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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: LIU, TIMOTHY Matches Found: 317 Liu, Timothy Poet's Biography 317 poems available by this author 911 First Line: We met as blind men, trying to see Last Line: As I held on to the white %circumference of his perfect waist A GRAVE Poem Text First Line: He was crying. Somebody get his mother ACTION PAINTING First Line: A canvas we cannot stretch across the frame Last Line: Gesticulating wildly at the pulpit again Subject(s): Homosexuality AFTER THE STORM First Line: Renewed by morning air now pouring in Last Line: Clean arc from birth door to the grave Subject(s): Death; Homosexuality; Life; Storms AFTER VAN GOGH First Line: What a simple thing death is - peasants Last Line: The hearth - the understanding between them Subject(s): Death; Van Gogh, Vincent (1853-1890) AGAINST NATURE First Line: Those bottled fruit flies in bethesda Last Line: Continue to get it on and on Subject(s): Homosexuality AGAINST NATURE First Line: Eight dollars for a dozen roses sold Last Line: To thrusting hips in vacant lots where %pissed-on corpses mark a warring turf ALL TRAINS ARE GOING LOCAL Poem Text First Line: Slowing down your body enough to feel Last Line: Slowing down your body enough to feel Subject(s): Bodies; Activity ALMOST THERE Poem Text First Line: Hard to imagine getting Subject(s): Passion; Sex AN EVENING TRAIN Poem Text First Line: Whistles past hacked-down fields of corn Last Line: From boulevard Subject(s): Children; Death; Railroads; Childhood; Dead, The; Railways; Trains ANNIVERSARY First Line: To speak no ill. To resist locutions %torqued from one hard-scrabble night Last Line: Bars of an unscored aria, my voice %that icy pitcher waiting to be poured ANNIVERSARY First Line: Landscapes that grow flatter every year Last Line: Kept inside those angry russian tomes ANONYMOUS Poem Text First Line: A streak / of moth dust ANTEDILUVIAN First Line: Such tabloid frenzy once word got out Last Line: And love you long as the moment lasts APERTURE First Line: A moon obscured by clouds rocked my stomach Last Line: Vanish, so many men gone overboard %on a promenade silvered by the moon Subject(s): Homosexuality APHRODITE AS I KNOW HER First Line: It is not ruin but the tenderness Last Line: The tokens %of that life they most desired APOSTASY Poem Text First Line: We open our mouths and the seasons Subject(s): Gays & Lesbians; Homoeroticism; Lesbians; Gay Women; Gay Men APOSTASY First Line: Those voices from below roiling up Last Line: That iron song %as our bodies flail Subject(s): Homosexuality APPROACHING THE BUDDHA First Line: Binoculars left in the backseat Last Line: In giant urns burnishing the air Subject(s): Automobiles; Buddhism ARIEL SINGING First Line: It is not happiness. Not the man standing Last Line: How to sing in a grove of olive trees, %to fall as a sparrow. It is all I want ARS POETICA First Line: Fish are swimming at ease- %this is the happiness of fish Last Line: And try to keep each other moist %with their own spit AT LIMANTOUR First Line: Memory failed where shore birds wheeled Last Line: So close to the edge of our ruined maps Subject(s): Homosexuality AWAITING TRANSLATION First Line: My habit is reading only beginnings Last Line: I could be like him and somehow keep myself %alive, leave the last word unfinished AWOL First Line: More chore than doling the orders out your body spent Last Line: As your anger sugars over to an almost forgotten tune BAEDEKER: AT THE RODIN MUSEUM First Line: Water pooling in the pleats of a bronze skirt Last Line: Veiling them all in a luminous shroud Subject(s): Homosexuality BAEDEKER: FROM ARLES First Line: Houses of stone shall not be spared Last Line: Where the icons have been dislodged Subject(s): Homosexuality BAEDEKER: FROM BARCELONA First Line: Miro's phallus crowned with a crescent moon Last Line: On our tongues but the sound of pigeons rising Subject(s): Homosexuality BAEDEKER: FROM MARSEILLE First Line: Thousands of masts spear the sky, no water Last Line: As the sun sinks into the world's burnished haze Subject(s): Homosexuality BAEDEKER: FROM NICE First Line: A shingled beach receding into those Last Line: At azure's edge as day retreats Subject(s): Homosexuality BAEDEKER: FROM VENCE First Line: We break a basket of braided dough Last Line: Could forgive us of all our sins Subject(s): Homosexuality BAEDEKER: GUERNICA First Line: No tears in picasso's final version, eyes Last Line: Crying out from its two-dimensional cell Subject(s): Homosexuality BAEDEKER: PLAZA DE TOROS First Line: Fuchsia blooms fan out on the killing floor Last Line: Ourselves the broken body, the mythic form Subject(s): Homosexuality BAEDEKER: THE ELGIN MARBLES First Line: How much we want to piece it all together Last Line: Must forfeit all their power over us Subject(s): Homosexuality BAIT First Line: Adam fishing in a lake Last Line: Rising up from under Subject(s): Homosexuality BENEDICTION Poem Text First Line: What lies buried under six feet of snow BIG BOY First Line: Where polka dots mask a mastiff's bullet-ridden hide Last Line: Ass meat spread in centerfolds a canine wrenches free BILLIONS SERVED First Line: A cow without an eye? Not an uncommon sight Last Line: A long line of workers as far as the eye can see Subject(s): Homosexuality BIRDSONG FOREVER IN THAT CHILDHOOD HOUSE First Line: Three children playing 'around the world' the ball Last Line: Is death at work so early in the afternoon Subject(s): Homosexuality BISEXUALITY First Line: His credentials? He says he did it Last Line: