. TOWARD SOLSTICE First Line: Wrapped to the branch the runner Last Line: May kiss upon the mouth FALLING OF THE GRAIN: 2. THE PORTENT First Line: The black king fell Last Line: Schismatic in our lives FALLING OF THE GRAIN: 3. THE QUITTANCE OF THE WOUND First Line: But god is good. Nor has ever, once Last Line: And the hand sustains FALLING OF THE GRAIN: 4. THE CROWNING OF THE QUEEND First Line: So that you, too, whom I have loved Last Line: Bring back to the world FALLING OF THE GRAIN: 5. IN THE RIPENESS OF THE WEED First Line: And now it is summer Last Line: Seeds, and the weak weed %scatters FALLING OF THE GRAIN: 6. THE BURNING BOOK First Line: Now it may happen that one Last Line: Rubrication of the word FALLING OF THE GRAIN: 7. FROM THE SUMMER OF THE FLESH First Line: For the summer swells Last Line: The turbulence, uplifted, is made free FALLING OF THE GRAIN: 8. PAST SOLSTICE First Line: Past solstice: not yet the length of a month past Last Line: Will never surpass %love him FALLING OF THE GRAIN: 9. ADVENT First Line: Fertile and rank and rich the coastal rains Last Line: And split the tomb FEAST DAY First Line: Peace was the promise this house in the vineyard Last Line: In autumn, the good year falling south FIRST WINTER STORM First Line: All day long the clouds formed in the peaks Last Line: The cottonwoods stood somnolent and still %beneath the sun FISH-EATERS First Line: This blood has beat in a thousand veins Last Line: Glad for the sleep in the sun FLIGHT IN THE DESERT First Line: The last settlement scraggled out with a barbwire fence Last Line: Knuckles the generous breast, and feeds Subject(s): Bible; Religion FOG First Line: The gray mask of the fog, the pale plate of the sun Last Line: And the heart will not quicken FOG DAYS First Line: Through the window I can see the fog Last Line: Given by the silver boughs %in renitent release FORMS First Line: Over the land the clouds of the storm Last Line: Frustrate, are seeking and blind FRAGMENT FOR THE BIRTH OF GOD First Line: A little cry, the babe's that only Last Line: Brows of that glory FRIENDS First Line: They had spoken for years Last Line: The discriminate mind makes its choices FROM THE ROCK UNTOMBED Last Line: The word rejoices FROST LAY WHITE ON CALIFORNIA First Line: God. Spell dawns Last Line: Against the sob of my tongue GETHSEMANI First Line: Seed of the earth Last Line: On the mordant %soul of man GLYPH OF GOD: 1. THE MASKS OF DROUGHT: BLACKBIRD SUNDOWN First Line: High ridge ranch: back of the barn Last Line: The earth-chill tightens; the claw moon %talons the west GLYPH OF GOD: 1. THE MASKS OF DROUGHT: BRIDE OF THE BEAR First Line: We camp by a stream among rugged stumps Last Line: Gropes through the stumps GLYPH OF GOD: 1. THE MASKS OF DROUGHT: BUCK FEVER First Line: Drought-stricken hills. Somewhere ahead Last Line: Those strange eyes in the deep GLYPH OF GOD: 1. THE MASKS OF DROUGHT: CHAINSAW First Line: Three alders, shimmering Last Line: The folly of the three alders. %the terrible stump GLYPH OF GOD: 1. THE MASKS OF DROUGHT: CUTTING THE FIREBREAK First Line: Mowing the east field under the ridge Last Line: Sprawled in the weeds - drunk in death GLYPH OF GOD: 1. THE MASKS OF DROUGHT: GOSHAWK First Line: A rush of wings: the sound of sheer Last Line: Evicted, thrown shuddering out GLYPH OF GOD: 1. THE MASKS OF DROUGHT: JAY BREED First Line: All the young summer the jay breed prospered Last Line: Ceaselessly scan the jayless sky %and not blink GLYPH OF GOD: 1. THE MASKS OF DROUGHT: KINGFISHER FLAT First Line: A rustle of whispering wind over leaves Last Line: Each holds that bruise to her heart like a stone %and aches for rain GLYPH OF GOD: 1. THE MASKS OF DROUGHT: MOONGATE First Line: Something calls me from sleep Last Line: And her eyes are shining, shining GLYPH OF GOD: 1. THE MASKS OF DROUGHT: RATTLESNAKE AUGUST First Line: A rainless winter, week on week sun edging the hills Last Line: Licks his lip and stabs back GLYPH OF GOD: 1. THE MASKS OF DROUGHT: RUNOFF First Line: Four wet winters and now the dry Last Line: Woman and water in the blood-flow GLYPH OF GOD: 1. THE MASKS OF DROUGHT: SPIKEHORN First Line: The yearling buck, shot through the lungs Last Line: The sacrificial host between the river and the woods GLYPH OF GOD: 1. THE MASKS OF DROUGHT: SPOTFIRE First Line: A single cap pistol Last Line: Be learned in depth. %for him. %for me GLYPH OF GOD: 1. THE MASKS OF DROUGHT: STEELHEAD First Line: Incipient summer, scorch of the sun Last Line: Etched in stone spans time like myth - the glyph of god GLYPH OF GOD: 1. THE MASKS OF DROUGHT: STONE FACE FALLS First Line: Sheer naked rock. From the high cliff-cut Last Line: The cry of the kingfisher %pierces the noon GLYPH OF GOD: 1. THE MASKS OF DROUGHT: STORM SURGE First Line: Christmas eve , night of nights, and big creek Last Line: Splits the womb in his shudder of birth GLYPH OF GOD: 1. THE MASKS OF DROUGHT: THE HIGH EMBRACE First Line: They stand in the clearing of kingfisher flat Last Line: A gift regiven, the boon bestowed GLYPH OF GOD: 1. THE MASKS OF DROUGHT: THE SUMMER OF FIRE First Line: California is burning!' the voice of the newscaster Last Line: Hugs pure fire down deep at her heart, %and banks power GLYPH OF GOD: 1. THE MASKS OF DROUGHT: THE VISITATION First Line: Midsummer hush; warm light, inert windless air Last Line: The stars' blunt dismissal GLYPH OF GOD: 2. RENEGADE CHRISTMAS First Line: Full moon at the solstice Last Line: And takes up his dream GLYPH OF GOD: 2. RENEGADE CHRISTMAS: COUGAR First Line: A sensed presence: turning our heads Last Line: Imperious, gathered us into those wakeful eyes. %and was gone GLYPH OF GOD: 2. RENEGADE CHRISTMAS: DANSE MACABRE First Line: The place is public - a thronged station Last Line: Chimes the measure of the unconceived GLYPH OF GOD: 2. RENEGADE CHRISTMAS: MEXICAN STANDOFF First Line: Inner space: a rock cavern Last Line: What are you going to do with it? %use it?' GLYPH OF GOD: 2. RENEGADE CHRISTMAS: REAPER First Line: Winter's wake: week after week the sopping northwesters Last Line: Each of the other, and leave this life %enjoined.' GLYPH OF GOD: 2. RENEGADE CHRISTMAS: SIXTY FIVE First Line: I stand in the center of a twilight field Last Line: Instinct, the sovereign spirit, %the sceptral mind GOD GERMED IN RAW GRANITE First Line: God germed in raw granite, source-glimpsed in stone Last Line: Total truth -- indubitably he GYPSY DANCE First Line: Flowing, glowing music drifting through the tangled trees Last Line: Is the band of swaying gypsies crazy-mad with melody HARE: AN EARLIER EPISODE First Line: The hare running for life in the sparse growth Last Line: And the temperance fathered of guilt HAZARDS OF HOLINESS: 1. THE BEHEADING OF JOHN THE BAPTIST First Line: John cried out -- the excoriate definition Last Line: That would thunder in the redemption HAZARDS OF HOLINESS: 2. JUDITH AND HOLOFERNES First Line: Saint judith crouched. About her loins Last Line: The furious grudge of his siege HELP ME O GOD First Line: Help me o god in my very great need Last Line: Sometimes I lie on my bed in the night and taste despair HERE TO ROCK SLEEPS First Line: Here from the valley floor the long rock sleeps in the sky Last Line: When the senses lag and the worn mind wavers toward night HOMESTEAD First Line: Father and son, and father and son Last Line: And toiling lean-limbed beneath the slow span of the years HOSPICE OF THE WORD First Line: In the ventless room Last Line: Shudders the rapt heart HOTEL First Line: The aged are there Last Line: And the emptiness within HOUSE ON SECOND STREET First Line: We moved south where the streets turn Last Line: The old wood shifts on its posts I AM LONG WEANED Last Line: The splendid unquenchable fount: %unbind those breasts I AM LONG WEANED Last Line: Unbind those breasts I EAT LIFE BACK First Line: And her eyes Last Line: And I eat life back I KNOW IT AS THE SORROW First Line: I have wondered long at the ache in my blood Last Line: And find no joy in the singing IF I HIDE MY HAND First Line: You who found the yokeage of friendship Last Line: Not listen now who listened there before ILLUSION First Line: The low wind talks on the boards of the house IMMORTAL STRANGENESS First Line: Spring. And in the vanquishing Last Line: I stand free IMPOSSIBLE CHOICES First Line: No, not ever, in no time IN ALL THESE ACTS First Line: Dawn cried out: the brutal voice of a bird Last Line: Shaping the weasel's jaw in his leap %and the staggering rush of the bass IN SAVAGE WASTES First Line: I too, o god, as you very well know Last Line: And will find my god in the thwarted love that breaks between us IN THE BREACH First Line: God %the I-killer Last Line: God %caul-freed %I cry IN THE FICTIVE WISH First Line: So him in dream Last Line: When the tide is taken IN THE SHIFT OF THE STARS First Line: High in the west one falling star streaks on the curve of night Last Line: The sun that is over this land IN YOUTH I FELL First Line: In youth I fell. In youth, the time of magic Last Line: The deem most holy what you largely blame INVOCATION First Line: Year going down to my thirtieth autumn Last Line: It exacts its proportionate due JACOB AND THE ANGEL First Line: His mother's fondness wrought his father's frown Last Line: Weeps on that placid neck, kisses the god-calmed face JUBILEE FOR ST. PETER MARTYR First Line: He lived the long gestation of the word Last Line: The uncontainable tumult of his joy KINGFISHER FLAT Poem Text First Line: In the long drought