|
|
|
|
Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: GALLAGHER, TESS Matches Found: 253 Gallagher, Tess Poet's Biography 253 poems available by this author 3 A.M. KITCHEN: MY FATHER TALKING Poem Text First Line: For years it was land working me, oil fields Last Line: Some days now I just don’t know Subject(s): Alcoholism & Alcoholics; Industry; Labor & Laborers; Drunkards; Alcohol Abuse; Work; Workers 3 A.M. KITCHEN: MY FATHER TALKING First Line: For years it was land working me, oil fields Last Line: To work for. Hell, why shouldn't I %play cards? Threasie, %some days now I just don't know Subject(s): Alcoholics And Alcoholism; Industry; Labor And Laborers A STROKE OF SKY Recitation by Author Subject(s): World Trade Center Tragedy (9/11/2001); Innocence; New York City - Terrorist Attack, 9/11 ACCOMPLISHMENT First Line: What not to do for him Last Line: He had prepared himself %with that dead face AFTER THE CHINESE Poem Text First Line: By daybreak a north wind has shaken Last Line: Prefers a north wind Subject(s): Wind AFTER THE CHINESE First Line: By daybreak a north wind has shaken Last Line: Is as stubborn as me, and my tartar horse %prefers a north wind ALL DAY THE LIGHT IS CLEAR First Line: Today I wished without mercy Subject(s): Longing AMPLITUDE First Line: Twice this christmas day you tried ANATOMY OF A KISS First Line: This impersonation of an unbitten apple, how Last Line: Love, this is our night sky with its sleeping child %and its buoyant white sash. %lift your deep han ANNIVERSARY First Line: If the sun could walk into a room Last Line: Overflowing eye closed over us APPARITION Recitation by Author Subject(s): Ghosts; Death - Children; Family Life; Death - Babies; Relatives AS IF HE WERE FREE Poem Text First Line: Shahid so beautifully brwon he is silk Last Line: In the blue tatters of the poet Subject(s): Kent State University - Riot, 1970 AS IF HE WERE FREE First Line: Shahid so beautifully brwon he is silk Last Line: An occasional tone added which does not belong, offered %in the blue tatters of the poet Subject(s): Kent State University - Riot, 1970 AS IF IT HAPPENED First Line: She was brought up manly for a woman ASHTRAY First Line: Since his death, so many things shot into the world Last Line: The stench of his death is embedded in it. He %who was so faithful, so stubborn, so consumed AT THE-PLACE-OF-SADNESS First Line: I take a photo of the stone buddha Last Line: The difference between %a spirit and a body BACKDROP WITH LOVERS, 1931 First Line: She's wearing a cotton dress BALLAD OF BALLYMOTE First Line: We stopped at her hut Last Line: Cabbage and bones, she said. Cabbage %and bones Subject(s): Social Problems BEFORE First Line: Before they lowered the stones over Last Line: I am helplessly forgetting %as I mix each death %beyond itself into a moment %only to taste, to swal BEGINNING TO SAY NO First Line: Is not to offer so much as a fist, is BEHAVE First Line: Central word of my childhood Last Line: I knew to take a breath from the carnation %before giving it to stone BEHIND WHICH THERE IS AN EXPANSE PAST THE WORLD First Line: When it's time to come into her Last Line: You're inside. And so is %the world Subject(s): Erotic Love BIRD-WINDOW-FLYING First Line: If we had been given names to love Last Line: Wings of my house are burning. The flames %of me, the long hair %unbraiding BLACK MONEY Poem Text First Line: His lungs heaving all day in a sulphur mist Last Line: Ther deep globe of his eye Subject(s): Industry; Labor & Laborers; Work; Workers BLACK MONEY First Line: His lungs heaving all day in a sulphur mist Last Line: The kino maru pulls out for seattle, %some black star climbing %the deep globe of his eye Subject(s): Industry; Labor And Laborers BLACK PUDDING Poem Text First Line: Even then I knew it was the old unanswerable form of beauty Last Line: Don’t ask me now why I’m walking my horse Subject(s): Love BLACK PUDDING First Line: Even then I knew it was the old unanswerable form of beauty Last Line: Don't ask me now why I'm walking my