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Author: JUSTICE, DONALD
Matches Found: 211


Justice, Donald    Poet's Biography
211 poems available by this author


A DANCER'S LIFE    Poem Text    
First Line: The lights in the theater fail, the long racks
Last Line: Like a small theater, empty, without lights
Subject(s): Dancing & Dancers


A LETTER    Poem Text    
First Line: You write that you are ill, confused. The trees
Last Line: Ten years older, tame now, less mad, less beautiful
Subject(s): Sickness; Aging; Illness


A WINTER ODE TO THE OLD MEN OF LUMMUS PARK, / MIAMI, FLORIDA    Poem Text    
First Line: Risen from rented rooms, old ghosts
Last Line: To lean on you so hard, so long!
Subject(s): Old Age


ABOARD! ABOARD!    Poem Text    
First Line: O how the little towns flare in passing
Subject(s): Railroads; Longing; Railways; Trains


ABOUT MY POEMS    Poem Text    
First Line: How fashionably sad my early poems are!
Last Line: And the pieces of sky that will go on falling for days
Subject(s): Poetry & Poets


ABSENCES       
First Line: It's snowing this afternoon and there are no flowers
Last Line: On the silent piano; the snow; and the absent flowers abounding


AFTER A LINE BY JOHN PEALE BISHOP    Poem Text    
First Line: Why will they never speak?
Last Line: Head-shakes and head-nods
Subject(s): Old Age


AFTER A PHRASE ABANDONNED BY WALLACE STEVENS       
First Line: The alp at the end of the street


AFTER-SCHOOL PRACTICE: A SHORT STORY       
First Line: Rain that masks the world
Last Line: And gradually the storm outside dies away also


AMERICAN SCENES (1904-1905)       
First Line: Immense pale houses! Sunshine just now and snow
Last Line: Beautifully down the pages of his calling


AN ELEGY IS PREPARING ITSELF    Poem Text    
First Line: There are pines that are tall enough
Subject(s): Religion; Theology


ANONYMOUS DRAWING    Poem Text    
First Line: A delicate young negro stands
Subject(s): Art & Artists


ANONYMOUS DRAWING       
First Line: A delicate young negro stands
Last Line: Simply to leave him out of the scene forever
Subject(s): Art And Artists


ANOTHER SONG       
First Line: Merry the green, the green hill shall be merry
Last Line: And jack from joan, and they shall never marry
Variant Title(s): Tune For A Lonesome Fif


ARTIST ORPHEUS       
First Line: It was a tropical landscape, much like florida's, which he knew
Last Line: And once or twice the sound a twig makes when it snaps


ASSASSINATION       
First Line: It begins again, the nocturnal pulse
Last Line: It enters. Look, we are dancing
Subject(s): Assassination


AT A REHEARSAL OF UNCLE VANYA       
First Line: You mean well, doctor
Last Line: In the crows' shadow


AT A REHEARSAL OF UNCLE VANYA    Poem Text    
First Line: You mean well, doctor
Last Line: In the crow's shadow
Subject(s): Crows; Chekhov, Anton (1860-1904)


BAD DREAMS       
First Line: Why do we turn in our beds
Last Line: All things for what they are


BANJO DOG VARIATIONS       
First Line: Agriculture and industry %embraced in public on a wall
Last Line: One budding still? %ah, oh, my banjo dog


BEYOND THE HUNTING WOODS    Poem Text    
First Line: I speak of that great house
Last Line: Ever, ever come?
Subject(s): Houses, Deserted; Memory; Houses


BEYOND THE HUNTING WOODS       
First Line: I speak of that great house
Last Line: Nor home from the hunting woods %ever, ever come?
Subject(s): Houses


BODY AND SOUL: 1. HOTEL       
First Line: If there was something one of them held back
Last Line: And all was as it had been been and would be


BODY AND SOUL: 2. RAIN       
First Line: The new umbrella, suddenly blowing free
Last Line: Silence of cities suddenly and the snow %turning to rain and back again to snow


