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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: KINNELL, GALWAY Matches Found: 256 Kinnell, Galway Poet's Biography 256 poems available by this author 52 OSWALD STREET First Line: Then, when the full moonlight %would touch our blanketed bodies Last Line: And three children, and a fourth %sleeping, quite long ago ACROSS THE BROWN RIVER Poem Text First Line: The brown river, finger of a broken fist Last Line: These eyes from outer space, evicted statues Subject(s): Gardens & Gardening AFTER MAKING LOVE WE HEAR FOOTSTEPS Poem Text Recitation First Line: For I can snore like a bullhorn Subject(s): Love - Erotic; Fathers; Men; Prayer AFTER MAKING LOVE WE HEAR FOOTSTEPS First Line: For I can snore like a bullhorn Last Line: This blessing love gives again into our arms Subject(s): Erotic Love; Fathers; Men; Prayer AGAPE First Line: I want to touch her Last Line: Again to sit up half the night %and laught and forget not %all of us will rejoice %like this always AH MOON Poem Text First Line: I sat here as a boy Last Line: So must be dark Subject(s): Moon ALEWIVES POOL Poem Text First Line: We lay on the grass and gazed down and heard Last Line: Stand on the pulse and love the burning earth ANGEL First Line: This angel, who mediates between us %and the world underneath us Last Line: Making logs and bone together %cry through the room, crack! Splinter! Groan! ANGLING, A DAY Poem Text First Line: Though day is just breaking / when we fling two nightcrawlers Subject(s): Sports ANGLING, A DAY First Line: Though day is just breaking %when we fling two nightcrawlers Last Line: There are days when you don't catch anything Subject(s): Sports ANOTHER NIGHT IN THE RUINS Poem Text First Line: In the evening Last Line: To open ourselves, to be / the flames? Subject(s): Relationships ANOTHER NIGHT IN THE RUINS First Line: In the evening Last Line: To open himself, to be %the flames? AUCTION First Line: My wife lies in another dream Last Line: Most of it sold off to the spindle mill, %passing beneath anowl, startling a few doves, %to see the AVENUE BEARING THE INITIAL OF CHRIST INTO THE NEW WORLD First Line: Pcheek pcheek pcheek pcheek pcheek Last Line: Our little lane, what a kingdom it was! %oi weih, oi weih Subject(s): New York City; U.s. - Immigration And Emigration BITING INSECTS First Line: The biting insects don't like the blood of people who dread dying Last Line: Will know that now it is you being accepted back into the family of mortals Subject(s): Farm Life BLACKBERRY EATING Poem Text First Line: I love to go out in late september Subject(s): Blackberries; Food & Eating BLACKBERRY EATING First Line: I love to go out in late september Last Line: In the silent, startled, icy, black language %of blackberry-eating in late september Subject(s): Blackberries; Food And Eating BRAEMAR Poem Text First Line: One night from the stern I thought, as I watched Last Line: Pale bodies the sea's farness from their shore Subject(s): Sea; Night; Ocean; Bedtime BREAK OF DAY First Line: He turns the light on, lights BROTHER OF MY HEART Last Line: In this place that loses its brothers, %in this emptiness only the singing sometimes almost fills BURN First Line: Twelve years ago I came here Last Line: The sea throws itself down, in flames BURNING Poem Text First Line: He lives, who last night flopped from a log Last Line: Burning a house burning in the wilderness Subject(s): Sickness; Dogs; Illness BURNING First Line: He lives, who last night flopped from a log Last Line: Burning a house burning in the wilderness CANADIAN WARBLER Poem Text First Line: The canadian warbler on his limb Last Line: Only, you were like a harp, at my thought's touch Subject(s): Birds CAT First Line: The first thing that happened Last Line: If either ofus lets on about the seizure %I know for certain the cat will kill us both CEILING First Line: I don't like looking at Last Line: I don't want to die. %I want to be born CELLIST First Line: At intermission I find her backstage Last Line: Screaming at night and the teary radiance of one %who gives everything no matter what has been given CELLS BREATHE IN THE EMPTINESS Poem Text First Line: When the flowers turn to husks Last Line: How many inert molecules are ready to break into life? Subject(s): Evolution CEMETERY ANGELS First Line: On these cold days Last Line: Partly opened as though %warming itself at a fire CHAMBERLAIN'S PORCH First Line: On three sides