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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: LEVIS, LARRY Matches Found: 160 Levis, Larry Poet's Biography 160 poems available by this author ADOLESCENCE First Line: Our babysitter lives across from the dodge street cemetery Last Line: And cover everything in the sierras, & make my meaning plain AFTER THE BLUE NOTE CLOSES First Line: Tonight, holding a stranger in my arms Last Line: So solemnly, as if it mattered, holding it %with great care ANASTASIA AND THE SANDMAN Poem Text First Line: The brow of a horse in that moment when Subject(s): Sleep; Stars ANASTASIA AND THE SANDMAN First Line: The brow of a horse in that moment when Last Line: Under the missing & innumerable stars Subject(s): Sleep; Stars ASSIMILATION OF THE GYPSIES First Line: In the background, a few shacks & overturned carts Last Line: For a few more years Subject(s): Assimilation; Gypsies AT THE GRAVE OF MY GUARDIAN ANGEL: ST. LOUIS CEMETERY, NEW ORLEANS Poem Text First Line: At sixteen I was so vulnerable to every influence Subject(s): Nothingness; Social Commentaries; Bakunin, Mikhail (1814-1876); Oswald, Lee Harvey (1939-1963); Lincoln, Abraham (1809-1865); Nihilism; Voids AT THE GRAVE OF MY GUARDIAN ANGEL: ST. LOUIS CEMETERY... First Line: At sixteen I was so vulnerable to every influence Last Line: Riding beside me, your seat belt around your invisible waist. Sweet %nothing. %sweet, sweet nothing BLUE HATBAND First Line: Sometimes, even in the middle of a conversation Last Line: But the butcher looks up, into hi sunlit, empty shop BLUE STONES First Line: I suspect %they will slide me into a cold bed Last Line: The cold, blue stones they give you, %after you have lived BOY IN VIDEO ARCADE First Line: Some see a lake of fire at the end of it Last Line: It's hard to pick out anything CHILDHOOD IDEOGRAM Poem Text First Line: I lay my head sideways on the desk Subject(s): Education; Schools; Students CHILDHOOD IDEOGRAM First Line: I lay my head sideways on the desk Last Line: I always thought he wouldn't dare be seen Subject(s): Education; Schools CLEARING OF THE LAND: AN EPITAPH First Line: The trees went up the hill Last Line: Before history begins to edit them into %something without smoke or flies, something %beyond all rec COCOON First Line: Must have dreamed itself Last Line: As the eyes that see nothing special %stare at a last patch of snow COOK GREW LOST IN HIS VILLAGE, THE VILLAGE IN THE ENDLES First Line: One by one the gods grew wearier of their games Last Line: Like the shaky letters orfeo squeezes onto birthday cakes CRIMES OF THE SHADE TREES First Line: Today everyone forgave me Last Line: Each a mad bible of patience CRY First Line: Then, everything slept Last Line: And did not know why DECRESCENDO Poem Text First Line: If there is only one world, it is this one Subject(s): Music, Rock; Rock & Roll DECRESCENDO First Line: If there is only one world, it is this one Last Line: Hoping to fix up, a little, this world Subject(s): Music, Rock DELWYN CREED First Line: He is swallowing beer Last Line: And turned and smiled slowly DOUBLE First Line: Out here, I can say anything Last Line: And music are not EDWARD HOPPER, HOTEL ROOM, 1931 First Line: The young woman is just sitting on the bed Last Line: Almost left out of the picture, half undressed ELEGY ENDING IN THE SOUND OF A SKIPPING ROPE First Line: All I have left of that country is this torn scrap Last Line: Annoying, unvarying flick of the rope each time %it touched the street ELEGY FOR POE WITH THE MUSIC OF A CARNIVAL INSIDE IT First Line: There is this sunny place where I imagine him Last Line: Tapping at the glass, unable to tell his story ELEGY FOR WHATEVER HAD A PATTERN IN IT First Line: Now that the summer of love has become the moss of tunnels Last Line: And never come back ELEGY WITH A BRIDLE IN ITS HAND First Line: One was a bay cowhorse