BUS STOP       
First Line: Lights are burning %in quiet rooms
Last Line: Left on for hours %burning, burning


BUT THAT IS ANOTHER STORY    Poem Text    
First Line: I do not think the ending can be right
Subject(s): Marriage; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


BUT THAT IS ANOTHER STORY       
First Line: I do not think the ending can be right
Last Line: At the exhausted lovers where they sleep
Subject(s): Marriage


CHAPTER IN THE LIFE OF MR. KEHOE, FISHERMAN       
First Line: Some nights on the dock
Last Line: Sleep well, mr. Kehoe


CHILDHOOD       
First Line: Once more beneath my thumb the globe turns
Last Line: Forlorn suburbs, but with golden names


CHILDREN WALKING HOME FROM SCHOOL THROUGH GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD    Poem Text    
First Line: They are like figures held in some glass ball
Subject(s): Children; Schools; Childhood; Students


CHILDREN WALKING HOME FROM SCHOOL THROUGH GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD       
First Line: They are like figures held in some glass ball
Last Line: Like the leaves already blazing and falling farther north t palms
Subject(s): Children; Schools


CINEMA AND BALLAD OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION       
First Line: We men had kept our dignity
Last Line: Pulled out an ancient mouth harp and began to play t palms


COOL DARK ODE    Poem Text    
First Line: You could have sneaked up
Last Line: Which all too often were carelessly left open for you
Subject(s): Night; Bedtime


COUNTING THE MAD    Poem Text     Recitation
First Line: This one was put in a jacket
Subject(s): Depression, Mental; Humanity; Insanity; Social Protest; Mentally Depressed; Mental Distress; Madness; Mental Illness


COUNTING THE MAD       
First Line: This one was put in a jacket
Last Line: And cried and cried no no no no %all day long
Subject(s): Depression, Mental; Humanity; Insanity; Social Protest


COUPLETS       
First Line: Have I not waited with a numbed impatience
Last Line: And the high mournful whistle crying, noon, noon


CROSSING KANSAS BY TRAIN    Poem Text    
First Line: The telephone poles / have been holding their
Subject(s): Kansas


CROSSING KANSAS BY TRAIN       
First Line: The telephone poles %have been holding their
Last Line: Sons asleep %in their workclothes
Subject(s): Kansas


DANCE LESSONS OF THE THIRTIES       
First Line: Wafts of old incense mixed with cuban coffee
Last Line: O little lost bohemias of the suburbs


DANCER'S LIFE       
First Line: The lights in the theater fail. The long racks
Last Line: Like a small theater, empty, without lights


DREAM SESTINA       
First Line: I woke by first light in a wood
Last Line: Why have they changed that way to wood


DREAMS OF WATER       
First Line: An odd silence %falls as we enter
Last Line: Grandfathers loll in steaming tubs %huge, unblushing


EARLY POEMS       
First Line: How fashionably sad those early poems are
Last Line: Now the long silence. Now the beginning again


ELEGY IS PREPARING ITSELF       
First Line: There are pines that are tall enough
Subject(s): Religion


ELSEWHERES       


EVENING OF THE MIND       
First Line: Now comes the evening of the mind
Last Line: And empty spaces in the throat


FIRST DEATH       
First Line: I saw my grandmother grow weak
Last Line: To the mercy of the files


FOR A FRESHMAN READER; AFTER...GERMAN OF HANS M. ENZENBERGER       
First Line: Don't bother with odes, my son


FOR THE SUICIDES OF 1962       
First Line: If we recall your voices
Last Line: Under the lids we have closed


FOR THE SUICIDES OF TWO YEARS AGO    Poem Text    
First Line: If you recall your voices
Last Line: Under the lids we had closed
Subject(s): Suicide


FRAGMENT: TO A MIRROR       
First Line: Behind that bland facade of yours
Last Line: Your half of nothingness