of the stretcher bed CHICAGO First Line: In this city I loved you, where light Last Line: Revive the embrace in that melted glow COINALISTE First Line: She can drink from a beer bottle CONCEPTION First Line: Having crowed the seed Last Line: Say, 'yes, I am two now %and with you, three' CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOL INSTRUCTOR SAYS GOODBYE ... STUDENTS Poem Text First Line: Goodbye, lady in bangor, who sent me Subject(s): Poetry & Poets; Schools; Students CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOL INSTRUCTOR SAYS GOODBYE ... STUDENTS First Line: Goodbye, lady in bangor, who sent me Last Line: Their loneliness %given away in poems, only their solitude kept Subject(s): Poetry And Poets; Schools CRYING First Line: Crying only a little bit Last Line: I wept it! Ha ha DAYBREAK First Line: On the tidal mud, just before sunset Last Line: As the true stars at daybreak DEAD SHALL BE RAISED INCORRUPTIBLE First Line: A piece of flesh gives off Last Line: Lieutenant! %this corpse will not stop burning! Subject(s): Death DEATH OF A SISTER First Line: While the prairies were burning she fell sick Last Line: Then we assaulted again the heart-breaking earth DECEMBER DAY IN HONOLULU First Line: This day, twice as long as the same day in sheffield, vermont DECONSTRUCTION OF EMILY DICKINSON First Line: The lecture had ended when I came in Last Line: After all that humbug. But she was silent Subject(s): Dickinson, Emily (1830-1886) DIVINITY First Line: When the man touches through Last Line: Knows the pass-whispers it, %and his loving friend becomes his divinity DRIFTWOOD FROM A SHIP Poem Text First Line: It is the white of faces from which the sunburn has suddenly been Subject(s): Driftwood DRIFTWOOD FROM A SHIP First Line: It is the white of faces from which the sunburn has suddenly been Subject(s): Driftwood DUCK-CHASING Poem Text First Line: I spied a very small brown duck Subject(s): Ducks; Mallards; Drakes DUCK-CHASING First Line: I spied a very small brown duck Last Line: When it is over it is all over Subject(s): Ducks EVERYONE WAS IN LOVE Poem Text First Line: One day, when they were little, maud and fergus Last Line: Maud said, “don’t. Frog is already elsewhere. Subject(s): Love FAREWELL First Line: The last adagio begins Last Line: From ahead of me comes the hic of somebody drunk %and then the nunc of his head bumping against the FARM PICTURE First Line: Black earth FEATHERING First Line: Many heads before mine have waked Last Line: In high, soft, clear, wild notes FERGUS FALLING Poem Text First Line: He climbed to the top Last Line: Sits in the dry gray wood of his rowboat, waiting for pickerel Subject(s): Death; Past FERGUS FALLING First Line: He climed to the top %of one of those million white pines Last Line: Sits in the dry gray wood of his rowboat, waiting for pickerel FERRY STOPPING AT MACMAHON'S POINT First Line: It comes vigorously in FIRE IN LUNA PARK First Line: The screaming produced by the great fright machines Last Line: And no one is healed but gathered and used again FIRST DAY OF THE FUTURE First Line: They always seem to come up Last Line: One has to keep facing the right way, or one sees one dies, and one %dies FIRST SONG Poem Text Recitation First Line: Then it was dusk in illinois, the small boy Last Line: His heart to the darkness and into the sadness of joy. Subject(s): Children; Illinois; Labor & Laborers; Childhood; Work; Workers FLIES First Line: Walt whitman noticed a group of them Last Line: A draft of icy air. But my sisters say no FLOWER HERDING ON MOUNT MONADNOCK Poem Text First Line: I can support it no longer Last Line: It is a flower. On this mountainside it is dying. Subject(s): Birds; Flowers; Mount Monadnock, New Hampshire FLOWER OF FIVE BLOSSOMS Last Line: Oh first our voice be done, and then, before and afterwards and %all around it, that singing FLY First Line: The fly Last Line: The naked dirty reality of him last FOR ROBERT FROST Poem Text First Line: Why do you talk so much Last Line: Down hills floating by heart on the bulldozed land. Subject(s): Frost, Robert (1874-1963); Poetry & Poets FOR RUTH Poem Text First Line: It was a surprise Last Line: For ruth, for ruth Subject(s): Memory FOR THE LOST GENERATION Poem Text First Line: Oddities composed the sum of the news Subject(s): Social Protest FOR THE LOST GENERATION First Line: Oddities composed the sum of the news Last Line: (o hiroshima, o jews) - %no generation was so gay