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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: GRAHAM, JORIE Matches Found: 259 Graham, Jorie Poet's Biography 259 poems available by this author 2/18/1997 First Line: Of my life which I am supposed to give back %afterwards Last Line: Leave me the thing that cannot be thought -- I will not %think it 5/3/1998 First Line: When do I say yes %and it become again a form of joy? Last Line: Then where they take one chair %away A FEATHER FOR VOLTAIRE Poem Text First Line: The bird is an alphabet, it flies Last Line: And this is the key to the kingdom Subject(s): Birds; Feathers ACT 3, SC. 2 First Line: Look she said this is not the distance Last Line: Then just the look on things of being looked-at. %then just the look on things of being seen ACT III, SC. 2Ï»¿ Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Look she said this is not the distance Subject(s): Relationships AFTERWARDS First Line: I am beneath the tree. To the right the river is melting the young sun Last Line: Begin with the world: let it be small enough AGAINST ELOQUENCE First Line: Then there was the sense of a vectored landing - very fast Last Line: What is the void once it is forced to cross through fire? AGE OF REASON First Line: The anxious bird in the wild Last Line: Blossoms, wet black arms there is no deep enough ANNUNCIATION First Line: She's not sure she can hear it outside of the daylight ANNUNCIATION WITH A BULLET IN IT: 1. First Line: There is a doorway in the air, a graduation Last Line: Though seething with little facts- %a doorway of little facts seething ANNUNCIATION WITH A BULLET IN IT: 10. First Line: Rachel is coughing up badly Last Line: In the past we have always found %some kind of solution ANNUNCIATION WITH A BULLET IN IT: 11. First Line: The little baby born yesterday Last Line: And handed over to %the blockalteste ANNUNCIATION WITH A BULLET IN IT: 12. First Line: ...Lord, the oberscharfuhrer will choose me, I know Last Line: Have mercy. %the cold dead body I cannot touch ANNUNCIATION WITH A BULLET IN IT: 13. First Line: Said the angel, %I have analyzed thousands of documents Last Line: If one loses those means %fear not ANNUNCIATION WITH A BULLET IN IT: 14. First Line: Once in this room Last Line: Why are you reading in the dark?- %it's night, darling; it's dinnertime ANNUNCIATION WITH A BULLET IN IT: 15. First Line: The second night the dog woke up Last Line: The whirring like an appetite - an engine's %appetite - fear not ANNUNCIATION WITH A BULLET IN IT: 16. First Line: And the third night? And the fourth? And then? And Last Line: Then? ANNUNCIATION WITH A BULLET IN IT: 17. First Line: Oh but here is a piece of bread,' said chicha Last Line: You must not think I took it from myself- %I really am not hungry ANNUNCIATION WITH A BULLET IN IT: 2. First Line: You must find it Last Line: Jingling his name-and-registration %by mistake ANNUNCIATION WITH A BULLET IN IT: 3. First Line: Like a crust on something, that sky Last Line: Witching on- %moonlight on fur and fingers in it, caressing ANNUNCIATION WITH A BULLET IN IT: 4. First Line: Fear not says the angel Last Line: In it the soft jingling of a chain, %a chatter of wheels upon tracks ANNUNCIATION WITH A BULLET IN IT: 5. First Line: Then she said, it is sunday may 28 my birthday Last Line: Anyone not up a 4 a.M. Will get a kugel. %a bullet simply for not getting up? ANNUNCIATION WITH A BULLET IN IT: 6. First Line: Mother's face, her eyes, cannot be described Last Line: I am silently pleading with her: stop smiling. %I gaze at her tenderly and smile back ANNUNCIATION WITH A BULLET IN IT: 7. First Line: Six months, four of us are still alive Last Line: This day the oven has been cheated of our %precious sister ANNUNCIATION WITH A BULLET IN IT: 8. First Line: We touch each other Last Line: The germans look like things we have seen before. %we are not sure they are real ANNUNCIATION WITH A BULLET IN IT: 9. First Line: We are marching in the blizzard Last Line: Sooner or later she is taken to the crematorium. %it is a constant struggle ARTICHOKE FOR MONTESQUIEU First Line: Its petals do not open of their own accord. That is our part Last Line: What we could have done locks to the very core %with what we have AT LUCA SIGNORELLI'S RESURRECTION OF THE BODY Poem Text First Line: See how they hurry Last Line: The open flesh / and mend itself Subject(s): Bodies; Signorelli, Luca (1445-1523); Paintings & Painters AT LUCA