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Author: HAHN, KIMIKO
Matches Found: 173


Hahn, Kimiko    Poet's Biography
173 poems available by this author


168TH STREET MEN'S SHELTER, 1987       
First Line: Between myles and walter and alfredo
Last Line: What seems like miles above the 1200 beds


30 SECONDS ON FRED CARTER       
First Line: Blue first told me about fred carter
Last Line: Until I saw his three bedrooms %filled with hats and suits. %files. Suitcases. Cases. %and a second


A BOWL OF SPAGHETTI    Poem Text    
Subject(s): Children; Childhood


A DREAM OF TOAST    Poem Text    
First Line: Burnt before pop. Burnt before
Last Line: Before martini, before computer failure, before random street murder
Subject(s): Toast (food)


AFTERBIRTH       
First Line: Waiting for my room in the recovery room
Last Line: What did the afterbirth look like? %you smile, like a heart


AIR ITSELF       
First Line: The fire hydrants clear


ANNOTATION IN HER LAST COURT DIARY       
First Line: The before-snow sky lasted like the perpetual twilight
Last Line: And come once, twice, whatever %then what?


ANOTHER DAUGHTER       
First Line: When neighbors tell me
Last Line: But, my mother tells me, baachan said girls %itsumo kaeru yo. Always %return to the black, bumpy lum


ANOTHER USE FOR ICE       
First Line: She is dead for ninety minutes, cradled in bullets of ice
Last Line: Which is, after all, just a stage of development


AS THE DOLLS GROW OLDER THE GIRLS CHANGE       
First Line: From pine cone to spruce


AVACADO       
First Line: Searching for one perfect avocado you walk


BECOMING THE MOTHER       
First Line: She became a sink %she became a blind
Last Line: To tuck at the foot of her own bed %for the time being


BLINDSIDED       
First Line: They were always looking for some reason to kill us
Last Line: When the interview is complete she turns toward the draft whistling in beneath the door


BOAT DOWN THE RIVER OF YELLOW SILT       
First Line: The first box held tiny yellow apples %from the tree behind your home
Last Line: Suck out these plumb tongues of fruit %that speak for you


BON ODORI       
First Line: Nothing eats the kimonos


BOX OF WHITE BUTTONS       
First Line: Found on the sidewalk three years ago
Last Line: When I handed them twists of wash in the starched sunlight
Variant Title(s): The Box Of Abandoned White Button


BRONTOSAURUS       
First Line: I keep writing about dinosaurs
Last Line: They have to be home by five. %I miss them


CALF       
First Line: It was a day like any other
Last Line: There's a saying something like: %there's the battle and there's the war


CELLULOID       
First Line: Celluloid drew back


CHEKOV'S DINER       
First Line: I haven't gotten to the russians yet %the snow banks, the blue hands
Last Line: On the corner of %incensed


CHUANG TZU'S MISTRESS SLEEPS IN A DRAFT       
First Line: She dreams she leans over the brown dust %and lifts a brown leaf that is a moth
Last Line: Her lover always drags to his side of the mattress %or was it a monarch? She mutters


CITY ARCHITECT       
First Line: Specializing in constructing dialysis units
Last Line: From the neck down


CLIPPINGS       
First Line: What I learned on this past trip %sexual tension is never disappointing
Last Line: My basin of water %a tank of clown fish


CLOSET       
First Line: Whether in chrome surgery %or gymnasium toilet
Last Line: But reside with the stench that is cell and self?


COMP. LIT.: 1       
First Line: You barely remember japanese
Last Line: And pull her nipples from the layers of silk %until she cries out %in a whisper close to pain


COMP. LIT.: 2       
First Line: Why my interest in genji?
Last Line: To be in trust of her adoration and anger, %the one opening her narrative


COMP. LIT.: 3       
First Line: With many timid glances towards him she began to
Last Line: How he envied her playmates %all holding hands at the tanabata festival


COMP. LIT.: 4       
First Line: The translator's subjectivity
Last Line: She could bring her dolls to him %when he came home


COMP. LIT.: 5       
First Line: She wrote with such childish abandon
Last Line: Do I examine from the male persona?