as the lost Subject(s): Social Protest FOR WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS Poem Text First Line: When you came and you talked and you read with your Subject(s): Williams, William Carlos (1883-1963) FOR WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS First Line: When you came and you talked and you read with your Last Line: Drained spittle from his pipe, then %scrammed Subject(s): Williams, William Carlos (1883-1963) FOSSILS First Line: In the cliff over the frog pond Last Line: Over the least fossil %day breaks in gold, frankincense, and myrrh Subject(s): Fossils FREEDOM, NEW HAMPSHIRE Poem Text First Line: We came to visit the cow / dying of fever Subject(s): Farm Life; Agriculture; Farmers FREEDOM, NEW HAMPSHIRE First Line: We came to visit the cow %dying of fever Last Line: And the few who loved him know this until they die Subject(s): Farm Life FROG POND First Line: In those first years I came down Last Line: Crushing it into his hair, as he had done before FULL MOON First Line: The day is ours together GEESE First Line: As soon as they come over the mountain GETTING THE MAIL Poem Text First Line: I walk back / toward the frog pond, carrying Subject(s): Farm Life; Postal Service; Agriculture; Farmers; Postmen; Post Office; Mail; Mailmen GETTING THE MAIL First Line: I walk back %toward the frog pond, carrying Last Line: And the kyrie of a chainsaw down off wheelock mountain Subject(s): Farm Life; Postal Service GOODBYE Poem Text First Line: My mother, poor woman, lies tonight Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives GOODBYE First Line: My mother, poor woman, lies tonight Last Line: That is how we have learned, the embrace is all Subject(s): Family Life GRAY HERON First Line: It held its head still Last Line: Or change into something else Subject(s): Birds GROANS First Line: When poet x comes out with a startling Last Line: From the milk and eggs and from the pleasure %of paying full attention to another, made audible Subject(s): Bly, Robert (b. 1926) HEN FLOWER First Line: Sprawled %on our faces in the spring Last Line: Even these feathers freed from their wings forever %are afraid HOW MANY NIGHTS Poem Text Last Line: From a branch nothing cried from ever in my life Subject(s): Peace; Nature HOW MANY NIGHTS Last Line: From a branch nothing cried from ever in my life IN A PARLOR CONTAINING A TABLE First Line: In a parlor containing a table Last Line: You too. You too. You too IN FIELDS OF SUMMER Poem Text First Line: The sun rises Last Line: A lark bursts up all dew. Subject(s): Fields; Summer; Pastures; Meadows; Leas IN THE ANSE GALET VALLEY Poem Text First Line: Clouds / rise by twos out of the jungle , cross Last Line: Gnawed already at its death edge? Subject(s): Nature IN THE BAMBOO HUT First Line: There would come ot me the voices Last Line: Motionless, erect, attentive, %skeleton of desire inside the brain IN THE FARMHOUSE Poem Text First Line: Eaves moan, / clapboards flap Subject(s): Farm Life; Agriculture; Farmers IN THE FARMHOUSE First Line: Eaves moan, %clapboards flap Last Line: Rattling on the twelve lights of blackness Subject(s): Farm Life INSOMNIAC First Line: I raise my head off the pillow and study Last Line: Together we will outsleep the night' ISLAND OF NIGHT First Line: In a dream if saw a beautiful island Last Line: Islands of night against their downward drift JUDAS-KISS First Line: Those who lie waiting know time Last Line: With a click, like a conductor's %ticket-punch, this one here, god %of our fathers, this one is the KILAUEA First Line: Here is a stone with holes in it Last Line: Hoots out last nights' portion of disgust, %and shaves, a fleshy, rhythmic rasping, like a katydid's KISSING THE TOAD Poem Text First Line: Somewhere this dusk / a girl puckers her mouth Subject(s): Fairy Tales KISSING THE TOAD First Line: Somewhere this dusk %a girl puckers her mouth Last Line: To make is smile wider %to love on, oh yes, to love on Subject(s): Fairy Tales LA BAGAREDE Poem Text First Line: I take the dogs into Subject(s): Constellations; France LA BAGAREDE First Line: I take the dogs into Last Line: At having love who dies - is shining Subject(s): Constellations; France LACKAWANNA Poem Text First Line: Possibly a child is not damaged immediately Subject(s): Railroads; Railways; Trains LACKAWANNA First Line: Possibly a child is not damaged immediately Last Line: Rubs across the brain, making it %do what it can, sing Subject(s): Railroads