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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: HAINES, JOHN Matches Found: 337 Haines, John Poet's Biography 337 poems available by this author ADMISSION First Line: Know it then, my girl Last Line: The busy singing of crickets in the grass outside AFTER TAO YUAN-MING First Line: It will not be the first time Last Line: Or touch, a thousand years %without speaking AFTER THE FIRESTORM First Line: They are all gone, and Last Line: The soul rises whimpering %on sooty wings AGE OF BRONZE First Line: Say good-bye to the arm Last Line: When the age of bronze is over, %the day of smoke begins ALIVE IN THE WORLD First Line: Stand still in the middle of the world Last Line: Going blindly into our houses AMERICAN DREAM First Line: It would have to be something dark Last Line: And somewhere here, mislaid, almost %forgotten, the meaning of our play, %its theme and blunted purp ANCESTOR OF THE HUNTING HEART; AFTER BREUGEL First Line: There is a distance in the heart Subject(s): Environment; Nature; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation ANCESTOR OF THE HUNTING HEART; AFTER BREUGEL First Line: There is a distance in the heart Last Line: The rest are camped indoors, %their damped fires smoking %inthe early dusk Subject(s): Environment; Nature AND NOW First Line: Upon the frost Last Line: You say farewell AND WHEN THE GREEN MAN COMES First Line: The man is clothed %in birchbark Last Line: Redolent of roses, %exalted in %the streaming rain ARLINGTON First Line: The pallor of so many %small white stones Last Line: Fueled with blood, %if blood would burn AT SLIM'S RIVER First Line: Past burwash and the white river delta Last Line: She had found a rock to keep, %and I went down AT THE END OF THIS SUMMER First Line: I wonder if I frightened you Last Line: The starting of a fire in the stove AUTUMN First Line: It is time, the great hunger Last Line: Forest and clearing, %river, and greater sky AUTUMN OF MONEY First Line: Now the show shrinking of coins Last Line: Then nothing, nothing at all BECOMING A CROW First Line: The beak will grow Last Line: Black tatters in a world of sticks BEYOND First Line: Beyond this earth %I know a kingdom Last Line: Indolent and dull, %go in by that gate BILLBOARDS IN EXILE First Line: The truth was finally written Last Line: Of the paradise defaulted %and the vision tamed BLOOD Poem Text First Line: Tell me if you see it now, Subject(s): Blood BLOOD LAKE First Line: Hiking the miller creek trail Last Line: Smell of turpentine and %ice in the wind BOOK First Line: A shadow grew up around me Last Line: From a book that I loved BOOK OF THE JUNGLE First Line: The animal, rising at dusk Last Line: The snort of a rutting bull BRAND First Line: I have followed you as far as I can Last Line: By which I will see my way BROKEN MIRRORS First Line: If what you saw of the majestic Last Line: On the one bright image composed BURGHERS OF CALAIS First Line: Now if ever it is winter in the heart Last Line: Bronze field, to death or pardon BY THE OCEAN First Line: We are here by the ocean Last Line: Ash from a driftwood fire %falls on your page CALENDAR First Line: Let this book as it ends Last Line: Something about starlight and sleep CAULIFLOWER First Line: I wanted to be a cauliflower Last Line: That is hardening within them CHANGES First Line: You are not that daphne Last Line: A cane for the blind and the halt CHASE First Line: Once man chased his woman through Last Line: In that darkness made equally o fnight %and themselves CHILD IN THE RUG First Line: Better a bug in the dust underfoot Last Line: Threads of the flowerprints %coming loose from her sky of wool CHOOSING A STONE First Line: It grows cold in the forest Last Line: And of how one chooses a stone CHRISTMAS, 1962 First Line: A soft wind blows Last Line: The strange, unshackled %gift of himself CICADA First Line: I sank past bitten leaves Last Line: Clear across %loud acres of sun CITY OF ORPHANS Poem Text First Line: How strange to think of those streets Subject(s): War CLOUDS AT 30,000 FEET First Line: Voiceless and masterless, %the sheep of this pasture Last Line: Flocks of the driven faithful COLOR First Line: It was simply a dark, %laboring mass Last Line: Expanding misery of color CRANES First Line: That vast wheel turning Last Line: And the laboring ship %plunges on CURE FOR GLOBAL WARMING First Line: Let's move mother earth from the sun Last Line: And our experts are all on the run! DANCE; FOR GEORGE HITCHCOCK First Line: The red armchair is empty Last Line: And birds' heads %of a threatening blue DAPHNE First Line: Of yourself and your beginnings Last Line: Born from the bark of your tree DAYS OF EDWARD HOPPER First Line: These are the houses that stand Subject(s): Hopper, Edward (1882-1967) DAYS OF EDWARD HOPPER First Line: These are the houses that stand Last Line: And trampled -- small peace %and unforgiven crime Subject(s): Hopper, Edward (1882-1967) DEAD HORSE GULCH First Line: Nothing so beautiful as a man Last Line: The souls of horses pass on %into the sun DEATH AND THE MISER First Line: God surely sees us, %for he sends his messengers Last Line: He never gives anything back DENALI ROAD First Line: By the denali road, facing Last Line: With a vague smile, %his rifle rusting in his arms DEPARTURE First Line: They will go far on their long journeys Last Line: Holding the future, terrible and strange DEPARTURE First Line: The road darkens toward the west Last Line: To see the drifting heartbreak %of the smoky hills DESERTED CABIN First Line: Here in the yellowing %aspen grove Last Line: Had just passed there, %bound home %in the early darkness DIMINISHING CREDO First Line: Eugene delacroix, in your black hours Last Line: The time of ascending balloons Subject(s): Delacroix, Eugene (1798-1863) DIOGENES IN WASHINGTON First Line: My lamp has dimmed, I do not walk Last Line: That honest man. There are none here DIVIDED, THE MAN IS DREAMING First Line: One half %lives in sunlight; he is Last Line: Dark mice feed %from his hand DOORS THAT OPEN First Line: Whre did that road lead Last Line: Cold, still water of stars DREAM OF FEBRUARY First Line: In the moonlight %in the heavy snow Last Line: And froze into mist that %enveloped the world DREAM OF LOVE First Line: That day we bridged the inevitable gulf Last Line: And not together - no, alone DREAM OF THE CARDBOARD LOVER First Line: She fell away from her earthly husband Last Line: In the dreamlight, %growing dimmer and dimmer DREAM OF THE LYNX Poem Text First Line: Beside a narrow trail in the blue Subject(s): Lynx DREAM OF THE LYNX First Line: Beside a narrow trail in the blue Last Line: Of the unseen, feeding host Subject(s): Lynx DREAM OF THE POLICE First Line: About the hour the december moon Last Line: In the snow of my sleep DURER'S VISION First Line: The country is not named Last Line: Growing from the sky %into the earth DUSK OF THE REVOLUTIONARIES First Line: Now we shall learn to live in the dark Last Line: As the great cloud-utopias %burn out in the west END OF THE STREET First Line: It would be at the end Last Line: Someone has gone to look. %your evening is here END OF THE SUMMER First Line: Let the inhuman, drab machines Last Line: Like the breath from a grave EVEN WITH YOUR GOING AND ALMOST THE SORROW First Line: Even with your going and almost the sorrow Last Line: To think and something else to nurture FAIRBANKS UNDER THE SOLSTICE Poem Text First Line: Slowly, without sun, the day sinks Last Line: Word of the resurrection of silence. Subject(s): Death, Return From; December; Frost; Winter FATES First Line: North is east, south is west Last Line: We spit, the spell we throw FIELD OF THE CARIBOU First Line: Moving in a restless exhaustion Last Line: Some tired bodies %were falling from a cliff FIVE WINTER STANZAS First Line: Good morning!' we cried Last Line: And we knew he would never come FLIGHT First Line: It may happen again -- this much Last Line: Overturned in the road, %a wheel slowly spinning FOR A YOUNG GIRL First Line: We leaned on a railing %at the small boat harbor Last Line: Held to the ear %of a child growing deaf FOR ANNE, AT A LITTLE DISTANCE First Line: Thinking of you, of your letters Last Line: That almost carried you away FOR DAPHNE AT LONE LANE First Line: From the window of your sister's house Last Line: Over this cold lake at evening FOR THE HOMESTEAD FRIENDS First Line: Our bottle of malt is nearly drained Last Line: One poem appropriate to the night FOREBODING First Line: Something immense and lonely Last Line: Journey, across nine bridges %wrecked one by one FOSSIL First Line: All spine and knotted fin-rays Last Line: The great shark feeds there still FOURTH OF JULY AT SANTA YNEZ Poem Text First Line: Under the makeshift arbor of leaves Subject(s): Old Age FOURTH OF JULY AT SANTA YNEZ First Line: Under the makeshift arbor of leaves Last Line: And walked away into the sunlit crowd FROM ADJACENT FIELDS Last Line: Before the harvest GARDENER First Line: His hoe makes a hush Last Line: Dark, inscrutable angel %whose step passes be GHOST HUNTER First Line: Far back, in the time of ice Last Line: With a hollow bone in my hand GHOST TOWN First Line: Sun gone from the evening sky Last Line: Morning, where the rider goes Subject(s): Ghost Towns GHOST TOWNS First Line: The north is strewn with cities Last Line: One space, one frame for all Subject(s): Ghost Towns; Nature GIRL WHO BURIED SNAKES IN A JAR First Line: She came to see the bones Last Line: Only a little green water standing, %some dust, or a smell GLUTTON First Line: Another drumstick, dear wife Last Line: Crying: %feed me! Feed me GOOD-BYE TO THE FLOWERCLOCK First Line: The hour belonged to hemlock Last Line: Swung hollow and broken %like a blade of straw GOSHAWK First Line: I will not