FROM A NOTEBOOK       
First Line: Named ambassador
Last Line: Sent back a poem that lasted %three thousand years


FROM BAD DREAMS    Poem Text    
First Line: Why do we turn in our beds
Last Line: The retreating tail of tye monster winking and flashing
Subject(s): Dreams; Nightmares


GIRL SITTING ALONE AT A PARTY       
First Line: You sit with hands folded
Last Line: This is that other music, to which %I embrace your shadow


GRANDFATHERS       
First Line: Why will they never sleep
Last Line: Head-shakes or head-nods
Variant Title(s): After A Line By John Peale Bisho


HANDS       
First Line: No longer do the hands know


HEART       
First Line: Heart, let us this once reason together
Last Line: Afterwards we will take thought for our good name


HELL (R. B. VAUGHN SPEAKS)       
First Line: After so many years of pursuing the ideal
Last Line: And there were those that followed


HENRY JAMES BY THE PACIFIC       
First Line: In a hotel room by the sea, the master
Last Line: Beautifully down the pages of his calling.


HERE IN KATMANDU    Poem Text    
First Line: We have climbed the mountain
Last Line: As soon as it must, from the mountain
Variant Title(s): Sestina
Subject(s): Katmandu, Nepal


HERE IN KATMANDU       
First Line: We have climbed the mountain
Last Line: As soon it must, from the mountain
Variant Title(s): Sestin


HERE LIES LOVE    Poem Text    
First Line: Though books said nothing could save
Last Line: Knocking the stave
Subject(s): Love


HOMAGE TO THE MEMORY OF WALLACE STEVENS       
First Line: Hartford is cold today but no colder for your absence
Last Line: Including even this almost human cry


HOUSES    Poem Text    
First Line: Time and the weather wear away
Subject(s): Houses


HOUSES       
First Line: Time and the weather wear away
Last Line: And what miraculous escapes!
Subject(s): Houses


HOUSES       
Subject(s): Travel


IN BERTRAM'S GARDEN       
First Line: Jane looks down at her organdy skirt
Last Line: Naked to the naked moon


IN MEMORY OF MY FRIEND, THE BASSOONIST, JOHN LENOX       
First Line: One winter he was the best
Last Line: And the sea air smells again of good gin t palms


IN MEMORY OF THE UNKNOWN POET, ROBERT BOARDMAN VAUGHN       
First Line: It was his story. It would always be his story
Last Line: The boredom, and the horror, and the glory t palms


IN THE ATTIC    Poem Text    
First Line: There's a half hour toward dusk when flies
Subject(s): Attics


IN THE ATTIC       
First Line: There's a half hour toward dusk when flies
Last Line: And the chin sank then onto palms above %numbed elbows propped on rotting sills
Subject(s): Attics


IN THE GREENROOM       
First Line: How reassuring %to encounter them
Last Line: What is this green for %if not renewal


INCIDENT IN A ROSE GARDEN (1)       
First Line: Sir, I encountered death
Last Line: I take it you are he


INCIDENT IN A ROSE GARDEN (2)    Poem Text    
First Line: The gardener came running
Subject(s): Religion; Theology


INCIDENT IN A ROSE GARDEN (2)       
First Line: The gardener came running
Last Line: I take it you are he?
Subject(s): Religion


INVITATION TO A GHOST    Poem Text    
First Line: I ask you to come back now as you were in youth
Subject(s): Coulette, Henri (1927-1988); Nature


INVITATION TO A GHOST       
First Line: I ask you to come back now as you were in youth
Last Line: Whisper to me some beautiful secret that you remember from life
Subject(s): Coulette, Henri (1927-1988); Nature


LADIES BY THEIR WINDOWS       
First Line: They lean upon their windows. It is late
Last Line: Whose windows are the limits of their lives


LANDSCAPE    Poem Text    
First Line: There were some pines, a canal, a piece of sky
Last Line: And how the miles reel at the wide gaze!
Subject(s): Landscape; Farewell; Parting


