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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: LEVERTOV, DENISE Matches Found: 1038 Levertov, Denise Poet's Biography 1038 poems available by this author ... ELSE A GREAT PRINCE IN PRISON LIES' First Line: All that blesses the step of the antelope ...THAT PASSETH ALL UNDERSTANDING' First Line: An awe so quiet %I don't know when it began Last Line: When is daybreak? 3 A.M., SEPTEMBER 1, 1969 First Line: Warm wind, the leaves %rustling without dryness Last Line: The crickets practice their religion of ectasy 3 SHORT SOLOS First Line: Softest of shadows Last Line: To splash down nearby on the waveless water 6:30 BUS, LATE MAY First Line: The mountain %a moonflower in late Last Line: Mutely %by arcane power %summons the moon 90TH YEAR First Line: High in the jacaranda shines the gilded thread Last Line: I am so tired,' she has written to me, 'of appreciating %the gift of life' A CALVARY PATH Poem Text First Line: Where the stone steps Subject(s): Christianity; Religion; Theology A CLEARING Poem Text First Line: What lies at the end of enticing Subject(s): Country Life; Landscape A CURE OF SOULS Poem Text First Line: The pastor / of grief and dreams Subject(s): Clergy; Priests; Rabbis; Ministers; Bishops A HAPPENING Poem Text First Line: Two birds, flying east, hit the night Subject(s): Birds; Shapeshifting A HUNDRED A DAY Poem Text First Line: Dear 19th century! Give me refuge Last Line: And was not seen as shocking, nor as omen Subject(s): Evolution; Extinct Animals A MAP OF THE WESTERN PART OF THE COUNTY OF ESSEX IN ENGLAND Poem Text First Line: Something forgotten for twenty years: though my fathers Subject(s): Essex, England; Landscape; Maps A RING OF CHANGES Poem Text First Line: Shells, husks, the wandering Subject(s): Casals, Pablo (1876-1973); Dreams; Love; Nature; Music & Musicians; Relationships; Nightmares A STRAW SWAN UNDER THE CHRISTMAS TREE Poem Text First Line: Its form speaks of gliding Subject(s): Swans A TIME PAST Poem Text First Line: The old wooden steps to the front door Subject(s): Marriage; Family Life; Relationships; Past; Human Behavior; Weddings; Husbands; Wives; Relatives; Conduct Of Life; Human Nature A TREE TELLING OF ORPHEUS Poem Text First Line: White dawn. Stillness. When the rippling began Subject(s): Environment; Music & Musicians; Trees; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation A VISION Poem Text First Line: Two angels, among the throng of angels Subject(s): Angels ABEL'S BRIDE Poem Text First Line: Woman fears for man, he goes Subject(s): Abel; Women ABEL'S BRIDE First Line: Woman fears for man, he goes Last Line: Is a cave, there are bones at the hearth Subject(s): Abel; Women ABOUT MARRIAGE Poem Text First Line: Don't lock me in wedlock, I want Subject(s): Marriage; Weddings; Husbands; Wives ABOUT MARRIAGE First Line: Don't lock me in wedlock, I want Last Line: Airy space, not %locked in ABOUT POLITICAL ACTION IN WHICH EACH INDIVIDUAL ACTS FROM THE HEART First Line: When solitaries draw close, releasing %each solitude into its blossoming Last Line: Great energy flows from solitude, %and great power from communion ABRUPTLY First Line: The last warm day, I caught Last Line: Autumn had come ABSENCE First Line: Here I lie asleep ABSENTEE First Line: Uninterpreted, the days ACHE OF MARRIAGE Last Line: Two by two in the ark of %the ache of it Subject(s): Love - Marital ACOLYTE First Line: The large kitchen is almost dark Last Line: Bread that is more than bread ACTION First Line: I can lay down that history Last Line: The limits and depths of power ADAM'S COMPLAINT First Line: Some people ADVENT 1966 Poem Text First Line: Because in vietnam the vision of a burning babe Subject(s): Vietnamese Conflict (1961-1975); Advent; War Atrocities; Social Commentaries ADVENT 1966 First Line: Because in vietnam the vision of a burning babe Last Line: The delicate, firm, whole flesh of the still unburned ADVISING MYSELF First Line: When the world comes to you m;uffled as through a glass Last Line: Burning with joy or despair, you've known she was right AFAR (2), SELS First Line: The first poem %becomes the last Last Line: Enclosed in the lucid %amber of the world %becomes the first AFTER MINDWALK First Line: Once we've laboriously Last Line: Pervades, elusive but persistent Subject(s): Christianity; Religion AFTER MINDWALK Poem Text First Line: Once we've laboriously AGAIN THAT OTHER AGAINST INTRUSION First Line: When my friend drove up the mountain Last Line: At rest on sustaining air; and that its vanishings %are needful, as silence is to music? AGE OF TERROR First Line: Between the fear Last Line: The broken dead? AGON First Line: The sea barely crinkled, breathing Last Line: The sun is already gasping free AIRSHOW PRACTICE First Line: Sinister wreathing mist in midsummer sky Last Line: A violent awe, numb to all else ALCHEMY First Line: Deep night, deep woods Last Line: Brighter than its own %fogmuffled radiance ALICE TRANSFIXED First Line: When your huge face ALIENATION IN SILICON VALLEY First Line: I'd like to invoke a different world Last Line: Vanished, that field built over ALMOST-ISLAND First Line: The woods which give me their silence Last Line: Or ever could know it, space ALONGSIDE First Line: Catbird cadenzas from the bushes Last Line: Soon enough it will be noon, and hot, and silent ALTARS First Line: Again before your altar, silent lord Last Line: After a day of looking for work ALTARS IN THE STREET First Line: Children begin at dawn nimbly to build AN EMBROIDERY Poem Text First Line: Rose red's hair is brown as fur Subject(s): Fairy Tales AN INTERIM Poem Text First Line: While the war drags on, always worse Subject(s): Vietnamese Conflict (1961-1975); War Atrocities; Social Commentaries ANAMNESIS AT THE FAULTLINE First Line: In each house, imprinted Last Line: Gold of its aura ANCIENT AIRS AND DANCES First Line: I knew too well Subject(s): Love - Complaints ANCIENT AIRS AND DANCES First Line: I knew too well Last Line: Trying to drag me with you? Subject(s): Love - Complaints ANCIENT CAT First Line: Cat %old as this village ANCIENT STAIRWAY First Line: Footsteps like water hollow Last Line: Downward or upward? ANCIENT TREE First Line: Can't get that tune %out of my head' Last Line: A few apples %yellow in silver fog ANIMAL RIGHTS First Line: Pig and wasp are robbed of their names ANIMAL SPIRITS Poem Text First Line: When I was five and Subject(s): Animals; Children; Childhood ANIMAL SPIRITS First Line: When I was five and Last Line: Wanting some absolute, some exhaustion Subject(s): Animals; Children ANNUALS First Line: All I planted came up Last Line: In the sober wonder of %green healthy leaves? ANNUNCIATION First Line: We know the scene: the room, variously furnished Last Line: Courage unparalleled, %opened her utterly ANOTHER JOURNEY First Line: From a world compassed, closed to us Last Line: Snowflakes glitter there, and melt ANOTHER REVENANT Poem Text First Line: One long-dead / returned for a night Subject(s): Christianity; Religion; Theology ANOTHER REVENANT First Line: One long-dead %returned for a night Last Line: A fabric %one with our listening Subject(s): Christianity; Religion ANOTHER SPRING Poem Text First Line: In the gold mouth of a flower Subject(s): Spring; Death; Dead, The ANTEROOM First Line: Out of this afternoon whose light is broken ANTIPHON First Line: And then once more Last Line: Soaks the ground and its wintering seeds APRIL IN OHIO First Line: Each day Last Line: Are melting in tulip-cups ARCTIC SPRING First Line: The polar she-bear, dirty ivory Last Line: Strange wonders of air and light ARE WE RULED BY THE WIND ARRIVAL (NORTH WALES, 1897) First Line: The orphan arrived in outlandish hat Last Line: Golden glory broke forth and the hills %slipped like lambs ARRIVED First Line: Away from home Last Line: From yesterday to today ART OF THE OCTOPUS: VARIATIONS ON A FOUND THEME First Line: The octopus is a solitary creature, and for it Last Line: Towards everything they too begin %the solitary dance ARTIST TO INTELLECTUAL (POET TO EXPLAINER) First Line: The lovely obvious! The feet Last Line: Worm all over? My own %orient! AS THE MOON WAS WANING First Line: Small intimations of destiny wove Last Line: A summons I'd not resist ASCENSION Poem Text First Line: Stretching himself as if again Subject(s): Ascension Day; Religion; Theology ASCENSION First Line: Stretching himself as if again Last Line: Mothering his birth: %torture and bliss Subject(s): Ascension Day; Religion AT DAVID'S GRAVE First Line: Yes, he is here in this Last Line: Never cold in the field of graves AT ONE First Line: The mountain's spine, the cow's ridge AT THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT NOVEMBER 15, 1969 Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Brown gas-fog, white Subject(s): Social Commentaries AT THE MASS AVE POETRY HAWKERS' READING First Line: When even craning my neck ATHANOR First Line: Tempered wood. Wrought light. Carved AUGUST DAYBREAK First Line: Slowly the crows patrol the parapet AUGUST HOUSEPLANT First Line: Is there someone AUTUMN JOURNEY First Line: Out of the autumn like a blade AUTUMNAL First Line: Through the high leafy branches %rush of wind-flood. Gleam Last Line: Silted over, under %the desert tides? AVOWAL First Line: As swimmers dare %to lie face to the sky Last Line: That all-surrounding grace AWARE Poem Text First Line: When I opened the door Subject(s): Vines & Vinyards AWARE First Line: When I opened the door Last Line: The door by fractions, eavesdrop %peacefully BALANCE First Line: At the door, some never, some let it be Last Line: Slowly and silently has ripped the silk of evening BARRICADES First Line: If now you cannot hear me, it is because BATTERERS First Line: A man sits by the bedside Last Line: He is terrified. Why had he %never seen, before, what she was? %what if she stops breathing? BEARING THE LIGHT First Line: Rain-diamonds, this winter morning Last Line: Shared out in endless abundance BECCA First Line: Becca. Each washday Last Line: Yes, and evenings too are beautiful BEDTIME Poem Text First Line: We are a meadow where the bees hum Subject(s): Love BEDTIME First Line: We are a meadow where the bees hum Last Line: Surrounds our warm bed, and though %by day we are singular and often lonely Subject(s): Love BEGINNERS First Line: From too much love of living, %hope and desire set free Last Line: Complete its gesture, %so much is in bud BEGINNING OF WISDOM First Line: You have brought me so far Last Line: I know so little. %you have brought me so far BEYOND THE END First Line: In 'nature' there's no choice BEYOND THE FIELD First Line: Light, flake by flake touching down on surface tension Last Line: In tall grass near the fence of the mind's field BIAFRA BLAKE'S BAPTISMAL FONT First Line: Behind the tree the hands %of eve and adam almost %meet Last Line: The sky's dome %upturned, an unknown cosmos BLESSING First Line: Hovering light embraces Last Line: Of downy yellow, embrace without pressure of weight, %compassionate light BLESSING First Line: Your river is in full flood,' she said BLIND MAN'S HOUSE AT THE EDGE OF THE CLIFF First Line: At the jutting rim of the land he lives BLUE AFRICA First Line: As they roam over grassland BLUE RIM OF MEMORY First Line: The way sorrow enters the bone Last Line: And stains the sky yellow %to glow at midnight BOOK WITHOUT WORDS First Line: The gray waves gnash BRAIDING First Line: The way the willow-bark %braids its furrows Last Line: Over the river shallows, %assenting, affirming BRASS TACKS First Line: The old wooden house a soft BREATHING First Line: An absolute %patience Last Line: Happiness itself, a breathing %too quiet Subject(s): Environment BRIDE First Line: They sent me away to be bred Last Line: But now I carried in me %the fruit of my mating BRILLIANT SKY First Line: Never between the branches has the sky BROKEN GHAZALS First Line: Each life spins BROKEN PACT First Line: A face ages quicker than a mind Last Line: Unsure how to proceed BROKEN SANDAL First Line: Dreamed the thong of my sandal broke Last Line: Where am I standing, if I'm %to stand still now? BROTHER IVY First Line: Between road and sidewalk, the broadleafed ivy Last Line: The relation is reciprocal. The ivy %meets its obligation by pure %undoubtable being BRUCKNER First Line: Angel with heavy wings Last Line: Listing heavenward BULLFROGS TO FIREFLIES TO MOTHS First Line: At the dump bullfrogs BUS First Line: The turnpike, without history, a function Last Line: A world of will and function BY RAIL THROUGH THE EARTHLY PARADISE, PERHAPS BEDFORDSHIRE First Line: The fishermen among the fireweed Subject(s): Environment; Fields; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation; Pastures; Meadows; Leas BY RAIL THROUGH THE EARTHLY PARADISE, PERHAPS BEDFORDSHIRE First Line: The fishermen among the fireweed Last Line: An angler's fly %lost in the sedge to watch the centuries Subject(s): Environment; Fields CABBAGE FIELD First Line: Both taine and the inland english child Last Line: Anything but the sea? Subject(s): Cabbage; Environment; Fields CABDRIVER'S SMILE First Line: Tough guy. Star of david %and something in hebrew-a motto Last Line: -immortalized for the cops, for his fares, for the world- %to be looking his best CAEDMON Poem Text First Line: All others talked as if Subject(s): Caedmon (7th Century); Christianity; Religion; Theology CAEDMON First Line: All others talked as if Last Line: And pulled my voice %into the ring of the dance Subject(s): Caedmon (7th Century); Christianity; Religion CALVARY PATH First Line: Where the stone steps Last Line: Cross of the calvary Subject(s): Christianity; Religion CANCION Poem Text First Line: When I am the sky Subject(s): Women CANCION First Line: When I am the sky Last Line: Poems force the lock of my throat Subject(s): Women CANDLEMAS First Line: With certitude CANDLES IN BABYLON Poem Text First Line: Through the midnight streets of babylon Subject(s): Babylon CANDLES IN BABYLON First Line: Through the midnight streets of babylon Last Line: Home to a calm dawn and %the work we had just begun Subject(s): Babylon CAPTIVE FLOWER Poem Text First Line: This morning's morning-glory Subject(s): Flowers; Morning