SIGNORELLI'S RESURRECTION OF THE BODY First Line: See how they hurry to enter Last Line: The open flesh and mend itself AT THE CABARET NOW First Line: The americans are lonely. They don't know what happened Last Line: Tell me, %why did we live, lord? %blood in a wind, %why were we meant to live? AT THE LONG ISLAND JEWISH GERIATRIC HOME First Line: This is the sugar Last Line: Or mind nothing can slit her %free of BOULEVERSEMENT First Line: The apparently sudden appearance of %blossoming-out afresh, out of reach Last Line: Thinking %wanted that so. And that it strived BREAKDANCING Poem Text First Line: Staying alive the boy on the screen is doing it Subject(s): Dancing & Dancers; Religion; Teresa, Saint (1515-1582); Theology; Teresa Of Jesus, Saint; Teresa Of Avila, Saint; Theresa, Saint BREAKDANCING First Line: Staying alive the boy on the screen is doing it Last Line: Turning into the living past Subject(s): Dancing And Dancers; Religion; Teresa, Saint (1515-1582) CHAOS First Line: What is it shall be torn off and held up, hanging -- skin Last Line: Birds everywhere. Chatter in the upper branches Variant Title(s): Detail From The Creatio CONCERNING THE RIGHT TO LIFE First Line: As I rounded the corner - noiselessly - as if wide unseeable Variant Title(s): The Right To Life Subject(s): Columbus, Christopher (1451-1506); Explorers; Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews; Mary. Mother Of Jesus; Women; Women In The Bible; Exploring; Discovery; Discoverers; Shoah; Judaism; Virgin Mary CONCERNING THE RIGHT TO LIFE First Line: As I rounded the corner - noiselessly - as if wide unseeable Last Line: Rather the day is hot and the nights temperate %as in may in spain in andalusia Variant Title(s): The Right To Lif Subject(s): Columbus, Christopher (1451-1506); Explorers; Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews; Mary. Mother Of Jesus; Women; Women - Bible COVENANT First Line: She was being readied by forces she did not Last Line: We have been free now ever since, for instance DESCRIPTION First Line: Meet me, meet me whisper the waters from the train window and the small DETAIL FROM THE CREATION First Line: I'm in the bathroom holding the baby down Last Line: And how we say we can tell. We're sure we can tell from his face DETAIL FROM THE CREATION OF MAN First Line: Even at the start, even before they hatched Last Line: Ripple into pattern-you, you there-and the angel shuts his eyes %as far as if possible, further, and DRAWING WILDFLOWERS First Line: I use no colors, just number threes Last Line: Will not negotiate, and how I love %my black and white and the gray war they make DREAM OF THE UNIFED FIELD First Line: On my way to bringing you the leotard Last Line: Gold on her nose, which was a sign there was %gold %on that land DUSK SHORE PRAYER First Line: The creeping revelation of shoreline Last Line: At one's back. The path back barely findable EASTER MORNING AUBADE First Line: She tried to clench the first dawnlight inside her skull Last Line: For another perfect stone, wanting to see it once again, that opening EMBODIES Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Deep autumn & the mistake occurs, the plum tree blossoms, twelve EMERGENCY First Line: Walking in the dark along the river's dark Last Line: That she might love? END OF PROGRESS AUBADE First Line: Sleep. Sink. Don't let the ceiling in Last Line: Finally is free %of love EROSION First Line: I would not want, I think, a higher intelligence, one ERRANCY First Line: Then the cicadas again like kindling that won't take Last Line: Oh perpetual bloom, dread fatigue, and drowsiness like leavening I feel ESCHATOLOGICAL PRAYER First Line: In montefalco, italy ESTUARY First Line: She wondered about the year 1000. She Last Line: Where the river spills and sea is all EURYDICE ON HISTORY First Line: With what is said %in this dusk face me Last Line: Situation with situation %and the statue put there to persuade me EVENING PRAYER First Line: Someone has cut the grass. Someone has cut your tall %new grass, the sweetness Last Line: Girl shall clean it further, further, spill %the hollow from her, know her? Variant Title(s): Praye EVOLUTION First Line: My nakedness is very slow. %I call to it, I waste my sympathy Last Line: Where what wants to be human still won't show %its face EXPECTING Poem Text First Line: The balls are/ringing grammar Subject(s): Relationships EXPULSION First Line: In the cab, light plays down his neck from behind