Subject(s): Drought KISS OF THE CROSS First Line: I cry Last Line: The wound will not worsen KNIVES First Line: She goes more delicate and gentle than any I know Last Line: But the knives, the knives - they are yours LAST CRUSADE First Line: And how else, she might say, having done it Last Line: Bashed in the door LATE OCTOBER '39 : 1. THERE ARE RIVERS First Line: There are rivers out of the high plateaus that bear no names Last Line: That sucks at the roots of the hills LATE OCTOBER '39 : 10. THE WAGONS ROLLED First Line: The wagons rolled on the plains, lurched on the passes under the pines Last Line: Nor the look of these mountains LATE OCTOBER '39 : 11. HER HEAD TURNS First Line: Her head turns on the pillow Last Line: The wain is clearing the roof LATE OCTOBER '39 : 12. UNDER THE LEAN First Line: Under the lean of the low hills Last Line: And strike it in on the mind LATE OCTOBER '39 : 13. WHAT I WANT First Line: What I want of this poem more than any one thing is youth in its lines Last Line: For I will be old in a moment LATE OCTOBER '39 : 14. AND THE YELLOW First Line: And the yellow of the leaves Last Line: To the leaning of the light, and the plunder of the year LATE OCTOBER '39 : 15. WHAT LOVERS BEFORE US First Line: What lovers before us in all the broken ages Last Line: Under the moving night LATE OCTOBER '39 : 16. TOILERS UNDER THE SUMMER SUN Last Line: And we can level mountains LATE OCTOBER '39 : 17. WIND FOR A WEEK First Line: Wind for a week; we heard the suck, the surge Last Line: Had a cricket not drowned them with clangor LATE OCTOBER '39 : 18. WHAT WAS SPOKEN First Line: What was spoken is nothing Last Line: And, if you ask him, can give an opinion LATE OCTOBER '39 : 19. IF YOU SEE IN THIS POEM First Line: If you see in this poem looseness Last Line: This poem is the word of a religious man, with no god to worship LATE OCTOBER '39 : 2. THIS COUNTRY SO NEW First Line: This country so new from the hands of our elders Last Line: The hill close behind LATE OCTOBER '39 : 20. WE ARE THOSE WHO WENT First Line: We are those who went out in the great depression Last Line: And the failures it holds are its mothers LATE OCTOBER '39 : 21. WE STOOD IN THE EVENING First Line: We stood in the evening light of his room Last Line: And curse ourselves in our age LATE OCTOBER '39 : 22. I WALK THROUGH First Line: I walk through this town Last Line: And the look of their eyes LATE OCTOBER '39 : 23. DO YOU THINK FROM THIS POEM First Line: Do you think from this poem I am blind to its danger Last Line: A nick in the bright of the blade LATE OCTOBER '39 : 24. EDWA, WHEN WE MET First Line: Edwa, when we met, that autumn in the hush of darkness Last Line: In the fine fever of youth is good LATE OCTOBER '39 : 25. HE DRAGGED HIMSELF First Line: He dragged himself over the edge of rock, bleeding Last Line: Of the panting and bloody-mouthed dogs LATE OCTOBER '39 : 3. WHO READS THESE POEMS First Line: Who reads these poems will say to himself Last Line: I have no defenses LATE OCTOBER '39 : 4. I LEANED IN A BOOTH First Line: I leaned in a booth of that little town Last Line: And the night alive on my face LATE OCTOBER '39 : 5. THE SUN CLIMBS Last Line: And the wind's track fades on the vines LATE OCTOBER '39 : 6. WE LIE ON OUR SIDES First Line: We lie on our sides under the steep roof Last Line: Touch. Now. The present %touch LATE OCTOBER '39 : 7. THEY WATCHED First Line: They watched from the slopes for the evening star Last Line: And you feel our old fury in falling LATE OCTOBER '39 : 8. WHAT IS IT First Line: What is it, blowing your throat in the strident light Last Line: And the tilt of a head LATE OCTOBER '39 : 9. I LIE ON THE ROOF Last Line: Jupiter leans in the south, high and clear in the milky way LAVA BED First Line: Fisted, bitten by blizzards Last Line: And only our eyes have traversed LAY IN THE NIGHT Last Line: All that my being can bear LET IT BE TOLD First Line: Let it be told in the driving dark of some far night Last Line: And the crowing of one far cock, dimly down the wind LINES FOR THE LAST OF A GOLD TOWN First Line: When they rode that hawk-hearted murietta down in the western hills Last Line: It has been said, often, tongues hating it. %it has been said LOVE SONG First Line: There have been women before you for untold ages Last Line: Give gently, trust perfectly now MAKING OF THE CROSS First Line: Rough fir, hauled from the hills. And the tree it had been Last Line: Filmed his glinty eye, and found his hole MAN-FATE Poem Text First Line: Susanna: girl and bride Subject(s): Man-woman Relationship MAN-FATE: 1. RITE OF PASSAGE: EBB AT EVENING First Line: Tide-turn: and the surf Last Line: Stands up in her bed and stares MAN-FATE: 1. RITE OF PASSAGE: GALE AT DAWN First Line: