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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: LUX, THOMAS Matches Found: 336 Lux, Thomas Poet's Biography 336 poems available by this author 174517: PRIMO LEVI, AN ELEGY First Line: I thought jews were just another denomination: episcopalians Last Line: An address, to tell you: I read your book. I read your book A LARGE BRANCH SPLINTERED OFF A TREE IN A STORM Poem Text First Line: And was hurled to the ground like a spear Subject(s): Alcoholism & Alcoholics; Drunkards; Alcohol Abuse A LITTLE TOOTH Poem Text Recitation First Line: Your baby grows a tooth, then two Subject(s): Fathers & Daughters A MAN GETS OFF WORK EARLY Poem Text First Line: And decides to snorkel in a cool mountain lake. Subject(s): Snorkeling; Death; Lakes; Pollution; Dead, The; Pools; Ponds A MAN TAKES HIS DAUGHTER, AGE 5, TO A PUBLIC EXECUTION BY GUILLOTINE, PARIS, 1857 Poem Text First Line: He is a bad man. He says this in french Last Line: Daddy, I still can't see the puppets Subject(s): Fathers & Daughters; Guillotines; Paris, France AFTER A FEW WHIFFS OF ANOTHER WORLD Poem Text Subject(s): Smells; Odors; Aromas; Fragrances AFTER A FEW WHIFFS OF ANOTHER WORLD Last Line: Even the dumb have this sense ALL THE SLAVES First Line: All the salves within me Last Line: All these slaves within me ALMOST DANCING First Line: Some people see a plowed-under cornfield Last Line: The scalpel moving away I love best AMERICAN FANCY RAT AND MOUSE ASSOCIATION First Line: Rat breeders gather Last Line: Beautiful rats, they sigh, oh the beautiful rats AMIEL'S LEG Poem Text First Line: We were in a room that was once an attic Subject(s): Alcoholism & Alcoholics; Drunkards; Alcohol Abuse AMIEL'S LEG First Line: We were in a room that was once an attic Last Line: We were there-I wish I knew the exact %date, time-and that %was all, that was it Subject(s): Alcoholics And Alcoholism AMPHRIBRACH DANCE First Line: Remember, first falling, and falling Last Line: We each did, remember, remember? AND STILL IT COMES First Line: Like a downhill brakes-burned freight train Last Line: To cease, insatiable, gorging %and mute ANS STILL IT COMES Poem Text First Line: Like a downhill brakes-burned freight train Subject(s): Transience; Death; Impermanence; Dead, The ASAFETIDA First Line: The good, good thing for you Last Line: And take it down, take %it right down AT LEAST LET ME EXPLAIN First Line: Why there are black half-donuts beneath each eye Last Line: Not cold %but alone AT THE FAR END OF A LONG WHARF Last Line: Poetry is a menial task AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL First Line: The minute my brother gets out of jail I want Last Line: She won't talk to me. %she won't give me the time of day BACKYARD SWING SET Poem Text First Line: Splayed, swayback, cheap pipe Subject(s): Home; Family Life; Relatives BACKYARD SWINGSET First Line: Splayed, swayback, cheap pipe Last Line: It begins to chasm and bend BARN FIRE Poem Text First Line: It starts, somehow, in the hot damp Subject(s): Farm Life; Agriculture; Farmers BARN FIRE First Line: It starts, somehow, in the hot damp Last Line: Because they know they are safe there, %the horses run back into the barn Subject(s): Farm Life BENEATH THE APPLE BRANCHES BENT DUMBLY Last Line: Only the long haul in the linear world, ongoing BENIGHTED (WITH CONNOTOTATIONS OF BAD LUCK) First Line: Like the man who with a dumb idea BIG PICTURE First Line: Gets made up of 5.3 billion little pictures (sacks, thousands Last Line: I pray, would agree, should agree, should be %sterilized! BIRDS NAILED TO TREES First Line: So the birds, through Last Line: And the boy by the barn pumping his pellet gun hard BITTERNESS OF CHILDREN First Line: Foreseeing typographical errors Last Line: From the marrow in the marrow: the start BLACK ROAD OVER WHICH GREEN TREES GROW First Line: A tunnel, but the roof is green and some light Last Line: You just drive on out the other side BOAT IN THE FOREST First Line: Sixty miles from a lake Last Line: But a disaster not to be found. %an odd place, a long name, for a boat BOATLOADS OF MUMMIES First Line: Embarked from egypt to new jersey in 1848 Last Line: The remaining mummified go? BODO Poem Text First Line: We could weep for him Subject(s): Alienation (social Psychology); Dissenters; Exiles; Marginality, Social; Estrangement; Outcasts BODO First Line: We could weep for him Last Line: In which a fish head floated Subject(s): Alienation (social Psychology); Dissenters; Exiles; Marginality, Social BODY DISSOLVES First Line: The body dissolves %like this: first the fingers, the arms Last Line: Leaving a stupidity large tip, %leaving BONEHEAD First Line: Bonehead time, bonehead town. Bonehead teachers Last Line: Bonehead me, bonehead you Subject(s): Language BREAKBONE FEVER First Line: On the femur a brick drops hard, from the top rib Last Line: Who owns, in fact, your blistering bones BURNED FORESTS AND HORSES' BONES First Line: Are all we see when we cross the river Last Line: And pass over it to the place before the fire began CAN TIE SHOES BUT WON'T First Line: It said on his report