horse BLACK SHIPS First Line: I saw it was no good, that she Last Line: White bird, that flew once, but not again %into the bell tower when the hour was ripe BLACK SILK Poem Text First Line: She was cleaning — there is always clothing & dress; identity; Last Line: Other mind, and stood still Subject(s): Loss; Memory BLACK SILK First Line: She was cleaning - there is always Last Line: To go to her, I thought, with that %other mind, and stood still BLACK VALENTINE First Line: I run the comb through his lush hair Last Line: His passage, was dead or living BLACK VIOLETS First Line: If I say 'black violets' our first night Last Line: For this new-made heart to open us in blood-darkness %into its farthest chamber Subject(s): Love BLUE GRAPES First Line: Eating blue grapes Last Line: No world, no meeting. Only %tremors, sweetness %on the tongue BOAT RIDE First Line: Since my girlhood, in that small boat Last Line: If you are such a boat, tell me %we did not falter in the vastness %when we walked ashore BONFIRE First Line: The inflections of joy. The inflections of BORROWED ONES First Line: We, the old children, are now old again BREASTS First Line: The day you came BREEZE First Line: Don't you think I'm tired of tragedy Last Line: How happily they rustle, tossed there %on the tall grass CALM First Line: We were walking through the bees CANDLE, LAMP, & FIREFLY First Line: How can I think what thoughts Last Line: When the eyes open on similar worlds %and you are dead in myliving? CHERRY BLOSSOMS First Line: Chekhov wanting to write about the wave of Last Line: Could they be put back %onto our bare branches CHILD SINGING First Line: Where were we going? Destination always fades Last Line: There was singing. We never %reached home Subject(s): Children; Singing And Singers; Travel CHOICES Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: I go to the mountain side Last Line: "where a mountain / Subject(s): Nature CLEARING First Line: The limbs are caught in each other CLOSE TO ME NOW First Line: Through low valley mist Last Line: If only to say: this body! The mist CLOUDY SHOULDERS OF THE HORSES First Line: We have thought of our horse, to take Last Line: Above us, from the drifing shoudlders %of the horses COATS First Line: They made you complicated COLD CRESCENT First Line: Walking idly through the shops on the wharf Last Line: And made to sleep again on earth COMING HOME Poem Text First Line: As usual, I was desperate Last Line: That is a whip, a longing? Subject(s): Alcoholism & Alcoholics; Drunkards; Alcohol Abuse COMING HOME First Line: As usual, I was desperate Last Line: That is a whip, a longing? Subject(s): Alcoholics And Alcoholism CONVERSATION WITH A FIREMAN FROM BROOKLYN Poem Text First Line: He offers, between planes, / to buy me a drink. I've never talked Last Line: "who want to love you, to love you, / Subject(s): Firefighters; Sexism CONVERSATION WITH A FIREMAN FROM BROOKLYN First Line: He offers, between planes, %to buy me a drink. I've never talked Last Line: Who want to love you, to love you, %love you Subject(s): Firefighters; Sexism CORONA First Line: Personable shadow, you follow me into this CORPSE CRADLE First Line: Nothing hurts her like that, the extravagance Last Line: Wherein she drifted, drifts, slow and white, %deeply asking,deep with its dark below COUGAR MEAT First Line: Carried this morning in the dodge and swoop COWS, A VISION First Line: Some monster bird, the barn CRAZY MENU First Line: Last of his toothpaste, last of his wheat chex, last Subject(s): Carver, Raymond (1939-1988); Food & Eating; Grief; Love - Marital; Sorrow; Sadness; Wedded Love; Marriage - Love CRAZY MENU First Line: Last of his toothpaste, last of his wheat chex, last Last Line: Every artery and nerve of us, into the rest %of our commemorative lives Subject(s): Carver, Raymond (1939-1988); Food And Eating; Grief; Love - Marital CREPES FLAMBEAU Poem Text First Line: We are three women eating out Last Line: Spotted horses in the frame Subject(s): Texas CREPES FLAMBEAU First Line: We are