Landwind: a gale at dawn scooping down from the hills Last Line: The surf-quenched scoter, the depth-disheveled grebe MAN-FATE: 1. RITE OF PASSAGE: IN THE FULLNESS OF TIME First Line: The child cries out. Getting up in the dark Last Line: Yours, but not to know. %mine, but not to keep MAN-FATE: 1. RITE OF PASSAGE: MAN-FATE First Line: Susanna: girl and bride %you sleep in the adjoining room Last Line: Curls on the node of its solemn disclosure, %and gropes renewal MAN-FATE: 1. RITE OF PASSAGE: SEED First Line: Some seed in me Last Line: Pokes up its head MAN-FATE: 1. RITE OF PASSAGE: SOCKET OF CONSEQUENCE First Line: On stinson beach, long spit of sand scything the sea Last Line: Spelling out of the socket of consequence %its terror and its truth MAN-FATE: 1. RITE OF PASSAGE: THE GASH First Line: To covet and resist for years, and then Last Line: And am ravished with joy MAN-FATE: 1. RITE OF PASSAGE: THE GAUGE First Line: Time is the gauger of all things Last Line: And restores me, the god-blunted man, %to my measure MAN-FATE: 2. A TIME TO MOURN First Line: For to suffer the loss of a way of life Last Line: Lave my wounds %and lift me home! MAN-FATE: 3. THE NARROWS: BLACK HILLS First Line: Riding a horse up a narrow gorge I pick Last Line: Where the bones of all the buffalo %gashed my heel MAN-FATE: 3. THE NARROWS: DARK WATERS First Line: Chipmunk: slash with quick teeth Last Line: At your body's bench %I take meat MAN-FATE: 3. THE NARROWS: STORM AT LOW TIDE First Line: A storm at low tide is like the dark night of the soul Last Line: This exasperate, desperate madness, this inexpressible %chaotic lust MAN-FATE: 3. THE NARROWS: THE CHALLENGE First Line: Then what do I seek? Last Line: This flesh cannot abide MAN-FATE: 3. THE NARROWS: THE DUNES First Line: I dream once more: a vision Last Line: Strangely inviting dunes MAN-FATE: 3. THE NARROWS: THE NARROWS OF BIRTH First Line: Christmas night: the solstice storm Last Line: Warring in the narrows of this birth MAN-FATE: 3. THE NARROWS: THE SCOUT First Line: Passing a leathercraft shop in mill valley I see Last Line: I smell danger at the divide MARCH First Line: The lovers, fast in their longing Last Line: Meets its own coarse kind MASCULINE DEAD: A GIRL First Line: It was out on the road in the april noon Last Line: And the bruised mouth open MASCULINE DEAD: A WIDOW First Line: When eleven struck and he had not come home Last Line: And the hands pointing ten until three MASCULINE DEAD: A WIFE First Line: That was the night we crept out through the fields Last Line: And I knew I could not refuse MASCULINE DEAD: A WOMAN First Line: They were all like that Last Line: To know what the difference is MASCULINE DEAD: A YOUNG WOMAN First Line: I stood on the corner a full three hours Last Line: I knew by that it was autumn MASCULINE DEAD: AN OLD WOMAN First Line: Aye, the wind's rising - watch the low sky Last Line: With the sky breaking MASCULINE DEAD: PROLOGUE First Line: Day after day the naked sun on the upper ocean Last Line: On the span of three states the great hub turns. %the rain loosens MASCULINE DEAD: THE MASCULINE DEAD First Line: For we are the men who, young and hot-blooded Last Line: And stagger down to the sea MASCULINE DEAD: THE MASCULINE DEAD First Line: Under the earth are the windless lakes Last Line: The sweet stuff of our lives MASCULINE DEAD: THE MASCULINE DEAD First Line: And there rises before us the childhood moment Last Line: And the banded rings we wore on our fingers, %corroded and green MASCULINE DEAD: THE MASCULINE DEAD First Line: Or drunken with wine we mounted the stairs to the dim rooms Last Line: Our money hid in the secret drawer MASCULINE DEAD: THE MASCULINE DEAD First Line: We see the eyes, the knees, hands loosing the silk Last Line: And the splendor of completion MASCULINE DEAD: THE MASCULINE DEAD First Line: And rousing, we dream the eyes of women out of the dusk Last Line: In the silent rooms, in the soft of the beds MASCULINE DEAD: THE MASCULINE DEAD First Line: We could lie like this on the open fields Last Line: Crushing the pulp of the golden fruit MASCULINE DEAD: THE MASCULINE DEAD First Line: Beautifully over the tops of the trees Last Line: Rise up again and cover our eyes MASCULINE DEAD: THE MASCULINE DEAD First Line: Now it is fall we feel once more Last Line: That the rains are here MASCULINE DEAD: THE OLD WOMAN First Line: Poor shattered throats Last Line: Poor knees so fond of nuzzling the blankets MASCULINE DEAD: THE OLD WOMAN First Line: Hi! How they're shouting Last Line: And kissing the lips MASS BEGINS First Line: The mass begins. Under the shafted light Last Line: To the famished heart MASSACRE OF THE HOLY INNOCENTS First Line: It was well in the season of the midwinter rains Last