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Author: JACOBSEN, JOSEPHINE
Matches Found: 271


Jacobsen, Josephine    Poet's Biography
271 poems available by this author


49TH & 5TH, DECEMBER 13       
First Line: I passed between the bell and the glass
Last Line: Alive unique love from her wax and his steel


A DREAM OF GAMES    Poem Text    
First Line: His fingers hesitate over
Last Line: The loser connected with his law
Subject(s): Scrabble (game); Card Games; Dreams; Playing Cards; Nightmares


A MOTEL IN TROY, NEW YORK    Poem Text    
First Line: A shadow falls
Subject(s): Troy


ABSENCE OF SLAVES       
First Line: The greek guide
Last Line: Who in absence reared the great frieze


ALLHALLOWS PARTY       
First Line: Down the wet-leaves steps comes the tiger-head
Last Line: And courage. Though watched by witches they shall have their due


ANIMAL INSIDE THE ANIMAL       
Last Line: Over the rooted bloom


ANIMALS       
First Line: At night, the animals came and shone
Last Line: Flying with green in her beak; the dove also had come


APPRENTICE       
First Line: When she was five
Last Line: And inadvertently, she learned words' brute magic
Subject(s): Apprentices


APRIL ASYLUM       
First Line: The mad old women, bolted from april's weather
Last Line: Alone alone where fall without remorse %the deadly notes


ARRIVAL    Poem Text    
First Line: Up the path, past the iced bird-bath and the black roses
Last Line: Or is there a van, huge in the invisible street?
Subject(s): Visits And Visitors


ARRIVAL       
First Line: Up the path, past the iced birdbath and the black roses
Last Line: Or is there a van, huge in the invisible street


ARRIVAL OF RAIN       
First Line: At midnight
Last Line: Rain is the metaphor


ARRIVALS       
First Line: My dead are shining like washed gold
Last Line: Cleared from the clock's confusion that held them %distant, aghast


ARTIST'S SUSTENANCE    Poem Text    
First Line: The artist's hope, through the clear glass
Last Line: Again betrayed by husk and dregs
Subject(s): Art & Artists


ASCETIC'S SOLILOQUY    Poem Text    
First Line: How carnal the whole thing seems to the finer grain
Last Line: The marrow cry “soon, soon” to the cooling bones
Subject(s): Self-denial


AT NIGHT       
First Line: The eye closes
Last Line: The small dry tick of hell


AUGURY       
First Line: The day is blond with sun and hot as summer


AUTOPSY       
First Line: At three o'clock their fingers gripped. The sun shot
Last Line: Hers had not taught her what she wished to know


BALLAD OF HENRY, BRIDEGROOM       
First Line: Henry of england could pray or roister
Last Line: Christ have mercy when we are sped


BALLAD OF THE FOUR SAINTS       
First Line: Paul, that friend and heir to christ
Last Line: Pray for us in charity


BIRDS       
First Line: Corrigan knew that loneliness is the one human passion
Last Line: Love me! Love me forever, for I must live! Corrigan said


BIRDSONG OF THE LESSER POET       
First Line: Exuding someone's scotch in a moving mist
Last Line: Unearned, the brief visa into some state of grace


BIRTHDAY PARTY       
First Line: The sounds are the sea, breaking out of sight
Last Line: Of the children's light high clear cries


BLESSING       
First Line: I rejoice in the poems not written
Last Line: Which fuels surely the green slick stalk


BLUE-EYED EXTERMINATOR       
First Line: The exterminator has arrived. He has not intruded. He was summoned
Last Line: In air. He has called, and what has been called has come


BORDER    Poem Text    
First Line: That country has never been her enemy
Last Line: The king comes over to sleep with her
Subject(s): Male-female Relationships


BRIEFING FOR FINISTERRE       
First Line: Do not be concerned with the black hole


BROTHER PETER CONSIDERS MULROY DRUNK UNDER THE ROSEBUSH       
First Line: Let us give praise where praise is due
Last Line: Of the mighty? Strange fierce love


BUSH       
First Line: It is the sound of lions lapping
Last Line: The bones will represent time


CALLING COLLECT       
First Line: I have made the incantatory
Last Line: I speak to you


CARNEY ELEGY       
First Line: The indestructible girl spun on a wheel
Last Line: Say that, to the indestructible girl


CHANTERELLES       
First Line: Near the eighth tee, sixty yards off into the woods from the green links
Last Line: Of different mushrooms, near the links, in the mock-up wood


CHILD AND GOLDFISH       
First Line: Orange the sun, upon the side
Subject(s): Goldfish


CHILD AND GOLDFISH       
First Line: Orange the sun, upon the side
Last Line: An orange fish goes glancing by
Subject(s): Goldfish