LANDSCAPE WITH LITTLE FIGURES       
First Line: There once were some pines, a canal, a piece of sky
Last Line: And the pieces of sky that will go on now falling for days


LAST DAYS OF PROSPERO    Poem Text    
First Line: The aging magician retired to his island
Last Line: Low chucklings or grand, indifferent sighs
Subject(s): Retirement


LAST DAYS OF PROSPERO       
First Line: The aging magician retired to his island
Last Line: Low chucklings or grand, indifferent sighs


LAST EVENING: AT THE PIANO       
First Line: And night and far to go
Last Line: Or like the skin of some great battle drum


LETHARGY    Poem Text    
First Line: It smiles to see me
Last Line: To put it down
Subject(s): Lethargy; Religion; Theology


LETHARGY    Poem Text    
First Line: It smiles to see me
Subject(s): Religion; Theology


LETHARGY       
First Line: It smiles to see me
Last Line: Since first I lifted my hand %to set it down
Subject(s): Religion


LETTER       
First Line: You write that you are ill, confused. The trees
Last Line: Ten years older, tamed now, less mad, less beautiful


LINES AT THE NEW YEAR       
First Line: The old year slips past


LITTLE ELEGY       
First Line: Weep, all you girls
Last Line: They do not yet quite focus


LOCAL STORM       
First Line: The first whimper of the storm
Last Line: Still, how nice for our egos


LORCA IN CALIFORNIA       
First Line: Blue are the cycles
Last Line: O, the teeth of their branches


LOVE'S MAP    Poem Text    
First Line: Your face more than others' faces
Last Line: And the dark interior
Subject(s): Faces


LOVE'S STRATAGEMS    Poem Text    
First Line: All these maneuverings to avoid
Subject(s): Love


LOVE'S STRATAGEMS       
First Line: All these maneuverings to avoid
Last Line: Not had their eyes been stricken blind, %arms cut off at the elbow
Subject(s): Love


MAN CLOSING UP       
First Line: Like a deserted beach
Last Line: But the man closing up %does not say the word


MAN OF 1794       
First Line: And like a discarded statue, propped up in a cart
Last Line: As though already he were possessed of a sweet, indefinite leisure


MANHATTAN DAWN (1945)       
First Line: There is a smoke of memory


MAP OF LOVE       
First Line: Your face more than others' faces
Last Line: And the dark interior


MEMO FROM THE DESK OF X       
First Line: Re: the question of poems


MEMORIES OF THE DEPRESSION YEARS       
First Line: ...In the kitchen, as she bends to serve
Last Line: Over the clean blue willowware


MEMORY OF A PORCH    Poem Text    
First Line: What I remember
Last Line: Half-asleep in their boxes
Subject(s): Memory; Children


MEMORY OF A PORCH; MIAMI, 1942       
First Line: What I remember


MEN AT FORTY    Poem Text    


MEN AT FORTY       
Last Line: Behind their mortgaged houses
Subject(s): Aging; Labor And Laborers; Middle Age


MIAMI OF OTHER DAYS       
First Line: The city was not yet itself. It had
Last Line: Out there somewhere in the orbits of the lost


MISSING PERSON       
First Line: He has come to report himself
Last Line: This last disguise, him


MRS. SNOW    Poem Text    
First Line: Busts of the great composers glimmered in niches
Last Line: Ah, those were the days
Subject(s): Teaching & Teachers; Educators; Professors


MRS. SNOW       
First Line: Busts of the great composers glimmered in niches
Last Line: Ah, those were the days


MULE TEAM AND POSTER    Poem Text    
First Line: Two mules stand waiting in front of the brick wall of a warehouse
Last Line: Like a great scythe laid down there and forgotten
Subject(s): Mules; Evans, Walker (1903-1975)


MULE TEAM AND POSTER       
First Line: Two mules stand waiting in front of the brick wall of a warehouse
Last Line: Like a great scythe laid down there and forgotton


MY SOUTH: 1. ON THE PORCH    Poem Text    
First Line: There used to be a way the sunlight caught
Subject(s): Southern States; South (u.s.)