FEATHER FOR VOLTAIRE First Line: The bird is an alphabet, it flies Last Line: And this is the key to the kingdom FISSION First Line: The real electric lights light upon the full-sized screen Last Line: What you imagine the words say that is-don't move, don't %wreck the shroud, don't move FLOOD First Line: So in the cave of the winds he prisoned the north wind Last Line: And all whom the water has spared will now %begin %to starve FOR MY FATHER LOOKING FOR MY UNCLE Poem Text First Line: The clues are everywhere Subject(s): Fathers & Daughters FOR MY FATHER LOOKING FOR MY UNCLE First Line: The clues are everywhere Last Line: Until we believed there was another indoors, %assiduous, free, a small community, a dream with shutt Subject(s): Fathers And Daughters FOR ONE MUST WANT/TO SHUT THE OTHER'S GAZE Poem Text First Line: What are you thinking? Subject(s): Reason; Intellect; Rationalism; Brain; Mind; Intellectuals FOR ONE MUST WANT/TO SHUT THE OTHER'S GAZE First Line: What are you thinking? Last Line: The real plot was invsisible. %what are you thinking? Subject(s): Reason FROM SIR FRANCIS BACON'S NOVUM ORGANUM First Line: Let the first motion be that of the resistance of matter, which exists in Last Line: Cape, are repulsed, and again continue to make the attempt.... FROM THE NEW WORLD First Line: Has to do with the story about the girl who didn't die Last Line: Young body (before it's made to go back in) whispering please FROM THE REFORMATION JOURNAL First Line: It was during one of these times that %I felt the midst of its suffering Last Line: Even thrice if necessary' %as when feeling you watch my sleeping body FULL FATHOM Poem Text First Line: & sea swell, hiss of incomprehensible flat: distance: blue long-fingered ocean and its GEESE First Line: Today as I hang out the wash I see them again, a code Last Line: This astonishing decay, the everyday, takes place Subject(s): Geese GIRL AT THE PIANO Poem Text First Line: It begins, what I cn hear, with the rain withdrawing from itself Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives GUARDIAN ANGEL OF NOT FEELIBNG First Line: As where a wind blows Last Line: Mouthing and mouthing its crisp inaudible black zeros out GUARDIAN ANGEL OF POINT-OF-VIEW First Line: A mourning dove. And again what you suffer Last Line: No forwardness -- selfsame -- agin selfsame -- the path with the crumbs GUARDIAN ANGEL OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE First Line: How razor-clean was it supposed to become Last Line: Who will they resemble when they're done with resemblance? GUARDIAN ANGEL OF THE LITTLE UTOPIA First Line: Shall I move the flowers again? Last Line: With black leaves rearranging it GUARDIAN ANGEL OF THE PRIVATE LIFE First Line: All this was written on the next day's list Last Line: In your exhausted hand. Oh put it down GUARDIAN ANGEL OF THE SWARM First Line: Inclension of - (endogenous) Last Line: Come now, let us go GULLS First Line: Those neck-pointing out full bodylength and calling Last Line: Spilled in the service of kings, or love, or for the sake of honor, %or for some other reason HAYING First Line: Some meanings move HEADLIGHTS First Line: And then, you see, it's the last moment, the last, you can hardly keep HIGH TIDE First Line: She held a sign that said emergency (nothing else) Last Line: The unpayable: the open-ended credit: created: equal: look HISTORY Poem Text First Line: But in the myth, at the beginning of our world HISTORY First Line: So that I had to look up just now to see them Last Line: Halftone, no orchard of %possibilities, %up into the eyes of my own %fate not the world's. %the boug HISTORY First Line: But in the myth, at the beginning of our world Last Line: And if she's naked now, then wat is there to take off %next?%and then what will love do? Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews HISTORY First Line: Into whose ear the deeds are spoken. The only Last Line: Floor endure %to help us home? HOLY SHROUD First Line: Deadwinter our thornberry Last Line: Already something other than nothing %was visible in the almost HOW MORNING GLORIES COULD BLOOM AT DUSK Poem Text First Line: Left to itself the heart continues, as the tamarind Last Line: But no one said how slow, how willing Subject(s): Flowers; Morning Glories HOW MORNING GLORIES COULD BLOOM AT DUSK First Line: Left to itself the heart continues, as the tamarind Last Line: On its way out of the sky. %but no one said how slow, how willing Subject(s): Flowers; Morning