from piedras & the other was a washed-out palomino Last Line: And stare up into the dark, & say, me. I do. It's mine ELEGY WITH A CHIMNEYSWEEP FALLING INSIDE IT Poem Text First Line: Those twenty-six letters filling the blackboard Subject(s): Transience; Grief; Conduct Of Life; Impermanence; Sorrow; Sadness ELEGY WITH A CHIMNEYSWEEP FALLING INSIDE IT First Line: Those twenty-six letters filling the blackboard Last Line: Of the other, & how they don't stop walking, not now, %not for anything ELEGY WITH A PETTY THIEF IN THE RIGGING First Line: That afternoon after he found it Last Line: Over his expressionless face? I'm glad %it's not a story ELEGY WITH A THIMBLEFUL OF WATER IN THE CAGE First Line: It's a list of what I cannot touch Last Line: The iron grillwork, into the irretrievable ELEGY WITH A THIMBLEFUL OF WATER IN THE CAGE First Line: It's a list of what I cannot touch Last Line: The iron grillwork, into the irretrievable ELEGY WITH AN ANGEL AT ITS GATE: 1. MUIR IN THE WILDERNESS First Line: We were the uncountable stars, at first Last Line: Resemble the piping on the ushers' uniforms ELEGY WITH AN ANGEL AT ITS GATE: 2. BUNNY MAYO IN THE NEW First Line: We brought the shape of the angel with us Last Line: Here in the sunset it is. It's not allowed ELEGY WITH AN ANGEL AT ITS GATE: 3. STEVENS First Line: This was one idea, like water seen through glass Last Line: The new god is a revolver in the sun ELEGY WITH AN ANGEL AT ITS GATE: 4. LIKE THE SCATTERED BEADS First Line: One august afternoon, in the midst of lying Last Line: With the heavens behind you on fire ELEGY WITH THE SPRAWL OF A WAVE INSIDE IT First Line: The two black swans paddling the brown canals of sheffield park Last Line: The present can't remember what it is EN LA LOCUELA First Line: After the long bus ride into the mountains Last Line: And their hushed, suspended parliaments of gray leaves- %in that wide, bare place, the middle of the FAMILY ROMANCE Poem Text First Line: Sister once of weeds & a dark water that held still Subject(s): Family Life; Marriage; Failure; Relatives; Weddings; Husbands; Wives FAMILY ROMANCE First Line: Sister once of weeds & dark water that held still Last Line: I thought: why me, why her, & he knew it wouldn't last FISH First Line: The cop holds me up like a fish Last Line: And the stars begin moving FOR A GHOST WHO ONCE PLACED BETS IN THE PARK First Line: To become as pure as I am Last Line: Refusing to die, and the three motionless swings FOR MIGUEL HERNANDEZ IN HIS SLEEP AND IN HIS SICKNESS; SPRING, 1942 First Line: You have slept for two days now Last Line: Show up again above you FOR STONES First Line: Against laws %the tongue tries to go back down the throat Last Line: Plain water that is simple and against the law FOR THE COUNTRY First Line: One of them undid your blouse, then Last Line: And that is the end of it FOR ZBIGNIEW HERBERT, SUMMER, 1971, LOS ANGELES First Line: No matter how hard I listen, the wind speaks Last Line: Until their hands feel like glass on the page, %and snow collects in the blind eyes of statues GARCIA LORCA; A PHOTOGRAPH OF THE GRANADA CEMETERY, 1966 First Line: The men who killed poetry Last Line: Your house is breath IDLE COMPANION First Line: I thought I caught Last Line: Soul, what is your name? IN 1967 First Line: Some called it the summer of love; & although the clustered Last Line: And the best thing one could do was get arrested IN A COUNTRY Poem Text First Line: My love and I are inventing a country, which we Subject(s): Future Life; Retribution; Eternity; After Life IN THE CITY OF LIGHT First Line: The last thing my father did for me Last Line: And my father opening the gate: a lit, & silent %city INVENTING THE TOUCAN First Line: You sail placidly down the orinoco in a white dress Last Line: And these two aren't your real parents IRISH MUSIC First Line: Now in middle age my blood like a thief who Last Line: Up to the empty summit L.A., LOITERINGS: 1. CONVALESCENT HOME First Line: High on painkillers, %the old don't hear Last Line: At the road's edge everywhere L.A., LOITERINGS: 2. THE MYTH First Line: The go-go girl yawns Last Line: Far into the night L.A., LOITERINGS: 3. SPIDER First Line: In the bruised doorway Last Line: Of things, is never sorry LATE SEPTEMBER IN ULCINJ First Line: Birth & death own the little walled cottages Last Line: It was the custom to wear nothing there, %where the wave sprawl on the rock cannot remember LEOPARD'S MOUTH IS DRY AND COLD INSIDE First Line: Now I am drying my body, but carefully, as if it doesn't really belong to Last Line: Then suddenly remembered and put in too many of them, as if to make %sure of something LETTER First Line: It's better to have a light jacket on days like this LETTERS First Line: My friend arnold wrote me how his life Last Line: In just this one night and with words only LINNETS: 1 First Line: One morning with a 12 gauge my brother shot Last Line: In the air behind him LINNETS: 10. AT THE HIGH MEADOW First Line: It's march; the arthritic horses Last Line: Coughs. You come down the mountain LINNETS: 11 First Line: Until one day in a diner in oakland Last Line: In the trembling of a spider web gone suddenly still, %it never happened LINNETS: 12 First Line: This is a good page Last Line: And the father of that silence LINNETS: 2 First Line: But in the high court of linnets he does not get Last Line: Linnet, then another, then more. Then one of them %begins singing LINNETS: 3 First Line: As my brother walks through an intersection the Last Line: All day. God grows balder LINNETS: 4 First Line: Whales dry up on beaches by themselves Last Line: Of light and drummed fingers and inbreedings LINNETS: 5 First Line: Snakes swallow birds, mice, anything warm Last Line: She smiled: 'snakes don't have no minds.' LINNETS: 6 First Line: You can't be sure. Your whole family Last Line: And sells all the silence behind him LINNETS: 7. LINNET TAXIDERMY First Line: I thought when finished Last Line: And go on singing LINNETS: 8. MATINEE First Line: Your family stands over your bed Last Line: Goodbye, tender blimps LINNETS: 9. 1973 First Line: At the end of winter Last Line: Their ruffled feathers turn large and black LOST FAN, HOTEL CALIFORNIAN, FRESNO, 1923 First Line: In fresno it is 1923, and your shy father Last Line: And turned serious, like the sky MAGICIAN POEMS: 1. THE MAGICIAN'S EXIT WOUND First Line: All day %the sky has the look of dirty paper Last Line: Of breaking into %blood on a cloud MAGICIAN POEMS: 2. THE MAGICIAN'S RIDE TO THE HOSPITAL First Line: Just now %I noticed my arms Last Line: Outside even the sky is shocked and darkens MAGICIAN POEMS: 3. MAGICIAN'S FACE First Line: One day all the smiles hardened Last Line: A single window smashed and bare with sky MAGICIAN POEMS: 4. THE MAGICIAN AT HIS OWN REVIVAL First Line: Once I thought my mouth was a scar Last Line: For no reason at all but me, me MAGICIAN POEMS: 5. THE MAGICIAN'S CALL First Line: Our conversation %frays like an old wire in the rain Last Line: Just under his breath in the static MAGICIAN POEMS: 6. THE MAGICIAN'S EDGE AND EXIT First Line: I've got my edge now Last Line: And I drift through it, suddenly air MAGICIAN POEMS: 7. THE MAGICIAN ENDING First Line: After a while my lungs give Last Line: As a shrug of stars and years %drifts through me MAGNOLIA First Line: If I knew a way, I would tell you Last Line: While he kept staring patiently out %the rain streaked windows of a bus MAYBE THE DEAD First Line: Maybe the dead know the ant's troubles Last Line: Clean itself under one wing with its beak MORNING AFTER MY DEATH First Line: My body is a white thing in the sun, now Last Line: Polished and swarming frankly in the sun Subject(s): Alienation (social Psychology); Dissenters; Exiles; Marginality, Social MY ONLY PHOTOGRAPH