LAKE MEMPHREMEGOG First Line: We loaf in our gray boat in the sunshine LAST GODS Poem Text Recitation First Line: She sits naked on a rock Subject(s): Love - Erotic; Men LAST GODS First Line: She sits naked on a rock Last Line: Two faces float, looking up %at a great maternal pine whose branches %open out in all directions %ex Subject(s): Erotic Love; Men LAST HOLY FRAGRANCE First Line: When by first light I went out LAST SONGS First Line: What do they sing, the last birds Last Line: Reinvent it on earth %a song LASTNESS: 1 First Line: The skinny waterfalls, footpaths %wandering out of heaven, strike Last Line: A tree, a lost animal, the stones %because in the dying world it was set burning LASTNESS: 2 Poem Text Recitation First Line: A black bear sits alone Subject(s): Fathers; Men; Prayer LASTNESS: 2 First Line: A black bear sits alone Last Line: And smelled the grasslands and the ferns Subject(s): Fathers; Men; Prayer LASTNESS: 3 First Line: Walking toward the cliff overhanging %the river, I call out to the stone Last Line: Stop here %living brings you death, there is no other road LASTNESS: 4 First Line: This is the tenth poem %and it is the last. It is right Last Line: And the first %voice comes craving again out of their mouths LASTNESS: 5 First Line: That bach concert I went to so long ago Last Line: Still singing, from the sliced intestine %of cat LASTNESS: 6 First Line: This poem %if we shall call it that Last Line: Opening his arms into the attitude %of flight, as he obeys the necessity and ... LASTNESS: 7 First Line: Sancho fergus! Don't cry! Last Line: Laid out, see if you can find %the one flea that is laughing LEAPING FALLS First Line: The morning of the winter's LILACS Poem Text First Line: The sweet wind climbed with a laggard pace Last Line: Would arrange the bottom of her china dream Subject(s): Gardens & Gardening LITTLE SLEEP'S-HEAD SPROUTING HAIR IN THE MOONLIGHT Poem Text First Line: You cry, waking from a nightmare Subject(s): Daughters; Mortality LITTLE SLEEP'S-HEAD SPROUTING HAIR IN THE MOONLIGHT First Line: You cry, waking from a nightmare Last Line: The wages of dying is love Subject(s): Daughters; Mortality LOOKING AT YOUR FACE Poem Text First Line: Looking at your face / now you have become ready to die Subject(s): Travel; Journeys; Trips LOOKING AT YOUR FACE First Line: Looking at your face %now you have become ready to die Last Line: The white chiselings of the poem %in the white stone Subject(s): Travel LOST LOVES First Line: On ashes of old volcanoes Last Line: Like the tadpole, its time come, tumbling toward the slime MAN IN THE CHAIR First Line: I glanced in as I walked past %the door of the room where he sat Last Line: Two or three of them, who had reached up %and had him by the foot, and were pulling hard MAN ON THE HOTEL ROOM BED First Line: He shifts on the bed carefully, so as Last Line: The daylight grows so bright the man sees %the next darkness already forming inside it Subject(s): Hotels MAN SPLITTING WOOD IN THE DAYBREAK Last Line: Who looked strong? That was years ago. That was me MAN SPLITTING WOOD IN THE DAYBREAK MASSAGE First Line: Hoisted onto the table, he lies limp Last Line: In the next world. Through the wall, from the next ward, come hard, uninhibited groans MEMORIES OF MY FATHER Poem Text First Line: When we drove a spike too weak into wood too hard Subject(s): Fathers; Memory MEMORIES OF MY FATHER First Line: When we drove a spike too weak into wood too hard Last Line: That in mid-morning bursts %into glittering dust in the sunshine Subject(s): Fathers; Memory MEMORY OF WILMINGTON Poem Text First Line: Thirty-some years ago, hitchhiking Subject(s): Alienation (social Psychology); Dissenters; Exiles; Marginality, Social; Estrangement; Outcasts MEMORY OF WILMINGTON First Line: Thirty-some years ago, hitchhiking Last Line: Was far along on its way to becoming a city %and already well advanced on its way back to dust Subject(s): Alienation (social Psychology); Dissenters; Exiles; Marginality, Social MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT First Line: A telephone rings through the wall MIDDLE OF THE WAY First Line: I wake in the night Last Line: Half my life belongs to the wild darkness MIDDLE PATH First Line: Your foot would lift, as if levitating Last Line: Of such is the kingdom of [effaced MILK First Line: When he pulls back on the oars MOUNT FUJI AT DAYBREAK First Line: From the fuji-view stand made of cinder block MY MOTHER'S