Line: Magnificence of the winter sky MASSACRE OF THE HOLY INNOCENTS First Line: Night. And we grouped at the ridgehead Last Line: And he served those people well MASTER First Line: The furious cripple Last Line: And rage through the rooms in the end MATE-FLIGHT OF EAGLES: A SAVAGERY OF LOVE First Line: Spring, and the paired year Last Line: And the cross tore a hole in the sky MATE-FLIGHT OF EAGLES: THE CROSS TORE A HOLE First Line: The cross tore a hole Last Line: Christ-crossed I bleed %I am one MISSA DEFUNCTORUM First Line: The preacher's coagulated rhetoric Last Line: Devouring paroxysm %beat back death MISSA SANCTORUM First Line: The sensuality of women at mass: that deceptive Last Line: And the hunger of god %to heel MONTH OF THE DEAD First Line: The day is up, the sun has gained is girth Last Line: Of the hushed earth into its winter night MUSCAT PRUNING First Line: All those dormant fields are held beneath the fog Last Line: I have a hundred vines to cut before the dark NEW MEXICAN LANDSCAPE First Line: We left pietown north through a country screened by the dark Last Line: Into the huddle at twilight NIGHT RESTLESS WITH WIND First Line: A night restless with wind, restless Last Line: Would cut you a whistle NIGHT SCENE First Line: After the war,' he thought, 'after the war Last Line: Sprawled in a jeweler's door NO. NO First Line: No. No. Nor the swiftnesses of reversal Last Line: And god galls out NOON First Line: The wind down, hushed Last Line: And the deep sound of the heart NOVEMBER FIRST NINETEEN FORTY-FIVE First Line: All day the wind Last Line: And con the riddle of error NOW IN THESE DAYS First Line: In our easy time Last Line: And we know we have not been alone OCTOBER TRAGEDY First Line: Do not sing those old songs here tonight Last Line: You must never sing those old songs here again OH FORTUNATE EARTH First Line: Now afternoon's running Last Line: The world is the plunder of hawks ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE VERSAILLES PEACE, 1936 First Line: Low is the light Last Line: And got something but love from her dugs ON THE THORN First Line: Gags. Thrids Last Line: Deliver me whole ONE BORN OF THIS TIME Last Line: He has all any man ever had ONE FRAGMENT FOR GOD First Line: I give praise to thee god for thy kingfisher creeks Last Line: Thy startling wet ORIGINAL SIN First Line: And the heart Last Line: And fuck the race ORION First Line: Remote and beyond, lonely farms on the shoulders of hills Last Line: Drives in the growth of the dark OUT OF THE ASH First Line: Solstice of the dark, the absolute Last Line: Be born! Be born! OUT OF THE MULTITUDINOUS SIN First Line: Out of the multitudinous sin that mars Last Line: And in youth I fell OUT OF THY BODY I AM FED First Line: Out of thy body I am fed unfilled o god o god and drink Last Line: I suckle it all up. Babed on thy breast I breathe, I breathe OUTLAW First Line: I call to mind that violent man who waded the north Last Line: And draw doom down on our heads OUTSIDE THIS MUSIC First Line: These verses are lies Last Line: Turning toward night OVER THE ROADS First Line: Over the roads the country children come Last Line: Picking the poppies out of the green, today PASSION WEEK First Line: Christ-cuta; the cedar Last Line: The earth's %old ache PENITENTIAL PSALM First Line: Crime of my corruptness! When will it find a cease Last Line: The cleanly thing I could become POEM IS DEAD. A MEMORIAL FOR ROBINSON JEFFERS First Line: In the evening the dusk Last Line: Stun themselves in the sea POET IS DEAD First Line: In the evening the dusk Last Line: Stun themselves in the sea Subject(s): Jeffers, Robinson (1887-1962) PORTRAIT First Line: Back of his board he reaches and moves Last Line: While the great earth beats at the walls POSSE First Line: Under the granite walls Last Line: Can keep for your own the sky-yearning fierceness of his heart PRESENCE First Line: Neither love, the subtlety of refinement PRIVACY OF SPEECH First Line: Cried out all night Last Line: Lifts and settles %the bird begins PROLOGUE: AT THE EDGE First Line: There is mark, made on the soul in its first wrong doing Last Line: Contentment of the damned RAGING OF THE ROSE First Line: And the rose Last Line: In you %I am RAID First Line: They came out of the sun undetected Last Line: Down at last for the low hover, %and the short quick quench of the sea Subject(s): World War Ii RAIN ON THAT MORNING First Line: We on that morning, working, faced south and east where the sun was Last Line: Where the rain without wind came slowly, and love in her touches RED SKY AT MORNING First Line: This room has known all night the brittle tick of the clock Last Line: And smothered to a scarlet smear beneath the clouds RESIDUAL YEARS First Line: As long