OF WELDON KEES First Line: 10 p.M. The river thinking Last Line: Admiring the sun on alcatraz MY STORY IN A LATE STYLE OF FIRE First Line: Whenever I listen to billie holiday, I am reminded Last Line: Its desolation. And its eventual, brief triumph NATURE First Line: In this place, beside a sigh of traffic Last Line: Of the city & spreading effortlessly over %the green identical benches in the park OKLAHOMA First Line: Often I used to say: I am this dust, or, I am this wind OLDEST LIVING THING IN L.A. First Line: At wilshire and santa monica I saw an opossum Last Line: A light steel net to snare it with, someone who hoped %the thing would have vanished by the time he OVERHEARING THE DOLLMAKER'S GHOST ON THE RIVERBANK First Line: The missouri is only a mile from this place Last Line: In late august - %and drives away OWNERSHIP OF THE NIGHT First Line: After five years Last Line: And you step quickly past them, into the night PERFECTION OF SOLITUDE: A SEQUENCE: 1. OAXACA, 1983 First Line: And now the sunlight, gradually filling the lobby, strays over Last Line: As, once again, she puts her left nipple into the little hole in the glass PERFECTION OF SOLITUDE: A SEQUENCE: 2. CARAVAGGIO: SWIRL & VORTEX First Line: In the borghese, caravaggio, painter of boy whores, street punk, exile & Last Line: To leave them like that PERFECTION OF SOLITUDE: A SEQUENCE: 3. TURBAN First Line: Sometimes, in the brueghel paintings, the children who are skating hold Last Line: He will never smile again. The turban is the dirty white of a popular beach PERFECTION OF SOLITUDE: A SEQUENCE: 4. OUR SISTER OF PERFECT ... First Line: In the cathedral of oaxaca, the usual women: three or four black shawls worn Last Line: Cloudy, & not necessarily human PERFECTION OF SOLITUDE: A SEQUENCE: 5. 'CONEY ISLAND BABY' First Line: But there is a place that will not change, a place that is rooted in dream Last Line: I swear I'd give the whole thing up for you PERFECTION OF SOLITUDE: A SEQUENCE: 6. AS IT BEGINS WITH A BRUSH First Line: The plaza was so still in that moment two years ago that everything was clear Last Line: Gradually fill with the usual crowds...Those who love, or those who think they love, %novelty, & cha PERFECTION OF SOLITUDE: A SEQUENCE: 7. CODA: KIND OF BLUE First Line: And so what? Said a trumpet; & I'll see you that & raise you five, said a kind Last Line: Is how that song began. All things you are, & briefly, as, in solitude, it ends PHOTOGRAPH: MIGRANT WORKER, PARLIER, CALIFORNIA, 1967 First Line: I'm going to put johnny dominguez right here Last Line: Of the stars, that face, johnny dominguez PICKING GRAPES IN AN ABANDONED VINEYARD Poem Text First Line: Picking grapes in the late autumn sun Subject(s): Farm Life; Agriculture; Farmers PICKING GRAPES IN AN ABANDONED VINEYARD First Line: Picking grapes in the late autumn sun Last Line: Carry the grapes up into the solemn house, %where I was born Subject(s): Farm Life POEM OF HORSES First Line: Your friends nod. Their glances are like huts Last Line: And left them alone POEM RETURNING AS AN INVISIBLE WREN TO THE WORLD First Line: Once, there was a poem. No one read it & the poem Last Line: Starts up with its raspy hum again. Like a heaven's POEM YOU ASKED FOR First Line: My poem would eat nothing. %I tried giving it water Last Line: Slicking its hair down. %said it was going %over to your place POET AT SEVENTEEN First Line: My youth? I hear it mostly in the long, volleying Last Line: And sat so rigidly, although the land was theirs Subject(s): Teenagers QUILT First Line: I think it is all light at the end, I think it is air Subject(s): Quilts READINGS IN FRENCH Poem Text First Line: Looking into the eyes of gerard de nerval Subject(s): Poetry & Poets - French; Fathers READINGS IN FRENCH First Line: Looking into the eyes of gerard de nerval Last Line: Looking too closely into the eyes of your father, that formal