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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: IGNATOW, DAVID Matches Found: 1267 Ignatow, David Poet's Biography 1267 poems available by this author 1905 Poem Text First Line: While my father walked through mud Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews; Shoah; Judaism 1905 First Line: While my father walked through mud Last Line: And that was the torment Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews 1960 First Line: My son, my only death 1965 First Line: I have the vietnam blues and greys 6 First Line: You spring from a fantasy Last Line: I would give myself to %with outspread arms %and in your absence %fall Variant Title(s): Yo 6-AUG-45 First Line: Gold priests %drowse with Last Line: Blossom, hiroshima %in the downwind- %fall of a name A CLOUD CREATES Poem Text First Line: A cloud creates the face of a man who, happening to Last Line: Is of the weather Subject(s): Clouds A DIALOGUE Poem Text First Line: I now will throw myself down Last Line: And die there / in sorrow Subject(s): Suicide; Grief A FIRST ON TV (FOR WALTER CRONKITE) Poem Text First Line: This is the twentieth century / you are there Subject(s): Apathy; Cronkite, Walter (b. 1916); Men; Television; Tv A MAN Poem Text First Line: A man confronted by masks Last Line: And be cautious all the while. Subject(s): Grief A MORAL TALE Poem Text First Line: All this for me, he asked Subject(s): Love - Erotic A REPLY Poem Text First Line: My poems no longer are 'beautiful' Subject(s): Beauty; Death; Poetry & Poets; Dead, The A REQUIEM Poem Text First Line: My father, listening to music, that's me Subject(s): Fathers; Opera A RHYME Poem Text First Line: Do you know -- I don't -- what the trouble is Last Line: And a very long pause. A ROCK IS THROWN AT MY HEAD Poem Text A ROCK IS THROWN AT MY HEAD A SEMBLANCE Poem Text First Line: Over your mother's grave Subject(s): Graves; Mothers; Prayer; Tombs; Tombstones A SONG Poem Text First Line: For having loved my parents Last Line: I am myself. Subject(s): Parents; Parenthood A SOUND IS LIKE ANY OTHER Poem Text First Line: I once thought a low chord Last Line: Terror, remorse, pleasure and triumph Subject(s): Sound; Life A SUITE FOR MARRIAGE Poem Text First Line: You keep eating and raising a family Last Line: Of my superiority Subject(s): Marriage; Weddings; Husbands; Wives A SUMMER OF BUTTOCKS Poem Text A SUMMER OF BUTTOCKS A SUMMING UP Poem Text First Line: Perhaps a table set for two, or a garden Last Line: They have become so familiar to us. Subject(s): Conversation A VISION OF BLACK ROCK Poem Text A VISION OF BLACK ROCK A WORKING PRINCIPLE Poem Text First Line: Let them go around on tiptoes Last Line: They will say black is merely the absence of color Subject(s): Reality A.G. Poem Text First Line: Quick, get him into his grave Last Line: What could grow from it? Subject(s): Cruelty; Death; Dead, The ABOUT MONEY Poem Text First Line: The wonder of cherries Subject(s): Money ABOUT MONEY First Line: The wonder of cherries Last Line: My mind is green with anxiety %about money Subject(s): Money ABOVE AND WITHIN Poem Text First Line: In the distance a phalanx of black clouds Last Line: Above and within. Subject(s): Clouds; Night; Bedtime ABOVE EVERYTHING Poem Text First Line: I wished for death often Subject(s): Death; Dead, The ABOVE EVERYTHING First Line: I wished for death often Last Line: This one, I will praise it %above everything Subject(s): Death ABSOLUTELY First Line: Now the idea is to aim a camera on one tree from morning until Last Line: Oh how we long to know, as we live and as we die absolutely ADDENDUM First Line: It'll surely be eight o'clock Last Line: Am I then, if not important %to my hours? ADOLESCENCE Poem Text First Line: I too have been drawn in Subject(s): Love ADOLESCENCE First Line: I too have been drawn in Last Line: Whoever I chased %ran over the length of the world Subject(s): Love ADOLESCENCE First Line: When I was a child I loved my bed Last Line: Between a dream and a defeat ADONIS Poem Text First Line: I am in love with a pig Subject(s): Pigs; Boars; Hogs ADONIS First Line: I am in love with a pig Last Line: Your tusk buried %in my side Subject(s): Pigs ADULTERY Poem Text First Line: The yellow kimono I gave her on the dark stairway Last Line: Where I earn my pay. Subject(s): Kimonos; Unfaithfulness; Infidelity; Adultery; Inconstancy AESTHETIC First Line: I want to write a poem that will make me happy AESTHETICS First Line: I want a poem that tells itself what to do Last Line: Poem, by my love, be their patient standby %when they kill or curse themselves Variant Title(s): Sequence AESTHETICS II First Line: My poetry was forced on me AFFECTION First Line: The affection with which I approach you Last Line: With the other's power to induce %in us the happiness that comes %with self-regard AFTER First Line: After sex, a couple talks together AFTER THE SUBWAY RIDE AFTER WRITING A POEM Poem Text First Line: I do not want to be seen or heard or spoken to Last Line: For one hour to eternity. Subject(s): Poetry & Poets; Solitude; Loneliness AGAINST THE EVIDENCE Poem Text First Line: As I reach to close each book Subject(s): Books; Reading AGAINST THE EVIDENCE First Line: As I reach to close each book Last Line: Against the evidence, I live by choice Subject(s): Books AGED POET First Line: His belly projects, as if to say AGING First Line: On th shore I crouch AH, ROOM, YOU WAIT FOR ME DAY AND NIGHT ALEXANDER DIED DRUNK First Line: I really don't have to know who I am ALL COMES TO SUNLIGHT ALL QUIET Poem Text First Line: How come nobody is being bombed today? Subject(s): Antiwar Movements; Bly, Robert (b. 1926); Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975; Anti-war Protests ALL QUIET First Line: How come nobody is being bombed today? Last Line: At which I could have voiced a protest, %running my whole family off a cliff Subject(s): Antiwar Movements; Bly, Robert (b. 1926); Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975 ALL RIGHT, YOU HAVE NO MONEY, YOU'VE GIVEN IT UP Poem Text Subject(s): United States; Working Class; Boredom; Social Commentaries ALL RIGHT, YOU HAVE NO MONEY, YOU'VE GIVEN IT UP ALL THE ATOM BOMBS AND BOMBERS ALLEGORY First Line: I offer my back to the silken net ALMOST NEVER First Line: The sun, dimesize and cool, in the 5 o'clock sky Last Line: Had moved, you see, just as on earth, it scares them to be free AMERICA AMERICA First Line: Someone chops down a tree and begins to saw it into lumber strips AMERICAN AND LEND-LEASE First Line: And they come begging for money AMERICAN PARABLE First Line: Good boys are we to have retrieved AN ALLEGORY Poem Text First Line: I offer my back to the silken net Last Line: Say, “how everything shines” AN APPEAL First Line: We need you on tv to tell us the story of your life, holding us with Subject(s): Bly, Robert (b. 1926) AN ECOLOGY Poem Text First Line: We drop in the evening like dew Subject(s): Death; Dead, The AN ILLUSION Poem Text First Line: She was saying mad things: Last Line: Rustled around her Subject(s): Eccentrics & Eccentricites; Hallucinations & Illusions AN OMEN Poem Text First Line: I love the bird that appears Last Line: From its regularity Subject(s): Birds AN ONTOLOGY Poem Text First Line: In the dark I step out of bed Subject(s): Ontology; Being ANCIENT FABLE First Line: A swordsman came charging out of his castle with sword unsheathed AND HE WILL FAIL First Line: I have been assaulted, met in a dark alley AND IK STAND First Line: Behind my enemy stands god AND NOW Poem Text First Line: That’s my corpse you’re looking at, laid out as I’ve Last Line: "earth was good to me, and I would give myself back in Subject(s): Corpses; Funerals; Self AND NOW First Line: That's my corpse you're looking at, laid out as I've instructed AND REST Poem Text First Line: You gave me birth between your sturdy legs Subject(s): Mothers AND REST First Line: You gave me birth between your sturdy legs Last Line: To where you are and rest with you Subject(s): Mothers AND STEP Poem Text First Line: I understand myself Last Line: And step over / stone Subject(s): Self AND STEP First Line: I understand myself Last Line: And step %over stone AND THAT NIGHT First Line: A photo is taken of the family Last Line: This crazy man comes along %to finish it off AND THE SAME WORDS First Line: I like rust on a nail Last Line: End it %with changed emphasis AND THE WIND COMES First Line: The voices of children are the silences ANEW First Line: Dante forgot to say ANSWER First Line: We are standing in the narrow hallway APOLOGY First Line: I placed a chair between my desk Last Line: For something made useless %to itself APPEAL First Line: We need you on tv to tell us the story of your life, holding us with Last Line: Will know then that you are one of us, we will address ourselves %to all sides and in a world chorus Subject(s): Bly, Robert (b. 1926) APPLE First Line: The skin also wrinkles in old age APPLE WATCHER First Line: Rose is my apple watcher APPOINTMENT CARD First Line: He flashes a knife and waves it under our noses ARMOR Poem Text First Line: How do I explain myself to a man Last Line: Or to whose funeral. Subject(s): Food & Eating AS I STUMBLE Poem Text First Line: I must make my own sun Last Line: As I stumble upon them Subject(s): Poetry & Poets AS IF Poem Text First Line: The prayerful humanity of bach Last Line: To make a whole of it Subject(s): Music & Musicians; Violence; Contradictions; Life AS IF First Line: The prayerful humanity of bach Last Line: To make a whole of it ASLEEP Poem Text First Line: I am abandoned to a dream Last Line: As she glides at my side Subject(s): Dreams; Deserts; Mirages ASLEEP First Line: I am abandoned to a dream Last Line: As she glides at my side ASSASSIN First Line: Stare into the gun barrel, a wildly grinning man behind it AT A DANCE First Line: Knowing what I know AT EIGHTY I CHANGE MY VIEW Poem Text First Line: At age eighty to discover my illusion Last Line: And carry an umbrella in the sun Subject(s): Old Age AT FIFTY Poem Text First Line: There it is again Last Line: But there it is again Subject(s): Middle Age; Desire AT FOUR O'CLOCK First Line: At four o'clock I went by Last Line: In the dress of an ordinary woman Subject(s): Alcoholics And Alcoholism AT HOME First Line: See how it takes us, my finished darling AT NIGHT THE DARKENED WINDOWS AT TABLE First Line: People gorging on what is placed Last Line: And swallowing, affirming our unity %with the living AT THE MUSEUM First Line: I see that the stillness of a statue AT THE ZOO First Line: We have locked up the elephant AT THIS MOMENT Poem Text First Line: I'm very pleased to be a body. Can there be someone without a body? Last Line: Buried as one body which others would do for us tenderly? Subject(s): Body, Human AT THIS MOMENT First Line: I'm very pleased to be a body. Can there be someone without a body Last Line: Could we not grow old in this posture and be buried as one body which others would do for us tenderl AUTUMN First Line: The trees are standing like silent members AUTUMN LEAVES First Line: This time I can't grieve AUTUMN LEAVES First Line: Children of the road, autumn leaves Last Line: Lies sprawled beneath a tree %gaunt in his giving Subject(s): Autumn; Seasons AUTUMN: 1 First Line: The trees are standing like silent members AUTUMN: 2 First Line: A leaf lies shaking Subject(s): Leaves AUTUMN: 2 First Line: A leaf lies shaking Last Line: Facing the tree %from which it fell Subject(s): Leaves AWAITING First Line: A man with head lifted stands listening BACKYARD First Line: When I wake up in the morning I'm scattered BAGEL First Line: I stopped to pick up the bagel Last Line: After another like a bagel %and strangely happy with myself Subject(s): Bagels; Dreams; Food And Eating BAKER EATS CAKE WITH HIS PROBLEMS BE LIKE ME Poem Text First Line: I will walk, if I must, Last Line: Be like me Subject(s): Relationships BE LIKE ME First Line: I will walk, if I must Last Line: Someone comes by and whispers, %'be like me' BEARER OF PAIN First Line: We come back to the source of our pain Last Line: As the bearer of pain BEARING LEAVES AGAIN Poem Text Last Line: A leaf in season Subject(s): Aging BEAUTIFUL AND KIND Poem Text First Line: Outside my window Last Line: To step out the window BEAUTIFUL AND KIND First Line: Outside my window BECAUSE First Line: Because of the sun on my face Last Line: I am its agent and its power BECAUSE WORDS HAVE NO EFFECT UPON THE WIND Poem Text Last Line: Is to stay alive Subject(s): Language; Wind; Trees; Survival BEFORE I MET YOU I WASN'T ALWAYS SAD Poem Text Last Line: That I may find myself Subject(s): Love BEFORE I MET YOU I WASN'T ALWAYS SAD BEFORE THE SABBATH Poem Text First Line: The man is gone on a friday Last Line: In unfinished corners we huddle, / growing cold Subject(s): Kennedy, John Fitzgerald (1917-1963); Assasination BEFORE THE SABBATH First Line: The man is gone on a friday Subject(s): Kennedy, John Fitzgerald (1917-1963) BEHIND HIS EYES First Line: A man, tied to a tree, thinks he is beginning to feel something of the tree Last Line: As this last thought becomes the bark he has seen behind his eyes BETWEEN SHADE AND SUN First Line: I'm alive to prove the existence of death in me too Last Line: In the change from shade to sun BETWEEN THE LIVING AND THE DEAD First Line: If there is anything to life BETWEEN US Poem Text First Line: Does my blood need a motive Last Line: Out of the same matter? Variant Title(s): I Have Already Written You Off Subject(s): Blood; Love - Nature Of BETWEEN US First Line: I have already written you off Last Line: To which I offer a poem %in recompense for the failure %between us Variant Title(s): I Have Already Written You Of BETWEEN US First Line: Does my blood need a motive Last Line: As when stars collapse %and new ones are born %out of the same matter? Variant Title(s): Bloo BIOGRAPHY First Line: In these typewriter keys is the story of my parents and me BIRDS IN WINTER First Line: At the command BIRDS IN WINTER First Line: At the command %they rise trembling on air BIRTHDAY First Line: Today being the day, what gift can I give Last Line: In the paradise we promised to each other BLACK EYES, SNUB NOSE, WIDE MOUTH Poem Text Last Line: Of the speeding train, thinking Subject(s): Memory; Beauty; Old Age BLACK EYES, SNUB NOSE, WIDE MOUTH BLESSING First Line: Women, that you know of death is a blessing Last Line: Of this world, and will lay a hand %upon my beating heart Subject(s): Death BLESSING MYSELF Poem Text First Line: I believe in stillness Subject(s): Silence BLESSING MYSELF First Line: I believe in stillness Last Line: I speak for it, %blessing myself Subject(s): Silence BLUE DANUBE First Line: What about your death? BOSS First Line: Who hoarded among the monthly bank statements Last Line: Where the photos lay Subject(s): Industry; Labor And Laborers BOTHERING ME AT LAST First Line: Where is my mother? Last Line: I looked for her in bed, and found her in her coffin, %bothering me at last Subject(s): Death; Mothers BOWERY Poem Text First Line: Bums are the spirit of us parked in ratty old hotels Last Line: "of your wealth, the long hours filled Subject(s): Alcoholism & Alcoholics; Bowery, New York City; Drunkards; Alcohol Abuse BOXING MATCH First Line: Am I really a sports fan, I ask myself Last Line: And I am glad for him %and admire him Subject(s): Sports BREAD ITSELF First Line: Mother, in my unwanted suffering, I turn to you Last Line: Of sorrow as the bread itself Variant Title(s): Threnod Subject(s): Mothers; Pain BRIEF BIO First Line: Begin from the vacant Last Line: L learned to care about %in my elders Variant Title(s): A Brief Bio BRIEF CASES Poem Text First Line: It was then that carrying brief cases Last Line: Withdrawn into the dark / gave birth Subject(s): Briefcases; Sex Roles BRIEF CASES First Line: It was then that carrying brief cases Last Line: Withdrawn into the dark %gave birth Subject(s): Briefcases BRIEF ELEGY Poem Text First Line: In every beautiful song is a promise of sleep Last Line: Sing to me, strolling through silent streets Subject(s): Singing & Singers; Sleep BRIEF ELEGY First Line: In every beautiful song is a promise of sleep Last Line: Sing to me, strolling on silent streets BRIGHTNESS AS A POIGNANT LIGHT Poem Text First Line: I tread the dark and my steps are silent Last Line: Perhaps to view itself in me Subject(s): Fathers BROODING First Line: The sadness of our lives Last Line: Of others are either idiots, or people %who never gained consciousness BROTHERHOOD First Line: On th side panel of a truck this sign BUSINESS Poem Text First Line: There is no money in breathing Last Line: "breathing doesn’t give enough Subject(s): Business; Debt; Businessmen; Businesswomen BUSINESS First Line: There is no money in breathing Last Line: Breathing doesn't give enough %of a return Subject(s): Breath BUSINESS