MY SOUTH: 1. ON THE PORCH       
First Line: There used to be a way the sunlight caught
Last Line: I would be evening soon then, very soon
Subject(s): Southern States


MY SOUTH: 2. AT THE CEMETRY    Poem Text    
First Line: Above the fence-flowers, like a bloody thumb
Variant Title(s): Variations On Southern Themes
Subject(s): Cemeteries; Graveyards


MY SOUTH: 2. AT THE CEMETRY       
First Line: Above the fence-flowers, like a bloody thumb
Last Line: Somewhere among the purpling wild verbena
Variant Title(s): Variations On Southern Theme
Subject(s): Cemeteries


MY SOUTH: 3. ON THE FARM    Poem Text    
First Line: And I, missing the city intensely at that moment
Subject(s): Farm Life; Southern States; Agriculture; Farmers; South (u.s.)


MY SOUTH: 3. ON THE FARM       
First Line: And I, missing the city intensely at that moment
Last Line: Protected by a cloud let down by the gods to save him
Subject(s): Farm Life; Southern States


MY SOUTH: 4. ON THE TRAIN, HEADING NORTH THROUGH FLORIDA ...    Poem Text    
First Line: Midnight or after, and the little lights
Subject(s): Railroads; Southern States; Railways; Trains; South (u.s.)


MY SOUTH: 4. ON THE TRAIN, HEADING NORTH THROUGH FLORIDA ...       
First Line: Midnight or after, and the little lights
Last Line: And the great wheels smash and pound beneath our feet
Subject(s): Railroads; Southern States


NARCISSUS AT HOME       
First Line: Alone at last! But I am forgetting myself


NINETEENTH-CENTURY PORTRAIT       
First Line: Under skies god himself must have painted blue
Last Line: Above which must have risen, sometimes, tall ghosts of absent palms


NORTH       
First Line: Already it is midsummer
Last Line: We tremble sometimes, %not with emotion


NOSTALGIA AND COMPLAINT OF THE GRANDPARENTS    Poem Text    
First Line: Our diaries squatted, toad-like
Subject(s): Grandparents; Old Age; Grandmothers; Grandfathers; Great Grandfathers; Great Grandmothers


NOSTALGIA AND COMPLAINT OF THE GRANDPARENTS       
First Line: Our diaries squatted, toad-like
Last Line: The dead don't get around %much anymore
Subject(s): Grandparents; Old Age


NOSTALGIA OF THE LAKEFRONTS    Poem Text    
First Line: Cities burn behind us; the lake glitters
Subject(s): Lakes; Nostalgia; Pools; Ponds


NOSTALGIA OF THE LAKEFRONTS       
First Line: Cities burn behind us; the lake glitters
Last Line: Nostalgia comes with the smell of rain, you know
Subject(s): Lakes; Nostalgia


OCTOBER: A SONG       
First Line: Summer, goodbye
Last Line: Like young girls in balthus t palms


ODE TO A DRESSMAKER'S DUMMY    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: O my coy darling, still
Last Line: Prim ghost the evening light shone through
Subject(s): Clothing & Dress


ODE TO A DRESSMAKER'S DUMMY       
First Line: O my coy darling, still
Last Line: Hiding your sex as best you could? %prim ghost the evening light shone through


OLD-FASHIONED DEVIL       
First Line: Who is it snarls our plow lines, wastes our fields
Last Line: Come plodding by us on his way to hell


ON A PAINTING BY PATIENT B OF INDEPENDENCE STATE HOSPITAL    Poem Text    
First Line: These seven houses have learned to face one another
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


ON A PAINTING BY PATIENT B OF INDEPENDENCE STATE HOSPITAL       
First Line: These seven houses have learned to face one another
Last Line: Not public like mountains' but private like companions
Subject(s): Insanity


