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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: LEHMAN, DAVID Matches Found: 450 Lehman, David Poet's Biography 450 poems available by this author 1-APR First Line: Every errand's a fool's errand Last Line: We resemble angels on levitating beds 1-DEC First Line: Is it time for the woman to turn Last Line: That she's the olive in his martini 1-DEC First Line: The one thing that could Last Line: Never happen to me happened 1-JAN First Line: Some people confuse inspiration with lightning Last Line: Of hearing a phone that wouldn't stop ringing Subject(s): Creative Ability 1-JAN First Line: When joe was five he didn't say I'm hungry Last Line: Then to eat with a hearty appetite feeling the hungriness 1-JUN First Line: The new day (a gray streak Last Line: With dirt he's safe 1-JUN First Line: Eighty degrees isn't she lovely Last Line: But my smile gives me away 1-MAR First Line: The wonderful thing %about being with Last Line: As a skater's figure eight 1-NOV First Line: Today I decided Last Line: Sang) it's the talk of the town 1-NOV First Line: There are several ways of looking Last Line: The guy in the mirror is a dead %ringer for clinton 1-OCT First Line: If I'm invisible it's inevitable Last Line: In my sleep and did I win well I survived 1-SEP First Line: Dr. Schlissel, high austrian Last Line: And english to the viennese 10-APR First Line: My name, if I were french Last Line: This year but is sticking around %for the celebration 10-APR First Line: The subway is a funeral Last Line: For the loss of the blonde %on the r train 10-AUG First Line: I just got off the phone Last Line: Is just where it was last night 10-FEB First Line: He was no altar boy Last Line: It was no picnic 10-FEB First Line: They could be anyone's opinions Last Line: But it lives on his dreaming mind 10-JAN First Line: The day between Last Line: Blaze of white noon 10-JUL First Line: The sky was a midnight blue Last Line: Before we could paint 10-JUN First Line: The sun like whiskey and caffeine Last Line: That has gone to my head like a song 10-MAR First Line: I have an idea %why don't you go %with sharon preiss Last Line: Of the weekend %will fall into place 10-MAY First Line: The best way to learn a foreign language Last Line: You can't phone him up to say %you'll miss him 10-NOV First Line: The bridges that make manhattan an island Last Line: And the funny thing is the same is true for me 10-OCT First Line: Guess whose birthday it is Last Line: But he was too young to die 10-SEP First Line: We have too much exhibitionism Last Line: Too many poets not enough poetry 11-FEB First Line: She had the ugliest handwriting Last Line: She had the darkest moods 11-JUL First Line: You propose a picnic Last Line: I like what's in your basket 11-JUN First Line: It's my birthday I've got an empty Last Line: Yes if he could return the same day 11-MAR First Line: What common object %can be dialed on the phone Last Line: To my philosophy of life and call it %brilliant carnage 11-MAY First Line: I spend a half hour comparing Last Line: And after many a summer dies the swan 11-NOV First Line: Not just vanity, a symptom of disorder Last Line: And leaves the scene of the crime undetected 11-OCT First Line: Of cities I know new york Last Line: Completely without justification 11-OCT First Line: The language is full of sad words Last Line: With a single sail and light wind 12-AUG First Line: Did you know %that today in 1982 Last Line: Of gazpacho to quicken my thirst 12-DEC First Line: There's an old french saying Last Line: Your voice comes out of my mouth 12-FEB First Line: Patricia highsmith said Last Line: Impossible not to get lost 12-JAN First Line: Time with an insolent Last Line: Is deciphered, repealed 12-JUL First Line: Wisteria, hysteria is as obvious a rhyme Last Line: What it will say on johnny carson's gravestone %'I'll be right back' 12-MAR First Line: Every minute is vital Last Line: A clean flat slate of blue 12-MAY First Line: A book could be written Last Line: About to have an intimate talk 12-OCT First Line: My bag was missing at the airport Last Line: So naturally I didn't phone her 12-OCT First Line: When I called latrell sprewell Last Line: In the choreography of basketball as in jazz 12-SEP First Line: The year I wrote obituaries Last Line: Lowell who died that day in a cab Variant Title(s): 9-ap 13-APR First Line: I threw away the script Last Line: No thanks for having me 13-AUG First Line: The books on my night table Last Line: The steady drizzle in the garden 13-FEB First Line: It's friday the 13th and I wonder Last Line: It's always friday the 13th 13-JUL First Line: I'm going to miss you, robert mitchum Last Line: Daring the world to surprise you 13-MAY First Line: I watch tv for the plots Last Line: Tough boots and a chemise 13-NOV First Line: I want your opinion Last Line: Counted on an ordinary abacus 13-NOV First Line: I keep thinking of apollinaire Last Line: The sun comes down or is guillotined 13-OCT First Line: Trippers and askers surround me Last Line: But stories somehow lengthen when begun 14-APR First Line: The summer I worked Last Line: Nothing on beneath her slip 14-APR First Line: I saw a sign saying Last Line: This is charlie calling from hell 14-AUG First Line: How did that bat get in here Last Line: Black slip & now she needs a shower 14-DEC First Line: This bed thy center is, these walls, thy sphere Last Line: I thought that love would last forever; I was wrong 14-FEB First Line: They now call %downtown new york Last Line: For the canal zone between %your lovely lithe legs 14-JAN First Line: Let's play word golf you go from Last Line: Of thirst at the fountain's rim 14-JUN First Line: The is the saddest story I ever Last Line: But I won't deny it it's been wonderful 14-MAR First Line: We who dress %conventionally do so Last Line: Nixon's the one' 14-MAY First Line: On street corners in hiroshima Last Line: My father, dead since 1971 14-NOV First Line: There comes a time in every man's life Last Line: An orange t-shirt a lime green awning Variant Title(s): A Quick One Before I Go (november 14 14-OCT First Line: Today I am going to write blurbs Last Line: Better than prozac.' 