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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: HIRSCH, EDWARD Matches Found: 216 Hirsch, Edward Poet's Biography 216 poems available by this author ACROSS THE LONG DARK BORDER Poem Text First Line: My sister and I learned about our first war Last Line: War between the states. Subject(s): American Civil War; Divorce; Novels & Novelists; United States - History AFTER THE LAST PRACTICE; GRINNELL, IOWA, NOVEMBER 1941 Poem Text First Line: Someone said, I remember the first hard crack Last Line: Promised land of the empty endzone Subject(s): Football; Memory AFTER THE LAST PRACTICE; GRINNELL, IOWA, NOVEMBER 1941 First Line: Someone said, I remember the first hard crack Last Line: And then someone began singing in the darkness Subject(s): Football; Memory AMERICAN APOCALYPSE First Line: It was as if god had taken a pen of fire Last Line: A city that aspired upward toward the sky Variant Title(s): 'american Apocalypse AMERICAN SUMMER First Line: Each day was a time clock that scarecely moved Last Line: The freedom of walking out into the open air ANCIENT SIGNS First Line: He loved statues with broken noses Last Line: Trying to carry him hone again AND WHO WILL LOOK UPON OUR TESTIMONY Poem Text First Line: On an unsuspecting wednesday in october 1347 Subject(s): Aids (disease); Persecution; Plague; Sickness; Illness AND WHO WILL LOOK UPON OUR TESTIMONY First Line: On an unsuspecting wednesday in october 1347 Last Line: Who will die in its own time %with its own wondering tales of woe Subject(s): Aids (disease); Persecution; Plague; Sickness APOSTROPHE (IN MEMORY OF DONALD BARTHELME, 1931-1989) Poem Text First Line: Perpetual worrier, patron of the misfit Last Line: And warmer, warmer and fair, most fair Subject(s): Barthelme, Donald (1931-1989); Novels & Novelists APOSTROPHE (IN MEMORY OF DONALD BARTHELME, 1931-1989) First Line: Perpetual worrier, patron of the misfit Last Line: Which, as you said, is going to be fair %and warmer, warmer and fair, most fair Subject(s): Barthelme, Donald (1931-1989); Novels And Novelists ART PEPPER Poem Text First Line: It's the broken phrases, the fury inside him Subject(s): Jazz; Music & Musicians; Pepper, Art (1925-1982) ART PEPPER First Line: It's the broken phrases, the fury inside him Last Line: The white grief-stricken wail Subject(s): Jazz; Music And Musicians; Pepper, Art (1925-1982) AT THE GRAVE OF WALLACE STEVENS Poem Text First Line: One thinks of the gods dissolving in midair Subject(s): Stevens, Wallace (1879-1955) AT THE GRAVE OF WALLACE STEVENS First Line: One thinks of the gods dissolving in midair Last Line: The domes of skyscrapers gleam in the distance Subject(s): Stevens, Wallace (1879-1955) AWAY FROM DOGMA First Line: One night in portugal, alone ina forlorn Last Line: God came down and possessed her BLUE HYDRANGEA First Line: Mop-headed transplant from late summer Last Line: To explode through the sterile florets %and burn away the night BLUE RIDER First Line: He remembered leaping over the corral Last Line: Hooves clattering beneath him BLUNT MORNING First Line: I'll never forget that morning when my mother-in-law Last Line: And then she fell back against her pillows %and stopped breathing BRIGHTNESS First Line: I think of those months when we lay down together BURNING OF THE MIDNIGHT LAMP First Line: Listening to purple haze and the wind cries mary Last Line: And electric guitars exploded in flames CEMETERY BY THE SEA First Line: There is a treacherous curve on route 36 CEMETERY BY THE SEA: KAHUKU First Line: It's dawn and the sunlight CHINESE VASE First Line: Sometimes I think that my body is a vase Last Line: To kneel down, to forget the impossible weight %of being human, to drink clear water COMMUTERS Poem Text First Line: It's that vague feeling of panic Subject(s): Commuters COMMUTERS First Line: It's that vague feeling of panic Last Line: Seem to float under green water %and the streets fill up with sea lights Subject(s): Commuters COMPLAINT