walk on that road again Last Line: The goshawk feeds on your timid heart GREAT SOCIETY First Line: Having been whipped through paradise Last Line: And a skin to cover his head Variant Title(s): The Way We Liv GREEN PIANO First Line: Her hands on the green piano Last Line: In a waste of echoing rock GUEVARA First Line: Somewhere inside me, %perhaps under my left shoulder Last Line: On the red slope of my heart GUIDE TO THE ASIAN MUSEUMS First Line: Footbound beneath the owl kings Last Line: With its forests and acres of stones HARVEST First Line: There will be much to remember Last Line: To strike a match, kindling %the cold, untraveled sun HAUNTED VACANCIES: CITY OF ORPHANS First Line: How strange to think of those streets Last Line: The murmur of convening statesmen HAUNTED VACANCIES: POLITICS AND THE DEAD First Line: Who calls from the paper columns? Last Line: To your own renumbered house. No one HEAD OF SORROW, HEAD OF THOUGHT First Line: You would think that no one Last Line: Made equally of granite and cloud HERMITAGE First Line: In the forest below the stairs Last Line: I felt quite close %the beating of a human heart HOMAGE TO DAVID SMITH First Line: We are made of angle iron and crossbrace Last Line: Five fixed and glowing figures %who are not men HOMESTEAD First Line: It is nearly thirty years Last Line: In flight with the rustling of wings HORNS First Line: I went to the edge of the wood Last Line: As though a god had spoken HOUSE OF THE INJURED First Line: I found a house in the forest Last Line: A man shown the face of god HUNGER First Line: I was born to this crowded waste Last Line: A terrified creature %gnawing at roots I AM A TREE, VERY QUIET AND MY LEAVES First Line: I am a tree, very quiet are my leaves Last Line: I shall never stop growing I WILL TELL YOU HOW IT WAS IN MY COUNTRY First Line: In those days %forming that known world Last Line: Honorably buried, %very long ago ICE CHILD Poem Text First Line: Cold for so long, unable to speak, Subject(s): Death - Children; Death - Babies IF THE OWL CALLS AGAIN Poem Text First Line: At dusk / from the island Last Line: Cold world awakens. Subject(s): Animals; Birds; Environment; Owls; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation IMAGES OF THE FROST KING First Line: Once he stood at the door Last Line: By the flight of nocturnal thrushes IN FIVE YEARS' TIME First Line: In five years' time %our faces may be a map Last Line: This story of things %that never happened IN NATURE First Line: Here too are life's victims Last Line: Evenings at the broken wall, %black armies in flight IN THE FOREST WITHOUT LEAVES Poem Text First Line: This earth written over with words Last Line: "one tree, one leaf, Subject(s): Environment; Nature; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation IN THE FOREST WITHOUT LEAVES: 1 First Line: In the forest without leaves Last Line: Not the shadows of leaves, %but shadows where the leaves might be IN THE FOREST WITHOUT LEAVES: 10 First Line: Life was not a clock Last Line: The key that winds the clock %turns a lock %in the prison of days IN THE FOREST WITHOUT LEAVES: 11 First Line: How the sun came to the forest Last Line: Where snow would come, %and silence, and night IN THE FOREST WITHOUT LEAVES: 12 First Line: In all the forest, chilled Last Line: Nothing stains like blood, %nothing whitens like snow IN THE FOREST WITHOUT LEAVES: 13 First Line: What will be said of you Last Line: The ages parted to let you fall, %and a tall star blazed IN THE FOREST WITHOUT LEAVES: 14 First Line: A coolness will come to their children Last Line: And someone has gone with a lantern %to search the roads IN THE FOREST WITHOUT LEAVES: 15 First Line: In the forest without leaves Last Line: One tree, one leaf, %gives us plenty of light IN THE FOREST WITHOUT LEAVES: 2 First Line: What sounds can be heard Last Line: Da-deet, da-deet IN THE FOREST WITHOUT LEAVES: 3 First Line: This earth written over with words Last Line: And silence for the clearing %where no house stands Subject(s): Environment; Nature IN THE FOREST WITHOUT LEAVES: 4 First Line: One rock on another Last Line: The people of dust %will harvest IN THE FOREST WITHOUT LEAVES: 5 First Line: Earth speech: %the furrow sighing Last Line: From the cliffs above, %rolling past IN THE FOREST WITHOUT LEAVES: 6 First Line: And sometimes through the air Last Line: And sometimes through the air %a thing of dust IN THE FOREST WITHOUT LEAVES: 7 First Line: Say after me Last Line: Of partitions, %and the space they enclose IN THE FOREST WITHOUT LEAVES: 8 First Line: Building with matches Last Line: Fitting the pieces, %pulling at strings IN THE FOREST WITHOUT LEAVES: 9 First Line: Those who write sorrow on the earth Last Line: Hidden in their signatures- %who are they? IN THE HOUSE OF WAX Poem Text First Line: Far-sighted into yesterday Subject(s): Waxworks IN THE HOUSE OF WAX First Line: Far-sighted into