'deeply felt' 14-SEP First Line: See this picture and I guarantee Last Line: You can't take part 15-APR First Line: What a sweet guy I am Last Line: As she does mine 15-APR First Line: I asked joe if you could save Last Line: What I hear is a lazy melody 15-AUG First Line: My new web site is dropdead.Com Last Line: Tomorrow you can buy shares at getrich.Com 15-FEB First Line: That's what I like to see Last Line: You're looking very lady tonight 15-JAN First Line: In school I studied Last Line: When I was a boy 15-JUL First Line: Just as a company's closing stock price today Last Line: Or parachutists who know fear is the greatest high 15-JUL First Line: We know who %the guards are Last Line: We're the kids %that's the secret 15-MAR First Line: Wisdom has the logic Last Line: But just wait till they get to china 15-MAY First Line: Sinatra, snapping out of a haze Last Line: (my choice) when your lover has gone 15-NOV First Line: Like sinatra the day his voice cracked on stage Last Line: Some call it poetry but I know how much it hurt 15-OCT First Line: Before I read your Last Line: It gets late early there 15-OCT First Line: Byron was right Last Line: Make the first move 16-AUG First Line: I'm still here (ithaca) Last Line: French rap music Variant Title(s): Ra 16-DEC First Line: Writers write books because Last Line: Will be signed in a railway car in versailles 16-JAN First Line: I have gone on an arctic holiday Last Line: They took days to learn 16-JUN First Line: It's bloomsday in dublin Last Line: Yes she said yes I will yes 16-MAR First Line: The weather is on a lottery Last Line: Played the doctor on love boat 16-MAY First Line: Fifty-two degrees light rain Last Line: Forgotten %but not until then 16-NOV First Line: Taxicab yellow Last Line: Once and once only 16-OCT First Line: I asked nixon why Last Line: His wife will ever forgive him 16-OCT First Line: What can you say about the mets Last Line: In time for benitez to strike out %the braves' last batter 16-SEP First Line: Remember the '70s Last Line: But I still want to know 16-SEP First Line: And this promise I thee make Last Line: The hitchhiker what say 17-APR First Line: I may look dumb but I assure you I'm Last Line: Not with a yuk but a nuclear yoke 17-AUG First Line: The romantic view of marriage Last Line: Wish I were all here' 17-AUG First Line: The day still unwritten I wake Last Line: And we played soldiers' 17-DEC First Line: In the great fox versus hedgehog debate Last Line: Shine in rooms where I am writing 17-FEB First Line: The cigarette is to the dream Last Line: The one that will rise for me at dawn 17-JUN First Line: One of the amenities of hell is Last Line: Instead of tanks overrunning france in five weeks 17-MAR First Line: Romance of palm trees Last Line: To think about is your golden hair 17-MAY First Line: I read byron's recipe for a hangover Last Line: And so for god's sake hock and soda water 17-NOV First Line: Who wants a mass-market audience Last Line: The soul content with a laugh 17-NOV First Line: You want to know what war is? Last Line: And issue trading cards collect all 500 17-SEP First Line: Thomas hobbes, I thought of you Last Line: Nothing less than a dry martini will do 17-SEP First Line: Thanks to the hurricane Last Line: Playing 'I've got rhythm' 18-APR First Line: Do I think you should wear Last Line: Who wants to be a millionaire?' 18-AUG First Line: If we knew then what I know now Last Line: Smells like august 18-AUG First Line: I took off my watch Last Line: Of facts but the truth of his dreams 18-DEC First Line: I haven't published my first issue yet Last Line: Bring back the electric chair, the sooner the better 18-MAR First Line: When spring comes I want to sit Last Line: That's how he felt about india 18-MAY First Line: We want change Last Line: In public places looking inconspicuous 18-MAY First Line: You can fly a hundred times Last Line: Boyhood, and the wound 18-NOV First Line: In ezra pound's novel 1984 Last Line: Hot on his trail. They're almost there 18-NOV First Line: It's johnny mercer's birthday Last Line: I hope you didn't mind my bending your ear 18-SEP First Line: Everything means something Last Line: And I will bring this poem and ask everyone if it's true 19-APR First Line: Jorie graham is waiting Last Line: For this marvelous free education 19-APR First Line: I have something in common with Last Line: To gather the fruit under the apple trees nearby 19-FEB First Line: Shocked,' he agreed Last Line: I'm shocked though not surprised 19-JUL First Line: My idea of a critic Last Line: They can't be seen 19-JUL First Line: Gloomy day, chilly Last Line: The chamber locked %from within 19-JUN First Line: Ella fitzgerald died Last Line: It was just one of those things' 19-JUN First Line: What is it about the abyss Last Line: The days when we, too, tumbled headlong out of heaven, pissed 19-MAR First Line: They were wrong Last Line: Be thy name 19-NOV First Line: Do I still like to think Last Line: The sound of its name 19-OCT First Line: Can a woman be %a phallic symbol? Last Line: She knew death was a driver %and a gentleman 1966 First Line: At midnight it began the trains stopped Last Line: Because I was going to go to columbia that fall 2-APR First Line: What I like about reading in the dark is Last Line: Were the same woman, and I knew her 2-APR First Line: I thought happiness wore a skirt Last Line: The sun is gold and silver is the moon 2-DEC First Line: The last man in america Last Line: So I'll let my machine take that call 2-JAN First Line: The old war is over the new one has begun Last Line: The only thing to do with good advice is pass it on 2-MAR First Line: When I think of her Last Line: It's also the music of loneliness Subject(s): Absence; Memory 2-MAY First Line: Someday I'd like to go Last Line: Are we waiting for let's go 2-MAY First Line: Like an article in the newspaper Last Line: And it belonged to you 2-OCT First Line: While I wondered about the relation Last