LIFE First Line: When someone hangs up, having said Last Line: To your ear, your senses and your dignity Subject(s): Hate; Salespersons BUSINESS MAN IS A TRAITOR TO HIMSELF FIRST BUT I CAN ACT First Line: I am looking around for an exit from my loneliness that BUT THEN Poem Text First Line: The rooster crying Last Line: And his flock awaits. Subject(s): Roosters; Cocks BUTCHER SHOP First Line: A disciplined institution %of slaughter allows pigs, chickens Last Line: Before a block of wood, %a kind of altar BUZZ First Line: Why was I born if I have to die Last Line: And when it grew tired it rested Subject(s): Flies BY THE NEST OF THE MOTHER BIRD First Line: I love you in caves and meadows Last Line: I cannot remember anything without love of you. %I cannot remember living %without drawing breath CASE HISTORY First Line: Lately my asshole has been talking to me CASH AND CARRY First Line: Dear pop, you might like to know: your death CASTAWAY First Line: The waves lift and slap him CENTER OF GRAVITY First Line: Is in speaking of silences about living Last Line: Such a silence that speaks to the density %of living CHRIST Poem Text First Line: All men betray me Last Line: As of the earth itself Subject(s): Jesus Christ CHRIST First Line: All men betray me CHRISTMAS EVE First Line: Smitty, the cop in the booth Last Line: I could thank him as a jew CITY First Line: If flowers want to grow Last Line: I'm going to bend down to smell them CLERK First Line: Love me whom I do not believe in CLINIC First Line: Poor slobs, who warm their bottom CLOSET NAMED LOVE First Line: Fine thing for me to have walked into a closet and hung myself on the Last Line: Brate in my own stale air CLOUD CREATES First Line: A cloud creates the face of a man who, happening to look up, recognizes it Last Line: So he has no faults. He is without fault, he is of the weather COCKROACHES First Line: I have become friendly with baby cockroaches that dare to come out in Last Line: It to a life of friends Subject(s): Solitude COME! First Line: Come, let us blow up the whole business Last Line: But let us wipe out a few hundred millon Subject(s): Cities COMMUNION Poem Text First Line: In the subway I had the impulse to kill Subject(s): Perception COMMUNION First Line: In the subway I had the impulse to kill Subject(s): Perception COMMUNION: 1 First Line: To say what has to be said here Last Line: I have brothers COMMUNION: 2 First Line: Let us be friends, said walt Last Line: Their throats, being alone in the world, %not a friend to bury Variant Title(s): Communio COMPANY First Line: I am a cripple, my two arms hanging down over my head COMPLEX First Line: My father's madness is to own himself Last Line: Giving of himself with forced breath Subject(s): Fathers CONCRETE First Line: We roll apart, lie side by side Last Line: And the road is concrete CONFUSION IS WHAT I KNOW BEST Last Line: Is the impress of our search %for its meaning. What are we %doing loving each other? CONSOLATION First Line: I think that when the yellow pillow CONSOLATION First Line: My wife, I dread to come and tell you Last Line: Have revealed to us our arms %enclosed about each other Subject(s): Marriage CONTENT Poem Text First Line: I should be content Subject(s): Contentment; Mountains; Hills; Downs (great Britain) CONTENT First Line: I should be content Last Line: And not as a comment %on my life Subject(s): Contentment; Mountains CONVERSATION First Line: What's your name? %what does it matter to you? Last Line: This is a citizen's arrest. Come with me. You have %confessed to lying, hidin under a pseudonym and Variant Title(s): Leaving The Door Open: 5 CONVIVIO First Line: We forget sometimes that no matter what Last Line: Have it clean, full of sharp movement COOKOUT First Line: A lit charcoal stove stands against the rear of the lawn COUNTRY LIVING First Line: Here it's so quiet I can't hear COUPLING Poem Text First Line: Wherever he looks, standing still in the city, Last Line: But prepared for them Subject(s): Birth; Child Birth; Midwifery COUSIN ALEX Poem Text First Line: My cousin alex, tall and sinewy Last Line: At alex's absence Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Cousins CREDO II First Line: Put flowers on the window sill CRHISTMAS IMPROVISATIONS First Line: I am the poet of peace CROWDING First Line: So many are dead or dying Last Line: That living too %must be worthwhile Subject(s): Death DANCER First Line: It wasn't to shake her body that she danced DAUGHTER SO BEAUTIFUL I CANNOT BELIEVE IT DAY GOES BY WITH ITS STRIVING DAY MY DREAM First Line: Fish tossed on sand DEAD OF MY EARNING DEAR HOMER Poem Text First Line: At five this morning I opened half an eye Last Line: Keeps coming up. Subject(s): Dawn; Homer (10th Century B.c.); Poetry & Poets; Sunrise; Iliad; Odyssey DEAR ROBERT Poem Text First Line: Your roses are blooming in a basket Last Line: In its receptive soil Subject(s): Roses; Poetry & Poets; Survival; Perseverance DEAR ROBERT First Line: Your roses are blooming in a basket Last Line: Each other and to enjoy, to attend a rose %in its receptive soil DEATH AND LIFE ARE INTIMATES Poem Text First Line: Come, let us blow up the whole business Last Line: To turn to, no relationship / as intimate Subject(s): Life; Death DEATH OF A LAWNMOWER Poem Text First Line: It died in its sleep, Last Line: The dead keep to themselves Subject(s): Lawnmowers DEBATE First Line: This man brings me stones Last Line: I answer sweetly, %because they are stone DEDICATION First Line: To one who clamered upon a white horse DENIED First Line: What I'm living with is my father Last Line: Simultaneously denied the slap DERELICT First Line: I'm going to be dead a long time DESERT PEOPLE First Line: When they have a place to go to DESPITE THE PLAINNESS OF THE DAY Last Line: In happiness makes of the plain day %its own festive occasion Subject(s): Erotic Love DIALOGUE First Line: I now will throw myself down DIGNITY Poem Text First Line: Rocks jut out of the sea Last Line: They lacked before. Subject(s): Sea; Stones; Ocean; Granite; Rocks DILEMMA Poem Text First Line: Whatever we do, whether we light Last Line: By being planted too close to our parents Subject(s): Conduct Of Life; Transience; Impermanence DILEMMA Poem Text First Line: Whatever we do, whether we light Last Line: By being planted too close to our parents Subject(s): Conduct Of Life DILEMMA First Line: Whatever we do, whether we light Last Line: And there too we are caught, %by being planted too close to our parents DINER First Line: If I order a sandwich and get a plate of ham and eggs instead Last Line: Now when in hell did I buy this diner and who needs it! Subject(s): Restaurants DIRECTIVE First Line: Break the branch DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING Poem Text Last Line: And blind me forever from this wasting life Subject(s): Immortality DOCTOR Poem Text First Line: The patient cries, give me back feeling Last Line: Avidly without pause Variant Title(s): Resolution Subject(s): Physicians; Wit & Humor DOCTOR First Line: The patient cries, give me back feeling DOG First Line: Great things not to have to say anything DOMESTIC SONG Poem Text First Line: My lovely rose who forgives me Last Line: As to have a rose for his woman Subject(s): Love – Marital DOMESTIC SONG First Line: How lovely rose who forgives me DOOR First Line: Wherever I go I carry the door with me, opened or closed Last Line: At rest by putting it to work. Thank you Variant Title(s): Wherever I G DREAM First Line: I am lying face up on a raft Last Line: Against the grass like its lover DREAM First Line: Someone approaches to say his life is ruined Last Line: The stores lit up with their goods DROLL HUSBAND First Line: Whatever this world means to me DUSK First Line: In the gathering dark, the tree trunk bare Last Line: Being fed the sky Subject(s): Environment; Nature EACH DAY Poem Text First Line: Cynthia matz, with my finger in your cunt Subject(s): Love - Erotic EACH DAY First Line: Cynthia matz, with my finger in your cunt Last Line: I too wanted love pure and simple Subject(s): Erotic Love EACH NIGHT First Line: I see flat hat upon the river EACH OF US First Line: We shall love each other in bed, parlor, and kitchen Last Line: We are guilty %and cannot live without the guilt %and cannot live with it EACH STONE ITS SHAPE Last Line: So many meaningful %differences EARTH HARD TO MY HEELS Last Line: I am a surprised guest to the air EAST BRONX Poem Text First Line: In the street two children sharpen Subject(s): Bronx, New York City EAST BRONX First Line: In the street two children sharpen Last Line: Always alone and always %the sun shining Subject(s): Bronx, New York City EAST SIDE WEST First Line: The stairs squeak like mice caught outside Last Line: On the stairs, as if searching in me %for the help she needs Subject(s): Neighbors ECOLOGY First Line: We drop in the evening like dew Last Line: As they drop. This explains %the ocean and the sun Subject(s): Death EGG Poem Text First Line: Inside me is the peace of an egg Last Line: So peaceful too under snow Subject(s): Eggs; Peace; Self; Clemency ELEGY First Line: I must wait for a stranger to knock on my door ELEGY FOR YOUTH First Line: I trembled when I heard the news Last Line: I may follow without fear, %your gift to me Subject(s): Death - Children EMERGENCY CLINIC First Line: Come in with your stab wound up the middle EMERGENCY CLINIC II First Line: Your eyes were bulging behind thick horn-rimmed glasses Last Line: Who looked at me blankly %as if waiting for a comment on your lives Subject(s): Alcoholics And Alcoholism; Hospitals ENVOI First Line: Strange judgment upon me Last Line: In the same passionate vindication %of myself Subject(s): Fathers EPISODE Poem Text First Line: A woman passes by an apartment house Last Line: From room to room. Variant Title(s): Story Subject(s): Marriage; Story-telling; Weddings; Husbands; Wives EPITAPH Poem Text First Line: There were no hidden motives to his life Last Line: As I have forgiven you / my sins Subject(s): Conduct Of Life; Sin; Forgiveness EPITAPH First Line: There were no hidden motives to his life Last Line: As I have forgiven you %my sins EPITAPH FOR A SOLDIER Poem Text First Line: Enderle, who died for his country Last Line: Stink in winter. Subject(s): Labor & Laborers; Work; Workers ERRAND BOY I First Line: To get quicker through the day Last Line: By his long stride - and carries it %to the other end of the room ERRAND BOY II First Line: It was the way he went to pick up the carton ESCAPADE First Line: Poet and gangster reach in the dark ESCAPE First Line: There was a man in me who bit his lips ETERNAL MEN ARE DEPLANING AT AIRPORTS EUROPE AND AMERICA Poem Text First Line: My father brought the emigrant bundle Last Line: As guns pounded on the shore Subject(s): Fathers; Immigrants; Fathers; Immigrants; Emigrant; Emigration; Immigration; Emigrant; Emigration; Immigration EUROPE AND AMERICA First Line: My father brought the emigrant bundle Last Line: As the knife fell; while I have slept %as guns pounded on the shore Subject(s): Fathers; Immigrants EVENING First Line: An evening in the wind, in the fruitless heart of fruit EVERY DAY First Line: The dog's bark that sounds as if it were choking Last Line: And that is the night that follows %every day Variant Title(s): Leaving The Door Open: 1 EVERYBODY KNOWS Poem Text First Line: The flowers we forget to buy Last Line: Everybody knows what flowers cost Subject(s): Flowers; Gifts & Giving EVERYBODY KNOWS First Line: The flowers we forget to buy EXCHANGE First Line: You tell me how helpless you are to leave EXPRESS YOUR WILL First Line: Seeing a patch of sky through the trees EXULT AMONG SAD, RESIGNED MEN FABLE First Line: There was a woman had a child FACES THAT JUDGE ME FACT First Line: I'm closing the door Last Line: I'm going to close the door %and then close it FAITHFUL ONE First Line: Praying, he moves among those holding knives FALL First Line: No, no, no, the leaves are saying, thrashing about in the wind Last Line: Though they can be heard thrashing to and fro and against each other FALLING ASLEEP THINKING OF TEETH First Line: Do I need teeth, I ask myself in sleep FATHER First Line: Father fell backwards off the stool Last Line: I've had my day Subject(s): Fathers FATHER AND SON First Line: A black man is hugging me around the throat behind with his forearm Last Line: I think he is smiling back as the elevator begins to climb Subject(s): African Americans; Crime And Criminals FEARFUL THING First Line: Love's cockroach crawls Last Line: The mind has a record of a fearful thing Subject(s): Fear FEELING WITH MY HANDS First Line: With this poem be able to think and breathe FIGURES OF THE HUMAN Poem Text First Line: My love, pills in her purse Last Line: Figures of the human struggling awake Subject(s): Life FIGURES OF THE HUMAN First Line: My love, pills in her purse Last Line: Figures of the human struggling awake FINGERNAILS First Line: They look long enough to bite and I attack them with my teeth FIRST COFFIN POEM Poem Text First Line: I love you, my plain pine box Last Line: I am, sincerely yours Subject(s): Coffins FIRST COFFIN POEM First Line: I love you, my plain pine box Last Line: I am, sincerely, yours Subject(s): Coffins FIRST ON TV (FOR WALTER CRONKITE) First Line: This is the twentieth century %you are there Last Line: Will be to remain calm Subject(s): Apathy; Cronkite, Walter (b. 1916); Men; Television FISH THAT LIVES AT THE BOTTOM Last Line: Nevertheless, in the anonymity %of the sea Subject(s): Fishing And Fishermen FISHERWOMAN First Line: She took from her basket four fishes Last Line: She had done one thing, she felt, well, %making one complete day Subject(s): Fishing And Fishermen; Labor And Laborers FLY First Line: I killed a fly Last Line: I lay my body down beside the fly Subject(s): Flies FOLK SINGER First Line: The other day I heard in the movies Last Line: It was so beautiful %how he sang Subject(s): Motion Pictures; Singing And Singers FOR ... First Line: Poet of dead farms FOR A FRIEND First Line: I did not tell you to open the window Last Line: I found a dime in the street FOR ALL FRIENDS First Line: Talking together, we advance from loneliness Last Line: For earth too falls towards eternity FOR ERNEST LUBIN First Line: You were shot in the back Last Line: For having caused the gun %to be fired FOR JANE KENYON Poem Text First Line: As I die, it will be to feel myself Last Line: In the nature of things themselves Subject(s): Kenyon, Jane (1947-1995); Death FOR JANE KENYON First Line: As I die, it will be to feel myself Last Line: In the nature of things themselves FOR JOHANNES EDFELT First Line: I once had a religion to turn to Last Line: I look skyward with curiosity FOR JOHN BERRYMAN Poem Text First Line: You're dead, what can I do for you? Subject(s): Berryman, John (1914-1972); Poetry & Poets FOR JOHN BERRYMAN First Line: You're dead, what can I do for you? Last Line: That thinks to live in that knowledge %is praiseworthy Subject(s): Berryman, John (1914-1972); Poetry And Poets FOR LORI First Line: There is no meaning to your death other than our grief Last Line: You were putting yourself to sleep in the absence FOR MARIANNE MOORE First Line: In her garden were flowers FOR MEDGAR EVERS Poem Text First Line: They're afraid of me Last Line: And above them a tree shall grow / for shade Subject(s): Civil Rights Movement; Evers, Medgar (1925-1963) FOR MEDGAR EVERS First Line: They're afraid of me Last Line: And above them a tree will grow %for shade Subject(s): Civil Rights Movement; Evers, Medgar (1925-1963) FOR MY DAUGHTER Poem Text First Line: When I die choose a star Subject(s): Daughters; Healing; Cures FOR MY DAUGHTER First Line: When I die choose a star Last Line: Me in darkness and silence %together Subject(s): Daughters; Healing FOR MY DAUGHTER IN REPLY TO A QUESTION Poem Text Recitation First Line: We're not going to die Subject(s): Fathers & Daughters FOR MY DAUGHTER IN REPLY TO A QUESTION First Line: We're not going to die Last Line: We will not be forgotten and passed over %and buried under the births and deaths to come Subject(s): Fathers And Daughters FOR MY MOTHER ILL Poem Text First Line: I'll join you in your sleep Last Line: As you close your eyes, / its comfort Subject(s): Healing; Mothers; Sickness; Cures; Illness FOR MY MOTHER ILL First Line: I'll join you in your sleep Last Line: As you close your eyes, %its comfort Subject(s): Healing; Mothers; Sickness FOR MY PARENTS First Line: I was a child in your house Last Line: And I grew up brooding %though assured FOR NOBODY ELSE Poem Text First Line: She presents me with a mountain Last Line: I catch my breath Subject(s): Love FOR NOBODY ELSE First Line: She presents me with a mountain FOR ONE MOMENT First Line: You take the dollar Last Line: Your hair grey, your legs weakened %from long standing FOR ROSE First Line: I have a name