First Line: The loudmouthed overweight woman with her hair in curlers DAWN WALK DAYS OF 1968 First Line: She walked through grant park during the red days of summer Last Line: I can go to her if I don't look back at the ground DESIRE MANUSCRIPTS: 1. THE CRAVING First Line: I needed a warning from the goddess Last Line: I crave those voices dreaming in my sleep DESIRE MANUSCRIPTS: 2. THE RAVISHMENT First Line: I listened so the goddess could charm my mind Last Line: That dark green shore sweetened with clover DESIRE MANUSCRIPTS: 3. WHAT THE GODDESS CAN DO First Line: Maybe it was the way she held her head Last Line: What the goddess can do to me, if she desires DESIRE MANUSCRIPTS: 4. THE SENTENCE First Line: When you read canto five aloud last night Last Line: Our heaven will always be our hell, a swoon DESIRE MANUSCRIPTS: 5. THE MOURNING FIELDS First Line: The world below is starless, stark and deep Last Line: Here on earth, a pitless world above DESIRE MANUSCRIPTS: 6. AFTER ALL THE ORPHIC ENCHANTMENTS First Line: After all the orphic enchantments, after all Last Line: And swiveling round to gaze at her forever DESIRE MANUSCRIPTS: 7. THE REGRET First Line: If we had never married, if you had never strolled Last Line: Still singing about us, what might have been DEVIL'S NIGHT First Line: He saw teenagers carrying flammable cans Last Line: A broken skyline smoldered in the distance DINO CAMPANA AND THE BEAR First Line: Here, in the night, I'm staring EARTHLY LIGHT First Line: I thought of northern skies flooded Last Line: Earth that is so fleeting, so real EVANESCENCE First Line: The day was green and abstract Last Line: We had been brushed by evanescence EXCUSES Poem Text First Line: If only I could begin to sift through the smoke Subject(s): Love EXCUSES First Line: If only I could begin to sift through the smoke Last Line: Like a shadow on fire Subject(s): Love EXECUTION Poem Text First Line: The last time I saw my high school football coach Subject(s): Education; Schools; Sports; Students EXECUTION First Line: The last time I saw my high school football coach Last Line: Machine-like fury, perfect execution Subject(s): Education; Schools; Sports FACTORIES Poem Text First Line: Everywhere in new york city there are factories Last Line: Pumping blood through the stillness of our arteries Subject(s): Industry; Labor & Laborers; New York City; Work; Workers FACTORIES First Line: Everywhere in new york city there are factories Last Line: Pumping blood through the stillness of my arteries Subject(s): Industry; Labor And Laborers FAMILY STORIES First Line: I've been told about it so often FAST BREAK Poem Text First Line: A hook shot kisses the rim and Last Line: Floating perfectly through the net. Subject(s): Basketball; Sports FIRST SNOWFALL: INTIMATIONS Poem Text First Line: How long it has taken me to recall Subject(s): Nature FIRST SNOWFALL: INTIMATIONS First Line: How long it has taken me to recall Last Line: And raced each other home Subject(s): Nature FOR THE NEW WORLD Poem Text First Line: The first idea was man walking through space in a tower Last Line: The first idea was man walking through space in a tower Subject(s): Buildings & Builders; Chicago; Cities; Urban Life FOR THE NEW WORLD First Line: The first idea was man walking through space in a tower Last Line: The first idea was man walking through space in a tower Subject(s): Buildings And Builders; Chicago; Cities FOR THE SLEEPWALKERS Poem Text First Line: Tonight I want to say something wonderful Subject(s): Dreams; Sleepwalking; Nightmares FOR THE SLEEPWALKERS First Line: Tonight I want to say something wonderful Last Line: And wake up to ourselves, nourished and surprised Subject(s): Dreams; Sleepwalking FOUR A.M. First Line: The hollow, unearthly hour of night Last Line: The first broken plank of morning FROM A TRAIN First Line: He saw tumultuous plains, interminable plateaus Last Line: Andromeda rising, a divinity that would not die out FUNDAMENTALIST First Line: It was just a dump really