R AND R First Line: I don't know why she lay late Last Line: We would taste every woman and expel %any who came to resemble her NEAR BARBIZON First Line: At first I thought some animal, wounded NEVERLAND Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Bending over her bed, I saw the smile Last Line: Intact for the water table, she opened her eyes Subject(s): Death; Dead, The NEVERLAND Poem Text First Line: Bending over her bed, I saw the smile Last Line: And now it grows faint, and now I cannot hear it Subject(s): Death; Brothers & Sisters; Dead, The NEVERLAND First Line: Bending over her bed, I saw the smile Last Line: And now it grows faint, and now I cannot hear it NIGHT First Line: Just as the paint leaps off the brush Last Line: When they have been living since before the earth began OATMEAL Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: I eat oatmeal for breakfast Subject(s): Cooking & Cooks; Oatmeal; Cookery OATMEAL First Line: I eat oatmeal for breakfast Last Line: Simultaneously gummy and crumbly, %and therefore I'm going to invite patrick kavanagh to join me Subject(s): Cooking And Cooks; Oatmeal OLD ARRIVALS First Line: Molded in verdigris %shortly before she died OLD LIFE First Line: The waves collapsed into themselves OLIVE WOOD FIRE First Line: When fergus woke crying at night Last Line: Had burned low. In my arms lay fergus %fast asleep, left cheek glowing, god Subject(s): Kent State University - Riot, 1970; Politics; War ON FROZEN FIELDS First Line: We walk across the snow ON THE OREGON COAST First Line: Six or seven rows of waves struggle landward ON THE TENNIS COURT AT NIGHT Poem Text First Line: We step out on the green rectangle Last Line: As winter comes on, all the winters to come Subject(s): Sports; Tennis ON THE TENNIS COURT AT NIGHT First Line: We step out on the green rectangle Last Line: As winter comes on, all the winters to come Subject(s): Sports; Tennis PARKINSON'S DISEASE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: While spoon-feeding him with one hand Subject(s): Parkinson's Disease PARKINSON'S DISEASE First Line: While spoon-feeding him with one hand Last Line: For him to pass from this paradise into the next Subject(s): Parkinson's Disease PASSION First Line: At the end of a full day of walking we found Last Line: My new eyes searched the passion of the stars PAST First Line: A chair under one arm PATH AMONG THE STONES First Line: On the path winding Last Line: In all the windows %of stone Subject(s): Stones PEER GYNT Poem Text First Line: I sat down at last on a fallen log - that had Last Line: I take for my petals the darkness of this hour Subject(s): Wood; Fathers PEN First Line: Its work is memory Last Line: Reverse gear and a cry, 'c'mon back, c'mon back.' PERCH First Line: There is a fork in a branch Last Line: Touch icy cheek to icy cheek, %kiss, then shudder to discover %the heat waiting inside their mouths PICNIC First Line: When my father was three years dead and dying Last Line: You have hair on your legs, I never thought you did POEM First Line: I long for the mantle Last Line: Of applewood, you will feel all your bones %break, %over the holy waters you will never drink POEM First Line: Could it be that the foot Last Line: To scratch the ground %eating the minutes out of the grains of sand %forever? POEM First Line: On this hill crossed %by the last birds POEM OF NIGHT First Line: I move my hand over Last Line: The river leaning like a wave toward the emptiness POEMS OF NIGHT First Line: I touch your face Last Line: The river leaning like a wave towards the emptiness PORCUPINE First Line: Fatted %on herbs, swollen on crabapples Last Line: For the forced-fire %of roses PRAYER First Line: Whatever happens. Whatever Last Line: I want. Only that. But that QUICK AND THE DEAD First Line: At the hayfield's edge, a few stalks Last Line: Which is what we have for eternity on earth RAPTURE Poem Text Recitation First Line: I can feel she has got out of bed Subject(s): Love RAPTURE First Line: I can feel she has got out of bed Last Line: Looking down inside herself at our rapture Subject(s): Love REPLY TO THE PROVINCES Poem Text First Line: He writes from the provinces: it is Subject(s): Country Life; Luxembourg Gardens, Paris REPLY TO THE PROVINCES First Line: He writes from the provinces: it is Last Line: Perhaps they are lying among the leaves, laughing, %pointingout for each other the brown faces in th Subject(s): Country Life; Luxembourg