COMP. LIT.: 6       
First Line: That this was what genji had so long been wanting
Last Line: Mind. What a fool she had been, to repose her whole %confidence in so gross and unscrupulous a man


COMP. LIT.: 7       
First Line: He looked behind every screen
Last Line: Women surrounded him like a nest %with their bodies, fragrances, %spirits-- %but could not complete


COMP. LIT.: 8       
First Line: The translator puts the pen down
Last Line: He walks into the bathroom, %turns off the light and sits down


COPE'S RULE    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: According to edward drinker cope,
Subject(s): Size & Shape; Marriage; Survival; Height; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


CRAB       
First Line: Good thing my daughter is as clever
Last Line: I turned back to my cooking


CRANBERRY ISLAND LATE SUMMER ('00)       
First Line: He can't name the insect that clicks on the rocks beyond the stand of
Last Line: Noise. You show me you can name things before catching them


CROISSANT       
First Line: Love indelicately %did you know on the flight home
Last Line: We all fall in love with her %the immortal sisters


CROSSING NEPTUNE AVE       
First Line: I recall spotting the couple
Last Line: And thought of him surrounded %by flurries %on the beach


CRUISE MISSILES       
First Line: The day opened with the paper for him
Last Line: Where I stood %saying I can't hear you


CRUISING BARTHES       
First Line: I cannot recall believing my mother possessed
Last Line: My hand that close to the unconscious


CUTS FROM ZUIHITSU ON MY DAUGHTER       
First Line: Recalling that self that dressed the way my daughter now wishes to
Last Line: Rising her long auburn hair in the sink %the sink


DANCE INSTRUCTIONS FOR A YOUNG GIRL    Poem Text    
First Line: Stand: knees slightly / bent, toes in posed
Last Line: Belong to you, a woman.
Subject(s): Dancing & Dancers


DAUGHTERS AND THE CROW       
First Line: The girls braid one another's hair then whine
Last Line: Like a crow closing in on its inspired hunger


DAY LILIES ON THE SECOND ANNIVERSARY OF MY SECOND MARRIAGE       
First Line: Watching the day lilies
Last Line: I imagine the spent lilies %opening a second time %in the hot broth


DECOMPOSITION       
First Line: The man next door
Last Line: Though I won't have you %much longer %than a second %and the air smells sour %from the bales


DETAILS WE FALL FOR       
First Line: Shifting to fifth and swinging behind a harley
Last Line: She's working on a rough draft


DISCOVERING CRUMBS ALL OVER THE PASSENGER SEAT OF THE FAMILY SEDAN       
First Line: There are so many stages-some as obvious
Last Line: And find a mate who may or may not go?


DOWNPOUR       
First Line: We do not know her name. We call her sei shonagon. Shonagon
Last Line: Their attention %we do not know her name


EARLY 70S       
First Line: This portrait of pedro is not a masterpiece
Last Line: I wish he had sketched me for the cover of my poetry collection %pedro's lucky


EARSHOT       
First Line: Whatever I talk about with her
Last Line: And for him, boats


ERRANDS       
First Line: You're driving us to the 24-hour supermarket
Last Line: As my mother, as if breathing under water


EVEREST       
First Line: November 11, 1919. In centralia, washington, the air
Last Line: But not half as smart as one who is hungry


FIGURES       
First Line: More apparent than a hindoo goddess %blanche dumas's body sprouted surplus leg
Last Line: And why, after confusing lack or excess, should we?


FIST       
First Line: When I see the baby explore her fist
Last Line: I can only think of my own childhood in the suburbs %and cry because I love her %like a mangy please


FORECLOSURE: A SERIES FOR J       
First Line: When I write I feel like a mother
Last Line: If only she'd given a signal: %it's all right to have breasts


FOUND       
First Line: As soon as lek sees her photograph
Last Line: Aunitie sold her to a bar owner


FROM MY BED THE FOGHORN BY THE PIER SOUNDS LIKE A PREHISTORIC CRY       
First Line: The wingspan six feet wide a million years ago
Last Line: As, if not a first lover, the second or third?


