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Author: KLEINZAHLER, AUGUST
Matches Found: 235


Kleinzahler, August    Poet's Biography
235 poems available by this author


16       
First Line: The creases in the schoolboy's pegged wool slacks
Last Line: The circuit of every glad thing, flare %and perish %exquisitely


52 PICK-UP       
First Line: Luminoso e dolce
Last Line: Irwin corey


86       
First Line: She said. Past %kindness
Last Line: With its color photos of gash %in baseball caps and knee socks


A FABLE    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: Weasel and the ponce were having a confab
Subject(s): Bad Behavior


ACROSS THE LAND       
First Line: Green rising off the black monster earth %lolling gourds
Last Line: And still not finding them %after your long, halting, indelibly sweet good-bye?


AFTERNOON IN THE MIDDLE KINGDOM       
First Line: Duststorms from the gobi sack peking
Last Line: And vast, the parks in disrepair %and the sea three hours by rail


AFTERNOONS       
First Line: Young mitch jumps off the 7 haight in black toreadors
Last Line: Still too shy to touch: %or just cold?


AHASUERUS       
First Line: There was no hazard so we left off
Last Line: We were both ourselves and otherwise. %spirit and flesh played blithely in each other's yard


APRIL BEFORE GEHENNA       
First Line: My neighbor went down th haight for to preach


ART & LIFE       
First Line: That's really quite a lovely figure


ART & YOUTH       
First Line: Pliny said these lights in the grass are stars
Last Line: But the heart is soon corrupted %and love's accoutrements grow fierce


AS THE WORLD TURNS       
First Line: Darling, friends %fly off it and up the flue -- astronauts
Last Line: Moving their hips %through a long, fretful hunt for the beat


AT SUMMER'S END       
First Line: This air
Last Line: Light pouring through muslin %in a strange, bare room


AUBADE ON EAST 12TH STREET       
First Line: The skylight silvers
Last Line: On a lathe of shadow and light


AUG-95       
First Line: Under the floorboards shadow and smoke bark
Last Line: These absences take on a life themselves


AUTUMN IN THE WESTERN HILLS       
First Line: When storms assail the summer palace
Last Line: Between gusts and pellets of rain %for word from the capital


AUTUMNAL SKETCH       
First Line: What to make of them, the professors
Last Line: And before they turn back for supper %they shall have one


BAY LULLABY       
First Line: Tuesdays are bad for sausage and flowers
Last Line: You still hear them out there in the dark %mingling their calls in the rain


BEFORE DAWN ON BLUFF ROAD    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
Subject(s): Aging; Transience; Impermanence


BEFORE DAWN ON BLUFF ROAD       
First Line: The crow's raw hectoring cry
Last Line: I remember %almost nothing of my life


BEFORE WINTER       
First Line: The bugs that swarmed up toward the sun
Last Line: Or the place they rose from %might have let them go by, saying nothing


BEFORE WINTER, PART II       
First Line: Peaches on tip of the compost, sitting pretty


BEFORE WINTER, PART III       
First Line: Another six peaches down in the night


BIG FOOT       
First Line: Steps %sucking, glottal %steps
Last Line: With the incandescent box %in front parlors. %he does not knock


BL&T WITH OLD ED HOPPER AT GIMBEL'S LUNCHEONETTE       
First Line: She is not fetching
Last Line: But he loves the pink swivel chair %and the doughnuts under glass


BOXING ON EUROPE'S MOST BEAUTIFUL BEACH       
First Line: A slow breeze north from africa
Last Line: With unmistakable sweetness, %she did say, %hit me again


BOYS' NIGHT OUT       
First Line: Of an evening in spring
Last Line: Yard cat's freaked %and the air is cool %goes deep down %new


BRUCE RICHARD'S TRIP DOWN       
First Line: So I buy a pig in a poke and sign on
Last Line: And that's when I phoned you, cousin


BY THE TAGUS       
First Line: With fond jean in the pastelaria at closing
Last Line: Dragging its spur through the harbour night %then gone %in a suturing breeze


CANADA GEESE IN NEW JERSEY       
First Line: Headed north %on the sodded-over trolley track
Last Line: Azalea blossoms stir %like so many tiny nightgowns