Last Line: You are calling FOR STANLEY KUNITZ First Line: I study your photo %at age three. You Last Line: Victory for us %who serve life FOR THE LIVING First Line: Said the lord, I am humble FOR THE NIGHT First Line: Look ma, I'm not your son any longer FOR WALT WHITMAN Poem Text First Line: I cannot read you Last Line: The boss? Subject(s): Life; Poetry & Poets; Whitman, Walt (1819-1891) FOR WCW Poem Text First Line: We sat in rows listening to your poems Last Line: Bleating his lines. Subject(s): Funerals; Poetry & Poets; Williams, William Carlos (1883-1963); Burials FOR YAEDI Poem Text First Line: Looking out the window at the trees Last Line: Now I know myself from a stone / or a sledgehammer Subject(s): Conduct Of Life FOR YAEDI First Line: Looking out the window at the trees Last Line: Now I know myself from a stone %or a sledgehammer FOR YOUR FEAR First Line: Love me and I'll think about it Last Line: Love me for my desperation %that I may love you for your fear Subject(s): Fear; Love FOREVER Poem Text First Line: I do know that birds continue to live and procreate as long as Last Line: For the sake of living with questions Subject(s): Birds; Life FOREVER First Line: At the water's edge of a deserted beach Last Line: As though the mind %lives on forever FOREVER First Line: I do know that birds continue to live and procreate as long as Last Line: This that I have written, for the sake of living with questions %forever Variant Title(s): With Questions Foreve Subject(s): Curiosities And Wonders; Knowledge FORGET IT First Line: That a dog should see another dog and trot over to it-that can Last Line: To each other in a world where the stars are so far apart from %us? FORK I RAISE TO MY MOUTH SHOULD BE THE FORK IN A DREAM FORK I RAISE TO MY MOUTH SHOULD BE THE FORK IN A DREAM FORKS WITH POINTS UP First Line: Points up, our forks FORM First Line: The form falls in on itself Last Line: Crawl toward each other FOUR CONVERSATIONS: A CATECHISM First Line: Do I feel a moral outrage about immoral acts? No FOUR CONVERSATIONS: A DISCUSSION First Line: I'm looking for the idea of order Last Line: I have forgotten what that one was FOUR CONVERSATIONS: CRYSTAL CHANDELIERS First Line: I wait for the mailman FOUR CONVERSATIONS: IMPROVISATION II First Line: I always speak with the voice of god FROM A DREAM Poem Text First Line: I'm on a stair gong down Last Line: That these stairs were built / by human hands Subject(s): Stairs FROM A DREAM First Line: I'm on a stair going down Last Line: That these stairs were built %by human hands FROM MY WINDOW First Line: The church steeple rises above the tracks and the train slides by Last Line: Feels nothing and is not master of itself either as it spins FUTURE First Line: I am going to leave a child in an empty room Last Line: Prepare to live without me %as I am prepared Subject(s): Fathers And Daughters GAME First Line: Hunt me down GARDEN AND THE STORE First Line: My uncle smoked his cigarettes down to the last half inch Last Line: He who owned the garden and the store Variant Title(s): Leaving The Door Open: 1 GARDENERS First Line: So is the child slow stooping beside him Last Line: Beside her grandfather's elderly puppet walk GENTLE WEIGHT LIFTER First Line: Every man to his kind of welcome in the world Last Line: Amidst wonders not yet arrived Subject(s): Industry; Labor And Laborers GET THE GASWORKS Poem Text First Line: Get the gasworks into a poem Subject(s): Industry; Labor & Laborers; Work; Workers GET THE GASWORKS First Line: Get the gasworks into a poem Last Line: In disgust with discipline Subject(s): Industry; Labor And Laborers GLIMPSE OF E.E. CUMMINGS First Line: The reading was over and he stood against GOD SAID, HAVE YOU FINISHED MY THINKING? Last Line: And set you upon a mountain GOD'S First Line: I must train myself to no long exist Last Line: But it is life I can assume %is god's, and I can live with it Subject(s): God GOING DOWN First Line: There's a hole in the earth I'm afraid of Subject(s): Graves GOOD ANGEL First Line: Time and again he would come GRANDCHILDREN First Line: It won't work Subject(s): Grandchildren GROWING UP First Line: These were among my first thoughts on earth GUIDED TOUR THROUGH THE ZOO First Line: Ladies and gentlemen %these are pygmies, fated to live GUILT Poem Text First Line: Guilt is my one attachment to reality Last Line: That too is the extent of my fault Subject(s): Guilt GUILT IS MY ONE ATTACHMENT TO REALITY GULLS First Line: They thread the air HAIRS First Line: I am stuyding the hairs from my head that I was able to pull out gently HAROLD Poem Text First Line: From the west comes harold, with a bitter smile Last Line: And six-cent stamp for home Subject(s): Hospitals; Jews; Racism; Judaism; Racial Prejudice; Bigotry HAROLD First Line: From the west comes harold, with a bitter smile Last Line: For rent, food, gas to keep a car %and six-cent stamp for home Subject(s): Hospitals; Jews; Racism HE IS ORGANIZED TO DIE HE MOVES STRAIGHT BEFORE HIM, LEGS MOVING LIGHTLY Last Line: He explodes Subject(s): Lust HEADLINE: PRISONER WITHOUT REMORSE First Line: Why did you kill? Did you have a quarrel? HEART First Line: My heart has an opening that discharges blood Last Line: Fresh and willing %from having studied the heart Subject(s): Hearts HEBREW LESSON First Line: What I remember is the rabbi's hand Last Line: And it never was explained to me HELLO Poem Text First Line: Hello, drug addict, can you become a poem of perfect form? Last Line: Your napalmed brain and drug-addicted body Subject(s): Literary Prizes; Poetry & Poets; Social Commentaries; War; Drugs & Drug Abuse HERE I AM Poem Text First Line: Here I am / at the toilet bowl Last Line: At my own foregone conclusion / calmly piss Subject(s): Lavatories; Toilets HERE I AM First Line: Here I am %at the toilet bowl Last Line: Calmly piss Subject(s): Lavatories HERE I AM First Line: Here I am standing Last Line: At my own foregone conclusion, calmly piss HERE I AM IN A ROOM Last Line: And reading from a book of essays on the nature of the poet,%the thinker, the marker HERE I AM WITH MIKE First Line: Here I am, with mike in hand, shooting down the rapids in my business suit Last Line: I could have only by shortening my life. I'm enjoying it all Subject(s): Rather, Dan (b. 1931) HERE IN BED Poem Text First Line: Here in bed behind a brick wall Last Line: And faces of people Subject(s): Relationships HERE IT IS First Line: This is how I felt as a child HIGH DIVER First Line: The sea will receive him as a guest HIS NAME First Line: I hear a child singing Last Line: She makes up songs %in which she sings his name HOMELESS Poem Text First Line: No room of his own Last Line: Come instead. Subject(s): Homeless HOPE First Line: In the woods as the trees fade in the dusk Last Line: Related to the tree %and the cold dark HORIZON WAS LIKE AN OPEN MOUTH HOSPITAL CLERK First Line: How many whose names and addresses HOW COME? Poem Text First Line: I'm in new york covered by a layer of soap foam Last Line: Who will die of soap foam Subject(s): New York City; Manhattan; New York, New York; The Big Apple HOW COME? First Line: I'm in new york covered by a layer of soap foam Last Line: God help the many %who will die of soap foam Subject(s): New York City HOW ELSE First Line: It's this way: the tree has to be pruned Last Line: When the hired stranger is a lover %too HOW MUCH TIME IS LEFT HOW TO BE RIGHT First Line: Now don't you think you should relax? HUMAN CONDITION, I First Line: Rifle death of presidents HUMAN CONDITION, II First Line: We are here to make each other die HUNGER ON TV First Line: We touch eyes HUNTER First Line: While birds nest, I carry a gun HURRY HURRY First Line: Ay, open the window, the shop is stifling us I AM Poem Text First Line: I assume a buddha-like expression in the mirror Last Line: In his eyes and am understood Subject(s): Buddhism; Self; Buddha; Buddhists I AM First Line: I assume a buddha-like expression in the mirror Last Line: To know he exists and that I exist %in his eyes and am understood Subject(s): Buddhism; Self I AM ALONE AS I WRITE Poem Text First Line: Yet writing this places me Last Line: Yet it is not life Subject(s): Solitude I AM ALONE AS I WRITE First Line: Yet writing this places me Last Line: It is not life I AM ALONE, MOTHER, WITHOUT YOU I AM INDIFFERENT TO THE GIRL STANDING I AM LIKE A SCRAP OF PAPER STUCK Poem Text Last Line: And the tire keeps crushing / me to myself Subject(s): Conduct Of Life I AM LIKE A SCRAP OF PAPER STUCK I AM SOON GONE I AM WELL First Line: Say, what is it I CAN BE SEEN EACH SUNDAY I CLOSE MY EYES Poem Text First Line: I close my etes like a good little boy at night in bed Last Line: Why can't I live forever? Subject(s): Immortality I CLOSE MY EYES First Line: I close my etes like a good little boy at night in bed Last Line: Why can't I live forever? Subject(s): Immortality I COME TO JOY WHEN SUFFERING BEGINS I COULD SPEND MY LIFE CONTEMPLATING THE WEAVING I COULDN'T HAVE LOVED YOU AS A CHILD I DO NOT SING FOR NOW I DON'T WANT TO First Line: I have such a sympathy for my floor I DREAM First Line: I dream I am lying in the mud on my back and staring up into the sky Last Line: Of the sky I could not get flying in it, while I'd be missing the mud I DREAM I HURL A SPEAR First Line: I dream I hurl a spear into the body of my love Last Line: Bends forward to comfort me as I support myself against %it in a paroxysm of leaving my body I FELT Poem Text First Line: I felt I had met the lord Last Line: By taking up your child Subject(s): Children; Childhood I FELT I HAD MET THE LORD I FIX MY EYES ON A BLADE OF GRASS Poem Text Last Line: Calm, sad, resigned Subject(s): Gardens & Gardening; Mowing & Mowers; Grass I FIX MY EYES ON A BLADE OF GRASS I GIVE YOU A LITLE STICK, YOU GIVE ME A TINY PEBBLE I GIVE YOU A LITTLE STICK, YOU GIVE ME A TINY PEBBLE I HAVE SPOKEN First Line: I conquer the world with a cough Last Line: Coughing to relieve myself, %I have spoken I HEAR MY MOTHER CALL ME IN MY SLEEP I IDENTIFY WITH THE WOODEN SHED IN MY NEIGHBOR'S BACKYARD. Last Line: Proud to have a body like any shed or cord of cut logs I KILLED A FLY Poem Text Recitation by Author Last Line: I lay my body down beside the fly Subject(s): Flies; Death; Dead, The I LEANED, BALLOONING MY SHIRT I LIKE HOW YOUR BELLY Last Line: Of love. My hand travels %over it gently, the peace %in me of fulfillment I LIVE BECAUSE DEATH IS THE GOAL I LOOK OUT ON AN EMPTY ROAD AND I'M DELIGHTED I LOVE TO FLY Poem Text First Line: In a dream I am making phone calls to dozens of airlines Last Line: And I love to fly Subject(s): Air Travel I LOVE TO FLY First Line: In a dream I am making phone calls to dozens of airlines I LOVE WITH MY CONTRADICTIONS Last Line: But so is life I MAY HAVE SAID A FEW THINGS RIGHT I ONCE HAD AN ENEMY I PLAY AT DEATH I SAW A LEAF First Line: I saw a leaf flying in the direction opposite the ground Last Line: A single leaf lay on the doorstep at my feet Subject(s): Leaves I SEE A HAWK SOARING I SEE A TRUCK Poem Text First Line: I see a truck mowing down a parade Last Line: Working for a living Subject(s): Cities; Labor & Laborers; Urban Life; Work; Workers I SEE A TRUCK First Line: I see a truck mowing down a parade Last Line: It is a holiday called %'working for a living' Subject(s): Cities; Labor And Laborers I SHAKE MY FIST AT A TREE Last Line: To see you dead, then there is no answer %to your death but but life, and I am living it Subject(s): Leaves; Trees I SHALL FOLLOW I SHOWED HIM MY WOUND I SIT AT MY DESK, LISTENING TO THE PHONE RING Poem Text Subject(s): Solitude I SIT AT MY DESK, LISTENING TO THE PHONE RING I SLEEP Poem Text First Line: I uncoil myself and lie straight out Last Line: A beating heart Subject(s): Sleep I SLEEP SO THAT IN THE SILENCE Last Line: To my dismay %a beating heart Subject(s): Sleep I STAND UPON A DIKE Poem Text Last Line: And I have only this dike Subject(s): Water Supply I STAND UPON A DIKE AT NIGHT, WATCHING I SURMOUNT Poem Text First Line: Pain at fraud, believing Last Line: Giving as its reason that myself exists. Subject(s): Life; Self-reliance I TURNED MY BACK First Line: I stood in the center of a ring of faces I UNCOIL MYSELF AND LIE STRAIGHT OUT Poem Text Last Line: To enjoy this body and mind Subject(s): Dreams; Imagination; Contentment I UNCOIL MYSELF AND LIE STRAIGHT OUT I USED TO BE IN LOVE Poem Text Last Line: As asking permission they have / changed places? Subject(s): Love – Loss Of I USED TO BE IN LOVE I WANT First Line: I'll tell him I want to be paid immediately I WANT TO BE A SCENE OF SOME SORT I WAS AN ANGRY MAN First Line: When first we met Last Line: In the hollow of their home I WAS ANGRY Last Line: I am shown your fear %which reads me %from its dark hiding. %you secretly survive I WHISTLED BRAHMS TO TELL YOU I LOVED YOU I WILL WALK First Line: I study the folds of fat round your waist lovingly I WISH A GOD WERE POSSIBLE Poem Text Last Line: In being boundless Subject(s): God I WONDER WHO IS NEXT First Line: Listen, mao tse-tung will live forever I WRITE TO CAPTURE THE MEANINGLESS AS IT WERE AN ANIMAL Last Line: So I shall be killed, and I will weep in my grave, missing the meaningless Subject(s): Writing And Writers I'D RATHER LOOK AROUND ME I'LL COME BACK First Line: I'll tear up the floor I'M A MACHINE First Line: I'm a machine that needs to be told I'm not a machine, who will Last Line: Another with whom to share my excellence, so much there was of it %that it had spread to others and I'M ASKING First Line: I'll build you a house I'M GOING BACK TO SOMETHING Poem Text Last Line: In the emptiness afraid to live Subject(s): Death I'M HERE First Line: The radio said, go to your shelters I'M NOT ONE First Line: I'm not one you want to know Last Line: To yourself in my shadow I'M SURE TREES ARE DEPRESSED ALSO I'VE NOTHING TO OFFER Poem Text First Line: But forgiveness Last Line: Of earth, air and water Subject(s): Forgiveness I'VE NOTHING TO OFFER First Line: But forgiveness %for the cruelty of the impersonal Last Line: None of us happy with ourselves, %of earth, air and water I'VE WANTED TO BE OLD AND WRUNG THROUGH IF I CAN WALK FARTHER IF I KISS YOU First Line: If I kiss you, it will not mean the world %is kissing you Last Line: When we were persons in each other's sight and touch Subject(s): Love IF I SHOULD First Line: Fall asleep forever %I will have lived the inevitable Last Line: For a time %between happiness and dread IF MY HAND Poem Text First Line: If my hand believes Last Line: Each death affirmative Subject(s): Human Behavior; Death; Conduct Of Life; Human Nature; Dead, The IF MY HAND BELIEVES IN DEATH IF TREES THAT ARE LESSER THAN I, SO IT IS SAID BY OTHERS IF WE COULD BE BROUGHT Poem Text First Line: If we could be brought to the surface Last Line: The fish that is our slippery life / and death Subject(s): Fish & Fishing; Life IF WE COULD BE BROUGHT TO THE SURFACE Last Line: The fish that is our slippery life %and death IF WE KNEW First Line: If we knew of a purpose Last Line: Our manhood, age and withering %into the love of dying ILLUSION First Line: She was saying mad things Last Line: The shredded hem of her dress %rustled around her IMAGE First Line: The image in the mirror feels nothing Last Line: If there is a god, this is he IMAGINE First Line: Imagine picking up a gun Last Line: To comfort and excite us %at the same time. We are %in bed safe, thrilled %it was the other guy IMAGINE PICKING UP A GUN IMPERMANENCE First Line: The branches in the wind trace Last Line: As it has been drawn. Where %are you, I am left thinking. %whose smile are you returning? IN A DREAM Poem Text First Line: A vacuum cleaner held over my head Last Line: With my satellite heart, brain, bones and blood Subject(s): Dreams; Vacuum Cleaners; Death; Nightmares; Dead, The IN A DREAM Poem Text First Line: At fifty I approach myself Subject(s): Death; Dead, The IN A DREAM First Line: I died and called for you Last Line: We were together Subject(s): Death IN A DREAM First Line: At fifty I approach myself Last Line: Go to hell, %and I walk off Subject(s): Aging IN A DREAM: 1 First Line: Out of a crowd he steps Last Line: And say, it's his life he leads, %and look away IN ABSENTIA First Line: You sunken-cheeked lover of yourself IN AN OPEN PALM First Line: I see myself at my own feet IN ANCIENT TIMES First Line: And they took abu and stoked the fire with him Last Line: Foresakedness, over which the lions howled %for the flesh that crawled by IN ANOTHER DREAM Last Line: Our path upward. You and I sail off together, with earth %attached to my toes. We laugh, we are happ IN CHILDHOOD First Line: In the lumberyard where I stood IN DREAM First Line: I walk in on my parents white haired IN LIMBO Poem Text First Line: I have a child in limbo Last Line: Without a child in the house Subject(s): Children; Childhood IN LIMBO First Line: I have a child in limbo Last Line: But there is no wisdom %without a child in the house Subject(s): Children IN ME First Line: The leaves of the tree hide the sun Last Line: Trees, mountains, earth and water %will vanish in me IN MEMORIAM (AL LICHTMAN) First Line: He stood with two-wheeler between us IN MY CHILDHOOD Poem Text First Line: In my childhood I awoke to my mother's voice Last Line: I am fighting panic that everything / does exist in itself alone Subject(s): Childhood Memories; Family Life; Silence; Fear IN MY CHILDHOOD First Line: A yellow canary looked at me Subject(s): Children IN MY CHILDHOOD I AWOKE TO MY MOTHER'S VOICE Last Line: I am fighting panic that everything %does not exist in itself alone Subject(s): Children IN MY DARK MOOD I LOOK OUT UPON THE STREET IN MY ROOM First Line: If my wife thinks I am sitting here being ambitious IN NO WAY First Line: I am of the family of the universe, and with all of us together Last Line: In no way shall death part us IN PLACE OF LOVE WE MUST HAVE MONEY IN RETROSPECT Poem Text First Line: We regret the sunsets and the flowers are ignored Last Line: For me, and I praise death, his doing too Subject(s): Regret; Death; Dead, The IN SEASON First Line: I have enemies among the leaves IN THE DARK Poem Text First Line: I'm seated beside my phone Last Line: To ring in the dark Subject(s): Telephones; Waiting IN THE END IS THE WORD TO DESTROY THE WORLD Subject(s): Troy IN THE GARDEN First Line: And now I wish to pray and perform Last Line: Now the earth spins Subject(s): Sun IN THE SILENCE WE SAT ACROSS A TABLE IN THE STREET WE STROLLED HAND IN HAND IN THE STREET, THE BUG CARS SCUTTLE AND SHOOT IN THE WOODS First Line: My beard rough as the beginning Last Line: If you can get away IN THIS DREAM First Line: A vacuum cleaner held over my head IN THIS DREAM I DO NOT EXIST Poem Text First Line: In this dream I do not exist. This I know since it is my dream Last Line: I say this in the best of health and in expectation of a long life Subject(s): Dreams IN THIS DREAM I'M AN INDIAN INDEPENDENCE First Line: The child he raises in the slums Subject(s): Independence INFORMATION Poem Text First Line: This tree has two million and seventy-five thousand leaves Subject(s): Trees INFORMATION First Line: This tree has two million and seventy-five thousand leaves Last Line: We could swap information Subject(s): Trees INHERITANCE First Line: I never thought your harsh voice would be silenced INTEGERS First Line: Let me hold your body INTERVIEW First Line: Dear fellow gull, a question or two for you to answer INTERVIEW: 2 First Line: I represent the morning shout. We hear you are dying Last Line: No comment INVOCATION Poem Text First Line: Dirt and stone, if I may know you as you know yourselves Last Line: As if already they were partners of the stones and dirt Subject(s): Creation; Death; Dirt; Stones INVOCATION First Line: Dirt and stone, if I may know you as you know yourselves Last Line: As if already they were partners of the stones and dirt? IT FILLS ME TO LOVE YOU IT IS Poem Text First Line: It is heart-rending to know a kiss Last Line: In each other's sight and touch Subject(s): Life IT IS First Line: It is heart-rending to know a kiss %cannot cure the world of its illnesses Last Line: When we were persons %in each other's sight and touch IT IS PAINFUL IT IS PECULIAR THAT YOU SHOULD LOVE ME IT IS PECULIAR THAT YOU SHOULD LOVE ME Last Line: I smile and kiss your cheek, %rest an arm across your shoulder IT MOVES ME TO LOVE YOU First Line: What I might have lost Last Line: I do not love in being self %alone IT'S A SICK LIFE First Line: Being poet. He writes Last Line: To cure itself %of death and of life IT'S MY LIFE Poem Text First Line: He is lying on the ground, twisting Last Line: You are robbing me of my life Subject(s): Pain IT'S NOT YOU I MISS Last Line: A cloth of the colors %of the days and nights %we spent together IT'S SO REASSURING TO SHOW MYSELF TO YOU Last Line: At heart and wishes to be known and loved #as I love all I am and will be ever ITS ORIGIN First Line: You found yourself in the arms of your lover Last Line: To where I go in the knowledge %that all love is a death %and its origin is joy JOB HUNTING Poem Text First Line: Is it references you want Last Line: Is my reference, my only one. Subject(s): Job Hunting; Poetry & Poets; Whitman, Walt (1819-1891) JOB'S ANGER Poem Text First Line: It was not a man's way to plead Last Line: And god came down Subject(s): God; Job (bible) JOB'S ANGER First Line: It was not a man's way to plead JOSEPH Poem Text First Line: Joseph saw no trouble ahead Last Line: "he made his brothers tremble Subject(s): Manipulation; Courts & Courtiers; Brothers JOURNEY First Line: I am looking for a past %I can rely on Last Line: Undisturbed: love arranged %as order directed at the next day %going to bed was a journey Subject(s): Home; Memory; Poetry And Poets JOURNEY First Line: A dog running in the shadow of trees Last Line: To let you know, to cheer with me %at its journey Variant Title(s): A Bar JOY IN THE BROKEN BONDS OF MY THINKING JOY OF FLIGHT Poem Text First Line: Think of this Last Line: In memory of your dream Subject(s): Flight; Dreams; Survival JUNGLE TALK First Line: When monkeys grab each other by the tail KADDISH Poem Text First Line: Mother of my birth, for how long were we together Subject(s): Men; Mothers; Mourning; Bereavement KADDISH First Line: Mother of my birth, for how long were we together Last Line: I have found my mother %and I am safe and always have been Subject(s): Men; Mothers; Mourning KEEP TIME AWAY First Line: On some mornings she calls him up just as lunchtime begins, and Last Line: Him. How can she convince him that it is love and only love that %keeps her here away from him? Subject(s): Office Employees KNOWLEDGE First Line: Lying between her legs Last Line: At least for then, %the knowledge of their future life %beneath the soil Subject(s): Erotic Love LAST ATTEMPT First Line: I have still to sort you out from my dream LAST NIGHT I SPOKE TO A DEAD WOMAN WITH GREEN FACE LEAF First Line: A leaf is spiralling directly at the tall grass Last Line: To find itself a place on earth Variant Title(s): Leaving The Door Open: 4 Subject(s): Aging; Environment; Nature LEAPING FROM AMBUSH First Line: A man goes by with a woman Last Line: From killing the man and leaping %upon the woman? Subject(s): Lust LEARNING TO STRATCH First Line: A stage hand comes out of the wings and yanks the pullcord of a motor LEAVES First Line: Reclining in my own stomach warmth LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 1 First Line: He got his friends to agree to shoot him standing against a stone wall LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 11 First Line: Here in bed behind a brick wall Last Line: Of the beauty of the trees %and faces of people LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 12 First Line: I find you at twenty-six %seeking refuge LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 13 First Line: I no longer want to feel with you Last Line: Leaving death behind LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 14 First Line: Stranger in my life Last Line: A father can: love, pity and faith LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 15 First Line: You are totally helpless in sleep LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 16 First Line: I named you my son, then withdrew LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 17 First Line: Whatever contribution I was to make to living Last Line: My neighbor standing in his doorway %too and staring out LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 19. STABILITY First Line: There is a fault in the universe Last Line: Each particle of self in search %of assurance, constancy, stability Subject(s): Self; Universe LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 2 First Line: Here comes one of my kind. It's night, and I am caught LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 20 First Line: What kind of life is it for a bird that lands upon a branch LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 21 First Line: Lying quietly on the bed LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 22. THE VIOLENCE First Line: The language among the clashing winds Last Line: And so I become impersonal to myself, %a mind of the wind LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 23 First Line: The bird was flying toward me Last Line: Could make me feel at home LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 24. FOR NOW First Line: How the zebra died in the mouth %of the lioness Last Line: And that time had passed %for now LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 25 First Line: The dog barks and is for the moment a dog heard LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 26 First Line: You are unhappy with the way things LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 27. TWO First Line: The steam hammer pounds with a regularity on steel Last Line: The finally the cost too is absorbed in the doing that has become %a ritual between two fated oppone LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 28. THE NEED First Line: He has come to the conclusion Last Line: Always the danger, %the need to be alert LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 29. NIGHT First Line: How good it is to feel the joy at last Last Line: It is the light of houses in the distance %punctuating the night LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 3. FOR NERUDA First Line: Soldiers surround the house of the poet and crouch LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 30 First Line: He is hobbling along on a wooden leg, with cup outstretched LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 31. COUPLING First Line: Wherever he looks, standing still in the city Last Line: In search of one room, empty of inhabitants %but prepared for them LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 32. ACROSS THE ROOM First Line: He was caressing the back and shoulders Last Line: Had changed her seat and was laughing %at him from across the room LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 33 First Line: At table they talked of family and kids LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 34 First Line: They came at him with crooked teeth LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 35 First Line: Outside his window a woman washes her window LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 36 First Line: Here he is, sitting quietly, enjoying LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 37 First Line: He is digging his own grave a little while before he expects to die LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 38 First Line: I am a vase holding a bunch of flowers LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 39 First Line: Do you know I love you? LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 4 First Line: Two men wrestle on the ground LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 40 First Line: My hot-water bottle, my latest love LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 41 First Line: I'm lying in bed looking up at the ceiling LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 42. EVERYONE First Line: Everyone touch everybody's lips. It's ritual, it's important Last Line: And this difference is what interests you on being yourself talking and loving LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 43 First Line: Sadly is how I must say it LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 44. MEETING First Line: Finally, I have reduced you to a human being Last Line: At the borders of each other's self, %our bodies meeting on a bed LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 45 First Line: The men you've loved are one man Last Line: But making each of us %the first and the last Subject(s): Love LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 46 First Line: What we have done to keep a good house LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 47 First Line: Air that embraces me in a gentle breeze LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 48 First Line: The glow upon the ground LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 5 First Line: I crawled over the dead bodies and moaning mouths of the dying LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 50 First Line: I did not take into account my disillusionment LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 51. LOST CHILDHOOD First Line: How was it possible, I a father Last Line: And it was as though satisfying %my own lost childhood Subject(s): Children; Fathers LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 52 First Line: It is annihilation of the person you became in meeting people LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 53 First Line: The machine, you know, will vary with the weather LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 55 First Line: In the spaces between the stars still water dances LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 56 First Line: I wish a god were possible Last Line: That itself a god %in being boundless LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 57 First Line: The waves laughed as they died LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 58 First Line: I am lifted from my sadness LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 59 First Line: To welcome the day LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 6 First Line: As he passes his hand over his face in front of the mirror LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 60 First Line: In sleep I meet myself LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 61 First Line: He sees the coming and going of friends LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 62 First Line: I've wanted to write my way into paradise Last Line: To dream of the paradise %we were to enter at my words Subject(s): Writing And Writers LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 63. WITHOUT RECRIMINATION First Line: It is wonderful to die amidst the pleasures I have known Last Line: I did not fail my life Subject(s): Contentment LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 7. FROM THE BEGINNING First Line: The sweetness in a man, the very one about to set out Last Line: As it conveyed itself to them in his playing from the beginning LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 8 First Line: This newspaper states that idi amin killed over one hundred thousand ugandans LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN: 9 First Line: He is searching inside his body for the cause of his depression LEGEND OF YOUTH First Line: In the small square to which we had confined ourselves LETTER First Line: I love you, of course, and do you know who else I love? LETTER TO A FRIEND First Line: Yesterday I killed a man. It was such a surprise to me LIFE First Line: To rest in love as a water bug rests on the surface, swinging to and Last Line: Sense of self in this watery support, the self of hip and thigh, my %head, too, afloat. Let this be LIFE AND ME Poem Text First Line: I'm only a bystander Last Line: In these lines. Subject(s): Absence; Life; Separation; Isolation LIFE AS A FROG First Line: The teacher's calm voice guides him LIFE DANCE First Line: I see bubbling out of the ground LIFE IS AS DECEPTIVE AS THE SUN LIFE OF WONDER First Line: I am alone with life, but we do not talk to each other, as LIKE A LIE Poem Text First Line: In myself I speak the language of love Last Line: Sound like a lie Subject(s): Lies LIKE A LIE First Line: In myself I speak the language of love LIKE SMOKE Poem Text First Line: The ground, the apartment house Last Line: Modestly, like smoke / going up Subject(s): Smoke LIKE SMOKE First Line: The ground, the apartment house LINGUISTICS First Line: I heard a man without a tongue talking LISTENING Poem Text First Line: You wept in your mother's arms Last Line: To the pounding of the feet, the pulsing voices. Subject(s): Love; Dancing & Dancers; Life LISTENING Poem Text First Line: It's to hear the children under my window Last Line: To the pounding of the feet, the pulsing voices. Subject(s): Dancing & Dancers; Life LISTENING First Line: You wept in your mother's arms Last Line: I was lifted up in joy LITTLE FRIEND LIVE IT THROUGH Poem Text First Line: I dreamt a huge liner stood in the desert, its crew leaning Last Line: Live it through Subject(s): Deserts; Dreams; Ships & Shipping; Nightmares LIVES Poem Text First Line: Bessie’s face lingers before me Last Line: And as if speaking for me Subject(s): Women; Music & Musicians; Fathers & Daughters; Perseverance LIVES First Line: Bessie's face lingers before me Last Line: Having praised bessie, %echoing my pleasure LIVES II First Line: At colonnus oedipus complained LIVING First Line: My routine existence: bed at eleven, up at six, breakfast Last Line: They ask for what does not exist routinely LONG ISLAND Poem Text First Line: As cars drive by on southern state parkway Last Line: Speeding apart Subject(s): Automobile Drivers; Long Island (n.y.) LONG ISLAND First Line: As cars drive by on southern state parkway Last Line: The cars speed by, a community in themselves, %speeding apart LONGEST KNIVES First Line: In a garden of innocent instruments LOOSE GOWN First Line: I wear my life loosely around me Last Line: But the wind in these pockets %of my life keep me from falling LOST CHILDHOOD Poem Text First Line: How was it possible, I a father Last Line: My own lost childhood Subject(s): Fathers & Sons LOVE IN A ZOO Poem Text First Line: What I offer she strips Last Line: And picking fleas Subject(s): Love; Monkeys LOVE IN A ZOO First Line: What I offer she strips LOVE IS HIS NEMESIS: IT FOLLOWS HIM INTO SLEEP Poem Text Last Line: Man and woman, at a job Subject(s): Love – Complaints LOVE IS HIS NEMESIS: IT FOLLOWS HIM INTO SLEEP LOVE ME LOVE MY BOMBS LOVE POEM First Line: When I die, who will wind my watch? Last Line: To another, such as we, to carry on %what need not end with us LOVE POEM FOR THE FORTY-SECOND STREET LIBRARY First Line: With my eyes turned to the sky Subject(s): Librarians & Libraries; New York City; Library; Librarians; Manhattan; New York, New York; The Big Apple LOVE POEM FOR THE FORTY-SECOND STREET LIBRARY First Line: With my eyes turned to the sky Last Line: This way, my eyes shimmering and turned %upwards Subject(s): Librarians And Libraries; New York City LOVE WE HAD First Line: The love we had for one another is somewhere Last Line: That fits the face of grief, %at risk among others Subject(s): Love - Loss Of LOVER First Line: I'd tell of stones dropping upon me LOVERS First Line: The sea drills into the shore LUNCHTIME First Line: None said anything startling from the rest Last Line: From underneath her MAKE UP A POEM ABOUT A MAN GOING TO SLEEP MAKE UP A POEM ABOUT A MAN GOING TO SLEEP IN HIS MAN CANNOT LEAP OVER HIMSELF MAN CONFRONTED BY MASKS MAN OF HIS TIME First Line: He was riding the train away from her with whom he had just Last Line: Sands poisoned. He felt no guilt at that either MAN WHO ATTRACTS BULLETS First Line: I'm being shot at in the street MAN WHO FELL APART IN THE STREET AS HE WALKED First Line: First, his right arm swung loose and dropped to the sidewalk Last Line: Him he could not make fun of them and get away with it MAN'S POSTURE First Line: There are many forms of love, but none MAN, I'VE COOLED ON ANGER MANACLED YOUTH First Line: He walks briskly between two cops Last Line: With the same curiosity, as he approaches %the courthouse with brisk step %between two cops stolid a MANAGER First Line: I want no balking, no hesitation MARKETING First Line: The noise is not enough MARMOSET First Line: I feed an ancestor out of my hand Last Line: I honor, with my hand outstretched MARRIAGE SONG First Line: As for life, I have not held a bouquet of roses MEDITATION ON VIOLENCE First Line: It is perfectly possible MEETING First Line: Strange, but I get the impression that you're dying MELPOMENE IN MANHATTAN Poem Text First Line: As she walked she would look back Subject(s): New York City; Manhattan; New York, New York; The Big Apple MELPOMENE IN MANHATTAN First Line: As she walked she would look back Last Line: Or into hostile crowds Subject(s): New York City MEMORIES OF A HORSEMAN First Line: I am never so quick as when I ride MEN SANG First Line: Nicias warned them: in sicily stood ruin MIDNIGHT: 2 First Line: In place of you Last Line: In my room I must turn %my back on to sleep %in the dark MIRRORS First Line: Finish your food, as the shell strikes MODERN FABLE First Line: Once upon a time a man stole a wolf from among its pack and said to Last Line: The pack kept running away. It was a kind of relationship MONEY AND GRASS First Line: Tonight reality is in the rest Last Line: And I am earth's offering again %to wild horns and engines MOON First Line: I walk beneath it, seeing a stranger MOONLIGHT POEM First Line: I wish you would get happy again MORAL TALE First Line: All this for me, he asked Last Line: Moral: in adversity we find our goal in life Subject(s): Erotic Love MORNING First Line: I am not a bird MOTHER AND CHILD Poem Text First Line: She feared the baby would fall Last Line: Hands resting upon her Subject(s): Mothers; Death – Children; Death - Babies; Mad Houses; Insane Asylums MOTHER AND CHILD First Line: She feared the baby would fall MOTHS Poem Text First Line: He sees one fluttering across the room Last Line: Out upon the floor beneath silent, gray outspread wings Subject(s): Moths MOTHS First Line: He sees one fluttering around the room and, concerned for his Last Line: Out upon the floor beneath silent, gray outspread wings MOUNTAIN IS STRIPPED First Line: I no longer have to declare myself MOVING PICTURE Poem Text First Line: When two take gas / by mutual consent Subject(s): Suicide MOVING PICTURE First Line: When two take gas %by mutual consent Last Line: And a house on it %for two to enter Subject(s): Suicide MR. MAMMON I First Line: It was no use their pleading with me MR. MAMMON II First Line: In business my ideal is to get up MURDERER First Line: I pull a knife but it is to protest Last Line: For the grief and anger %I have given Subject(s): Anger MY ARMS RAISED ABOVE MY HEAD MY ENEMIES Poem Text First Line: I know how I have learned to hate Last Line: As I love my enemies Subject(s): Enemies MY ENEMIES First Line: I know how I have learned to hate Last Line: That my life loves my toenails even as I love my enemies Subject(s): Enemies MY EYES ARE FORMING A TREE MY LIFE HAS BEEN A SEEKING MY LOVE FOR YOU IS A DARK HALL Last Line: And in the evening %and praised for its beauty %in the eye and in the mouth MY NATIVE LAND First Line: I pledge allegiance to the lips of the vagina MY NEIGHBOR First Line: Why is that old woman in the gutter MY ONLY ENEMY Poem Text First Line: My only enemy has no metal for his hatred Last Line: I do not forget my only enemy Subject(s): Enemies MY ONLY ENEMY HAS NO METAL FOR HIS HATRED MY OWN HOUSE Poem Text First Line: As I view the leaf, my theme is not the shades of meaning Subject(s): Home MY OWN HOUSE First Line: As I view the leaf, my theme is not the shades of meaning Last Line: Leaf that my walk among the trees, after completing this %poem, would be like entering my own house Subject(s): Home MY OWN LINE First Line: I try to follow through the maze MY PITY First Line: This locked man %a springer of death upon himself MY PLACE Poem Text First Line: I have a place to come to Subject(s): Self-reliance MY PLACE First Line: I have a place to come to Last Line: Having located himself %through my place Subject(s): Self-reliance MY POETRY IS FOR THE NIGHT Poem Text Last Line: And in sleep rejoice Subject(s): Poetry & Poets MY POETRY IS FOR THE NIGHT Last Line: And in sleep rejoice Subject(s): Night; Poetry And Poets MY PRESIDENT WEEPS First Line: The president's blood is on my hands; he has taken MY SELF IS A WATCHER MY SKELETON, MY RIVAL Poem Text First Line: Interesting that I have to live with my skeleton Last Line: And I its friend, shielding it from harm Subject(s): Skeletons; Identity; Death; Dead, The MY WHOLENESS IS DEPENDENT Poem Text Last Line: Upon both states existing Subject(s): Life MYSELF First Line: I am alone with my anger Last Line: In the presence of a stranger MYSTIQUE Poem Text First Line: No man has seen the third hand Last Line: Of our hunger or of our giving Subject(s): Human Behavior MYSTIQUE First Line: No man has seen the third hand Last Line: And unseen will change the object %of our hunger or of our giving NAILHEAD First Line: Keep the money coming in Last Line: Yanking needs someone insane %and I stand ready for tomorrow too NAME First Line: What was it like for sociability Last Line: To the crematorium to give humanity %a name NEIGHBORS First Line: Where do they find the answers? Last Line: To expel waste and to make arrangements %and to carry them out Subject(s): Neighbors NEITHER ONE First Line: A woman is pleading that she loves him and asking why he does Last Line: Repairs for the house and the need for a new car. Everything is back %to normal, and neither one is NEW MEXICO Poem Text First Line: The sun blazes in silence Last Line: Darkness and cold. Subject(s): New Mexico; Sun NEW YEAR'S EVE Poem Text First Line: I sit here glad, glad of my comfort and so somber Last Line: With the helplessness of the newborn. Subject(s): Holidays; New Year; Solitude; Wind; Loneliness NEW YORK First Line: I had to laugh NEWS PHOTO First Line: This idiot had suffered his own faults NEWS REPORT Poem Text First Line: At two a.M. A thing, jumping out of a manhole Last Line: Through perfume and a bath Subject(s): News; Violence NEWS REPORT First Line: At two a.M. A thing, jumping our of a manhole Last Line: And the smell of a goat clinging tenaciously %through perfume and a bath NEXT TO DIE First Line: I'm learning to wear black NICE GUY Poem Text First Line: I had a friend and he died Last Line: He died of too much Subject(s): Frendship; Death; Dead, The NICE GUY First Line: I had a friend and he died. Me NIGHT AT AN AIRPORT First Line: Just as the signal tower lights flash NIGHT LIFE First Line: This time from behind NIGHT PEOPLE First Line: See them with their backs NIGHT THOUGHTS Poem Text Last Line: My sudden, unexpected wish for mashed potatoes Subject(s): Life Choices; Desire NO ANSWER Poem Text First Line: I have learned to love without explanation Last Line: Without which I can expect / no answer Subject(s): Love NO ANSWER First Line: I have learned to love without explanation NO IDEAS BUT IN THINGS Poem Text Last Line: A severed past, / a dismembered part Subject(s): Transience; Language NO IDEAS BUT IN THINGS NO THEORY Poem Text First Line: No theory will stand up to a chicken's guts Subject(s): Men NO THEORY First Line: No theory will stand up to a chicken's guts Last Line: At the odor escaping Subject(s): Men NOAH First Line: He must wade out to a high point NOCTURNE First Line: My room is lit, and those who care NOTE ON TURGENEV First Line: There is no settling down anywhere NOTES FOR A LECTURE Poem Text First Line: I will teach you to become american, my students Last Line: You have meaning Subject(s): Poetry & Poets NOTES FOR A LECTURE First Line: I will teach you to become an american, my students Last Line: And dance. You have a costume, %you have meaning NOTHING IS LEFT BUT THE STARS NOURISH THE CROPS First Line: I examine the sun for my life's goodness NOW First Line: He's in class teaching Last Line: As if to say, I'm here, %as you have asked of me. %now are you at peace? Subject(s): Lust; Schools NOW CELEBRATE LIFE AND DEATH First Line: The croatians watching the soldiers line up in front of them for the exceution NOW I HEAR TWO UNSYNCHRONIZED STEEL HAMMERS POUNDING Last Line: And I am left at my typewriter to make the necessary sounds that we associate with life Subject(s): Writing And Writers NURSE First Line: The old man who can undress before you Last Line: Of your respect to his side Subject(s): Aging; Nurses OBSERVED Poem Text First Line: Reality is the other person Last Line: In the other. Variant Title(s): "reality Is The Other Person""; Subject(s): Imagination; Reality; Fancy OBSOLETE Poem Text First Line: I'm going to drive up Last Line: He can't make me obsolete Subject(s): Automobiles - Mantenace & Repair OBSOLETE First Line: I'm going to drive up OEDIPUS REFORMED Poem Text First Line: I will not kill my father Last Line: My wife will play my mother / and be kind Subject(s): Fathers OEDIPUS REFORMED First Line: I will not kill my father Last Line: My wife will play my mother %and be kind Subject(s): Fathers OF THAT FIRE First Line: Inside I am on fire. Imagine, though, coming up to city hall Last Line: Not knowing they are dying in the fire that was lit in them,born of that fire Subject(s): Fire OF THE LIVING First Line: Will I ever tire of writing of my approaching death OFF TO THE CEMETERY First Line: To die is to be brought down among blacks Last Line: To the cemetery in cars and cabs %that are as good-looking as false teeth Subject(s): Death; Funerals OFFICE PARTY First Line: The hips go circling in the slow suggestive manner OH IRENE First Line: What has happened to irene whose bald brother OLD First Line: The wonder is mine as she counts Last Line: I am growing old Subject(s): Aging OLD MAN Poem Text First Line: The girl who has been whistled at Last Line: With pleading eyes. Subject(s): Women; Flirtation OLD MAN LOOKS AT THE YOUNG KISSING First Line: The yearning to make it all there is OMEN First Line: I love the bird that appears Last Line: I can only surmise %from its regularity Subject(s): Birds ON CENSORSHIP First Line: A man, a famous man, is being talked about in another country ON FREEDOM Poem Text First Line: In a dream I'm no longer in love Subject(s): Death; Freedom; Dead, The; Liberty ON FREEDOM First Line: In a dream I'm no longer in love Last Line: I'm dying and I'm free Subject(s): Death; Freedom ON MODERN POETRY First Line: The poem of the mind is the act of finding Last Line: Combing. The poem of the act of the mind ON POETRY First Line: I'm tired of living Last Line: You could not write ON THE DEATH OF WINSTON CHURCHILL Poem Text First Line: Now should great men die Subject(s): Churchill, Winston (1874-1965) ON THE DEATH OF WINSTON CHURCHILL First Line: Now should great men die Last Line: One by one %offer to die Subject(s): Churchill, Winston (1874-1965) ON WALKING INTO A DARK ALLEY First Line: Look into these shadows ONCE MORE First Line: An odor passed between us distinctly a fart ONCE THERE WAS A WOMAN SMILED AT ME Last Line: Meeting in her house, thinking %of just this Subject(s): Lust ONCE UPON A TIME First Line: Once upon a time there was an animal that did not think it was Last Line: And then it dreamt of resisting this need. It awoke, annoyed %with itself ONE CAN First Line: One can fall in love as often as a tree grows leaves Last Line: And complications, unless one takes oneself to be a tree ONE LEAF Poem Text First Line: One leaf left on a branch / and not a sound of sadness Last Line: In swaying mildly in the breeze Subject(s): Leaves ONE LEAF First Line: One leaf left on a branch %and not a sound of sadness Last Line: One leaf and it spends itself %in swaying mildly in the breeze Subject(s): Leaves ONTOLOGY First Line: In the dark I step out of bed Last Line: And harm cannot come unless I happen, %but because I exist, I am existence Subject(s): Ontology OPEN BOAT First Line: With no place to lay my head OPENING PATHS First Line: I am indifferent again, I am obsessed by indifference Last Line: Other this is so much more difficult than love and we are trying OPTIONS First Line: One, surround the territory with armed forces ORANGE PICKER First Line: I was tempted to the grove by its odor ORGASM First Line: It is the mind experiencing its pleasure Last Line: Of pleasure in the self, life singing %to life, more beautiful %even than a single mind Subject(s): Erotic Love ORIGINS First Line: While you offer me smiles I submit poems OUR MASTERPIECE First Line: You can stick a sign for sale OUT OF FOCUS Poem Text First Line: There is a sense in which living itself seems a form of Last Line: Already you persist in walking about attending to our affairs Subject(s): Life; Futility PAINTER First Line: When she sees parrots and princesses they are there PAINTER AND HER SUBJECT First Line: My frenzy back and forth has made her sit still PALE SKIN IS UPON THE CHEEKBONE LIKE A PLEA PAPER CUTTER First Line: He slides the cut paper out Last Line: And not get up all day, he laughs Subject(s): Industry; Labor And Laborers PARDON KEEPS THE SUN First Line: You say sorrow and desperation PARDON OF CAIN First Line: Who did you kill that you thought would make life simpler PARK First Line: I sit beside old retired italians %they chat and have smooth skins Last Line: I a stranger, and feel the quiet %and stability they make, %and lasting custom Subject(s): Poetry And Poets PARTING First Line: You are watching me, wondering when Last Line: Seeing me pass among the dead, %seeing yourself as in an aging mirror Subject(s): Bly, Robert (b. 1926) PASSENGER Poem Text First Line: This one on the platform Last Line: She boards with an assault motion. Subject(s): Commuters; Travel; Journeys; Trips PAST First Line: That summer when you ran from my parents' house Last Line: Preferring not to have lived than to have made %unhappiness my life PAYMASTER First Line: The pay could have been more PEACE Poem Text First Line: Peace belongs with the birds Last Line: Their wings widespread Subject(s): Birds; Peace PEACE First Line: Peace belongs with the birds Last Line: Utter no protest, %their wings widespread Subject(s): Birds; Peace PEACE FOR AWHILE