CHOSEN       
First Line: The sick are coming the sick are coming
Last Line: Wait in their chairs for those not chosen


CLASS       
First Line: The small black blobs on the beach are the heads
Last Line: And in glazed brightness the sun says, live


CLOCK       
First Line: My clock jumped on cement
Last Line: And death's notch %time's face


COLLOQUY       
First Line: Why? Tell me why? He said in dismay to corrigan
Last Line: Saying to loneliness, tonight they will sleep together


COMING       
First Line: All day the children await the coming
Last Line: Breathes, outside the thin door


CONTENTS OF A MINUTE    Poem Text    
First Line: The woman across the hall
Last Line: Blows in from left field
Subject(s): Death; Dead, The


CONTENTS OF A MINUTE       
First Line: The woman across the hall
Last Line: Elsewhere, the wind %blows in from left field
Subject(s): Death


COUNTRY BATH       
First Line: He was naked in water
Last Line: What had only been known; all alone, and at night %how light%burns


COUNTRY DRIVE-IN       
First Line: Sudden around the curve a high-up and huge
Last Line: Into the dark below my matchstick ribs


CUL DE SAC       
First Line: In the grassplot's center was a bed of red roses
Last Line: Not so the human who succored and shot him


DAUGHTER TO ARCHEOLOGIST       
First Line: Dear father %you were a doctor. Perhaps your avocation
Last Line: Down you went to search them out %be remembered


DEAF-MUTES AT THE BALLGAME       
First Line: In the hot sun and dazzle of grass
Last Line: Each, his deaf-mute, fingerless


DEATH AND THE TURTLE       
First Line: The turtles in the big green bowl are reduced by one
Last Line: We move, little and strange, at the heart of a present stillness


DESTINATIONS    Poem Text    
First Line: Home is mysterious: a place to die, a place to breed
Last Line: Short wind says “snow”
Subject(s): Home; Travel; Journeys; Trips


DISHWASHER AS ABSOLUTION       
First Line: Red-eyed as rikki-tikki glows
Last Line: But it is not easy, and nothing tells her, now


DISTANCE       
First Line: Now loneliness enters the marrow
Last Line: All secrets with its light


DISTINCTIONS       
First Line: It is hard to love the pessimist
Last Line: Triumphed in foresight- %innocently astonished


DOGS       
First Line: It is obvious that the three brown dogs, on the beach
Last Line: Stays undefined; but the dogs arrive


DREAM HABITUES       
First Line: Odd we've never met there
Last Line: Or, so far, I have


DREAM OF GAMES: 1. A GAME OF SCRABBLE       
First Line: His fingers hesitate over
Last Line: To leave, shatter and meld and clatter %into the box


DREAM OF GAMES: 2. A BRIDGE OF KNAVES       
First Line: Knave says the book: slippery
Last Line: In the end, he says, depend on me


DREAM OF GAMES: 3. A DREAM OF GAMES       
First Line: The game is dreamed for the rules
Last Line: The loser connected with his law


EDGE       
First Line: The edge? The edge is
Last Line: Breathe so, breathe so
Subject(s): Love


ELECTIVE AFFINITIES       
First Line: What a curious rendezvous: through mean sleet
Last Line: That will alter ourselves, before tomorrow's slackk


EMPEROR'S COOK       
First Line: Laguipiere, the emperor's cook
Last Line: For some terrible table


ENEMY OF THE HERDS, THE LION       
First Line: At ur %the lady shub-ad's small
Last Line: Mastery older than ur


ESCAPE IN ICE       
First Line: We have forgotten weather, by virtue of the protecting mass
Last Line: Stare through blind windows and laugh, and come together


EXPLORER       
First Line: He traveled, traveled in the human climate
Last Line: Love's moonlight-laden apple-boughs at rest


EYES OF CHILDREN AT THE BRINK OF THE SEA'S GRASP       
First Line: The eyes of children at the brink of the sea's
Last Line: Innocent and voluptuous


FEBRUARY MIDNIGHT       
First Line: No sheltered ear can miss
Last Line: Its intercourse with god


FIDDLER CRAB       
First Line: The fiddle crab fiddles, glides and dithers
Last Line: It is our god


FIGURE       
First Line: Out of the bone landscape
Last Line: Upon him till he left it there


FIRE WILL NOT CHANGE       
First Line: Fire wakes with a burst in the tower of leaf
Last Line: Fire unchanged. Always its host is there


FIRST WOMAN       
First Line: Do animals expect spring?
Last Line: I wake, first woman, %with what belief?