card, five years old, the boy %so slung Last Line: This way, upstream, %on his voyage CAN'T SLEEP THE CLOWNS WILL EAT ME First Line: It says on the dead %author's ('the author is dead') daughter's Last Line: He will be happy %learning to live with being dead CELLAR STAIRS Poem Text First Line: It's rickety down to the dark. Subject(s): Cellars; Basements CELLAR STAIRS First Line: It's rickety down to the dark Last Line: Each countless childhood meal your last CHIEF ATTENDANT OF THE NAPKIN First Line: Stands beside the king Last Line: For milk-sopped bread or gruely soup CHILDREN IN SCHOOL DURING HEAVY SNOWFALL First Line: Not a single footprint in the schoolyard COMMERCIAL LEECH FARMING TODAY Poem Text First Line: Although it never rivaled wheat, soybean Subject(s): Farm Life; Agriculture; Farmers COMMERCIAL LEECH FARMING TODAY First Line: Although it never rivaled wheat, soybean Last Line: I like the story because it's true Subject(s): Farm Life CONVERSATION, UPON WHICH EAVESDROPPED First Line: Yes, I did Last Line: I'm not lying to you... Subject(s): Conversation CORNER OF PARIS AND PORTER First Line: Meet me there, you remember, the corner Last Line: Today, don't be late, on the corner %of paris and porter CREATURE HAS A PURPOSE First Line: The hard hook-finger clutching down to the bottom CRISS CROSS APPLE SAUCE Poem Text CRISS CROSS APPLE SAUCE Last Line: As we drive from her mother's house to mine Subject(s): Daughters; Divorce; Halloween CROWS OF BOSTON AND NEW YORK First Line: You've seen them, these semi-urban birds DARK COMES ON IN BLOCKS, IN CUBES Last Line: On their searchlights %against it DAWN WALK AND PRAYER First Line: I step out onto the porch a few minutes %short of dawn Last Line: That's why I'm making this prayer DAY OF THE LACUNA: 1 First Line: You limp across the first horizon Last Line: Yes, it looks gray, it looks gray DAY OF THE LACUNA: 10 First Line: Suppose you're really a cliffdweller Last Line: You could be wrong DAY OF THE LACUNA: 5 First Line: It's a normal urbane day Last Line: While I count my pock marks DAY OF THE LACUNA: 6 First Line: Today is the day of the lacuna Last Line: Is torn from my lips DAY OF THE LACUNA: 7 First Line: I'm an escapee. Everyday Last Line: Dozens of returns DEAD HORSE Poem Text First Line: At the fence line, I was about to call him in when Subject(s): Horses; Death - Animals; Food & Eating DEADHOUSE AT THE WORKHOUSE First Line: You get sent to the workhouse because you worked Last Line: Into which they sink your box DEBATE REGARDING THE PERMISSIBILITY OF EATING MERMAIDS First Line: Cold water mermaids, and only on fridays, said pope ignace vii Last Line: Trying to find the truth in these matters %and what matters in such truth DEVIL'S BEEF TUB First Line: There are mysteries-why a duck's quack Last Line: Closer: little noodle %swastikas DITTO First Line: Rabbit tracks in an inch or so of new snow Last Line: Of snow: dot, dot, ditto DOLDRUM FRACTURE ZONE First Line: The place where sailors-though now open Last Line: And a water spider, skating smoothly over the zone's flat surface, sinks DR. GOEBBELS'S NOVELS First Line: Dr. Goebbels did not go to heaven. The mundane Last Line: It wraped the brace DRIVER ANT First Line: Eats meat exclusively. Can't bear Last Line: Serving a famished state DRY BITE First Line: When the krait strikes but does not loose Last Line: Of that which remains of your life [or, of the rest of your life] DYSTOPIA First Line: For shoes: rat skins duct-taped around a foot Last Line: Are quickly eaten by the have-nots EARLY ON, THIS DECADE'S LIGHT SMELLED Last Line: Creeping toward a new century EDGAR ALLAN POE MEETS SARAH HALE (AUTHOR OF MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB) First Line: One would assume a difference in temperaments Last Line: The same is true for mr. Edgar allan poe ELEGY FOR FRANK STANFORD, 1949-1978 First Line: A message from a secretary tells me first Last Line: Frank, you dumb fuck, - who loves you %loves you regardless ELEGY FOR ROBERT WINNER First Line: I dreamed my friend got up and walked Last Line: And he was tall, taller than me EMILY'S MOM First Line: Today we'd say she was depressed, clinically. Then Last Line: On emily, her mother - melancholic, %fearful, starved-of-love EMPTY PITCHFORKS Poem Text Subject(s): Poverty EMPTY PITCHFORKS First Line: There was debtors' prison before inmates ENDIVE First Line: If I mix a vegetable and moral metaphor Last Line: In an ultimate self-embrace: fussy, bitter, chaste, clerical %little leaf ENEMY THE WIND First Line: Hand over hand and over the backs Last Line: Noose: the wind, the enemy EVERY VENTRICLE First Line: Nothing bothers me. Not even Last Line: And who own my breath FALLING THROUGH THE LEAVES First Line: Blind wind beats the bushes down and wild FAMILY PHOTO AROUND XMAS TREE First Line: Dad's left arm reaches across mom's back Last Line: Or newsletter to me again FARMER BROWN First Line: By day he worked at pumping gas, oil changes FARMERS First Line: Force-feeding swans - let me tell Last Line: We desired it to fall: the rain FEVER SHIP First Line: Of a hundred the single hand