Glories HUNGER First Line: 11:54 %thirteen fullest oranges pooling at the foot of %their tree Last Line: A truth not a symbol. Grip it in scrutiny HURRYING-HOME AUBADE First Line: A gust inside the god Last Line: And 'I' am poured out like water HYBRIDS OF PLANTS AND OF GHOSTS First Line: I understand tghat it is grafting Last Line: And if I break you are you mine I WAS TAUGHT THREE First Line: Names for the tree facing my window I WATCHED A SNAKE I WATCHED A SNAKE First Line: Hard at work in the dry grass Last Line: To sturdier stuff no doubt IMMOBILISM First Line: I couldn't think of what else to show you IMMOBILISM First Line: The eye in its socket sweeps over the withered field Last Line: It darts, it stretches out along the dry hard ground, %it cannot find the end, it darts, it stretche IMPERIALISM First Line: Noting but a shadow, lord, and hazy at that, at my feet Last Line: Pulsing sticky heat, fan on, overhead on, all arms no face at all dear god, all arms IN THE HOTEL Poem Text First Line: Whir. The invisible sponsored again by white Subject(s): Hotels; Inns; Innskeepers; Motels; Boarding Houses IN THE HOTEL First Line: Whir. The invisible sponsored again by white Last Line: In which you say yourself, in which you say %only yourself Subject(s): Hotels IN THE PASTURE Recitation by Author First Line: What am I supposed to put now Subject(s): Farm Life; Agriculture; Farmers IN THE PASTURE First Line: What am I supposed to put now Last Line: Down his wide throat Subject(s): Farm Life IN/SILENCE First Line: I try to hold my lie in mind Last Line: Blood in the hand that reaches for them flows JACKPOT First Line: Halfway through illinois on the radio JUST BEFORE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: At some point in the day, as such, there was a pool. Of KIMONO First Line: The woman on the other side LATER IN LIFE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Summer heat, the first early morning Subject(s): Seasons; Time; Communication LE MANTEAU DE PASCAL First Line: I have put on my great coat it is cold Last Line: That I saw clearly the impossibility of staying LITTLE REQUIEM First Line: The reason confiscated. The reason nowhere to be Last Line: Always and everywhere. How consent to that - honor LOOK UP First Line: Stillness - I posit you Last Line: The feel of light or a bird-- %is that dark or is that cold-- %nothing darling, it is nothing LOVE First Line: Here it's harvest. Dust Last Line: Was he moved %towards it LOVERS First Line: They have been staring at each other for a long time now MANIFEST DESTINY Poem Text First Line: Northbound, on the way to the station, through the narrow rutted Subject(s): Rome, Italy; Prisons & Prisoners; Language; Reality; Convicts; Words; Vocabulary MANIFEST DESTINY (1) First Line: Northbound, on the way to the station, through the narrow Last Line: Ready to change your name if need be--? MANIFEST DESTINY (2) First Line: She lifts the bullet out of the blazing case Last Line: Could not see %could not hold Subject(s): Prisons And Prisoners; Rome, Italy; Women MANTEAU First Line: In the fairy tale the sky Last Line: So full of hollowness, so wild with rhetoric MARRIAGE First Line: Not the flat light, still, against the wall this morning MARRIAGE First Line: I'm taking the ashes from the woodstove out Last Line: Softly she sang a bit then went upstairs Subject(s): Marriage MATERIALISM: 1. First Line: Looked for him %everywhere. Him Last Line: Inward, a not- %finding you can MATERIALISM: 10. First Line: Then open them again - no light - not Last Line: The whole cannot exist without the parts. %stay, stay MATERIALISM: 11. First Line: Then in the dark a sound - a whereabout Last Line: The one air everywhere bifurcated, slashed up into the selfsame story - sounds like, sounds like MATERIALISM: 12. First Line: And why are there Last Line: Asking of the question %is not just any MATERIALISM: 13. First Line: Then open your eyes Last Line: Think I think - the exhausted director yelling- %it being a thousand years before the birth of MATERIALISM: 14. First Line: And also, also, it is plain Last Line: Physical subtleties, %theological niceties - you see MATERIALISM: 15. First Line: -why %the why? What is Last Line: The only real %force, accordingly MATERIALISM: 16. First Line: On the stairs to the Last Line: As it crosses through, %drubbed silk electric with MATERIALISM: 17. First Line: It's that the dark seems to be composed Last Line: Can't