Last Line: And carried into the light HADES SONNETS: 1. SELF-PORTRAIT AS PERSEPHONE First Line: I tasted the white poppy of the dead Last Line: Death itself, a schooling for the soul HADES SONNETS: 2. FRANZ MARC'S LOST PAINTING ORPHEUS WITH THE.. First Line: Picture the orphic painter walking alone Last Line: And discovered the lost entrance to hades HADES SONNETS: 3. THE FORGETFULNESS CHAIR First Line: My obstinate, self-absorbed, courageous Last Line: And never found his way back to the living HADES SONNETS: 4. THE ASPHODEL MEADOWS First Line: I dreamt that I found our bloodless shades Last Line: And then I woke with you in my arms HADES SONNETS: 5. TO DEMETER First Line: For I was broken open and shattered Last Line: We will be together again in one body HADES SONNETS: 6. SELF-PORTRAIT AS HADES AND PERSEPHONE First Line: Out of the nether regions of nightfall Last Line: That was demonic, treacherous, immortal HADES SONNETS: 7. VOYAGE First Line: I dreamt that you slipped a silver coin Last Line: And return with them to the waking world HOMAGE TO O'KEEFFE First Line: That year I lived with a colorful print HOTEL WINDOW Poem Text First Line: Aura of absence, vertigo of non-being Subject(s): Hotels; Inns; Innskeepers; Motels; Boarding Houses HOTEL WINDOW First Line: Aura of absence, vertigo of non-being Last Line: And it was dizzying, relentless, eternal Subject(s): Hotels HUSBAND AND WIFE First Line: I woke up and found you above me Last Line: Was a sword over eden's gate IDEA OF THE HOLY (NEW YORK CITY, 1975) First Line: Out of the doleful city of dis Last Line: And sailed to the far side of nothing IN MEMORIAM PAUL CELAN Poem Text First Line: Lay these words into the dead man's grave Subject(s): Celan, Paul (1920-1970) IN MEMORIAM PAUL CELAN First Line: Lay these words into the dead man's grave Last Line: Let god pray to us for this man Subject(s): Celan, Paul (1920-1970) IN THE MIDDLE OF AUGUST First Line: The dead heat rises for weeks IN THE MIDNIGHT HOUR First Line: Once more the clock tolls like a heartbeat Last Line: I heard the wind lashing the branches IN THE MIDWEST Poem Text First Line: He saw the iron wings of daybreak struggling Last Line: He saw the gouged bodies of the unborn Subject(s): Nature; Middle West IN THE MIDWEST First Line: He saw the iron wings of daybreak struggling Last Line: He saw the gouged bodies of the unborn Subject(s): Nature INCANDESCENCE AT DUSK First Line: There is fire in everything INFERTILITY First Line: We don't know how to name IOWA SUITE: 1. THE VOW First Line: We stood in the midst Last Line: Giving names to the bare places IOWA SUITE: 2. OCEAN OF GRASS First Line: The ground was holy, but the wind was harsh Last Line: For those who drowned in an ocean of grass IOWA SUITE: 3. IOWA FLORA First Line: We thought we were having an indigenous childhood Last Line: And the shining, cup-flowered grass of parnassus IOWA SUITE: 4. HOMAGE TO GRANT WOOD First Line: For years, I distrusted his spongy green trees Last Line: I felt a sudden surge of happiness restored ITALIAN MUSE First Line: Thus was the past: hoary, formidable Last Line: The passionate garrulity of human grief LECTURES ON LOVE: 1. CHARLES BAUDELAIRE (VARIANT OF 'ON LOVE') First Line: These lectures afford me a great pleasure Last Line: Evil comes enswathed in every pleasure Variant Title(s): The Lectures On Love: Charles Baudelair Subject(s): Baudelaire, Charles (1821-1867); French Poetry - Symbolism; Poetry And Poets LECTURES ON LOVE: 2. HEINRICH HEINE (VARIANT OF 'ON LOVE') First Line: Thank you, thank you ladies and gentlemen Last Line: We are drowning. All that rescues us is love Subject(s): Heine, Heinrich (1797-1856); Poetry And Poets LECTURES ON LOVE: 3. MARQUIS DE SADE First Line: This is the first time I have given a lecture Last Line: I would release you to a terrible freedom Subject(s): Sade, Marquis De (1740-1814) LECTURES ON LOVE: 4. MARGARET FULLER (VARIANT OF 'ON LOVE') First Line: Thank you for attending this conversation on love Last Line: A