Poetry Explorer

Search Classic and Contemporary Poetry

Search Results

Back to search

Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Searching...
Author: HIRSCHMAN, JACK
Matches Found: 167


Hirschman, Jack    Poet's Biography
167 poems available by this author


11-OCT-90       
First Line: It was a happy day %when he was born
Last Line: Upon an old old glove


1953       
First Line: What has character


AFTER CONGRESS       
First Line: Slime senate


AND NOW       
First Line: In this 2x4, tender on down to the soft breathings
Last Line: And whisper, when you whisper, what we're coming to, %god!


ATHEIST       
First Line: To say passover is absurd after


BALABAN       
First Line: I ran down the street and into the house smelled
Last Line: And when I got up vowed to be %balaban from that day on


BASKET       
First Line: The basket, alone


BOOK       
First Line: I return to the leaves
Last Line: Between the covers and the spine


BOTTOM LINE       


BURNING OF LOS ANGELES       
First Line: Smelled her before the eyes saw her
Last Line: Meat for my leap %and I leap


BY DAY       
First Line: The night persists. The fictions held between us
Last Line: We palpable pithed strings the mind is soundless of


CALL FOR THE LOVE OF THE PEOPLE       
First Line: The dead alive, the small children


CALLIGRAPH       
First Line: Her hair hysterical, thrown back at the sight
Last Line: To put the flower in


CHAIN       
First Line: Talk about your body of doda


CHINESE WOMEN       


CIAO WITH A NEIGHBORHOOD AROUND I       
First Line: A ciao with a neighborhood


COCKROACH       
First Line: When I returned to my room


CORRESPONDENCE OF AMERICANS       
First Line: I miss those free-wheeling interborough rides
Last Line: Bound, for all space, nowhere, clods'


CRANE       
First Line: How did the crane


CRIME       
First Line: The crime wasn't in the subway


CROWBAR SONG       
First Line: And on the dead homeless
Last Line: Find a bit of womb in the night. Clean moonglow. Hugs %of solidarity


DANCING DAVE: IN MEMORIAM DAVID BRONK, POET       
First Line: Dancing dave, all of 35, is dead
Last Line: Down on a leaf in the park


DANTESQUE       
First Line: A man ran up to me and cried, dante
Last Line: And away we flew


DARK MONDAY       
First Line: Listening to billie


DAY OF THE DEAD       
First Line: The woman, as I walked by
Last Line: Home to all homeless lovers


DEAD ANY OLD HOW       


DEEP MEMORY I       
First Line: The weathered wood


DEEP MEMORY II       
First Line: I dreamed today at the edge of waking beside you


DEEP MEMORY III       
First Line: Looking up


DOPE       
First Line: You toke and then talk
Last Line: What the world is like %without you


DREAD-BLOODED AMERICAN       
First Line: To perpetuate


EL       
First Line: The room was dark but not yet black
Last Line: She was in the room beyond her burning


EL SALVADOR       
First Line: They would slit open ...'


ENDLESS THRESHOLD       
First Line: The fears


EUROPE       
First Line: You more powerful %than all the visions
Last Line: Long bleeding friends %made into visible song


EZRA DOG       
First Line: Did you say ezra
Last Line: And we don't sell the people


FIVE       
First Line: You move from a repose
Last Line: Slow filling up of %room


FLEA'S KNEES       
First Line: A flea's


FOR DYLAN THOMAS       
First Line: That wind, that wind of water vowels
Last Line: Of the choir of the bellringing dead


FOUR       
First Line: You come into a white room
Last Line: So many memorables, %drying


FRANZ KLINE       
First Line: Wanted to paint. Come
Last Line: Is smiling at the passing comments


FUGUE       
First Line: To the beloved %memory of johann
Last Line: Even of %saints


GARDEN       
First Line: The fathers we run across, the brothers we need
Last Line: Out of a valise at the entrance


GARDENIA       
First Line: That woman walking talking to herself
Last Line: And every single one of their syllables is heard


GHETTO       
First Line: Men fight. With their fists in the balls of their mouths
Last Line: At the beginning and the end of all %our brag