Glories CAPTIVE FLOWER First Line: This morning's morning-glory Subject(s): Flowers; Morning Glories CARAPACE First Line: I am growing mine CAT AS CAT First Line: The cat on my bosom Last Line: Not mine. I-thou, cat, I-thou Subject(s): Animals; Cats CATPIG First Line: John the cat %is most my brother, %almost pig Last Line: Pepper each other's %somber faces CELEBRATION Poem Text First Line: Brilliant, this day—a young virtuoso of a day Last Line: With the claims of reasonable gloom Subject(s): Nature CELEBRATION First Line: Brilliant, this day - a young virtuoso of a day Last Line: With the claims of reasonable gloom CEREMONIES First Line: The ash tree drops the few dry leaves it bore in may CERTAINTY First Line: They have refined the means of destruction Last Line: Means death, death, death and death CHANGE First Line: For years the dead Last Line: Out from within one's wideopen eyes CHANT: SUNSET, SOMERVILLE, LATE FALL '75 First Line: Cloudy luminous rose-mallow sundown Last Line: Breathing %close to us %dark, soft CHARGE First Line: Returning to all the unsaid CHEKHOV ON THE WEST HEATH First Line: A young girl in a wheelchair, %another girl pushing the chair Last Line: Who you were, who you are, everpresent, vivid, %luminous dust CHILDHOOD'S END First Line: The world alive with love, where leaves tremble Last Line: They find it, wound about them like a cloud CHILL First Line: Mother and father have fulfilled their promise Last Line: Strewn in ivy, %and old feathers, ragged? CHRISTMAS 1944 Poem Text First Line: Bright cards above the fire bring no friends near Subject(s): Christmas; World War Ii; Nativity, The; Second World War CHRISTMAS 1944 First Line: Bright cards above the fire bring no friends near Last Line: Hearing hatred crackle in the coal, %the voice of treason, the voice of love Subject(s): Christmas; World War Ii CLARITAS Poem Text First Line: The all-day bird, the artist Subject(s): Nature; Sparrows CLARITAS First Line: The all-day bird, the artist Last Line: Light %light light light CLEARING First Line: What lies at the end of enticing Last Line: At the end of enticing driveways CLOAK First Line: And I walked naked %from the beginning Last Line: Eyes looking out, %a longing silent at song's core CLOSED WORLD First Line: The house-snake dwells here still Last Line: In dry indifferent glare in my mind's eye %wavered but burned on CLOUD POEMS: 1. THE CLOUD First Line: We have entered sadness %as one enters a mountain cloud Last Line: Cloudy sadness, vague arms around us, %carries us like a bundle CLOUD POEMS: 2. THE RECOLLECTION First Line: There was once a cloud-remember? Last Line: Rivers, fold and fields, gleaming villages CLOUD POEMS: 3. THE CUTTING-BEAM First Line: Imagine this blur of chill, white, gray, vague, sadness %buried off Last Line: And oh, can the great and golden light %warm our flesh that has grown so cold? CLOUDS Poem Text First Line: The clouds as I see them, rising Subject(s): Love - Loss Of; Death; Clouds; Man-woman Relationships; Dead, The; Male-female Relations CLOUDS First Line: The clouds as I see them, rising Last Line: In pomp advancing, pursuing %the fallen sun COLD SPRING First Line: Twenty years, forty years, it's nothing Last Line: What if my poem is deathsongs COME INTO ANIMAL PRESENCE Poem Text COME INTO ANIMAL PRESENCE Last Line: An old joy returns in holy presence Subject(s): Animals; Nature COMMON GROUND First Line: To stand on common ground Last Line: Sing to each other across the cold valleys COMMON GROUND, SELS First Line: Not 'common speech' %a dead level Last Line: Sing to each other across the cold valleys Subject(s): Poetry And Poets; Whitman, Walt (1819-1891) COMPLAINT AND REJOINDER First Line: There's a kind of despair, when your friends Last Line: In a village too small to contain %a single stranger COMPLICITY First Line: On athe young tree's highest twig COMPOSITION First Line: Two rooms away, seen through the open door Last Line: This peaceful joy had blessed an autumnal morning CONCORDANCE First Line: Brown bird, irresolute as a dry Last Line: Till then attended to CONCURRENCE First Line: Each day's terror, almost Last Line: The first sunlight CONSULTING THE ORACLE First Line: I asked a blind man the way east Last Line: Sure of his felt way, %silent CONTINENT First Line: In canada, a sense %of weight, of burden Last Line: Not ethereal but poignant, a head %crowned with carved ice CONTINUUM First Line: Some beetle trilling %its midnight utterance Last Line: Its brood of minute stars %in the cracked flagstone CONTRABAND Poem Text First Line: The tree of knowledge was the tree of reason Subject(s): God; Religion; Theology CONTRABAND First Line: The tree of knowledge was the tree of reason Last Line: Splinters of fire, a strain of music heard, %then lost, then heard again Subject(s): God; Religion CONTRASTING GESTURES First Line: Coots, heads bobbing, forever urging themselves Last Line: But their work. The plunge itself %their desire, a way to besubsumed, consumed utterly %into their w CONVERSATION IN MOSCOW First Line: Red wine %from the %black sea. %glasses %filled and refilled Last Line: Grief and delight entwined in the dark down there CONVERSION OF BROTHER LAWRENCE First Line: What leafless tree plunging %into what pent sky was it Last Line: A stone before the carver,' %you 'entered into yourself' COUNTING SHEEP First Line: Mexico city - smog and light but no color CRAVING First Line: Wring the swan's neck, seeking %a little language of drops of blood Last Line: Tremble and speak %if you draw near them CREATURE TO CREATURE First Line: Almost too late to walk in the woods, but I did Last Line: Steady, acknowledging, unbiased CROSSPURPOSES First Line: With dread she heard the letter %fall into the drop Last Line: Two pairs of eyes looking past each other %to different distances CROW SPRING First Line: The crows are tossing themselves Last Line: How they scoop themselves %up from airy nadirs! CRY First Line: No pulsations CRYPTIC SIGN First Line: August. The woods are silent Last Line: To somber gleaming CULT OF RELICS First Line: My father's serviette ring Last Line: To put their lips to the true chalice CURVE First Line: Along the tracks DAILY BREAD First Line: A gull far-off Last Line: This is the day that the lord hath made, %let us rejoice and be glad in it DANCE MEMORIES First Line: Plie, the knees bend DANGER MOMENTS First Line: Some days, some moments Last Line: They do, for now DARK LOOKS First Line: Strange: today the mountain Last Line: Of those unforeseeable words DARK SUMMER DAY First Line: I want some funny jazz band DAUGHTER (1) First Line: When she was in the strangers' house Last Line: For a year, for seven years, for a century DAUGHTER (2) First Line: Heading south, above %thick golden surf of cloud Last Line: To put whatever it was, now, %no more chance DAY BEGINS First Line: A headless squirrel, some blood Last Line: Almost a transparent gray, %their dark veins %bruise-blue DAY LONGS FOR THE EVENING First Line: The zenith longs for the banal horizon DAY THE AUDIENCE WALKED OUT ON ME, AND WHY First Line: Like this it happened Last Line: No one desecrated the white folks' chapel, %because no memorial service was held Subject(s): Kent State University - Riot, 1970 DEAD First Line: Earnestly I looked into their abandoned faces Last Line: A heavy thick silence in its place DEAD BUTTERFLY First Line: Now I see its whiteness Last Line: Their rockgreen color and the bold %cut of its wings Subject(s): Butterflies; Insects DEATH IN MEXICO First Line: Even two weeks after her fall Last Line: Was a hostage. Old gods %took back their own DEATH PSALM: O LORD OF MYSTERIES First Line: She grew old. %she made ready to die Last Line: Past the open, %ancient, %courteously waiting life DEATHLY DIVERSIONS First Line: In dark slick as DECEMBER VENICE First Line: Up-ended under the sea, a forest supports the decaying DECIPHERINGS First Line: When I lose my center %of gravity Last Line: Makes in one's ears %transformed DEFEAT First Line: Wanted %to give away pride DEFEAT IN THE GREEN MOUNTAINS First Line: On a dull day she goes DEPTHS First Line: When the white fog burns off DESCENDING SEQUENCE First Line: What I thought to be a river Last Line: As if in fear DESOLATE LIGHT First Line: We turn to history looking %for vicious certainties through which Last Line: Drop me back in the well. %no avail DESPAIR Poem Text First Line: While we were visiting david's grave Subject(s): Graves; Tombs; Tombstones DESPAIR First Line: While we were visiting david's grave Subject(s): Graves DIALOGUE First Line: I am an object to you,' he said DISCLOSURE First Line: From the shrivelling gray %silk of its cocoon Last Line: Some primal-shaped, plain-winged, day-flying thing DISTANCE First Line: While we lie in the road to block traffic from the air-force base Last Line: That steady courage, win %such flame-crowns? DISTANCED First Line: Shepherds in summer pastures DIVORCING Poem Text First Line: One garland / of flowers, leaves, thorns Subject(s): Divorce DIVORCING First Line: One garland %of flowers, leaves, thorns Last Line: To see if we can survive, %severed Subject(s): Divorce DOG OF ART First Line: That dog with daisies for eyes Last Line: Of art turns to the world %the quietness of his eyes Subject(s): Animals; Dogs DOGBROTHERS First Line: Pigalone. Sylvia. %sylvia orphan onlypig Last Line: I, sylvia, %am dog not pig DOM HELDER CAMARA AT THE NUCLEAR TEST SITE First Line: Dom helder, octagenarian wisp Last Line: Dances at the turning core DON'T YOU HEAR THAT WHISTLE BLOWIN' ... First Line: The 4 a.M. Freight comes pounding and shaking through the fall night Subject(s): Railroads; Railways; Trains DON'T YOU HEAR THAT WHISTLE BLOWIN' ... First Line: The 4 a.M. Freight comes pounding and shaking through the fall night Last Line: To share a vision with you and find I'm dreaming Subject(s): Railroads DOORKEY FOR CORDOVA First Line: And light made of itself an amber DOUBLE VISION First Line: Artery of ice Last Line: Not to be denied DOWN UNDER First Line: Bloodred, viridian, poison aqua Last Line: Aboriginal mystery DRAGON OF REVOLUTIONARY LOVE First Line: All the grievous wounds the murderers Last Line: The spirit-dragon %flies alongside them DRAGONFLY-MOTHER First Line: I was setting out from my house Last Line: Acts os passage, hovering %journeys over the fathomless waters Subject(s): Dragonflies DRAWN IN AIR First Line: The arc of branch is not perfect Last Line: A pleasure in simply %line as line DREAM First Line: Someone imagined DREAM 'CELLO First Line: When he improvised, from what DREAM INSCAPE First Line: Mycelium, the delicate white threads Last Line: Beam by beam away, splintered DREAM INSTRUCTION First Line: In the language-root place (a wooden Last Line: Wooden cave, home %of shadow and flame, of %language, gradual stillness, %blessing DREAM: CHATEAU DE GALAIS First Line: In dream you ask me %to care for your child while its mother Last Line: Known to our minds, of seeking each other, %of joy DURING A SON'S DANGEROUS ILLNESS First Line: You could die before me- Last Line: The other %tasting, in fear, the %desolation of %survival DURING THE EICHMANN TRIAL: 1. WHEN WE LOOK UP Poem Text First Line: He had not looked Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews; Shoah; Judaism DURING THE EICHMANN TRIAL: 1. WHEN WE LOOK UP First Line: He had not looked Last Line: Does not know: we are members %one of another Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews DURING THE EICHMANN TRIAL: 2. THE PEACHTREE First Line: The danube orchards Last Line: Death goes indoors %exhausted DURING THE EICHMANN TRIAL: 3. CRYSTAL NIGHT First Line: From blacked-out streets Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews; Shoah; Judaism DURING THE EICHMANN TRIAL: 3. CRYSTAL NIGHT First Line: From blacked-out streets Last Line: Each a mirror %for man's eys Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews DURING THE EICHMANN TRIAL: 3. CRYSTAL NIGHT First Line: From blacked-out streets Last Line: For man's eyes DWELLERS AT THE HERMITAGE First Line: Grief sinks and sinks %into the old mineshaft %under their house Last Line: Our singed friends, %leave with us, in trust DYPTICH Poem Text First Line: Though no wind is blowing, the lake Subject(s): Aging DYPTICH First Line: Though no wind is blowing, the lake Last Line: Her snows are gray Subject(s): Aging EARLIEST SPRING Poem Text First Line: Iron scallops border the path, barely Subject(s): Flowers; Gardens & Gardening EARLIEST SPRING First Line: Iron scallops border the path, barely Last Line: Brings us to bells or flames Subject(s): Flowers; Gardens And Gardening EARLY First Line: From behind the hill EARTH DUST First Line: So slowly I am dying EARTH WORM First Line: The worm artist Last Line: Aerates %the ground of his living EARTHWARDS First Line: Blue of ireland quickens in the sea EARTHWOMAN AND THE WATERWOMAN First Line: The earthwoman by her oven Last Line: In dragonfly dresses and blue shoes EFFACEMENT First Line: Today the mountain Last Line: With tobias on dusty roads EL SALVADOR: REQUIEM AND INVOCATION First Line: Blood rape kill mutilate death-squad massacre ELEPHANT EARS First Line: I've given up wearing earrings Last Line: From long and uneven lobes? ELLE EST DEBROUILLARDE' First Line: High on vitamins, I demonstrate to my friends Last Line: Is 'the fine art of unhappiness' truly %losing its allure? ELUSIVE First Line: A mountain comes and goes Last Line: Slips by you with each recurrence EMBLEM (1) First Line: Dreaming, I rush %thrust from the cave of the winds Last Line: Far and far to the horizon's bent firtree EMBLEM (2) First Line: A silver quivering cocoon that shakes Last Line: Its dreams, its creased %compacted wings EMBRACING THE MULTIPEDE: 1. EMBRACING THE MULTIPEDE First Line: On the dream sidewalk Last Line: To give it your heart, a work of mercy EMBRACING THE MULTIPEDE: 2. QUESTIONING THE CREATURE First Line: Where are you going, you Last Line: And we'd seek him EMBRACING THE MULTIPEDE: 3. PONDERING THE CREATURE First Line: Return to my dreams Last Line: To seek and be found EMBRACING THE MULTIPEDE: 4. CREATURE ABSENT: AN UNDERPASS First Line: Cherish the mystery Last Line: Were sounding in a tunnel EMBRASURE First Line: The wind behind the window moves the leaves EMBROIDERY First Line: Rose red's hair is brown as fur Subject(s): Fairy Tales EMBROIDERY (IV) SWISS CHEESE First Line: Lost wooden poem, %cows and people wending Last Line: Was twenty years ago, I need it now EMISSARY First Line: Twice now this woman for whom my unreasonable dislike Last Line: I shall refuse to take what is mine %from her gray hands EMPTY HANDS First Line: In the night foundations crumble Last Line: Into your empty hands ENDURING LOVE First Line: It was the way Last Line: Visiting time from eternity ENGLISH FIELD IN THE NUCLEAR AGE First Line: To render it!