CASE IN POINT       
First Line: Because he's lost the way to his pulse
Last Line: And yet, should it declare itself %with such force as to penetrate even this, %he averts his eyes an


CAT IN LATE AUTUMN       
First Line: Minou sleeps all day
Last Line: Without you even noticing


CAUTIONARY LINES FOR A THRIFTLESS LADY       
First Line: For what? %a basket of naplesd wool mice, granny junk
Last Line: Nothing up against you then. %you fall. %only. %toward an idea. %any idea


CHRISTMAS EVE ON HAIGHT STREET       
First Line: It's always the same guy with the christ haircut
Last Line: Children dancing till they fell %breughel bodied under a tie-dyed dome


CHRISTMAS IN CHINATOWN    Poem Text    
First Line: They're off doing what they do
Subject(s): Chinatown. New York City; Christmas; Nativity, The


CHRISTMAS IN CHINATOWN       
First Line: They're off doing what they do
Last Line: Surely, one day very soon


CHRYSALIS       
First Line: Some big rain in the night
Last Line: Who go on pumping %even as we toss %in the wild


COCONUT OIL       
First Line: Cool wind, a wind %in advance of milder fronts
Last Line: In order to buy %a nice piece of fish and some soap


CONVERSATION       
First Line: This then was the conversation
Last Line: On a stand %an objet d'art


CRUNCHING NUMBERS       
First Line: Assault plasma star launch
Last Line: Phantoms in flames %azan


DAMSELFLY       
First Line: A petal of jasmine caught up
Last Line: After a quick, surprise rain


DEAD CANARY       
First Line: Behold the dead canary on saturn
Last Line: Or it's sluiced to the gutter by rain


DEJECTION BETWEEN FOOT AND BROW       
First Line: Mr moo heard stuff' round the trough
Last Line: Or some dry hill %out west. %it's years now


DIABLO: A RECIPE       
First Line: Caro mio, the hot must dwell among the dark
Last Line: But like the small blue flame in the darkened room


DISAPPOINTMENT    Poem Text    
First Line: A faint smell of urine
Subject(s): Disappointment


DISAPPOINTMENT       
First Line: A faint smell of urine
Last Line: Well, well, well, %look what we have here


DISCLOSURES       
First Line: You're figuring it out, one
Last Line: Appetite, decay, %growl and suck


DISPATCH       
First Line: Be still %say nothing
Last Line: This is only the end of a long day in june %the picknickers head home, feverish and drunk


DOG STOLTZ       
First Line: The dog stoltz pushed his paw pads into my neck
Last Line: I am between places. I will yearn for stoltz, but no


DREAM JUICE       
First Line: Peg, bolt the door quick
Last Line: Try dr. Sam %o balls, it's veteran's day


EARTHQUAKE WEATHER       
First Line: She's talking to herself
Last Line: And make you breathe %wrong


EAST OF THE LIBRARY, ACROSS FROM THE ODD FELLOWS BUILDING    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: That bummy smell you meet
Subject(s): Cities; Urban Life


EAST OF THE LIBRARY, ACROSS FROM THE ODD FELLOWS BUILDING       
First Line: That bummy smell you meet
Last Line: Or the elderly couple from zurich %leafing coolly through their guidebook
Subject(s): Cities


EBENEZER CALIFORNICUS       
First Line: Don't make me go out eat goose
Last Line: Love %baby teapot


ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE       
First Line: Ship %I wrote on the empty blackboard
Subject(s): English As A Second Language


EPISTLE XIV    Poem Text    
First Line: You ask, aristippus, and I tell you
Subject(s): Aristippus (435-366 B.c.); Poetry & Poets


EPISTLE XIV       
First Line: You ask, aristippus, and I tell you
Last Line: The weather here stinks, and neither of these girls is %for you


EQUINOCTIAL LINES       
First Line: My seventh autumn in the western mountains
Last Line: It seems whenever I am drunk in autumn %I can dream of nothing but life at the capital


EVENING, OUT OF TOWN       
First Line: Falling, falling %until breath wanders out of itself, transforms and is lost
Last Line: Presage so many things %but no intrusion, only some memory unhoused


EVENINT, IN A-MINOR       
First Line: Methane is coming off them
Last Line: Plenty of crayfish, lots bananas. %and %segovia, %segovia playing fernando sor


FABLE       
First Line: Weasel and the ponce were having a confab
Last Line: Felt the heat of its burning eyes


FEBRUARY IDYLL       
First Line: Groundhog stuck out his nose
Last Line: And tokyo rose. %brother, %you dead


FEBRUARY ON THE PALISADES, SELS.       