GRAFFITI       
First Line: The scraped chinatown wall


GRAIN OF RICE       
First Line: At the lip


GROUNDING ARCANE       
First Line: The truth %of us helps the stillness outside
Last Line: Paths now strangely for %the first time vast


GUATEMALA       
First Line: Through ten greek women


GUERRILLAS       
First Line: In the mountain caves they sleep
Last Line: Bedpost of bayonet, %pillow of steel


HAITI    Poem Text    
First Line: One day in the future these sounds are seeds of
Subject(s): Haiti; Politics & Government


HAITI       
First Line: One day in the future these sounds are seeds of
Last Line: The boundless, and the maize amaze the sky upon waking %for as long as humanity is
Subject(s): Haiti; Politics


HAPPINESS       
First Line: There's a happiness, a joy
Last Line: Without that happiness


HEADLANDS       
First Line: One went off to be
Last Line: Told by rainbows


HOMAGE TO BEN MOLOISE, SOUTH AFRICAN POET       
First Line: When a poet


HOME       
First Line: Winter has come
Last Line: On a crutch on a rainy sidewalk


HOW SHOCKING       
First Line: How shocking the total


HUMAN INTERLUDE    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: She was standing against / the wall near
Last Line: About the drowning money
Subject(s): Begging & Beggars


HUMAN INTERLUDE       
First Line: She was standing against %the wall near
Last Line: On the orange lake %above the drowning money
Subject(s): Politics


HYMN       
First Line: I am at home
Last Line: The lamp %of the %poem


IKON       
First Line: His howl grabbed me by my high intangibles
Last Line: And wake to name the things around by heart


IN MEMORIAM ERNEST HEMINGWAY       
First Line: Lightning-runs down the midnight %dakota sky
Last Line: I drove slowly through the streets to the end


IN MEMORIAM, RAY THOMPSON (1943-1990)    Poem Text    
First Line: Of the streets, / of begging hands and windblown cardboard
Last Line: Never-ending memory of his ascendings
Subject(s): San Francisco; Homeless; Poetry & Poets


IN MEMORIAM, RAY THOMPSON (1943-1990)       
First Line: Of the streets, %of begging hands and windblown cardboard
Last Line: Never-ending memory of his ascendings
Subject(s): Politics


INTERNATIONAL HOTEL       
First Line: When I finally ran through the cordon with the others
Last Line: These many years after, and write: long live the I %hotel!


IRANCONTRASCAM       
First Line: Worms, military worms defensing their wormhood


IRISH BROGUE       
First Line: If it were less than a river rushing through fingers
Last Line: And the spawn of morning-glories upstreaming


IS       
First Line: It is what I know of you


IT - STARES       
First Line: The cherokee's first word


JACKET       
First Line: All day


JACKSON POLLOCK       
First Line: He met it straight
Last Line: Dead white in the center %he spatters against


JESSE       
First Line: Keep me away from that bitch, he said, I mean
Last Line: O when am I gonna get to the usa?


JIVA       
First Line: Our indian friend


JULY 4TH EVE 1990       
First Line: Walking along downtown geary st.
Last Line: As we walked through san francisco


JUNETEENTH       
First Line: In kinopravda 21


KIDSKIN       
First Line: That feeling - all day almost


LET THE RAILSPLITTER AWAKE       
First Line: It was brown and white
Last Line: And began my inner %hearing


LITERACY OF NICARAGUA       
First Line: Before I ever arrived in nicaragua


LONDON       
First Line: The dignity of london lies deep with humiliations %contained
Last Line: Goes up and up and up and never comes down


LOVE POEM       
First Line: Bliss of all blisses
Last Line: Of all blisses. Untranslatable


MADE IN HAITI       


MOTHER       
First Line: We are not in this world
Last Line: Through it, %tiniest hand, tiniest star


MURDER OF GIORDANO BRUNO       
First Line: He began to heaven
Last Line: Zeroing numberless %still


NELLIE       
First Line: After his shouts, the strops, her screams, the thrown things
Last Line: Mrs. Hirschman' and 'hi, jackie. My, how you've grown!'