FISH TANK ROOM       
First Line: It is the fish tank room -- the small room
Last Line: And more beautiful


FITTEST       
First Line: When the great dust
Last Line: Sprang from its green stem


FLORIDA FRIDAY    Poem Text    
First Line: Florida with flora, brighter than a prize
Last Line: Florida flashes on the best of fridays
Subject(s): Florida; Churches; Cathedrals


FOOD       
First Line: A woman of the more primitive tribes
Last Line: By her breath, flesh, her hands, no %reputation will be made, no %saga descend. It is only the %next


FOR A DANCER       
First Line: Pain bites deep


FOR ANY MEMBER OF THE SECURITY POLICE       
First Line: Let us ask you a few questions, without rancor
Last Line: A small, unnatural eternity %shaped otherwise, and fashioned for you only?


FOR MURASAKI       
First Line: Chrysanthemums %come in spring too, now
Last Line: Send, forth and back, %in dumb color and scent, odette to genji %the chrysanthemumn word


FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT EATEN THE APPLE       
First Line: The unclosing flowers are inflexible and have yielded nothing
Last Line: Calling not for admiration but certainly for envy


FOR WILFRED OWEN    Poem Text    
First Line: This day. This night, should be familiar to you
Last Line: Go scatheless from your terrible compassion
Subject(s): Owen, Wilfred (1893-1918)


FOR WILFRED OWEN       
First Line: This day, this night, should be familiar to you
Last Line: Go scatheless from your terrible compassion


FOREIGN LANDS       
First Line: I saw a mongoose this morning ripple down the scarp
Last Line: Swing like stars, I watch; and wish to, may not inherit
Subject(s): Mongooses


GATHERING       
First Line: Last night, first frost of sudden fall
Last Line: If a grain of sand, if a leaf fall, it does not fall into time %but falls before your face, from and


GENTLE READER    Poem Text    
First Line: Late in the night when I should be asleep
Last Line: Saying like molly, yes, yes, yes o yes
Subject(s): Books & Reading; Poetry & Poets


GENTLE READER       
First Line: Late in the night when I should be asleep
Last Line: Saying like molly, yes, yes, yes o yes


GESTURE       
First Line: In winter the house, which sits on rock
Last Line: Gesture. It belongs without end to its lover


GHOSTS AT KE SON    Poem Text    
First Line: Under the bullets
Last Line: The faces, the faces of the strangers are the same
Subject(s): Native Americans; Indians Of America; American Indians; Indians Of South America


GOOD FORTUNE OF PIGEONS       
First Line: There is a dead pigeon hung
Last Line: Never mind %never %mind


GREEK WIND       
First Line: This wind blows still in stone; blows
Last Line: It plows the stone like fluid wheat %in its passage


GUIDE FOR SURVIVORS       
First Line: First comes the flight, of course. Hope gleams in steel
Last Line: To friendship sudden as love


HOLIDAY    Poem Text    
First Line: He lived with sorrow, protected by his will
Last Line: A mounting tread
Subject(s): Fear


HOMAGE TO HENRI CHRISTOPHE    Poem Text    
First Line: Tonight the silent vibrations of silent snow
Last Line: Dark land in the blue sea, be free in him
Subject(s): Christophe, Henry (1767-1820); Haiti - Revolution (1804); Homage & Respect


HOOVES       
First Line: The serpents of summer
Last Line: Of the night's mare


HOURGLASS    Poem Text    
First Line: Flawless' is the word, no doubt, for this third of may
Subject(s): Time


HOURGLASS       
First Line: Flawless' is the word, no doubt, for this third of may
Last Line: And leans on the air that is hers and here
Subject(s): Time


HOW WE LEARN       
First Line: Plurality in death
Last Line: And he still was


IMMORTAL ELEMENT    Poem Text    
First Line: The watching inner eye which peers and sees
Last Line: From this impersonal sight, released at last
Subject(s): Sight


IN ISOLATION       
First Line: When at a desperate plight
Last Line: The insulated hope


IN THE CREVICE OF TIME    Poem Text    
First Line: The bison, or tiger, or whatever beast
Last Line: For all, a celebration and a burial
Subject(s): Hunting And Bunters; Graves; Tombs; Tombstones


IN THE CREVICE OF TIME       
First Line: The bison, or tiger, or whatever beast
Last Line: For all, a celebration and a burial


INNOCENTS       
First Line: The faces of children turn like sunflowers to death
Last Line: The striped rage of the monstrous yellowjacket


INSOMNIAC'S BIRD       
First Line: The first clear faint unlocated call
Last Line: Now is the act of sleep quick, true and easy


INSTANCES OF COMMUNICATION       
First Line: Almost nothing concerns me but communication
Last Line: God's blood and body charged with its speech


INTERROGATION       
First Line: All day %and sometimes in the hollow evening
Last Line: I have told them nothing. Nothing