ON A PICTURE BY BURCHFIELD       
First Line: Writhe no more, little flowers. Art keeps long hours
Last Line: Already your agony has outlasted ours


ON A WOMAN OF SPIRIT WHO TAUGHT BOTH PIANO AND DANCE       
First Line: Thanks to the powers-that-once-were for all rouges
Last Line: Was a hummingbird, and flew from art to art


ON AN ANNIVERSARY    Poem Text    
First Line: Thirty years and more go by
Subject(s): Love; Love - Marital; Marriage; Wedded Love; Marriage - Love; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


ON AN ANNIVERSARY       
First Line: Thirty years and more go by
Last Line: And the evening has no end
Subject(s): Love; Love - Marital; Marriage


ON THE DEATH OF FRIENDS IN CHILDHOOD    Poem Text     Recitation
First Line: We shall not ever meet them bearded in heaven
Last Line: Come, memory, let us seek them there in the shadows
Subject(s): Children; Death; Childhood; Dead, The


ON THE DEATH OF FRIENDS IN CHILDHOOD       
First Line: We shall not ever meet them bearded in heaven
Last Line: Come, memory, let us seek them there in the shadows


ORPHEUS OPENS HIS MORNING MAIL       
First Line: Bills. Bills. From the mapmakers of hell, the repairers of fractured lutes


PANTOUM OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION    Poem Text    
First Line: Our lives avoided tragedy
Last Line: And there is no plot in that; it is devoid of poetry
Subject(s): Depressions, Economic; Life; Recessions


PANTOUM OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION       
First Line: Our lives avoided tragedy
Last Line: And there is no plot in that; it is devoid of poetry


PARTY       
First Line: After midnight the charm


PIANO TEACHERS: A MEMOIR OF THE THIRTIES       
First Line: Busts of the great composers
Last Line: Coming home, the long day ending


POEM       
First Line: This poem is not addressed to you
Last Line: This poem is not addressed to you


POEM FOR A SURVIVOR       
First Line: Holding this poem


POEM TO BE READ ALOUD AT 3 A.M       
First Line: Excepting the diner %on the outskirts
Last Line: Had the light on


POEM TO BE READ AT 3 A.M    Poem Text    
First Line: Excepting the diner
Last Line: Had the light on
Subject(s): Night; Bedtime


POET AT SEVEN       
First Line: And on the porch across the upturned chair
Last Line: And whip him down the street, but gently, home


PORTRAIT WITH BROWN HAIR    Poem Text    
First Line: The days, the days!
Last Line: In mexico, still a virgin
Subject(s): Hair; Sex


PORTRAIT WITH ONE EYE       
First Line: They robbed you of your ticket
Last Line: Like conscience, always collect


PRESENCES    Poem Text    
First Line: Everyone, everyone went away today
Subject(s): Abandonment; Desertion


PRESENCES       
First Line: Everyone, everyone went away today
Subject(s): Abandonment


PSALM AND LAMENT       
First Line: The clocks are sorry, the clocks are very sad
Last Line: But the years are gone. There are no more years t palms


PUPIL       
First Line: Picture me, the shy pupil at the door
Last Line: Of c# minor and the calms of c t palms


RETURN OF ALCESTIS       
First Line: I bring alcestis from the dolorous shades
Last Line: Why has he brought me from the dolorous shades


SADNESS       
First Line: Dear ghosts, dear presences, o my dear parents
Last Line: Not that they are but that they feel immense


SEA WIND: A SONG       
First Line: Sea wind, you rise
Last Line: And goes on blossoming alone


SELF-PORTRAIT AS STILL LIFE       
First Line: The newspaper on the table
Last Line: Manana? Always manana


SESTINA ON SIX WORDS BY WELDON KEES       
First Line: I often wonder about the others
Last Line: A land of others and of silence'