three women eating out Last Line: We are too happy, too %glad in the pioneer decor: rough boards, %spotted horses in the frame Subject(s): Texas CROCE E DELIZIA AL COR First Line: Remember, and already the lapse in DEAF POEM Poem Text First Line: Don’t read this one out loud. It isn’t Last Line: A poem missing even the language / it is unwritten in Subject(s): Poetry & Poets DEAF POEM First Line: Don't read this one out loud. It isn't Last Line: A poem missing even the language %it is unwritten in DEATH OF THE HORSES BY FIRE Poem Text Recitation First Line: We have seen a house in the sleeping time Last Line: And called to each other to save them Subject(s): Horses; Death - Animals DEATH OF THE HORSES BY FIRE First Line: We have seen a house in the sleeping town Last Line: They stood in the last of their skies %and called to each other to save them DEVOTION: THAT IT FLOW; THAT THERE BE CONCENTRATION First Line: My friend keeps kissing me goodbye, the kisses Last Line: The sleeping woman stays with the train, sleeping on %grave and constant as the silent towns arrive DIM HOUSE, BRIGHT FACE Poem Text First Line: She still cries over that dead child Last Line: The ones who can't know yet what living was Subject(s): Death - Children; Death - Babies DIM HOUSE, BRIGHT FACE First Line: She still cries over that dead child DISAPPEARANCES IN THE GUARDED SECTOR Poem Text First Line: When we stop where you lived, the house Last Line: We will both come back Subject(s): Belfast, Northern Ireland DISAPPEARANCES IN THE GUARDED SECTOR First Line: When we stop where you lived, the house DOGS OF BUCHAREST First Line: Their invisible city of cries and threats Last Line: And turn our backs to the windows DUSKY GLOW AT GLENSTAUGHEY First Line: Hefting turf onto the cart Last Line: Strange, like figures crowded off the edge %of memory EACH BIRD WALKING Poem Text First Line: Not while, but long after he had told me Last Line: "I said, ""that’s good, that’s enough."" " Subject(s): Old Age EACH BIRD WALKING First Line: Not while, but long after he had told me Last Line: I said, 'that's good, that's enough Subject(s): Old Age EATING THE SPARROWS First Line: A platter of walnuts, I think Last Line: You message is clear it is not too late %for my singing EBONY First Line: I need these dark waves pulsing in my sleep Last Line: The gray, the green in my black EMANATION OF THE RED CHILD Poem Text First Line: Child that never existed Last Line: "what can’t be Subject(s): Children; Childhood EMBERS First Line: He was suffering from too much light Last Line: Shows through. Not speaking, but the glow %of that we spoke EVEN NOW YOU ARE LEAVING Poem Text First Line: Not to let ourselves know Last Line: Ruined and terrible in a face / even now you are leaving Subject(s): Alcoholism & Alcoholics; Drunkards; Alcohol Abuse EVEN NOW YOU ARE LEAVING First Line: Not to let ourselves know Last Line: Even now you are leaving Subject(s): Alcoholics And Alcoholism EVER AFTER First Line: Exactly like a rain cloud FABLE OF A KISS First Line: I was lonely. Very shortly Last Line: As the ceremony of the ever-unloved heart %unfolds, contracts, unfolds FATHOMLESS First Line: The peacock has eaten the poison orchid Last Line: Have broken unruly, and fall softly %through the eye FIRESTARTER Recitation by Author Subject(s): Fathers FOREST SHE WAS TRYING TO SAY First Line: The angel wings of the hemlock Last Line: Down and be that other wild FOUR DANCERS AT AN IRISH WEDDING First Line: It was too simple and too right FRESH STAIN First Line: I don't know now if it was kindness -- we do Last Line: Going into the house to change his shirt FROM DREAD IN THE EYES OF HORSES First Line: Eggs. Dates and camel's milk Last Line: Worlds above it and farther, shrill, obsidian, %the high feasting of the horses FROM MOSS-LIGHT TO HOPPER WITH LOVE First Line: Or as a woman fond of wearing hats opined: 'chic chapeau!' Last Line: Modigliani brows GLOW First Line: Those japanese women waiting, waiting Last Line: That the cold light on the backs of my hands %belonged most to me GREY EYES First Line: When she speaks it is like coming onto a grave Last Line: Some bees %were dying on my wing--humming %so you could hardly hear HAIRBRUSHING First Line: He called it his, this mane I'd kept Last Line: Any blackened flame, closing me %there too. And not HANDS OF THE BLINDMAN First Line: In the square room HARMLESS STREETS First Line: Many times a last time I will look %into this room like walking Last Line: Who may not be counted, womb %of your secret shame and silences: %companion, mourner, thief HE WOULD HAVE First Line: To speak for him is to leave a breath Last Line: As its topped crown washed clean of the past and %the future HIS SHINING HELMET; ITS HORSEHAIR CREST First Line: I was reading the novel HORSE IN THE DRUGSTORE First Line: Wants to be admired HUG First Line: A woman is reading a poem on the street Last Line: When I walk away. When I try to find some place %to go back to Subject(s): Strangers I DON'T KNOW YOU First Line: And you don't know me Last Line: Yes, let's agree also %not to believe in the soul I HAVE NEVER WANTED TO MARCH First Line: Or to wear an epaulet. Once I did Subject(s): Politics & Government; War I HAVE NEVER WANTED TO MARCH First Line: Or to wear an epaulet. Once I did Last Line: To save its children from the burning house Subject(s): Politics; War I PUT ON MY NEW SPRING ROBE First Line: Yamato takeru-no-mikoto, samurai hero of the kojiki Last Line: Whitebird, that's what I call you in my dreams of flying I SAVE YOUR COAT, BUT YOU LOSE IT LATER First Line: It was not a coat worth keeping even with Last Line: Your coat, which, stolen or lost, did not belong %to me, which I never wore I STOP WRITING THE POEM Poem Text Recitation First Line: To fold the clothes. No matter who lives Last Line: Watching to see how it's done Subject(s): Housewives; Poetry & Poets; Women I STOP WRITING THE POEM First Line: To fold the clothes. No matter who lives Last Line: Standing next to her mother %watching to see how it's done Subject(s): Housewives; Poetry And Poets; Women I TAKE CARE OF YOU: A LANTERN DASHES BY IN THE GRASS First Line: Already there is a rhythm to keep Last Line: This. We are a long way off and covered up. %someone is coming to see us IF BLOOD WERE NOT AS POWERFUL AS IT IS First Line: From the open market with its tangy smell IF POETRY WERE NOT A MORALITY Poem Text First Line: I'm the kind of woman who Last Line: As joy, as more horses than we need Subject(s): Music & Musicians; Horses; Grandparents; Grandmothers; Grandfathers; Great Grandfathers; Great Grandmothers IF POETRY WERE NOT A MORALITY First Line: I'm the kind of woman who IF THIS NEW LOVE ENDS First Line: Someone to follow him? I don't think so Last Line: As anything offered to coexist %with the unreplaceable IN MACEIO First Line: She gave me the flowers IN THAT TIME WHEN IT WAS NOT THE FASHION First Line: When the daughters came for me Last Line: And unfinished. Keep watch for me. %I will have children to give away INCOMPREHENSIBLY First Line: My friend is back from cairo Last Line: Part. Only that it is precious and that I love %this run-down subject INFINITE ROOM First Line: Having lost future with him Last Line: What you thought was nothing INSTRUCTIONS TO THE DOUBLE First Line: So now it's your turn %little mother of silences, little Last Line: Could die out there. You %could live forever INTO THE KNOWN First Line: A corpse has walked across my shadow KIDNAPER Poem Text First Line: He motions me over with a question Last Line: You must have given me up Subject(s): Alcoholism & Alcoholics; Drunkards; Alcohol Abuse KIDNAPER First Line: He motions me over with a question Last Line: You must have given me up' Subject(s): Alcoholics And Alcoholism KISS WITHOUT A BODY First Line: You think I don't know life Last Line: If it had two voices, this one %and the one that would answer %if it could KISSES FROM THE INSIDE First Line: He has invented a way of guiding Last Line: And I have never seen the sea KISSING THE BLINDMAN Last Line: We roll and roll