yesterday Last Line: And all too soon awaken, %clamped in his ecstasy IN THE MIDDLE OF AMERICA First Line: In oberlin the university park Last Line: I listened and understood IN THE MUSEUM GARDEN First Line: Always dying into ourselves Last Line: Our own footsteps leaving the garden IN THE MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY First Line: They stand on a hillside, feeding Last Line: Clouds stand against the evening IN THE SLEEP OF REASON Poem Text First Line: And so I closed that book, Subject(s): Books & Reading; Conduct Of Life IN THE SLEEP OF REASON First Line: And so I closed that book Last Line: In which I walked %and would make my way INCURABLE HOME First Line: Then I came to the house of wood Last Line: Talking in the far country of sleep INSECTS First Line: Maggots, wrinkled white men %building a temple of slime Last Line: In a darkness called egypt INSTRUCTIONS TO A SENTRY First Line: You will be standing alone Last Line: Stood guard %in her thicket of fire INTERVIEW First Line: My people: %I am no specialist in matter Last Line: Bones form at the terminals of time? INTO THE GLACIER First Line: With the green lamp of the spirit Last Line: And we, naked and alone, %awakening forever INVADERS First Line: It was the country I loved Last Line: Pumping fear into the night INVASION First Line: In the far north the sea %is beginning to freeze Last Line: They speak and blows %away toward the south IT COULD HAPPEN AGAIN Poem Text First Line: We met in provincetown two years ago Subject(s): Morley, Hilda (1916-1998); Friendship; War IT MUST ALL BE DONE OVER ...' First Line: Everywhere I look the houses are coming down Last Line: Learn to build with air, water, and smoke IT MUST ALL BE DONE OVER... First Line: The houses begin to come down Last Line: Learn to build with air, %water, and smoke JANE'S DREAM First Line: All in a waking fever Last Line: All lying still in the darkness JONNA First Line: The depth of the evening Last Line: Gone dark and silent in a wink JOURNEY ON WATER: A PRELUDE First Line: When the noise of their paddles had ceased Last Line: Faintly smiling in the clear, untroubled light KENT STATE, MAY 1970 Poem Text First Line: Premonitory, her outstretched arms Subject(s): Universities & Colleges KENT STATE, MAY 1970 First Line: Premonitory, her outstretched arms Last Line: A street, a house no longer there? Subject(s): Universities & Colleges LAKE IN THE SKY First Line: Once more evening on the earth Last Line: From the ring on your finger LANDSCAPES First Line: There is a land known to but a little sun Last Line: Dips down beneath the storm, and then %there is the night LARKSPUR First Line: The blue giant is passing Last Line: Stands alone in his blueness LAST WORDS ON THE POET First Line: He owed his enemies a debt of gratitude Last Line: Disclosed the road he was to travel LEAVES AND ASHES First Line: Standing where the city and the forest Last Line: Slowly unbuilding around her LEGEND OF PAPER PLATES First Line: They trace their ancestry %back to the forest Last Line: They are made to be thrown away LEGEND' First Line: I understand the story of gilgamesh Last Line: Sleep follows like a lasting shadow LEMMINGS First Line: No one is pleased with himself Last Line: The hated colony disintegrates LI YU AT TWILIGHT First Line: Fragrance falls from the rose Last Line: Light of all things, %you fade LIKE A WAVE First Line: I looked at her face until Last Line: And sea, like a wave %or a running whisper LINEAGE First Line: The sun of many autumns flames in my blood Last Line: Knowing that resurrection LISTENING IN LATE AUGUST First Line: Leaves of the summer %falling, and rain Last Line: Work-roughened hands %these hungry birds LITTLE COSMIC DUST POEM Poem Text First Line: Out of the debris of dying stars Subject(s): Environment; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation LITTLE COSMIC DUST POEM First Line: Out of the debris of dying stars Last Line: This arm, this hand, %my voice, your face, this love Subject(s): Environment LIVE IN AN ASHTRAY First Line: In our thin white paper skins Last Line: The young ones beginning to burn LONG RAIN First Line: Rain falls %in the quiet woods Last Line: The olive thrush %is singing MAGIC First Line: Like a walk in the jungle of that dark country Last Line: And the cypress standing on no ground %like a spell MAN WHO SKINS ANIMALS First Line: He comes down from the hill Last Line: And well fed, sleeps %on a deep, calm water MAN WITH A SECRET LIFE First Line: I am not the one talking to you Last Line: The country from which you came MARIGOLD First Line: This is the plaza of paradise Last Line: Like pardoned sinners MEDITATION ON A SKULL CARVED IN CRYSTAL: 1 First Line: To think that the world Last Line: Of light, are all MEDITATION ON A SKULL CARVED IN CRYSTAL: 10 First Line: As if the pain of thought Last Line: With floating shadows, %voices waking as