FESTIVAL       
First Line: A b-52 bomber from out near sacramento
Last Line: Trusty as the gears and cogs of ancient clocks, %the innards all exposed %and turning


FLOCK OF BLACKBIRDS       
First Line: The flock of blackbirds in advance of the storm
Last Line: A tiny rush of displaced air


FLYNN'S END       
First Line: Flynn fell off the cable car
Last Line: In his bed at laguna honda


FOR ANN, WHOSE STUDIO BURNT TO THE GROUND IN THE BIG FUTON FACTORY       
First Line: A cinder in the left fielder's eye, then a tear
Last Line: Swirling awhile then heading off to sea


FOUR WORTHIES, SELS.       


FOURTH OF JULY       
First Line: Mountain blue on the powerline
Last Line: Friend at friend, %each more and more coming to resemble his father


FRIDAY MORNING IN THE HAIGHT       
First Line: The gray man at the door
Last Line: And he is singing %quando quando quando %through eternity


FROM FDR DRIVE THE CHILDREN OF WHITMAN GAZE UP       
First Line: Lavender smoke from the con ed stacks
Last Line: And thou, %dreamily seeking your exit


FURTHER TOYS    Poem Text    
First Line: The janitor washing the blackboard
Last Line: Ripples across the sky overhead / brilliant afternoon
Variant Title(s): Toys
Subject(s): Human Behavior; Conduct Of Life; Human Nature


GANGSTER JONES' ANALGESIC AND ANTI-GRAVITATIONAL DEVICE       
First Line: You see, it's a total environment fits like a shoe
Last Line: You can forget of change your mind like a coked-up %dolly on rollerskates %but this little baby won'


GARDENIA       
First Line: Corinna in may pushed a rusty nail
Last Line: Then wash herself again %that warm spring night in the fragrant room


GHOSTS       
Last Line: Who loved %them %helplessly %in life


GLASS OF CLARET ON A DIFFICULT MORNING       
First Line: The snipsnap worm has made eggs
Last Line: Close to shore %and steer clear of the locals


GLOSSOLALIA ALL THE WAY TO BUFFALO       
First Line: Poppy is in the storm cellar, cleaning
Last Line: He used to own a bar in buffalo


GOING       
First Line: The old people are dying
Last Line: Taking their bows %or history


GOOD SOUND AT LAKE FORK       
First Line: I hear the dead lodgepole creak
Last Line: And get sentimental, %ever the suckers for burning facades


GRAY LIGHT IN MAY       
First Line: The soft gray light between rains
Last Line: A stranger to my own heart


GREEN RIVER CEMETERY: SPRINGS       
First Line: Strange to be among them in the noon sun
Last Line: The fried image and random splice, %wild parabolas, butchery


GREEN SEES THINGS IN WAVES    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
Subject(s): Drugs & Drug Abuse; Narcotics; Opium; Cocaine; Crack; Heroin


GREEN SEES THINGS IN WAVES       
First Line: Green first thing each day sees waves
Last Line: Can't find the knob to turn off the show


HACK       
First Line: Pigman dispatches us across the city
Last Line: Free now of the story's landscape %dissolving into night


HAMBURGER       
First Line: They come to resemble buddhas
Last Line: A lemon tree in every yard


HEEBIE-JEEBIES       
First Line: Now he's daruma, now he's swifty
Last Line: He'd grabbed some money from a beggar's cup %or got nabbed with his thumb in the pie


HEREAFTER       
First Line: At the gates to the hereafter
Last Line: When my minder asks brightly, %-how about another coke?