The back. This could take all night BLACKOUT AT THE WHITE SWALLOW First Line: We swivel in our seats as pool balls crack Last Line: Fists are warming up behind a beaded curtain Subject(s): Homosexuality BLEECKER STREET First Line: Desire mapping stringencies across a stranger's chest Last Line: Hubris poised in five-inch heels braving the sewer grates BLESSING First Line: She does not seem to know her husband Last Line: To the wife at home inexplicably refreshed BLIND DATE Poem Text First Line: He slept with his back Subject(s): Love - Erotic BLUE TRAIN Poem Text First Line: My mouth full Subject(s): Love - Erotic BOSTON FOURTH First Line: Faces sludging forward on the esplanade Last Line: For that twenty-one-gun salute Subject(s): Homosexuality BREUGHEL Poem Text First Line: Hatchet marks in the trunk of a pine BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN First Line: Edenic glory sequestered just outside Last Line: Walk-up eyesores fenced out by %the fragrance garden for the blind. BUILDING TRUST Poem Text First Line: I liked it when he fucked me Last Line: Be trusted, not by anyone Subject(s): Gays & Lesbians; Mothers; Love – Complaints; Distrust; Homoeroticism; Lesbians; Gay Women; Gay Men CALENDAR (WITH MONTHS TORN OFF) First Line: Nailed to the wall. Anything to lift Last Line: Vanish into those hills at night Subject(s): Homosexuality CANKER First Line: The wound would not heal for days. But that was nothing compared to my Last Line: Her petals wither and fall. I press them into a book for proof that we have %loved CARCASS First Line: I can smell it now Last Line: Buckle like beautiful knees %going down on dead meat CATHEDRAL First Line: My steps are worn echoes Last Line: Each falling note a thorn %in the crown of blood Subject(s): Mormons CELAN Poem Text First Line: He woke / each day / not knowing CHERISH Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: He puts his mouth on me even if Last Line: To finish off what we started— Subject(s): Gays & Lesbians; Love - Erotic CIRCE Poem Text First Line: Hair so damn good it eclipsed Last Line: With wherever they were going— Subject(s): Pigs; Hair CITY First Line: Here rats are the totem animal Last Line: Dancing in alleys with barrels %of shotguns in their mouths CLADE SONG. ROMANCE Poem Text First Line: Wanted to mention / how that bloody cut Last Line: What we were in for Subject(s): Relationships CLADE SONG. THIS TOO SHALL PASS Poem Text First Line: You think of the time Last Line: It's more than over Subject(s): Gays & Lesbians; Time; Homoeroticism; Lesbians; Gay Women; Gay Men CONFESSIONAL First Line: Scabs of rust %spreading across Last Line: A saint comes %marching in CONSOLATION First Line: Don't want to go out. The toilet Last Line: The weight of my head %in my hands, old linen on the table CONSOLATION First Line: You're ashes now, no longer a corpse Last Line: Around the silence that your life had become COURTLY INSCRIPTIONS INKED ON JUTE First Line: No way in or out-decades of discord Last Line: Lines of blood down some ruined facade CREPUSCULE WITH MOTHER First Line: Stacked up on a changer, that slow Last Line: Even when it sounded wrong Subject(s): Homosexuality CROWN First Line: Thrown down. An empty throne %at a loss for minion-heart's Last Line: With fortitude aplenty sallying %forth across such lyrical atoll CRUSHED Poem Text First Line: His hands crushed a lemon Last Line: That would keep you up all night— Subject(s): Food & Eating DAU AL SET Poem Text First Line: Marking faces smeared with ash Last Line: That wide room called the world Subject(s): Social Commentaries DEAD MEAT Poem Text First Line: Seismic cracks spreading across plaster bison chained Last Line: Inside a spine-cracked diary the pages rabbit-eared Subject(s): Social Commentaries DEATH CALLS First Line: I made you some breakfast Last Line: Were charred, that I passed %the salt you always took Subject(s): Mormons DENOUMENT First Line: Letters I have saved sealed inside %an envelope of flame-luxurious Last Line: Disrobe behind a shower curtain %appliqued with giant yellow daises DISTURBED Poem Text First Line: It’s true you did not expect to see your neighbor Last Line: When you knew you should have stayed in bed— Subject(s): Neigbors DO NOT DISTURB Poem Text First Line: Offshore salt lapping up against a lighthouse flashing red Subject(s): Absence; Separation; Isolation DROWNING IN A SEA OF STAIR-MASTERED DRONE First Line: More than a sack of bones rising to this occasion Last Line: All of us here alone in what can never be undone EAST DOES IT Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Our bodies are made for bliss Last Line: Else to get to—no place left to go Subject(s): Gays & Lesbians; Body, Human EASTER, 1996 First Line: Meat hardly resurrects these days Last Line: The dice-rattle lodged in our throats Subject(s): Homosexuality EASTER, 1997 First Line: Hand in hand down a sun-washed street, two men Last Line: As two-by-fours descend like crows to carrion Subject(s): Crime And Criminals; Easter; Holidays ELEGY First Line: Last week your brother died, and today Last Line: In honor--no need to write this elegy ELEGY First Line: Your brother dies and you are jumping off Last Line: With honor - no need to write this elegy Subject(s): Homosexuality ELEGY FOR A POET WHOSE BOOKS I DIDN?