-this moment, %haze and halos of Last Line: Holds its breath, for %this minute at least was %not the last ENGRAVED First Line: A man and woman Last Line: Night has advanced upon them ENTERING ANOTHER CHAPTER First Line: The nights pass, sleep and dreams, the ship rolling and creaking ENTR'ACT: AT THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT NOVEMBER 15, 1969 First Line: Brown gas-fog, white %beneath the street lamps Last Line: Taste. No life %other, apart from ENTR'ACTE (2) First Line: Last of october, light thinning ENTR'ACTE: 'LET US SING UNTO THE LORD A NEW SONG' First Line: There's a pulse in richard Last Line: The singing begins ENTRE LOUP ET CHIEN First Line: Night's broken wing Last Line: When dawn has flared and faded ENVY First Line: The bare trees EPILOGUE Poem Text First Line: I thought I had found a swan Subject(s): Love EPILOGUE First Line: I thought I had found a swan Last Line: I thought I was wounded to the core %but I was only bruised Subject(s): Love EQUILIBRIUM First Line: How easy it is to return EROS AT TEMPLE STREAM Poem Text First Line: The river in its abundance Subject(s): Lust EROS AT TEMPLE STREAM First Line: The river in its abundance Last Line: Sleek and %on fire Subject(s): Lust ESTRANGEMENT First Line: I have seen days now EVENING TRAIN Poem Text First Line: An old man sleeping in the evening train Subject(s): Memory; Old Age; Railroads; Railways; Trains EVENING TRAIN First Line: An old man sleeping in the evening train Last Line: Rocks and bounces onward through sleeping fields, %our unknown stillness %holding level as water sea Subject(s): Memory; Old Age; Railroads EVERY DAY First Line: Three men spoke to me today EVERYTHING THAT ACTS IS ACTUAL Poem Text First Line: From the tawny light Subject(s): Autumn; Imagination; Relationships; Truth; Fall; Fancy EVERYTHING THAT ACTS IS ACTUAL First Line: From the tawny light %from the rainy nights Last Line: To what you see of me is %that grasp alone EXCHANGE First Line: Sea gulls inland EYE MASK First Line: In this dark I rest Last Line: Not ready, not ready at all EYES AND NO-EYES First Line: Sewing together the bits of data %abandoned by the retina Last Line: Darker purple %that lead to like strips of prayer rug FACE First Line: When love, exaltation, the holy awe Last Line: The day %not yet dawning FACE TO FACE Poem Text First Line: A nervous smile as gaze meets Subject(s): Love FACE TO FACE First Line: A nervous smile as gaze meets Last Line: Heavy we are, our flesh %of stone and velvet goes down, %goes down Subject(s): Love FAIR WARNING First Line: Rain and the dark. The owl Last Line: His tone much like the dove's FAITHFUL LOVER First Line: Play with a few decades, shift them Last Line: Seen then re-seen, recognized, wrought in myth FANTASIESTUCK First Line: My delicate ariel'- %can you imagine Last Line: Silvery ariel, %for your brief rest FEBRUARY EVENING IN BOSTON, 1971 First Line: The trees' black hair electric FEBRUARY EVENING IN NEW YORK Poem Text First Line: As the stores close, a winter light Subject(s): New York City; Evening; Winter; Aging; Conduct Of Life; Manhattan; New York, New York; The Big Apple; Sunset; Twilight FEBRUARY EVENINING IN NEW YORK First Line: As the stores close, a winter light FEET First Line: In the forties, wartime london, I read Last Line: The endless foot-after-foot journey of peasant celery FELLOW PASSENGERS First Line: A handsome fullgrown child, he seems Last Line: Innocent and impatient, %at her tense thighs FIRMAMENT First Line: Fish in the sky of water - silverly Last Line: With the aqueous everything it shines in FIRST LOVE Poem Text First Line: It was a flower Subject(s): Love FIRST LOVE First Line: It was a flower Last Line: That once-in-a-lifetime %secret communion Subject(s): Love FIVE-DAY RAIN First Line: The washing hanging from the lemon tree FLICKERING MIND Poem Text First Line: Lord, not you, / it is I who am absent Subject(s): Christianity; Religion; Spiritual Life; Women & Religion; Theology FLICKERING MIND First Line: Lord, not you, %it is I who am absent Last Line: The sapphire I know is there? Subject(s): Christianity; Religion; Spiritual Life; Women And Religion FLOWERS BEFORE DARK First Line: Stillness of flowers. Colors Last Line: Stiller than silence FLOWERS OF SOPHIA First Line: Flax, chicory, scabious Last Line: Wise beyond comprehension FLYING HIGH First Line: So much is happening above the overcast Last Line: Sculpt themselves and winnow %epic epiphanies FOLDING A SHIRT FOOTPRINTS First Line: Someone crossed this field last night FOR A CHILD First Line: In the field, a %dark thing' Last Line: No, it was a shy thing, %keeping still to look at me' FOR BET First Line: You danced ahead of me, I took Last Line: Yes, and evenings too are beautiful' FOR CHILE, 1977 First Line: It was a land where the winged mind %could alight Last Line: Of broken fingers %a song of revolution reborn? FOR INSTANCE Poem Text Recitation First Line: Often, it's nowhere special: maybe Subject(s): Environment; Nature; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation FOR INSTANCE First Line: Often, it's nowhere special: maybe Last Line: That inward cry again - %erde, du liebe Subject(s): Environment; Nature FOR NIKOLAI, MANY THOUSAND MILES AWAY First Line: The procession that has been crossing Last Line: Felt but not understood, their will %remote FOR PAUL AND SALLY GOODMAN First Line: Between waking and sleeping I saw my life FOR STEVE Poem Text First Line: The morning after your midnight death Last Line: Which runs full tilt into absence Subject(s): Death; Mourning; Music & Musicians FOR STEVE BLEVINS First Line: The mornng after your midnight death Last Line: Which runs full tilt into absence FOR THE ASKING First Line: Augustine said his soul Last Line: Rose, and a skylight opened FOR THE BLIND First Line: Listen: the wind in new leaves Last Line: Is green. Light green. Not weightless, %light FOR THE NEW YEAR, 1981 First Line: I have a small grain of hope Last Line: Clumsy and earth-covered- %of grace FOR THOSE WHOM THE GODS LOVE LESS First Line: When you discover Last Line: Is other, unvoiced. You can, you must proceed FOR X... First Line: I've never written poems for you, have I Last Line: Like talking flemish on a bus in devon FOREST ALTAR, SEPTEMBER First Line: The gleam of thy drenched FOUR ALARM CLOCKS First Line: The deaf woman died on a windy night FRAGMENT First Line: Not free to love where their liking chooses FRAGMENT First Line: All one winter, in every crowded hall, %at every march and rally Last Line: You who were so many thousand miles away FRAGRANCE OF LIFE, ODOR OF DEATH Poem Text First Line: All the while among Subject(s): War FRAGRANCE OF LIFE, ODOR OF DEATH First Line: All the while among Last Line: I smell death Subject(s): War FREEDOM First Line: Perhaps we humans %have wanted god most as witness Last Line: To itself, flooded %with otherness FREEING OF THE DUST First Line: Unwrap the dust from its mummycloths Last Line: Caliban, push your tongue %heavy into the calyx FROM A PLANE First Line: Green water of lagoons, %brown water of a great river Last Line: Not torn apart, though raked and raked %by our claws FROM AFAR First Line: The world is round. %amber beads Last Line: As if in the middle of the %round world you could hear me? FROM BELOW First Line: I move among the ankles Last Line: So far above me into the light FROM THE IMAGE-FLOW - DEATH OF CHAUSSON, 1899 First Line: Green in his mind the bows flicker, flicker and stream FROM THE IMAGE-FLOW - SOUTH AFRICA 1986 First Line: Africa, gigantic slave-ship, not anchored yet not moving FROM THE IMAGE-FLOW - SUMMER OF 1986 First Line: These days - these years FROM THE ROOF First Line: This wild night, gathering the washing as if it were flowers Last Line: We are to live now in a new place FROM THE TRAIN, EASTWARD First Line: Furry blond wheatfield in Last Line: Green tones sustained, vast plainsong FUGITIVES First Line: The red cross vans, laden with tanks of Last Line: Westward to zones relief has already fled from GATHERED AT THE RIVER; FOR BEATRICE HAWLEY AND JOHN JAGEL Poem Text First Line: As if the trees were not indifferent Last Line: No pollen. Subject(s): Antinuclear Movement; Atomic Bomb - Victims; Hiroshima, Japan; Nagasaki, Japan; Nature; Nuclear War; Nuclear Freeze; Atomic Bomb; Hydrogen Bomb GAZE SALUTES LYONEL FEININGER WHILE CROSSING ... First Line: A certain delicacy in the desolation GIFT First Line: Just when you seem to yourself Last Line: This gift is your answer GIFTS First Line: I want to give away the warm coat GIRLS First Line: Not innocence; it was ignorance GLITTERING NOISE First Line: To tell the truth Last Line: In immense shoals, glittering %in the sea, like fire GOD OF FLOWERS First Line: Mouth, horn, cilia, sun GODDESS First Line: She in whose lipservice %I passed my time Last Line: Speaks in its own tongue, but returns %lie for lie! Subject(s): Women GOETHE'S BLUES: 1 First Line: The hills stirring under their woven Last Line: Thinking of youfr austere %compassion GOETHE'S BLUES: 2 First Line: Fame tastes 'sweet' to him Last Line: In a cube of plexiglass GOETHE'S BLUES: 3 First Line: Stop the coach! I want to get out and die Last Line: Driving away from the gates of paradise GOOD DREAM First Line: Rejoicing %because we had met again GOODBYE TO TOLERANCE Poem Text First Line: Genial poets, pink-faced Subject(s): Social Commentaries; Women; Poetry & Poets GOODBYE TO TOLERANCE First Line: Genial poets, pink-faced %earnest wits Last Line: Would flow and mingle %for joy GRACE-NOTE First Line: In sabath quiet, a street Last Line: Ornaments his with %fresh contempt GREAT BLACK HERON First Line: Since I stroll in the woods more often Last Line: Complete in herself as a heron GREAT WAVE First Line: With my brother I ran %willingly into the sea Last Line: Crystal of its %unfathomed purpose GREETING TO THE VIETNAMESE DELEGATES TO THE U.N. First Line: Our large hands %your small hands Last Line: Our large hands %your small hands GREY AUGUST First Line: The dog's thigh, the absurd heaven Last Line: Quivers, it will be, %for this day, %thunder, not war GREY SWEATERS First Line: You want your old grey sweater GRIEF First Line: When your voice breaks %I'm impaled on the jagged %edges of its fracture Last Line: Feet waving %wild and feeble GROWTH OF A POET First Line: He picks up crystal buttons from the ocean floor Last Line: Black. The deep song %delves GULF First Line: Far from our garden at the edge of a gulf GULF (II) First Line: My soul's a black boy with a long way to go ...' GYPSY'S WINDOW First Line: It seems a stage Last Line: Vase, look real, as unreal %as real roses Subject(s): Flowers; Poetry And Poets; Reality; Roses HANDS First Line: Don't forget the crablike %hands Last Line: Their diagnonals, in common clothes HE-WHO-CAME-FORTH First Line: Somehow nineteen years ago HEART First Line: At any moment the heart Subject(s): Hearts HEIGHTS, DEPTHS, SILENCE, UNCEASING SOUND OF THE SURF First Line: Are they birds or butterflies Last Line: The vast %ironic dark pacific HER DELIGHT First Line: I, sylvia, tell you, my piglets Last Line: I, sylvia, your mother, %have known %the grace of pig-joy HER DESTINY First Line: The beginning: piglet among piglets Last Line: Would be rich as creamy corn, %tasty as acorns HER JUDGEMENT First Line: I love my own humans and their friends Last Line: Without thought, without %respect for the spirit pig HER LAMENT First Line: When they caressed %and held in loving arms Last Line: How could a cherished piglet %have grown so tall? HER NIGHTMARE First Line: The dream is blood: I swim Last Line: My bowl of sleep %with terror, %with blood HER SADNESS First Line: When days are short, %mountains already Last Line: I know %too much about time for a pig HER SECRET First Line: In the human's house %fine things abound Last Line: Trinkets, toys- %civilization! HER SISTER First Line: Kaya, my gentle %jersey cowfriend, %you are no pig Last Line: Graygold side, %a bulwark %beside me HER TASK First Line: My piglets cling to me, %perfect, quickbreathing, plump Last Line: Pig-wisdom. O isis, bless %thy pig's piglets HER VISION First Line: My human love, my she-human, %speaks to me in piggish. She knows Last Line: O isis my goddess, %my goddess isis, %forget not thy pig HERESY First Line: When god makes dust of our cooling magma Last Line: In that bright veil to await %the common resurrection HERON I First Line: St. Simon heron Last Line: When he will upon his fish HERON II First Line: Elegantly gray, the blue heron Last Line: And look askance HIDDEN MONSTERS AT THE MOUNT AUBURN CEMETERY, A FOUND POEM First Line: I looked after the carving while it was executing at %the prison Last Line: Leaving the spectator to imagine what he pleases behind it HOLIDAY: 1. POSTCARD First Line: It's not that I can't %get by without you Last Line: How he turns to give it- %ah, to whom? HOLIDAY: 2. MEETING AGAIN First Line: At nepenthe, screaming %steller jays adorn Last Line: Best friends: I'll love you %always if you'll love me HOLIDAY: 3. TO EROS First Line: Eros, o eros, hail %thy palate, god who knows Last Line: Last sweet sigh of a %chapter's ending HOLIDAY: 4. LOVE LETTER First Line: Fragrant with sandalwood, with lightest %oil of almond Last Line: Upon the airy spaces where it's %so hard to find foothold HOLIDAY: 5. POSTCARD First Line: There's a thistle here %smells of meadowsweet Last Line: It says I miss you, breaking %quiet upon the dark sand HOLY ONE, BLESSED BE HE, WANDERS AGAIN First Line: Between the pages Last Line: For a stable's warmth %a birthplace HOPE IT'S