Line: Broken up by patches of hostility 2-SEP First Line: There's a disease that Last Line: I refuse to get involved 20-FEB First Line: I had issues with the pronouns in the other lines, too Last Line: Did what I say make sense to you? 20-JAN First Line: When robert frost recited 'the gift outright' Last Line: To hear him sing 'chicago' one more time 20-JUL First Line: When I think of all the annes Last Line: Fan of anne and will always be Variant Title(s): For Ann 20-MAR First Line: All the songs this morning Last Line: To notice but one day it's here 20-MAY First Line: Ira gershwin and I were talking Last Line: Which is something I felt I had done %every day for years 20-OCT First Line: This is the chess of baseball Last Line: And the pleasure they gave us wait till next year 21-APR First Line: I'm a very average person Last Line: Hey, it beats working 21-DEC First Line: He was in favor of Last Line: Made it, ma. Top of the world!' 21-FEB First Line: If you were a monkey's uncle Last Line: When all the options expire 21-JAN First Line: Art is that which can be Last Line: The guy you're quoting is always dead 21-MAR First Line: The vernal equinox is to blame Last Line: Thing missing in this picture is you 21-MAR First Line: In new york where the subway lines Last Line: By mistake but I could see his point 21-NOV First Line: Being an evil man Last Line: My motto of the day 21-SEP First Line: No bed so %I had to Last Line: Would the right %choice have been 22-APR First Line: Hitler was not born at braunau-am-inn in 1889 Last Line: This is my ode to philip k. Dick 22-JUN First Line: There's a darker shade of blue Last Line: Contemplating the blueness of the moon 22-MAR First Line: At the party I saw daphne merkin Last Line: We went to sardinia to celebrate robert 22-MAR First Line: The first time I read Last Line: Grapes in a crystal bowl 22-NOV First Line: Poetry is %posing a Last Line: I'm not %sure which 22-SEP First Line: It's the day of the ram Last Line: With paris confident I'm paris 23-APR First Line: The birthday of vladimir Last Line: Alarm clock, your pretty voice 23-DEC First Line: To return home Last Line: Radio at two-fifteen 23-DEC First Line: What delmore schwartz meant by Last Line: Beneath the elevated tracks of the 1950s 23-FEB First Line: Light rain is falling in central park Last Line: It was one of his earliest memories 23-JAN First Line: Come on in and stay a while Last Line: Is a tinier proportion of the totality of days in your life 23-JUL First Line: I looked at the moon Last Line: New hampshire on the way 23-MAR First Line: Asparagus with prosciutto and Last Line: Turn off the lights to take a quick nap 23-MAR First Line: I'm taking jazz as Last Line: Until she did them, and not even then 23-NOV First Line: Went to 'the waste land' last night Last Line: And a drowned sailor's swollen eyeballs 23-OCT First Line: Nikki phones and asks Last Line: Ends with wow 24-APR First Line: It occurred to me Last Line: Well, fuck you %no, fuck you 24-JAN First Line: I was about to be mugged by a man Last Line: I breathed in the fumes impossibly happy 24-JUL First Line: If I had to go to military school Last Line: To be a human being' 24-JUL First Line: Toys in the attic' is a great title Last Line: How's camp (happy birthday) 24-MAR First Line: I remember england when sleep was Last Line: In the deep dark chambers of sleep 24-OCT First Line: My watch is beating Last Line: I hope you're listening 25-APR First Line: America you are not getting any younger Last Line: Finds a woman to marry and never see again 25-AUG First Line: They're calling old people seniors Last Line: To go through before we reach the holy land Variant Title(s): Commencemen 25-DEC First Line: Christmas defeated chanukah %once again las tnight Last Line: In college and needing this one course %to graduate, which I forgot to attend 25-DEC First Line: The question what Last Line: Annual party the best 25-JAN First Line: Sex wasn't a digression Last Line: For I don't stand a ghost %of a chance with you' 25-MAR First Line: The longer I stare the lovelier Last Line: Your eyes shut and then kiss you more 25-MAY First Line: The boy felt guilty Last Line: I have my reasons too' he said 25-OCT First Line: It's the opening movement Last Line: Symphony to look forward to 25-OCT First Line: Auden called rilke Last Line: Myself, who am yet %only a baboon' 26-APR First Line: When my father Last Line: Is what my parents %spoke at home 26-AUG First Line: Ten brandy snifters are missing Last Line: You exist as do I in your magnificent ear 26-DEC First Line: Deny loss %discriminate the lawrences (dh, te) Last Line: Don't let 'em lemon the doodad library 26-FEB First Line: I didn't mean to alarm you Last Line: I didn't mean to alarm you 26-MAR First Line: I just heard a very fine Last Line: Making hamilton laugh it's time 26-MAR First Line: I know a good zeugma Last Line: And the lights went out 26-NOV First Line: According to willa cather %whose terrific novel Last Line: On the cusp of becoming %an old man and dying 26-NOV First Line: I used to think other people's Last Line: Feelings that had already departed 27-AUG First Line: The last campbell's tomato soup can Last Line: And if you don't smoke you feel as if you do 27-DEC First Line: I love journalism %because you get to use Last Line: Say what you like about journalists they're not bad guys. %it's critics I despise 27-JUL First Line: I hate errors %the way conrad's Last Line: Term of endearment %into filthy lucre 27-JUN First Line: On the slope a white man said Last Line: Left until you pack and I was leaving 27-JUN First Line: In the hospital there was time Last Line: Or brothel it was a hospital Variant Title(s): In The Hospita 27-MAR First Line: It's time for my hello Last Line: That link us in verse and prose 27-MAR First Line: This poem is a renewable Last Line: Orange traffic posts and yellow cabs 27-MAY First Line: Movies are meant to be seen Last Line: I love you don't believe me 27-OCT First Line: T.S. Eliot held that dante was lucky Last Line: To justify the persecution of the jews 27-OCT First