ÇÖT THINK WERE WORTH RE-READING, NOT UNTIL NOW Poem Text First Line: Say she leapt from the bleachers, Subject(s): Poetry & Poets EROS APTEROS First Line: The wings are no longer there Last Line: Two thousand years, this touching %the proof that I am here EX NIHILO First Line: A renewed taste for voltaire/itinerant Last Line: Ants marching single file towards that edge EXULTATE JUBILATE Poem Text First Line: Fire in that square floodlit by crimson Subject(s): Death; Mourning; Dead, The; Bereavement EXULTATE JUBILATE First Line: Fire in that square floodlit by crimson Last Line: Become a form that those who live must bear Subject(s): Death; Mourning FAMILY ROMANCE Poem Text First Line: Only the shrink you pay Last Line: Of a creek gone dry Subject(s): Human Behavior FELIX CULPA First Line: Down on all fours. %the breaking of rules %the only rule Last Line: Enthroned %in ever tinier courts FIGURES ON A HUMAN SCALE First Line: So it was a disaster: a butterfly nets Last Line: Still held captive by what remains %unsolved. All that we could not save FINAL PREPARATIONS First Line: I am the only one at church Last Line: Melts to glass, and the whole earth %is shot like marble Subject(s): Mormons FIRST DAY First Line: The children set out for school, no books Last Line: Against the rim of a cast-iron pan Subject(s): Homosexuality FIRST MEMORY Poem Text First Line: My mother in a stupor, Subject(s): Mothers FOR A NEW CENTURY First Line: The authors have been winnowed Last Line: Even slouching towards the site Subject(s): Holidays; New Year FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT DREAM First Line: Watermelon seeds in the belly of a woman Last Line: Called, and we ate each other to the rind Subject(s): Homosexuality FORTY YEARS First Line: Work boots in the basement thrown against Last Line: Crushed more each time he hammers it Subject(s): Homosexuality FORTY-PERCENT CHANCE OF RAIN Poem Text First Line: The water in your flower vase five days old FULL FATHOM FIVE First Line: Sailors slumped over billiard tables Last Line: Shell walled-off with soundproof foam FUTURISM Poem Text First Line: Said we were emptied out Last Line: Trying to traipse across the mind’s vertiginous shifts Subject(s): Art & Artists GARDEN First Line: We were after crevices, whatever god had Last Line: Of a woman who turns away from the well Subject(s): Homosexuality GATES OF HELL First Line: All morning they were lining up to eat Last Line: His tongue hanging down from his mouth, %who followed each soul like a shadow GETTING THERE First Line: With a man who carries roses, a bundle of cut Last Line: As we ride in silence the rest of the way home Subject(s): Buses; Commuters; Flowers; Love; Roses GLIMPSED THROUGH SPEEDING GLASS First Line: Zipped-up in duffel bags some newborn twins Last Line: Without sustenance the hours now slipping past HARD EVIDENCE Poem Text First Line: A room walled-in by books where the hours withdraw Subject(s): Hotels; Inns; Innskeepers; Motels; Boarding Houses HAVING TRANSCENDED THE CARES OF THIS WORLD First Line: He stops before a headshot framed %in a beauty shop window. Bows Last Line: By termites drilling through the torso %of an unearthed bodhisattva HEAT First Line: So he hung himself Last Line: His bare feet %grounded in that heat HERRING COVE BEACH First Line: Fenced-off from the world, men lying Last Line: When our bodies failed Subject(s): Homosexuality HIGH CHURCH Poem Text First Line: Notes lodged inside a second-hand Last Line: So hard the mute flew out of his horn Subject(s): Music & Musicians HIGH TIDE First Line: Virgin ass shucking clam shells by the bucketload Last Line: Cum-shots to blow a hard-drive's memory cache HIS ANUS AS VENTRILOQUIST First Line: Your glance disrupts my ease, faces Last Line: From a book fished out of the sea Subject(s): Homosexuality HIS BODY LIKE CHRIST PASSED IN AND OUT OF MY LIFE First Line: A woman selling bibles at the greyhound station Last Line: What are birds returning, singing, compared to this, %the lives that I have forsaken to honor a god HIS LEGACY Poem Text First Line: But a voice blowing away the dust Last Line: Voice in which no recordings survived Subject(s): Music & Musicians; Social Commentaries HOLDING PATTERN Poem Text First Line: Intermittent wet under Last Line: Between your knees Subject(s): Air Travel HOMO EX HUMO First Line: A dawn washed clean by sun inviting stain Last Line: Of a spider's legs dangling over halogen I KNOW MY HUSBAND'S BODY Poem Text Subject(s): Gays & Lesbians; Homoeroticism; Lesbians; Gay Women; Gay Men I KNOW YOUR MOUTH BETTER Poem Text Subject(s): Mouths I NEED YOUR BODY NEAR ME Poem Text First Line: An ocean is nothing, there is no separation Subject(s): Absence; Separation; Isolation IN FLAGRANTE DELICTO, SELS: 4. ROMAN FEVER First Line: Gripped by a cell-phone panic day-trading shares a load more fun Last Line: Trade che gelida mania thread-bare boxers pulled down to our heels IN FLAGRANTE DELICTO, SELS: 5. HOME OF THE BRAVE First Line: Reduced to rubble our democratic vistas unable to outlast far-right Last Line: Some triggers and detonating fuses left inside that local ballot box IN FLAGRANTE DELICTO, SELS: 6. HEAVY FREIGHT First Line: A handprint fossilized on a child's startled face a bout of fisticuffs Last Line: In compromised positions trying to micturate into the rutilant night IN HOT PURSUIT First Line: Across the passaic's asphalt drawbridge into the heart of kearny Last Line: Where danger dragged its tread across the hanging face of me INDIAN SUMMER First Line: That summer, charlie drew a cunt Last Line: I wanted to show him all %the stamps that I had mounted INVOCATION Poem Text First Line: I call upon you, voice forbidden KINDERTOTENLIEDER First Line: Another fire dying down, the view from here Last Line: We almost had through which to view the world Subject(s): Homosexuality KORE First Line: What was sacred was in my journey Last Line: Leaving her %in pieces the way I had found her LABYRINTH First Line: The yellow shirt of joy hangs Last Line: Except the tigers pacing behind %the walls, the click of claws LAST CALL First Line: Our last hurrah eroding we who were Last Line: Where widows kissed icons in the dark LAST CHRISTMAS First Line: We often made angels on your lawn Last Line: No flowers, but maybe a cup of eggnog, %a sprinkle of nutmeg on the snow LAST DAY First Line: We crane our necks into that stillness Last Line: Of lost books lying open on the grass Subject(s): Homosexuality LAST DAY First Line: How each of us grows tired of this world Last Line: That smell of grass burning under snow Subject(s): Homosexuality LAST DAY First Line: With all the windows closed, I go on Last Line: Will he wake me as he passes through Subject(s): Homosexuality LAST DAY First Line: Let world be more than teeth flashing in the dark Last Line: With sparks no less than stars grinding overhead LEAVING THE UNIVERSE First Line: Can't go back Last Line: To keep his body from floating out the door LEGEND First Line: No sign that you were coming after me Last Line: Of apples falling into an empty well LET IT RIDE Poem Text Subject(s): Gays & Lesbians; Homoeroticism; Lesbians; Gay Women; Gay Men LIKE AN EMPEROR GORED BY A PAPAL BULL First Line: To distance oneself Last Line: Of our flesh and all of its attendant woes LONG BOAT First Line: A full-lipped flesh canoe floating downstream Last Line: At dusk. None of us would be going back LOOKING WEST First Line: What are those magpies doing over there Last Line: A dusty weight making the bookshelves sag LOVE LETTER: FRENCH QUARTER Poem Text First Line: Two pigeons on my porch Last Line: That has no name Subject(s): Mardi Gras (new Orleans) LOVE POEM Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: I have no need Last Line: Fist to look on Subject(s): Love LOW TIDE First Line: The boiler room down below. Eyes of dockhands Last Line: Or a plate of mussels steaming in their own juice MAMA First Line: If I had known this burden on my tongue Last Line: Only syllables now %for what we left unspoken: rage, shame, guilt, %everything you taught me from th MARCH ON WASHINGTON, 1993 First Line: No friends we knew had died of it, patient zero Last Line: Bodies packed into those: metro stations underground Subject(s): Homosexuality MARRIAGE First Line: Sparks fly off a love well past its prime Last Line: And tooth rub up against the inner wall MARRIAGE First Line: Tete-a-tete with loneliness, we find %ourselves unable to disentangle Last Line: Perfume lingering on inside a body %that had its own intentions too MARRIAGE First Line: Always felt her voice was something foreign Last Line: Collagen injections reconstructing a love %that should have gone straight to video MARTIAL ART First Line: I've hung up the white robe Last Line: And let each splinter smoulder %in the eye of god Subject(s): Mormons MEMORIAL First Line: Missile pops now melting at the base Last Line: Bombers well on their way to heaven MEN WITHOUT Poem Text First Line: My father is a coward, and I have grown Subject(s): Alienation (social Psychology); Cowardice; Fathers & Sons; Love; Estrangement; Outcasts MIDDLE-CLASS REGALIA AS ICONOGRAPHIC VANITAS First Line: Desire zeroing in on that furby ebay auction Last Line: Traded in for a byzantine reliquary housing splinters %and a nail from a true cross MINOR DISTRACTION First Line: To chart the body's pull away from text Last Line: Alone, often wanting to be someone else MONOLOGUE WITH THE VOID First Line: Your face to be erased. Your file Last Line: Loss. New epic. Till lovers log off MORE SEXY NOW THAN EVER Poem Text First Line: Was up for a hot little piece of hispanic tail Subject(s): Gays & Lesbians; Homoeroticism; Lesbians; Gay Women; Gay Men MORE THAN HALF THE LEAVES ALREADY DOWN First Line: Dragging that plastic sheet across the lawn Last Line: Overhead, our bodies leaning into silence %like a pair of rakes left out by the tree MY MAN Poem Text First Line: My man is not my man Subject(s): Love - Unrequited NEITHER MOTH NOR RUST First Line: You see it was impossible Last Line: Poor as they are, %taking her crystal and china NEW COLONY First Line: An epidemic, checked in one locality, breaks out Last Line: Who assured all would emerge from the font reborn Subject(s): Homosexuality NEW LIFE First Line: Whether you get down on your knees %or not. Wild mint. Gopher holes Last Line: As we toss and turn in bed-seeds %now splitting open in the dark loam NEXT DAY Poem Text First Line: Between the cycles of wash and rinse, a song Subject(s): Conduct Of Life NO OTHER WORLD THAN THIS First Line: A blade of grass springing out of time's crevasse Last Line: While couples all across the country call it quits Subject(s): Homosexuality NO STRINGS ATTACHED First Line: They revel in sleaziness, putting it on or off Last Line: Smoke so demure exhaled %out of our rosy holes NOCTURNES: CHELSEA First Line: A roll of quarters to enter a world Last Line: Empty out worn pockets of all their change Subject(s): Homosexuality NOCTURNES: EIGHTH AVENUE First Line: No matter how we ask our bodies to behave Last Line: While you descend into the subway stop alone Subject(s): Homosexuality NOCTURNES: FIRE ISLAND First Line: Shards of glass embedded Last Line: Discarded through the weeds Subject(s): Homosexuality NOCTURNES: JOSHUA TREE Poem Text First Line: Each of us locked inside our rooms Last Line: Nailed down behind the bedroom door Subject(s): Gays & Lesbians; Trees; Homoeroticism; Lesbians; Gay