Last Line: Of coming to grips with what we wish to do %and the failure to do it Subject(s): Peace PEOPLE DON'T MATTER ANY LONGER PERMANENCE Poem Text First Line: I am leaving earth with little knowldge of it Subject(s): Transience PERMANENCE First Line: I am leaving earth with little knowledge of it Last Line: And what does failure mean but to sink below %into the permanence of ocean of our being PHASE OF ORDER First Line: Could I calmly watch myself being robbed of my wallet PHYSICAL LOVE First Line: I would like to know which way does it curl PLANT First Line: With one part rooted in resignation PLANTONIST First Line: This fart was so powerful PLAY AGAIN Poem Text First Line: I draw near to the roof's edge Subject(s): Rape PLAY AGAIN First Line: I draw near to the roof's edge Last Line: Until I really die, when you are old %on a flight of stairs Subject(s): Rape PLAYFULLY First Line: Lovely death of the horse PLEASURE First Line: I enjoy watching myself PLEASURE First Line: With broken tooth he clawed it POEM First Line: A view of the mountain from the valley floor POEM First Line: I am tired of you POEMS THE DEAD KNOW BY HEART First Line: Long poems are for the dead POET TO PHYSICIST IN HIS LABORATORY First Line: Come out and talk to me Last Line: When you are questioned. POETS I HAVE REFUSED TO READ POETS OF THE NEW YORKER Poem Text Last Line: To weep for the dead can be found / in cemeteries Subject(s): Poetry & Poets; Hotels POETS OF THE NEW YORKER POLITICAL CARTOON First Line: Ten men are seated around a conference table PORTRAIT First Line: My mother never forgave my father %for killing himself Last Line: I can feel my cheek %still burning PRAYER First Line: May I continue to earn money PREMONITIONS First Line: A bird winging through space Last Line: As what we have done is the future too %which is always PREPARATION First Line: And how I sat and gave a wall my love PREPARING First Line: I'll have to see my father dead PRETEND YOU ARE ASLEEP First Line: If you look closely at the exhalations of my inner heat PRICING First Line: The grave needed a stone marker Last Line: Finally with his daughter he discussed %the price and the stone's color Subject(s): Graves PRINCIPLE First Line: Make no mistake, you cannot take Last Line: You are making love to all the world %that I am Subject(s): Love PRINT SHOP Poem Text First Line: Here are the pin-ups of the nude Last Line: Queer for looking. Subject(s): Business; Printing & Printers; Businessmen; Businesswomen PRODIGAL SON First Line: I went back for redress PROEM First Line: Is a tree guilty? PROGRESS OF LOVE First Line: When I first met you I talked to your body PROLOGUE Poem Text First Line: Mine was the life planned to go wrong Last Line: With whispers, your legs trembling Subject(s): Conduct Of Life PROLOGUE First Line: Mine was the life planned to go wrong Last Line: Your stomach quakes, your head thick %with whispers, your legs trembling PROMENADE Poem Text First Line: His head split in four parts Last Line: Are the leaves, touching each other and the sun Subject(s): Alienation (social Psychology) PROMENADE First Line: His head split in four parts Last Line: Are the leaves, touching each other and the sun PROPOSITION Poem Text First Line: Begin with this Last Line: Of flowers. Am I dreaming? Subject(s): Flowers; Peace PROSE POEM IN SIX PARTS Poem Text First Line: I'm so happy, he shouts, as he puts a bullet through his head Last Line: "his comfort, he is ready to die successfully, he dies and is complete, an Subject(s): Death; Suicide; Dead, The PROSE POEM IN SIX PARTS First Line: I'm so happy, he shouts, as he puts a bullet through his head Last Line: He dies and is complete, an ordinary man Subject(s): Death; Suicide PROUD OF MYSELF First Line: It's of no consequence to the grass that it withers, secure in its identity Last Line: Woods. I am the message, watch me die, proud of myself PUZZLE (1) First Line: All the way to the station I was trying to make out who was the guy reponsible Last Line: Suppose it was only one of the men, %how in hell were you supposed to know? PUZZLE (2) First Line: I came into the train and saw them standing together in a corner Last Line: It happened, but it was puzzling. Suppose it was only one of the %men, how in hell were you supposed RAVEN CROAKING ON THE PERCH OF MY HEART READING AT NIGHT Poem Text First Line: What have I learned that can keep me Last Line: On my face Subject(s): Death; Dead, The READING AT NIGHT First Line: What have I learned that can keep me Last Line: Again to let its light shine %on my face Subject(s): Death READING THE HEADLINES Poem Text First Line: I have a burial ground in me where I place the bodies Last Line: I know my direction and have companions, after all Subject(s): Cemeteries; Death READING THE HEADLINES First Line: I have a burial ground in me where I place the bodies Last Line: I know my direction and have companions, after all REFUSE MAN First Line: I'm going to pull my stinking wagon Last Line: I had to, being a man Subject(s): Refuse And Refuse Disposal RELATIONSHIP First Line: I shall always love the sea REPLY First Line: My poems no longer are 'beautiful' Last Line: For beauty is made %and not lamented on Subject(s): Beauty; Death; Poetry And Poets REPLY First Line: I am the chair he sits on at the desk to type his poems and letters REQUIEM First Line: My father, listening to music, that's me Last Line: Between them what was impossible %to settle in their early days? Subject(s): Fathers; Opera RESCUE THE DEAD Poem Text First Line: Finally, to forgo love is to kiss a leaf Last Line: You who are free / rescue the dead Subject(s): Love - Nature Of; Love RESCUE THE DEAD Poem Text First Line: Finally, to forgo love is to kiss a leaf Subject(s): Love RESCUE THE DEAD First Line: Finally, to forgo love is to kiss a leaf Last Line: You who are free, %rescue the dead Subject(s): Love RESOLVED Poem Text First Line: Do you love Last Line: It is possible to be happy. Subject(s): Love - Complaints RESPECTED GRAVES First Line: I am seated on a chair resting upon a wooden floor RESTAURANT First Line: The restaurant I walk into expects me to have the cash or credit Last Line: Excitement, combat, power and domination? REVERSALS First Line: I have trained myself in idlesness and want REWARD First Line: They who love me stand in my way Last Line: Shielding myself with their presence RIGHTFUL ONE First Line: I heard my son burst out of his room Last Line: Was gone and left a power to feel free RITUAL ONE Poem Text First Line: As I enter the theatre the play is going on Last Line: At each other's groins Subject(s): Theater & Theaters RITUAL ONE First Line: As I enter the theatre the play is going on Last Line: Of children playfully aiming their kicks %at each other's groins Subject(s): Theater And Theaters RITUAL THREE Poem Text First Line: It is quiet for me, now that I have buried the child Last Line: For her to live is to act in terxms of death Subject(s): Child Abuse; Murder; Torture RITUAL TWO Poem Text First Line: The kids yell and paint their bodies Last Line: Bang against each other, scream and scatter Subject(s): Children; Nothingness; Play RITUAL TWO First Line: The kids yell and paint their bodies RIUTAL THREE First Line: It's quiet for me, now that I have buried the child ROCKETS First Line: For those who'll take my place Last Line: I rose up and walked within range %of the guns and the rockets Subject(s): Peace ROOM First Line: There's a door to my name RUSH HOUR Poem Text First Line: That tall, shapely blond standing at her husband's side Last Line: We will not talk to one another. Subject(s): Commuters; Marriage; Weddings; Husbands; Wives SAID A VOICE TO ME SALES TALK Poem Text First Line: Better than to kill each other off Last Line: To unity and morale Subject(s): Salespersons; Selling SALES TALK First Line: Better than to kill each other off Last Line: The knotted tie under a white collar add up %to unity and morale Subject(s): Salespersons SALESMAN First Line: What a busy man I was, I had first to step into one place SAMSON First Line: Did I love god for myself alone SANGUINE First Line: For twelve years this old lamp Last Line: To become miracles SAY PARDON TO A BUM Poem Text Last Line: And follow your own will / in the open spaces ahead Subject(s): Liberty; Identity; Begging & Beggars SAY PARDON TO A BUM Last Line: And follow your own will %in the open spaces ahead Subject(s): Wanderers And Wandering SAYING YES TO LIVING Poem Text First Line: Because so many of us have died Last Line: And to pay my bills Subject(s): Life SEA IS MY PLACE First Line: You have brought me to an opening to the sea for each to sail in Last Line: Smile draws me with the force of fear. I place my hand upon your %face and I know the sea is my plac SEARCH FOR GRACE First Line: Is this to say that the blue of the sky SECRET CRUMBS First Line: The execution was pronounced in the womb SECRETLY First Line: My foot awes me SEDIMENT Poem Text First Line: You are such a well-rounded sponge Last Line: And I tasting of sediment Subject(s): Sponges SEDIMENT First Line: You are such a well-rounded sponge Last Line: You swollen and out of shape %and I tasting of sediment SEE First Line: It's not you in particular Last Line: How the wind lifts up %the unexceptionable waves %and sets them down SELF First Line: Now I feel so far from you SELF-ANALYSIS Poem Text First Line: I am not writing because I feel as though Last Line: Victims of their dreams. Subject(s): Death; Poetry & Poets; Self; Dead, The SELF-CENTERED Poem Text First Line: I love the only day that I was born Last Line: At which time I was the beginning Subject(s): Egoism & Egotism SELF-CENTERED First Line: I love the only day that I was born Last Line: At which time I was the beginning Subject(s): Egoism And Egotism SELF-EMPLOYED Poem Text First Line: I stand and listen, head bowed, Last Line: To do the job in dark, airless conditions? Subject(s): Self SELF-EMPLOYED First Line: I stand and listen, head bowed Last Line: To do the job in dark, airless conditions? SEMBLANCE First Line: Over your mother's grave Last Line: Its meaning. You pray %to the air Subject(s): Graves; Mothers; Prayer SEPARATE DEAD First Line: The leaves on the tree in front of my house - they live and die together Last Line: Which the dead are lying, the separate dead Subject(s): Death; Leaves SEPARATE ROOMS First Line: We an aging couple Last Line: Lying in separate beds %in separate rooms Subject(s): Aging; Marriage SH, THIS POEM WANTS TO SAY SOMETHING First Line: Yes, I was out to visit with my friends SHADOWING IN THE GROUND First Line: What I had witnessed had been lived through Last Line: I have forgotten her name Subject(s): Grief SHAPELY First Line: He stops his wife in the street Last Line: Swinging his arms and legs wide, %he walks chipper: his wife has %shapely thighs SHE WAS THE AUDIENCE First Line: The patriotic speeches SHINED SHOES Poem Text First Line: Get a shine. Who knows, it might lead to money Subject(s): Shoes SHINEY SHOES First Line: Get a shine. Who knows, it might lead to money SHIP First Line: I saw an ocean liner in the desert, its crew leaning over the railing Last Line: And we could help each other to live it through Subject(s): Deserts; Food And Eating; Ships And Shipping SIDE BY SIDE Poem Text First Line: What does it mean to be mature? Last Line: I'm all out of them Subject(s): Maturity SIDE BY SIDE First Line: What does it mean to be mature? SIGNAL First Line: How can I regret my life Last Line: And I do not torture myself %with my shortcomings SILENTLY First Line: What may two lovers say SIMPLY Poem Text First Line: I must set a shape in air Last Line: That I am. Subject(s): Life; Men SIMULACRUM First Line: The world is made up of cab drivers Last Line: While from the street rises %the all consuming roar of his constituents SIMULTANEOUSLY Poem Text First Line: Simultaneously, five thousand miles apart Last Line: Sprouting leaves. Subject(s): Antinuclear Movement; Nuclear War; Nuclear Freeze; Atomic Bomb; Hydrogen Bomb SINCE THEN Poem Text First Line: I am in search of revival Last Line: What I am left to do Subject(s): Past; Conduct Of Life SINCE THEN First Line: I am in search of revival Last Line: What I am left to do SINGERS OF PROVENCE First Line: Was it beauty for one's head Subject(s): Provence, France; Singing And Singers SIX LOVE POEMS, SELS. First Line: We are seated at the kitchen table SIX LOVE POEMS: 1 Poem Text First Line: We are seated at the kitchen table Last Line: The space we occupy together Subject(s): Parents; Male-female Relationships; Parenthood SIX LOVE POEMS: 4 Poem Text First Line: What would life be without you? Last Line: Through my imagining Subject(s): Love SIX LOVE POEMS: 6 Poem Text First Line: If we could be brought up to the surface Last Line: To listen intently Subject(s): Love SIX MOVEMENTS ON A THEME First Line: Thinking myself in a warm country SKETCHES Poem Text First Line: In new york, bus drivers are the only happy men Last Line: That reads drink blotto! Subject(s): Cruelty; New York City; Violence; Manhattan; New York, New York; The Big Apple SKY Poem Text First Line: I would be buried beside my parents Last Line: Beside us, face up to the sky Subject(s): Parents; Graves; Parenthood SKY First Line: I would be buried beside my parents Last Line: Beside us, face up to the sky Subject(s): Parents SKY IS BLUE First Line: Put things in their place Last Line: What place, ask her SLEEPY First Line: Now where can I move to get peace Last Line: That whoever tries to make his weight felt %is going to get a reaction SO HERE ARE ALL OF YOU SO INTRICATELY IS THIS WORLD RESOLVED Last Line: Lest, cracking in bright air, a planet fall SOLDIER Poem Text First Line: In his hands the submachine gun is excited Last Line: In any ace / he is finished Subject(s): Kent State University - Riot, 1970 SOLDIER First Line: In his hands the submachine gun is excited Subject(s): Kent State University - Riot, 1970 SOLITUDE First Line: I am sitting here alone because SOMEHOW IT DOES NOT WRITE ITSELF, OUR LIFE TOGETHER SOMEONE I KNOW / WHOM I FEARED SOMETHING OF OURSELVES, WE DECIDED FINALLY Poem Text SOMETHING OF OURSELVES, WE DECIDED FINALLY SOMETIMES I THINK I'VE LIVED TOO LONG Last Line: In my search for final cause %I'm contained in its study SOMETIMES IB THE SUBWAY YOU SEE A FACE SONG First Line: The song is to emptiness Last Line: Bowling or collecting coins, %writing about it SPACE POEM First Line: A fly has landed on the moon SPHINX First Line: They had stood in the sun and piled up these stones SPINNING First Line: I hold my hands out to you SPIRIT First Line: If you will say the sea is water SPRING First Line: The mountain in its blue haze STAGES First Line: I am somewhere left behind in a dream STAKE AND THE CHAIN First Line: I heard you tell me candid expressions of defeat STATEMENT FOR THE TIMES First Line: On sunday, day of rest, visiting the lake Last Line: But they will build them up %for a stubborn ideal STEPS FOR THREE - A PROSE POEM First Line: On stage, a girl child, father and mother sit around a table STIEGLITZ WORE A CAP TO TAUNT BULLS STONES WILL PAY ME HEED Poem Text First Line: What has brought me to you, stone Last Line: Are here and they pay me heed Subject(s): Stones STORY OF PROGRESS First Line: The apple I held and bit into was for me. The friend who spoke to me Last Line: Errand of candles to place at the foot and head of her coffin STRANGER First Line: That face grown hair, flat-lipped STREET SCENE First Line: Now the steam hammer is still SUBURBIA First Line: Living here is like walking on your own shit Subject(s): Suburbs SUBURBIA I First Line: What is with the bird Subject(s): Suburbs SUBURBIA II First Line: The silence of the suburb Subject(s): Suburbs SUBWAY Poem Text First Line: There slouched the drunk, head fallen Subject(s): Commuters; Surprise SUBWAY Poem Text First Line: I am sorry, she would say Last Line: In the sober spirit of the ride. Subject(s): Commuters; Surprise SUBWAY First Line: I thought that if he could stoop SUBWAY First Line: There slouched the drunk, head fallen Last Line: Really were bettered by my efforts %he could not deter me Subject(s): Alcoholics And Alcoholism; Subways SUBWAY First Line: Look at me, stranger, as if I had no coin SUCCESS IN THE TOUCHES OF YOUR HAND Poem Text Last Line: Singleness like garments / clinging in the wind Subject(s): Success SUCCESS IN THE TOUCHES OF YOUR HAND SUFFERING IS WHAT I DO BEST SUITE FOR MARRIAGE First Line: You keep eating and raising a family SUMMARY First Line: There is no mercy in things SUMMER Poem Text First Line: Men and women at the beach SUMMER Poem Text First Line: Men and women at the beach Last Line: Rest. SUMMER First Line: Sideways to the sea we walked Last Line: Each would root the other to the spot, %freed of ourselves SUMMER First Line: Through that gap in the cluster of leaves SUNDAY AT THE