GARNET       
First Line: X wanted to present a gift %the husband would not detect
Last Line: The he residing in the she %garnet hard as nipples


GIRL'S FIRST LANGUAGE       
First Line: Is not american
Last Line: It occurs to you %only women and wounded soldiers %writhe


GLADIOLAS       
First Line: At first I wasn't sure


GLASS BRACELETS       
First Line: I know I can only speak for myself
Last Line: Hear me: I will not pray. I will not pray


GOING INSIDE TO WRITE       
First Line: She finds the only place to write
Last Line: Though her father calls from the far room %she shouts: %I can't hear you. I can't %hear you


GOWANUS, LATE SUMMER    Poem Text    
First Line: The trees flinch in late summer air over boerum hill. We already
Subject(s): Summer; Vacations


GREEN LANTERN       
First Line: Gil kane is dead at seventy-three in aventura, florida
Last Line: Sparing our spouses and surely saving your collection


GUARD THE JADE PASS'       
First Line: I am in the middle of 'the fourteen poems' by sun bu-er
Last Line: An empty envelope when you forget %to enclose the letter


HAWAIIAN SHIRT       
First Line: His earliest recollection
Last Line: Years later his father told him %he was bottle-fed


HEARTBEAT OF HUMIDITY       
First Line: Against the june heat rising from the soft avenue
Last Line: The artist's translation and my own. Luxuriant and testing


HEAT       
First Line: Did you watch women collect red seaweed
Last Line: What was that strange music? %I could go on


HETERALOCHA ACUTIROSTRIS    Poem Text    
First Line: When the stunning huia became scarce


HULA SKIRT, 1959       
First Line: Before my fourth birthday my father
Last Line: That much I remember
Subject(s): Ethnic Groups - United States; Minorities - United States; U.s. - Race Relations


IF YOU SPEAK       
First Line: If you speak you will become
Last Line: If you speak it means you remember


IMAGINATION       
First Line: He grinds his teeth


INFRARED       
First Line: Where does desire recede
Last Line: Maybe the she will always be the one %in a bra and half-slip%kissing the boy morning


INSTEAD OF SPEECH       
First Line: The reflection of noh actors
Last Line: Calling out: nantoka nantoka soro %like sorrow, sorrow sorrow


INTELLIGENTSIA OF THE CHIN DYNASTY DESIRE DESIRE       
First Line: I sit near the back of the pastry shop
Last Line: Sitting on knees till feeling is absent %and the calligraphy generously exact


IZU DANCER       
First Line: The story was almost too simple
Last Line: It's an older italian man, moustached and serious. %but briefly that fragrance!


JAM       
First Line: He tells me I better not %be fooling around
Last Line: As if catching breath %my blood quickens as if to rip tide


KAFKA'S ERECTION    Poem Text    
First Line: Dearest l, my lovely older sister / I suggest to you what to say
Last Line: I mean to wear them as dresses
Subject(s): Kafka, Franz (1883-1924)


KAFKA'S ERECTION       
First Line: Dearest l, my lovely older sister %I suggest to you what to say
Last Line: Purchased at thrift shops %I mean to wear them as dresses
Subject(s): Kafka, Franz (1883-1924)


KOMACHI TO SHOSHO ON THE NINETY-NINTH NIGHT       
First Line: I will tell you what I am feeling %the back of my knee
Last Line: Inner thighs your hips, my heart %your eyes


LADY ROKUJO HAILS A TAXI       
First Line: In the early morning after she steps in %off the block of tourist bars
Last Line: To enjoy feeling parched %because it is feeling


LATE ENTRY IN THE FIRST WIFE'S PILLOW BOOK       
First Line: How can I know my glance can %echo in a man's chest cavity? How can
Last Line: To provoke a heat clear %as cold air?