HIGH TEA IN THE TROPICS       
First Line: The moon on the bay is so big it's naughty
Last Line: While we're in catapult range of heaven %let's do the circle%once slowly %then dip


HIS NEIGHBOR, HER MUSIC       
First Line: The hermaphrodite with ginger hair
Last Line: After how many parties tuesday %night


HISTORY OF WESTERN MUSIC: CHAPTER 26       
First Line: ...Chestnuts in blossom, you know
Last Line: Who stare back at them impassively %from behind our screen


HOLLYHOCKS IN THE FOG       
First Line: Every evening smoke blows in from the sea
Last Line: What are those? I asked a friend %my first summer. %now I wait for them


HOT NIGHT ON EAST 4TH       
First Line: A shriek hits the membrane
Last Line: Again blows, again with spite %again %till no more horn %none


INCIDENT IN CHINATOWN       
First Line: Warmed by tea, sedate in a corner seat
Last Line: Then, just as suddenly, the wind gives out %and the waiter grins, impatient for my order


INDIAN SUMMER NIGHT: THE HAIGHT       
First Line: The 43 bus at carl&cole
Last Line: The last voice before the lights went out, %thank you. Good night


INLAND PASSAGE       
First Line: Your sadnesses reign unbroken
Last Line: With an unreal acuity. %it was on a day like that %I left


INTERIOR DECORATOR ON SUNDAY       
First Line: Those strange and translucent scampi in latern hats
Last Line: And now voices approach: they are spheres, %textured
Subject(s): Interior Design And Decorators


INVITATION       
First Line: Ah, but anthea, these shallows
Last Line: While we undress and swim far out %to the cool black eye of our histories


JUMP TUNE       
First Line: Wake, wake %oxalis, wild little buttercups hurt
Last Line: Weedy and rude


KID CLARINET       
First Line: Let'er go, say colonel jack
Last Line: Let'er go, say colonel jack %but he ain't been where I have


LAND'S END        Recitation by Author


LAND'S END       
First Line: This air %you say, feels as if it hasn't touched land
Last Line: In a strange, bare room


LATE AUTUMN AFTERNOONS       
First Line: Red pear leaves take the light at four
Last Line: The drawn shades


LATE INDIAN SUMMER    Poem Text    
First Line: The rains hold off another week
Last Line: Exhausted and stunned
Subject(s): Indian Summer


LATE INDIAN SUMMER       
First Line: The rains hold off another week
Last Line: The ground of dreams, and roust us from sleep %exhausted and stunned


LATE WINTER MORNING ON THE PALISADES       
First Line: Candle in the throat of maple
Last Line: Morning rinsing the shadows %pouring out day


LIGHTNING BUGS       
First Line: A cruel word at eventide
Last Line: And let us speak calmly %of money


LIKE CITIES, LIKE STORMS    Poem Text    
Last Line: A foot off the ground, / but holding
Subject(s): Cities; Music & Musicians; Memory


LINES WRITTEN IN EARLY SPRING       
First Line: Show elephants step trough the 12th avenue yards at
Last Line: What's what is right at the tip of your nose %splitting cells to beat the band, taking no prisoners


LINT       
First Line: Ill humours dwell in the upholstery of old men
Last Line: When the streetlamps begin flickering off %and a full bladder hurts him awake


LISTENING IN APRIL: TIME ZONES (SYDNEY, VIRGINIA, SAN FRANCISCO)       
First Line: Rain streams from the stucco parapets
Last Line: As never to be caught or remembered


LITTLE JULY SOMETHING       
First Line: Whose muse? The pigeon flew


LOCK SHOP       
First Line: Frank punched steel stamps into key bows
Last Line: Crazy? %-hell yes, he was crazy


LONGITUDE LANE       
First Line: The oleander on longitude lane
Last Line: The precious settee and the wild, wild daughters


LOVE POEM    Poem Text    
First Line: As long as the cat comes home
Last Line: Out of notes, dying.
Subject(s): Jazz; Music & Musicians


LUDDITE'S MIDNIGHT RELAPSE       
First Line: An orange, peaked %to bad
Last Line: Ought %never to break %the sea but %I