STATE HOSPITAL Poem Text First Line: I am sitting across the table Subject(s): Hospitals; Insanity; Men; Madness; Mental Illness SUNDAY AT THE STATE HOSPITAL First Line: I am sitting across the table Last Line: And trying with almost no success %to bring the present to its mouth Subject(s): Hospitals; Insanity; Men SUNLIGHT, PIERCING THE GLOOM OF THIS HOUSE Last Line: But for the sudden entrance %of sunlight into this house SUNLIGHT: A SEQUENCE FOR MY DAUGHTER, SELECTION Poem Text First Line: I am proud of your soft, brown eyes Last Line: To see if I can rub your gentleness on me Subject(s): Daughters SUNLIGHT: A SEQUENCE FOR MY DAUGHTER, SELS. First Line: I am proud of your soft, brown eyes Subject(s): Daughters SUNSET First Line: The face of branches TAKE TO YOURSELF YOUR HELPLESSNESS TALKING TO MYSELF Poem Text First Line: About my being a poet, the trees certainly haven't expressed an interest Last Line: I am digging a place for for a burial with my feet Subject(s): Poetry & Poets TALKING TO MYSELF First Line: About my being a poet, the trees certainly haven't expressed an interest Last Line: I am digging a place for a burial with my feet Subject(s): Poetry And Poets TASTE First Line: Let the bombs hang in air a moment Last Line: Who know the taste of flesh TENDERNESS I HAVE FOR GOOD GIFTS, CHANTE THE WOMEN THAT I AM Poem Text First Line: Live because you have a sweet face Last Line: On me. Subject(s): Poetry & Poets THAT I AM Poem Text First Line: Live because you have a sweet face Last Line: On me. Subject(s): Poetry & Poets THAT LAW HAS REASONS First Line: Because roads lead to towns THAT'S THE SUM OF IT Poem Text First Line: I don't know which to mourn. Both have died on me, my wife and my car Subject(s): Automobiles; Marriage; Mourning; Cars; Weddings; Husbands; Wives; Bereavement THAT'S THE SUM OF IT First Line: I don't know which to mourn. Both have died on me, my wife and my car Last Line: Without a car, I cannot find another woman. That's the sum of it Subject(s): Automobiles; Marriage; Mourning THE AMERICAN PARABLE Poem Text First Line: Good boys are we to have retrieved Last Line: Each time heavier with gold / and less wieldly Subject(s): United States; Greed; Social Commentaries THE BAGEL Poem Text First Line: I stopped to pick up the bagel Subject(s): Bagels; Dreams; Food & Eating; Nightmares THE BOXING MATCH Poem Text First Line: Am I really a sports fan, I ask myself Last Line: And I am glad for him / and admire him Subject(s): Boxing & Boxers THE BREAD ITSELF Poem Text First Line: Mother, in my unwanted suffering, I turn to you Variant Title(s): Threnody Subject(s): Mothers; Pain; Suffering; Misery THE BUILDING Poem Text First Line: The building stands alone Last Line: As to what to do with ourselves Subject(s): Buildings & Builders THE BUSINESS LIFE Poem Text First Line: When someone hangs up, having said Last Line: To your car, your senses and your dignity Subject(s): Hate; Salespersons; Selling THE BUTCHER SHOP Poem Text First Line: A disciplined institution Last Line: Before a block of wood, / a kind of altar Subject(s): Butchers; Social Commentaries THE CENTER OF GRAVITY Poem Text First Line: Is in speaking of silences about living Last Line: Such a silence that speaks to the density / of living Subject(s): Silence; Life THE CHILD HAD LOST A FRIENDLY DOG IN AN ACCIDENT THE COMPLEX Poem Text First Line: My father's madness is to own himself Last Line: Giving of himself with forced breath Subject(s): Fathers THE DINER Poem Text First Line: If I order a sandwich and get a plate of ham and eggs instead Last Line: Now when in hell did I buy this diner and who needs it Subject(s): Restaurants; Cafes; Diners THE DOG BARKS Poem Text First Line: The dog barks and is for the moment a dog heard Last Line: At being a dog or lover or child Subject(s): Relationships THE ESCAPADE Poem Text First Line: Poet and gangster reach in the park Last Line: The haul beside them still theirs Subject(s): Crime & Criminals THE EXECUTIVE Poem Text First Line: The women who work for us Last Line: Into the evening. Subject(s): Office Work; Women THE FACE OF BRANCHES Poem Text Last Line: And is not yet done / with living Subject(s): Death; Life THE FISH THAT LIVES AT THE BOTTOM Poem Text Last Line: Of the sea Subject(s): Fish & Fishing THE FISHERWOMAN Poem Text First Line: She took from her basket four fishes Subject(s): Fish & Fishing; Labor & Laborers; Women; Anglers; Work; Workers THE FLAME LIGHTS UP Poem Text First Line: Mistakes are many Last Line: The silence around you Subject(s): Errors THE FLOWER LOVER HAS PICKED A TIME BOMB THE FLY Poem Text First Line: I killed a fly Last Line: I lay my body down beside the fly Subject(s): Flies; Death THE FUTURE Poem Text First Line: I am going to leave a child in an empty room Last Line: As I am prepared Subject(s): Fathers & Daughters THE GENTLE WEIGHT LIFTER Poem Text First Line: Every man to his kind of welcome in the world Subject(s): Industry; Labor & Laborers; Work; Workers THE GOOD ANGEL Poem Text First Line: The good angel / time and again he would come Last Line: And solid, at last Subject(s): Angels THE HOPE Poem Text First Line: In the woods as the trees fade in the dusk Last Line: And the cold dark Subject(s): Forests; Woods THE IMAGE Poem Text First Line: The image in the mirror feels nothing Last Line: If there is a god, this is he Subject(s): Mirrors THE INTERVIEW Poem Text First Line: I represent the morning shout. We hear you are dying Last Line: "finally: are you dead and, if so, can you describe it for us, for your Subject(s): Journalists; Death; Conduct Of Life THE JOBHOLDER Poem Text First Line: I stand in the rain waiting for my bus Last Line: And wait for my turn to die. Subject(s): Death; Labor & Laborers; Dead, The; Work; Workers THE JOURNEY Poem Text First Line: I am looking for a past / I can rely on Subject(s): Home; Memory; Poetry & Poets THE LEAVES OF THE TREE HIDE THE SUN Poem Text Last Line: A leaf in season Subject(s): Leaves THE METAMORPHOSIS Poem Text First Line: Bumping agsinst rock in the dark Last Line: From rock to rock Subject(s): Conduct Of Life THE MOMENT WHICH IS LIKE A PEAR THE MOUNTAIN IS STRIPPED Poem Text First Line: I no longer have to declare myself Last Line: The mountain is stripped Subject(s): Justice; Self-control; God THE NAILHEAD Recitation by Author THE NEWS PHOTO Poem Text First Line: This idiot had suffered his own faults Last Line: He could grin for his picture Subject(s): News; Photography & Photographers THE NIGHT IS CALM THE OIL BURNER RUNS BY THERMOSTAT Poem Text Subject(s): Electrical Appliances THE OIL BURNER RUNS BY THERMOSTAT THE OPEN BOAT Poem Text First Line: With no place to lay my head Last Line: Afraid, afraid / of a human Subject(s): Boats; Solitude; Alienation (social Psychology) THE ORANGE PICKER Poem Text First Line: I was tempted to the grove by its odor Last Line: These oranges have failed me Subject(s): Oranges THE OUTLAW Poem Text First Line: They went after him with a long stick Last Line: For that he was despised. Subject(s): Crime & Criminals THE PAPER CUTTER Poem Text First Line: He slides the cut paper out Last Line: "and not get up all day,"" he laughs" Subject(s): Industry; Labor & Laborers; Work; Workers THE PARIAH Poem Text First Line: The pariah / in the beginning Last Line: In his thoughts Subject(s): Relationships THE PAVEMENT HAS ITS LIFE THE PRINCIPLE Poem Text First Line: Make no mistake, you cannot take Last Line: As you take me in your arms, making love to all the world that I am Subject(s): Love THE PRODIGAL SON Poem Text First Line: I went back for redress Last Line: In setting him adrift Subject(s): Fathers & Sons THE REBEL Poem Text First Line: When I must look to see where I can run Last Line: You are free. Subject(s): Escapes; Prisons & Prisoners; Revolutions; Fugitives; Convicts THE REFUSE MAN Poem Text First Line: I'm going to pull my stinking wagon Last Line: I had to, being a man Subject(s): Refuse & Refuse Disposal THE RESTAURANT Poem Text First Line: The restaurant I walk into expects me to have the cash or credit Last Line: Excitement, combat, power and domination? Subject(s): Restaurants; Brotherhood; Disappointment THE RIGHTFUL ONE Poem Text First Line: I heard my son burst out of his room Last Line: Was gone and left a power to feel free Subject(s): Sons; Sickness; Forgiveness THE ROUND, PALE GLOBE IN THE CEILING THE SAINT Poem Text First Line: There is someone smiling at me from behind Last Line: In the illusion that it sets them free. Subject(s): Comfort; Despair THE SELF Poem Text First Line: Now I feel so far from you Subject(s): Absence; Separation; Isolation THE SEPARATE DEAD Poem Text First Line: The leaves on the tree in front of my house - they live and die together Last Line: Which the dead are lying, the separate dead Subject(s): Death; Leaves THE SIGNAL Poem Text First Line: How can I regret my life Last Line: With my shortcomings Subject(s): Traffic Signals THE SILENCE OF THE SUBURBS IS ADMISSION THE STARS Poem Text First Line: Why do they shine so brightly if not to be themselves Last Line: Because it is in me to change. Subject(s): Self-reliance; Stars THE TIME COMES WHEN YOU ARE FACING HIM Poem Text Last Line: And it is like the moment before going into battle Subject(s): Fathers & Sons THE TIME COMES WHEN YOU ARE FACING HIM THE VASE Poem Text First Line: See how tall and straight I stand Last Line: But an enclosure upon emptiness? Subject(s): Vases THE VASE ON THE TABLE IS NEVER ANYTHING THE WARD Poem Text First Line: The ward attendant who owns his home speaks amicably Last Line: Patients and attendant compose the ward Subject(s): Hospitals THE WEATHER Poem Text First Line: Live for myself Last Line: Turned up my collar Subject(s): Weather THE WORLD IS SO DIFFICULT TO GIVE UP Poem Text Recitation by Author Last Line: Or under a hot sun, sworn out / with looking Subject(s): Life THE WOUND Poem Text First Line: This longing to be healed in you Last Line: Is a struggle to breathe Variant Title(s): Longing Subject(s): Love - Erotic THEIR MOUTHS FULL First Line: Let there be ripeness, said the lord Last Line: Their mouths full of one another THEORY OF DRESSING First Line: These shoes are for these lines THER LOVER Poem Text First Line: I'd tell of stones dropping upon me Last Line: Were well and behovel Subject(s): Love – Complaints THERE IS A TENDERNESS IN THE VOICES OF TWO PERSONS THERE IS AN APPLE THAT MUST NOT FALL THERE MUST BE SOMETHING WRONG WITH ME THESE WORDS First Line: The poem frightens me THEY PUT A TELEPHONE IN HIS COFFIN THEY SAID Poem Text First Line: They said your footprints were stamped in blood Last Line: Say what hurts. Subject(s): Hospitals; Police; Regret; Violence THINKING Poem Text First Line: I am caught in the body of a fish Last Line: Caught in the body of a fish Subject(s): Fish & Fishing; Freedom; Anglers; Liberty THINKING First Line: I am caught in the body of a fish Last Line: To freedom is a torment like being %caught in the body of a fish Subject(s): Fishing And Fishermen; Freedom THIS BODY ON WHICH I COUNTED FOR AN ETERNAL LIFE THIS IS MORTAL Poem Text First Line: The lit room is blinding Last Line: In the bright room Subject(s): Love THIS IS MORTAL First Line: The lit room is blinding Last Line: For this is mortal %in the bright room THIS IS THE SOLUTION First Line: This is the solution: to be happy with slaughter Last Line: To lie down in the blood of our innocence THIS IS THE SOLUTION TO BE HAPPY WITH SLAUGHTER Poem Text Recitation by Author Last Line: To lie down in the blood of our innocence Subject(s): Conduct Of Life THIS MORNING First Line: I've spent this morning studying the leaves Last Line: And shakes them up, as if to remind them Subject(s): Environment; Nature THIS WOMAN HAD HER ARMS AROUND ME THOUGHTS OF A TINY PIG Poem Text First Line: If I had a different life to live Last Line: To get away from the smell. Subject(s): Farm Life; Pigs; Agriculture; Farmers; Boars; Hogs THREE First Line: Coming to you THREE IN TRANSITION Poem Text First Line: I wish I understood the beauty Last Line: Of the branches Subject(s): Beauty; Nature; Williams, William Carlos (1883-19530 THREE IN TRANSITION First Line: I wish I understood the beauty Last Line: Is free %of the branches THUS TRULY First Line: The sounds of labor in the street, hammers at work to open pavement Last Line: In deepest secret we are each other's subject of pain, thus truly as one TICK TOCK First Line: Have you just stabbed a man to death? Live TIME OF NIGHT First Line: My mouth to utter a cry %that would have the street fall silent Last Line: Are persons, to everyone else %a time of morning %a time of night TO A FRIEND WHO HAS MOVED TO THE EAST SIDE First Line: What did you expect you were getting? TO AN APPLE First Line: You were rotten Last Line: To be processed. I think about it %and write of the good in you Subject(s): Apples; Fruit TO CURE ITSELF Poem Text First Line: It’s a sick life, being poet Last Line: Of death and life Subject(s): Poetry &n Poets TO MAKE KNOWN (FOR ZERO MOSTEL) First Line: I notice you waddled Subject(s): Mostel, Zero (1915-1977); Mostel, Samuel Joel TO MAKE KNOWN (FOR ZERO MOSTEL) First Line: I notice you waddled Subject(s): Mostel, Zero (1915-1977) TO NOWHERE Poem Text First Line: I carry my keys like a weapon Last Line: On a mission to nowhere Subject(s): Fear; Keys; City & Town Life TO NOWHERE First Line: I carry my keys like a weapon TO ONESELF First Line: Admit the sky carries no threatening message Last Line: Men rest themselves upon the flood TO STAY ALIVE First Line: Because words have no effect upon the wind Last Line: Would imply stay rooted %is to stay alive TOMORROW First Line: I exist without the dignity of stone Last Line: Or opens to the sun or moon? I am %the door to tomorrow TOMORROW First Line: Whose the power, I ask TRANSCENDENTALIST WALKING THROUGH SKID ROW First Line: He is in the secret TREAD THE DARK: 1. BRIGHTNESS AS A POIGNANT LIGHT First Line: I tread the dark and my steps are silent Last Line: Beatin in, but %not for me Subject(s): Fathers TREAD THE DARK: 10 First Line: Paint a wall %cover the weather stains Last Line: Unless I scatter myself %among the animals and furniture of earth TREAD THE DARK: 11 First Line: Holes I want to creep into TREAD THE DARK: 12. AN ACCOUNT IN THE PRESENT TENSE First Line: I am about to close the refigerator after removing a package of meat Last Line: We look at each other, beginning to understand Subject(s): Emptiness; Food And Eating; Hunger; Hunting; Landlords And Tenants TREAD THE DARK: 13. AT THE END OF THE WORLD First Line: Emanuel puffed at his cigar as he studied the monster TREAD THE DARK: 14 First Line: It's midnight, the house is silent Last Line: It's as if the world has come to an end %on a low musical note TREAD THE DARK: 15 First Line: The sky makes no sense to me Last Line: Beneath the sky, slowly drifting %in and out of streets and bars TREAD THE DARK: 16 First Line: I am standing on the soft, spongy surface of my brain Last Line: And I accept myself falling and sing out my terror like a song Subject(s): Self-consciousness TREAD THE DARK: 17. THE PROCESSION First Line: It is a man held aloft on a spit TREAD THE DARK: 18 First Line: The trouble is that I can't occupy TREAD THE DARK: 19 First Line: I wake up from a slime pit TREAD THE DARK: 2. FROM THE OBSERVATORY First Line: Each step is to and from an object Last Line: Among the stars that are dead, %dying or afire Subject(s): Space And Space Travel TREAD THE DARK: 20. THE ABANDONED ANIMAL First Line: There was an animal whose keeper had died TREAD THE DARK: 21 First Line: I have found what I want to do TREAD THE DARK: 22. THIS FALSE DESIRE First Line: This false desire for life as I enjoy the sight of leaves turning brown TREAD THE DARK: 23 First Line: Inside me is the peace of an egg Last Line: I am prepared to enjoy it Subject(s): Eggs; Peace; Self TREAD THE DARK: 24 First Line: Cautiously, to die cautiously TREAD THE DARK: 25. A RECOUNTING First Line: I sat among the dead and heard their insides TREAD THE DARK: 26. DANTE'S BROTHER First Line: There's my tiger standing in the woods. He and I belong TREAD THE DARK: 27. SCISSORS First Line: I hold a pair of scissors over my head and open and close the blades Last Line: I do not want to be a man cutting through grass and flesh in the sunlight Subject(s): Scissors TREAD THE DARK: 28 First Line: I am dreaming of the funeral of the world TREAD THE DARK: 29. APOCRYPHA First Line: People came to watch him Last Line: To them he was not human, %and so he died TREAD THE DARK: 3. THE SEASONS First Line: The seasons doubt themselves and give way Last Line: And the sun is a flame of doubt %warming to our bodies Subject(s): Seasons TREAD THE DARK: 30. THE SUICIDE First Line: I find I have opened a vein in warm water TREAD THE DARK: 31. THE DEAD SEA First Line: It is so still that tracks have been laid TREAD THE DARK: 32. THEME