as we looked lay the low country REVOLUTIONIST First Line: His enemies learned Last Line: And eked out his life on its gall RIVER-ROOT / A SYZYGY First Line: River-root; as even under high drifts, those fierce wind-grappled cuts Last Line: And smiling he stands up beside the bed, and pulls on his shirt ROOTS First Line: England, gaunt raiders up from the narrow sea Last Line: Slow and intense, haunting the rhythms of those spoken words ROSE OF SOLITUDE First Line: The dark roots of the rose cry in my heart Last Line: Of the rose revealed ROSE OF SOLITUDE First Line: Her heart a bruise on the christ-flesh suffered out of locked agonies Last Line: In the sprint of your exquisite flesh is evinced the awesome recklessness %of god's mercy RUIN First Line: The year through september and the veils of light Last Line: It let down the ruin of rain SAINTS First Line: I who ravished a joy lost under my hand Last Line: I step, thus %lead me %lead me SAN JOAQUIN Recitation Subject(s): San Joaquin Valley, California SAN JOAQUIN First Line: This valley after the storms can be beautiful beyond the telling Last Line: And love as the leaf does the bough SARABANDE OF THE ROSE First Line: Slow, and with (?) is her bending neck Last Line: And all the wisdom in her way god keeps SCREED OF THE FLESH First Line: I cried out to the lord Last Line: He showed me my soul SCREED OF THE FROST First Line: I cried out to the lord Last Line: Who showed me frost SCREED OF THE SAND First Line: I cried out to the lord Last Line: Who showed me sand SCRUFF First Line: To me it seems I get only Last Line: You will call him by name SECULAR CITY: BLAME IT ON THE JET STREAM First Line: Remember it as the wildest winter Last Line: And quench your thirst in your god! SECULAR CITY: MELT DOWN THE GUNS First Line: Melt down the guns. Our need of them is over Last Line: Till christ, uncrucified, no longer kneels to bleed SECULAR CITY: THE CITY DOES NOT DIE First Line: Tense night: the taut air Last Line: And darkness drops in the sea SEED Poem Text First Line: Some seed in me SEEKERS First Line: Night on the river, the doors closing inward darken the faces Last Line: The seed bursts within the roaring womb SIDES OF A MIND First Line: He lay on a ridge of that frozen country Last Line: The decade wears itself out SIEGE First Line: Failure came first Last Line: And how obscure are its ends SIEGE OF SILENCE First Line: A siege of silence? Thy meaning-moving voice Last Line: God, god of the paradisal heart %I wait SIGN First Line: Under the docks the dark water slurs, swashes Last Line: Like the meeting touch of their palms SIN IS THE WILL IN ACTION First Line: Sin is the will in action, shunning god Last Line: Or ever let it blink, and I shall die SLEEP First Line: The mind drifts warmly, focused on farther dreams Last Line: The loose blood poiunds the deep song SLEEP-TOSSED I LIE Last Line: Keep the peace SODOM WENT DOWN First Line: Sodom went down: the sin-filled cities Last Line: Drug the past with their dust SONG THE BODY DREAMED IN THE SPIRIT'S MAD BEHEST First Line: Call him the lover and call me the bride Last Line: In my red earth SOUL AND SELF First Line: I cried to the lord that the lord might open my heart Last Line: The guilts lived on forever SOUTH COAST First Line: Salt creek mouths unflushed by the sea SPADE First Line: And seeing down the dark and new-cut ditch Last Line: And been shaken by weather, have turned in the withering thrust of the sun; %and have seen SPRINGING OF THE BLADE: PART ONE: TIME OF YEAR First Line: The areas of corruption %and the years reveal Last Line: Wholly resumes his past SPRINGING OF THE BLADE: PART ONE: TIME OF YEAR First Line: Carrousel %for the child Last Line: And all the intervening years %crack in two SPRINGING OF THE BLADE: PART ONE: TIME OF YEAR First Line: Muscat %when the crop is in: fat muscats Last Line: And richer to the mind SPRINGING OF THE BLADE: PART ONE: TIME OF YEAR First Line: Yellow weather %to rankle under restriction Last Line: Sleeps on in the smoky fields SPRINGING OF THE BLADE: PART ONE: TIME OF YEAR First Line: Odor of autumn %and in the cooling weather Last Line: Lost what they cannot keep SPRINGING OF THE BLADE: PART ONE: TIME OF YEAR First Line: The iron dimension %it wears Last Line: Stuck there forever SPRINGING OF THE BLADE: PART TWO: THERE WILL BE HARVEST First Line: Thus in this way, these glimpsings back Last Line: That only an age can reckon SPRINGTIME. ALL CHURCHBELLS BLESSED OUR NATIVE ROOFS Last Line: And the thought smiles STRANGER First Line: Pity this girl %at feckless fourteen Last Line: And shamble down time to doomsday SUN First Line: Season on season the sun raiding the valley Last Line: That hungers the north TAR PITS First Line: Smashed locked