LICE       
First Line: Hours of washing, drying and nit picking
Last Line: A patriarchal gesture so predictable


LIKE LAVRINIA       
First Line: Like lavrinia merli, in 1890 in mojola, mantua
Last Line: It is amazing they are ever found ever


LILI, 1933       
First Line: He had a premonition of tubes the body manufactured
Last Line: Soon the man the boy questioned will finally cease


LOSS       
First Line: I must leave speaking


LUNAR CALENDAR SHE PINS TO THE DOOR       
First Line: Why spend love? Why
Last Line: On your own, you write to me %mortal and stunningly adequate


MINE       
First Line: Dupont city is the kind of town
Last Line: ...Where would thy put them all?' (thompson


MORNING LIGHT       
First Line: The ceiling fan whisks the fatigue and camouflages the night
Last Line: Pumps. Lipstick later. She leashes the dog and as she steps out %the door forgets her keys


MOSQUITO AND ANT       
First Line: The immortal sisters %one has only daughters
Last Line: So she might polish them in heaven %the smoke not unlike that from burnt toast or punk


MOTHER IS READING DEVIANT       
First Line: The true-crime history of eddie gein
Last Line: I never see my daughters


MOTHER'S MOTHER       
First Line: The mother draws the shade down halfway
Last Line: A few inches from my face


NEW CALLIGRAPHY TUTOR IS A WOMAN       
First Line: One was punched in the mouth %one was stripped and locked in her room
Last Line: Sloshing water onto the linoleum and singing too loudly %she loves her own voice radiating off the t


NEW FATHER       
First Line: Setting aside her rattle and doll
Last Line: We curve into each other and pulse gently %until my breasts spot your chest with milk


NORA       
First Line: Other women say other women %gave more than nora


NOTE ON THEMATIC REDUNDANCY IN WOMEN'S VERSE, NO. ONE       
First Line: While she sews the back hem of his coat %before he swerves
Last Line: Each page %and tells her I'm trying to read


NOTE ON THEMATIC REDUNDANCY IN WOMEN'S VERSE, NO. TWO       
First Line: Neither cognac nor tea will stall %what a run through the blizzard
Last Line: I do not leave a message %about lilies


OLD WOMAN'S BREAST       
First Line: They say childbirth is painful
Last Line: He choked on the milk, imagine that


OLDER CHILD       
First Line: What will become her earliest memory
Last Line: Filled with the noise of boys in the vacant lot: %bang, boom-boom, fuckyoufuckyoufuck you


ON A LINE FROM VALĂ©RY BY WAY OF CAROLYN KIZER: TOUT LE CIEL VERT SE MEURT. LE DERNIER ARBRE BRĂ»LE.    Poem Text    
First Line: The whole green sky is dying
Subject(s): Atheism


ON BEING COY    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: Many fish in the murky ocean caves
Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships; Male-female Relations


ON DECEIT AS SURVIVAL    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: Darwin could not believe an insect
Subject(s): Deceit


ON FIDELITY    Poem Text    
First Line: Australian magpie-larks that couple and clasp
Subject(s): Magpie-larks; Fidelity; Faithfulness; Constancy


OPEN KITCHEN       
First Line: Inside the home fashioned of tin and mud
Last Line: What are you talking about?'


OPERATION       
First Line: Taking notes


ORCHID ROOT       
First Line: Who thinks of the orchid root %but the horticulturist
Last Line: On my hands, my chin, his lips %his. Mine. Plumb


PASSION    Poem Text     Recitation
First Line: The raflesia
Subject(s): Passion; Flowers; Daughters


PIANO       
First Line: The children's banging on the piano
Last Line: That summer bedtime arrived %when the whole world closed its enormous eyelid
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


PINE       
First Line: I thought wearing an evergreen dress %might be enough to express the longing
Last Line: Brown needles %so prick my skin


POETIC CLOSURE       
First Line: Curling up in my new efficiency
Last Line: I asked daddy if we could go to the natural history %and get some too


POLAR       
First Line: It was before the glacier
Last Line: It isn't so much the glacier %that's come but the vernal equinox %allowing the view %I cannot move f


POSSESSION: A ZUIHITSU       
First Line: That mother sat beside my sister, kei, and spoke to her before any of us
Last Line: Whether he traveled or stayed home he could not stop thinking about %his deceased wife


RADIATOR       
First Line: Any strong sensation is a welcome break %from oxygen
Last Line: For what thread could stitch the flesh %back into one piece


RADICAL NEW VIEW OF THE ROLE OF MENSTRUATION'       
First Line: She was dreaming
Last Line: And seemed so inefficient


RAZOR       
First Line: I want to return to the moment
Last Line: At times the loss felt like an organ %one could excise with a razor


READING A RELATIONSHIP-COLUMN IN A WOMAN'S MAGAZINE BEFORE BED       
First Line: How lavish are the pheromones? How opulent
Last Line: Seated in the kitchen listening to the percolator %after that knowledge?