AND VARIATIONS First Line: How do you get to scream the world is good TREAD THE DARK: 33 First Line: I am going to where nobody else can be heard TREAD THE DARK: 34. SUICIDE IN TWO VOICES First Line: Shit on this world TREAD THE DARK: 35 First Line: I say hello to the grass, it stays silent TREAD THE DARK: 36. DEATH OF A LAWN MOWER First Line: It died in its sleep Last Line: Its work has come to nothing, %the dead keep to themselves Subject(s): Death; Mowing And Mowers TREAD THE DARK: 37. IS THERE A VALUE TO LIFE? First Line: Four squares, two below, two placed on top, combine to form a new TREAD THE DARK: 38. CANNIBALS First Line: I bite off a strip of my own flesh TREAD THE DARK: 39. THE SPORTSMAN First Line: Shutting out the cries od the dying and hungry TREAD THE DARK: 4. WITH THE SUN'S FIRE First Line: Are you a horror to yourself? Last Line: With water, air, with dirt, with food %and with the sun's fore Subject(s): Sun TREAD THE DARK: 40. SOUTH BRONX Subject(s): Bronx, New York City TREAD THE DARK: 41. THE FOREST WARDEN First Line: I notice the earth is not shaken by this fire TREAD THE DARK: 42. THE ONLY ONE I KNOW First Line: The leaves turn and twist in the wind TREAD THE DARK: 43 First Line: I am plastering myself into the wall of an apartment house TREAD THE DARK: 44. THE LIFE THEY LEAD First Line: I wonder whether two trees standing side by side really need each other Last Line: A picture of benign harmony, and that may be so, with both dedicated to the life they lead TREAD THE DARK: 45. THOUGHTS First Line: Smash myself against a wall %to feel how deeply I love life Last Line: Smashes his bottle on the curb %I laugh. He is in my company%with the first smashed bottle TREAD THE DARK: 46. A MEDITATION First Line: There's no gunpowder for my gun TREAD THE DARK: 47 First Line: I placed myself inside an iron cage and threw away the key TREAD THE DARK: 48. AT THE MUSEUM First Line: This wax figure against a wall moving TREAD THE DARK: 49. THE QUESTION First Line: I dream I am flying above the city Last Line: Question now is whether I can %keep flying TREAD THE DARK: 5 First Line: Examine me, I am continuous Last Line: In time and die %when I am dead Subject(s): Self TREAD THE DARK: 50 First Line: I'm afraid to open the door TREAD THE DARK: 51 Poem Text First Line: I sink back upon the ground, expecting to die Subject(s): Animals; Children; Exhibitions; Zebras; Zoos; Childhood; World's Fairs; Expositions TREAD THE DARK: 51 First Line: I sink back upon the ground, expecting to die Last Line: And I will learn to love you as a zebra whom I did not love as a human being Subject(s): Animals; Children; Exhibitions; Zebras; Zoos TREAD THE DARK: 52 First Line: I'm alone and none of my furniture TREAD THE DARK: 53. THE VASE First Line: See how tall and straight I stand Last Line: But an enclosure upon emptiness? Subject(s): Vases TREAD THE DARK: 54 First Line: If trees which have the best life of all TREAD THE DARK: 55. THE METAMORPHOSIS First Line: Bumping against rock in the dark Last Line: And moves nimbly in the dark %from rock to rock TREAD THE DARK: 56. THE EXPLORER First Line: I have this mountain to climb TREAD THE DARK: 57. IN MY DREAM First Line: I've made an order for myself and it is through its tightly fitted parts TREAD THE DARK: 58. HAIR First Line: Did you know that hair is flying around in the universe Last Line: Where it lands on everyone and everyone is sharing in the coat of many colors TREAD THE DARK: 59. TO CHARLES REZNIKOFF First Line: I think I am being swirled like a leaf TREAD THE DARK: 6. THE TWO SELVES First Line: I existed before my mind realized me Last Line: And withdraw into a stone, forever %known to you Subject(s): Self TREAD THE DARK: 60. THE PLEASURE First Line: When I watch myself TREAD THE DARK: 61 First Line: Standing by the sea I hear myself TREAD THE DARK: 62 First Line: I touch the flesh around the skeleton TREAD THE DARK: 63 First Line: I am alone and I feel my important thoughts TREAD THE DARK: 64 First Line: In this dream I do not exist. This I know since it is my dream Last Line: I say this in the best of health and in expectation of a long life Subject(s): Dreams TREAD THE DARK: 65 First Line: I look the sun in the eye TREAD THE DARK: 66. FOR STEPHEN MOONEY, 1913-71 First Line: I saw a shadow on the wall TREAD THE DARK: 67. IN THE DARK First Line: I'm seated beside my phone TREAD THE DARK: 68 First Line: Praise the worker bees that can sting TREAD THE DARK: 69 First Line: Conceal yourself behind the rock TREAD THE DARK: 7. THE JUGGLER First Line: He bows and extracts from his pockets a live rabbit Last Line: Laughing like a clown and nobody wonders why he uses things alive Subject(s): Jugglers TREAD THE DARK: 70 First Line: At night I think I will meet the one TREAD THE DARK: 71 First Line: It was true the earth potentially was a bomb TREAD THE DARK: 72 First Line: I live admiring the sky Last Line: My life oceanic %reaching into the distance TREAD THE DARK: 73 First Line: I want to be buried Last Line: As the flight of birds TREAD THE DARK: 74 First Line: So many people are dead TREAD THE DARK: 75. MIDNIGHT First Line: As I stood heating a pan of milk on the stove TREAD THE DARK: 76 First Line: This plant could have been a person in another cage TREAD THE DARK: 77. AS WE WALK OUR LIVES First Line: I find that my life depends on a bet that I have made with a menacing character TREAD THE DARK: 78. THE SOCIAL LIFE First Line: I find that I've been hung upside down on a hook TREAD THE DARK: 79. LIGHTLY First Line: To look for meaning is as foolish as to find it Last Line: Holding the shell lightly, %letting it go lightly TREAD THE DARK: 8. SCENARIO First Line: An old man realizes that he is seeing signs Last Line: Pulsating warm cleft with the help of a pair of forceps around his throbbing head TREAD THE DARK: 80. A PRAYER IN PART First Line: Not that we have ordered well may we turn back upon suffering TREAD THE DARK: 81 First Line: I must make my own sun TREAD THE DARK: 82. FOR ROBERT LOWELL First Line: I sit here thinking I should write TREAD THE DARK: 83. I'M A DEPRESSED POEM First Line: You are reading me now and thanks Last Line: And now there are two of us. I think it's fun TREAD THE DARK: 84 First Line: I came upon the poem the way the hunter discovers the animal in the bush TREAD THE DARK: 85. HELLO First Line: Hello, drug addict, can you become a poem of perfect form? Last Line: Wow. I don't want to hear another word %except your groans and sighs Subject(s): Literary Prizes; Poetry And Poets TREAD THE DARK: 86. FINALLY First Line: Finally, I'm sitting here at my desk because I'm afraid to venture Last Line: My one way to express it without losing myself in their arms TREAD THE DARK: 87. EPILOGUE First Line: The trees are tall gods Last Line: And start a ceremony %of prayer TREAD THE DARK: 9 First Line: There's the reality: a truck passes by on the road outside TREAD THE DARK: I AM BROTHER First Line: I am brother to the tree Last Line: The sun, desolated, will stand empty %as the wind TREAD THE DARK: WHO COULD HAVE BELIEVED IT? First Line: Who could have believed it? This is hell and I am looking out Last Line: And turn in for bed, locking your bodies together to affirm ouselves TREE First Line: Looking out on it from my window TRIPTYCH First Line: As you hold off the mugger who never knew you TROUGH First Line: I'll watch that mailbox as if it were an ikon of some religious order Last Line: Find I'm back with people, side by side, as at a trough, eating our way %through life out of each ot TRUNINGS First Line: I am thinking my room is green TUFT OF DAISIES First Line: A tuft of daisies has raised its head above the wooden deck TWO Poem Text First Line: The steam hammer pounds with a regularity on steel I should envy Last Line: "absorbed in the doing that has become a ritual between TWO First Line: In a dream I emptied a vail of tranquilizers TWO FRIENDS First Line: I have something to tell you Last Line: And go slow. %and you too TWO VOICES First Line: I'll challenge myself, I said Last Line: He murmured. 'challenge the weather.' %and he closed his eyes US First Line: This country %people in it in their cars Subject(s): Travel VENDING MACHINE First Line: I look at a vending machine filled VERSICLE AND RESPONSE First Line: Look smooth %talk nice VISIT First Line: In my childhood I had the silence of the trees WAIT Poem Text First Line: I am a man and do not know why I was born. Last Line: I am patient and can wait Subject(s): Mortality WAIT First Line: I am a man and do not know why I was born Last Line: I am patient and can wait WAITING INSIDE Poem Text First Line: I protest my isolation / but protest is a mark of my defeat Last Line: With our arms around each other's waists, / in support Subject(s): Poetry & Poets; Whitman, Walt (1819-1891) WAITING INSIDE First Line: I protest my isolation %but protest is a mark of my defeat Last Line: With our arms around each other's waists, %in support Subject(s): Poetry And Poets; Whitman, Walt (1819-1891) WAITING TO LIVE WALK THERE Poem Text First Line: The way through the woods is past trees Last Line: Walk there Subject(s): Walking; Forests WALK THERE First Line: The way through the woods is past trees Last Line: Ahead, is that too the sky %or a clearing? %walk there WALKING First Line: I have got to have the things that hurt me Last Line: For them without weights upon their feet, %walking WALLS First Line: In a clay pit he sees himself trying to climb out WALT WHITMAN IN THE CIVIL WAR HOSPITALS Poem Text First Line: Prescient, my hands soothing Last Line: To death which I have praised Subject(s): American Civil War; Hospitals; Poetry & Poets; United States - History; Whitman, Walt (1819-1891) WALT WHITMAN IN THE CIVIL WAR HOSPITALS First Line: Prescient, my hands soothing Last Line: To death which I have praised Subject(s): American Civil War; Hospitals; Poetry And Poets; U.s. - History; Whitman, Walt (1819-1891) WANTS ADS First Line: Two lovers with little to say to one another begin to quote WARD First Line: The ward attendant who owns his home speaks amicably with Last Line: And attendant compose the ward WATCH YOU FACE IN THE MIRROR WE Poem Text First Line: You lift your face to mine Last Line: I worship an idol, / the self Subject(s): Togetherness WE First Line: You lift your face to mine Last Line: From the bad weather %of separation WE ARE LIKE TWO FREIGHT CARS Last Line: Like two lovers exchanging greetings %at the climax of their ecstasy %on their own roadbed WE ARE RELIVING DEAD MEN'S LIVES First Line: The club in the hand of the forest prowler WE CAME NAKED WE CAN'T WRITE OURSELVES INTO ETERNAL LIFE Poem Text Last Line: And share the earth with earth Subject(s): Mortality; Writing & Writers; Truth WE HAVE BODIES Poem Text First Line: To make palpable the bitter Last Line: Beautiful and bitter Subject(s): Beauty; Bodies WE HAVE BODIES First Line: To make palpable the bitter Last Line: To make our being worth to us, %beautiful and bitter WEATHER First Line: Live for myself Last Line: I bend my head %turned up my collar Subject(s): Weather WEDDING First Line: You are floating on the surface of the well beloved Last Line: Die in pleasure with myself. I did not fail my life WERE YOU PERHAPS SENT BY THE FBI WHAT ABOUT DYING Recitation by Author Subject(s): Death; Dead, The WHAT HAPPENS First Line: What happens if I deduct six from ten? Last Line: And bring it into our booming %economy and culture WHAT HAS BROUGHT ME TO YOU, STONE 2 IGNATOW, DAVID WHAT SHALL HE DO WITH A SON' WHAT IS THIS LIFE, ANYWAY First Line: Finding in death an inspiration Last Line: Praise life, %its capacity for praise WHAT WOULD LIFE BE WITHOUT YOU? Last Line: As any man and more because of what %I have made come to life %through my imagining WHAT'S NEXT? Poem Text First Line: The baby carriage was old, one wheel lopsided Last Line: As she stood still. What next? Subject(s): Mothers; Life Choices WHEN I LOOK AT THE FACES THAT CONFRONT ME Poem Text Subject(s): Working Class; Subways; Desperation WHEN I LOOK AT THE FACES THAT CONFRONT ME WHEN I SEE LIFE IN SHORT, DEATHLIKE SCENES WHEN NEWS CAME OF HIS DEATH I WAS DISAPPOINTED WHEN THE NEWS CAME OF HIS DEATH I WAS DISAPPOINTED WHEN THERE IS LIFE First Line: It was a machine gun firing automatically at the distance WHERE AM I GOING? First Line: In the dark I watch the flaming part of me WHERE IS A ROCK TO BORE A HOLE THROUGH? WHERE NOTHING IS HIDDEN First Line: Now I understand myself running back Last Line: And live for hundreds of years %without comment WHEREVER Poem Text First Line: Wherever I go Last Line: He will accept with terror Subject(s): Poetry & Poets WHEREVER First Line: Wherever I go, %into food stores Last Line: He will accept the terror WHILE I LIVE Poem Text First Line: I dream of language as the sun Last Line: But you must wait / while I live Subject(s): Language; Life WHILE I LIVE First Line: I dream of language as the sun Last Line: But you must wait %while I live WHISPER TO THE EARTH WHISTLE OR HOOT Poem Text First Line: The bird that sings to itself Subject(s): Birds WHISTLE OR HOOT First Line: The bird that sings to itself Last Line: It triumphs, whistle or hoot Subject(s): Birds WHITE CEILING First Line: Until that child, one flight below, stops crying Last Line: Since those below are helpless, I lie here %and look up at the white ceiling Subject(s): Insomnia; Neighbors WHITE-HAIRED, I WALK IN ON MY PARENTS Poem Text Last Line: With the past in our future Subject(s): Parents; Time; Past; Future WHITE-HAIRED, I WALK IN ON MY PARENTS Last Line: With the past in our future Subject(s): Parents WHO AM I TO BE LOVED Last Line: I am human and must love %to be human WHO ARE THESE MEN WHO BECOME PLUMBERS WHY CAN'T I BE Poem Text First Line: Why can’t I be an empty house falling into decay, unaware of myself? Last Line: Shine upon me, sun, so that I become lit up like a sunbeam Subject(s): Self WHY IS IT THAT LYING IN BED WINDOW WAS MADE IN AN EFFORT TO BE FREE OF BRICK WITH HORACE I TAKE MY STAND BESIDE TWO ROCKS Last Line: He entered a stone house and struck off %his fire upon stone Subject(s): Horace (65-8 B.c.) WITH MY BACK TO THE INSANE WORLD Last Line: To think he is alone and that the world %waits on him for decision WITH OTHERS First Line: When I see fish swimming in schools Last Line: In grief too, my one identity %with others WITH THE DOOR OPEN Poem Text First Line: Something I want to communicate to you Last Line: With the door open between us Subject(s): Healing; Cures WITH THE DOOR OPEN First Line: Something I want to communicate to you Subject(s): Healing WITH THE SUN'S FIRE Poem Text First Line: Are you a horror to yourself? Last Line: And with the sun's fire Subject(s): Sun WITH THE SUN'S FIRE First Line: Are you a horror? %do you have eyes peering at you Last Line: Of stones and stars, with water %air, with dirt, with food %and with the sun's fire WITHOUT FEAR Poem Text First Line: I weep to myself Last Line: I weep to myself Subject(s): God WITHOUT FEAR First Line: I weep to myself WITHOUT RECRIMINATION Poem Text First Line: It is wonderful to die amidst the pleasures I have known Last Line: With myself. I did not fail my life Subject(s): Contentment WITHOUT SEXUAL ATTRACTION, THERE IS Poem Text Last Line: "we pass each other as trains do, Subject(s): Sex; Love WITHOUT SEXUAL ATTRACTION, THERE IS Last Line: We pass each other as trains do, %whistling screams Subject(s): Sex WITNESS Poem Text First Line: We can't write ourselves into eternal life Last Line: And shared the earth with earth Subject(s): Mortality; Writing & Writers WITNESS First Line: We can't write ourselves into eternal life WORKING PRINCIPLE First Line: Let them go around on tiptoes Last Line: They will say, black is merely the absence of color WORLD First Line: The world is so difficult to give up Last Line: Or under a hot sun, worn out %with looking WORLD First Line: The world opens as you receive me Last Line: Vanished in you. I am my own creator %ever to be and never to deny it %in the grave WOUND First Line: This longing to be healed in you Last Line: Each night in bed without you %is a struggle to breathe Variant Title(s): Longin Subject(s): Erotic Love WRONG First Line: Why do I resent you? Last Line: Yourself in my absence-as I cannot %because I miss my mother%and am wrong YEARS OF LOSS First Line: I love the beginning, always a promise Last Line: In the face and the years of loss %in evidence YOU FEED ME AND I GIVE YOU IRON AND ANGER YOU SPOUTING ABOUT MONEY YOUR BODY IS NOT MINE Last Line: For me in that you're here %for the sake of difference %of which a world is made YOUR FACE BEFORE ME Last Line: The sensation %of having made love %to you in the look %we two exchanged ZOO First Line: Behind bars %a tiger ZOO LION First Line: He gets up from the couch under the closed window Subject(s): Zoos |
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