not sick FIREFLY'S PULSE First Line: A firefly dies with unusual eloquence Last Line: This way. Let me FLIES SO THICK ABOVE THE CORPSES IN THE RUBBLE THE SOLDIERS MUST USE.. First Line: And the little roasted flies Last Line: Any more, nothing but sky, blankety-blank blank blank sky FLOATING BABY PAINTINGS First Line: I like the paintings by the venetian painters Last Line: Their unexampled flight patterns FLYING NOISES First Line: The horses out of their brains bored all Last Line: Or else the wind is bringing the usual FOR MY DAUGHTER WHEN SHE CAN READ Poem Text First Line: The week waiting for you to be born I read Subject(s): Daughters FOR MY DAUGHTER WHEN SHE CAN READ First Line: The week waiting for you to be born I read Last Line: I hope you have, in the other the rapture Subject(s): Daughters FOURTH GRADE First Line: I suppose that we were shocked FOX Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: My father said: fox took another chicken last night Subject(s): Foxes FRANKLY, I DON'T CARE First Line: Frankly, I don't care if the billionaire is getting divorced Last Line: Equal, voiceless, and gone FUNDAMENTAL Poem Text First Line: Acts of god, / the insurance people, whose business depends Subject(s): God FUNDAMENTAL First Line: Acts of god GARDEN First Line: The basic metaphor is good: blend dead GAS STATION First Line: I own a gas station. It's at the edge of the mojave desert. The only gas Last Line: To look like a glass of water Subject(s): Automobiles - Service Stations; Gasoline; Perseverance GIVE IT TO THE WIND First Line: If the wind touches your cheek GLETZ First Line: Through the loupe or peepstone it's there: a mini Last Line: And each has a knife GLOW WORM First Line: Lost in self, drowned; asphyxiated in ego Last Line: In drawing others to it for love GOING HOME First Line: Sitting at the kitchen table Last Line: We drink to this country, we spit in her face GOLD ON MULE First Line: On his knees with that pickaxe Last Line: Can name it? There's a slow shout, %nobody hears, in the air. %the man digs. The mule stares GOOD MORNING IN THE TROPICS First Line: First you get up carefully Last Line: But not right now, please GOOFER-DUST Poem Text Subject(s): Babies; Graves; Infants; Tombs; Tombstones GOOFER-DUST First Line: Do not try to take it from my child's grave, nor Last Line: This dirt displaced by a child %in a child's grave GORGEOUS SURFACES First Line: They are, the surfaces, gorgeous: a master Last Line: The barely glinting grit of abyss GRADESCHOOL'S LARGE WINDOWS Poem Text First Line: Weren't built to let the sunlight in Subject(s): Schools; Students GRAVEYARD BY THE SEA First Line: I wonder if they sleep better here Last Line: And then go home, alive, %to sleep the sleep of the awake GREAT ADVANCES IN VANITY First Line: Major progress is: in the act of embracing ourselves GREAT BOOKS OF THE DEAD GREEN First Line: I don't know why the moth Last Line: And she is still alive GREEN PROSE First Line: I'm writing this with green ink so you'll believe me Last Line: No green, don't think %about it or you'll die GRIM TOWN IN A STEEP VALLEY First Line: This valley: as if a huge, dull, primordial axe Last Line: It's glad to be going, %glad to be gone GUIDE FOR THE PERPETUALLY PERPLEXED First Line: Don't hurt your brain on this: if the arrow points left Last Line: If you don't want us to break your neck HAITIAN CADAVERS First Line: Harvard, yale, don't have problems getting bodies Last Line: Yield to the blade with amazing ease HANDSOME SWAMP First Line: Knows it's a handsome swamp: the alligators Last Line: And gather in ods, %sniffing the air Subject(s): Swamps HE HAS LIVED IN MANY HOUSES Poem Text First Line: Furnished room, flats, a hayloft Last Line: Toward his sanctuary, harborage, saltbox, / home Subject(s): Houses; Boats HE HAS LIVED IN MANY HOUSES First Line: Furnished rooms, flats, a hayloft Last Line: Toward his sanctuary, harborage, saltbox %home HERE'S TO SAMUEL GREENBERG Last Line: Beneath the earth, with the earth HIGH GROUND, SELS First Line: It's a grand view of valley and farm Last Line: As it grows narrower, %and more narrow HIS JOB IS HONEST AND SIMPLE HIS SPINE CURVED JUST ENOUGH Poem Text Subject(s): Farm Life; Agriculture; Farmers HIS SPINE CURVED JUST ENOUGH Last Line: Were going to heaven HISTORY AND ABSTRACTION First Line: The dates carved on bridges Last Line: In the red vase behind you HISTORY BOOKS Poem Text First Line: That is, their authors, leave out Subject(s): Books; History; Reading; Historians HISTORY BOOKS First Line: That is, their authors, leave out Last Line: Of smells: primal, atavistic-sniff, sniff, sniff HORATIAN NOTION First Line: The things get made, gets built, and you're the salve Last Line: And with that you go to work HORSE BLEEDING TO DEATH AT FULL GALLOP First Line: Four arrows in him, wait, five Last Line: And he can run or walk no more HOSPITAL VIEW First Line: Across an alley, opposite exactly HOSPITALITY AND REVENGE First Line: You invite your neighbor over Last Line: Your wife invites your neighbor's widow for tea HUNTING First Line: Killing anything was pure accident I CAN'T