into the echo's %last chamber KNEELING ONE First Line: I was taking the little needed, not more Last Line: I said, and there I will kneel %and kneel down for a while KNOTTED LETTER First Line: There is that getting worse at saying Last Line: The poem was her only face LEGACY First Line: Your eyes close where the horse Last Line: Almost nothing. I have left you %my horse LEGEND WITH SEA BREEZE First Line: When you died I wanted at least to ring Last Line: By chariots. I just want to ride my black horse, %to see where he goes LIE DOWN WITH THE LAMBS Recitation by Author Subject(s): Lambs LIGHT THAT WORKS ITSELF INTO THE MIND First Line: If the fish could only half-swim Last Line: That had been their most silent body LIKE THE SIGH OF WOMEN'S HAIR First Line: The horse stands under my window Last Line: The horse took us down to the sea %and he wouldn't say more LILIANA First Line: The pressed flowers we gathered Last Line: I close these words against--mine to belfast, %yours to bucharest LINOLEUM Poem Text First Line: There are the few we hear of Last Line: "and begin where I stand, Subject(s): Conduct Of Life; Religion; Theology LINOLEUM First Line: There are the few we hear of %like christ, who, with divine grace Last Line: Of the saints, I take up my broom %and begin where I stand, %with linoleum LITTLE INVITATION IN A HUSHED VOICE First Line: Even birds help %each other. Come Last Line: Close. Closer. %help me %kiss you LOVE POEM TO BE READ TO AN ILLITERATE FRIEND Poem Text First Line: I have had to write this down Last Line: "which must find you Subject(s): Forgiveness; Clemency LOVE POEM TO BE READ TO AN ILLITERATE FRIEND First Line: I have to write this down LYNX LIGHT First Line: The quilt has slipped Last Line: Through a transparent net of birdsong MAGENTA VALENTINE First Line: Today my love feels italian, reminiscent of Last Line: My heart surges blackly. Knows other likelihoods MEETING First Line: My name is not my own MEETING BEYOND MEETING First Line: There is threat of you here as the sea Last Line: How much needs crushing MESSAGE FOR THE SINECURIST First Line: The poet of nouns has left my attic MONOLOGUE AT THE CHINOOK BAR AND GRILL First Line: A man who lost both legs, nevermind MOON CROSSING BRIDGE First Line: If I stand a long time by the river Last Line: That joining I was certain of MOTORING TOWARD SEATTLE, KISS CONSIDERS CAPITAL PUNISHMENT First Line: The radio talk-host cheeps sexless Last Line: Upon the boatman with an oarlock MY MOTHER REMEMBERS THAT SHE WAS BEAUTIFUL First Line: The falling snow has made her thoughtful NER, AS ALL THT IS LOST First Line: What are we now, who were two unsynchronized eyelids Last Line: With its feet under our feet NO FINGERTIPS First Line: All day the cat has behaved strangely, pausing Last Line: He's in, I think. In NORTHWEST BY NORTHWEST First Line: Our stones are subtle here, a lavender that is Last Line: Exited. Requiring pleasure to revolve %outside its answer NOT A SPARROW Poem Text First Line: Just when I think the buddhists Last Line: Keeps right on flying Subject(s): Birds; Death; Dead, The NOT THERE First Line: One whistle, a short husky breath-- Last Line: I don't go out. These %are the moments when we meet NOW THAT I AM NEVER ALONE Poem Text First Line: In the bath I look up and see the brown moth Last Line: Your watch-fire, your killing light Subject(s): Solitude; Loneliness NOW THAT I AM NEVER ALONE First Line: In the bath I look up and see the brown moth Last Line: Fluttering I make of you as you have made of me %your watch-fire, your killing light ON YOUR OWN Poem Text First Line: How quickly the postures shift Last Line: The benefit of a strenuous doubt Subject(s): Alcoholism & Alcoholics; Drunkards; Alcohol Abuse ON YOUR OWN First Line: How quickly the postures shift Last Line: Solitary, the best love always %the benefit of a strenuous doubt Subject(s): Alcoholics And Alcoholism ONE KISS First Line: A man was given one kiss, one Last Line: How much longer will the night need to be OPEN FIRE NEAR A SHED First Line: In the cab there was a song ORANGE SUTRA Poem Text First Line: I wanted to take you in, peel and all Last Line: And upright at once Subject(s): Oranges OWL-SPIRIT DWELLING First Line: Especially what matters, this being america Last Line: Which repeats two distances until the moon, even that %goes down with it and the word 'solace,' only PAINTED STEPS First Line: I was coming down the wide, painted steps Last Line: Small hearth flickering %along the trees ahead PARADISE First Line: Morning and the night uncoupled Last Line: It is silky membrane and shining %even to the closed eye PARADISE First Line: He always liked to pour his darkness into Last Line: It is using to scratch houses into the dirt, it is a silky %membrane and shining even to %the closed PHOTOGRAPH OF A LIGHTHOUSE THROUGH FOG First Line: I said: dark voyage, I am deeply wounded PICKING BONES First Line: Emiko here from tokyo in her red dress Last Line: Ourselves up from the low black table, from %the ivory clicking POEM IN TRANSLATION First Line: After years smuggling poems POSTHUMOUS VALENTINE First Line: You want me to know I'm keeping memories Last Line: Composed enough for two PRESENT First Line: She could hold me with stories, even QUIVER First Line: I am even younger now than you, for a while Last Line: She keeps and keeps, and is a grove carefully %worked upon RAIN-SOAKED VALENTINE First Line: As if some child, unwilling to shut even Last Line: Doesn't care if I am moonlight. Just arriving %is candor, is courting READING ALOUD First Line: When the light was shutting down on you Last Line: Adding darkness, adding the words mother, father, %and no one answers back READING THE WATERFALL First Line: Those pages he turned down in peaks Last Line: For the dead, unaware that our slender thirst %is unquenchable RED POPPY Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: That linkage of warnings sent a tremor through june Last Line: To bend and take Subject(s): Death; Dead, The RED POPPY First Line: The linkage of warnings sent a tremor through june Last Line: To give and also most needfully, my gallant hussar, to bend and take REDWING Poem Text First Line: The readers of poetry, the writers of Last Line: Of the monster Subject(s): Native Americans; Birds; Indians Of America; American Indians; Indians Of South America REDWING First Line: The readers of poetry, the writers of REFUSING SILENCE Poem Text First Line: Heartbreak trembling Last Line: For? What use / are we? REFUSING SILENCE First Line: Heartbeat trembling RHODODENDRONS First Line: Like porches they trust their attachments RIJL Poem Text First Line: To be a child named after a star Last Line: I'm burning up Subject(s): Stars RIJL First Line: To be a child named after a star RING First Line: Not the one he's wearing in that stopped length Last Line: Close around the finger on his new-made hand RITUAL OF MEMORIES First Line: When your widow had left the graveside SAD MOMENTS First Line: That less than torment you lived so fully Last Line: Vulnerable as he was, milder at the end than sleep SAH SIN Recitation by Author First Line: I found the hummingbird Subject(s): Hummingbirds; Death; Fame; Dead, The; Reputation SAME KISS AFTER MANY YEARS First Line: Like a cat haunting the familiar porch SEA INSIDE THE SEA First Line: How well he knows he must lift out Last Line: By the blackened tide of her hair %across no shore SECOND LANGUAGE First Line: Outside, the night is glowing SHE WIPES OUT TIME Recitation by Author Subject(s): Mothers; Alzheimer's Disease SHIRTS First Line: They would be shamed to see back at us Last Line: Wants pure maple syrup. He likes the pitcher %full. He can stand the sweetness SHORT HISTORY OF THE BETTER LIFE First Line: What we were doing then was making good company Last Line: For this is yes station and we all %got to get out here, got to get out %of the music SIMPLE SONATINA First Line: Something is dying, but without blood or SIXTEENTH ANNIVERSARY Recitation by Author Subject(s): Carver, Raymond (1939-1988) SKYLIGHTS First Line: In