Women; Gay Men NOCTURNES: JOSHUA TREE First Line: Each of us locked inside our rooms Last Line: Nailed down behind the bedroom door Subject(s): Homosexuality; Trees NOCTURNES: LATIN QUARTER First Line: You were not there. Not under mansard roofs Last Line: Of cassis wine poured without applause Subject(s): Homosexuality NOR'EASTER FORTY MILES OFFSHORE First Line: Above the water bed, a conch's curvaceous pinks Last Line: Stream down on figures huddled beside a cliff NORTH TRURO First Line: Late summer at its height falls faster Last Line: Raw hands reeling in a dying wind Subject(s): Homosexuality NOSTALGIA First Line: The weight of summer fruit in a gilded frame Last Line: Some valentines torn open after a sudden rain NOT MARBLE NOR THE GILDED MONUMENTS First Line: Gone the old world governed by oaths/honor Last Line: On sets backdropped with warhol's jackie o NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH SO HELP ME GOD First Line: Nine lamps in the shape of teeming censers Last Line: Keeps on holding a microphone to our lips Subject(s): Homosexuality NUDE FIGURE DANCING I THE FOREGROUND Poem Text First Line: You walk into a room where the women gather OASIS First Line: Just off the jersey pike we saw it Last Line: Dash -- none of us losing any time at all Subject(s): Homosexuality ODE TO BUNKER HILL First Line: Song of burnt-out gaslights humming at dawn Last Line: All smouldering from within Subject(s): Homosexuality OF THEE I SING First Line: A nation awash in eurotrash finding itself upstaged Last Line: Trapped inside an suv plastered with american flags OF THEE I SING First Line: The claim of a hoax more than a hoax underneath our skirts Last Line: A stolen ramp badge last seen slung on some hijacker's neck OFF I-80 First Line: Stands of sumac border that exit ramp Last Line: Fading in and out to a local gospel station Subject(s): Homosexuality OLD DIARY WITH A PAGE TORN OUT OF IT First Line: Words that formed in a child's mouth Last Line: Whenever a stranger entered it Subject(s): Diaries; Homosexuality ON A HILL AT NIGHT IN A CHAIR UNDER STARS First Line: A face at the window. Doves Last Line: By morning %there were flowers everywhere ON BROADWAY First Line: The planes in the sky still half empty as ticket sales Last Line: In boredom-a sure-fire ending staged night after night ON HEARING THE LAST SEVEN WORDS OF CHRIST First Line: Today there was sun, tomorrow Last Line: For the absence that now attends it ON RHODES Poem Text First Line: There are two kinds of men Last Line: His man might take him Subject(s): Relationships ON THE SEPARATION OF ADAM AND EVE Poem Text Subject(s): Goltzius, Hendrik (1558-1617); Paintings & Painters; Adam & Eve; Eve ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE First Line: You and I not sleeping - a preacher Last Line: Through the hole that her body made Subject(s): Eurydice (nymph); Mythology - Classical; Orpheus OTHER LANGUAGE First Line: Nothing on the pages Last Line: Talking in a language %that does not belong to us PAPER FLOWERS First Line: Your mother made perfect %lotus blossoms from tissue paper Last Line: Each page a faded yellow petal Subject(s): Mormons PASSING THROUGH THE ENCHANTED CIRCLE First Line: Blanketed under sage-gray skies, the afternoon steeped Last Line: And arrowhead governed by the same unspoken laws PASSION First Line: By mid-afternoon, all is imprecision Last Line: Eloi, eloi, lama sabacthani %the children home in time for supper PATIENCE First Line: I sit in the square, listening Last Line: A flutter of wings %and the world is finished PEDOPHILIC ODE First Line: Ran afoul my nature to spend some time Last Line: Paradise be but ghost %to what they were' PIETA First Line: On a plane heading east, children playing Last Line: Unable to look into the other's face Subject(s): Homosexuality POEM Poem Text First Line: Late butterflies gliding through the air Subject(s): Butterflies POEM First Line: Late butterflies gliding through the air Last Line: That flutter out of their lives Subject(s): Homosexuality; Poetry And Poets POEM AS INCARNATION OF BODILY WANT First Line: Eden we never knew but calvary Last Line: Of being. The whole room lit with it PORNOGRAPHY First Line: There was something appalling about that Last Line: Hidden pea having kept me up all night %I thought I would never come down again POWER Poem Text First Line: Half of the penis remains Subject(s): Sex Organs; Homoeroticism; Lesbians; Gay Women; Gay Men POWER First Line: Half of the penis remains Last Line: A world in which the biggest knife wins Subject(s): Homosexuality PRAYER First Line: A fast-busy signal... %a prerecorded message saying all circuits are busy Last Line: Where batteries have gone dead PRESENCE OF AN ABSENCE IN A MIDWEST TOWN First Line: Crosses doused with gasoline hotter Last Line: Still lit up this late into the night Subject(s): Homosexuality PRETTY PLEASE First Line: Tens of thousands of bathers floating on ghats Last Line: Phone ( ) endless tv credits scroll down PRODIGAL SON WRITES HOME First Line: I want to tell you how he eats my ass Last Line: If we were born for this Subject(s): Homosexuality PROTHALAMION First Line: Overlapping acclerandos set against Last Line: Sounding a cappella in choral round PROTHALAMION First Line: Anchor without tonality nor intricate Last Line: Stress taken to new heights of density PROTHALAMION [II] Poem Text First Line: Overlapping accelerandos set against Last Line: Sounding a cappella in a choral round Subject(s): Marriage; Music & Musicians PROTHALAMION [I] Poem Text QUILT First Line: These are my lovers Last Line: Split