Line: That year I had no car radio Last Line: That companionless day with no vision of tomorrow 27-SEP First Line: It's too late to sell too soon to buy Last Line: With eric alexander on tenor sax 28-FEB First Line: I was a child he took me aside said Last Line: Of doubt %which you doubt 28-FEB First Line: God is the cloud that Last Line: As one might organize the sea 28-MAR First Line: Nothing's greater than love unless Last Line: Sing it again time after time 28-MAY First Line: It fell on a tuesday in 1940 Last Line: He sang 'old man river' in the car) 28-NOV First Line: Mia and mark I want to welcome you to Last Line: And the zero-sum game of zeus and zeugmas 28-OCT First Line: This is the music Last Line: Who called him 'brains' 28-SEP First Line: I'm a workaholic' Last Line: Of being at the bar at eight 29-APR First Line: God bless wellbutrin Last Line: Well, have you, punk? 29-AUG First Line: When he threw the roach Last Line: The city groaning 29-DEC First Line: I spent a month writing love poems Last Line: Than a shared umbrella 29-DEC First Line: When they quizzed quince on the existence of physical objects Last Line: Had a talent for drawing portraits and maps 29-FEB First Line: They asked me to define you Last Line: The image of you I had before 29-JUL First Line: If your sestina about sarajevo equals Last Line: And firm as a trampoline 29-JUN First Line: This one's for you, nin Last Line: Her latest lesson but who cares 29-JUN First Line: No man lived who had enough Last Line: There's room for three in the rowboat 29-MAR First Line: I had lunch with robert bly Last Line: To notice whether death was a man or woman 3-APR First Line: I like movies like dreams that Last Line: Equals love times death squared 3-APR First Line: It's one thing to rage Last Line: In the office on opening day 3-DEC First Line: In the hothouse atmosphere Last Line: On history without using words 3-JAN First Line: The shrink says, 'everything depends Last Line: Who had mocked him would surely die 3-JAN First Line: There's an astronaut named david lehamn Last Line: Isn't the coffee it's the bunk' 3-MAY First Line: Let's say we go to amsterdam Last Line: As if we were young and rich %before we were born 3-OCT First Line: To the novelist, the fog itself Last Line: Bore it as samuel's mother bore her anguish 3-SEP First Line: Like coming to the end Last Line: But loves him nonetheless 30-APR First Line: To speak no more to be able Last Line: Could have they been, that is 30-APR First Line: The universal language isn't music Last Line: For hello, thank you, no problem, and goodbye 30-DEC First Line: There are two scenarios Last Line: To andromache holding their baby 30-JUL First Line: All my life I've lived Last Line: A momentary union %& lifelong quarrel 30-JUN First Line: Don't walk away, renee Last Line: Are about you tonight renee 30-MAR First Line: Eighty-one degrees a record high for the day Last Line: And a joint the hottest thirtieth of march I've ever 30-MAR First Line: In the best years of our lives Last Line: In executive suite those were the days 30-MAY First Line: What can you say about Last Line: On their way to the subway 30-NOV First Line: What a night what a light what a moon Last Line: And thee o silver moon 30-OCT First Line: Like living in a foreign city Last Line: To sing them is deplorable 30-OCT First Line: After much deliberation Last Line: For people who won't read 30-SEP First Line: I entered the elevator without ceremony Last Line: And the elevator doors snap shut behind me 30-SEP First Line: In two weeks it will be thirty-three years Last Line: Himself and saved it from the fire 31-AUG First Line: You've been together Last Line: To the distant north 31-DEC First Line: It's the year's midnight and almost the day's Last Line: But no one wants to die' 31-DEC First Line: Tonight's the night, as woody allen said of death Last Line: Change shape and go in their direction 31-JAN First Line: The sky is crumbling into millions of paper dots Last Line: He is that young man, I can tell, watching him walk 31-JAN First Line: Nothing extends a phone Last Line: Well you wish you didn't have to go 31-JUL First Line: Today I took a personality test Last Line: What an entertaining pedant you are 31-OCT First Line: Are you pissed off Last Line: Personality with equal tact 4-APR First Line: Fire engines in st. Mark's place Last Line: On thirteenth street and first avenue 4-APR First Line: The exodus from egypt takes place Last Line: Let all who are hungry join us 4-AUG First Line: Days of ease and keat's odes Last Line: In 1983 well rudy this is goodbye 4-DEC First Line: I'm not in love but I'm higher than Last Line: For a cigarette in the dark 4-DEC First Line: When the sun sets in san francisco Last Line: Is that too much to ask 4-JAN First Line: I wasn't a trickster but the joker Last Line: In the window the mirror or the little screen 4-JUL First Line: No better place to start the day Last Line: To her and whisper 'I like your pants' 4-JUN First Line: According to my sources Last Line: Of 'the skaters,' a perfect case %of order in disorder Subject(s): Poetry And Poets; Zodiac 4-JUN First Line: I said ok joe what makes Last Line: Little purple buds in may 4-MAR First Line: There's a potion I take Last Line: To admire them in full bloom 4-MAR First Line: I don't know about the catalogue copy of my book Last Line: (regards to jaye tell her to get well fast) 4-NOV First Line: You know what %the greatest sound %in the world is? Last Line: My fellow man %a little more %each time 4-OCT First Line: Did you see the debate Last Line: Until my friends and I got there 41055 Poem Text First Line: In rotterdam I'm 5-APR First Line: Bill and jaye are on their way Last Line: As will I with a poem in my pocket 5-AUG First Line: Smoke tumbled into the intersection Last Line: Asked his wife to admire his morning erection 5-FEB First Line: Except for the food this is Last Line: His most valuable possession was 5-FEB First Line: Diann blakely doesn't have the flu Last Line: Of sin the greater the climax 5-JAN First Line: Every time I hear