the night I get up and walk Last Line: And children. I alone am spared. %softly then, his footsteps SMALL GARDEN NEAR A FIELD Poem Text First Line: While any two are talking one Last Line: With the live birds still in it Subject(s): Death; Dead, The SMALL GARDEN NEAR A FIELD First Line: While any two are talking, one SNOWHEART First Line: In our houses, the snow keeps us SOME PAINFUL BUTTERFLIES PASS THROUGH First Line: I saw the old chinese men standing Last Line: The pleasure spreads, and the treasured %singing, and the little bursts %of flying SOME WITH WINGS, SOME WITH MANES First Line: Over the stone wall her hand comes Last Line: Cathedral windows,' she says, %and the razed light of her hands %falls over me SOUVENIR First Line: It is good to be unused, whole as discovery Last Line: Or disheveled into a second soul SPACIOUS ENCOUNTER First Line: What they cut away in braids from childhood Last Line: Dialogue, my remnant, my provision STAND IN First Line: She was practicing for her old age Last Line: With spittle and ruthless, renewable %forgetfulness STEPPING OUTSIDE First Line: Hearing of you, I never lost a brother STILL MOMENT AT SUN LAOGHAIRE First Line: You cross the ramp, its sure suspension STOPPING PLACE First Line: In those other rooms we may not be Last Line: One slow silhouette of breath %empties back STORY OF A CITIZEN First Line: Rain extravagantly that morning kept us STRANGE THANKSGIVING First Line: I don't know anyone at the table except Last Line: Like two moon-bright windows, seen after dark, across a field SUDDEN JOURNEY Poem Text First Line: Maybe I'm seven in the open field-- Last Line: Of all those who reach earth by falling Subject(s): Children; Rain; Childhood SUDDEN JOURNEY First Line: Maybe I'm seven in the open field-- Last Line: Running, running in the hard, cold plentitude %of all those who reach earth by falling Subject(s): Children; Rain SUGAR First Line: The restaurant's expensive and german, but SURGEON Poem Text First Line: He’s sketching the shape Last Line: Don’t talk to me of heaven Subject(s): Breast Cancer SURVIVAL OF A HEART First Line: So few particles of bodyhood engine TABLEAU VIVANT First Line: They think it's easy to be dead, those Last Line: After us, sorry, sorry, sorry, and we don't %look back TAWNY EQUILIBRIUM First Line: To gaze so, with the green caress Last Line: Are captive, prolonged by harmony %outside our grasp THAT KIND OF THING First Line: I'm ready to climb into the shower THE BALLAD OF BALLYMOTE Poem Text First Line: We stopped at her hut Last Line: “cabbage and bones,” she said. “cabbage and bones.” Subject(s): Social Problems; Ireland THE HUG Poem Text First Line: A woman is reading a poem on the street Last Line: To go back to Subject(s): Strangers THE WOMEN OF AUSCHWITZ Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Were not treated so well as I. Last Line: To work a miracle with everything left to her Subject(s): Women; Concentration Camps; Hair THEIR HEADS BENT TOWARD EACH OTHER LIKE FLOWERS First Line: Those who hold themselves above suicide THIEVES AT THE GRAVE First Line: Now that snow has fallen I have been to you Last Line: By another snow: how did we live so well before %with nothing missing? THINGS ARE ONLY THINGS First Line: We are walking, my love and I, near anchorage Last Line: Worn me like a pocket, worn me and %tossed me down like a thing TIME LAPSE WITH TULIPS First Line: That kiss meant to sear my heart forever TRACE, IN UNISON First Line: Terrible, the rain. All night, rain Last Line: And where we had lain, %an arctic light steady %in the mind's releasing TWO LOCKED SHADOWS First Line: Their joining is the way a buried self Last Line: My white cheekbones %expressionless TWO OF ANYTHING First Line: That small tug, which at first seems Last Line: I guess not, one of us said UN EXTRANO First Line: Light begins. Snow begins Last Line: My adorno, el novillito. Don't %begin. Don't ever begin UNANSWERED LETTER First Line: Your silence is leaning toward judgement Last Line: Blurred suddenly by a