LUNATIC OF LINDLEY MEADOW       
First Line: At nightfall, when the inquisitive elves in elf-pants
Last Line: The nice warm room, the smell in the wool


MARKET       
First Line: Out of the forests
Last Line: Slatterns who miss %church %and know nothing


MEAT    Poem Text    
First Line: How much meat moves
Subject(s): City & Town Life


MONSTERS       
First Line: Lie down then with the monsters
Last Line: Call out your name


MORNING       
First Line: Sun skims the brewery roof to no
Last Line: In it's turnings, nosing inland %till it dies


NAPPING AFTER LUNCH       
First Line: On the tea-green comforter with babette
Last Line: And at last long last host upon host of mummers


NINE YEARS AFTER BERING       
First Line: The merchant tolstykh %found
Last Line: They have drums %and dance %with feathers in their hair


NOVEMBER IN WEST NEW YORK       
First Line: Roofer looks out on the street
Last Line: Flipping that blade, %waiting for the headphone to ring


NURSES AND COMEDIANS       
First Line: Student nurses all in a row


OLD MOVIES    Poem Text    
First Line: Fueled with violins, the luscious soundtrack
Subject(s): Motion Pictures; Movies; Cinema


OLD MOVIES       
First Line: Fueled with violins, the luscious soundtrack
Last Line: Opalescent air draining out of us %night rushing in
Subject(s): Motion Pictures


OLD SCHOOLYARD IN AUGUST       
First Line: The welling of cicadas in the green
Last Line: Torn off by the fence in a game of salugi


ON FIRST LOOKING INTO JOSEPH CORNELL'S DIARIES       
First Line: The sopressata fee outside of calfasso's
Last Line: In my special thursday dream


ON JOHNNY'S TIME       
First Line: When johnny goes out
Last Line: And that john, he won't ever come home, %not until he's right


ON THE OCCASION OF THOM GUNN'S 60TH BIRTHDAY    Poem Text    
First Line: Heyho, loverboy / is that a radioactive isotope you've got
Last Line: Laughing temsleves sick
Variant Title(s): After Catullus
Subject(s): Gunn, Thom (b. 1929)


ON THE OCCASION OF THOM GUNN'S 60TH BIRTHDAY       
First Line: Heyho, loverboy %is that a radioactive isotope you've got
Last Line: Laughing themselves sick
Variant Title(s): After Catullu
Subject(s): Gunn, Thom (b. 1929)


ON THE WAY HOME TO JERSEY ONE NIGHT       
First Line: The same sad stories whip around
Last Line: Taking the last soiled scraps of it in


ON TOP OF THE HILL: MONTCLAIR       
First Line: The air is sweeter on top of the hill
Last Line: In the cool of the hour before dark


OUTING       
First Line: If I pull out the jack
Last Line: Door and lookie %see


OUTSIDE THE RESTAURANT       
First Line: My lady pulled my sleeve
Last Line: Dark as a witch %so long, beautiful


PAGEANT: RUE DE RIVOLI       
First Line: The dark man in the crepe booth
Last Line: As the breeze picks up and the clouds move in %from the west


PARK       
First Line: Jimmy the lush
Last Line: Till there's final shriek %and then silence


PEACHS IN NOVEMBER       
First Line: Peaches redden
Last Line: And the boughs slowly raise themselves up


PIECES OF SUMMER       
First Line: Under the tailings and slag
Last Line: First toward the voice %then go me


PINNED       
First Line: The ways water finds to undo
Last Line: And take you back down, %tied insolubly to their wills


POEM       
First Line: She's flipping like a marlin
Last Line: Arched toward some lodestar %and she's released


POEM BEGINNING WITH FRAGMENT FROM BARTLEBY THE SCRIVENER       
First Line: A rounded and orbicular sound to it, and rings
Last Line: The pavane, that was supposed to be dead


POETICS       
First Line: I have loved the air outside shop-rite liquor
Last Line: Appearing, disappearing %among streetlights and unsuccessful neon


POPPIES IN THE WIND       
First Line: The honeybee %painting himself his delight inside her
Last Line: At may's meridian %drying like chicks in the air