TRUE First Line: Wonder if this very day the hunza HOPING First Line: All my life hoping the nightmare Last Line: Because decades brought no reassurance HUMAN BEING First Line: Human being -- walking Last Line: Into the day's brilliance HUNDRED A DAY First Line: Dear 19th century! Give me refuge Last Line: And was not seen as shocking, nor as omen Subject(s): Evolution; Extinct Animals HUNGER First Line: Black beans, white sunlight HUNTING THE PHOENIX First Line: Leaf through discolored manuscripts Last Line: And a twist of singing flame %rekindling HUT First Line: Mud and wattles. Round almost HYMN First Line: Had I died? Or was I Last Line: To see so well, though asleep, %though blind, %though gone from the earth HYMNS TO DARKNESS First Line: Beauty growls from the fertile dark Last Line: Unlit by even a candle HYPOCRITE WOMEN Poem Text First Line: Hypocrite women, how seldom we speak Subject(s): Hypocrisy; Women HYPOCRITE WOMEN First Line: Hypocrite women, how seldom we speak Last Line: With what frivolity we have pared them %like toenails, clipped them like ends of %split hair Subject(s): Hypocrisy; Women I LEARNED THAT HER NAME WAS PROVERB' Poem Text First Line: And the secret names / of all we meet who lead us deeper Subject(s): Christianity; Religion; Theology I LEARNED THAT HER NAME WAS PROVERB' First Line: And the secret names %of all we meet who lead us deeper Last Line: Where we shall know %what it is to arrive Subject(s): Christianity; Religion IDYLL First Line: The neighbor's black labrador, his owners Last Line: On hind legs to bend with his paws %the figtree's curving branches %and reach the sweet figs with hi IKON: THE HARROWING OF HELL Poem Text First Line: Down through the tomb's inward arch Subject(s): Future Life; Retribution; Eternity; After Life IKON: THE HARROWING OF HELL First Line: Down through the tomb's inward arch Last Line: To humble friends the joy %of giving him food - fish and a honeycomb ILLUSTRIOUS ANCESTORS Poem Text First Line: The rav Subject(s): Ancestors & Ancestry; Hasidism; Zalman, Shneur (1745-1813); Heritage; Heredity ILLUSTRIOUS ANCESTORS First Line: The rav Last Line: Would pause with his needle in the air Subject(s): Ancestors And Ancestry; Hasidism; Zalman, Shneur (1745-1813) IMMERSION First Line: There is anger abroad in the world, a numb thunder Last Line: Our own words are for us to speak, a way to ask and to answer IMPROBABLE TRUTH First Line: There are times %no one seems to notice Last Line: Only when sensing myself %too close to the deepening water IN ABEYANCE Poem Text First Line: No skilled hands Subject(s): Sea Voyages; Solitude; Loneliness IN CALIFORNIA DURING THE GULF WAR Poem Text First Line: Among the blight-killed eucalypts, among Subject(s): California; Gulf War (1991); Operation Desert Storm (1991) IN CALIFORNIA DURING THE GULF WAR First Line: Among the blight-killed eucalypts, among Last Line: Were not doves, there was no rainbow. And when it was claimed %the war had ended, it had not ended Subject(s): California; Gulf War (1991) IN CALIFORNIA: MORNING, EVENING, LATE JANUARY Poem Text First Line: Pale, then enkindled Subject(s): California; Labor & Laborers; Nature; Work; Workers IN CALIFORNIA: MORNING, EVENING, LATE JANUARY First Line: Pale, then enkindled IN LOVE First Line: Over gin and tonic (an unusual reat) the ancient poet Last Line: Diaphanous as those saris one can pass through a wedding ring IN MEMORY OF MURIEL RUKEYSER First Line: The last event %of black emphasis week Last Line: Now. Stop shaking. Imagine her. %she was a cathedral IN MEMORY: AFTER A FRIEND'S SUDDEN DEATH First Line: Others will speak of her spirit's tendrils reaching IN MIND Poem Text First Line: There's in my mind a woman Subject(s): Women IN MIND First Line: There's in my mind a woman Last Line: And torn taffeta, %who knows strange songs- %but she is not kind Subject(s): Women IN PRAISE OF ALLIUM Poem Text First Line: No one celebrates the allium Subject(s): Flowers; Gardens & Gardening IN PRAISE OF ALLIUM First Line: No one celebrates the allium Last Line: Gold fur voluptuously %brushing that dreamy mauve Subject(s): Flowers; Gardens And Gardening IN QUESTION First Line: A sunset of such aqueous hints, subdued Last Line: Can not be assumed IN SILENCE First Line: Clear from the terraced mountainside IN SUMMER (1) Poem Text First Line: When the light, late in the afternoon, pauses among Subject(s): Summer IN SUMMER (1) First Line: When the light, late in the afternoon, pauses among Last Line: The sunlight tarries with Subject(s): Summer IN SUMMER (2) Poem Text First Line: Night lies down / in the field when the moon Subject(s): Environment; Fields; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation; Pastures; Meadows; Leas IN SUMMER (2) First Line: Night lies down %in the field when the moon Last Line: Move on, stiff and %not yet awake Subject(s): Environment; Fields IN THAI BINH (PEACE) PROVINCE Poem Text First Line: I've used up all my film on bombed hospitals Subject(s): Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975 IN THAI BINH (PEACE) PROVINCE First Line: I've used up all my film on bombed hospitals Last Line: Common as any sparrow Subject(s): Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975 IN THE KITCHEN First Line: The fire crackles in the kitchen range, and big disheveled IN THE LAND OF SHINAR First Line: Each day the shadow swings Last Line: Fall upon us, the dwellers in shadow IN THE WOODS First Line: Everything is threatened, but meanwhile Last Line: That revolutionary 'presente IN TONGA THE SACRED BATS IN WHOM WE LIVE AND MOVE AND HAVE OUR BEING' First Line: Birds afloat in air's current Last Line: We inhale, exhale, inhale, %encompassed, encompassed INDIAN SUMMER First Line: Zones of flickering Last Line: Diaphanous light %are generous INHERITANCE Poem Text First Line: Even in her nineties she recalled Last Line: Once again to feel them soothe me. Subject(s): Memory; Montague, John (b. 1929) INITIATION First Line: Black %shining with a yellowish INSTANT First Line: We'll go out before breakfast, and get Last Line: For a lifetime's look, before the mist %draws in again INTIMATION (1) First Line: Some trick of light %in the reflection of sunny kitchen against Last Line: But very still, %facing november, %facing frost INTIMATION (2) First Line: I am impatient with these branches, this light INTRUSION Poem Text First Line: After I had cut off my hands Subject(s): Memory INTRUSION First Line: After I had cut off my hands Last Line: Came asking to be pitied Subject(s): Memory INVOCATION Poem Text First Line: Silent, about-to-be-parted-from house. Subject(s): Home; Farewell; Parting INVOCATION First Line: Silent, about-to-be-parted-from house ISIS SPEAKS First Line: Sylvia, my faithful %petpig, teacher %of humans, fount Last Line: There you shall live long, and at peace, %redreaming the lore of your destiny IT SHOULD BE VISIBLE First Line: If from space not only sapphire continents Last Line: Suffers a canker which is devouring it JACOB'S LADDER First Line: The stairway is not %a thing of gleaming strands Last Line: The poem ascends Subject(s): Jacob (bible); Religion JOIE DE VIVRE First Line: All that once hurt Last Line: The pulse of life-pain %strong again, count it, %fast but %not fluttering JOURNEYINGS First Line: Majestic insects buzz through the sky Last Line: Solemn filaments, our journeyings %wind through the overcast JOY First Line: Joy, the 'well...Joyfulness of Last Line: Returns, her heart lightens, %she savors the crust JUL-68 First Line: Topmost leaves of young oak, %young maple Last Line: It is that field I wake to, %a woman foolish with desire KEEPING TRACK First Line: Between chores KIN AND KIN First Line: Perhaps jeffers was right, our species KINDNESS First Line: Eyes of kindness that the dog had, %the 3-legged beggar dog Last Line: Its gift %for a while, and %wept in it, enabled KNOWING THE UNKNOWN First Line: Our trouble %is only the trouble anyone Last Line: Skeptical green world, that does not know us? KNOWING THE WAY First Line: The wood-dove utters L'ETE SE CLOT, SELS. First Line: Time %which will LA CORDELLE First Line: Be here LAMENTATION First Line: Grief, have I denied thee? Last Line: And the black plumes LAND OF DEATH-SQUADS First Line: The vultures thrive LAST HEAVY FAIRYTALE, IN WHICH ONE LAYS ONE'S HEART ... First Line: The room is small, the table plain LAST NIGHT'S DREAM First Line: I sing tree, making green LAYING THE DUST First Line: What a sweet smell rises Last Line: Smell sweeter than this %wet ground, suddenly black LE MOTIF First Line: Southwest the moon %full and clear Last Line: Shifting its planes and angles %yet again LEATHER JACKET First Line: She turns, eager LEAVING FOREVER Poem Text First Line: He says the waves in the ship's wake Subject(s): Sea Voyages LETTER First Line: You in your house among your roommate's plants Last Line: Hung from its faithful cord %level with heart's core LETTER TO A FRIEND First Line: As if we were sitting as we have done so often Last Line: See the whole of it. Then we'll divine %what fortune her gaze betokens LETTER TO MAREK ABOUT A PHOTOGRAPH First Line: This carpentered, unpainted, aging house Last Line: Silver that measures %the fever it is to be human LIBATION First Line: Raising our glasses, smilingly %we wish one another not luck Last Line: To admit our new lives have begun LIEBESTOD First Line: Where there is violet in the green of the sea LIFE AROUND US First Line: Poplar and oak awake Last Line: And wholly knew it LIFE AT WAR Poem Text First Line: The disasters numb within us Subject(s): Vietnamese Conflict (1961-1975); War Atrocities; Social Commentaries LIFE AT WAR First Line: The disasters numb within us Last Line: The deep intelligence living at peace, would have LIFE IN THE FOREST First Line: The woman whose hut was mumbled by termites Last Line: Bit and bit at her sense of loss LIFE IS NOT A WALK ACROSS A FIELD First Line: Crossing furrows from green hedge to hedge LIFE OF ART First Line: The borderland - that's where, if one knew how Last Line: What lies beyond the window, past the frame, beyond LIFE OF OTHERS First Line: Their high pitched baying Last Line: About and about the smoky map LIKE LOVING CHEKHOV First Line: Loving this man who is far away %is like loving anton chekhov Last Line: Familiar in the love of the unreachable dead LIKE NOAH'S RAINBOW First Line: And again - after an absence Last Line: I begin to lift my wings LINK First Line: Half memory of what my mother Last Line: Not-forgettings, to suffice %for its continuance LISTENING TO DISTANT GUNS First Line: The roses tremble; oh, the sunflower's eye Last Line: Betrays no whisper of the battle-scream LITTLE VISIT TO DOVES AND CHICKENS First Line: Demure and peaceful, quiet above Last Line: The need to press for a subtext, being so rare LIVING Poem Text First Line: The fire in leaf and grass Subject(s): Time LIVING First Line: The fire in leaf and grass Last Line: Each minute the last minute Subject(s): Time LIVING ALONE: 1 First Line: In this silvery now of living alone Last Line: Solitude within multitude seduced me early LIVING ALONE: 2 First Line: Some days, though, %living alone Last Line: Seems to have no buds, though LIVING ALONE: 3 First Line: I said, the summer garden I planted Last Line: Shall my life utter %to bring itself forth? LIVING FOR TWO First Line: Lily bloom, what ominous fallen crowfeathers of shadow Last Line: Of our covenant, enemy, burden, friend LIVING WITH A PAINTING Poem Text First Line: It ripens / while I sleep, afternoons, on the old sofa Subject(s): Painitings And Painters LIVING WITH A PAINTING First Line: It ripens LONDON PLANE First Line: Primrose dapple on grey. Majestic Last Line: With promise and history LONG WAY ROUND First Line: The solution,' they said to my friend Last Line: Swim for dear life, all of us-'not,' %as it has been said, 'not waving, %but drowning.' LOOK AT THE NIGHT (TEMPLE, EARLY '60S) First Line: The plough %the only constellation we are Last Line: The moon %high in her dominion LOOKING THROUGH First Line: White as cloud above Last Line: Real, unreal sky LOOKING, WALKING, BEING First Line: I look and look Last Line: Walking and looking, %through the world, %in it LOOKING-GLASS Poem Text First Line: I slid my face along to the mirror Subject(s): Mirrors; Self LOSING TRACK Poem Text First Line: Long after you have swung back Subject(s): Absence; Separation; Isolation LOSING TRACK First Line: Long after you have swung back Last Line: A light growth of green dreams dying LOVE OF MORNING First Line: It is hard sometimes to drag ourselves Last Line: That disregards our sloth, and this %calls us, calls us LOVE POEM First Line: What you give me is %the extraordinary sun Last Line: Warmth of the fall noonday %between the sheets in the dark LOVE POEM First Line: Swimming through dark, slow, %breaststroke Last Line: Full to the brim with moonlight %mirror LOVERS I First Line: With one I learned LOVERS II: REMINDER First Line: But that other ...' LUXURY First Line: To go by the asters Last Line: I see through my lashes the iridescence LYRE-TREE First Line: There was a dead tree in the woods Last Line: Lend me power to sing %the unheard music of that vanished lyre M.C.5 First Line: Not to blow the mind but MAD SONG Poem Text First Line: My madness is dear to me Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness MAD SONG First Line: My madness is dear to me Subject(s): Insanity MAGIC First Line: The brass or bronze cup, stroked at the rim Last Line: To cease when we cease %to listen MAKING PEACE Poem Text First Line: A voice from the dark called out, Subject(s): Peace; Poetry & Poets MAKING PEACE First Line: A voice from the dark called out Last Line: A vibration of light-facets %of the forming crystal MALICE OF INNOCENCE First Line: A glimpsed world, halfway through the film Last Line: Details of agony carefully into the night report Subject(s): Nurses MAN ALONE First Line: When the sun goes down, it writes MAN WEARING BIRD Poem Text First Line: I could be stone Subject(s): Christianity; Religion; Theology MAN WEARING BIRD First Line: I could be stone Subject(s): Christianity; Religion MANY MANSIONS First Line: What I must not forget %is the world of the