TELL YOU First Line: I can't tell you about switching his wooden leg Last Line: That microphone! - can't, I can not Subject(s): Confessions; Secrets I LOVE YOU SWEETHEART Poem Text First Line: A man risked his life to write the words. Subject(s): Love - Nature Of I LOVE YOU SWEETHEART' First Line: A man risked his life to write the words Last Line: Always in blazing matters like these: blessed I THINK YOU'RE WONDERFUL First Line: I think you're wonderful Last Line: I think you're wonderful I WILL PLEASE, SAID THE PLACEBO First Line: One hundred men have an inexplicable, harmless, numb Last Line: To the size of a bb ICE WORM'S LIFE First Line: Is sun-avoiding, and by burred flanks Last Line: And go wherever their theology tells them they must go IF I DIE BEFORE I WAKE Last Line: And you never wake at all IF ONE CAN BE SEEN Last Line: And its appointed tasks IMPINGEMENT SYNDROME Poem Text First Line: When one thing presses on abother thing Last Line: The final paragraph's last period's pinhead Subject(s): Pain, Body, Human IMPINGEMENT SYNDROME First Line: When one thing presses on another thing Last Line: The final paragraph's last period's pinhead INSTITUTE OF DEFECTOLOGY First Line: The skeletons covered with sores-if they can walk Last Line: For adjustment, help, removal, cure INVITATION TO THE SEERESS First Line: This is another invitation Last Line: I'm certain-sleep after sleep IRONY Poem Text Subject(s): Irony; Human Behavior; Conduct Of Life; Human Nature IRRECONCILABILIA First Line: No matter what you do IT MUST BE THE MONK IN ME Last Line: And, therefore, growing away IT'S THE LITTLE TOWNS I LIKE Poem Text Subject(s): Towns IT'S THE LITTLE TOWNS I LIKE Last Line: So he can go to work JOB'S PROBLEMS First Line: Were really one problem: the god he chose Last Line: And died rich, and happy, and alone JUNGLESIDE Poem Text First Line: Beside the jungle he builds a house of cinderblock Subject(s): Jungles JUNGLESIDE First Line: Beside the jungle he buildsa house of cinderblock Last Line: To the jungle, unovercome Subject(s): Jungles KALASHNIKOV First Line: Designed by mikhail kalashnikov who, if alive Last Line: You'd be stone-dead wrong KWASHIORKOR; MARASMUS First Line: An unknown river whose banks drip feathers Last Line: Two more words, by heart, to learn LAMENT CITY First Line: Welcome home, driving downhill Last Line: We love it so much! LANGUAGE ANIMAL First Line: Because he can speak, because he can use his words, a whole headful Last Line: That indicate bewilderment and awe LARGE BRANCH SPLINTERED OFF A TREE IN A STORM First Line: And was hurled to the ground like a spear Last Line: And then with my hatchet I hacked it up Subject(s): Alcoholics And Alcoholism LATE AMBASSADORIAL LIGHT First Line: Light reaches through a leaf Last Line: Or might that be the delicate labia %of an orchid? LETTER FROM ZANZIBAR First Line: Remember that shoreline?-wind Last Line: And that's only half the gamut LETTER TO WALT WHITMAN FROM A SOLDIER HE NURSED IN ARMORY SQUARE... First Line: Dear walt, kind uncle, its near two years since I left armory sq Last Line: Yrs affectionately, bill willis LIBRARY OF SKULLS First Line: Shelves and stacks and shelves of skulls, a dewey Last Line: Face down before him LIKE A WIDE ANVIL FROM THE MOON THE LIGHT Last Line: Here's to the worm's sweat in the loam LIMBIC SYSTEM First Line: The brain matter beneath the brain stem Last Line: From another country, %the next: time. LITTLE GRACE AND JANE First Line: I drink to you dear grace and jane Last Line: Turning blue with joy-more, more alive LITTLE TOOTH First Line: Your baby grows a tooth, then two Last Line: You did, you loved, your feet %are sore. It's dusk. Your daughter's tall Subject(s): Fathers And Daughters LOUDMOUTH SOUP Poem Text First Line: Vodka, whisky, gin, scotch, red wine, cognac Subject(s): Alcoholism & Alcoholics; Drunkards; Alcohol Abuse LOUDMOUTH SOUP First Line: Vodka, whisky, gin, scotch, red wine, cognac Last Line: For the call out of that line %to other less predicatable, %more joyful, %slides to ride on home Subject(s): Alcoholics And Alcoholism MAGMA CHAMBER First Line: Here it boils and begins to build, deep in the core Last Line: A new republic of hope MAN ASLEEP IN A CHILD'S BED First Line: Here's a man who falls hard asleep Last Line: Is breath, and the dreamer's body, asleep MAN INSIDE THE CHIPMUNK SUIT First Line: Isn't very tall, 4 ft Last Line: A picture of a minor movie star MAN TAKES HIS DAUGHTER, AGE FIVE, TO A PUBLIC EXECUTION BY GUILLOTIN First Line: He is a bad man. He says this in french Last Line: Daddy, I still can't see the puppets MEN WITH SMALL HEADS Poem Text First Line: And women with small heads Subject(s): Heads; Size & Shape; Height MEN WITH SMALL HEADS First Line: And women with small heads Last Line: Just your average heads, %in america Subject(s): Heads; Size And Shape MIDNIGHT TENNIS MATCH First Line: You are tired %of this maudlin country club %and you are tired of his insults Last Line: You pour a gallon of water on his face. %he still has two more serves Subject(s): Sports; Tennis MILKMAN AND HIS SON First Line: For a