SMALL WHITE CHURCHES OF THE SMALL WHITE TOWNS       
First Line: The twangy, off-key hymn songs of the poor
Last Line: And the paper fans in motion, like little wings


SNOWFALL       
First Line: The classic landscapes of dreams are not
Subject(s): Religion


SOMETIME DANCER BLUES       
First Line: When the lights go on uptown
Last Line: Without a sound, without a sound


SONATINA IN YELLOW       
First Line: The pages of the album
Last Line: And slowly the keys grow darker to the touch


SONG       
First Line: Morning opened %like a rose
Last Line: And all that day %was a fairy tale %told once in a while %toa good child


SONNET TO MY FATHER       
First Line: Father, since always now the death to come
Last Line: Yet while I live, you do not wholly die


SOUTH       
First Line: The long green shutters are drawn
Last Line: Take our places, we wait %we wait to be moved


SOUTHERN GOTHIC    Poem Text    
First Line: Something of how the homing bee at dusk
Last Line: Red roses within roses within roses
Subject(s): Transience; Houses, Deserted; Impermanence


STANZAS ON A HIDDEN THEME       
First Line: There is a gold light in certain old paintings
Last Line: Shall be forgotten as though it had never existed


STRAY DOG BY THE SUMMERHOUSE       
First Line: This morning, down
Last Line: And it was sweet
Subject(s): Animals; Dogs


SUMMER ANNIVERSARIES       
First Line: At ten there came an hour
Last Line: To blow them out with a breath


SUNSET MAKER       
First Line: The bestor papers have come down to me
Last Line: Our sunset maker studied with bonnard t palms


TALES FROM A FAMILY ALBUM       
First Line: How shall I speak of doom, and ours in special
Last Line: Put doom upon my tongue and bade me utter


TELEPHONE NUMBER OF THE MUSE       
First Line: Sleepily, the muse to me: let us be friends
Last Line: I have the number written down somewhere


THE ASSASSINATION    Poem Text     Recitation
First Line: It begins again, the nocturnal pulse
Subject(s): Assassination


THE EVENING OF THE MIND    Poem Text    
First Line: Now comes the evening of the mind
Last Line: And empty spaces in the throat
Subject(s): Absence; Separation; Isolation


THE POET AT SEVEN    Poem Text    
First Line: And on the porch, across the upturned chair
Last Line: And whip him down the street, but gently, home
Subject(s): Childhood Memories; Childhood


THE SNOWFALL    Poem Text    
First Line: The classic landscapes of dreams are not
Subject(s): Religion; Theology


THE STRAY DOG BY THE SUMMERHOUSE    Poem Text    
First Line: This morning, down
Last Line: And it was sweet
Subject(s): Animals; Dogs


THE WALL    Poem Text    
First Line: The wall surrounding them they never saw
Subject(s): Religion; Theology


THERE IS A GOLD LIGHT IN CERTAIN OLD PAINTINGS    Poem Text     Recitation
Last Line: Shall be forgotten as though it had never existed
Subject(s): Paintings & Painters


THIN MAN       
First Line: I indulge myself
Last Line: This edge. Asleep, I %am a horizon


THINGS, SELECTION    Poem Text    
First Line: Hard, but you can polish it
Subject(s): Religion; Stones; Theology; Granite; Rocks


THINGS, SELS.       
First Line: Hard, but you can polish it
Subject(s): Religion; Stones


THINKING ABOUT THE PAST    Poem Text     Recitation
First Line: Certain moments will never change, nor stop being
Subject(s): Nostalgia


THINKING ABOUT THE PAST       
First Line: Certain moments will never change, nor stop being
Last Line: Time a bow bent with his certain failure. %dusks, dawns; waves; the ends of songs
Subject(s): Nostalgia


THREE ODES       
First Line: You could have sneaked up
Last Line: Colorless, formless %and that will not return


TO A TEN MONTHS'CHILD       
First Line: Late arrival, no %one would think of blaming you
Last Line: So calm, so lately crossed