sighting of gravestones, %before you are driven %through the underpass UNDER STARS Poem Text First Line: The sleep of this night deepens Last Line: By all I touch on the way Subject(s): Separation UNDER STARS First Line: The sleep of this night deepens Last Line: Am the found one, intimate, returned %by all I touch on the way UNSTEADY YELLOW First Line: I went to the field to break Last Line: On my shoulder when we ome to %the field, to the high yellowfield? VALENTINE DELIVERED BY A RAVEN First Line: Its beak is red and it has a battlefield-look Last Line: And I am cinnabar and fog in the doorway VIEW FROM AN EMPTY CHAIR First Line: Late afternoon light between peach trees Last Line: And aslant. We brighten once before %the house drops over us WAKE Poem Text First Line: Three nights you lay in our house Last Line: Of the abandoned world Subject(s): Wakes WAKE First Line: Three nights you lay in our house Last Line: And afloat on the strange broad canopy %of the abandoned world WE'RE ALL PHARAOHS WHEN WE DIE First Line: Our friends die with us %and the sky too Last Line: With our faint world painted over them WHAT CATHAL SAID First Line: You can sing sweet %and get the song sung Last Line: That the notes slip. Then %something else happens. The song %gets large WHEN YOU SPEAK TO ME First Line: Take care when you speak to me %I might listen, I might Last Line: Which is to hear %after you the fever %inside the words we say %apart, the words we say so hard %the WHILE I SIT IN A SUNNY PLACE First Line: Tame love that remembers a birthday Last Line: To leap over a rose. Like a rose with its leaping %above it WHITE KISS First Line: He loves like a married man Last Line: The golden tails of the tigers. %the switching of the golden tails WHY DO THEY TALK SEX TO ME? First Line: The men are always young and virile, hurrying Last Line: Here's a quarter. Here's two. The nights are long. %hes, I'mlistening. See what you can find WHY WE DON'T REMEMBER THE FUTURE First Line: January and no shadows so the ghosts come out Last Line: Where we aren't. Send me a postcard, I say. %something short and jazzy Subject(s): Change; Future; Memory WILLINGLY Poem Text First Line: When I get up he has been long at work, Last Line: What has been done with your life, willingly Subject(s): Conduct Of Life WILLINGLY First Line: When I get up he has been long at work Last Line: You. You think you have agreed to this, %what has been done with your life, willingly WITH STARS First Line: My mother speaks from the dark - why WOMAN WHO RAISED GOATS First Line: Dear ones, in those days it was otherwise WOMAN-ENOUGH First Line: Figures on a silent screen WOMEN'S TUG OF WAR AT LOUGH ARROW First Line: In a borrowed field they dig in their feet Subject(s): Sports WOMEN'S TUG OF WAR AT LOUGH ARROW First Line: In a borrowed field they dig in their feet Subject(s): Sports WOODCUTTING ON LOST MOUNTAIN Poem Text First Line: Our father is three months dead Last Line: Is where you are Subject(s): West (u.s.); Women; Southwest; Pacific States WOODCUTTING ON LOST MOUNTAIN First Line: Our father is three months dead Last Line: Here, walk for yourself. We're home' Subject(s): West (u.s.); Women WORDS WRITTEN NEAR A CANDLE Poem Text First Line: If I could begin anything Last Line: I am with you Subject(s): Forgiveness; Clemency WORDS WRITTEN NEAR A CANDLE First Line: If I could begin anything WORTH IT OR NOT? First Line: She tried to think of all those Last Line: The moment alive with two sides %of one sure thing YES First Line: Now we are like that flat cone of sand Last Line: To use your dark, to gleam, to shimmer? %I gleam. I mourn YOU TALK ON YOUR TELEPHONE; I TALK ON MINE First Line: If you had flown here in a jet Last Line: In the dark, a light going on, warm yellow, a body %moving in speech, restless near the pumps YOUR HANDS, WHICH I LOVE TO KISS First Line: He laughed and took me by the wrists Last Line: I look into your eyes, %by which my green gaze quivers %and I am unafraid ZERO First Line: Stupid tranquility, to be most sure |
|