INTERRUPTED       
First Line: Of the goddess there is only the marble shoulder and one
Last Line: With hope. These are the interrupted


IT IS THE SEASON    Poem Text    
First Line: When we learn
Subject(s): Love


IT IS THE SEASON       
First Line: When we learn
Last Line: Say nothing yet. %prepare
Subject(s): Love


IT'S A COLD NIGHT' SAID CONEY TO CONEY       
Last Line: It's a cold night' said boy to boy


LANDSCAPE FINALLY WITH HUMAN FIGURE       
First Line: The sky stainless, flawed by one gull
Last Line: The beloved is here


LANGUAGE AS AN ESCAPE FROM THE DISCRETE       
First Line: I came upon two wasps
Last Line: It is the silence that built the tower of babel


LANGUAGE OF MOSS       
First Line: Secretly, the verb is changed and covered
Last Line: Moss tells us, he has passed away


LAURENTIDES: 1. VIRGIN IN GLASS       
First Line: The little virgin, fitted out in white
Last Line: Not wholly free


LAURENTIDES: 2. BY THE ROCK       
First Line: Search in the quiet of this motionless spot
Last Line: Its silent aqueous life. Remark this place


LAURENTIDES: 3. THIS HOUSE       
First Line: This house is a room -- divided, but still a room
Last Line: On the pattern of life, lifting spare and unalterable lines


LAWN BOWLERS       
First Line: The clothes and the inscrutable small jack are white
Last Line: The suavest idiom for someone loses


LEAF WITH BERRY       
First Line: At the last rock of the last ledge of the last climb
Last Line: That he was to take heart


LEOPARD-NURSER       
First Line: Since children hear what they will hear, I heard
Subject(s): Animals


LET EACH MAN REMEMBER       
First Line: There is a terrible hour in the early morning
Last Line: Will smile in its face, when he is at peace in the night


LIMBO DANCER       
First Line: No limbo this week. Or next. Now it turns out
Last Line: The guests say, see, alas, he does not move. %but gravity lies beneath the dust of his feet
Subject(s): Literary Form


LINES TO A POET       
First Line: Be careful what you say to us now
Last Line: Or 'here is water' or 'look behind you'


LINKWOOD ROAD       
First Line: The old lady walking wears gloves. It is a shady
Last Line: And the jacket is comprehensible to the threatening mirror, and to all matadors


LION UNDER MAPLES       
First Line: The lion, awake, is out there
Last Line: The great head lift


LIONS UNDER MAPLES    Poem Text    
First Line: The lion, awake, is out there
Last Line: The great head lift
Subject(s): Lions


LOSS OF SOUNDS       
First Line: Now lost, things a child heard
Last Line: In the ear's memory, sounds. Hoc %est corpus meum


LOVERS       
First Line: The lovers lie in the shelter of night, the lovers
Last Line: They are discovered, found with all the lost


MAN AND THE LION       
First Line: The yellow lion shakes the ground
Last Line: The moon -- as he crosses on his path %the lit heaven


MARGINS OF CHOICE       
First Line: The doomed gunman, surrounded
Last Line: My instants' %shadowy heap


MATADORS       
First Line: The dirty money and the sleazy hearts
Last Line: Calling softly, hoarsely %toro, toro! Venga!


MEXICAN PEACOCK       
First Line: He presses the eight o'clock dew with short sharp paces
Last Line: In communion with our joy transfixed you


MIDNIGHT EDEN    Poem Text    
First Line: The crusted tree of stars soars quite
Last Line: Not understood
Subject(s): Trees


MIDNIGHT EDEN       
First Line: The crusted tree of stars soars quite


MINOR POET       
First Line: The minor poet sits at meat
Last Line: And miles to go before he sleeps


MISSISSIPPI ANATOMY    Poem Text    
First Line: This land is red, its body is colored of blood
Subject(s): Mississippi


MISSISSIPPI ANATOMY       
First Line: This land is red, its body is colored of blood
Last Line: The inscrutable heart
Subject(s): Mississippi


MOLLESSE       
First Line: Softly the car goes with the music in it


MONOSYLLABLE       
First Line: One day %she fell
Last Line: Some say %rise


MOON WILL RESTORE THE VIRGINITY OF MY SISTER       
First Line: Over my paws
Last Line: With catquick licks she paints my forty fingers


MOTEL IN TROY, NEW YORK       
First Line: A shadow falls
Last Line: Across the water
Subject(s): Troy


MOTION       
First Line: The geranium in my studio window
Last Line: You are saying goodbye to someone you think %you'll see nextweek. And don't. Ever