TO SATAN IN HEAVEN       
First Line: Forgive, satan, virtue's pedants, all such
Last Line: Longs for the cocoon or the looping net


TO THE HAWKS    Poem Text    
First Line: Farewell is the bell
Last Line: Grows round with the sound
Subject(s): Antiwar Movement; Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975; Mcnamara, Robert S.; Rusk, Dean (1909-1994); Bindy, Mcgeorge (1919-1996); War Hawks


TO THE HAWKS: MCNAMARA, RUSK, BUNDY       
First Line: Farewell is the bell


TO THE UNKNOWN LADY WHO WROTE LETTERS FOUND IN HATBOX       
First Line: What, was there never any news
Last Line: And madam roxie will advise


TO WAKEN A SMALL PERSON       
First Line: You sleep at the top of streets
Last Line: The puddles of parking lots %cannot contain such rainbows


TOURIST FROM SYRACUSE       
First Line: You would not recognize me
Last Line: You must not hope to arrive


TREMAYNE       
First Line: Snow melting and the dog
Last Line: And something about late flowers for the bees -- t palms


UNFLUSHED URINALS       
First Line: Seeing them, I recognize the contempt
Last Line: The acceptingness of the washbowls, in which we absolve ourselves


VAGUE MEMORY FROM CHILDHOOD       
First Line: It was the end of day
Last Line: It was the end of day. %shadows came engulfing


VARIATION ON BAUDELAIRE'S LA SERVANTE AU GRAND COEUR       
First Line: That servant with the big heart but so clumsy
Last Line: The worn-out flowers in their little vase


VARIATIONS FOR TWO PIANOS    Poem Text    
First Line: There is no music now in all arkansas
Subject(s): Arkansas; Music & Musicians; Musical Instruments; Pianos


VARIATIONS FOR TWO PIANOS       
First Line: There is no music now in all arkansas
Last Line: Higgins is gone, taking both his pianos %there is no music now in all arkansas
Subject(s): Arkansas; Music And Musicians; Musical Instruments; Pianos


VARIATIONS ON A NEO-CLASSIC THEME    Poem Text    
First Line: It's not a landscape from too near
Last Line: Forgot against this very hour
Subject(s): Landscape


VARIATIONS ON A TEXT BY VALLEJO    Poem Text    
First Line: I will die in miami in the sun
Subject(s): Writing & Writers


VARIATIONS ON A TEXT BY VALLEJO       
First Line: I will die in miami in the sun
Last Line: Turning away abruptly, out of respect
Subject(s): Writing And Writers


VILLANELLE AT SUNDOWN       
First Line: Turn your head. Look. The light is turning
Last Line: And why this is, I'll never be able to tell you


VOICE OF COL. VON STAUFFENBERG RISING FROM PURGATORY       
First Line: That last night we passed quietly, my brother and I
Last Line: That through failure one had been spared for heaven after all


WAITING ROOM       
First Line: Reading the signs


WALL       
First Line: The wall surrounding them they never saw
Last Line: As they advanced, the giant wings unfurled
Subject(s): Religion


WHITE NOTES    Poem Text    
First Line: Suddenly there was a dress
Last Line: Then, in another time
Subject(s): Love – Loss Of


WHITE NOTES       
First Line: Suddenly there was a dress
Last Line: Would have the power to bruise you any more %then, in another time


WINTER ODE TO THE OLD MEN OF LUMMUS PARK, MIAMI, FLORIDA       
First Line: Risen from rented rooms, old ghosts
Last Line: To lean on you so hard, so long


WOMEN IN LOVE    Poem Text    
First Line: It always comes, and when it comes they know
Subject(s): Love


WOMEN IN LOVE       
First Line: It always comes, and when it comes they know
Last Line: The knack is this, to fasten and not let go
Subject(s): Love


YOUNG GIRLS GROWING UP (1911)       
First Line: No longer do they part and scatter so hopelessly before you
Last Line: Saying to one another: live, we must try to live, my friend