before Variant Title(s): Meditation Number MEDITATION ON A SKULL CARVED IN CRYSTAL: 11 First Line: Of the dissolution Last Line: Lights, globed fires %giving way to night Variant Title(s): Meditation Number MEDITATION ON A SKULL CARVED IN CRYSTAL: 12 First Line: Intelligence is what we find Last Line: Blackness, lighted %by a sun, distant within Variant Title(s): Meditation Number MEDITATION ON A SKULL CARVED IN CRYSTAL: 2 First Line: Out of a brilliant trouble in the stars Last Line: Like a bright and thinking lantern MEDITATION ON A SKULL CARVED IN CRYSTAL: 3 First Line: Within the artifact Last Line: But a small, green hollow %holding rain Variant Title(s): Meditation Number MEDITATION ON A SKULL CARVED IN CRYSTAL: 4 First Line: Where there is nothing Last Line: Drop by drop, the fate %of water sealed in a jar Variant Title(s): Meditation Number MEDITATION ON A SKULL CARVED IN CRYSTAL: 5 First Line: No one the color of darkness Last Line: The cry of a god trapped inside a star Variant Title(s): Meditation Number MEDITATION ON A SKULL CARVED IN CRYSTAL: 6 First Line: Blood into ice, and fur Last Line: In their glitter, %a smile of ferocious peace Variant Title(s): Meditation Number MEDITATION ON A SKULL CARVED IN CRYSTAL: 7 First Line: Burn sacrifice, for all Last Line: A drop of blood inside the sun Variant Title(s): Meditation Number MEN AGAINST THE SKY First Line: Across the oregon plateau Last Line: Its broken arms %clattering in the darkness MIDDLE AGES First Line: Always on the point of falling asleep Last Line: The reins still taut in that armored fist MIRROR First Line: From the bed where I lay Last Line: To the foot of a snowy mountain MISSOULA IN A DUSTY LIGHT Poem Text Recitation First Line: Walking home through the tall Last Line: Along the street. Subject(s): Montana MOLE First Line: Sometimes I envy those Last Line: As the rising sun slowly dries %his strange, unruly wings MOONS First Line: There are moons like continents Last Line: The warfare of planets %silently drips and festers MOOSE CALLING First Line: Who are you, %calling me in the dusk Last Line: At twilight %in the yellow frost %I wait for you MOOSEHEAD First Line: Stripped of its horns and skin Last Line: And a faint glowing of phosphorus MOTHBALL FLEET: BENICA, CALIFORNIA First Line: These massed gray shadows Last Line: They hold within them cries, %cold, echoing spaces MUSHROOM FABLE First Line: I knew them all in that age of saliva Last Line: Where slime mold calms the dead %with hemlock and nightshade MUSHROOM GROVE First Line: Here the forest people %died of a sexual longing Last Line: Their headstones are umbrellas, %black and weeping NAMES ON THE ROAD First Line: Shade hollow, I know your name Last Line: No waking promise; nothing but night NEWS FROM THE GLACIER First Line: That mid-fall morning, driving north Last Line: Little fists of plastic bags %beating the stony ground NIGHT First Line: Do not wake me, for I am not ready Last Line: Mute in the transformation %and do not wake me Subject(s): Environment NIGHT FALLS ONCE First Line: Sometimes I think the night is like a wandering Last Line: A million dawns were stacked against the brain NIGHT THAT RYDER KNEW First Line: Night is coming to the islands Last Line: Where death is riding, %and all the trees are white NIGHTHAWKS First Line: It is 3 a.M. In the brightly lit Last Line: Bright and cold, %in the empty street outside NONE COMING AFTER Last Line: Whom none will follow NOTES ON THE CAPITALIST PERSUASION Poem Text First Line: So runs the executive saw, NOTES ON THE CAPITALIST PERSUASION First Line: Everything is connected to everything Last Line: My triumph your despair NOVEMBER YOU First Line: Why is it and how, wherever I go Last Line: So swiftly? I am so cold OF MICHELANGELO, HIS QUESTION First Line: Sybil and prophet have spoken Last Line: Prayers from a guidebook- %to see, to question, and depart ON A CERTAIN FIELD IN AUVERS Poem Text First Line: On the road to hallucination Last Line: And the great light of the sun Subject(s): Alienation (social Psychology); Dissenters; Exiles; Marginality, Social; Estrangement; Outcasts ON A CERTAIN FIELD IN AUVERS First Line: On the road to hallucination Last Line: And the great light of the sun Subject(s): Alienation (social Psychology); Dissenters; Exiles; Marginality, Social ON A POINT OF DEPARTURE First Line: I had thought it would be different Last Line: And were afraid, and then they crept away ON BANNER DOME First Line: Ten miles from home %I climbed through the clear Last Line: Stones and devours the dead ON THE DIVIDE First Line: I am haunted by %the deaths of animals Last Line: Red mantle of dawn %sweeps over our bodies ON THE MOUNTAIN First Line: We climbed out of timber Last Line: In the rain and stormlit darkness ON THE ROAD First Line: It is not good to be poor Last Line: And there are no coins in the wind OREGON COAST First Line: This half-ruined