MOTION IN ONE PRIVATE ROOM OF THE GERIATRIC WING       
First Line: Her blue eyes see ceiling, floor and the usual number of walls
Last Line: Testing time's law and its proof, the keyless door, the doorless wall


MOURNER BETRAYED       
First Line: He trusted death when it said I am the end!
Last Line: And the fierce dandelions do not answer


MR. MAHONEY       
First Line: Illicitly, mr. Mahoney roams
Last Line: He is gone by noon. He did not have time to find it


MR. TANTRIPP'S DAY       
First Line: The appalled heart at goosegray dawn
Last Line: Rode out the night among the jagged stars


MY SMALL AUNT       
First Line: Died in a dust of lions; her africa
Last Line: Violent and sunny lords who never had %pity or fear


MY UNCLE A CHILD       
First Line: My uncle, a child in the terrible second coming
Last Line: My total uncle answered


NEXT SUMMER       
First Line: Catalogues of seeds flood him
Last Line: Invisible, busy -- calling their trampling bees


NIGHT CITY       
First Line: The city from here is beautiful by night


NIGHT PATROL       
First Line: The wolf's cousin
Last Line: Cold wolf and wolf meet


NIGHT WATCHMAN       
First Line: A small light, furtive, peers
Last Line: Turns over its bones


NON SUM DIGNUS    Poem Text    
First Line: His sabbath, as all others, finds
Last Line: The gate again in seven days
Subject(s): Sabbath; Sunday


NON SUM DIGNUS       
First Line: This sabbath, as all others, finds
Last Line: The gate again in seven days


NOON       
First Line: Peace, the day says, and peace
Last Line: Sails high in its fiery air


NOTES FROM A LENTEN BAR       
First Line: I know that my redeemer liveth because
Last Line: There is nothing between the 12th and the 14th floor


NOTES TOWARD TIME: 1       
First Line: The mad have nightmares. When
Last Line: Tense. But no present or past


NOTES TOWARD TIME: 2       
First Line: He cannot bear the dust's word
Last Line: What is alive, by its dying


NOTES TOWARD TIME: 3       
First Line: At a high inn in
Last Line: Balling %the jack


NOTES TOWARD TIME: 4       
First Line: A limited number of moons emerge
Last Line: Bird and moon


NOTES TOWARD TIME: 5       
First Line: Help! While we slept debris has been emptied upon us
Last Line: Unscratched, silent as a leaf


NOTES TOWARD TIME: 6       
First Line: In erice stone is cold
Last Line: The stone sings, silent as a leaf


OBIT       
First Line: The lovely lady posted in red
Last Line: Into the house, to the target


OF PAIRS       
First Line: The mockingbirds, that pair, arrive
Last Line: The shadow of wings, the wing's shadow


OLD MR. FORRESTER       
First Line: Old mr. Forrester-light, light as a leaf
Last Line: Might make him now a sullen and suspicious %prospect for this belated amity


ON MY ISLAND       
First Line: They kill mongooses. Always, before they club
Last Line: Thought to say, good morning %child


ONLY ALICE       
First Line: Entered that brilliant intimate
Subject(s): Literary Form


ONLY ALICE       
First Line: Entered that brilliant intimate
Last Line: That what you may not enter, you can shatter
Subject(s): Literary Form


OVER TIMBERLINE       
First Line: It was never the air
Last Line: And shines and darkens


PAINTER AT XYOCHTL       
First Line: He had a devil's look; and no rain
Last Line: And flowers sprang like speech, to sight


PITCH LAKE       
First Line: Erishkigal, ishtar's fresh sister, sky
Last Line: Fatally knowing, we step, light %ly to fixed earth


PLANET       
First Line: From the center of the sea of tranquility
Last Line: Shining and shining


POEMS FOR MY COUSIN       
First Line: I took my cousin to prettyboy dam
Last Line: In the green city of the dead


POEMS FOR MY COUSIN: 1    Poem Text    
First Line: I took my cousin to prettyboy dam
Last Line: "nor the other ""come. . ."
Subject(s): Cousins


POET AT MUTE       
First Line: Meteor flying and the planets' chime
Last Line: Silent our brother in the terrible silence of speech


POETRY REVIEW       
First Line: I call on roethke's rocks
Last Line: Christopher smart, and your cat %geoffrey


PONDICHERRY BLUES       
First Line: Mrs. Pondicherry was %fat and mean
Last Line: In the lonesome slum of death %that dark trashy street of death


POWER FAILURE       
First Line: The hard changes: concrete cracks and sprouts
Last Line: Wind in its fronds; spice and recognize its strong %shape under the gathered stars


PRESENCES: 1. THE CREATURES       
First Line: Here they are common as pebbles
Last Line: On pink stucco; in the crotch of green