READING THE PORTABLE JUNG AT THE CAFE WHILE WAITING FOR THE PAYPHONE       
First Line: Once in its life the yucca moth alights
Last Line: And what image allows one to take that one flight?


RECKLESS SONNET #7    Poem Text    
First Line: Maybe only your closest confidante
Subject(s): Solitude; Loneliness


REFLECTIONS OFF WHITE       
First Line: The werewolf is on. During her sister's wedding reception may
Last Line: Ceremony. The couple stands by the window and back lit by the %mid-afternoon light, the groom doesn'


REMOVING A DIAPHRAGM       
First Line: In the shower I notice how different
Last Line: I faintly remember that moment, %thighs wide, knees and heels pulled up, %your hands open


RESISTANCE: A POEM ON IKAT CLOTH       
First Line: By the time the forsythia blossomed


RESPONDING TO LIGHT       
First Line: In the house with windows that look out %into the branches of a forest, into
Last Line: Of the sealed-off room she knew existed all along %toward a stew fragrant with fiction


REVOLUTIONS       
First Line: Forbidden to learn chinese
Last Line: Afterbirth is not a time or reform %it belongs to a separation we turn towards


ROCKHOPPER       
First Line: Grand jason and steeple jason, parts
Last Line: Was spared from white collar poachers


ROOM       
First Line: Murasaki knew her husband's mistress played the koto
Last Line: She is my sister. %it was my room


ROOM, SEL.       
First Line: Many of the women who fell in love with genji
Last Line: At that moment: asleep and satisfied, %sea spray swooshing a lullaby


ROOST       
First Line: The cane fields blaze


SEAMS       
First Line: The seam was gray as that recollection
Last Line: In dupont city, kanawha, goshen, confidence, %left hand, five forks, clover lick


SEIZURE    Poem Text    
First Line: In nicaragua/old women
Subject(s): Nicaragua


SEIZURE       
First Line: In nicaragua


SENSE MEMORY       
First Line: Don't just write about the piazza navona
Last Line: Just a year or two after the lover whose solar plexis or whatever %tasted like anisette


SEWING WITHOUT THE MOTHER       
First Line: As with tending a newborn, the days pass slowly, the months
Last Line: It is a solitary activity %mother, rei's feet are narrow and long like ted's


SHOWER       
First Line: The hot spray softens her neck muscles
Last Line: Like two suns emanating from her own chest


SMALL PORTRAIT       
First Line: She distributes the two dozen
Last Line: She will replace them with the same


SNAKE       
First Line: There are somethings you can't help
Last Line: Which is why I'm telling you this myself


SOLITARY & GREGARIOUS    Poem Text    
Subject(s): Locusts


SOMETHING       
First Line: Resting her on my chest like a sleeping cat
Last Line: 4 am, the curtains blowing in and out of the window %as the whole house breathes


SPONGE       
First Line: The post card from frostproof


SPRING       
First Line: I am very happy


STEALING A LINE WRITTEN BY HAFIZ AND TRANSLATED BY EMERSON    Poem Text    
Subject(s): Mothers & Daughters


STRANDS       
First Line: The key warmed in your hand
Last Line: How paint fits into %this narration. So you take his hand %and dip it in


STRANDS, FOUR POEMS    Poem Text    
First Line: The key warmed in your hand and you knew the password
Subject(s): Male-female Relationships; Hair


SUNFLOWER       
First Line: After thirty years maintenance in transit yards
Last Line: Is so tall he ties it to the fence for support


TEA       
First Line: This bowl


TEETH       
First Line: Thee leaf and fruit shade spotted on his skin


THE BATH: AUGUST 6, 1945    Poem Text    
First Line: Bathing the summer night
Last Line: And to take hold.
Subject(s): Antinuclear Movement; Atomic Bomb - Victims; Hiroshima, Japan; Nuclear War; Peace; Radiation & Radiation Sickness; Social Protest; Survival; War; Nuclear Freeze; Atomic Bomb; Hydrogen Bomb