say - and mended (whoosh) %muddled - (what want?) MATERIALISM: 18. First Line: And so that the owner Last Line: To account for them %at the day of judgment MATERIALISM: 19. First Line: If I were in Last Line: Put it in emma's %hand MATERIALISM: 2. First Line: And now, I said, behold Last Line: Converse with one another %would they not suppose MATERIALISM: 20. First Line: But are those voices? Why am I so slippery? Or is it sad? Last Line: Supposed %to take, what? MATERIALISM: 21. First Line: He put it into emma's hand MATERIALISM: 3. First Line: It not quite dawn yet Last Line: Yet - something powdery yet slick - the %continuum - she MATERIALISM: 4. First Line: She did not under Last Line: Whatever he was doing. %this was in the early part of MATERIALISM: 5. First Line: ...Then open them again - no light - something Last Line: Sprinkling over the green dark %but not materially, no, a dust of MATERIALISM: 6. First Line: But even when the Last Line: The person will suffer from %headache or become MATERIALISM: 7. First Line: ...No luminosity and yet a sheen Last Line: No green as yet, no bloom of %paths and possibilities - arcades, archways - no maze, no MATERIALISM: 8. First Line: And suppose further %that the prisoners Last Line: Fancy that the shadows %he formerly saw MATERIALISM: 9. First Line: It often seemed to leon Last Line: Situated at barnville, near %annale, which brought in MIND Poem Text First Line: The slow overture of rain, MIND First Line: The slow overture of rain Last Line: And all the richer for it MIRROR PRAYER Poem Text First Line: Here's where I lower you MISCELLANEOUS WEIGHTS AND MEASURES First Line: What carries the universal law as meaning secreted within itself Last Line: From another place. %don't forget MOTIVE ELUSIVE First Line: It turns out the child was not really watching Last Line: Do not fear for the child, %its gold is hid MY GARDEN, MY DELIGHT First Line: My neighbor brings me bottom fish Last Line: So that I can't refuse NEARING DAWN Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Sunbreak. The sky opens its magazine. If you look hard Subject(s): Conduct Of Life NETTING First Line: My father would have saved us, had the occasion fire arisen Last Line: Like gossip, or the smell of lilacs, or an overheard son: soon %everyone has caught it NOLI ME TANGERE Poem Text First Line: You see the angels have come to sit on the delay for a while Subject(s): Religion; Theology NOLI ME TANGERE First Line: You see the angels have come to sit on the delay for a while Last Line: Until you have to leave her be if all you have to touch her with is form Subject(s): Religion NOTES ON THE REALITY OF THE SELF (1) First Line: Watching the river, each handful of it closing over the next Last Line: Quick -- the evidence of the visual henceforth -- and henceforth, loosening NOTES ON THE REALITY OF THE SELF (2) First Line: In my bushes facing the bandpractice field Last Line: Its arctic course %themselves now sway OBLIVION AUBADE First Line: What dimensions must the defeat acquire, the homecoming Last Line: What was his name? How can he tell if he is mine? OF FORCED SIGHTES AND TRUSTY FEREFULNESS First Line: Stopless wind, here are the columbine seeds I have Last Line: Married to hurry and grim song OF THE EVER-CHANGING AGITATION IN THE AIR First Line: The man held his hands to his heart as he danced Last Line: Eyeing the spots where the birds must eventually land ON DIFFICULTY First Line: It's that they want to know whose they are ONE IN THE HAND First Line: A bird re-entering a bush Last Line: When you let go OPULENCE First Line: The self-brewing of the amaryllis rising before me Last Line: And no footprints to or from the place - %no footprints to or from -- ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE Poem Text First Line: Up ahead, I know, he felt it stirring in himself already, the glance Subject(s): Eurydice (nymph); Mythology - Classical; Orpheus ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE First Line: Up ahead, I know, he felt it stirring in himself already, the glance Last Line: For they were deep in the earth and what is possible swiftly%took hold Subject(s): Eurydice (nymph); Mythology - Classical; Orpheus OVER AND OVER STITCH First Line: Late in the season the world digs in, the fat blossoms Last Line: Marking a stillness we can't keep PENMANSHIP Poem Text First Line: Beyond the margin, in the mind, the winner gets it right Subject(s): Education; Schools; Students