PORCELAIN INK-BOAT       
First Line: The dragon and phoenix are swept along with the clouds
Last Line: That dwells in the instant before it hits ground


PRODIGAL ON HOME COURT       
First Line: Crickets give me the willies
Last Line: So clean and cool %I could be aloat on a lake


REAL HAIR       
First Line: How come all youze got fairy hair
Last Line: Shame, %shame on a nice fella like you


RED SAUCE, WHISKEY AND SNOW: STILL LIFE ON TWO MOVING PANELS       
First Line: Ingots of cinnabar and gold
Last Line: A big jet passing by low, hidden in cloud


RELAXING IN CALIFORNIA       
First Line: They are coming out, emptying
Last Line: And t.V. Sets go pock pong %under the clear crisp sickle moon


RENO       
First Line: Along the truckee
Last Line: Drift wraithlike past the hotel pools


RENO: HARD-BOILED       
First Line: The r.V.S. Parked in the comstock lot radiated heat
Last Line: On an evening that now seemed a lifetime away


REZONED       
First Line: Ten mighty condos suck
Last Line: A branch cracking %set off a hubbub of frightened starlings


ROOMS       
First Line: In the sleep that finally gives rest
Last Line: By the shouts of childen going to school


RUBBLE: 1.       
First Line: The big claw takes its angle
Last Line: A scatback's moves flickering in amber


RUBBLE: 2       
First Line: After the big shake chimney rubble
Last Line: That same fierce look in his eyes


SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK    Poem Text    
First Line: A red band of light stretches across the west
Subject(s): Air Travel; Cities; Urban Life


SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK       
First Line: A red band of light stretches across the west
Last Line: As if these were ruins, as if we were ghosts
Subject(s): Air Travel; Cities


SAPPHICS IN TRAFFIC       
First Line: Festinating rhythm's bothered her axis
Last Line: See her body drawn toward your violin's straining %yearning in concert


SAUSAGE-MASTER OF MINSK       
First Line: I was sausage-master of minsk
Last Line: Drawn, remote, my hair mussed, %interlaced with fine, pubescent yarn


SELF-PORTRAIT       
First Line: It was a lost dream, a bridges and heights
Last Line: I might as well have been captain cook in the marquesas


SEPTEMBER: JOHNSON COUNTY, IOWA       
First Line: The hills press down
Last Line: Simply kept on heading west


SHOOTING       
First Line: The sun is high
Last Line: Tha ball is a planet %and you make it go


SHOW BUSINESS       
First Line: That was a book I think you
Last Line: Or let go numb %somewhat more smoth charming and mean


SILVER GELATIN       
First Line: He was watching, looking down at the park
Last Line: A broken-off piece of chinese ideogram moving across the page


SINCE YOU DIDN'T PHONE       
First Line: What I had wanted was to be chaste
Last Line: We never would have dreamt of %going


SKETCH OF GAIL TURNBULL ON A VISIT FROM EDINBURGH       
First Line: It's in the manner your head turned
Last Line: Into the lee of you


SMALL LAMENT       
First Line: Mafaleeta coulo %vongule %ti ketta
Last Line: My sweet, sweet boy


SNOW IN NORTH JERSEY       
First Line: Snow is falling along the boulevard
Last Line: To a chapter titled social realism


SODA WATER WITH A BOYHOOD FRIEND       
First Line: He is in the canals behind your forehead
Last Line: And beamed off satellite %to multitudes of kindled selves


SOMEONE NAMED GUTIERREZ: A DREAM, A WESTERN       
First Line: Outside the cantina
Last Line: That's when the shooting began


SONG       
First Line: You keep poking at it
Last Line: Oh, hohohoho %not no more


SONG       
First Line: You see it's watts


SONG #1       
First Line: No one said %jiggle stuck syllables till the sow
Last Line: Put in another slug %and I'll tell you what else %no one said %boo


SONG #2       
First Line: There are among the silences
Last Line: Than brick %or speak of nothing at all


SONG #3       
First Line: Death for the quip
Last Line: Strange winds %that prophesy last things


SONG #4       
First Line: Flora %I write the name you never used
Last Line: Acid sweet %another spring sifts through