THE DREAM OF A FIRE ENGINE    Poem Text    
First Line: Without the sun filtered through closed eyelids,
Subject(s): Dreams; Nightmares


THE DREAM OF A LACQUER BOX    Poem Text    
First Line: I wish I knew the contents and I wish the contents
Subject(s): Mothers; Heritage; Dreams; Nightmares


THE HULA SKIRT, 1959    Poem Text    
First Line: Before my fourth birthday my father
Last Line: That much I remember
Subject(s): Ethnic Groups - United States; Minorities - United States; United States - Race Relations


THE PERPETUATION OF SORROW    Poem Text    
First Line: When we fragment forests
Subject(s): Cowbirds


THE SWEETWATER CAVERNS    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: Curious to see caverns
Subject(s): Lakes; Caves; Youth; Aging; Disappointment; Pools; Ponds; Caverns


THESE CURRENT EVENTS       
First Line: It is a late twentieth century cliche that we must turn off
Last Line: But it fuels the gut that is able


THINGS THAT MAKE ME CRY INSTANTLY€”    Poem Text    
Subject(s): Tears; Happiness; Nostalgia; Love; Joy; Delight


TISSUE       
First Line: I want to return to the high chair %in the terrace's noon sun
Last Line: The heart inside the body the way the baby %was inside this body


TOXIC FLORA    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: There is something vital
Subject(s): Poison


TRANSLATING ANCIENT LINES INTO THE VERNACULAR       
First Line: I want to go where the hysteric resides %the spinning a child knows
Last Line: Or tell her %now that's enough


TRANSLATOR       
First Line: I will not argue with god
Last Line: My daughters twirl acros the carpet %and I see, gregory, beloved of bruce, %partisan blossoms in spi


TUMBLER       
First Line: I call you %I pour one then while on the phone
Last Line: To the moon's movements %and you are right


UNTITLED       
First Line: She does not want the lizards to touch her %but she wants to look at them
Last Line: Or the headless chicken %on the counter in the too-hot kitchen


VALENTINE       
First Line: Roget's international thesaurus, third edition
Last Line: The smell of raw silk after a night out


VARIABLE FIELD       
First Line: Does the father of my daughters
Last Line: Is consonant with the fervent questions %of aesthetics


VIVISECTION       
First Line: Torso slit neatly as an envelope
Last Line: I just want you to stay


VOLCANO'S DESIRE       
First Line: The peacocks screamed through the night as they strutted
Last Line: Means I want and I love. Both


WAITING ON THE F PLATFORM AS PASSENGERS ARE TOLD TO TRAVEL ONE STOP...       
First Line: The silkworm moth possesses no special designation
Last Line: That it will end after a moment, wing-torn and starved


WAX       
First Line: I am looking for clues %on how to stay a woman, not
Last Line: Through waning light %and steam rising off rivers


WEST 1-0-5       
First Line: Hearing it from j, ex-gangmember, ex
Last Line: The blood, the blood was everywhere man


WHEN I HEARD THE RED PICKUP       
First Line: I knew you'd driven back 3 years later and 500 miles for me
Last Line: Where you gave in to my heart at last, %long last?


WHISKEY FOR M       
First Line: Once I drank so much
Last Line: You meant that much to me at the time


WHITE BLOUSE       
First Line: Against better judgement I see her off to kindergarten
Last Line: Before a downpour the earth needs desperately %for new vegetation and depleted winter reservoirs
Subject(s): Kindergarten


WISTERIA       
First Line: Speech is always a problem, learning
Last Line: And some astonish everyone into reconstruction: %wave %fin %boat


WOMAN WITH THE SUITCASE       
First Line: Is around every corner


WOMEN'S RESTROOM AT THE LOCAL DINER IS OCCUPIED SO I USE THE MEN'S       
First Line: According to metcalf & flint, the treehoppers appear
Last Line: To the dimensions of one parent over the other


YOGURT       
First Line: Trying to pick up my screaming toddler
Last Line: I search for such pleasure with my own child: %the pastoral obedience


ZINC       
First Line: The script is useful %I can love you
Last Line: I mistook pronouns %for tissue