woman can no longer be sacrificed for love Subject(s): Fuller, Margaret (1810-1850) LECTURES ON LOVE: 5. GIACOMO LEOPARDI (VARIANT OF 'ON LOVE') First Line: Thank you for listening to this new poem Last Line: Love alone can redeem our universe Subject(s): Leopardi, Giacomo (1798-1837) LECTURES ON LOVE: 6. RALPH WALDO EMERSON (VARIANT OF 'ON LOVE') First Line: Thank you for coming to this lecture on love Last Line: Come lie down with me and devour the world Subject(s): Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803-1882) LECTURES ON LOVE: 7. COLETTE (VARIANT OF 'ON LOVE') First Line: My young friends, this is the final lecture Last Line: Savor the world. Consume the feast with love Subject(s): Colette, Sidonie Gabrielle (1873-1954) LENINGRAD (1941-1943) Poem Text First Line: For some of us it began with wild dogs Subject(s): World War Ii; Second World War LENINGRAD (1941-1943) First Line: For some of us it began with wild dogs Last Line: And scraped away the useless blue skin %and the dead flesh. Somehow we lived Subject(s): World War Ii LUMINIST PAINTINGS AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY First Line: Slowly the nineteenth century is turning into dusk Last Line: Schooners at evening lumbering across the bay MAN ON A FIRE ESCAPE Poem Text First Line: He couldn't remember what propelled him Subject(s): Cities; Urban Life MAN ON A FIRE ESCAPE First Line: He couldn't remember what propelled him Last Line: Like a warning-icy, long-forgotten- %while he turned back to an empty room. Subject(s): Cities MATISSE Poem Text First Line: To begin with a light as vivid and warm Last Line: Through the trees like colorful wild beasts Subject(s): Matisse, Henri (1869-1954); Family Life MATISSE First Line: To begin with a light as vivid and warm Subject(s): Art And Artists MEMORANDUMS First Line: I put down these memorandums of my affections MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS First Line: Beyond junk bonds and oil spills Last Line: A failed grief, a lost radiance MILENA JESENSKA Poem Text First Line: Thank you for attending this tribute to love Subject(s): Death; Mourning; Dead, The; Bereavement MILENA JESENSKA First Line: Thank you for attending this tribute to love Last Line: And now we must live without his help Subject(s): Death; Mourning MOTOR First Line: It's the way the motor wheezed and coughed MY FATHER'S BACK First Line: There is an early memory that I carry around Last Line: A car door slams, just once, and he's gone. %tiny pools of water glisten on the street MY GRANDFATHER'S POEMS First Line: I remember that he wrote them backwards Last Line: Those faint wingbeats, that hushed singing MY GRANDMOTHER'S BED Poem Text First Line: How she pulled it out of the wall Last Line: And her bed disappeared without a trace. Subject(s): Beds; Grandparents; Grandmothers; Grandfathers; Great Grandfathers; Great Grandmothers NAMING THE LOST First Line: In his seminal postmodern meditation, 'thinking against oneself' NEBRASKA, 1883 First Line: Westward the wagon jolted Last Line: Doggedly standing up to the emptiness ON LOVE: BERTOIT BRECHT First Line: Let's light a match to the good old days Last Line: Our destiny to free ourselves for love Subject(s): Brecht, Bertolt (1898-1956) ON LOVE: BERTOLT BRECHT Poem Text First Line: Let's light a match to the good old days Subject(s): Brecht, Bertolt (1898-1956); Love ON LOVE: CHARLES BAUDELAIRE Poem Text First Line: These speculations afford me great pleasure Subject(s): Baudelaire, Charles (1821-1867); French Poetry - Symbolism; Poetry & Poets; Love ON LOVE: CHARLES BAUDELAIRE First Line: These speculations afford me great pleasure Last Line: Evil comes enswathed in every pleasure Subject(s): Baudelaire, Charles (1821-1867); French Poetry - Symbolism; Poetry And Poets ON LOVE: COLETTE Poem Text First Line: My mother used to say, 'sit down, dear Variant Title(s): The Lectures On Love: 7. Colette Subject(s): Colette, Sidonie Gabrielle (1873-1954); Love ON LOVE: COLETTE First Line: My mother