year he'd collect %the milk bottles Last Line: It was a thing he did best MONEY First Line: A paper product. We say it's green Last Line: Calling us down: money, money %paper money MONKEY BUTTER First Line: Monkey butter's tasty, tasty Last Line: Later, leave a little in his left, her right, shoe MOON-ANNOYED, COGNAC'S ASHEN THRILL Last Line: Imagination, what does not? MOTEL SEEDY Poem Text First Line: The artisans of this room, who designed the lamp base Subject(s): Hotels; Inns; Innskeepers; Motels; Boarding Houses MOTEL SEEDY First Line: The artisans of this room, who designed the lamp base Last Line: Though not tonight, for a dollar fifty less Subject(s): Hotels MOUNTAINS IN THE RIVER ON THE WAY TO THE SEA First Line: Once, there were more mountains, bigger mountains Last Line: To the eternal sea's soft bed MR. JOHN KEATS FIVE FEET TALL SAILS AWAY' First Line: On the maria crowther Last Line: We would each %be diminished MR. POPE First Line: Life on earth %for mr. Pope, was not lenient: four foot six, hunch Last Line: Within the human therein created MY GRANDMOTHER'S FUNERAL First Line: At least 100 seabirds attended my grandmother's Last Line: Almost impossible to carry Subject(s): Coffins; Death; Funerals MY MALARIA First Line: Don't worry about my tongue Last Line: You heard yesterday, the day before, %every day MYOPE First Line: The boy can't see but what's right in front of him Last Line: And the pages turning [or, turning pages] make a breeze NATIONAL IMPALEMENT STATISTICS First Line: One out of eight deaths occurring in the home Last Line: When they are not eating in the trees NAZI AT THE PUPPET SHOW First Line: The patient children stand in line Last Line: In their blue-black box NEIGHBORHOOD OF MAKE-BELIEVE First Line: To go there: do not fall asleep, your forehead Last Line: The neighborhood of make-believe Subject(s): Alcoholics And Alcoholism NIGHT ABOVE THE TOWN Poem Text First Line: In the glassed-in jazz club acres above Last Line: On the tables . . . Grandmother. Grandfather Subject(s): Grandparents; Jazz; Music & Musicians; Grandmothers; Grandfathers; Great Grandfathers; Great Grandmothers NIGHT ABOVE THE TOWN First Line: In the glassed-in jazz club acres above Last Line: On the tables ... Grandmother. Grandfather Subject(s): Grandparents; Jazz; Music And Musicians NIGHT SO BRIGHT A SQUIRREL READS Last Line: A fat sack of field mice under his wing NIGHT WATCHMAN ADVERTISES HIMSELF First Line: I will gladly go down into your cellars Last Line: Will you hire me? Do you need any help? OLD MAN SHOVELING SNOW First Line: Bend your back to it, sir: for it will snow all night Last Line: Wiil snow all night ON MATTER ONTOLOGICAL AND ESCHATOLOGICAL First Line: Say what? You mean the being business, today's news Last Line: The cave-with-no-torches, talk about it, tell me %about that ON RESUMPTION OF THE MILITARY DRAFT First Line: We only want to count you, boys, to find out who ONE MEAT BALL Poem Text First Line: You gets no bread with Subject(s): Bars & Bartenders; Popular Culture - United States; Pubs; Taverns; Saloons ONE MEAT BALL First Line: You gets no bread with Last Line: One meat ball Subject(s): Bars And Bartenders; Popular Culture - United States ONOMATOPOEIA First Line: The word sounds like the thing Last Line: Beneath the breastbone, sweetly %accompanying its song OUR KISSES BEING DURABLE First Line: You're asleep or not %asleep, your breath falling Last Line: There's no bird! Only a pronoun: %you, singular OXYMORON SISTERS First Line: The oxymoron sisters, snowflake and acetylene Last Line: Both of whom are ugly %and dying PAINFULLY BANAL First Line: Says audrey to herself in the mirror, adjusting Last Line: Drawing her dressing gown tighter around her waist PATINA OF ENTITLEMENT First Line: I'm sure I deserve nothing Last Line: Earns its defenseless coursing PECKED TO DEATH BY SWANS First Line: Your tear-wracked family bedside: elderly grandchildren Last Line: No. Pecked to death by swans PEDESTRIAN Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Tottering and elastic, middle name of groan, Subject(s): City & Town Life PEDESTRIAN First Line: Tottering and elastic, middle name of groan PEOPLE OF THE OTHER VILLAGE First Line: Hate the people of this village Last Line: (10,000) brutal, beautiful years PERFECT GOD First Line: The perfect god puts forth no dogma, cant PINDAR (ODES 1-8): ODE#1: THE TONGUE ON THE WRITING TABLE First Line: Pindar is sitting at a small writing table Last Line: And hung from a dark rafter, to cure PINDAR (ODES 1-8): ODE#2: MEETING PINDAR'S WIFE AND HORACE First Line: When your wife first found me, pindar Last Line: After he's gorged himself on carrots! PINDAR (ODES 1-8): ODE#3: PINDAR'S HANDKERCHIEF First Line: You pull a large handkerchief %from your sleeve Last Line: Moving like a pump, %a net full of lungs PINDAR (ODES 1-8): ODE#4: THE TURKISH COUPLE First Line: In his youth, before he fell %to versemaking, pindar would sit Last Line: Of course, he did n't have the money PINDAR (ODES 1-8): ODE#5: PINDAR'S SLAUGHTERHOUSE First Line: Pindar, how deftly %you slit the throats of swine Last Line: There