SPLEEN       
First Line: The night ottawa brought down the budget
Last Line: It was a budget without surprises. %the dead were dead. The rest of us on call


SPRING TRANCES       
First Line: Two snails have found the inside of a granny goose
Last Line: That he slowly turns on in the scented dark


STAYING HOME FROM WORK       
First Line: That is a mower from the city
Last Line: So minor a key were it music %if fabric %would come apart in your hands


STORM OVER HACKENSACK       
First Line: This angry bruise about to burst
Last Line: This is the god's perpetual light: %clarity %jeopardy %change


SUMMER'S END       
First Line: Seven miled throught tangled bush and on
Last Line: Flynn shouts to the sun %and the shout resounds %semper ho ho!


SUNDAY IN NOVEMBER       
First Line: And who were they all in your sleep last night
Last Line: Come morning.
Subject(s): Dreams; Reality; Nightmares


SUNDAY IN SEPTEMBER       
First Line: O I dunno ma walk around town I guess
Last Line: In ritual tropisms of talk or the game- %a diorama the new museum paid too much for


SUNDAY MORNING       
First Line: How oddly content, these dogs of the homeless
Last Line: A bit like old bones, urine, soup


SUNDAY NOCTURNE       
First Line: Red pulse the big jet's lights
Last Line: Profound good news %to a steak joint in moonachie


SUNDAY, ACROSS THE TASMAN       
First Line: Big weather is moving over the headlands
Last Line: With discount-mattress and hair-transplant ads


SUNDOWN AT FLETCHER'S FIELD       
First Line: Ruder light was taken by sail
Last Line: The shirts and the dogs, %with the burnish of corelli's horns


SUNSET IN CHINATOWN       
First Line: The massive cable turns on its spool, pulling
Last Line: When the plangent notes take shape in the air, %aligning their souls with heaven and earth


SUPERSTITIONS       
First Line: Trout bones are taboo to dogs
Last Line: If a frog comes into your house %move
Subject(s): Superstition


TANKA-TOYS: A MEMOIR       
First Line: The planet may have tilted, if only a hint
Last Line: Like an outboard coughing up lake


TELL ME WHOSE LIPS       
Last Line: And grow another layer %when there is no air at all


TENDERLION: AN ETYMOLOGY       
First Line: Electric here is closer to the skin
Last Line: Pieces falling %that enzymes may burn. %and then the smell


THE DAMSELFLY    Poem Text    
First Line: A petal of jasmine caught up
Subject(s): Damselflies


THE DOG STOLTZ    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: The dog stoltz pushed his paw pads into my neck
Subject(s): Dogs; Poetry & Poets


THE HEREAFTER    Poem Text    
First Line: At the gates to the hereafter
Subject(s): Motion Pictures; Movies; Cinema


THE INTERIOR DECORATOR ON SUNDAY    Poem Text    
First Line: Those strange and translucent scampi in latern hats
Subject(s): Interior Design & Decorators


THE PARK        Recitation by Author


THE STRANGE HOURS TRAVELERS KEEP    Poem Text    
First Line: The markets never rest
Subject(s): Travel; Journeys; Trips


THE TARTAR SWEPT    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: The tartar swept across the plain
Subject(s): War; Tatars; Tartars


THEY OFTTIMES CHOOSE       
First Line: They ofttimes choose to pause naked at the door
Last Line: To keep me in thrall with their sweet neglect


TO A FRIEND       
First Line: Let them tell you how the months will turn
Last Line: Our spririts %and brings us to unnatural fatigue


TRANTER IN AMERICA        Recitation by Author
Subject(s): Tranter, John (b. 1943); New York City; Manhattan; New York, New York; The Big Apple


TREE       
First Line: Pinch a branch to see if it's quick
Last Line: Because it would not die %the axman came


TROLLEY       
First Line: The trolley runs out to the sea
Last Line: The mile-long circus where no one pays %and runs out to the sea


TUESDAY MORNING       
First Line: I like you!
Last Line: Tearful, erect %into the cool gray early morning


TUNNEL OF LOVE       
First Line: In a place of trampled peanuts
Last Line: How happy we are %with the flimsy horrors %alone %moving slowly