eclipse RHODODENDRONS First Line: Winter has moved off Last Line: And is never heard of again SELF-PORTRAIT WITH RADIO First Line: Sooiee, pig pig pig Last Line: I put my fork %to half-cold stew on my plate, %and began to eat SENSATIONALISM First Line: In josef koudelka's photograph, untitled & with no date Last Line: If only to him. And before he turned into paper SHILOH First Line: When my friends found me after I'd been blown Last Line: Arms & wings. They'll mock you one way or the other SIGNS Poem Text First Line: All night I dreamed of my home, Subject(s): Winter SIGNS First Line: All night I dreamed of my home Last Line: It is almost spring SLEEPING LIONESS First Line: Even when we finally had to burn them, the gray, stately Last Line: You could step out now in wonder SLEEPING LIONESS: 1 First Line: Even when we finally had to burn them, the gray, stately Last Line: Would you choose to carry into hell if you left now? SLEEPING LIONESS: 2; FOR JAMES WRIGHT First Line: Today, hearing the empty clang of a rope against Last Line: In all the photographs, %wanting his mouth for a souvenir SLEEPING LIONESS: 3 First Line: In 1965, if anything was worth worshipping in that city Last Line: Anything is enough if you know how poor you are. %you could step out now in wonder SLOW CHILD WITH A BOOK OF BIRDS First Line: The snow that has no name is just Last Line: The sudden, overcast quiet of the past tense SMELL OF THE SEA First Line: Because they could not blind him twice, they drove a pencil Last Line: The unbelieving pencil through his ear SOME ASHES DRIFTING ABOVE PIEDRA, CALIFORNIA Poem Text First Line: There is still one field I can love Subject(s): Farm Life; Agriculture; Farmers SOME ASHES DRIFTING ABOVE PIEDRA, CALIFORNIA First Line: There is still one field I can love Last Line: Easily away, without comment, %on the wind Subject(s): Farm Life SOME GRASS ALONG A DITCH BANK Poem Text Subject(s): Farm Life; Agriculture; Farmers SOME GRASS ALONG A DITCH BANK First Line: I don't know what happens to grass Last Line: But then growing still again SOME GRASS ALONG A DITCH BANK First Line: I didn't know what happens to grass Last Line: But then growing still again SOUTH First Line: I will begin with tis moth SPELL OF THE LEAVES First Line: Her husband left her suddenly. Then it was autumn Last Line: Like the tip of the father's left forefinger %to the unwiped, greasy, kitchen countertop SPIRIT SAYS, YOU ARE NOTHING First Line: Because you haven't praised anything in months Last Line: You were all I had STORY First Line: I know the white wedding dress is suicidal Last Line: In a slaughterhouse, and long enough for the flies %to swarm over the meat in their loud, black wedd THE ASSIMILATION OF THE GYPSIES Poem Text First Line: In the background, a few shacks & overturned carts Subject(s): Assimilation; Gypsies; Gipsies THE CLEARING OF THE LAND: AN EPITAPH Poem Text First Line: The trees went up the hill Subject(s): Transience; Progress; Impermanence THE MAP Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Applying to heavy equipment school Subject(s): Relationships THE MORNING AFTER MY DEATH Poem Text First Line: My body is a white thing in the sun, now Subject(s): Alienation (social Psychology); Dissenters; Exiles; Marginality, Social; Estrangement; Outcasts THE OLDEST LIVING THING IN L.A. Poem Text First Line: At wilshire & santa monica I saw an opossum Subject(s): Opossoms THE POET AT SEVENTEEN Poem Text First Line: My youth? I hear it mostly in the long, volleying Subject(s): Teenagers THE QUILT Poem Text First Line: I think it is all light at the end, I think it is air Subject(s): Quilts THE THIEF IN THE PAINTING Poem Text First Line: Thirsty all through lent, thirsty on feast days too Subject(s): Desire; Lent THE WIDENING SPELL OF THE LEAVES Poem Text First Line: Once, in a foreign country, I was suddenly ill Subject(s): Nostalgia THE WORM IN