open like a book %where the names are written Subject(s): Quilts RAID FOR THE BRIDAL First Line: Such days of spent-bud panoply as the petaled horde Last Line: Shipwreck foundering at the storm's climactic ebb RAND MCNALLY ROAD ATLAS First Line: Boys in the backseat Last Line: Their favorite state Subject(s): Homosexuality READING CAVAFY First Line: How many pages did the poet turn Last Line: Alone where the scent remains Subject(s): Homosexuality READING LU CHI Poem Text First Line: Moonlight touching all eight corners Subject(s): Books; Homoeroticism; Lesbians; Gay Women; Gay Men READING LU CHI First Line: Moonlight touching all eight corners Last Line: Of books return at last to the source Subject(s): Homosexuality READING SAPPHO First Line: Hurt me hear if ever hearing from afar Last Line: Cheeks cruel gift or say what you love best Subject(s): Books; Sappho (610-580 B.c.) READING THE BOOK OF ODES LATE AT NIGHT, I TURN OUT THE LIGHT AND.... First Line: Though the ceiling looks down on you, be Last Line: And lie at bottom, they still are clearly seen READING TU FU First Line: No blueprints left in the house Last Line: To whatever survives the night Subject(s): Homosexuality READING WHITMAN IN A TOILET STALL Poem Text First Line: A security-man who stood, arms crossed, outside Last Line: As we walk out of our secrets into the world Subject(s): Gays & Lesbians; Trysts; Homoeroticism; Lesbians; Gay Women; Gay Men REMOTE CONTROL First Line: A presidential motorcade sponsored by nabisco Last Line: Every hour on the hour the energizer bunny Subject(s): Television REMOVED AT THE MOMENT OF PERFECTION Poem Text First Line: The earth has moved forward, in a sense, or does it merely turn Subject(s): Hotels; Inns; Innskeepers; Motels; Boarding Houses REST STOP, HIGHWAY 91 Poem Text First Line: Cars parked alongside a chainlink fence REVIVAL First Line: Two thousand cattle die across the state Last Line: On feedlots gripped by a six-day wave RIPENED FRUIT PULLED EARTHWARD TO THE GROUND First Line: No bread in the house nor birds Last Line: Fresh from that other world Subject(s): Homosexuality ROMANCE Poem Text First Line: Chagrined for having ever allowed chivalry’s mask to fall Last Line: Our guarded reputations whistle-blown to class-action hell ROMANCE (2) Poem Text Recitation Last Line: Something one can easily erase Subject(s): Body, Human ROOM WITHOUT DOORS First Line: At the end of the maze, a mouse Last Line: Mice safe in their cages for another %night, a big screen turning to snow ROSETTA STONE First Line: No one to give voice to stone flakes swarmed with decadent Last Line: By land or by sea in the busirite nome fortified against a siege SAD SONNET DONE Poem Text First Line: Sometimes a halo, sometimes Last Line: Down where yours had been Subject(s): Grief; Absense SAY GOODNIGHT First Line: It is better to be alone. Tree and sun Last Line: Broken crayons strewn about the table Subject(s): Homosexuality SAY GOODNIGHT First Line: Trunks of charred pines rooted to the rocks Last Line: Those chimneys blackening an evening sky Subject(s): Homosexuality SAY GOODNIGHT First Line: Muted bells ringing inside my body Last Line: Mere plinth to the masterpiece we were Subject(s): Homosexuality SAY GOODNIGHT First Line: No kisses. Not tonight. Stand Last Line: Will sound in our ears as lovers %say goodnight Subject(s): Homosexuality SAY GOODNIGHT (1) Poem Text First Line: It is better to be alone. Tree and sun Subject(s): Solitude; Homoeroticism; Lesbians; Gay Women; Gay Men SAY GOODNIGHT (2) Poem Text First Line: Trunks of charred pines rooted to the rocks Subject(s): Women; Homoeroticism; Lesbians; Gay Women; Gay Men SAY GOODNIGHT (3) Poem Text First Line: Muted bells ringing inside my body Subject(s): Love - Erotic; Homoeroticism; Lesbians; Gay Women; Gay Men SAY GOODNIGHT (4) Poem Text First Line: No kisses. Not tonight. Stand Subject(s): Night; Togetherness; Homoeroticism; Lesbians; Gay Women; Gay Men SCREEN DOOR SLAMMING SHUT AT SUMMER'S END First Line: We are monuments to the shadows that we cast, wild Last Line: Sunflowers heavy with seed brought down by the wind SECOND GRADE CLASS PHOTO First Line: That picture was taken before danny undid Last Line: Wings coming down upon him %to finish what he started SECRET COMBINATIONS First Line: William morgan given five-hundred dollars and a horse Last Line: Lucinda morgan left a widow in the bloom of her maidenhood SELF-PORTRAIT AS MALL RAT First Line: Lurid tourists at odds with vanguard trends Last Line: Hauled-off in handcuffs our collective fate SELF-PORTRAIT AS SEVENTIES TEEN First Line: Muscles pulsing hard against that piece Last Line: Swinging as I got down on all fours %to search for something lost in the shag SENRYU: BLIND DATE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Scrabble tiles spilled Last Line: No one keeping score Subject(s): Language Games SENRYU: DURING ONE OF MAHLER’S ENDLESS ADAGIOS Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: During one of mahler’s endless adagios Last Line: Followed by a yawn Subject(s): Symphonies; Boredom SENRYU: OCCUPIED Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: When he unzipped Last Line: Stimulus package - Subject(s): Gays & Lesbians; Homoeroticism; Lesbians; Gay Women; Gay Men SENRYU: SPRING IS HERE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: With cherry blossoms Last Line: Stop talking so much! Subject(s): Spring; Silence SENRYU: THE HONEYMOON Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: My body is not Last Line: It’s time you pull out Subject(s): Love – Erotic SEPARATION First Line: After the first loss, there is no other Last Line: Knowing how this would be the poem %that I would write for the rest of my life SEX First Line: Her dress was the color of lemons Last Line: Drink, he said, tears on his face, %sliced lemons engraved on the kettle SFO/HIV/JFK First Line: I knew his job was more than cleaning up Last Line: Feeding myself in some airport snack bar, %smell of a stranger's sex on my fingers Subject(s): Aids (disease); Sickness SHE SINGS IN ALL HER SEASONS First Line: To see her for what she is Last Line: Her heaviness: the flowers %spilling from her hair SHE SMASHES DISHES Poem Text First Line: My mother climbing into bed SIGN First Line: Bird shit streaking down Last Line: She looks up, then resumes Subject(s): Homosexuality SINE QUA NON First Line: A pleasure some had said to read under that Last Line: Pale daffodils breaking through their husks SITTING NAKED ON A PORCH FACING THE SANGRE DE CRISTO MOUNTAINS First Line: My own semen quickening on the tongue Last Line: Milk-white glaze as witness to dying forms SNAP CHAT: MARRAKECH Poem Text First Line: He says, would you like to have a loo Last Line: Who said anything about going home Subject(s): Salespersons; Flirtation; Shopping SODOM AND GOMORRAH First Line: No other world than this Last Line: That swan song in our throats %a falling cloud of ash SOMETIMES SEX First Line: Sometimes a look shot from a pretty jock Last Line: Kind of love. Even a dream. Come. True STANDING WHERE THE COLOSSUS STOOD Poem Text First Line: To be an ancient wonder, you have to be able Subject(s): Colossus STORM (1) First Line: Black ants crawl in the sugar bowl Last Line: Moments before the power goes out Subject(s): Homosexuality STORM (2) First Line: A dark wing lifting my umbrella Last Line: Stretched across black spokes %rooted to my hand STRANGE FRUIT Poem Text First Line: Spray-painted across a garage door Subject(s): Gays & Lesbians; Prejudice; Homoeroticism; Lesbians; Gay Women; Gay Men STRANGE FRUIT First Line: Spray-painted across a garage door Last Line: On that cd player left on repeat Subject(s): Homosexuality STRANGE MUSIC Poem Text First Line: Men have seen their own graves at the edge Subject(s): Death; Mourning; Homoeroticism; Lesbians; Gay Women; Gay Men STRANGE MUSIC First Line: Men have seen their own graves at the edge Last Line: Than that echo of what we might have been Subject(s): Homosexuality STRAY DOGS First Line: Weaving across the divided road Last Line: That dissolve into song Subject(s): Homosexuality STURM UND DRANG First Line: Cut flowers in those vases attempting to give shape Last Line: Of honeyed birds and a cask of wine absence lassoed in SUNDAY Poem Text First Line: And when they sat down in the morning Subject(s): Family Life; Relationships; Relatives SUNDAY DRIVE First Line: No sense of history in our bones Last Line: Darts back underneath the wild brush SUNNYSIDE ROAD Poem Text First Line: Six stone lions standing guard Subject(s): Restaurants; Love; Cafes; Diners SURVIVORS Poem Text First Line: Some mornings I do not hear Subject(s): Gay Men; Relationships TABULA RASA First Line: Cancel our appointments to greet Last Line: That fill up most of our lives TE-AMO CABALLEROS First Line: Arroyo hondo back roads bottle-strewn Last Line: Leak blackened rivulets across the sky TEN FLOORS UP First Line: No one enjoying the view, the stereo on Last Line: Of some invisible hand pinning us there Subject(s): Homosexuality TENDERNESS IN A DARK AGE First Line: A case of ass. Just what did we think Last Line: Than wanting to simply live a long life THAT ROOM IN WHICH DISASTER PLAYED A PART First Line: A bed behind four walls that framed a world Last Line: Four walls and a door we called the future Subject(s): Homosexuality THAT SUMMER First Line: We buried my mother's bird, a parakeet Last Line: Exhumed at last by a neighborhood stray Subject(s): Homosexuality THE ASSIGNATION Poem Text First Line: Every vow I kept Last Line: Inside of you Subject(s): Gays & Lesbians; Promises; Homoeroticism; Lesbians; Gay Women; Gay Men THE BRIDEGROOM Poem Text First Line: He said: you talk to much. Subject(s): Love - Erotic THE CUSTODIAN OF BLISS Poem Text First Line: Come out at night, indifferent Subject(s): Relationships THE GARDEN Poem Text First Line: We were after crevices, whatever god had Subject(s): Gardens & Gardening; Seekinmg; Homoeroticism; Lesbians; Gay Women; Gay Men THE LOVERS Poem Text First Line: I was always afraid Subject(s): Love; Uncertainty THE MARRIAGE (1) Poem Text First Line: The season's leaves half over at their peak Subject(s): Eurydice (nymph); Mythology - Classical; Orpheus THE MARRIAGE (2) Poem Text First Line: Would you miss me less if I took up Last Line: Hawked to the corners of our house Subject(s): Relationships THE MARRIAGE (3) Poem Text First Line: Tons of suicide rock hauled away Last Line: Tons of suicide rock hauled away Subject(s): Honeymoons; Bones THE MOON IN GREECE Poem Text First Line: When the sea is calm and the moon Last Line: The real moon, not the one in the mind Subject(s): Moon THE REMAINS Poem Text First Line: Walking out of the new cemetery, my father Last Line: My eighty-year-old father nodding off into sleep Subject(s): Fathers & Sons; Ancestry & Ancestors; Cemeteries THE RING Poem Text First Line: How long before the grave Last Line: Into the morgue’s gas jets Subject(s): Gays & Lesbians; Rings; Gifts & Giving; Homoeroticism; Lesbians; Gay Women; Gay Men THE SILENCE Poem Text First Line: She took the spareribs out of the oven Last Line: Wish I was there with you Subject(s): Mothers; Farewell; Absence; Gays & Lesbians; Togetherness; Relationships; Homoeroticism; Lesbians; Gay Women; Gay Men THE SIZE OF IT Poem Text First Line: I knew the length of an average penis Subject(s): Gays & Lesbians; Sexual Organs; Size & Shape; Homoeroticism; Lesbians; Gay Women; Gay Men; Sex Organs; Genitalia THE STORM (1) First Line: Black ants crawl in the sugar bowl Subject(s): Gays & Lesbians; Homoeroticism; Lesbians; Gay Women; Gay Men THE VIGIL I KEEP WHEN NOTHING CAN BE KEPT Poem Text First Line: He burdened me with unspoken prayers Last Line: Knowing who or where I was, only that I was Subject(s): Relationships THOREAU Poem Text First Line: My father and I have no place to go Subject(s): Alienation (social Psychology); Dissenters; Exiles; Loss; Marginality, Social; Moving & Movers; Refugees; Thoreau, Henry David (1817-1862); United States - Immigration & Emigtration; Estrangement; Outcasts TREASURES ON EARTH Poem Text First Line: What no one wants. Coin by coin Last Line: Intervals — till you shut it off completely Subject(s): Gays & Lesbians; Absence; Transience; Relationships; Homoeroticism; Lesbians; Gay Women; Gay Men TREASURES ON EARTH First Line: What no one wants. Coin by coin Last Line: Whose candles the world has blown out Subject(s): Homosexuality TREE THAT KNOWLEDGE IS First Line: I do not want to die. Not for love Last Line: Is not death. Nor life. But the lust %that flowers at the end of it TWO MEN IN A REST HOME LOOKING BACK AT US First Line: One unable to speak, the other Last Line: Of flesh touched by mortal hands Subject(s): Homosexuality TWO MEN IN THE HIRSHHORN WALKING HAND IN HAND First Line: If the clocks in that room were to come Last Line: Forever. Unmarred and beyond possession Subject(s): Homosexuality TWO MEN ON A BENCH WATCHING THE LIGHT DIE DOWN First Line: Rollerblades careening down concrete Last Line: That spills into this world from dark to dark Subject(s): Homosexuality TWO MEN ON A SWING WATCHING THEIR SHADOWS LENGTHEN First Line: Pruned back last winter, the grapevines Last Line: Struggles to carry a petal underground Subject(s): Homosexuality VALENTINE First Line: A room within my body where the broken Last Line: Harboring what the other lacked: a wilderness Subject(s): Homosexuality VALENTINE First Line: Rose up to her power at a ripe egyptian age Last Line: Pinned against that speeding radiator grill VARIATIONS ON DEATH First Line: After all, summer was over Last Line: She rolls herself over, asleep %in a field of white roses Subject(s): Mormons VESPERS First Line: So many want to be blessed Last Line: Neither one of us would touch Subject(s): Homosexuality VISION MADE OUT OF CORRUGATED TIN First Line: A head of jesus framed Last Line: Till I admit defeat Subject(s): Homosexuality VISITING MY MOTHER'S GRAVE First Line: Something's kept me away, perhaps Last Line: Get through to her. Yet here I am VOLUNTEERS AT THE AIDS FOUNDATION First Line: They asked us to close our eyes, said this Last Line: To care for those who remain in the flesh %weeping with the staff VOX ANGELICA First Line: I sing to a breeze that runs through the rafters Last Line: How everything in the end is made %equal by the wind VOX HUMANA First Line: Wrapped in scarves of flame, a woman Last Line: As we gondola downstream -- ashes %blown back into our faces WALKING IN A WORLD WHERE WE ARE SOMETIMES LOVED First Line: A wind blows news the sunlight Last Line: Where we made love, thundering %doves flyingout of our mouths WEALTH OF NATIONS Poem Text First Line: Tired of the gawking. Conspicuous Last Line: Putting out after the khrushchev thaw– Subject(s): Modern Life; Social Commentaries WHAT THE MAGDALENE SAW Poem Text First Line: This fat cum pig more than eager to drop Subject(s): Hotels; Sex; Inns; Innskeepers; Motels; Boarding Houses WHITE MOTHS Poem Text First Line: Espaliered / to a radiator grille Subject(s): Moths; Death; Life WHITE STONE First Line: He used the third person to avoid Last Line: And with a deft stroke %wiped his forehead clean WHO PUTS US OUT TO PASTURE First Line: Ongoing message on his machine buoyant and detached Last Line: Footprints left in the entry hall mottled with winter's salt WINTER Poem Text First Line: How long will the bed that we made together Subject(s): Gay Men; Relationships WITH CHAOS IN EACH KISS Poem Text First Line: Outside your door, an ocean Subject(s): Love; Music & Musicians; Homoeroticism; Lesbians; Gay Women; Gay Men WITH CHERUBIM AND A FLAMING SWORD Poem Text First Line: The bed of grass too damp where love too soon Subject(s): Love - Loss Of WITH CHERUBIM AND A FLAMING SWORD First Line: The bed of grass too damp where love too soon Last Line: Of the simple bliss that they had always known Subject(s): Love - Loss Of WITH ONE EYE OPEN First Line: A meltdown of pictorial signs Last Line: What you see is what you see.' Subject(s): Eyes; Sight WITHOUT YOU Poem Text First Line: I was doing just fine, a job, a home Last Line: The world disappears— Subject(s): Love – Complaints; Absense XIAN: 1 First Line: Incense fills the bazaar of crafted jade Last Line: Outlasts the grave, those foreign walls of stone %where we bartered in the underground station XIAN: 2 First Line: How years can change a face: fracture lines Last Line: The silent space of years, longing to know %what will remain when light begins to break XIAN: 3 First Line: Across dry oceans of winter I'll come Last Line: Of the fan you folded into the sea XIAN: 4 First Line: The women are weaving baskets with straw Last Line: Arising from corroded swords and shields |
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