PENMANSHIP First Line: Beyond the margin, in the mind, the winner gets it right Last Line: Lilies, water %striders Subject(s): Education; Schools PHASE AFTER HISTORY: 1 First Line: Then two juncos trapped in the house this morning Last Line: The guest approves %by his beloved mansionry %that heaven's breath smells wooingly here PHASE AFTER HISTORY: 2 First Line: The police came and got stuart, brought him to Last Line: Before it rammed its lights out %aiming for the brightest spot, the only clue PHASE AFTER HISTORY: 3 First Line: Because it is the face Last Line: Those white hands waving and diving %in the water that is not there PHILOSOPHER'S STONE First Line: It's like this. There are quantities. There's on- %goingness Last Line: Seems bright yellow in its pitch PICNIC First Line: The light shone down taking the shape of each lie Last Line: Blacker shadows of spring now that the leaves are %opening, now that they're taking up %place Subject(s): Picnics PIETA First Line: #name? Last Line: Just sound, part of one sound, one endless sound - maybe a cry maybe a countdown, love POLLOCK AND CANVAS First Line: When he leaned down over Last Line: And I will take away mine hand and thou, thou....) Subject(s): Pollock, Jackson (1912-1956) POLLOCK AND CANVAS First Line: When he leaned down over Subject(s): Pollock, Jackson (1912-1956) PRAYER Poem Text First Line: Over a dock railing, I watch the minnows, thousands, swirl Subject(s): Freedom; Transience; Liberty; Impermanence PRAYER First Line: What of the quicksand %my desperate eye looking too hard Last Line: -- oh quickness -- like a drop. Swallow %rouse says the dark PRAYER ( FROM BEHIND TREES ) First Line: The branchful of dried leaves blown about at the center Last Line: How the new gods walk behind the old gods at the suitable distance RAVEL AND UNRAVEL First Line: So that it's right, isn't it, that she should come to love it best RAVEL AND UNRAVEL First Line: I think I understand today how she would come READING PLATO First Line: This is the story %of a beautiful Last Line: For the natural world RECOVERED FROM THE STORM First Line: I went out afterwards to see Last Line: I pick up and drag one large limb from the path RED UMBRELLA AUBADE First Line: On my way home I hear, somewhere near dawn Last Line: And then an aftertaste, as of ashes, in my mouth, from listening REGION OF UNLIKENESS First Line: You wake up and you don't know who it is there breathing Last Line: Up, something moving through the air now, something in the ground %that %waits RELATIVITY: A QUARTET First Line: During the slowdown we lost power Last Line: And then much later, like a dream, desolate, things being talked about REPUBLIC FOR WHICH WE STAND First Line: I go to the grave after a year has passed Last Line: Cherry limb %turns out to be a ROOM-TONE First Line: Turn around (wind in the sycamore). SALMON First Line: I watched them once, at dusk, on television, run Last Line: Smiling, faces pressed against the stone SALOME First Line: To start anywhere (that dance) SAN SEPOLCRO Poem Text First Line: In this blue light Subject(s): Paintings & Painters; Piero Della Francesca (1420-1492) SAN SEPOLCRO First Line: In this blue light Last Line: Finding all of the stops Subject(s): Paintings And Painters; Piero Della Francesca (1420-1492) SCANNING First Line: After the rain there was traffic behind us like a long kiss Last Line: Jacob dreamer -- the winged volumetrics chiseling-out a skull %for the dream SCIROCCO First Line: In rome, at 26 piazza di spagna Last Line: Which break in your hands SEA-BLUE AUBADE First Line: Dawn - or is it sea-blue - fills the square Last Line: Why is mother singing? SELF PORTRAIT First Line: Tap tap SELF-PORTRAIT AS APOLLO AND DAPHNE First Line: The truth is this had been going on for a long time during which SELF-PORTRAIT AS BOTH PARTIES First Line: The cut flowers riding the skin of this river SELF-PORTRAIT AS DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE First Line: So look I said this is the burning bush we're in it it has three faces SELF-PORTRAIT AS HURRY AND DELAY First Line: So that every night above them in her chambers she unweaves it Last Line: Beginning always beginning the ending as they go to sleep beneath her SELF-PORTRAIT AS THE GESTURE BETWEEN THEM First Line: The gesture like a fruit torn from a limb, torn swiftly SHADOW OF PETER First Line: Listen closely. Theses are not letters. They float Last Line: Come now, let us go SHORT HISTORY OF THE