THE EAR Poem Text First Line: If peasants had written they would have ceased to be peasants Last Line: Chin up? Ready? Subject(s): Peasantry; Writing & Writers; Heidegger, Martin (1889-1976); Van Gogh, Vincent (1853-1890) THERE ARE TWO WORLDS First Line: Perhaps the ankle of a horse is holy THIEF IN THE PAINTING First Line: Thirsty all through lent, thirsty on feast days too Last Line: The hard, pure, furiously indifferent faces of thieves Subject(s): Desire; Lent THOSE GRAVES IN ROME Poem Text First Line: There are places where the eye can starve, Subject(s): Rome, Italy; Friendship; Graves; Tombs; Tombstones THOSE GRAVES IN ROME First Line: There are places where the eye can starve Last Line: Is empty. And not empty. And almost enough THOUGH HIS NAME IS INFINITE, MY FATHER IS ASLEEP Poem Text First Line: When my father disappeared Subject(s): Fathers THOUGH HIS NAME IS INFINITE, MY FATHER IS ASLEEP First Line: When my father disappeared Last Line: In the sweep of those syllables - %wind, crushed bones, & ashes - %begin to live again Subject(s): Fathers TO A WALL OF FLAME IN A STEEL MILL, SYRACUSE, NEW YORK, 1969 Poem Text First Line: Except under the cool shadows of the pines Subject(s): Fathers; Solitude; Farm Life; Mills & Millers; Agriculture; Farmers TO A WALL OF FLAME IN A STEEL MILL, SYRACUSE, NEW YORK, 1969 First Line: Except under the cool shadows of pines Last Line: Onto the thawing river TO A WOMAN GLANCING UP FROM THE RIVER Poem Text First Line: On either bank Subject(s): Camping; Rivers; Camps; Summer Camps TO A WREN ON CALVARY Poem Text First Line: It is the unremarkable that will last, Subject(s): Wrens; Death - Animals; Man-woman Relationships; Jesus Christ; Male-female Relations TO A WREN ON CALVARY First Line: It is the unremarkable that will last Last Line: At each white breath going out, thinning, & then vanishing, %for he has grown tired of amazing thing TOAD, HOG, ASSASSIN, MIRROR First Line: Toad, hog, assassin, mirror. Some of its favorite words, which are breath Last Line: At least as far as we are permitted to see TOWN First Line: This moon a pig spits out on a hot night Last Line: The moon's sweating thumb TRUMAN, DA VINCI, NEBRASKA First Line: In kansas city, truman is dead who ruled Last Line: Da vinci who knew all the muscles in the human face TWO TREES First Line: My name in latin is light to carry & victorious Last Line: And possess her completely TWO VARIATIONS ON A THEME BY KOBAYASHI First Line: The year I returned to my village, the papers Last Line: Against which all swords are useless!' UNFINISHED POEM First Line: Here are all the shadows that have fallen on Last Line: You carried all the dead at the moment of your birth WHITMAN Poem Text First Line: On long island, they moved my clapboard house Subject(s): Jazz; Music & Musicians; Parker, Charlie ('bird') (1920-1955); Poetry & Poets; Popular Culture - United States; United States; Whitman, Walt (1819-1891); America WHITMAN First Line: On long island, they moved my clapboard house Last Line: To find me now will cost you everything Subject(s): Jazz; Music And Musicians; Parker, Charlie ("bird") (1920-1955); Poetry And Poets; Popular Culture - United States; United States; Whitman, Walt (1819-1891) WIDENING SPELL OF THE LEAVES First Line: Once, in a foreign country, I was suddenly ill Last Line: And always coming back-steadfast, orderly, %taciturn, oblivious-until the end of time Subject(s): Nostalgia WINTER STARS Poem Text Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Aging; Courage; Stars; Sickness; Valor; Bravery; Illness WINTER STARS First Line: My father once broke a man's hand Last Line: Even a father, even a son WORM IN THE EAR First Line: If peasants had written they would have ceased to be peasants Last Line: The cold comes on. %chin up? Ready? Subject(s): Peasantry; Writing And Writers |
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