Last Line: Is a genius, white 5-JUN First Line: If I write another Last Line: Haven't won the lottery 5-JUN First Line: What I like about this place is Last Line: Be our next president Variant Title(s): Job Descriptio 5-MAR First Line: The radio predicted snow Last Line: In israel I almost forgot %it's purim 5-MAY First Line: I'm quoting not repeating myself Last Line: Was as hot as today 5-OCT First Line: Capitalism rules Last Line: The mother who forgives all her sons Subject(s): Capitalism 5-SEP First Line: Sprewell is the marlon brando Last Line: All morning and you on the phone 6-APR First Line: She's a high-maintenance doll Last Line: And no one else is in on the secret 6-AUG First Line: On charlie simic's tape Last Line: But I could be wrong 6-DEC First Line: There are days I wake up without waking up Last Line: A piece of work is a man how noble in reason how 6-FEB First Line: Intense, volatile, temperamental Last Line: My mother was a saint' 6-JAN First Line: Lunch at savoy (the Last Line: You think elliot 6-JUL First Line: Your honor I object Last Line: Thank you your witness 6-JUL First Line: I don't want a wall Last Line: Across your path like a wall 6-JUN First Line: No two are identical though Last Line: And even that isn't going to be enough 6-MAR First Line: I love sitting in bars in the village Last Line: Horns orchestrated by gershwin Subject(s): Jews; Music And Musicians 6-MAY First Line: The brain has chambers Last Line: Her soup in the kitchen 6-NOV First Line: Remember when khrushchev said Last Line: But to bury him 6-NOV First Line: You meet this pathetic guy Last Line: In forming the judgement that he's a jerk 6-OCT First Line: And if I am elected Last Line: Arrest I solemnly swear Variant Title(s): Stump Speec 7-DEC First Line: Rhyme wave with leave Last Line: Just wave and leave 7-DEC First Line: As I sit at my desk wishing Last Line: (and so back to work) 7-FEB First Line: It used to be garibaldi's, then it was sardinia Last Line: I knew I had my poem of the day 7-JUL First Line: The greatest genius in the history Last Line: I don't want to work I want to smoke 7-OCT First Line: Reading the paper %was a luxury Last Line: Brown shoes in %a shopfront window 7-SEP First Line: Not a day without a notation %each woman loved because of Last Line: Is worse than the ailment, in citizen kane 7-SEP First Line: The anxiety was overpowering Last Line: No, it was how he kept his vanity 8-APR First Line: Maybe jim cummins and I Last Line: I haven't written %a poem in months' 8-APR First Line: One thing I can tell you Last Line: And make an early night of it 8-DEC First Line: Fathers die twice Last Line: Lighted as samuel taylor coleridge 8-FEB First Line: There are two kinds %of love songs Last Line: Made a very disarming pair 8-FEB First Line: David smith made %two circle sentinel Last Line: And changed the definition of beauty 8-JAN First Line: The wind does whistle but it also hums Last Line: The language as conceived by millions daily 8-JUL First Line: The phone. 'dodgers' locker room' Last Line: The supermarket that won the cold war 8-JUN First Line: It's three days before my birthday Last Line: Yelled 'meat!' and ran away 8-MAR First Line: Every so often my father comes over Last Line: And left before I remembered he was dead 8-MAY First Line: Joan mitchell liked daylight %but also worked at night Last Line: And the word 'faith' pronounced %in a dutch accent 'fate' 8-MAY First Line: 700 francs will get you $109.91 Last Line: And I'm going to make it worth your while 8-NOV First Line: The house of dr. Edwards' Last Line: You just pull the trigger 8-SEP First Line: In summer camps Last Line: In the averages: and now I know 9-APR First Line: I woke up not in paris Last Line: To stand for all that's mind (mine) 9-DEC First Line: It was when I was waiting for you Last Line: As they had some catching up to do in bed 9-JAN First Line: Gentlemen, this is my last press conference Last Line: And thus achieve the desired thinness Variant Title(s): Press Conference (january 9 9-JUL First Line: The only method is to be very Last Line: I looked him in the eye and said I'm real smart 9-JUN First Line: Nothing like a little english rain Last Line: The unreflecting windows in %that high classroom 9-MAR First Line: Yesterday's version of today's flight Last Line: Or watch it dissolve into yesterday 9-MAY First Line: Joe finished his paper Last Line: But I still haven't solved it 9-NOV First Line: Since you asked, dear larry Last Line: To be liked, you've got to be well liked' Subject(s): Friendship; Miller, Arthur (b. 1915) 9-NOV First Line: In college the first theme Last Line: He would live the american dream 9-OCT First Line: It's a great day for new york Last Line: Says it's too serene to run 9-SEP First Line: The word I object to in this poem is sky Last Line: It's become such a cliche in poems 9/14/2001 First Line: Before september 11, %I would have written it Last Line: All you have to do is %look up and it's not there A HISTORY OF MODERN POETRY Poem Text First Line: The idea was to have a voice of your own Subject(s): Poetry & Poets A LITTLE HISTORY Poem Text First Line: Some people find out they are jews Subject(s): Jews; Judaism A QUICK ONE BEFORE I GO Poem Text First Line: There comes a time in every man's life Subject(s): Conduct Of Life; Poetry & Poets AMERICAN RELIGION First Line: The two great popular statements Last Line: Who had always cherished the idea of a tabula rasa %knew we could begin again, could begin %being ag AMNESIA Poem Text First Line: Neither the actors nor the audience knew what was coming next Subject(s): Assassination; Memory AND ABOUT TIME Poem Text First Line: At the heart of every memory Subject(s): Memory ANSWERING STRANGER First Line: Here is your childhood: a boy running Last Line: The naked girl dancing on the roof, who welcomes you %to the twentieth century, though she doesn't e APRIL 27 OR 28 First Line: As hamlet would have said Last Line: Is almost certain to turn our false APRIL 4 JEW YOU First Line: Hello, jews, and welcome to jew university Last Line: It's very