white herons Last Line: Its clarity dwindles in our confusion, %the amulet of mercy MAP OF THE WESTERN PART OF THE COUNTY OF ESSEX IN ENGLAND First Line: Something forgotten twenty years: though my fathers Last Line: The walls of the garden, the first light MAPPEMONDE First Line: Nonchalant clouds below me MARIGOLD FROM NORTH VIETNAM First Line: Marigold resurrection flower MARRIAGE: 1 First Line: You have my %attention: which is Last Line: One from the other MARRIAGE: 2 First Line: I want to speak to you Last Line: Will speak to me MARTA (BRAZIL, 1928) First Line: A saxon peasant girl %darning a sock, is telling Last Line: A story without an ending %broken off in the telling MASQUERADE First Line: Today the mountain Last Line: Mountain, %dense, unmoving MASS FOR THE DAY OF ST. THOMAS DIDYMUS: 1. KYRIE First Line: O deep unknown, guttering candle Last Line: O deep unknown, %have mercy upon us MASS FOR THE DAY OF ST. THOMAS DIDYMUS: 2. GLORIA First Line: Praise the wet snow %falling early Last Line: Flow and change, night and %the pulse of day MASS FOR THE DAY OF ST. THOMAS DIDYMUS: 3. CREDO First Line: I believe the earth %exists, and %in each minim mote Last Line: Be, that I may believe. Amen MASS FOR THE DAY OF ST. THOMAS DIDYMUS: 4. SANCTUS First Line: Powers and principalities-all the gods Last Line: Unknown, unknowable: %sanctus, hosanna, sanctus MASS FOR THE DAY OF ST. THOMAS DIDYMUS: 5. BENEDICTUS First Line: Blessed is that which comes in the name of the spirit Last Line: Flesh. In the blur of flesh %we bow, baffled MASS FOR THE DAY OF ST. THOMAS DIDYMUS: 6. AGNUS DEI First Line: Given that lambs %are infant sheep, that sheep Last Line: Spark %of remote light MASS OF THE MOON ECLIPSE First Line: Not more slowly than frayed Last Line: Is given again, given and given MATINS: 1 Poem Text First Line: The authentic! Shadows of it Subject(s): Truth MATINS: 1 First Line: The authentic! Shadows of it Last Line: Thrust close your smile %that we know you, terrible joy Subject(s): Truth MATINS: 2 Poem Text First Line: The authentic! I said Subject(s): Reality MATINS: 2 First Line: The authentic! I said %rising from the toilet seat Last Line: Appearing fully itself, and %more itself that one knew MATINS: 3 Poem Text First Line: The new day rises Subject(s): Poetry & Poets; Reality MATINS: 3 First Line: The new day rises Last Line: The poet fondles and must break %if he will be nourished MATINS: 4 Poem Text First Line: A shadow painted where Subject(s): Shadows MATINS: 4 First Line: A shadow painted where Last Line: In its turning, in its becoming MATINS: 5 Poem Text First Line: Stir the holy grains, set Subject(s): Food & Eating; Children; Childhood MATINS: 5 First Line: Stir the holy grains, set Last Line: Cold air %comes in at the street door MATINS: 6 Poem Text First Line: The authentic! It rolls Subject(s): Reality MATINS: 6 First Line: The authentic! It rolls %just out of reach, beyond Last Line: Formed in your own likeness MATINS: 7 Poem Text First Line: Marvelous truth, confront us Subject(s): Truth MATINS: 7 First Line: Marvelous truth, confront us Last Line: Thrust close your smile %that we know you, terrible joy Subject(s): Truth MAY MORNINGS First Line: May mornings wear %light cashmere shawls of quietness Last Line: Each a leaflined basket %of wakening flowers MAY OUR RIGHT HANDS LOSE THEIR CUNNING First Line: Smart bombs replace %dumb bombs. 'now we can aim Last Line: Not to sharpen, not to be smart MEETING THE FERRET Poem Text First Line: One of my best encounters with animals Subject(s): Ferrets MEETING THE FERRET First Line: One of my best encounters with animals Last Line: Nevertheless, to have my own ferret Subject(s): Ferrets MELODY GRUNDY Poem Text First Line: Take me or leave me, cries Subject(s): Self-satisfaction MEMORIES OF JOHN KEATS First Line: Watchfulness and sensation as john keats Last Line: You would have known in it MERRITT PARKWAY First Line: As if it were %forever that they move, that we Last Line: North and south, speeding with %a slurred sound METAMORPHIC JOURNAL First Line: A child, no-one to stare, I'd run full tilt to a tree Last Line: In hers %and they enter the dance METIER OF BLOSSOMING First Line: Fully occupied with growing - that's Last Line: Nothing imperfect, withholding nothing! MID-AMERICAN TRAGEDY First Line: They want to be their own old vision Last Line: His life at last MID-DECEMBER First Line: Westering sun a mist of gold Last Line: Weightlessly with what will be, soon, %the afterglow MIDNIGHT GLADNESS Poem Text First Line: The pleated lampshade, slightly askew Last Line: At my lips before darkness. Gift after gift Subject(s): Christianity; Religion; Theology MIDNIGHT GLADNESS First Line: The pleated lampshade, slightly askew Subject(s): Christianity; Religion MIDSUMMER EVE First Line: All day the mountain boldly Last Line: Of rock, its own bones, beneath %its flesh of snow MILKY WAY First Line: Sky-wave breaks Last Line: Time immemorial MIRAGE Poem Text First Line: Ethereal mountain Subject(s): Mirages; Mountains; Hills; Downs (great Britain) MIRAGE First Line: Ethereal mountain Last Line: Can one believe you are not a mirage Subject(s): Mirages; Mountains MISNOMER Poem Text First Line: They speak of the art of war Subject(s): War MISNOMER First Line: They speak of the art of war Last Line: At thirty thousand feet MISSING BEATRICE First Line: Goodness was MOCKINGBIRD OF MOCKINGBIRDS First Line: A greyish bird MODES OF BEING First Line: January's fist %unclenches Last Line: That which is and %that which is MODULATIONS First Line: Easily we are happy, I was thinking, no need Last Line: The divine animal %who carries us through the world MOMENTS OF JOY First Line: A scholar takes a room on the next street Last Line: You seek, and I find MOON TIGER First Line: The moon tiger MOONWATER First Line: With eyes made keen MORNING MIST First Line: The mountain absent Last Line: Tranquil in solitude MOUNTAIN ASSAILED First Line: Animal mountain, %some of your snows are melting Last Line: Gives you no respite MOUNTAIN'S DAILY SPEECH IS SILENCE Last Line: Harbor a demon distinct from itself? MOURNER First Line: Instead of arms to hold you MOVEMENT Poem Text First Line: Towards not being Subject(s): Love MOVEMENT First Line: Towards not being Last Line: Grave springboard; the outflying spirit's %vertical trampoline Subject(s): Love MUTES First Line: These groans men use %passing a woman on the street Last Line: Without seemliness, %without love Subject(s): Lust; Sexual Harassment; Women MYOPIC BIRDWATCHER First Line: One day the solitary heron Last Line: Sustains his watchfulness MYRIAD PAST, IT ENTERS US AND DISAPPEARS ... First Line: Until sometimes an ancient MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF MAY'S PAST PERFECT First Line: Even as the beaches blacken again with oil Last Line: Nuance of elegy, for the hint of judgement, %reproachful clarities of tense and sense? MYSTERY (OAXACA, MEXICO) First Line: A gust of night rain lightly Last Line: Always carrying my wares? I'd lie down %as if in the snow MYSTERY OF DEEP CANDOR First Line: Intervals %so frank Last Line: The secret depths of candor NAMINGS First Line: Three hours wholly absorbed: trying to identify one rainsoaked Last Line: Tonight two. One was plain, plodding slowly towards the airport. %one was a star, very silvery. It's NATIVITY: AN ALTARPIECE First Line: The wise men are still on the road, searching NEEDLES First Line: He told me about NEW FLOWER First Line: Most of the sunflower's bright petals Last Line: The autumn of its own brief bloom NEW ITEMS: 1. AMERICA THE BOUNTIFUL First Line: After the welfare hotel %crumbled suddenly (after repeated warnings) Last Line: Brought me something. Then %she began to cry NEW ITEMS: 2. IN THE RIDDLE First Line: For some the hotel's collapse meant Last Line: And I lost my television NEW YEAR'S GARLAND FOR MY STUDENTS First Line: In winter, intricately wrapped, the buds NEWS First Line: East boston too, like the fields NEWS AND A GREEN MOON. JULY 1994 First Line: The green moon, almost full Last Line: And earth's cries of anguish almost audible NEWS REPORT, SEPTEMBER 1991 U.S. BURIED IRAQI SOLDIERS ALIVE IN GULF Poem Text First Line: What you saw was a / bunch of trenches with Variant Title(s): News Report, Sept 1991 U.s. Buried Iraqi Soldiers Alive Subject(s): Gulf War (1991); Operation Desert Storm (1991) NEWS REPORT, SEPTEMBER 1991 U.S. BURIED IRAQI SOLDIERS ALIVE IN GULF First Line: What you saw was a %bunch of trenches with Last Line: Arms and things %sticking out.' %cost-effective Variant Title(s): News Report, Sept 1991 U.s. Buried Iraqi Soldiers Aliv Subject(s): Gulf War (1991) NIGHTINGALE ROAD First Line: How gold their hair was, %and how their harps Last Line: Sweet and gold and shrill and the harps %flowing like milk NOBLESSE OBLIGE First Line: With great clarity, great precision, today Last Line: Its measured self-disclosure NOT TO HAVE First Line: Not to have but to be NOT YET First Line: A stealth in air that means NOTE TO OLGA First Line: Of lead and emerald NOVEL First Line: A wind is blowing. The book being written Last Line: By scene, by sentence, something is rendered %back into life, back to the gods NOVELLA First Line: In love (unless loved) is not love NOVICES First Line: They enter the bare wood, drawn O TASTE AND SEE Poem Text First Line: The world is / not with us enough Subject(s): Bible; Religion; Spiritual Life; Women & Religion; Theology O TASTE AND SEE First Line: The world is %not with us enough Last Line: Hungry, and plucking %the fruit Subject(s): Bible; Religion; Spiritual Life; Women And Religion OBLIQUE PRAYER Poem Text First Line: Not the profound dark Subject(s): Night; Bedtime OBLIQUE PRAYER First Line: Not the profound dark Subject(s): Night OBSESSIONS Poem Text First Line: Maybe it is true we have to return Subject(s): Obsessions OBSESSIONS First Line: Maybe it is true we have to return Last Line: Flew into the intense sky still burning Subject(s): Obsessions OBSTINATE FAITH First Line: Branch-lingering oakleaves, dry OCTOBER MOONRISE First Line: Moon, wisp of opal fire, then slowly Last Line: Dark lake water %is gold unalloyed OF BEING First Line: I know this happiness %is provisional Last Line: This need to kneel: %this mystery OF GODS First Line: God gave the earth-gods OF NECESSITY First Line: Running before the storm, the older child OF RIVERS First Line: Rivers remember OFFENDER First Line: The eye luminous in its box of ebony OLD ADAM First Line: A photo of someone else's childhood OLD FRIEND'S SELF PORTRAIT First Line: Somber, the mouth pinched and twisted OLD KING First Line: And at night OLD KING First Line: The soul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd Last Line: To go down %back into the known hole OLD PEOPLE DOZING First Line: Their thoughts are night gulls %following the ferry, gliding Last Line: Moving again through the closed door, %white and effortless, hungry Subject(s): Women OLGA POEMS Poem Text First Line: By the gas-fire, kneeling Subject(s): Sisters OLGA POEMS First Line: By the gas-fire, kneeling Last Line: Of festive goodness in back of their hard, or veiled, or shining, %unknowable gaze Subject(s): Sisters ON A THEME BY THOMAS MERTON Poem Text First Line: Adam, where are you?' Subject(s): God; Merton, Thomas (1915-1968); Religion; Theology ON A THEME BY THOMAS MERTON First Line: Adam, where are you?' Last Line: He is not present to himself. God %suffers the void that is his absence Subject(s): God; Merton, Thomas (1915-1968); Religion ON A THEME FROM JULIAN'S CHAPTER 20 Poem Text First Line: Six hours outstretched in the sun, yes Subject(s): Christianity; Religion; Theology ON A THEME FROM JULIAN'S CHAPTER 20 First Line: Six hours outstretched in the sun, yes Last Line: He saw, and sorrowed in kinship Subject(s): Christianity; Religion ON BELIEF IN THE PHYSICAL RESURRECTION OF JESUS First Line: It is for all %'literalists of the imagination Last Line: Bread at emmaus %that warm hands %broke and blessed ON THE 32ND ANNIVERSARY OF THE BOMBING OF HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI First Line: A new bomb, big one, drops Last Line: Have thrown it, as I was thrown %from life into shadow ON THE EVE First Line: The moon was white Last Line: Tuned its whiteness a tone higher ON THE MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATION First Line: It's when we face for a moment ON THE PARABLES OF THE MUSTARD SEED First Line: Who ever saw the mustard plant Last Line: Waiting to be sown ON THE WAY First Line: On the way to the %valley of transformation Last Line: And the face in the glass has shed its agelines as if %they were the mirage ONCE ONLY First Line: All which, because it was Last Line: Present, as now or never ONE DECEMBER NIGHT First Line: This I had not expected Last Line: Withdrew, just as I thought to summon courage %to offer honey-mead or slivovitz ONLY CONNECT First Line: Gary with deer and bear OPEN SECRET Poem Text Recitation First Line: Perhaps one day I shall let myself Subject(s): Nature OPEN SECRET First Line: Perhaps one day I shall let myself Last Line: Always loftier, lonelier, than I ever remember Subject(s): Nature OPEN SECRET First Line: My sign OPEN SENTENCE First Line: To look out over roofs OPPORTUNITY First Line: My father once, after his death Last Line: We are both content OUR BODIES Poem Text First Line: Our bodies, still young under Subject(s): Body, Human OUR BODIES First Line: Our bodies, still young under Last Line: Rooks are homing, says OVERHEARD First Line: A deep wooden note %when the wind blows Last Line: Unaware it had %spoken OVERHEARD OVER S.E. ASIA Poem Text First Line: White phosphorous, white phosphorous Subject(s): Nature OVERHEARD OVER S.E. ASIA First Line: White phosphorous, white phosphorous Last Line: I decorate it in black, and seek %the bone Subject(s): Nature OVERLAND TO THE ISALNDS First Line: Let's go - much as that dog goes Last Line: Not direction - 'every step an arrival' PART I First Line: Revolution or death. Revolution or death PART II First Line: Can't go further PART III First Line: Silver summer light of trieste early evening PART IV First Line: I went back PARTIAL RESEMBLANCE Poem Text First Line: A doll's hair