used to say, 'sit down, dear Last Line: Savor the world. Consume the feast with love Variant Title(s): The Lectures On Love: 7. Colett Subject(s): Colette, Sidonie Gabrielle (1873-1954) ON LOVE: D. H. LAWRENCE Poem Text First Line: After the sweet red wine and the dry lecture Subject(s): Lawrence, David Herbert (1885-1930); Love ON LOVE: D. H. LAWRENCE First Line: After the sweet red wine and the dry lecture Last Line: Ourselves immersed in a paradise of books Subject(s): Lawrence, David Herbert (1885-1930) ON LOVE: DENIS DIDEROT Poem Text First Line: The strange, enlightening subject of love Subject(s): Diderot, Denis (1713-1784); Love ON LOVE: DENIS DIDEROT First Line: The strange, enlightening subject of love Last Line: Yourself the encyclopedia of love Subject(s): Diderot, Denis (1713-1784) ON LOVE: DR. X Poem Text First Line: So let's create a scene: I'm 'in love' Subject(s): Love ON LOVE: DR. X First Line: So let's create a scene: I'm 'in love' Last Line: Eros is our way of re-forming ourselves Subject(s): Love ON LOVE: FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA Poem Text First Line: I would invite loneliness into the room Subject(s): Garcia Lorca, Federico (1898-1936); Love ON LOVE: FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA First Line: I would invite loneliness into the room Last Line: The mystery of eros burns in our hands Subject(s): Garcia Lorca, Federico (1898-1936) ON LOVE: GEORGE MEREDITH Poem Text First Line: The ordeal of modern love forms my subject Subject(s): Meredith, George (1828-1909); Novels & Novelists; Love ON LOVE: GEORGE MEREDITH First Line: The ordeal of modern love forms my subject Last Line: My one desire, my faithless modern love Subject(s): Meredith, George (1828-1909); Novels And Novelists ON LOVE: GERTRUDE STEIN Poem Text First Line: Love happens to be an astonishing state Subject(s): Stein, Gertrude (1874-1946); Love ON LOVE: GERTRUDE STEIN First Line: Love happens to be an astonishing state Last Line: Love happens to be. An astonishing state Subject(s): Stein, Gertrude (1874-1946) ON LOVE: GIACOMO LEPARDI. POETRY WOULD BE A WAY OF PRAISING GOD ... Poem Text First Line: Deep in the heart of night Last Line: Love alone can redeem our universe Variant Title(s): The Lectures On Love: 5. Giacoma Leopardi Subject(s): Leopardi, Giacomo (1798-1837); Love ON LOVE: GIACOMO LEPARDI. POETRY WOULD BE A WAY OF PRAISING GOD ... First Line: Deep in the heart of night Last Line: Love alone can redeem our universe Variant Title(s): The Lectures On Love: 5. Giacoma Leopard Subject(s): Leopardi, Giacomo (1798-1837) ON LOVE: GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE First Line: It's the right time to pollinate the air Last Line: Come down to find me singing in the flames Subject(s): Apollinaire, Guillaume (1880-1918); Poetry And Poets; Surrealism ON LOVE: H. D. First Line: Do not blame helen Last Line: For us, merging again Subject(s): Doolittle, Hilda (1886-1961) ON LOVE: HEINRICH HEINE Poem Text First Line: I come to you as a whole-hearted man Last Line: We are drowning; all that rescues us is love Subject(s): Heine, Heinrich (1797-1856); Poetry & Poets; Love ON LOVE: HEINRICH HEINE First Line: I come to you as a whole-hearted man Last Line: We are drowning. All that rescues us is love Subject(s): Heine, Heinrich (1797-1856); Poetry And Poets ON LOVE: LAFCADIO HEARN Poem Text First Line: I, too, must make diverse pilgrimages Subject(s): Hearn, Lafcadio (1850-1904); Love ON LOVE: LAFCADIO HEARN First Line: I, too, must make diverse pilgrimages Last Line: I welcome you to a shocking happiness Subject(s): Hearn, Lafcadio (1850-1904) ON LOVE: MARGARET FULLER Poem Text First Line: Thank you for attending this conversation on love Last Line: A woman can no longer be sacrificed for love Variant Title(s): The Lectures On Love: 4. Margaret Fuller Subject(s): Fuller, Margaret (1810-1850); Love; Women's Rights ON LOVE: MARGARET FULLER First Line: Thank you for attending this conversation on love Last Line: A