WEST First Line: Tap tap. %a blue sky. A sun and moon in it Last Line: And how she will not rise SHORT HISTORY OF THE WEST First Line: Tap tap Last Line: Or full of feeling--and the light she should rise %to switch on now, %and how she will not rise SO SURE OF NOWHERE BUYING TIMES TO COME First Line: I understood that there must have been Last Line: Laws and, up, up, wielding utter particularity in this pregnant bagfulness, and so on SOLITUDE First Line: The subject of mutability %fog hour tree (frogs) Last Line: Everyone knows apparently what must be %s.S: what the 'something' is. %ed: understood by that? SOUL SAYS First Line: To be so held by brittleness, shapeliness Last Line: The wave breaking, the wave drowning me in laughter SPELLED FROM THE SHADOWS AUBADE First Line: Trying to whisper life came back, the light came back Last Line: Running a bit %then clinging to a tree SPLIT TRACTATE First Line: But I feared that her soul didn't Last Line: In fact, when you wre most broken, %her heaven was you? SPOKEN FROM THE HEDGEROWS Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: To bring back a time and place. Subject(s): War SPRING First Line: When I caught sight of them, the secret lovers STEERING WHEEL Poem Text First Line: In the rear-view mirror I saw the veil of leaves Last Line: Things in the world, you must believe me Subject(s): Automobile Drivers; Leaves STEERING WHEEL First Line: In the rear-view mirror I saw the veil of leaves Last Line: Things in the world, you must believe me Subject(s): Automobile Drivers; Leaves STRANGERS First Line: The hand I placed on you, what if it Last Line: They're flowers because they stop where they do STROKE First Line: Of genius? How one wants to be other than being, how one wants to be Last Line: Embracing brutality and importance. Some joy. Some preliminary sketches STUDIES IN SECRECY Recitation by Author First Line: The secret we don't know we're trying to find, the thing unseen Subject(s): Love STUDIES IN SECRECY First Line: The secret we don't know we're trying to find, the thing unseen Last Line: The golden-headed, the upthrown - have invented happiness say the last men - %and blink Subject(s): Love SUNDOWN Poem Text First Line: Sometimes the day SURFACE First Line: It has a hole in it. Not only where I concentrate Last Line: The leaves very still as they are carried TAKEN-DOWN GOD First Line: You are not supposed to write in the presence so I can't really do Last Line: And down- %though only out once you go out this door TENNESSEE JUNE First Line: This is the heat that seeks the flaw in everything Last Line: The spirit breaks from you and you remain THAT GREATER THAN WHICH NOTHING First Line: Even the plentitude is tired of the magnanimous, disciplined, beached eye in Last Line: In which the living is forgotten to be living THE GEESE Poem Text First Line: Today as I hang out the wash I see them again, a code Last Line: This astonishing delay, the everyday, takes place Subject(s): Geese THE HIDING PLACE Poem Text First Line: The last time I saw it was 1968 Last Line: No -- tell them no -- Subject(s): Labor Unions; Paris, France; Riots; Strikes; Labor Disputes; Lockouts THE MARRIAGE First Line: I'm taking the ashes from the woodstove out Last Line: Softly she sang a bit then went upstairs Subject(s): Marriage THE VISIBLE WORLD Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: I dig my hands into the absolute. The surface Subject(s): Human Body; Transience; Reading And Books; Impermanence THINKING First Line: I can't really remember now. The soundless foamed Last Line: Shaking, with light - ) is born TO PAUL ELUARD First Line: Farewell to the caterpillars standing in minks Last Line: Butterfiles teach us to see meanings vanish %not one gets away TO THE READER First Line: I swear to you she wanted back into the shut, the slow Last Line: In which now a girl with a weed and a notebook appears TREE OF KNOWLEDGE First Line: Then I came down and watched the fire awhile TURNING First Line: Sunlight bright over stone walls: houses Last Line: Whose turn is it now? Whose? TWO PAINTINGS BY GUSTAV KLIMT Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Although what glitters Subject(s): Klimt, Gustav (1862-1918) TWO PAINTINGS BY GUSTAV KLIMT First Line: Although what glitters on the trees Last Line: Has something to do with pleasure ULTRAHIGH FREQUENCY First Line: We fiddle with the set for about an hour UNDERNEATH (1) First Line: Painful to look up Last Line: (actually