is the sound of ice %pressing into ice PINDAR (ODES 1-8): ODE#6: DRINKING WITH PINDAR First Line: Reeling, drunk on wine, %we pause by a pool in the garden Last Line: A single, wet print following us all night PINDAR (ODES 1-8): ODE#7: HORACE'S SNAKE BITE First Line: We found horace, snakebitten %among the rocks. He looked small Last Line: And keep it with us forever, %never killing it, never feeding it PINDAR (ODES 1-8): ODE#8: PINDAR SAYS GOODBYE First Line: I watch pindar walk down to the sea alone Last Line: Make a perfect fist %around the skull of an infant PISMIRE RISING First Line: Mealy-bugs, shootflies in squadrons, mites Last Line: Love where they live PLAGUE VICTIMS CATAPULATE OVER WALLS INTO BESIEGED CITY First Line: Early germ Last Line: Just as she did %on earth PLAGUE VICTIMS CATAPULTED OVER WALLS INTO BESIEGED CITIES Poem Text First Line: Early germ / warfare. The dead Subject(s): Germ Warfare PLEASE DON'T TOUCH THE RUINS First Line: In bad shape, buried POEM BEFORE PRONOUNS First Line: No water, lots of glaciers Last Line: It will be cold again POEM BEGINNING WITH A RANDOM PHRASE FROM COLERIDGE Poem Text First Line: If there were anything Subject(s): Social Classes; Caste POEM IN THANKS Poem Text First Line: Lord whoever, thank you for this air Subject(s): Thanksgiving POEM IN THANKS First Line: Lord whoever, thank you for this air Last Line: For the goddamn birds singing! PORTRAIT OF THE MAN WHO DROWNED WEARING HIS BEST SUIT AND SHOES First Line: When his small skiff returned alone Last Line: Both airless and lacking a wing PORTRAIT OF X (III) Poem Text First Line: Purblind, he rose, shot his cuffs, and hit Subject(s): Portraits PORTRAIT OF X (III) First Line: Purblind, he rose, shot his cuffs, and hit Last Line: His famous sneer eats his gut like a worm Subject(s): Portraits PORTRAIT OF X [II] First Line: He is, as usual, very brave, but still Last Line: He will jump with you, he says PORTRAIT OF X [I] First Line: Occupation: nominal bloodletter Last Line: The year he built a hanger to shelter a gnat POST MORTEM MENU First Line: The dessert first: pudding, pure and silky as sex POSTCARD TO BAUDELAIRE First Line: It's still the same, charles Last Line: Charles, it's still the same PRE-CEREBRAL First Line: No ideas. No thoughts, nor %philosophy. Hunger, thirst Last Line: And touch. And the tongue, which tastes PRINCESS SUMMER FALL WINTER SPRING Poem Text First Line: Or was it princess fall winter spring summer? Last Line: Who once loved your heart and face? Subject(s): Puppets; Childhood Memories PRINCESS SUMMER FALL WINTER SPRING First Line: Or was it princess fall winter spring summer? Last Line: Who once loved your heart and face? PROFESSOR OF ANTS First Line: For his whole life ants were the life of the professor of ants. On his Last Line: They feel with their feelers PROTHALAMION First Line: Until canaries carry away a mountain on their backs, until gnomes Last Line: You will be my love and you will be my wife PROVINCIA AURIFERA First Line: Let's go there: the gold-bearing land Last Line: It's in the trees, beaches of it, it's sand! RATHER First Line: Rather strapped face to face with a corpse, rather an asp Last Line: All of the above than this, this REFRIGERATOR, 1957 Poem Text First Line: More like a vault – you pull the handle out Last Line: That which rips your heart with joy Subject(s): Refrigerators; Food & Eating REFRIGERATOR, 1957 First Line: More like a vault, you pull the handle out Last Line: That which rips your heart with joy REGARDING (MOST) SONGS Poem Text First Line: The human voice can sing a vowel to break your heart. Subject(s): Songs REJECT WHAT CONFUSES YOU First Line: Most of us who most of the time wouldn't be shocked Last Line: You give them the art, %not before RELUCTANT First Line: I won't tell you about, we don't have time right now REMORA Poem Text First Line: Clinging to the shark Subject(s): Remorse REMORA First Line: Clinging to the shark Last Line: The top beneath all else Subject(s): Remorse RENDER, RENDER Poem Text Recitation by Author RENDER, RENDER First Line: Boil it down: feet, skin, gristle Last Line: To plant as many kisses upon the world %as the world can bear! RILKE AND LOU First Line: Of course, lou noticed the angels Last Line: That they were coming RIVER BETWEEN THE TRAIN AND THE HIGHWAY First Line: Branches bend to the river Last Line: It has its own sky and stars RIVER BLINDNESS (ONCHOCERCIASIS) Poem Text First Line: First, a female buffalo gnat of the genus simulium bites you Subject(s): Disease; Gnats RIVER BLINDNESS (ONCHOCERCIASIS) First Line: First, a female buffalo gnat of the genus simulium bites you Last Line: Baby flies dying, dying %in their eyes, %blinding them Subject(s): Disease; Gnats RIVER THAT SCOLDS AT ALL THE OTHER RIVERS First Line: The bossy river, its rate of descent a degree or two greater Last Line: Can stop me-of my mother again ROAD THAT RUNS BESIDE THE RIVER Last Line: And over the sharp perpendicular %edge of the earth ROMMEL'S ASPARAGUS First Line: The glidermen died, their gliders riven and ripped Last Line: So he could turn his full face to the sea