porch of giants Last Line: Magnificence not yet destroyed Subject(s): Environment ORPHEUS First Line: She has gone back down the way of blood Last Line: The unrehearsed, deliberate artifice, %older, deeper, and more lasting OWL IN THE MASK OF THE DREAMER First Line: Nothing bestial or human remains Last Line: No matter how far they walk %they will never be closer Variant Title(s): From The Workshop Of Brancusi And Giacomett PANORAMA First Line: The games of beasts and children Last Line: At sundown, now to be a hunter, %not a king on the shelf PAOLO AND FRANCESCA First Line: Only they who have found in love Last Line: Wakefulness, refusal of sleep, %vigil and consummation PASSAGE First Line: Between night and day a door Last Line: Where sand lifts and the wind blows PAUL KLEE First Line: The hot mice feeding in red Last Line: No one is drowning PAWNEE DUST First Line: Goodbye, I see the horsemen mounting Last Line: Nothing more to say. Good hunting west PETER'S START First Line: See the house %with the christmas tree Last Line: By itself when the storm %blew the house away PICKERS Poem Text First Line: All day we were bent over, Subject(s): Farm Life; Agriculture; Farmers PICKERS First Line: All day we were bent over Last Line: Of the field, the light, and the cold PICTURE FOR A BREAKFAST ROOM First Line: Lean upon the table, rest Last Line: The humming warmth outside: %morning for a day PICTURES AND PARABLES First Line: Beginning with autumn in another Last Line: Above a worshiping city PITCHER OF MILK First Line: Today is the peace of this mist Last Line: In a cloud of white blood POEM First Line: The immense sadness %of approaching winter Last Line: From the top %of that tree POEM First Line: Not for this time nor that alone Last Line: But for the other arms that lie asleep POEM ABOUT BIRCH TREES First Line: From the life held back in secret Last Line: And that hollow life breaks down POEM FOR A COLD JOURNEY First Line: On the road of the self-%contained traveler I stood Last Line: That was coming, the sound %of a loud, cold trumpet POEM FOR A DROWNED CHILD First Line: Beyond these %fairy fields and the still flashing through fog Last Line: Chambers of the drowned POEM FOR THE END OF THE CENTURY Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: I am the dreamer who remains Subject(s): Time; Optimism POEM OF THE FORGOTTEN First Line: I came to this place Last Line: In the first snow of autumn, %filled with silence POEM OF THE WINTRY FISHERMAN First Line: At the foot of october %where the current narrows Last Line: The hungry, shuddering night POEM WITHOUT MEANING First Line: We have been building it for Last Line: The porm becoming night POLITICS AND THE DEAD Poem Text First Line: Who calls from the paper columns? Subject(s): Politics & Government PRAYER TO THE SNOWY OWL First Line: Descend, silent spirit; %you whose golden eyes Last Line: Who gnaw in the dark -- %preserver of whiteness PRESENCE First Line: Out of her sleeping body Last Line: Until the gray light grew %and I awoke PROCESSION First Line: Long, wavering files of ghostly children Last Line: Swings, and overhead a bell begins to toll PROPHECY First Line: How to live, when the only life Last Line: And the grinding rut of pride RAIN First Line: We found some truth in the wet wood Last Line: And our house is a raft of shingles %sunk under leaves and vines RAIN COUNTRY Poem Text First Line: The woods are sodden, Subject(s): Rain RAIN COUNTRY First Line: The woods are sodden, %and the last leaves Last Line: I look through, the steep %rain turning to snow RAIN FOREST First Line: A green ape, drinker of clouds Last Line: To a tongue growing green Subject(s): Environment RAIN GLASS First Line: A winter morning, and the sea Last Line: With gray walls and distant pictures RED ATLANTIS First Line: The sodden bumping of caisson wheels Last Line: Sinks like a bursting diver ... RED TREES IN THE WIND First Line: This burning flight of summer Last Line: And there is no one to hear or believe RELUCTANT MUSIC First Line: That time now and what I feel of compelling essence Last Line: And sit for a long while, running my hands over a book RETURN OF THE SUN First Line: All the dead mouths %have stopped singing Last Line: Like a golden cord %around their secret life RIDERS First Line: This is the forest - marta, are you there? Last Line: And we: the dreaded awakening ROADWAYS First Line: These images and their hidden voices Last Line: Through the squalor %of awakening eastern streets RODIN: THE GATES OF HELL First Line: In all the rotting tombwork, paint Last Line: The metal and stone, %that each inhabits alone ROLLING BACK First Line: For a long time now Last Line: Gathering speed in the dark %on the mountain grade RYDER First Line: The moonlight has touched them all Last Line: A pale horse of torment flying SECOND TREE First Line: You have told us your story Last Line: Of a listening child %comes an exhausted sigh SEPTEMBER SONG First Line: Sweetened with rain, how often will Last Line: And whispers, %come away, come away SHADOW AND SUBSTANCE First Line: I see two paths. Or none Last Line: Who divide and disappear %and meet again in the mist SHADOWS First Line: In the evening %near the end of summer Last Line: The invisible %host of darkness SHAVER First Line: The back door swung open Last Line: In the wire %of its beak-chipped bars SHEPHERD'S PURSE First Line: Poverty weed or beggar tick Last Line: Than one heart, %and you may survive SHORT HISTORY OF THE REPUBLIC First Line: The great migration had passed Last Line: With the ominous shadow of myth SIMILITUDE First Line: I think of a man flaying the earth Last Line: Into the soft, wet flesh of the tree SKAGWAY First Line: I dreamed that I married Last Line: My seventy pages peeling SLEEP First Line: Whether we fall asleep under the moon Last Line: Waiting for our life to begin SLEEPWALKERS First Line: And the time that was given Last Line: For the first king to wake SMOKE First Line: An animal smelling %of ashes %crossed the hills Last Line: Its breath %thick and choking SNOWBOUND CITY First Line: I believe in this stalled magnificence Last Line: Their faces glowing with disaster SNOWY NIGHT First Line: This is like a place %we used to know Last Line: Like a ghost %in heavy chains SONG First Line: I shall live to the candlelight of your eyes Last Line: I say, though my grave is empty SONG First Line: As if my love were like the bending year Last Line: And yet, fair girl, she dreams SOUND OF ANIMALS IN THE NIGHT First Line: Dark wings that brush the foliage Last Line: With huge, wounded hearts SOUTH WIND First Line: I dreamed of horses in the night Last Line: As the wild, invisible army %overran the north SPILLED MILK First Line: When I see milk spilled on the table Last Line: Saying he never meant to do it ST. LUKE First Line: Ox and saint, %your eroded sepulcher Last Line: From a book %that has turned to stone STALLED COLOSSUS First Line: So you stand to your waist Last Line: No one can hope to climb STAMPEDE First Line: There are cold, bearded men Last Line: And the white land of promise STAR PHOTO First Line: You are here, in this country Last Line: And a comet for your watchdog STONE BEAR First Line: An old, root-crowded cemetery Last Line: And freeze into living stone STONE HARP (2) First Line: In delta junction %the only poet is the wind Last Line: By a handful of leaves STONES First Line: They are dreaming existence Last Line: For god to remember their names STOPPING BY A BENCH ON A WINTER EVENING First Line: Whose goods these are I think I know Last Line: Just one more bench before I sleep SUDDEN SPRING First Line: The coyote had just spoken Last Line: Between two weeping candles SUN ON YOUR SHOULDER First Line: We lie together in the grass Last Line: Tall in the first green morning SWEATER OF VLADIMIR USSACHEVSKY First Line: Facing the wind of the avenues Last Line: In one of his remote provinces TAR First Line: A tar baby was born among us Last Line: A black hand wrinkles in the wind TELLING First Line: There is one and only one...' Last Line: And your finally stricken heart, %wondering and amazed TENDERFOOT First Line: It is dusk back there, the road Last Line: Of a lonely people toward the past THAW First Line: This wind is like water Last Line: Against the silent %and relentless cold THE AMERICAN DREAM Poem Text First Line: It would have to be something dark, Subject(s): Heroism; United States; Heroes; Heroines; America THE BILLBOARDS IN EXILE Poem Text First Line: The truth was finally written, Subject(s): Billboards; Popular Culture THE DREAM OF FEBRUARY Poem Text First Line: In the moonlight, Subject(s): Hunting; Death - Animals; Foxes THE EYE IN THE ROCK Poem Text First Line: A high rock face above flathead lake Last Line: Painted this eye that the rock might see. Subject(s): Admiration; Mines & Miners; Mountains; Stones; Hills; Downs (great Britain); Granite; Rocks THE GHOST TOWNS Poem Text First Line: The north is strewn with cities Subject(s): Ghost Towns; Nature THE GIRL WHO BURIED SNAKES IN A JAR Poem Text First Line: She came to see the bones Subject(s): Snakes; Death - Animals; Serpents; Vipers THE HEAD ON THE TABLE Poem Text First Line: The enormous head of a bison Last Line: Of swamp water and peat. Subject(s): Explorers; Museums; Stones; Exploring; Discovery; Discoverers; Art Gallerys; Granite; Rocks THE LAST ELECTION Poem Text First Line: Suppose there are no returns, Subject(s): Pol;itics THE SNOWBOUND CITY Poem Text First Line: I believe in this stalled magnificence Subject(s): Snow THE STONE HARP (1) Poem Text First Line: A road deepening in the north Last Line: By a handful of leaves... Subject(s): Poetry & Poets THE SWEATER OF VLADIMIR USSACHEVSKY Poem Text First Line: Facing the wind of the avenues THE TURNING Poem Text First Line: A