Gardens, Paris RIVER THAT IS EAST First Line: Buoys clanging like churches Last Line: The immaculate stream, heavy, and swinging home again ROOM First Line: The door closes on pain and confusion Last Line: You see? Nothing that enters the room %can have only its own meaning ever again RUINS UNDER THE STARS Poem Text First Line: All day under acrobat Last Line: And up there the old stars rustling and whispering Subject(s): Houses, Deserted RUINS UNDER THE STARS First Line: All day under acrobat %swallows I have sat Last Line: And up there the stars rustling and whispering RUNNING ON SILK First Line: A man in the black twill and gold braid of a pilot Last Line: That night forty years ago, as if turned to wood %and put out by his murderers to sell cigars SAINT FRANCIS AND THE SOW Poem Text First Line: The bud / stands for all things Subject(s): Animals; Farm Life; Francis Assisi, Saint (1181-1226); Saints; Agriculture; Farmers SAINT FRANCIS AND THE SOW First Line: The bud %stands for all things Last Line: The long, perfect loveliness of sow Subject(s): Animals; Farm Life; Francis Assisi, Saint (1181-1226); Saints SEEKONK WOODS First Line: When first I walked here I hobbled SEVEN STREAMS OF NEVIS Poem Text First Line: Jack the blindman, whose violin Last Line: In the heart's hell you have it; call it love Subject(s): Conduct Of Life; Human Behavior; Sin; Love; Suicide SHEFFIELD GHAZAL 4: DRIVING WEST First Line: A tractor-trailer carrying two dozen crushed automobiles overtakes a Last Line: This happened to your father and to you, galway-sick to stay, longing %to come up against the ends o SHEFFIELD GHAZAL 5: PASSING THE CEMETERY First Line: Desire and act were a combination known as sin Last Line: Know it and welcome it SHOOTING STARS First Line: It's empty, black blue Last Line: Imagined himself a god, staggers, %looking for the way out of here SHOWING MY FATHER THROUGH FREEDOM First Line: He arrived for his august visit at night Last Line: And almost understand what he sees but is unable to speak SHROUD First Line: Lifted by its tuft of angel hairs, a milkweed Last Line: When will it ever be finished? SOME SONG First Line: On a stoop SOW PIGLET'S ESCAPES First Line: When the little sow piglet squirmed free Last Line: She wriggled hard and cried, oui oui oui, all the way home Subject(s): Farm Life SPINDRIFT First Line: On this tree thrown up Last Line: What is he but the scallop shell %shining with time like anypilgrim? SPRING OAK First Line: Above the quiet valley and unrippled lake Last Line: It shook itself and was all green STONE TABLE First Line: Here at the stone table on the hill Last Line: Grafted for our lifetimes onto paradise root-stock STREET OF GOLD First Line: When I step forward to go to her Last Line: The night runs out of gold. And I %am almost as old as my father STRIPED SNAKE AND THE GOLDFINCH: 1 First Line: When I pick up the corner of the sheet of black Last Line: To the black plastic, pauses, and slides under STRIPED SNAKE AND THE GOLDFINCH: 2 First Line: Stepping into the woods, I remember going Last Line: Snow creaks as if the press of nightwalking hurt it STRIPED SNAKE AND THE GOLDFINCH: 3 First Line: How much do I have left of the loyalty to earth Last Line: That will hold the last hour we have to live STRIPED SNAKE AND THE GOLDFINCH: 4 First Line: Coming out of the woods I cross the field Last Line: Before giving it that vast lick from head to tail STRIPED SNAKE AND THE GOLDFINCH: 5 First Line: When I open my hand, wherever I had touched Last Line: Through this heaven, some moments, on the way to death SUPPER AFTER THE LAST First Line: The desert moves out on half the horizon Last Line: I make you over. I breed the shape of your grave in the dirt TELEPHONING IN MEXICAN SUNLIGHT Poem Text First Line: Talking with my beloved in new york Last Line: Made her bed in his ear and slept him the world Subject(s): Love; Mexico TELEPHONING IN MEXICAN SUNLIGHT First Line: Talking with my beloved in new york Last Line: All at once, fast, as if the air gasped Subject(s): Love THAT SILENT EVENING First Line: I will go back to that silent evening Last Line: Through the dark the sparkling that heavens the earth THE AVENUE BEARING THE INITIAL OF CHRIST INTO THE NEW WORLD Poem Text First Line: Pcheek pcheek pcheek pcheek pcheek Subject(s): New York City; United States - Immigration & Emigtration; Manhattan; New York, New York; The Big Apple THE BEAR Poem Text First Line: In late winter Last Line: Was