PRESENCES: 2. THE CLOUDS       
First Line: What must be said of clouds is: they are silent
Last Line: Grateful is roughly sufficient


PRESENCES: 3. NOW       
First Line: The light in the garden has changed since death
Last Line: It is now. And you have seen its particulars


PRIMER       
First Line: I said in my youth
Last Line: My blue boy sleeps under the stack's huge shadow
Subject(s): Children


PROGRAM       
First Line: The glass in her hand flares
Last Line: And someone is talking weather
Subject(s): Drinks And Drinking; Mourning


PROVIDER       
First Line: The night the flowers were butchered
Last Line: I know quite well the night, cold; %the knife, honed


RAINY NIGHT AT THE WRITERS' COLONY       
First Line: Dead poets stalk the air
Last Line: With what we make of need


READING ALOUD AT DUSK       
First Line: The small blind cripple's face was ready
Last Line: To cleanse the shadow from the empty sticks


READING ON THE BEACH    Poem Text    
First Line: What time is it? Raphael, says vasari
Subject(s): Raphael (1483-1520); Vasari, Giorgio (1511-1574)


READING ON THE BEACH       
First Line: What time is it? Raphael, says vasari
Last Line: On vasari's foxed page my hand is warm
Subject(s): Raphael (1483-1520); Vasari, Giorgio (1511-1574)


REINDEER AND ENGINE    Poem Text    
First Line: The reindeer / fastened to the great round eye
Subject(s): Reindeer


REINDEER AND ENGINE       
First Line: The reindeer %fastened to the great round eye
Last Line: From, into, the cold %wheels' %night
Subject(s): Reindeer


RESPITE - 1942    Poem Text    
First Line: Indeed, where shall you hide from claws
Last Line: And rest here – for a little while
Subject(s): Sanctuaries


RETURN FROM DELHI    Poem Text    
First Line: Coming from delhi in the rain we met a country funeral
Last Line: Our dark, silent athens is there
Subject(s): Funerals; Burials


ROCK-PLANT WIFE       
First Line: The rock-plant wife is dead
Last Line: Spring is too far


SEA FOG       
First Line: It was sudden
Last Line: Of being relative to nothing; isolated; %responsible?
Subject(s): Fog


SHADE-SELLER       
First Line: Sombra?' %he asked us from his little booth. And shade
Last Line: Answer my one with three


SHIBBOLETH       
First Line: Tonight I saw the marred and frosted moon
Last Line: And love, to the gileadites crying 'shibboleth'


SHORT SHORT STORY       
First Line: Agnes lived with geraniums on the window-sills


SHORT VIEWS IN AFRICA: 1       
First Line: The elephant
Last Line: They are somewhere else


SHORT VIEWS IN AFRICA: 2       
First Line: The best surprise is death
Last Line: In the early sun


SHORT VIEWS IN AFRICA: 3       
First Line: The long, warped triangle
Last Line: The visitor watches the lions


SHORT VIEWS IN AFRICA: 4       
First Line: In olduvai are the bones
Last Line: Xenophon lies here %I was hannah


SHORT VIEWS IN AFRICA: 5       
First Line: Well. Bless the giraffe
Last Line: Tell your secret bones: wait


SHRIVERS       
First Line: At dark three o' clock
Last Line: The hills of discard


SIMON       
First Line: I do what simon says
Last Line: Distinguish, simon says


SISTERS       
First Line: Everyone notices they are inseparable
Last Line: Before bed, a looked at herself in the mirror, using b's eyes


SOFTLY       
First Line: Wherever we walk, we walk
Last Line: Over its numbers, see how few move


SPREAD OF MRS. MOBEY'S LAWN       
First Line: On mrs. Mobey's lawn
Last Line: Move iron towards us


SPRING, SAYS THE CHILD       
First Line: There are words too ancient to be said by the lips of a child
Last Line: This is all things soft, young, ignorant; this is even %mortality


STARFISH       
First Line: The great starfish was hauled up by a point
Last Line: Death, where is your star


STEPS       
First Line: Over sunny earth, meadow
Last Line: Crossed the skull's place


SUITE FOR ALL CLOWNS' DAY       
First Line: Ladies! And likewise gentlemen
Last Line: Has nothing to say %sang auguste the clown


SURVIVOR'S BALLAD       
First Line: She's not sure if it's song or sermon
Last Line: Two with beauty, and three with brio


SWIMMER'S TIDE       
First Line: Cautiously they go into the sea, their goal


TANGO       
First Line: The pulse of %violin
Last Line: No loss, no fraction's loss


TEARS       
First Line: Tears leave no mark on the soil
Last Line: Into an animal, dry-eyed