NEW PALESTINE ARCANE       
First Line: Just a stone's throw


NHR (NAHAR)       
First Line: The oil came %in the form of my sister shekhina
Last Line: With the real thin bones of the rainbow %body


NICARAGUA       
First Line: And where the dead heart
Last Line: Around the lakes of simple water


NIGHT       
First Line: There is a night that does not fall
Last Line: We smell that night of death, which triumphed and died, %andthe time it will take %to die of it: %th


NIGHTSCAPE I       
First Line: You see them


NIGHTSCAPE II       
First Line: I wonder


NY, NY       
First Line: It's big %it's ugly
Last Line: Never never %never


OLD BLACK SHOE SONG       
First Line: Two nights ago


OLD WOMAN       
First Line: Bus driver and I understand
Last Line: Child near the end


ON A LINE BY WHITMAN       
First Line: Suddenly there are no dead I want to remember
Last Line: When it comes to the body's poor old road, %every one must be a touch


ON THE DEATH OF WILLEM DE KOONING, AMERICAN PAINTER       
First Line: When I think of the victories %we must win
Last Line: Re-begin belonging to the dream %of humanity again


ON WRITING POEMS DIRECTLY ON A TYPEWRITER...       
First Line: With sudden unthought
Last Line: How much it costs and when can I get it %and wha'ts the use?


ONE NIGHT       
First Line: One night, many north beach years ago
Last Line: No more vietnams


ONWARD AND UPWARD       
First Line: A three year old girl


OPEN GATE       
First Line: When I came to san francisco
Last Line: Wasn't that a poet made of bright and shining tears?


PAINTING       
First Line: So there it is
Last Line: Do we acclaim the removal of the painting? %emphatically, provocativley %yes


PARIS       
First Line: Through the window from inside
Last Line: America %and gives it away


POEM FOR THE MILLENNIUM       
First Line: Amid history's dust
Last Line: The way it was meant to beat


POINT LOBOS       
First Line: The cypress tree, how long standing (just so
Last Line: As the sun falls, a shutter, into the sea


PORTRAIT       
First Line: You were always water to me


PRICELESS RADIANCE       
First Line: What did they want, most of all


RABBIT       
First Line: A rabbit hops away into the bush


RAY CHARLES       
First Line: Sat down on a bench in venice late november of the war
Last Line: Shot of a shout out of the dark mouth who made you a %lover


RECOGNITION #2       
First Line: I know it was her %sigourney
Last Line: The way, across the drink, %just look outside


REMEMBER       
First Line: Do you weep suddenly, unexpectedly


REQUIEM FOR THE WAR DEAD       
First Line: We will not know, we've been told, who they are
Last Line: The no-one's rose %of the wars' homeless


RUNNING POEM       
First Line: I want to ride the prarie of your eyelids
Last Line: To feel you is to open the eyes of any jail %with a feather


SACRIFICIAL LAMB       
First Line: As I slept I heard
Last Line: Where she flung herself %one garment-demented day


SAFE       


SALT POINT       
First Line: I was reading of the albanian partisans


SCISSORS       
First Line: A second


SELF-PORTRAIT       
First Line: Sitting on a


SOMETHING BASIC       
First Line: Something basic like night
Last Line: Governor of the state of things %still possibly human


SOUL OF A PENCIL       
First Line: With all the mustard of earthquake I say
Last Line: Between the bleeding %clench of our hands


SPIRALS       
First Line: Onward and upward, %the smoke from the chimneys %spirals
Last Line: They'll %arise


SQUATTERS       
First Line: Doorways I have passed


STREETUNE       
First Line: It was just


SUNSONG       
First Line: Sun, good


SWEATING BULLETS       
First Line: And they said, cuttheshit, we can talk faster


THAT'S ALL       
First Line: Sitting on the grass with sarah


THE TWIN TOWERS ARCANE    Poem Text    
First Line: Such mourning as we
Subject(s): World Trade Center Tragedy (9/11/2001); New York City - Terrorist Attack, 9/11


THING-COMMODITY       
First Line: The spirit doesn't move very far


THIS I KNOW       


THIS NERUDA EARTH    Poem Text    
First Line: Sitting against a treetrunk in dolores park
Subject(s): Neruda, Pablo (1904-1973); Politics & Government


THIS NERUDA EARTH       
First Line: Sitting against a treetrunk in dolores park
Last Line: Movement, so much space in an inch. This %neruda earth
Subject(s): Neruda, Pablo (1904-1973); Politics