that sticky infusion, that rank flavor of blood, that poetry, by which I lived? Subject(s): Animals; Bears; Blood; Life THE BITING INSECTS Poem Text First Line: The biting insects don't like the blood of people who dread dying Subject(s): Farm Life; Agriculture; Farmers THE CORRESPONDENCE-SCHOOL INSTRUCTOR SAYS GOODBYE TO HIS POETRY STUDENTS Poem Text First Line: Goodbye, lady in bangor, who sent me Last Line: Their solitude given away in poems, only their loneliness kept Subject(s): Teaching & Teachers; Poetry & Poets; Educators; Professors THE DEAD SHALL BE RAISED INCORRUPTIBLE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: A piece of flesh gives off Subject(s): Death; Dead, The THE DECONSTRUCTION OF EMILY DICKINSON Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: The lecture had ended when I came in Subject(s): Dickinson, Emily (1830-1886) THE DESCENT Poem Text First Line: Nailed by our axes to the snow Last Line: It'll way be this side of china, for sure Subject(s): Mountain Climbing; Death; Dead, The THE FEAST Poem Text First Line: Juniper and cedar in the sand Last Line: Our two shapes dying in each other's arms Subject(s): Water; Sand THE FOSSILS Poem Text First Line: In the cliff over the frog pond Subject(s): Fossils THE FUNDAMENTAL PROJECT OF TECHNOLOGY Poem Text First Line: Under glass: glass dishes which changed Last Line: To look back and say, a flash, a white flash sparkled. Subject(s): Antinuclear Movement; Atomic Bomb - Victims; Judgment Day; Nuclear War; Nuclear Freeze; End Of The World; Doomsday; Fall Of Man; Atomic Bomb; Hydrogen Bomb THE GRAY HERON Poem Text First Line: It held its head still Subject(s): Birds THE HOMECOMING OF EMMA LAZARUS Poem Text First Line: Having no father anymore, having got up Last Line: It fades, and the wounds of all we had accepted open. Subject(s): Lazarus, Emma (1849-1887) THE MAN ON THE HOTEL ROOM BED First Line: He shifts on the bed carefully, so as Subject(s): Hotels; Inns; Innskeepers; Motels; Boarding Houses THE MAN SPLITTING WOOD IN THE DAYBREAK Poem Text Last Line: Who looked strong? That was years ago. That was me Subject(s): Strength; Divorce; Solitude; Transience; Impermanence THE MYSTIC RIVER Poem Text First Line: When I cross Last Line: Bit of secret, lighted flesh, open up the earth? Subject(s): Civil Rights Movement; Southern States; Racism; South (u.s.); Racial Prejudice; Bigotry THE OLIVE WOOD FIRE Poem Text First Line: When fergus woke crying at night Subject(s): Kent State University - Riot, 1970; Politics & Government; War THE PATH AMONG THE STONES Poem Text First Line: On the path winding Subject(s): Stones; Granite; Rocks THE PERCH Poem Text First Line: There is a fork in a branch Last Line: The heat waiting inside their mouths Subject(s): Trees THE POEM Poem Text First Line: On this hill crossed Last Line: Knocked crazy on a locust / post Subject(s): Poetry & Poets; THE POETRY SHELF Poem Text First Line: The poems / stand in boxes on the shelves Last Line: Poem perpetually begins Subject(s): Poetry & Poets THE ROAD BETWEEN HERE AND THERE Poem Text First Line: Here I heard the terrible chaste snorting of hogs trying to re-enter Last Line: Know are not - get used up, that's it. Subject(s): Life THE SCATTERING OF EVAN JONES'S ASHES Poem Text First Line: Judith moves like a dancer Last Line: Quickened by evan's ashes Subject(s): Cremation; Funerals; Burials THE SEAKONK WOODS Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: I want to crawl face down in the fields Last Line: It is not now then never, shines what is Subject(s): Nature THE SEEKONK WOODS Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: When first I walked here I hobbled Last Line: If not now then never, shines what is Subject(s): Transience; Impermanence THE SHOES Poem Text First Line: No one throws away Last Line: The way, by being more intensely upon it Subject(s): Shoes; Boots; Sneakers; Shoemakers THE SOW PIGLET'S ESCAPES Poem Text First Line: When the little sow piglet squirmed free Subject(s): Farm Life; Agriculture; Farmers THE STONE TABLE Poem Text First Line: Here at the stone table on the hill Last Line: Grafted for our lifetimes onto paradise root-stock Subject(s): Nostalgia; Nature; Death; Friendship THE SUPPER AFTER THE LAST Poem Text First Line: The desert moves out on half the horizon Last Line: I make you over. I breed the shape of your grave in the dirt Subject(s): Resurrection, The; Messiah; Deserts THE WOLVES Poem Text First Line: They had tussled last night. Lechien cried Last Line: I noticed, was missing forom beside his bed Subject(s): Hunting; Death; Hunters; Dead, The TILLAMOOK JOURNAL: 1 First Line: I have come here %from chicago, packing Last Line: More black ashes than it was earth TILLAMOOK JOURNAL: 2 First Line: A few years back, %they said, there'd %been a prospector here Last Line: When spring came he disappeared TILLAMOOK JOURNAL: 3 First Line: I set out walking %from where they turned Last Line: As though I'd come here begging TILLAMOOK JOURNAL: 4 First Line: On top of cedar butte %you can see the whole compass Last Line: Under the crisscross of logging roads %and oozing down its ravines TILLAMOOK JOURNAL: 5 First Line: It is twenty-five years %since the first blue-white puff Last Line: In the distance keep %appearing as motionless smoke TILLAMOOK JOURNAL: 6 First Line: All day the big, %immaculate flakes of snow Last Line: Some birds began wrangling and chirping TILLAMOOK JOURNAL: 7 First Line: At the sound of surf %I scramble to my feet Last Line: It is only steps to the unburnable sea TO A CHILD IN CALCUTTA First Line: Dark child in my arms, eyes Last Line: In rags, in the pain of a little flesh TO CHRIST OUR LORD First Line: The legs of the elk punctured the snow's crust Last Line: The pattern and mirror of the acts of earth TOLD BY SEAFARERS First Line: It is told by seafarers TRAGEDY OF BRICKS First Line: The twelve-noon whistle groans Last Line: Which eats first the living forms, %and after that the windows and doors TWO SET OUT ON THEIR JOURNEY First Line: We sit side by side Last Line: We started with, but made of time and sorrow UNDER THE MAUD MOON Poem Text First Line: On the path Subject(s): Fathers & Daughters UNDER THE MAUD MOON First Line: On the path Last Line: You shall open %this book, even if it is the book of nightmares Subject(s): Fathers And Daughters UNDER THE WILLIAMSBURG BRIDGE First Line: I broke break %at the riverbank, Last Line: It is true, the great and wondrous sun will be shining %on an old spider wrapping a fly in spittle-s VAPOR TRAIL REFLECTED IN THE FROG POND Poem Text First Line: The old watch: their Last Line: Seeing the drifting sun that gives us our lives. Subject(s): Social Problems; Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975; War VOW First Line: When the lover Last Line: Brings down among us %stays, to give %dignity to the suffering %and to intensify it WAIT Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Wait, for now Last Line: Rehearsed by the sorrows, play itself into total exhaustion Subject(s): Suicide; Love - Loss Of; Patience; Faith; Belief; Creed WAIT First Line: Wait, for now %distrust everything if you have to Last Line: Rehearsed by the sorrows, play itself into total exhaustion WAKING First Line: What has just happened between the lovers Last Line: Good. For now askers and beggarmen %come up to them needing change for breakfast WALK IN THE COUNTRY First Line: We talked all morning, she said Last Line: That takes us all and under like that grass WESTPORT Poem Text First Line: From the hilltop we could overlook Last Line: Of wind through the roots of its clinging flowers. Subject(s): Travel; Journeys; Trips WHEN ONE HAS LIVED A LONG TIME ALONE Poem Text WHEN ONE HAS LIVED A LONG TIME ALONE Last Line: In a halo of being made one: kingdom come, %when one has lived a long time alone Subject(s): Solitude WHEN THE TOWERS FELL Poem Text First Line: From our high window we saw the towers Last Line: Each life, put out, lies down within us Subject(s): World Trade Center Tragedy (9/11/2001); New York City - Terrorist Attack, 9/11 WHERE THE TRACK VANISHES Poem Text First Line: The snow revives in the apple trees Last Line: We must have been walking through it all our lives Subject(s): Travel WHO, ON EARTH First Line: A ship sits on the sea raking Last Line: Explain himself, laugh, love, or sing; %can only fall in loneliness %with ... But ... Who, %on earth WHY REGRET? Poem Text First Line: Didn't you like the way the ants help Last Line: Holding hands in our sleep? Subject(s): Contentmernt WHY REGRET? First Line: Didn't you like the way the ants help Last Line: You and your beloved are holding hands in your sleep WOLVES First Line: Last night knives flashed. Lechien cried YESTERDAY FROM MY FEVER Poem Text Last Line: And dreads, the fevered earth, plunged gratefully again Subject(s): Sickness; Togetherness |
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