TWO CANADIAN LANDSCAPES       
First Line: And so diana visited a tavern called diana
Last Line: In a strange city %spring


UTTAR PRADESH    Poem Text    
First Line: You were dozing over uttar pradesh
Subject(s): Air Travel


UTTAR PRADESH       
First Line: You were dozing over uttar pradesh
Last Line: Ah, yes, and a most memorable hasenpfeffer
Subject(s): Air Travel


VALENTINE       
First Line: Tired already or just confused
Last Line: And might drown if I speak


VALENTINE OUT OF SEASON       
First Line: Way back, littlekumquat, bold petunia
Last Line: While yet the lunging parts %of us splash and collide down the amazing flume


VANCOUVER       
First Line: Downstairs, sal, of sal's paradise club
Last Line: He gazez out to the shimmering downtown spit. %he likes how tobacco and saltsea mix in his nose


VARIATIONS ON HALF OF A LINE BY MALLARME       
First Line: Helas, the flesh is sad and money
Last Line: Spoor no money no place %our refuge %rain and flesh sad flesh


VIKINGS OF THE AIR       
First Line: Our skycraft rides too low to clear the heights
Last Line: Drives east toward the sea and our wives %are sure to moisten as our craft comes into sight


VISITS       
First Line: You were speaking of your brother that night
Last Line: The shapes they make of the sky


VULTURE UNDER THE PALISADES       
First Line: The park road is closed in winter
Last Line: Then back to the river and spreads its wings


WARM NIGHT IN FEBRUARY       
First Line: It smells of summer out
Last Line: But we are left there brokenn, %pour voices everywhere scattered


WATCHING DOGWOOD BLOSSOMS FALL IN A PARKING LOT OFF ROUTE 46    Poem Text    
First Line: Dogwood blossoms drift down at evening
Subject(s): Dogwood


WATCHING DOGWOOD BLOSSOMS FALL IN A PARKING LOT OFF ROUTE 46       
First Line: Dogwood blossoms drift down at evening
Last Line: And slowly cut along it


WATCHING YOUNG COUPLES WITH AN OLD GIRLFRIEND ON SUNDAY MORNING       
First Line: How mild these young men seem to me now
Last Line: We still, we still refuse to name


WEST       
First Line: An apocalyptic crack spreads like thunder
Last Line: That compounds and accelerates, on and on


WHAT IT TAKES       
First Line: He stared for hours
Last Line: Fennel, lobelia shadow&flies %however many times it takes


WHAT THE SCIENCE OF THE ANCIENTS TOLD       
First Line: The ancient cathayans made of this one science an art
Last Line: Great joy would follow, that along with matchless health


WHERE THE SOULS GO       
First Line: No telling where: down the hill
Last Line: Our helicopter are shooting at fieldworkers. %the mets are down 3-1 in the 6th


WHO STOLE THE HORSES FROM THE INDIANS?       
Last Line: He just smiles sadly, %and says hardly anything at all


WIND AND PINE       
First Line: He kept to the pine
Last Line: As the two startled bucks %met %by our scent


WIND IN MARCH       
First Line: Tower of texas is spurred for defense
Last Line: Against the length of you, %breathing softly


WINTER BALL    Poem Text    
First Line: The squat man under the hoop
Last Line: With dark coming on and the cold
Subject(s): Basketball


WINTER BALL       
First Line: The squat man under the hoop
Last Line: With dark coming on and the cold
Subject(s): Sports


WINTER BRANCHES OR A NET OF CAPILLARIES, VEINS       


WITH JASMINE IN BLOOM       
First Line: Her spirit wouldn't stray this far
Last Line: A breath along the nerves' boundry. %summers were hard on her anyhow


WORK       
First Line: The sweep-up man stinks of cologne


WORKOUT, WITH NIB       
First Line: Incise %the sheath of silky air
Last Line: Get in, %pay the bill, %get out


YE OLDEN BARGE       
First Line: As plot rounded the corner
Last Line: In the grand curve, %every inch a storm of bites


YEAR OF THE KEY       
First Line: 23.5 seconds %for the knurled carbide blade
Last Line: This is where you live