concealing Subject(s): Youth PARTIAL RESEMBLANCE First Line: A doll's hair concealing Last Line: Shone in the opening and shutting of your %ingenious blindness PASSAGE First Line: The spirit that walked upon the face of the waters PASSING BELL First Line: One by one %they fall away Last Line: The clapper of the bell. %the tolling begins PAST First Line: Somewhere, married and in love PAST III First Line: You try to keep the present Last Line: Of lives long gone PAST: 2 First Line: My hand on chiseled stone, fitting PATIENCE First Line: What patience a landscape has, like an old horse Last Line: Within itself, entered that sunwarmed shelter? PENTIMENTO First Line: To be discerned %only by those Last Line: It lingers - %a draft %the artist may return to PEOPLE AT NIGHT (DERIVED FROM RILKE) Poem Text First Line: A night that cuts between you and you Subject(s): Rilke, Rainer Maria (1875-1926) PEOPLE AT NIGHT (DERIVED FROM RILKE) First Line: A night that cuts between you and you Last Line: No one Subject(s): Rilke, Rainer Maria (1875-1926) PERHAPS NO POEM BUT ALL I CAN SAY AND I CANNOT BE SILENT First Line: As a devout christian, my father PHONECALL First Line: Big bluejay black, %white sky in back; brittle Last Line: Speaking from far away %lowpitched, loving, %one to one PHOTO TORN FROM THE TIMES First Line: A story one might read and not know Last Line: Her tears %shine and don't fall PIG-SONG First Line: Walnut, hickory, beechmast, %apples and apples, a meadow Last Line: And over the sunfall slope, %cool of the dark mudwallow PILGRIM DREAMING First Line: By the fire light %of imagination, brand Last Line: Yet giving %what he desires, if he gives light PILOTS First Line: Because they were prisoners Last Line: Be able to meet the eyes of mrs. Brown? PLACE OF KINDNESS First Line: Somewhere there is a dull room Last Line: In it, unknown to cruelty, %unknowing PLACE TO LIVE First Line: Honeydew seeds: on impulse PLAINS First Line: Tiepolo clouds Last Line: Ecstatic saints and the heads %of cherubim PLEASURES Poem Text First Line: I like to find / what's not found Subject(s): Pleasure PLEASURES First Line: I like to find %what's not found Last Line: Opens blue and cool on a hot morning Subject(s): Pleasure POEM First Line: Some are too much at home in the role of wanderer Last Line: Can now take root in life, inherit love?' POEM AT CHRISTMAS, 1972, DURING THE TERROR-BOMBING OF NORTH VIETNAM First Line: Now I have lain awake imagining murder Last Line: The infection of their evil %thursts us POEM RISING BY ITS OWN WEIGHT' First Line: The singing robes fly onto your body and cling there silkily Last Line: Holds you %close and tenderly before he vanishes POEM UNWRITTEN First Line: For weeks the poem of your body Subject(s): Sex POET AND PERSON Poem Text First Line: I send my messages ahead of me Last Line: Alone, as I came. Subject(s): Guests; Love; Poetry & Poets; Solitude; Visiting; Loneliness POET AND PERSON First Line: I send my messages ahead of me Last Line: When I leave, I leave %alone, as I came POET LI PO ADMIRING A WATERFALL First Line: And listening to its Last Line: Edge of the world, %entranced! POET POWER First Line: Riding by taxi, brooklyn to queens POET'S LATE AUTUMN First Line: Each morning, making tea POETICS OF FAITH First Line: Straight to the point' Last Line: Would remember their passage POODLE PALACE First Line: I never pass the poodle palace Last Line: To whether I heard it or not POPLAR IN SPRING First Line: The tall poplar PORTRAIT OF A MAN First Line: I %marcus silesius POSTCARD First Line: The sunshine is wild here! Last Line: The golf of sunshine are wavering! POSTCARDS: A TRIPTYCH First Line: The minoan snake goddess is flanked by a chardin still-life, somber Subject(s): Art And Artists PRAISE OF A PALMTREE First Line: Tufts of brassy henna in the palm's PRAYER First Line: At delphi I prayed %to apollo Last Line: I think sometimes not apollo heard me %but a different god PRAYER FOR REVOLUTIONARY LOVE First Line: That a woman not ask a man to leave meaningful work to Last Line: Without closing our doors to the unknown PRAYER PLANT First Line: The prayer plant must long Last Line: Kneels down to praise you PRESENCE First Line: Though the mountain's the same warm-tinted ivory Last Line: Among those filmy guardians PRESENCE First Line: Sunlight in ohio, touching PRESENCE First Line: To the house on the grassy hill PRIMAL SPEECH First Line: If there's an ur-language still among us Last Line: The affirmation even before the naming PRIMARY WONDER First Line: Days pass when I forget the mystery Last Line: Hour by hour sustain it PRISONERS Poem Text First Line: Though the road turn at last Subject(s): Death; Funerals; Dead, The; Burials PRISONERS First Line: Though the road turn at last Last Line: Smiling its ordinary %long-ago smile PROLOGUE: AN INTERIM First Line: While the war drags on, always worse PROTESTERS First Line: Living on the tim Last Line: Enforced %their silence PROTESTING AT THE NUCLEAR TEST SITE First Line: A year before, this desert Last Line: To kiss that leper face PSALM CONCERNING THE CASTLE First Line: Let me be at the place of the castle Last Line: Stands be within me, let me be where it is PSALM FRAGMENTS (SCHNITTKE STRING TRIO) First Line: This clinging to a god Last Line: Minute by minute %from falling. %lord, you provide PSALM PRAISING THE HAIR OF MAN'S BODY First Line: Husband, thy fleece of silk is black PSALM: PEOPLE POWER AT THE DIE-IN (1) First Line: Over our scattered tents by night %lightning and thunder called to us Last Line: By day and by night %we sat in the dust %on the cement pavement we sat down and sang PSALM: PEOPLE POWER AT THE DIE-IN (2) First Line: Over our scattered tents by night Last Line: And great power from communion PSYCHE IN SOMERVILLE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: I am angry with x, with y, with z, Subject(s): Psyche (mythology); Relationships PSYCHE IN SOMERVILLE First Line: I am angry with x, with y, with z %for not being you Last Line: And no wings on his feet, %to bring me your words PURE PRODUCTS First Line: To the sea they came Last Line: But to live a little, invoking %the old powers QUALITY OF GENIUS First Line: Trees that lift themselves like clouds %above the woods Last Line: The tattered rage %of the sun RAGA First Line: The fluteplayer %can't be seen to draw breath Last Line: Flowing the honeycomb RAGE AND RELENTING First Line: Hail, ricocheting off stone and cement, angrily Last Line: To come to rest, %to melt RAIN First Line: Trying to remember old dreams. A voice. Who came in RAIN SPIRIT PASSING First Line: Have you ever heard the rain at night Last Line: And your roots in their burrows %stretched and sighed? RAINBOW WEATHER First Line: The rain-curtains are blowing Last Line: Crinkled among the somber %festivities of fish RAINWALKERS First Line: An old man whose black face shines golden-brown RANGE First Line: Peak upon peak, brown, dustily gold, crowded Last Line: A cupful of sky RE-ROOTING Poem Text First Line: We were trying to put the roots back Subject(s): Christianity; Religion; Theology RE-ROOTING First Line: We were trying to put the roots back Last Line: Even this digging, better than nothing, %has not yet begun Subject(s): Christianity; Religion REARRANGEMENT First Line: Old chimney bricks, dull red REBUFF First Line: Yes, I'm nettled REFLECTIONS First Line: The mountain trembles in the dark lake RELEARNING THE ALPHABET First Line: Joy - a beginning. Anguish ardor Last Line: That which was poised already in the ah! Of praise REMINDER First Line: Composed by nature, time, human art Last Line: The misshaped cells remain REPRESENTATIONS: ALLELUIA First Line: Angels carved from oak surround Last Line: What sharp-ridged wings, what shine %of oaken feathers REPRESENTATIONS: DAYBREAK First Line: A winding uphill road. The valley still Last Line: As gold and silver REPRESENTATIONS: IN PRIVATE First Line: He silent and angry Last Line: Somewhere neither wants to go REPRESENTATIONS: MALE VOICE CHOIR First Line: They move from left to right on the road below Last Line: Of such harmonies brand her heart REPRESENTATIONS: MOONGAZE First Line: Full moon's unequivocal Last Line: Motionless as resting spiders REPRESENTATIONS: PILGRIMS First Line: Pilgrims among the dune-grass, returning Last Line: In soft sand tufted %with starry flowers REPRESENTATIONS: SEEING THE UNSEEN First Line: Snow, large flakes Last Line: Lit square of wakeful window REPRESENTATIONS: STATION OF SOLITUDE First Line: Alone in his tiny station, the platform latticed with shadows Last Line: Ever passed this way, ever will REPRESENTATIONS: TIME RETREIVED First Line: It is late in a mild english autumn. All the leaves Last Line: And the closed door to the hidden garden REVIVALS First Line: When to my melancholy Last Line: It driveth sorrow hence REWARD First Line: Tired and hungry, late in the day, impelled Last Line: I have no answer RIDERS AT DUSK First Line: Up the long street of castles, over cobbles RIVER First Line: Dreaming the sea that Last Line: Dreaming towards %the calling sea ROAD First Line: The wayside bushes waiting, waiting ROAMER First Line: The world comes back to me ROAST POTATOES Poem Text First Line: Before the wholesale produce market Variant Title(s): Roasting Potatoes Subject(s): Food Habits; Potatoes ROAST POTATOES First Line: Before the wholesale produce market Last Line: Lacking, and for the young, %unknown to memory Variant Title(s): Roasting Potatoe Subject(s): Food Habits; Potatoes ROCKY FLATS First Line: As if they had tamed the wholesome undomesticated ROMANCE First Line: Dark, rainsoaked %oaklimbs Last Line: Of your redberried thickets, %may and rose ROOM First Line: Shelf of worn, chipped, exquisite china oddments Last Line: Sustained, hushing, recurrent %in the stream of song RUN AGROUND First Line: A brown oakleaf, left over from last year Last Line: Human, thrown %back on my own resources SALVATION First Line: They are going to Last Line: The stream restored will become pure lake SALVATOR MUNDI: VIA CRUCIS Poem Text First Line: Maybe he looked indeed / much as rembrandt envisioned him Subject(s): Christianity; God; Religion; Theology SALVATOR MUNDI: VIA CRUCIS First Line: Maybe he looked indeed %much as rembrandt envisioned him Last Line: Up from those depths where purpose %drifted for mortal moments Subject(s): Christianity; God; Religion SANDS OF THE WELL Poem Text First Line: The golden particles / descend, descend Last Line: Clarity, is it water indeed, / or air, or light? Subject(s): Rivers SANDS OF THE WELL First Line: The golden particles %descend, descend Last Line: Clarity, is it water indeed, %or air, or light? Subject(s): Rivers SCENARIO First Line: The theater of war. Offstage SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF THE PEPPERTREES First Line: The peppertrees, the peppertrees! Subject(s): Peppertrees SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF THE PEPPERTREES First Line: The peppertrees, the peppertrees! Last Line: On the upstairs window with a bunch %of red berries. Will hewake? Subject(s): Peppertrees SCORNFUL REPRIEVE First Line: Curtly the sky %plucks %at knots of cloud Last Line: Shall grass indeed %grow here SCRAPS OF MOON Last Line: Complete, transcending %all violation SCULPTOR (HOMAGE TO CHILLIDA) First Line: A man who lives with his shadow SEA INLAND First Line: Heather, bracken, the tall scotch firs Last Line: Mingle, and what is fleeting and what remains %outside of time SEA'S REPEATED GESTURE First Line: Stroking its blue shore SECOND DIDACTIC POEM First Line: The honey of man is %the task we're set to: to be Last Line: Darken to gold: %honey of the human SECRET First Line: Two girls discover %the secret of life Last Line: For that %most of all Subject(s): Secrets SECRET DIVERSION First Line: Where a fold of fog Last Line: Imitating fish as the ocean %plays unobserved SECRET FESTIVAL; SEPTEMBER MOON First Line: Pandemonium of owls SEEING FOR A MOMENT Poem Text First Line: I thought I was growing wings Subject(s): Mirrors; Perception; Reality SEEING FOR A MOMENT First Line: I thought I was growing wings Last Line: Word after word %floats through the glass. %towards me Subject(s): Mirrors; Perception; Reality SEEMS LIKE WE MUST BE SOMEWHERE ELSE Poem Text First Line: Sweet possession, rose-blue Subject(s): Reality SEEMS LIKE WE MUST BE SOMEWHERE ELSE First Line: Sweet procession, rose-blue SEERS First Line: They make mistakes SENTENCE First Line: All of you are condemned to death,' he said SEP-61 First Line: This is the year the old ones Last Line: We think the night wind carries %a smell of the sea SERVANT-GIRL AT EMMAUS (A PAINTING BY VELAZQUEZ) First Line: She listens, listens, holding Last Line: The light around him [or, %and is sure] SETH THOMAS: A LOVE POEM First Line: Rejoining time after fifty years, %not slow, not fast Last Line: Melodious chime of three at one a.M., %midnight at seven SETTLING First Line: I was welcomed here -- clear gold Last Line: A mountain's vast presence, seen or unseen SHARKS First Line: Well, then, the last day the sharks appeared SHE AND THE MUSE First Line: Away he goes, the hour's delightful hero Last Line: Dips it, begins to write. But not of him SHE WEPT AND THE WOMEN CONSOLED HER First Line: The flow of tears ebbed SHEEP IN THE WEEDS First Line: Simmer and drowse of august. And the sheep Last Line: It will deliver later, %about time SHOWINGS: LADY JULIAN OF NORWICH, 1342-1416 First Line: Julian, there are vast gaps we call black holes Last Line: Love was his meaning SILENT SPRING Poem Text First Line: O, the great sky! Subject(s): Environment; Nature; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation SILENT SPRING First Line: O, the great sky! Last Line: Hear your own steps %in violent silence Subject(s): Environment; Nature SILK First Line: Halfawake, I think %silky hair, cornsilk, his voice Last Line: All the snowfields between us SINGER First Line: Crackle and flash almost in the kitchen sink - the SINGLED OUT First Line: Expanse of gray, of silver Last Line: So much higher, hears it as well SIX VARIATIONS Poem Text First Line: We have been shown SIX VARIATIONS First Line: We have been shown Last Line: Is it a road at the world's