woman can no longer be sacrificed for love Variant Title(s): The Lectures On Love: 4. Margaret Fulle Subject(s): Fuller, Margaret (1810-1850) ON LOVE: MARINA TSVETAEVA Poem Text First Line: Human thresholds are meant to be crossed Last Line: I would be a wing that soars for love Subject(s): Alienation (social Psychology); Love - Unrequited; Tsvetayeva, Marina (1892-1941); Estrangement; Outcasts ON LOVE: MILENA JESENSKA First Line: I am raising my voice in a tribute to love Last Line: And now we must live without his help ON LOVE: OSCAR GINSBURG First Line: Ladies and gentlemen, friends and strangers Last Line: Son, brooding about the strangeness of love Subject(s): Grandparents; Jews; Love ON LOVE: OSCAR WILDE First Line: To set the scene: we're in a country house Last Line: Think of love when you think of oscar wilde Subject(s): Wilde, Oscar (1854-1900) ON LOVE: PAUL VALERY First Line: My subject is the oddity of amative life Last Line: But I wish you all a form of radiance Subject(s): Valery, Paul (1871-1945) ON LOVE: PROLOGUE First Line: I woke up to voices speaking of love Last Line: Life, my own, these ventures in love ON LOVE: RALPH WALDO EMERSON Poem Text First Line: Let's devour the blessed apple of love Last Line: Come lie down with me and devour the world Variant Title(s): The Lectures On Love: 6. Ralph Waldo Emerson Subject(s): Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803-1882); Love ON LOVE: RALPH WALDO EMERSON First Line: Let's devour the blessed apple of love Last Line: Come lie down with me and devour the world Variant Title(s): The Lectures On Love: 6. Ralph Waldo Emerso Subject(s): Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803-1882) ON LOVE: ROBERT DESNOS First Line: I would like to crack open my heart for you Subject(s): Desnos, Robert (1900-1945); Love ON LOVE: ROBERT DESNOS First Line: I would like to crack open my heart for you Last Line: I return to the waking world for you Subject(s): Desnos, Robert (1900-1945) ON LOVE: TRISTAN TZARA Poem Text First Line: There is no such thing as a dada lecture Subject(s): Tzara, Tristan (1896-1963) ON LOVE: TRISTAN TZARA First Line: There is no such thing as a dada lecture Last Line: I am opposed to every system except one Subject(s): Tzara, Tristan (1896-1963) ON LOVE: ZORA NEALE HURSTON First Line: A lot of racial uplifters, 'negotiations Subject(s): Hurston, Zora Neale (1903-1960); Love ON LOVE: ZORA NEALE HURSTON First Line: A lot of racial uplifters, 'negotiations Last Line: On this pilgrimage, henceforth and forever Subject(s): Hurston, Zora Neale (1903-1960) ON THE DEATH OF HART CRANE First Line: What is rainfall but the sky grieving Last Line: The sea is a grave of tears ORPHEUS ASCENDING First Line: Like a penitent extending a flame Last Line: A world above so much like the world below ORPHEUS: THE DESCENT First Line: Two nuns selling raffle tickets in a kiosk Last Line: By the echo of sirens pulsing in the distance ORPHIC RITES First Line: Plato says the gods sent him weeping away, empty Last Line: Under a cloudy sky brimming with erasures OUT OF THE PAST First Line: It's as if I'm in a field thick with mist PAINTING OF PAN First Line: I wasn't afraid of the painting of pan Last Line: That look of haunted recognition PAUL CELAN: A GRAVE AND MYSTERIOUS SENTENCE Poem Text First Line: It's daybreak and I wish I could believe Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews; Shoah; Judaism PAUL CELAN: A GRAVE AND MYSTERIOUS SENTENCE First Line: It's daybreak and I wish I could believe Last Line: Forever breaking behind the smokestacks Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews PHOTOGRAPH RIPPED IN HALF First Line: I don't know what it means PILGRIMAGE First Line: Today I returned to see those two Last Line: Half-feigned, half-real, and wholly human POET AT SEVEN First Line: He could be any seven-year old on the lawn Last Line: Laboring to express itself through him POOR ANGELS First Line: At this hour the soul floats weightlessly POSTHUMOUS ORPHEUS First