THREE       
First Line: The tree outside the window
Last Line: I'm aching. %come here


TO JULIAN BECK       
First Line: In a time when
Last Line: And blazoned itself on it %with your five arms


TONIGHT       
First Line: I lay beside you and you were whore
Last Line: The thrilled breast at my tongue I will not betray


TORNADO    Poem Text    
First Line: Amid shambles blown, blown pages of a gideon
Subject(s): Tornadoes


TORNADO       
First Line: Amid shambles blown, blown pages of a gideon
Last Line: About the swindging tail of the dragon that snapped
Subject(s): Tornadoes


TOWARD DOWN       
First Line: No longer the singular we two wedded in bedrock
Last Line: In the ultimate light, ultimately base


TRANSFIGURATION    Poem Text    
First Line: I am peasant
Subject(s): Love


TRANSFIGURATION       
First Line: I am peasant
Last Line: Your face is where I see forever
Subject(s): Love


TREMOR       
First Line: Two young guys
Last Line: And their generation %and the generation before theirs had been robbed, %and I unite with the coming


TURKEY EATEN       


TWILIGHT       
First Line: The swiftly low


TWIN TOWERS ARCANE       
First Line: Such mourning as we
Last Line: Hanging in mid-air
Subject(s): World Trade Center Tragedy (9/11/2001)


UNDERGROUND       
First Line: So clearly that the primal vowels


UNDONE DAY       
First Line: You think I like being a dime bag in a doorway?
Last Line: Going from one key to another %in search of the outside of in
Subject(s): Homeless; Politics


UNITE    Poem Text    
First Line: In a hundred, no,
Last Line: Come on! It's spring!
Subject(s): Collective Behavior; Spring


UNITY       
First Line: A violinbow


UNNAMEABLE       
First Line: There is a word %for the unobstructed bliss
Last Line: Forever blot %into indelible tones


VARIATION ON A SPIRITUAL       
First Line: Steal away, steal away
Last Line: Get your hands on %in the ol' safeway


VENICE       
First Line: There are a bunch of mexican kids playing
Last Line: And is moved and sings


VILLAGE POEM       
First Line: Albinoni's %adagio for strings always in me when
Last Line: One has talked to since the renaissance


VIMBA       
First Line: Now we are going to take the land
Last Line: And mere dead meat


VLADIMIR MAYAKOVSKY       
First Line: You, thunderer and swirl of
Last Line: Armed struggles with your dream


W. C. FIELDS       
First Line: By jove, my glowworm dove my chickadee death's
Last Line: By some mischance omitted the paprika?


WANTED YOU TO KNOW IT       
First Line: I was leaning against a desktop
Last Line: Wanted you %to know it


WATCH OUT FOR THE SPIRIT VENDORS       
First Line: Who shuts the gates to the mouth


WEEPING       
First Line: Walking to my room from the park
Last Line: Of smoke and poisons and violence %that we are forced every day %to lug along with our bodes %into t


WHAT CAN STOP IT       
First Line: Along the gutter first, then on the sidewalk


WHATEVER IT'S CALLED       
First Line: I snow before my time
Last Line: I fall and fall I slowly cover all %with my black breaths


WHEN SHE IS TYPSY       
First Line: I am the child of people


WHEN WE TEAR TOMORROW OPEN       
First Line: When there aren't enough pencils to go 'round
Last Line: We who have mastered %the smithereens


WHOLE SHOT       
First Line: Most, given the death we've all been given
Last Line: The kid is dead. %long live the kid!


WILDEBEEST       
First Line: You said, as we watched
Last Line: Wildebeest outside. And so, I suppose, was I


WORDS ON THE WING       
First Line: She left the baby by the open window ...'


WORKER'S POEM       
First Line: You whose brows are knit
Last Line: Shoe-balance of the street


WRITING ON THE WALL       
First Line: A delicate wisp of


X L E B       
First Line: From the top here
Last Line: Piece of bread? %dostoyevsky?


XILOTL       
First Line: Xihualhuian olloque yaoyoaque
Last Line: We will be with you tomorrow when we strike!


ZOHARA       
First Line: Once more it seems - far which is - and other - another place
Last Line: Her dark - her %green outspreading