jaws: in the alligator deeps Last Line: Breath through my deeps TENDRIL IN THE MESH Poem Text First Line: So the sea stands up to the shore, banging his chains TENDRIL IN THE MESH: 1 First Line: And it creams: from under her elbow a suffix of light, a sheen of kept being Last Line: Your breast pounds and proves; the sound of your heart extols its ancient surrender TENDRIL IN THE MESH: 2 First Line: Man of god. Tall man, man of oath. Mad man of ignorant causes Last Line: On the sill of a cloistered withdrawal my flesh is empaled on your spirit! TENDRIL IN THE MESH: 3 First Line: And the storm swings in from the sea with a smashing of floats Last Line: And bear back to man in your flesh the subtle sign of him %who marked you for god! TENDRIL IN THE MESH: 4 First Line: Daughter of earth and child of the wave be appeased Last Line: And when you return to the roost of night wear the mane of the sun! TENDRIL IN THE MESH: EPILOGUE: HYMN TO THE COSMIC CHRIST First Line: Dark god of eros, christ of the buried brood Last Line: And keep inviolate what thou created good! TENDRIL IN THE MESH: PROLOGUE: THE TERRIBLE TORCH First Line: So the sea stands up to the shore; banging his chains Last Line: Oh my god the terrible torch of her power! THE FLIGHT IN THE DESERT Poem Text First Line: The last settlement scraggled out with a barbwire fence Last Line: Knuckles the generous beast, and feeds Subject(s): Bible; Religion; Theology THE POET IS DEAD Poem Text First Line: In the evening the dusk Subject(s): Jeffers, Robinson (1887-1962) THE RAID Poem Text First Line: They came out of the sun undetected Subject(s): World War Ii; Second World War THE WISE Poem Text First Line: Miles across the turbulent kingdoms Subject(s): Christmas; Nativity, The THESE ARE THE RAVENS First Line: These are the ravens of my soul Last Line: And crying on the farthest fences of the world THESE HAVE THE FUTURE First Line: So sleep the vines, as the vineyards of europe Last Line: Who before had no eyes, but for splendor THING REGARDED AS CONTRADICTION First Line: But the innocent: these others Last Line: All we of israel %eat THING REGARDED AS CONTRADICTION (REVISED) First Line: But the innocent; these others Last Line: Of israel %eat THOUGH LYING WITH A WOMAN Last Line: And finds finality there THUNDER First Line: You on the road walk north, your knees bending Last Line: And the hawks of the blood are high TIDEMARSH First Line: There was a road out of town toward the back-water bay Last Line: And less like what I was TO MY ANCIENT ENEMY First Line: Father, underneath the crust Last Line: Your anger aches behind my eyes TOR HOUSE First Line: Now that I have seen tor house Last Line: Than my one glimpse of falcon tower toothing the carmel sky TRIFLES First Line: The man laughing on the steep hill tripped on a stone Last Line: And pound with our hands on the dark TRIPTYCH FOR THE LIVING: 1. THE UNCOUTH First Line: A mild autumn, rain, and the high pastures Last Line: These were now to receive TRIPTYCH FOR THE LIVING: 2. THE COMING First Line: Blood, and the black Last Line: Breaks on his knees %and prays TRIPTYCH FOR THE LIVING: 3. THE WISE First Line: Miles across the turbulent kingdoms Last Line: Ran on the face where the rain had UNDERLYING TORSION First Line: A lull of no wind Last Line: God's gaze, god's liberating look UNKILLABLE KNOWLEDGE First Line: Churchill: the sound of your voice from the eastern air Last Line: They watch with eyes wide: %and they wait UNTITLED [AND DO THE INDULGENT] First Line: And do the indulgent lovers Last Line: And quite unable to say UNTITLED [AS IN ALL THAT COUNTRY] Last Line: Out of remotest past UNTITLED [CROWN OEDIPUS KING] Last Line: Anxious, uncertain, and all afraid UNTITLED [FOR THERE IS A PLACE] Last Line: Across the gulls' descant UNTITLED [LOVE, WHO HAVE] First Line: Love, who have in new maturity Last Line: Struggling to win back what he never had UNTITLED [NOVEMBER FOUNDERED] First Line: November foundered visibly and winter Last Line: And laid his loving blight on once green sod UNTITLED [OLD MAN, WAS I YOUR IMP?] Last Line: Anxious, uncertain, %and all afraid UNTITLED [WHAT THERE IS FIERCELY] First Line: What there is fiercely now in the world Last Line: This earth and this labor: good UNTITLED [YOU NATIONS OF EUROPE] First Line: You nations of europe, dog-snarling dolls in your nook of the world Last Line: I think you will see a real menace VERNAL EQUINOX First Line: Andromeda westering Last Line: And the coupling birds VISION OF FELICITY First Line: And the terrible Last Line: Give me the center back %of my soul VOW First Line: The sky darkens Last Line: Who have gathered such strength as is mine WALDORF REJECTS 10. AND MAY THIS NOT First Line: And may this not, perhaps be