bear loped before me Subject(s): Bears THE UNEMPLOYED, DISABLED, AND INSANE Poem Text First Line: He stands alone at the city corner, Subject(s): Unemployment THE WHALE IN THE BLUE WASHING MACHINE Poem Text First Line: There are depths even in a household Subject(s): Whales THERE ARE NO SUCH TREES IN ALPINE, CALIFORNIA First Line: I wanted a house Last Line: Through smoke and falling leaves THIS DARK WATER Poem Text First Line: Reading in another man's book Subject(s): Alaska TO A MAN GOIND BLIND First Line: As you face the evenings Last Line: The petrified rumble %from a world going blind TO LIVE AMONG CHILDREN First Line: To live among children, %to listen, an ear to their trouble Last Line: What bird, what beast was that TO MY FATHER First Line: Last evening I entered a pool Last Line: Its widening circle in the dusk TO REMEMBER ANOTHER TIME First Line: Helen, beyond all accustomed beauty I place you Last Line: And you still bright, the remaining star in a darkened land TO THE WALL First Line: To the wall that holds up night Last Line: On the forges of sunset, %stand before that wall TO TURN BACK First Line: The grass people bow %their heads before the wind Last Line: And friendly thoughts, %and not be afraid TO VERA THOMPSON First Line: Woman whose face %is a blurred map of roots Last Line: Under snow of these roses and stones TOMORROW First Line: I see a city spreading on the plain Last Line: Sighs for love, nor knows I lived TONDO OF HELL First Line: Everything we can think of to name Last Line: Of the slothful beaten hard %with a four-foot spoon TOTEM First Line: How dark you are, you wooden image Last Line: You were better on that primal shore, and we in a dim cellar TRAIN STOPS AT HEALY FORK First Line: We pressed our faces %against the freezing glass Last Line: In the starry gloom of the canyon TRAVELER First Line: Among the quiet people of the frost Last Line: Crunched in the darkness %and were gone TREE First Line: Tree of my life Last Line: Like a secret still to be named TREE THAT BECAME A HOUSE First Line: They came to live in me Last Line: My dead cones drop in silence TREES ARE PEOPLE AND THE PEOPLE ARE TREES First Line: And there in the crowded commons Last Line: And gently lifted their arms TUNDRA First Line: The tundra is a living %body warm in the grassy Last Line: Rolls over and sinks %in the darkness TUNNEL First Line: Disappearance begins with you Last Line: Your face a tunnel of lights %which I no longer see TURNING First Line: A bear loped before me Last Line: A charred companion %my shed life TWINFLOWERS First Line: You delicate mourners %tending the forest people Last Line: Slowly cover these rotting trees TWO HORSES, ONE BY THE ROADSIDE First Line: A black horse standing Last Line: And the horse led away %to a winter stall VERSE First Line: But time and change are misconstrued Last Line: With the cold, have long since fled VICTIMS First Line: The knife that makes long scars Last Line: His own dripping carcass VICTORIA First Line: A girl, half, indian, seated Last Line: Each one seeking the other VISITOR First Line: The door is open Last Line: Wrapped in a stillness made of %ice and starlit tears WAITING First Line: I haven't said a word Last Line: That has not yet spoken WATCHING THE FIRE First Line: Where are the red men Last Line: And cries softly for flesh and blood WATER OF NIGHT First Line: Before any match was struck Last Line: Seething and rocking, %water of night WAY WEST First Line: Maybe there'll come a time again Last Line: Before the sun drinks west WEAVER First Line: By a window in the west Last Line: Into one seamless, deepening cloth WHALE IN THE BLUE WASHING MACHINE First Line: There are depths in a household Last Line: The steep fall of his wave WHAT IS LIFE First Line: There are no roads %but the paths we make Last Line: The lost bystander %who thinks he sees WHISTLE COLUMN First Line: On a hill above the town Last Line: A faraway sound began, %every horn, every bell WINDSONG First Line: How about the wind Last Line: What does that mean? WINTER LIGHT First Line: We still go about our lives Last Line: Filled caves with the color %of unforgettable beasts WINTER NEWS First Line: They say the wells %are freezing Last Line: Calls the white- %haired children home WOLVES First Line: Last night I heard wolves howling Last Line: With the moon for an icy sail WOMAN ON THE ROAD First Line: It was n north dakota, %and she walked the furrows Last Line: A noise like a broken stick WOUNDED LIFE First Line: You, downcast, sitting on your bed Last Line: Like a single unfastened button YETI First Line: Our years are driven wild Last Line: Gives back one burning %look, and goes YOUNG MAN Poem Text First Line: I seemed always standing Subject(s): Youth; Death; Dead, The ZINNIAS First Line: You will never find your places Last Line: In the bleak soil of heaven |
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