over) my throat UNDERNEATH (11) First Line: By not escaping %the future is created Last Line: With one law %cover me UNDERNEATH (13) Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Needed explanation Subject(s): Love UNDERNEATH (2) First Line: Ghosts -- not having Last Line: I'm asking -- for weight %the ready -- flowers UNDERNEATH (3) First Line: Explain -- given to Last Line: (the pone rings at dawn) (very occasionally) UNDERNEATH (7) First Line: Mirror. Roll away Last Line: The bough springing back into the tree UNDERNEATH (9) Poem Text First Line: Spring / up, up you go, you must be introduced Subject(s): Change; Seasons UNDERNEATH (9) First Line: Spring %up, up you go, you must be introduced Last Line: Organized around a radiant absence. %in his dance the people do not move Subject(s): Change; Seasons UNDERNEATH (LIBATION) First Line: Look the middle period %where will the council be tomorrow Last Line: Who rules the house? %persuasion UNDERNEATH (SIBYLLINE) First Line: As if we could tell %if we'd been abandoned Last Line: Look you have to lift the match to it again %because this syllable is still intact UNTITLED First Line: In the city that apparently never was Last Line: Round) (below) hissing bend down bend down o wretched wife, %do you not recognize your love? UNTITLED ONE First Line: A curtain rose, I felt an obligation Last Line: To take a bow. All at once. All together. That I might remember UNTITLED TWO First Line: And shades approached. A masonary of shades, one in a Last Line: And the rail gleams, and the rail overflows with corrugated light VEIL First Line: In the tabernacle the veil hangs which is (choose one): Last Line: Though not yet (dear x) not yet VEIL First Line: Exile angle of vision %so steep the representation Last Line: Are we alone? I can never think of you %without smiling VERTIGO First Line: Then they came to the very edge of the cliff and looked down VIA NEGATIVA First Line: Gracious will. Gracious indistinct Last Line: Till the level is reached where a fall begins) (more or less %long) VISIBLE WORLD First Line: I dig my hands into the absolute. The surface breaks Last Line: I put the seed in. The beam moves on WANTING A CHILD First Line: How hard it is for the river here to re-enter WAY THINGS WORK First Line: Is by admitting %or opening away Last Line: Is that eventually %something catches WHAT IS CALLED THINKING: AFTER TRAKL First Line: When I surprised the deer the wind was against me Last Line: History! A dress rustles on the spiral staircase. %I lay my forehead into the silver hands WHAT THE END IS FOR (GRAND FORKS, NORTH DAKOTA) Poem Text First Line: A boy just like you took me out to see them Last Line: Until the sound of the open ocean grows and the voice. Subject(s): Antinuclear Movement; Strategic Air Command; Nuclear Freeze WHAT THE INSTANT CONTAINS (LYLE VAN WARING, 1922-1988) Poem Text First Line: Presently lyle gets into bed Subject(s): Death; Dead, The WHAT THE INSTANT CONTAINS (LYLE VAN WARING, 1922-1988) First Line: Presently lyle gets into bed Last Line: And then the blue vase I'll put them in for a time Subject(s): Death WHICH BUT FOR VACANCY First Line: Again the dream. But of what? Last Line: Where one bud, today, has just begun to rip %into view WHO WATCHES FROM THE DARK PORCH: 1 First Line: Is it because of history or is it because of matter Last Line: And translating now into the mercury lights %through which the surgeons %bend WHO WATCHES FROM THE DARK PORCH: 2 First Line: Blink. There. It's just the body. Put it on Last Line: There. It's just the inflammation-purr. Blink again WHO WATCHES FROM THE DARK PORCH: 3 First Line: Now I will make a sound for you to hear Last Line: Now I will make it. Just make it. Make it. %how do you feel? WHO WATCHES FROM THE DARK PORCH: 4 First Line: If I am responsible, it can't be for everything Last Line: Stare-emptiness, green, and on it, instead of a face, %that cry %floating WHO WATCHES FROM THE DARK PORCH: 5 First Line: Maybe if I turn the tv on? Last Line: Feeling okay? WHO WATCHES FROM THE DARK PORCH: 6 First Line: Said moses show me your face Last Line: But what can we do? %call the WHO WATCHES FROM THE DARK PORCH: 7 First Line: Policeman, the surgeon? Last Line: No later, no matter. %there, you got it now. You got it WILLOW IN SPRING WIND: A SHOWING First Line: Pointless homesickness. Pointless shudderings Last Line: Dazzling the still philosophies |
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