edge? SLOWLY First Line: Spirit has been alone %of late. Built a house Last Line: Answers none. Digs in %for winter, %slowly SMALL SATORI First Line: Richard's lover has the look SNAIL First Line: Burden, grace SOJOURNS IN THE PARALLEL WORLD Poem Text First Line: We live our lives of human passions, Subject(s): Conduct Of Life SOJOURNS IN THE PARALLEL WORLD First Line: We live our lives of human passions Last Line: #name? SOLITUDE First Line: A blind man. I can stare at him SOMEBODY TRYING Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Http://www.Poetryfoundation.Org/poem/238458 Last Line: Trudging behind his funeral, he earned Subject(s): Death; Grief; Social Classes; Dead, The; Sorrow; Sadness; Caste SOMEBODY TRYING First Line: That creep tolstoy.' she sobbed SOMETHING MORE First Line: Sometimes I'd make of valentines, long ago Last Line: It is drawn forth, resplendent SON First Line: A flamey monster-plumage and blossoms %fountaining forth Last Line: Servant and master, %but comrades in pilgrimage SON First Line: He-who-came-forth was Last Line: Into the rapt, imperious, seagoing river SONG FOR ISHTAR Poem Text First Line: The moon is a sow Subject(s): Ishtar (babylonian Goddess); Women SONG FOR ISHTAR First Line: The moon is a sow Last Line: We rock and grunt, grunt and %shine Subject(s): Ishtar (babylonian Goddess); Women SONG OF DEGREES First Line: Pearblossom bright white Last Line: Blue of an april morning SOOTHSAYER First Line: My daughters, the old woman says, the weaver Last Line: They have not imagined %the weight of it SORCERER First Line: Blue-eyed oberon prances SOUL-CAKE First Line: Mother, when I open a book of yours Last Line: Salt grinding and grinding from the magic box SOUND First Line: An unexplained sound, today SOUND OF FEAR First Line: There's a woman (you tell the gender by the noise of her heels) Last Line: To see the view and say %I climbed it. %every night SOUND OF THE AXE First Line: Once a woman went into the woods Last Line: Was this the day? SOUTH WIND First Line: Short grass, electric green, the ground Last Line: Mild wind they swing toward spring SOUTHERN CROSS Poem Text First Line: A darkness rivered, swirled, meandered Subject(s): Southern Cross SOUTHERN CROSS First Line: A darkness rivered, swirled, meandered Last Line: Tardily down the rough cleft %descends and beads Subject(s): Southern Cross SOUTINE (TWO PAINTINGS) First Line: As if the forks themselves SOUVENIR D'AMITIE First Line: Two fading red spots mark on my thighs SPEECH: FOR ANTIDRAFT RALLY, D.C., MARCH 22, 1980 First Line: As our planet swings and sways %into its new decade Last Line: Not wars, but a future %in which to live SPIRITS APPEASED First Line: A wanderer comes at last Last Line: Now she begins to see SPLIT MIND First Line: A governor %is signing papers, arranging deals Last Line: Under the planned facility, %into his mind? SPLIT SECOND First Line: What a flimsy shred of the world Last Line: From chthonian fingers speckling %the ritual patterns? SPRING IN THE LOWLANDS Poem Text First Line: Shout into leaping wind Subject(s): Nature SPRING IN THE LOWLANDS First Line: Shout into leaping wind Last Line: Lean into solitude %you whose joy is a kite %now dragged in dirt, now %breaking the ritual of sky Subject(s): Nature SPRINGTIME First Line: The red eyes of rabbits Last Line: Will bare their teeth at %the spring moon Subject(s): Spring SPY First Line: Everything was very delicately striped ST. PETER AND THE ANGEL Poem Text First Line: Delivered out of raw continual pain, Subject(s): Peter, Saint (c. 64 A.d.); Angels ST. PETER AND THE ANGEL First Line: Delivered out of raw continual pain Last Line: The next terrors of freedom and joy ST. THOMAS DIDYMUS First Line: In the hot street at noon I saw him Last Line: In a vast unfolding design lit %by a risen sun STANDOFF Poem Text First Line: Assail god's hearing with gull-screech knifeblades Subject(s): Spiritual Life; Women & Religion STANDOFF First Line: Assail god's hearing with gull-screech knifeblades Last Line: When shall we %dare to fly? Subject(s): Spiritual Life; Women And Religion STAYING ALIVE, SELS. First Line: Went with some of my students to work in the people's park Last Line: The war %comes home to us Subject(s): Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975 STAYING ALIVE: 2. GANDHI'S GUN (AND BRECHT'S VOW) First Line: Vessels of several %shapes and sizes Last Line: The terror patiently %poised there, %ultimate focus STELE (I-II C. B.C.) First Line: They part at the edge of substance Last Line: But she has not looked, yet, at the path %accorded to her. She has not given herself, %not yet, to h STEPPING WESTWARD Poem Text First Line: What is green in me Subject(s): Women STEPPING WESTWARD First Line: What is green in me Last Line: Of bread that hurts %my shoulders but closes me %in fragrance. I can %eat as I go Subject(s): Women STONE FROM IONA First Line: Men who planned to be hermits, hoped to be saints, arrived STONECARVER'S POEM First Line: Hand of man %hewed from %the mottled rock Last Line: Smallest inviolate %stone violet STRANGE SONG First Line: A virtuoso dog at midnight-high wavering bowl Last Line: Into the fall night in strange song STRICKEN CHILDREN First Line: The wishing well was a spring SUMMER 1961 Poem Text First Line: This is the year when the old ones Subject(s): Doolittle, Hilda (1886-1961) SUN GOING DOWN UPON OUR WRATH First Line: You who are so beautiful Subject(s): Women SUN, MOON, AND STONES First Line: Sun %moon SUNDAY AFTERNOON Poem Text First Line: After the first communion Subject(s): Children; Childhood SUNDAY AFTERNOON First Line: After the first communion Last Line: Other new dresses, of bloodred velvet Subject(s): Children SUNDOWN SENTENCES First Line: Fogbillows crest over ocean, soundless, unbreaking SURROGATE First Line: The nearest leaves, outside the glass SUSPENDED First Line: I had grasped god's garment in the void Last Line: I have not plummetted SWAN IN FALLING SNOW First Line: Upon the darkish, thin, half-broken ice Last Line: Suspended itself, endless SWAN THAT SINGS AND SWIFT MONTH First Line: The spirit of each day passes, head down Last Line: Not hurried, yet swift, too swift TAKING CHARGE First Line: Here comes the moon Last Line: Their sundown flush TALK IN THE DARK First Line: We live in history, says one %we're flies on the hide of leviathan Last Line: I want to live, says another, but where can I live %if the world is gone? TALKING TO GRIEF Poem Text First Line: Ah, grief, I should not treat you Subject(s): Grief; Sorrow; Sadness TALKING TO GRIEF First Line: Ah, grief, I should not treat you %like a homeless dog Last Line: And me your person %and yourself %my own dog TALKING TO ONESELF First Line: Try to remember, every april, not this one only Last Line: You will come %to other aprils, %each will astonish you TASK First Line: As if god were an old man Last Line: The weaver at rest Subject(s): Christianity; God; Spiritual Life; Weavers And Weaving; Women And Religion TENEBRAE (FALL OF 1967) Poem Text First Line: Heavy, heavy, heavy, hand and heart Subject(s): Social Protest; Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975 TENEBRAE (FALL OF 1967) First Line: Heavy, heavy, heavy, hand and heart Last Line: Of the war. They are %not listening, not listening Subject(s): Social Protest; Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975 TERROR First Line: Face-down; odor Last Line: That followed, and quiet nights? THAT DAY Poem Text First Line: Across a lake in switzerland, fifty years ago Subject(s): Memory; Switzerland; Swiss THAT DAY First Line: Across a lake in switzerland, fifty years ago Last Line: And we laughed for joy astonished Subject(s): Memory; Switzerland THE ACHE OF MARRIAGE Poem Text THE BREATHING Poem Text First Line: An absolute / patience Subject(s): Environment; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation THE BROKEN SANDAL Poem Text First Line: Dreamed the thong of my sandal broke. Subject(s): Shoes; Uncertainty; Boots; Sneakers; Shoemakers THE CABBAGE FIELD Poem Text First Line: Both taine and the inland english child Last Line: Anything but the sea? Subject(s): Cabbage; Environment; Fields; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation; Pastures; Meadows; Leas THE CAT AS CAT Poem Text First Line: The cat on my bosom Subject(s): Animals; Cats THE COMMUNION Poem Text First Line: A pondering frog looks Subject(s): Nature; Frogs THE CRACK Poem Text First Line: While snow fell carelessly THE DAY THE AUDIENCE WALKED OUT ON ME, AND WHY Poem Text First Line: Like this it happened Subject(s): Kent State University - Riot, 1970 THE DEAD BUTTERFLY Poem Text First Line: Now I see its whiteness Subject(s): Butterflies; Insects; Bugs THE DEPARTURE Poem Text First Line: Have you got the moon safe? Subject(s): Moon THE DISTANCE Poem Text First Line: While we lie in the road to block traffic from the air-force base Subject(s): Peace Movements THE DOG OF ART Poem Text First Line: That dog with daisies for eyes Subject(s): Animals; Dogs THE DRAGONFLY-MOTHER Poem Text First Line: I was setting out from my house Subject(s): Dragonflies THE FOUNTAIN Poem Text Subject(s): Fountains THE GODDESS Poem Text First Line: She in whose lipservice / I passed my time Subject(s): Women THE GREAT BLACK HERON Poem Text First Line: Since I stroll in the woods more often Subject(s): Hanoi, Vietnam; Fish & Fishing; Women - Old Age; Anglers THE GYPSY'S WINDOW Poem Text First Line: It seems a stage Subject(s): Flowers; Poetry & Poets; Reality; Roses THE HEART Poem Text First Line: At any moment the heart Subject(s): Hearts THE ILLUSTRATION?ÇÖA FOOTNOTE Poem Text First Line: Months after the muse Subject(s): Books; Pictures; Reading THE JACOB'S LADDER Poem Text First Line: The stairway is not / a thing of gleaming strands Subject(s): Jacob (bible); Religion; Theology THE M??TIER OF BLOSSOMING Poem Text First Line: Fully occupied with growing--that's Subject(s): Flowers THE MALICE OF INNOCENCE Poem Text First Line: A glimpsed world, halfway through the film Subject(s): Nurses THE MUTES Poem Text First Line: These groans men use / passing a woman on the street Subject(s): Lust; Sexual Harassment; Women THE POEM UNWRITTEN Poem Text First Line: For weeks the poem of your body Subject(s): Sex THE POSTCARDS: A TRIPTYCH Poem Text First Line: The minoan snake goddess is flanked by a chardin still-life, somber Last Line: Under these signs I am living Subject(s): Art & Artists THE PRAYER Poem Text First Line: At delphi I prayed Subject(s): Prayer THE RESOLVE Poem Text First Line: To come to the river Subject(s): Brooks; Streams; Creeks THE ROOM Poem Text First Line: With a mirror / I could see the sky Subject(s): Mirrors THE RUNES Poem Text First Line: Know the pine trees. Know the orange dryness of sickness Subject(s): Runes THE SECRET Poem Text First Line: Two girls discover / the secret of life Subject(s): Secrets THE SHARKS Poem Text First Line: Well then, the last day the sharks appeared Subject(s): Sharks THE SPRINGTIME Poem Text First Line: The red eyes of rabbits Subject(s): Spring THE SUN GOING DOWN UPON OUR WRATH Poem Text First Line: You who are so beautiful Subject(s): Women THE TASK Poem Text First Line: As if god were an old man Subject(s): Christianity; God; Spiritual Life; Weaving & Weavers; Women & Religion THE TIDE Poem Text First Line: Where is the giver to whom my gratitude Subject(s): God; Religion; Theology THE WEALTH OF THE DESTITUTE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: How gray and hard the brown feet of the wretched of the earth. Subject(s): Poverty; Social Commentaries; Social Classes; Caste THE WELL Poem Text First Line: The muse / in her dark habit Subject(s): Water THINKING ABOUT EL SALVADOR First Line: Because every day they chop heads off THINKING ABOUT PAUL CELAN Poem Text First Line: Saint celan, / stretched on the cross Last Line: We who accept survival Subject(s): Celan, Paul (1920-1970); Saints THINKING ABOUT PAUL CELAN First Line: Saint celan, %stretched on the cross Last Line: We who accept survival Subject(s): Celan, Paul (1920-1970); Saints THIRD DIMENSION First Line: Who'd believe me if THIRD HYPOTHESIS ON THE DEATH OF EMPEDOCLES First Line: A little before nightfall, a voice was raised THIRST SONG First Line: Making it, making it Last Line: The blue moon %light on their profusion darkens THIS DAY Poem Text First Line: Dry wafer / sour wine Subject(s): Christianity; Religion; Theology THIS DAY First Line: Dry wafer %sour wine Last Line: A sorrel grass, %a crust, %water, %salt Subject(s): Christianity; Religion THOSE WHO WANT OUT Poem Text First Line: In their homes, much glass and steel. Their cars Subject(s): Alienation (social Psychology); Environment; Exiles; Nature; Estrangement; Outcasts; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation THOSE WHO WANT OUT First Line: In their homes, much glass and steel. Their cars Last Line: They do not love the earth Subject(s): Alienation (social Psychology); Environment; Exiles; Nature THREAT First Line: You can live for years next door Last Line: Dailiness you have almost %grown used to THREE MEDITATIONS: 1 First Line: Breathe deep of the %freshly gray morning air, mild Last Line: Thy wits to know power and be %humble THREE MEDITATIONS: 2 First Line: Barbarians %throng the straight roads of Last Line: Green half-smothered by %strewn bones THREE MEDITATIONS: 3 First Line: Death in the grassblade Last Line: So no devil %may enter TIDE First Line: Where is the giver to whom my gratitude Last Line: Is a cup, and holds the ocean Subject(s): God; Religion TIME FOR RIVETS First Line: Reinforced though it was Last Line: With tape and crossed fingers TIME PAST First Line: The old wooden steps to the front door %where I was sitting that fall morning Last Line: That were warm, ancient, and now %wait somewhere to be burnt TIME TO BREATHE First Line: Evenings enduring, blending TO ANTONIO MACHADO First Line: Here in the mountain woods Last Line: You would have known in it TO KEVIN O'LEARY, WHEREVER HE IS First Line: Dear elusive prince of ireland TO LIVE IN THE MERCY OF GOD Poem Text First Line: To lie back under the tallest Subject(s): God TO LIVE IN THE MERCY OF GOD First Line: To lie back under the tallest