TERRESTRIAL       
First Line: This day was made of dust
Last Line: This was our dust alone, o ours, o precious


TERRIBLE NAIVE       
First Line: Sleepwalk, feed %birdseed to kittens
Last Line: The dark flood %is your %blood


THE ANIMAL INSIDE THE ANIMAL    Poem Text    
First Line: The short shadow
Last Line: Over the rooted bloom
Subject(s): Soul; Shadows


THE ANIMALS    Poem Text    
First Line: At night, alone, the animals came and shone.
Last Line: Flying with green in her beak; the dove also had come
Subject(s): Relationships; Animals


THE ARRIVALS    Poem Text    
First Line: My dead are shining like washed gold
Last Line: Distant, aghast
Subject(s): Death


THE BATHERS    Poem Text    
First Line: The leaves flashed darkly though there was not much wind
Last Line: Free of knowledge; he had been rid of pity, cleansed of love
Subject(s): Baths & Bathing; Showers & Showering


THE BIRTHDAY PARTY    Poem Text    
First Line: The sounds are the sea, breaking out of sight,
Last Line: Of the children’s light high clear cries
Subject(s): Birthdays


THE EDGE    Poem Text     Recitation
First Line: The edge? The edge is
Last Line: Breathe so, breathe so
Subject(s): Love; Yoga


THE FOREIGN LANDS    Poem Text    
First Line: I saw a mongoose this morning ripple down the scarp
Last Line: Swing like stars, I watch and wish to. May not, inherit
Subject(s): Mongooses


THE LEOPARD-NURSER    Poem Text    
First Line: Since children hear what they will hear, I heard
Last Line: By which a child nurses a dangerous beast to strength
Subject(s): Leopards; Women


THE LIMBO DANCER    Poem Text    
First Line: No limbo this week. Or next. Now it turns out
Subject(s): Literary Form


THE MONOSYLLABLE    Poem Text    
First Line: One day / she fell
Last Line: Some say, / rise


THE NIGHTWATCHMAN    Poem Text    
First Line: A small light, fugitive, peers
Last Line: Shreds minute from minute?
Subject(s): Watchmen; Night; Bedtime


THE PASSIONATE PLACE    Poem Text    
First Line: We know it is there, though withdrawn from our eyes
Last Line: Who return unabashed and with spoils to the passionate place?


THE PLANET    Poem Text    
First Line: From the center of the sea of tranquility
Last Line: Shining and shining
Subject(s): Planets


THE PRESENCES    Poem Text    
First Line: Here they are as common as pebbles
Last Line: Grateful is roughly sufficient?
Subject(s): Animals; Clouds


THE PRIMER    Poem Text    
First Line: I said in my youth
Subject(s): Children; Childhood


THE REVOLUTIONARY    Poem Text    
First Line: He knew her face well enough; had studied this
Last Line: For the face he had trusted under the confident stars
Subject(s): Male-female Relationships; Reality


THE SEA FOG    Poem Text    
First Line: It was sudden
Subject(s): Fog; Haze


THE SECRET FLAME: CAPRICE    Poem Text    
First Line: The grainy earth is black and cool
Last Line: On her bright breasts
Subject(s): Baths & Bathing; Showers & Showering


THE SECRET FLAME: LOVE SONG    Poem Text    
First Line: The skies are falling and poised in their fall
Last Line: Body to body and face to face
Subject(s): Love


THE SECRET FLAME: THE FAITHFUL    Poem Text    
First Line: Men acquiesce in what is not their choice
Last Line: Lifting their hopeful eyes in srearch of god?
Subject(s): Faith; Belief; Creed


THE SECRET FLAME: WHO SHALL ESCAPE THE LORD?    Poem Text    
First Line: If he be agile and alert
Last Line: The ineradicable flame
Subject(s): Conduct Of Life


THE THREE CHILDREN    Poem Text    
First Line: Else had blown away on the east wind. Richard went away
Last Line: Goodbye else, richard, hilary, goodbye, goodbye. Goodbye
Subject(s): Children; Farewell; Wind; Childhood; Parting


THE UGLY OLD LADY    Poem Text    
First Line: Her hair in metal rows
Last Line: On her brittle shell
Subject(s): Ugliness


THE WIND IN THE SUNPORCH    Poem Text    
First Line: The chinese windchimes
Subject(s): Love


THERE IS GOOD NEWS       
First Line: A law %removing from use the monosyllable love
Last Line: Roots and %heavenly bodies


THEY NEVER WERE FOUND       
First Line: The odd, the inward turned, the isolated
Last Line: One in the dangerous company of his cats


THIEF       
First Line: She stole my pencil-case, red leather
Last Line: To the mean gray wretch, the hag %the pencil thief