complicated.' now there was a jew APRIL 6: POEM FOR BASCOVE First Line: Snow and sunshine in april Last Line: Old devil moon will rise with %saxophone accompaniment ARBEIT MACHT FREI First Line: Work shall set you free:' a sensible sentiment Last Line: Pain to the piano with you, this quiet cry. Subject(s): Auschwitz, Poland; Language; Truth; Words; Vocabulary ARRIVAL AT KENNEDY Poem Text First Line: Reduce the supply while the demand stays constant and the Subject(s): Cities; New York City; Urban Life; Manhattan; New York, New York; The Big Apple ARRIVAL AT KENNEDY First Line: Reduce the supply while the demand stays constant and the Last Line: When freedom meant driving a car over a cliff & jumping out at the last possible moment Subject(s): Cities; New York City AUGUST 29: ODE TO BUDDHISM First Line: It doesn't bother me that Last Line: Served the greatest feast AUGUST 31: POEM IN THE MANNER OF WALT WHITMAN First Line: Last night I walked among the gray-faced onanists and the Last Line: I would sleep contented in the dreamless zone before dawn AUTUMN EVENING Poem Text First Line: The yellow pears hang in the lake. Subject(s): Autumn; Fall BREEZE MARINE First Line: The impeccable old man, who chaired the committee Last Line: The place he'd dreamed about in his dreams of escape BROOKLYN BRIDGE First Line: Hey, coolidge, %shout for joy! Last Line: Brooklyn bridge, %you're really something, aren't you? CAMBRIDGE, 1972 First Line: Rob b. Came in, chuckling. He had found the quintessential Last Line: Down to london, to heathrow airport, to return to the united%states CASE OF THE SPURIOUS SPOUSE First Line: For a time he made a decent salary by impersonating a detective Last Line: She did, and that's what he meant to find out tonight CHOICE First Line: He had to choose. He could fight the vietnam war Last Line: How it would feel to be wrong DEDICATION First Line: To henri michaux, whose 'major ordeals Last Line: (as is the mind's ability to vanish) DEFECTIVE STORY First Line: The doctors know what can be done Last Line: Of guilt, tipped the light fantastic. Clouds %lined the umbrella that sheltered the tiny boat DELAYED REACTION First Line: All at once it hits you: the hand comes down Last Line: It wouldn't be a cave if it didn't have %shadows on the wall, dancing in the dark, in silence DENMARK: A TRAGEDY First Line: Who's there? Last Line: Go, bid the soldiers shoot DESOLATION ROW First Line: The eccentric genius went crazy living by himself Last Line: His new project to ward off ennui DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PEPSI AND COKE First Line: Can't swim; uses credit cards and pills to combat Last Line: Knows the new maid steals; and forgives her Subject(s): Popular Culture - United States DUTCH INTERIOR Poem Text First Line: He liked the late afternoon light as it dimmed Subject(s): Home; Likes & Dislikes EDVARD MUNCH Poem Text First Line: From time to time they say 'me' Subject(s): Munch, Edvard (1863-1944) ENIGMA VARIATIONS Poem Text First Line: Sir winston churchill advised against suicide Last Line: And no place: a suicide who lived to regret it. Subject(s): Jews; Suicide; Judaism EXCURSION Poem Text First Line: In the red rain you were paddlng downstream FEAR First Line: The boy hid under the house Last Line: Fear was the name of his dog, a german shepherd FIRST LINES First Line: This is the kind of emptiness that feels solid Last Line: If you called me the invisible man. The other guys did it, %not knowing what they were doing. That's FIVE POEMS FROM SPRING DAYS 2000 First Line: The universal language isn't music %it's sports or maybe it's english Last Line: You would ask such %as how long has this %been going on FOR I WILL CONSIDER YOUR DOG MOLLY Poem Text First Line: For it was the first day of rosh ha'shanah, new year's day, day of remembrance, of ancient sacrifice Subject(s): Rosh Hashanah; Jews; Worship; Dogs; Judaism FOR I WILL CONSIDER YOUR DOG MOLLY First Line: For it was the first day of rosh ha' shanah, new year's day, day of Last Line: For I'd as lief pray wity you dog molly as with any man. %for she knows that god is her savior FRENCH MOVIE Poem Text First Line: I was in a french movie Subject(s): Motion Pictures; Movies; Cinema GALLERY NOTES First Line: The title doesn't have to have GOODNIGHT POEM Poem Text First Line: The clarinets of my voice love you Subject(s): Love GREENHOUSES AND GARDENS Poem Text First Line: It began as an item on a questionnaire Subject(s): Nature GREENHOUSES AND GARDENS First Line: It began as an item on a questionnaire Last Line: To compete with the living for sunlight and space Subject(s): Nature GUILT TRIP First Line: Too much coffee. His mind was racing. Relief of tension Last Line: I love you,' he lied. 'I love you, too,' she replied, %waking beside him in the morning, scaring him HEAVEN First Line: Once you lose it, it keeps coming back to you, forever Last Line: Only a second had gone by. And I knew I had you back, forever HENRY JAMES: THE MOVIE First Line: The film begins in venice HOPPER Poem Text First Line: The disappearance of a cat is a good omen, Subject(s): Cats HOW TO THINK Poem Text First Line: As the hum of a fly surrounds a thinker Subject(s): Thought; Thinking IN PRAISE OF A. R. AMMONS Poem Text First Line: Because ignorance is limitless because after the storm Subject(s): Ammons, Archibald Randolph IN PRAISE OF ROBERT PENN WARREN Poem Text First Line: Beyond the primitive powers of pain, of love at last Subject(s): Warren, Robert Penn (1905-1989) INTERRUPTION First Line: The little details defeated him Last Line: Until a boy with bloodied knees turned up at the back door %and the next interruption has begun JAMES BROTHERS First Line: Jesse james is on an old-fashioned rotary phone, stage right. He dials a Last Line: Playing 'you made me love you' JOB AND HIS ACCUSERS First Line: Like a man facing a firing squad, refusing a blindfold Last Line: He knew he had the power to make people mad JOURNEY INTO THE EYE Poem Text First Line: Having no choice but to go down, the sun Subject(s): Evening; Sun; Fish & Fishing; Sunset; Twilight; Anglers KNIGHT OF FAITH First Line: He was homesick for the apartment he grew up in Last Line: In 1972, when he was homesick for the american language LAST WORDS First Line: Enough.' 