Last Line: God's love for the world. Vast %flood of mercy %flung on resistance TO OLGA First Line: When the last sunlight had all seeped TO ONE STEEPED IN BITTERNESS Poem Text First Line: Nail the rose Subject(s): Anger TO ONE STEEPED IN BITTERNESS First Line: Nail the rose Last Line: And your lips dry Subject(s): Anger TO R. D., MARCH 4TH 1988 First Line: You were my mentor. Without knowing it TO R.D., MARCH 4TH 1988 Poem Text First Line: You were my mentor. Without knowing it, Subject(s): Dreams; Man-woman Relationships; Death; Nightmares; Male-female Relations; Dead, The TO RILKE Poem Text First Line: Once, in dream, / the boat Subject(s): Christianity; Religion; Theology TO RILKE First Line: Once, in dream, %the boat Last Line: Your silence was just such a song Subject(s): Christianity; Religion TO SPEAK First Line: To speak of sorrow Last Line: To uphold the hall like a beam TO THE MORTON BAY FIGTREE, AUSTRALIA, A TREE-GOD First Line: Soul-brother of the majestic beechtree TO THE MUSE First Line: I have heard it said Last Line: Of the ring back on its finger TO THE READER First Line: As you read, a white bear leisurely %pees, dyeing the snow Last Line: Turning %its dark pages TO THE SNAKE Poem Text First Line: Green snake, when I hung you around my neck Subject(s): Snakes; Serpents; Vipers TO THE SNAKE First Line: Green snake, when I hung you round my neck Last Line: Of grass and shadows, and I returned %smiling and haunted, to a dark morning TOO EASY: TO WRITE OF MIRACLES Last Line: The unhaunted country of the final poem TOO MUCH TO HOPE First Line: Twisted body and whitesocked %deformed legs Last Line: It seems %too much to hope TRACE First Line: My friendships with one or two, yes, three Last Line: Long since consumed Subject(s): Absence; Friendship; Summer TRAGIC ERROR First Line: The earth is the lord's, we gabbled Last Line: Its form and the work it can do TRANSLUCENCE First Line: Once I understood (till I forget, at least Last Line: Something ordinary, not rare at all TRAVELER First Line: If it's chariots or sandals Last Line: I'll chance %the pilgrim sandals TREE TELLING OF ORPHEUS First Line: White dawn. Stillness. When the rippling began Last Line: Recalling our agony, and the way we danced. %the music! Subject(s): Environment; Music And Musicians; Trees TRIO BY HENZE First Line: The golden brushwood! But that Last Line: With still unlit brands that will gild the dark TRIPLE FEATURE First Line: Innocent decision: to enjoy Last Line: With strange motives, barbarous splendors TROPIC RITUAL First Line: Full moon's sharp %command transforms Last Line: Silently one flower %into the sand TULIPS First Line: Red tulips %living into their death Last Line: With that sound one %listens for TWO ARTISTS First Line: Old nails, their large flat heads %a gray almost silver, bunched Last Line: Cotton, a motet of fabric, a lace forest %grown by two hands, one vision TWO MAGNETS First Line: Where broken gods, faded saints, (powerful in antique presence Last Line: The edge of the mist where salmon wait the day %when something shall lift them and give them to deep TWO MOUNTAINS First Line: For a month (a minute) TWO THARENODIES AND A PSALM First Line: It is not approaching TWO VARIATIONS: ENQUIRY First Line: You who go out on schedule TWO VARIATIONS: THE SEEING First Line: Hands over my eyes I see UNACCOMPANIED First Line: Violinist, alone as on a martyr's cross Last Line: Permits you to suffer, permits you to offer UNCERTAIN ONEIROMANCY First Line: I spent the entire night leading a blind man Last Line: Hid from me as if it had never been UNDER A BLUE STAR First Line: Under a blue star, dragon of skygate UNRESOLVED First Line: Fossil shells, far inland; a god; bones Last Line: Flightbones, choke back breath. %we know no synthesis URGENT WHISPER First Line: It could be the rale of earth's tight chest VARIATION AND REFLECTION ON A THEME BY RILKE Poem Text First Line: If just for once the swing of cause and effect Subject(s): Christianity; Religion; Theology VARIATION AND REFLECTION ON A THEME BY RILKE First Line: If just for once the swing of cause and effect Last Line: God's flight circles us Subject(s): Christianity; Religion VARIATION ON A THEME BY RILKE First Line: All these images (said the old monk Last Line: Gives us clues to his mystery VARIATION ON A THEME BY RILKE (1) First Line: Soon, the end of a century. Is the great scroll VARIATION ON A THEME BY RILKE (3) First Line: With chips and shards, rubble of being VARIATION ON A THEME BY RILKE (THE BOOK OF HOURS, BK I, 1) First Line: A certain day became a presence to me VENERABLE OPTIMIST First Line: He saw the dark as a ragged garment Last Line: The silver light came pouring VICTORS First Line: In june the bush we call Last Line: Red-currant red, a graceful %ornament or a merry smile VIGIL First Line: When the mice awaken VISIT First Line: Milk to be boiled %egg to be poached %pot to be scoured Last Line: What dragons %are to be vanquished?' VISITANT First Line: From under the wide wings of blackest velvet Last Line: Circles me summer and winter, settled %for life in my life's reedy lake VISITATION. OVERFLOW First Line: The slender evidence Last Line: Or leave it, I give you %my word VISUAL ELEMENT First Line: Feet moving only to shift weight, the conductor Last Line: Like small animals. Twitch of an eyebrow: %silent appoggiatura VOCATION First Line: I have been listening, years now VOLUPTE First Line: Mmm, yes, narcissus, mmm Last Line: Complacent under its stars VOYAGE First Line: Fluttering strips of paper strung on cord Last Line: Each to each %our absolute presence VRON WOODS (NORTH WALES) First Line: In the night's dream of day Last Line: Levelled %to feed a war WAITING First Line: I am waiting WALL First Line: When distant ocean's big v of silver Last Line: Into the blind mirror WANDERER First Line: The iris hazel, pupils %large in their round blackness Last Line: Strangers talk to him in, %speaking runes to his sorrow WANDERER First Line: The chameleon who wistfully Last Line: Of russet bark and trembling foliage WANDERER'S DAYSONG First Line: People like me can't feel %the full rush of air around us as we Last Line: See %for an instant the arc of %our vanishing WANTING THE MOON (I) First Line: Not the moon. A flower WANTING THE MOON (II) First Line: Not the moon. To be a bronze head WARNING First Line: Island or dark %hollow of advancing wave Last Line: A warning not meant kindly Variant Title(s): Threa WATCHING 'DARK CIRCLE' Poem Text First Line: Men are willing to observe Last Line: And ruth landy of the independent documentary group. Subject(s): Atomic Bomb - Testing; Christianity; Motion Pictures, Documentary; Religion; Theology WATCHING TV First Line: So many men -- and not the worst of them Last Line: The perfidies their hurt eyes evade WAVERING First Line: Flickering curtain, scintillations, junebugs Last Line: Pools, marshes, a different river WAVING TO THE DEVIL First Line: Tasted (and spat out) Last Line: Satan's boletus. %delicious! WAY IT IS First Line: More real than ever, as I move Last Line: Exaltation of larks uprising from the heart's %peat-dog darkness WAY THROUGH First Line: Let the rain plunge radiant Last Line: To lose ourselves, to career %up the plunge of the hill WAYS OF CONQUEST Poem Text First Line: You invaded my country by accident Subject(s): Suburbs WAYS OF CONQUEST First Line: You invaded my country by accident Last Line: What I invaded has %invaded me Subject(s): Suburbs WEALTH OF THE DESTITUTE First Line: How gray and hard the brown feet of the wretched of the earth Last Line: I am tired of 'the fine art of unhappiness' WEB First Line: Intricate and untraceable Last Line: All praise to the %great web WEBS First Line: What the spider weaves Last Line: And steadies, complacent, %exquisite, efficient WEDDING-RING Poem Text First Line: My wedding-ring lies in a basket Subject(s): Divorce WEDDING-RING First Line: My wedding-ring lies in a basket Last Line: Into a simple gift I could give in friendship? Subject(s): Divorce WEEPING WOMAN Poem Text First Line: (drum) / it comes, like all the most important messages, / blurred Subject(s): Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975 WEEPING WOMAN First Line: She is weeping for her lost right arm Last Line: It is your own soul you destroy, %not ours Subject(s): Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975 WELL First Line: At sixteen I believed the moonlight Last Line: Filled with some other power WHAT GOES UNSAID First Line: In each mind, even the most candid Last Line: Right that they rise at times into our ken, %and are acknowledged WHAT HARBINGER? First Line: Glitter of grey Last Line: It brings I can't %yet see WHAT IT COULD BE First Line: Uranium, with which we know Last Line: Reverence, active love WHAT MY HOUSE WOULD BE LIKE IF IT WERE A PERSON Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: This person would be an animal. Subject(s): Home; Relationships WHAT MY HOUSE WOULD BE LIKE IF IT WERE A PERSON First Line: This person would be an animal Last Line: It being a house, you would sit in its lap, %not it in yours WHAT ONE RECEIVES FROM LIVING CLOSE TO A LAKE First Line: That it is wide Last Line: Generous outstretching %we call lake WHAT SHE COULD NOT TELL HIM First Line: I wanted %to know all the bones of your spine, all Last Line: To cradle your sleep WHAT THE FIGTREE SAID First Line: Literal minds! Embarrassed humans! His friends Last Line: Their dullness, that witholds %gifts unimagined WHAT TIME IS MADE FROM First Line: The hand that inscribed genesis left out Last Line: From the eternal scrapbag WHAT WERE THEY LIKE Poem Text First Line: Did the people of vietnam use lanterns or stones Subject(s): Antiwar Movements; Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975; Anti-war Protests WHAT WERE THEY LIKE First Line: Did the people of vietnam use lanterns or stones Last Line: Who can say? It is silent now Subject(s): Antiwar Movements; Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975 WHAT WILD DAWNS THERE WERE Last Line: We have not spoken of these tired %risings of the sun WHEN WE LOOK UP Poem Text First Line: He had not looked Subject(s): Faces WHERE IS THE ANGEL FOR ME TO WRESTLE? Last Line: And the glass shatters, and the iron sunders? WHISPER First Line: Today the white mist that is weather Last Line: A vast whisper %the mountain WHY ME First Line: No reason: hyacinthine, ordinary WILLIAMS: AN ESSAY First Line: His theme Last Line: And the long stem of connection WILLOWS OF MASSACHUSETTS First Line: Animal willows of november Last Line: The serene cold through a curtain %of tarnished strands WIND SCRIPT First Line: The poem newborn of morning WIND SONG First Line: Who am I? Who am I WINDOW-BLIND First Line: Much happens when we're not there Last Line: Not dreaming but once more witnessing WINGS First Line: Something hangs in back of me Last Line: On one wing, %the white one? WINGS IN THE PEDLAR'S PACK First Line: The certainty of wings: a child's bold heart Last Line: But would not listen WINGS OF A GOD Poem Text First Line: The beating of the wings Subject(s): Wings WINGS OF A GOD First Line: The beating of the wings WINTER AFTERNOONS IN THE V. &A., PRE-W.W.II First Line: Rain unslanting, unceasing, %darkening afternoon streets Last Line: In its hourglass-now, while I was twelve, %or forever WINTER STARS First Line: Last night the stars had a brilliance more insistent WINTERPIG First Line: At the quick of winter %moonbrightest %snowdeepest Last Line: Most snow-and-moon-and-midnight-bewitched %pig in the world! WITH EYES AT THE BACK OF OUR HEADS Last Line: Of short grass and subtle shadows WITNESS First Line: Sometimes the mountain Last Line: That witnessing presence WITNESS: INCOMMUNICADO First Line: They speak of bonding. Of the infant, the primitive Last Line: Steam on the white mirror WITNESSING FROM AFAR THE NEW ESCALATION OF SAVAGE POWER First Line: She was getting old, had seen a lot Last Line: Nor dark imagination %had prepared her for WOMAN First Line: It is the one in homespun %you hunger for %when you are lonesome Last Line: Life with two brides, bridegroom? WOMAN ALONE First Line: When she cannot be sure Last Line: She is past the time of mourning, %now she can say without shame or deceit, %o blessed solitude WOMAN MEETS AN OLD LOVER First Line: He with whom I ran hand in hand Last Line: Remembered everything I had so long forgotten WOMAN PACING HER ROOM, READING A LETTER, RETURNING AGAIN AND .... First Line: Poised on the edge of ugliness Last Line: Swiftly or slowly must turn %from gold to mole-dark gray WONDERING First Line: Just to light the candle Last Line: 5 and the multitudinous force of %world WOODCUT First Line: St. John, as duvet's angel leads him Last Line: As before, but his notebook %vanished, perhaps discarded WORLD OUTSIDE First Line: On the kitchen wall a flash Last Line: Have been switched off, and silences %are dark windows? WOUND First Line: My tree %had a secret wound Last Line: But one withered branch %hung down WREN First Line: Quiet among the leaves, a wren Last Line: It can fly right through me WRITER AND READER First Line: When a poem has come to me Last Line: Arches above them in halcyon stillness WRITING IN THE DARK Poem Text First Line: It's not difficult. / anyway, it's necessary Subject(s): Night; Bedtime WRITING IN THE DARK First Line: It's not difficult. %anyway, it's necessary Last Line: Words that may have the power %to make the sun rise again Subject(s): Night WRITING TO AARON First Line: ...After three years a 3 decker novel Last Line: Is what we heard, and shall always hear, each leaf %imprinted, syllables in our lives YELLOW TULIP First Line: The yellow tulip in the room's warmth opens Last Line: In the room's warmth %opens YOUNG MAN TRAVELLING First Line: He is scared of the frankness of women Last Line: Drawn by what he fears YOUR HERON First Line: From stillness %the great blue heron Last Line: Into and over %the page, the parable YOUTH PROGRAM First Line: The children have been practicing Last Line: Turn off the power ZEROING IN First Line: I am a landscape,' he said Last Line: That are bruised forever, that time %never assuages, never |
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