Subject(s): Death; Flight; War SAILING, ISLANDS First Line: Off the coast the islands anchor - small SAY YES First Line: The soul of each silkworm who gave each thread Last Line: Touched by you SAY YOU'RE BREATHING First Line: Just as you do every day in and out, in and out, and in each Last Line: And again risen SCORPIONS EVERYWHERE First Line: There goes one disguised as a mouse! Last Line: On the day the sea creeps under a rock! SEX IN HISTORY Poem Text First Line: Only the pope partook, the cardinals, priests, monks Last Line: Was hitting what he made Subject(s): History; Religion; Sex; Historians; Theology SEX IN HISTORY First Line: Only the pope partook, the cardinals, priests, monks Last Line: Watching what he had made Subject(s): History; Religion; Sex SHAVING THE GRAVEYARD First Line: The graveyard being what he called his face Last Line: Where he turned and walked the two blocks %to the mill SHOTGUN LOADED WITH ROCK SALT Poem Text First Line: So I took my shotgun Last Line: And that big boy's fat ass Subject(s): Guns; Youth; Robbery SLAVE CEMETERY First Line: That barely discernible hillock Last Line: When they want to lie down SLEEP FOR BEARS First Line: Once, you tottered, head-level SLEEPING ON THE ROOF First Line: Tonight I'm speaking on the roof because Last Line: A thousand feet, or more, %asleep? SLEEPMASK DITHYRAMBIC First Line: You must remove your sleepmask, haul it SLIMEHEAD (HOPLASTETHUS ATLANTICUS) Poem Text First Line: Humans eat first with their ears so Last Line: The shy, prolific squid Subject(s): Food & Eating; Mankind; Human Race SLIMEHEAD (HOPLASTETHUS ATLANTICUS) First Line: Humans eat first with their ears so Last Line: The shy, prolific squid Subject(s): Food And Eating; Mankind SMALL TIN PARROT PIN First Line: Next to the tiny bladeless windmill Last Line: With whom, with which I %am very pleased SNAKE LAKE First Line: My friends, I hope you will not swim here SNOW AS THE RAIN'S FATHER First Line: What is it up there backporch to the beyond, what Last Line: A river, sea, or lake %and before that was it snow again? SO YOU PUT THE DOG TO SLEEP First Line: You love your dog and carve his steaks Last Line: So you put the dog to sleep. Bad dog Subject(s): Animals; Dogs SOLO NATIVE First Line: Suppose you're a solo native here Last Line: An awkward first audible %called language SOMEBODY'S AUNT OUT SWABBING HER BIRDBATH First Line: Somebody's aunt out swabbing her birdbath Last Line: As you drive away a blunt wind parts his hair SPIDERS WANTIMG First Line: I want you, spider: walker-on-the-ceiling Last Line: Always, to the spun eluctable cave STREAK OF BLOOD THAT ONCE WAS A TINY RED SPIDER First Line: Is all there is left of it which walked Last Line: And again, someday, I hope, a reader SUDD AS METAPHOR First Line: Malarial, malodorous, papyrus-choked SUDDEN HUE First Line: One drop of water, shaped Last Line: The elbows, and hold SUMMER EVENING, 1864, ANDERSONVILLE, GEORGIA First Line: Not balmy, no not balmy, the cornbread bad SWIMMER First Line: When I jumped from the bow of the ocean liner I had three things in Last Line: His own life, the man who is an obvious liar Subject(s): Boats; Lakes; Swimming; Water SWIMMING POOL First Line: All around the apt. Swimming pool Last Line: The oblivious and unabashedly cruel TACTILE First Line: One eyelash, one %millimeter Last Line: In the blue-stone dark TARANTULAS ON THE LIFEBUOY Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: For some semitropical reason Subject(s): Tarantulas; Death - Animals TARANTULAS ON THE LIFEBUOY First Line: For some semitropical reason Last Line: That you love them %that you would save them again TEN YEARS HARD LABOR ON A GUANO ISLAND First Line: Said his honor, handing you a pick Last Line: As you mine his ancestors' guts--you might still see one TENTH OF A CENT A STITCH First Line: Because she did not understand TERMINAL LAKE First Line: Although they know no other waters Last Line: And this lake is the drain: gaping, language- %less, suck- and sinkhole THE BITTERNESS OF CHILDREN Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Foreseeing typographical errors Subject(s): Children; Childhood THE HANDSOME SWAMP Poem Text First Line: Knows it's a handsome swamp: the alligators Last Line: Sniffing the air Subject(s): Swamps; Bogs; Fens; Marshes THE HUNGRY GAP-TIME Poem Text First Line: Late august, before the harvest, every one of us worn down Subject(s): Farm Life; Agriculture; Farmers THE MAN INSIDE THE CHIPMUNK SUIT Poem Text First Line: Isn't very tall, 4 ft. Last Line: A picture of a minor movie star Subject(s): Entertainers THE MAN INTO WHOSE YARD YOU SHOULD NOT HIT YOUR BALL Poem Text First Line: Each day mowed Subject(s): Neighbors THE MIDNIGHT TENNIS MATCH First Line: You are tired / of this maudlin country club / and you are tired of his insults Subject(s): Sports; Tennis THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF MAKE-BELIEVE Poem Text First Line: To go there: do not fall asleep, your forehead Last Line: To the neighborhood of make believe Subject(s): Alcoholism & Alcoholics; Drunkards; Alcohol Abuse THE NERVE DOCTORS Poem