'no, more.' 'not me,' he said, closing the door Last Line: More,' he said, liking the sound. 'more, more, more!' LIKE A PARTY Poem Text First Line: You throw a war and hope people will come Subject(s): War LIKE A PARTY First Line: You throw a war and hope people will come Last Line: Not a work of art; and if a game of chess, blind chess LITERAL LIVES First Line: Lamb wrote a dissertation on roast pig MADISON AVENUE Poem Text First Line: But it turned out to be a decent deal for the women Last Line: A slow curve Subject(s): Madison Avenue, New York MADISON AVENUE First Line: But it turned out to be a decent deal for the women Last Line: Afterwards. Yellow was the color. A slow curve Subject(s): Madison Avenue, New York MAGICIAN First Line: The magician was a soulful man, quick rather than deep Last Line: Was open. He stepped in the door. There was no door MAY 24: RADIO First Line: I left it Last Line: As I enter %in the dark MAY 3: POEM IN THE MANNER OF JOHN KEATS First Line: Much have I trampled in fields of grass Last Line: Or cry for her life in dire ruin? MEMENTO First Line: The natural condition of a man is Last Line: An amnesiac remembers how to speak english MOMENT OF TRUTH First Line: The pure poetry of paranoia was his as he emerged Last Line: Of the cause: the die of a board game lost in a grate Subject(s): Cities MUSEUM, 1980 First Line: In the remote country mansion MYTHOLOGIES First Line: The question is not how like the animal we are Last Line: When one by one the masks slip off, and the bride embraces %the guilty son: true to the test, rememb NEW YEAR'S DAY Poem Text First Line: This is it: the night they've all selected Subject(s): New Year; Winter NEW YORK CITY, 1974 First Line: They're invisible and god is blind,' ron says I said Last Line: How did it happen? They were invisible and god was blind OCTOBER 21, ST. LOUIS First Line: You say I live in the mind Last Line: Not much of a living but it was a life OCTOBER 23: ODE TO HISTORY First Line: Men of ideals and courage often find their loyalties divided Last Line: Bitter before he died OCTOBER CLASSIC Poem Text First Line: If only there were a way of knowing Subject(s): World Series (baseball) ODE Poem Text First Line: People in the middle ages didn't think they were living Subject(s): Middle Ages; Conduct Of Life; Medieval History; Medieval Civilization; Medieval Literature ON PURPOSE First Line: What is the purpose of your poems?' Last Line: And bring refreshment to your soul ON THE NATURE OF DESIRE Poem Text First Line: There are, said my old philosophy professor, two kinds Subject(s): Nature ON THE NATURE OF DESIRE First Line: There are, said my old philosophy professor, two kinds Last Line: Tired, unashamed, nude and asleep for their hour together Subject(s): Nature ONE SIZE FITS ALL: A CRITICAL ESSAY First Line: Though %already %perhaps %however Last Line: In other words %with %and with, %whichever way %one thing is clear %beyond the shadow of a doubt OPERATION MEMORY Poem Text First Line: We were smoking some of this knockout weed when Subject(s): Soldiers; Memory; Conduct Of Life OPERATION MEMORY First Line: We were smoking some of this knockout weed when Last Line: It was over: I was 38, on the brink of middle age, %a succession of stupid jobs behind me, a loaded PASCAL'S WAGER First Line: The thunder altered everything, starting with the shape Last Line: As we make our way forward, afraid of the dark %yet more afraid of standing still, wandering in noma PERFIDIA Poem Text First Line: You don't know who these people are, or what Subject(s): Spies PERFIDIA First Line: You don't know who these people are, or what Last Line: And the redhead at the bar lets you buy her a drink Subject(s): Spies PERIPHERAL VISION First Line: The epic hero was in a lyric mood PLATO'S RETREAT First Line: The voyeur and the exhibitionist meet POEM IN THE MALE MANNER First Line: I just chose the hardest left turn to make in all of ithaca Last Line: A really good cap of coffee and some pills can make in your day POEM IN THE MANNER OF MARIANNE MOORE First Line: Take an armored animal Last Line: No. And again comes the sun POEM IN THE MANNER OF RAINER MARIA RILKE First Line: Far are the moons of jupiter-yes how much farther Last Line: Hear a voice when there is no voice but silence? POEM IN THE MANNER OF VLADIMIR MAYAKOVSKY First Line: Like a giant in slippers reading Last Line: So I cannot sing o mother forgive me POEM IN THE MANNER OF W.H. AUDEN First Line: Don't bet on team on a losing streak Last Line: As I walked with you in the rain POSTSCRIPT Poem Text First Line: He wrote the whole novel in his head Subject(s): Writing & Writers; Birthdays; Typewriters PRIVATE SECTOR First Line: Mine was the point of view PROPHET'S LANTERN First Line: What's new? Last Line: Remains as true as when the sun was new PSALM First Line: How like a winter has been my hard spring away from you, my harp Last Line: Flashlights, and he is guarded from evil by the love of his mother QUESTIONS TO ASK FOR A PARIS REVIEW INTERVIEW First Line: Do you have a favorite time of day? Favorite weather? Last Line: Do you do any work with your hands? REJECTION SLIP First Line: Oh, how glad I am that she Last Line: And then a standing ovation, which mesmerized the nation, %as he flew like a moth into the flames of RIGHT NUMBER First Line: I'll be a man for you,' sang the voice on the radio Last Line: Like a girl to the tip of the giant's shadow, %where she disappears, owing no explanations to anyone ROLE MODEL First Line: With the lawyer in the three-piece suit, she was frigid Last Line: And she wonders if he will propose to her when he wakes up SECRET LIFE First Line: She was strange. Even as a child she had been able Last Line: Of the attic, on the shortest day of the year SEPTEMBER 30: REAL LIFE First Line: That year I lived alone in Last Line: I've been living since SESTINA First Line: When the doctor told her Last Line: Worse, tell him who said. %it was good for him SEXISM Poem Text First Line: The happiest moment in a woman's life Subject(s): Sex SF Poem Text First Line: Sf stood for sigmund freud, or serious folly Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary SHAKE THE SUPERFLUX! Poem Text First Line: I like walking on streets as black and wet as this one Subject(s): Flowers; Poetry & Poets SHE WORE First Line: She wore heaven sent pantyhose, obsession Last Line: She wore no bra. She always had lousy luck with men SIN CITY Poem Text First Line: Cynthia was feeling sinful in cincinnati. Subject(s): Cincinnati, Ohio; Sin; Poetry & Poets SIN CITY First Line: Cynthia was feeling sinful in cincinnati Last Line: Cynthia reads the poems that name her, and glows SIX ALMONDS First Line: She was as lovely as six almonds Last Line: Merrily, merrily, we welcomed in the year SIXTH SENSE First Line: Something told him she was near. In the same room Last Line: If they agreed to go to sleep and dream of him SONG First Line: Slap that bass and I'll play the trumpet Last Line: And letters that may not reach you SONNET First Line: No roof so poor it does not shelter Last Line: If not seen, like the smudge of a star. SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION Poem Text First Line: Under the mattress was a day-old newspaper rolled into a scroll Last Line: Him and her, in the levitating bed, in the flames. Subject(s): Fire; Passion SPONTANEOUS GENERATION First Line: Like finding a ninth-grade algebra textbook in the attic Last Line: If you could hear the soundtrack of our minds %as they were,a generation ago SQUARE ROOT OF MINUS ONE First Line: Yes doesn't come without a struggle STAYING BEHIND First Line: The darkness comes up to the windows Subject(s): Science Fiction STEP AWAY First Line: A reporter from brill's content Last Line: Writing to talking, but that's just a guess SURVIVORS First Line: Thanks to the truth serum, no one forgot Last Line: Merely to have carried it was a moral action, %however futile, whatever the merits of the fiction THE ANATOMY OF YOUR BODY Poem Text First Line: I am buried in air, a whirlpool so yellow Subject(s): Relationships; Body, Human THE BREEDER'S CUP Poem Text First Line: They cannot keep the peace THE DESIRE FOR STRANGE CITIES First Line: Each street means something other than it says Last Line: Rio, buenos aires, haifa, hong kong, prague. Subject(s): Cities; Urban Life THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PEPSI AND COKE Poem Text First Line: Can't swim; uses credit cards and pills to combat Subject(s): Popular Culture - United States THE HEROIC COUPLE Poem Text First Line: To copy the same sentence each day of his life THE IDES OF MARCH Poem Text First Line: The origin of every fortune is a crime. Subject(s): March (month) THE MOMENT OF TRUTH Poem Text First Line: The pure poetry of paranoia was his as he emerged Subject(s): Cities; Urban Life THIS UNMENTIONABLE FEELING Poem Text First Line: Fire distorts. Water objects. Buttery fields Subject(s): Absence; Separation; Isolation TIMES SQUARE Poem Text First Line: His homage to the square was a cube of yellow light Subject(s): Times Square, New York TIMES SQUARE First Line: His homage to the square was a cube of yellow light Last Line: As large as manhattan and the rest of the united states Subject(s): Times Square, New York TO THE AUTHOR OF 'GLARE' Poem Text First Line: There comes a time when the story turns into twenty Subject(s): Poetry & Poets; Ammons, Archibald Randolph TO THE AUTHOR OF GLARE First Line: There comes a time when the same story turns into twenty Last Line: Were gone almost as soon as they arrived, hat and coat in hand TOWARD A DEFINITION OF LOVE Poem Text First Line: Another time they were making love. It's even better Subject(s): Love - Nature Of TOWARD A DEFINITION OF LOVE First Line: Another time they were making love. It's even better Last Line: Of the kids playing with a ball in the gutter Subject(s): Love - Nature Of TOWARD THE VANISHING POINT First Line: Various nostalgias: rock, scissor, and paper Last Line: The light was green. How much is the fine TWENTY QUESTIONS Poem Text First Line: Why did the moth fly into the flame? Was it for the same reason Subject(s): Middle Age; Man-woman Relationships; Conduct Of Life; Male-female Relations TWO SONNETS, IN 1972: 1. FEBRUARY Poem Text First Line: We make predictions. For a laugh. And scatter the future Subject(s): Future TWO SONNETS, IN 1972: 2. MAY Poem Text First Line: With little to do, and less to say Subject(s): Social Protest TWO SONNETS: 1 Poem Text First Line: It's hardly there, and then it vanishes Subject(s): Books; Forgetfulness; Reading TWO SONNETS: 2 Poem Text First Line: Listen! The garbage pouring down the chutes UNDER THE INFLUENCE First Line: The antithetical sense of primal rhymes, like 'womb' and to Last Line: On evenings influenced by aching athletic afternoons %and the difference a day makes, by the light o VENICE IS SINKING First Line: In new york we defy Last Line: That we'd still be here %as we are VIETNAM MEMORIAL First Line: We who didn't go to vietnam Last Line: Tagged and bagged and stacked, before the last %helicopter lifted off the embassy roof %and the war, VISIT First Line: One night at a bar his old college buddy allen Last Line: If she had disappeared--if she hadn't married him WHEN A WOMAN LOVES A MAN Poem Text First Line: When she says margarita she means daiquiri. Subject(s): Love - Nature Of; Drinks & Drinking; Absence; Wine; Separation; Isolation WHO SHE WAS First Line: She loved jumping on the trampoline Last Line: Missing her, wondering who she was WITH TENURE Poem Text First Line: If ezra pound were alive today Subject(s): Academia; Poetry & Poets; Pound, Ezra (1885-1972) WITH TENURE First Line: If ezra pound were alive today Last Line: The ketchup is stuck inside the bottle %the letter goes unanswered the bell doesn't ring Subject(s): Academia; Poetry And Poets; Pound, Ezra (1885-1972) WYSTAN HUGH AUDEN: A VILLANELLE First Line: Why shun a nude tag? |
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