Line: He wandered through a patchwork of open fields Last Line: And then he gave up, defeated, and stopped singing PROUSTIAN Poem Text First Line: At times it seems lucky and unexpected, the past Subject(s): Proust, Marcel (1871-1922) PROUSTIAN First Line: At times it seems lucky and unexpected, the past Subject(s): Proust, Marcel (1871-1922) RAPTURE First Line: I felt it on parents day in 1963 READER First Line: It waited for him in the dusty treatises Last Line: An emptiness, which he would not call god RENUNCIATION OF POETRY First Line: These ruinous days of autumn. At dawn Last Line: The goddess is something that has died in him ROMAN FALL First Line: I remember the bells of sants maria maggiore Last Line: Into the radiance and beyond ROMANCE OF AMERICAN COMMUNISM First Line: The generation of aunt stalin and uncle pain Last Line: The march of history, et cetera, and so on SCORCHED First Line: In comes back to me as the enigma Last Line: Two bodies cast from the bright flames SELF-PORTRAIT AS EURYDICE First Line: Some part of me was already dead Last Line: Love-and betrayed me to the emptiness SHORT LEXICON OF TORTURE IN THE EIGHTIES First Line: That's not a man in pain SIMONE WEIL: THE YEAR OF FACTORY WORK First Line: A glass of red wine trembles on the table Last Line: And untouched food. Come down to her SKOKIE THEATRE First Line: Twelve years old and lovesick, bumbling Last Line: Each other's hands, trembling and changed SKYWRITING First Line: Through the west window SOLSTICE First Line: Remember how the city looked from the harbor Last Line: And the night clamped shut SONG Poem Text First Line: This is a song for the speechless Subject(s): Alienation (social Psychology); Dissenters; Exiles; Marginality, Social; Estrangement; Outcasts SONG First Line: This is a song for the speechless Last Line: Who have no voices have one tongue Subject(s): Alienation (social Psychology); Dissenters; Exiles; Marginality, Social SONG AGAINST NATURAL SELECTION First Line: The weak survive! Last Line: A leg severed, a word buried; this %is how we recognize ourselves, and why SORTES VIRGILIANAE First Line: I don't understand, I can scarcely see Last Line: To summer's resplendent, celestial blues SUMMER SURPRISED US Poem Text First Line: These first days of summer are like the pail Subject(s): Nature SUMMER SURPRISED US First Line: These first days of summer are like the pail Last Line: Poured out like a bucket of wild berries Subject(s): Nature SWEATSHOP POEM First Line: There are thirty-one shallow graves in august Last Line: Sewing a dark shroud for my body Subject(s): Industry; Labor And Laborers; Sweatshops THE SWEATSHOP POEM Poem Text First Line: There are thirty-one shallow graves in august Subject(s): Industry; Labor & Laborers; Sweatshops; Work; Workers; Sweating System THE UNNAMING Poem Text First Line: She walked through the house, taking away its names Subject(s): Dickinson, Emily (1830-1886) THE VILLAGE IDIOT Poem Text First Line: No one remembers him anymore, a boy Last Line: Fogging up in the bathroom, from the wet mirror Subject(s): Fools; Past; Idiots THREE JOURNEYS Poem Text First Line: Whoever has followed the bag lady Subject(s): Detroit, Michigan THREE JOURNEYS First Line: Whoever has followed the bag lady Last Line: And slept peacefully again, like a child Subject(s): Detroit, Michigan TRAVELER First Line: She wasn't prepared for the torrential rain Last Line: And flaring up -- luminous, persistent, unabashed TRISTAN TZARA First Line: There is no such thing as a dada lecture Last Line: I am opposed to every system except one TWO (SCHOLARLY) LOVE POEMS: 1. DEAD SEA SCROLLS First Line: I was like the words Last Line: And deciphered its mysteries TWO (SCHOLARLY) LOVE POEMS: 2. A TREATISE ON ECSTASY First Line: Touching your body Last Line: Of a book that burst into flames TWO SUITCASES OF CHILDREN'S DRAWINGS FROM TEREZIN: 1. A CHILDREN'S ... First Line: Two suitcases sat on a forgotten shelf %collecting dust Last Line: Like a waterfall %and everyone