a purer progression Last Line: That beats all bright at the eyes WALDORF REJECTS 11. AND WHAT IS MAN Last Line: And cannot be cancelled WALDORF REJECTS 2. IS THE SOLDIER LESS BRAVE Last Line: For even the blind to behold WALDORF REJECTS 3. BUT THE HEALER IS TIME Last Line: And they were enough WALDORF REJECTS 4. HE WENT BACK TO HIS NORTH First Line: He went back to his north when the time came Last Line: To place each at the other's feet WALDORF REJECTS 5. WHAT THEN IS GOD Last Line: Keen his clear name WALDORF REJECTS 6. BUT ALL FLUXES First Line: But all fluxes, flares Last Line: Let motion suffice WALDORF REJECTS 7. ONCE MORE IN THIS WORLD Last Line: Does temperance keep peace with its recourse WALDORF REJECTS 8. BUT THAT TOO IS OF THIS LIFE Last Line: And dimly somehow, he understands WALDORF REJECTS 9. BUT IS NOT THIS First Line: But is not this, indeed, the true progression Last Line: When all he held dear is dead WALDPORT REJECTS 1. BUT AT LAST WE LEARNED Last Line: The whole wide teachings of life WALLS First Line: East, the shut sky: those walls of the mountains Last Line: But it sleeps at the roots of his sight WAY OF LIFE AND THE WAY OF DEATH First Line: Mexico: and a wind on the mesa Last Line: The one resurrection WE IN THE FIELDS Poem Text First Line: Dawn and a high film, the sun burned it WE IN THE FIELDS First Line: Dawn and a high film; the sun burned it Last Line: Till the rain fell WE KNEW IT FOR AUTUMN First Line: The wind of that dying year made yellow the leaves Last Line: And focused our eyes on april WE WALK THE YOUNG EARTH First Line: Over the hills the loud sun rolls in the falling sky Last Line: The far trains haunting the night WEEDS First Line: All night long in the high meadow Last Line: And the harsh print of the earth WHAT BIRDS WERE THERE First Line: Two magpies under the cypresses Last Line: Birthmarked that dawn WHAT IS THE WAY OF DEATH First Line: What is the way of death against the way Last Line: Of the all-flooding eye WHO LIVES HERE HARBORS SORROW First Line: Secluded and dark the few farms hug the creeks Last Line: When summer heats the earth to life again WHO SEES THROUGH THE LENS First Line: Who sees, through the searching lens on the mountain Last Line: Nor star for its sky WIND WEST First Line: There were signs %wind preached it two days Last Line: We leaned to the push of it, hunting what lay under west WINTER ASCENT First Line: Climbed up stone slope and its runneled rifts Last Line: The orkneys, small on the sea, draw him down WINTER PLOUGHING First Line: Before my feet the ploughshare rolls the earth Last Line: And the thin cries of the gleaming, bent-winged birds WINTER SOLSTICE First Line: Here with the dawn the sun crawls wanly, takes the south sky Last Line: Now is the running night WINTER SUNDOWN First Line: The fog, that nightlong and morning had lain to the fields Last Line: The dusk and the fog all one WOMAN WITHIN: IV First Line: But give her good leave Last Line: And sworn of the answer in her eyes %will ever be WORD First Line: One deepness Last Line: Justness of perfection YEAR'S DECLENSION: COURT OF LAW First Line: Court of the law Last Line: Until the mention of his name YEAR'S DECLENSION: DEAD WINTER First Line: This is the death the wintering year foretold Last Line: Refuses to deflect YEAR'S DECLENSION: END OF SUMMER First Line: Something that woke me out of sleep Last Line: Or a million lives reject YEAR'S DECLENSION: IN THE DREAM'S RECESS First Line: Let from no earth-engendered thing your friendship be forsworn Last Line: And all is fearful where I dare not wake or dream YEAR'S DECLENSION: RAINY EASTER First Line: Rain: and over the thorned, cliff-eaten Last Line: Splitting its blind-eyed buds YEAR'S DECLENSION: THE DANCE First Line: The dance. And that wickering of reefs Last Line: The rest is dead YEAR'S DECLENSION: THE DUSK First Line: The light goes: that once powerful sun Last Line: Dropped down together YEAR'S DECLENSION: THE FIRST ABSENCE First Line: The house is dark Last Line: And wholly outside the fear YEAR'S DECLENSION: THE QUARREL First Line: I cannot squall, though that is what it needs Last Line: Where we will go together YEAR'S DECLENSION: TWO LIVES First Line: Two lives: a tortuous affinity Last Line: Pushing the rank grass here and there, %thrusting and blind YEAR'S DECLENSION: UNDER A KEEPING SPRING First Line: Under a keeping spring, that country Last Line: Knuckled up for a rain YEAR'S END First Line: The year dies fiercely: out of the north the beating storms YOU KNOW THE LAND Last Line: Yield the rank smell YOU, GOD First Line: Nor any day gone Last Line: God %such me in ZONE OF DEATH First Line: Wind is not nigh Last Line: And gibbets me |
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