Text First Line: Here they come by the busload the nerve doctors: some Subject(s): Conventions; Leadership; Physicians; Assemblies; Meetings; Doctors THE NIGHT SO BRIGHT A SQUIRREL READS Poem Text Subject(s): Night; Bedtime THE PEOPLE OF THE OTHER VILLAGE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Hate the people of this village Subject(s): Villages; Hate; Human Behavior; Conduct Of Life; Human Nature THE SWIMMING POOL Poem Text First Line: All around the apt. Swimming pool Subject(s): Children; Teasing; Cruelty; Social Classes; Childhood; Caste THERE ARE MANY THINGS THAT PLEASE ME First Line: The loam and lungs of dreams Last Line: By leaf and branch over branch THERE WERE SOME SUMMERS Last Line: In water cold enough to break your ankles THIRST OF TURTLES First Line: How parched, how marrow-dust dry THIS IS A POEM FOR THE FATHERS First Line: Pal, in the pals of death club Last Line: In the mouths of the gone THIS SPACE AVAILABLE First Line: You could put an x here Last Line: His inky black and awkward marks THOMAS THE BROKEN-MOUTHED First Line: A sack on his back, his burlap shirt flapping in a devil's wind Last Line: That the books now call the last one hundred years THREE VIALS OF MAGGOTS First Line: Were collected from the corpse Last Line: And their allies do %they do for you THROMBOSIS TROMBONE First Line: In a major vein shooting blood THUS, HE SPOKE HIS QUIETUS First Line: Larry did, with his book elegy, his elegy, his last Last Line: On the sandy, the lighted, the silt-lapped, the other, shore TIME First Line: I have a friend whose hair is like time: dark Last Line: From wanting her? TO HELP THE MONKEY CROSS THE RIVER Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Which he must Subject(s): Animals TO HELP THE MONKEY CROSS THE RIVER First Line: Which he must Last Line: And the smart ones, in a cage, can be taught to smile TO PLOW AND PLANT THE SEASHORE First Line: His tractor rattles down the dunes: low tide, it's time to plow Last Line: The wronged one is always the wrong one TORN SHADES First Line: How, in the first place, did Last Line: To welcome a wedge of gray light into that room TOWARDS First Line: Towards you %on wheels-car, bus, cycle, truck, scooter, (roller) Last Line: Towards you: harbor, origin, heart TRAVELING EXHIBIT OF TORTURE INSTRUMENTS First Line: What man has done to woman and man Last Line: Or, at least, they thought he did TRIPTYCH, MIDDLE PANEL BURNING First Line: It happened that my uncle liked to take my hand in his ULTIMA THULE First Line: All whom I love, all neighbors Last Line: From the cold salt sea UNCLE DUNG BEETLE First Line: Hail, uncle dung beetle!, he who Last Line: Would it be possible to live UPON SEEING AN ULTRASOUND PHOTO OF AN UNBORN CHILD Poem Text First Line: Tadpole, it's not time yet to nag you Subject(s): Unborn; Photography & Photographers; Children; Childhood UPON SEEING AN ULTRASOUND PHOTO OF AN UNBORN CHILD First Line: Tadpole, it's not time yet to nag you Last Line: Blond guy, and I'll have %your nose VIA POSTHUMIA First Line: Narrow street, tiny VIEW FROM A PORCH First Line: Thud, thud, all the sores go blind Last Line: Breathing, nearly alert VIRGULE First Line: What I love about this little leaning mark Last Line: Her mother would share that thought VOICE YOU HEAR WHEN YOU READ SILENTLY First Line: Is not silent, it is a speaking Last Line: Is the clearest voice: you speak it %speaking to you VOICELESS PARROT LEARNS TO READ AND WRITE AND PLAY THE TRUMPET First Line: He can't learn to speak-to make the sounds that mimic Last Line: (every cell, each platelet) with such high %and piercing light? WALT WHITMAN'S BRAIN DROPPED ON LABORATORY FLOOR First Line: At his request, after death, his brain was removed Last Line: On the floor, matters even less WHAT I SEE WHEN I DRIVE TO WORK First Line: On clear days it's fast black dead west sixty miles Last Line: But the work is honest %and the customers human WHAT MONTEZUMA FED CORTES AND HIS MEN First Line: Tamales, they like tamales Last Line: In the spring of 1519 Subject(s): Food And Eating; Mexico, Indians Of; Montezuma Ii (1466-1520); Native Americans WHEN I'M GONE First Line: Honey, entomb me in honey when I'm gone WHITE AND GRAY MATTERS First Line: I don't remember my original plan Last Line: And whose cold thumbs pressed %to my temples? WIFE HITS MOOSE First Line: Sometime around dusk moose lifts WINTER RIVER First Line: It's a cold cold piece of meat WITH MAETERLINCK'S GREAT BOOK First Line: The life of the bee, I beheaded a bee Last Line: In the choice and order of his words WORDWORTHS: WILLIAM AND DOROTHY First Line: The ' new sensibility' or not YEAR THE LOCUST HATH EATEN First Line: They chewed my lawn down to sand Last Line: The locust hath eaten YOU AND YOUR ILK Poem Text First Line: I have thought much upon Subject(s): Self YOU GO TO SCHOOL TO LEARN Poem Text Subject(s): Schools; Students YOU GO TO SCHOOL TO LEARN Last Line: In headlights. Going to school YOUR TENDER MESSAGE First Line: Your tender message affected me; I fell Last Line: And more useless than the first |
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