was drenched TWO SUITCASES OF CHILDREN'S DRAWINGS FROM TEREZIN: 10. FAR AWAY First Line: Somewhere a blue horse floats Last Line: And a kite soars away from its string TWO SUITCASES OF CHILDREN'S DRAWINGS FROM TEREZIN: 2. ARTIST UNKNOWN First Line: A drawing that looked like the heavens %tilting on one wing Last Line: A pasted collage on an office form %of a sunny evening in terezin TWO SUITCASES OF CHILDREN'S DRAWINGS FROM TEREZIN: 3. WHAT SOME OF THE First Line: Zuzga drew the saddest elephant in block 4 Last Line: God came to terezin and saw that it was bad TWO SUITCASES OF CHILDREN'S DRAWINGS FROM TEREZIN: 4. CHILDREN'S ..... First Line: This evening we walked along the street of death Last Line: Butterflies vanished TWO SUITCASES OF CHILDREN'S DRAWINGS FROM TEREZIN: 5. PARABLES First Line: This is a guard with a stick Last Line: I don't believe %god forgot us TWO SUITCASES OF CHILDREN'S DRAWINGS FROM TEREZIN: 6. THE ART TEACHER First Line: Frau brandeis said that every object tells a story %if you look hard Last Line: And the art teacher %was deported TWO SUITCASES OF CHILDREN'S DRAWINGS FROM TEREZIN: 7. ART PROJECT First Line: Cut 15,000 pieces of papers into dolls Last Line: And burn 14,900 of the paper dolls %keep 1000 TWO SUITCASES OF CHILDREN'S DRAWINGS FROM TEREZIN: 8. THE ANGEL OF ... First Line: Did not get up %it did not unleash our thirty-thousand wings Last Line: Two suitcases sat on a forgotten shelf %collecting dust TWO SUITCASES OF CHILDREN'S DRAWINGS FROM TEREZIN: 9. THE INJUNCTION First Line: At the end of the story %the locks were fastened again Last Line: Shall stand under the waterfall %and remember TWO UNHAPPY LOVE POEMS: 1. DAY WITHOUT YOU First Line: I wanted to lie. I wanted to say Last Line: Where it seems so precisely like failure Subject(s): Love TWO UNHAPPY LOVE POEMS: 1. NIGHT WITHOUT YOU First Line: Always at 3 a.M. %it is easy to find a chisel with breasts Last Line: I am tilted and obsolete, like a windmill Subject(s): Love UNCERTAINTY First Line: We couldn't tell if it was a fire in the hills Last Line: And the blaze awaited them, too UNDER A WILD GREEN FIG TREE First Line: I am going to eat seven pomegranate seeds Last Line: The cycle of loss, myth of regeneration UNEARTHLY VOICES First Line: Wind tumbles the branches by the side of the road Last Line: The darkness, bringing back the sun UNHAPPY LOVE POEM Poem Text First Line: I wanted to lie. I wanted to say Last Line: Where it seems so precisely like failure Subject(s): Love – Complaints UNNAMING First Line: She walked through the house, taking away its names Last Line: Appallingly blank, waiting to be renamed Subject(s): Dickinson, Emily (1830-1886) VILLAGE IDIOT First Line: No one remembers him anymore, a boy Last Line: Fogging up in the bathroom, from the wet mirror Subject(s): Fools; Past WAITING FOR THE HURRICANE First Line: Season of white heat, shuddering, iridescent Last Line: And a dusty countryside paralyzed by heat, %leaving us with ourselves in a city of glass WATCHER First Line: He could not decide if the city at dusk Last Line: The bountiful emptiness of everything WELCOMING First Line: After the long drought Last Line: Oh trumpet of laughter, oh gabriel, %joy everlasting WHEN SKYSCRAPERS WERE INVENTED IN CHICAGO Poem Text First Line: I think of it as a large moment with shadows Subject(s): Chicago; Cities; Skyscrapers; Urban Life WHEN SKYSCRAPERS WERE INVENTED IN CHICAGO First Line: I think of it as a large moment with shadows Last Line: Even as houses, american houses, were growing on the prairie Subject(s): Chicago; Cities; Skyscrapers WHITMAN LEAVES THE BOARDWALK First Line: I am so small walking on the beach Last Line: How can I be filled by such a vast love? WILD GRATITUDE First Line: Tonight when I knelt down next to our cat, zooey, Last Line: Wreathing themselves in the living fire WORK SONG First Line: All day I'd been trying to write Last Line: Our bodies hypnotized, our voices joining in |
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