THING ABOUT CROWS       
First Line: Is, they are hoarse
Last Line: At the vulnerable spring


THINGS       
First Line: My mother's gold serpent bit its tail
Last Line: In the rosy smoke for joan


THIS MY HEART KNOWS       
First Line: Here where my heart, at ease, allows
Last Line: I breathed again. This my heart knows


THREE CHILDREN       
First Line: Else has blown away on the east wind, richard went away with the wind
Last Line: Goodbye else, richard, hilary, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye


TIGER       
First Line: Diamonds or broken saucepans interchangeable
Last Line: And lets the outside fill with snow and his eyes close


TIME EXPOSURE       
First Line: Never can spring be known so well
Last Line: Shows what no year will ever give %spring's absolute


TRAVELERS       
First Line: Up from the city street, as in any green wood
Last Line: With certainty; not even their own physicians


TREATY       
First Line: See us, strangers from the land of embarrassed death
Last Line: A private love, the english language, and a bed


TREE ANGEL       
First Line: Sang the angel in the tree
Last Line: To your height it has added a cubit


TRIAL RUN       
First Line: They saw it take the water -- the finished ark
Last Line: Some future fortune for a carpenter


UGLY OLD LADY       
First Line: Her hair in metal rows
Last Line: Stern aphrodite %on her brittle shell


UNINVITED       
First Line: Like dew the children beckon to the dry
Last Line: And we have nailed our dead in wooden boxes


VARIATIONS ON A THEME       
First Line: Harlequin speaks by the moon's light
Last Line: For god's love, open your door


VARIATIONS ON VARIETY: 1. COMIC       
First Line: Conservative heart, outdone by all upheaval
Last Line: Supports the implacable rule of gravity


VARIATIONS ON VARIETY: 2. TIGHT-ROPE WALKER       
First Line: The bright-check suited
Last Line: We have conquered again


VARIATIONS ON VARIETY: 3. SISTER ACT       
First Line: Red, blue and green, the murphy sisters sing, and interstellar space
Last Line: The device spread over thin space, the tissue-paper between the foot and the plunge


VIRGIN IN GLASS    Poem Text    
First Line: The little virgin, fitted out in white
Last Line: Not wholly free
Subject(s): Churches; Cathedrals


VOYAGE       
First Line: Off sand at the edge of bush the ribs
Last Line: A tendril has touched the keel


WAKING       
First Line: They do not swim alone
Last Line: As though they would always, wake


WE PRAY MOST EARNESTLY       
First Line: We pray most earnestly: our breath
Last Line: Sitting in satisfaction, shoulder to shoulder


WEATHER REPORT FROM THE STATE ASYLUM    Poem Text    
First Line: The mad old women, bolted from april's weather
Last Line: Gray secret face raised quietly, between
Subject(s): Psychiatric Hospitals; Mad Houses; Insane Asylums


WHEN THE FIVE PROMINENT POETS       
First Line: Gathered in inter-admiration
Last Line: And the muse went on and up; and not a sound %came from the savage carpet


WILD PARROTS OF BLOODY BAY       
First Line: Up from bloody bay are the hills
Last Line: Come the faint wild harsh screams


WIND IN THE SUNPORCH       
First Line: The chinese windchimes
Last Line: Together with that huge light breath
Subject(s): Love


WINTER CASTLE    Poem Text    
First Line: Knowing your body and lines of it
Last Line: Lends us this secret solitary grace?
Variant Title(s): Winter Castle: Iii. Knowing Your Body
Subject(s): Lust; Love


WINTER CASTLE       
First Line: Knowing your body and the lines of it
Last Line: I shall stand steadfastly, and make no sound
Variant Title(s): Winter Castle: Iii. Knowing Your Bod


WINTER CASTLE: I. THIS THEN SHALL BE OUR APRIL       
First Line: This then shall be our april -- this black heap
Last Line: Within this sorrowful and savage night


WINTER CASTLE: II. LET BE; ENOUGH       
First Line: Let be; enough; I am not yours tonight
Last Line: With wolves that run upon the hungry hill


WINTER FORECAST    Poem Text    
First Line: Let it be a consolation to you that nothing
Last Line: The hiders, the motionless, the terrible meek
Subject(s): Winter


WINTER'S TALE       
First Line: Well, why did he do it then? I can say
Last Line: Like a curious retrospective hope


WOODS       
First Line: In this summer month, two separate men were lost
Last Line: Who are, are usually found; found in time


YELLOW       
First Line: Yellow became alive
Last Line: Outside the madhouse hung the yellow sun


YOU CAN TAKE IT WITH YOU       
First Line: 2 little girls who live next door
Last Line: In gasps. They are there, they fly up