Poetry Explorer

Search Classic and Contemporary Poetry

Search Results

Back to search

Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Searching...
Author: MUELLER, LISEL
Matches Found: 312


Mueller, Lisel    Poet's Biography
Alternate Author Name(s): Muller, Lisel
312 poems available by this author


A LONG WAY FROM HELL    Poem Text    
First Line: Two-tone motels and unlit lovers' lanes
Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships; Male-female Relations


A NUDE BY EDWARD HOPPER    Poem Text    
First Line: The light / drains me of what I might be
Subject(s): Hopper, Edward (1882-1967); Body, Human; Models


A POEM ABOUT THE HOUNDS AND THE HARES    Poem Text    
First Line: After the kill, there is the feast
Subject(s): Hunting; Hunters


A PRAYER FOR RAIN    Poem Text    
First Line: Let it come down: these thicknesses of air
Subject(s): Rain


ABOUT SUFFERING THEY WERE NEVER WRONG    Poem Text    
First Line: They could have told us that the particulars
Subject(s): Auden, Wystan Hugh (1907-1973); Poetry & Poets


ABOUT SUFFERING THEY WERE NEVER WRONG       
First Line: They could have told us that the particulars
Subject(s): Auden, Wystan Hugh (1907-1973); Poetry And Poets


ACCOMMODATIONS       
First Line: The house painter is not sentimental


ACTS OF MOURNING       
First Line: Every day I passed your tombstone


AFTER THE FACE LIFT    Poem Text    
First Line: The woman who used to be my age
Variant Title(s): Face-lift
Subject(s): Surgery, Plastic; Cosmetic Sugery; Face Lifts


AFTER THE FACE LIFT       
First Line: The woman who used to be my age
Last Line: For a bunch of jonquils, this year's first %yellow, about to open
Variant Title(s): Face-lif
Subject(s): Surgery, Plastic


AFTER WHISTLER       
First Line: There are girls who should have been swans


AFTER YOUR DEATH       
First Line: The first time we said your name
Last Line: When we mean we can't let you go


AFTERLIFE       
First Line: Now that the king of crime is dead
Last Line: It's true, they whisper, 'see for yourself


AFTERTHOUGHTS ON THE LOVERS    Poem Text    
First Line: I imagine them always in summer
Subject(s): Love


ALIVE TOGETHER       
First Line: Speaking of marvels, I am alive
Last Line: And knowledge and tears and chance


ALL NIGHT       
First Line: All night the knot in the shoelace
Last Line: And steps into air and the scent of lilacs


AMERICAN LITERATURE       
First Line: Poets and storytellers
Last Line: For starting fires in empty rooms


ANIMALS ARE ENTERING OUR LIVES       
First Line: Enchanted is what they were
Last Line: Like stray dogs circling their chosen home


ANOTHER VERSION       
First Line: Our trees are aspens, but people


ANOTHER VERSION       
First Line: Our tress are aspens, but people
Last Line: Are early this year, hazy with green


APHASIA       
First Line: It's not only because the world
Last Line: Gives me permission to speak for her, %even if I could


APOCRYPHAL STORY       
First Line: After his blackout, richard speck


APPLES       
First Line: Light has transformed them. Their utility gone


ART OF FORGETTING       
First Line: Carlota and maximilian


ARTIST       
First Line: The girl who never speaks


ARTIST'S MODEL, CA. 1912       
First Line: In 1886 I came apart


BACH TRANSCRIBING VIVALDI    Poem Text    
First Line: One remembered the sunrise, how clearly it gave
Subject(s): Composers; Music & Musicians


BEDTIME STORY    Poem Text    
First Line: The moon lies on the river
Subject(s): Kent State University - Riot, 1970


BEDTIME STORY       
First Line: The moon lies on the river
Subject(s): Kent State University - Riot, 1970


BEFORE THE CREDITS APPEAR ON THE SCREEN       
First Line: How smoothly the greyhound takes


BEGINNING WITH 1914    Poem Text    
First Line: Since it always begins
Subject(s): World War I; Ancestors & Ancestry; Fathers; Time; First World War; Heritage; Heredity


BEGINNING WITH 1914       
First Line: Since it always begins
Last Line: And I am playing myself


BIOGRAPHER       
First Line: God knows I've used
Last Line: Whose house this is


BLIND LEADING THE BLIND       
First Line: Take my hand. There are two of us in this cave
Last Line: There are two of us here. Touch me
Subject(s): Love


BLOOD ORANGES       
First Line: In 1936, a child %in hitler's germany
Last Line: Aspired to become lighter than air


BLUE       
First Line: Even the heart, with its pretensions to red


BREAD AND APPLES       
First Line: In the tale %the apple tree rises before her
Last Line: And place it on the ground to cool


BRENDEL PLAYING SCHUBERT    Poem Text    
First Line: We bring our hands together
Subject(s): Brendel, Alfred; Music & Musicians


BRENDEL PLAYING SCHUBERT       
First Line: We bring our hands together


CALLAVERIA RUSTICANA    Poem Text    
First Line: All the fireflies in the world
Subject(s): Childhood Memories; Opera; Summer


CAPTIVITY: 1.       
First Line: Eight weeks in that closet
Last Line: A beautiful word in another language, %devoid of meaning


CAPTIVITY: 2.       
First Line: Better to pretend the man
Last Line: That gleams in the bowl by the kitchen door, beckoning


CAPTIVITY: 3. THE TAPES       
First Line: In the beginning we followed her story
Last Line: This is where you belong


CAPTIVITY: 4.       
First Line: Children never ask
Last Line: To be given a home


CAPTIVITY: 5.       
First Line: We could not forgive patricia
Last Line: Of the free, anonymous life


CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA       
First Line: All the fireflies in the world


CHANCES ARE       
First Line: Hope is a fat seed pod


CICADAS    Poem Text    
First Line: Always in unison, they are
Subject(s): Cicadas


CICADAS       
First Line: Always in unison, they are
Last Line: Hot and close, of silence


CIVILIZING THE CHILD    Poem Text    
First Line: You can't keep it, I say
Subject(s): Children; Parents; Childhood; Parenthood


CIVILIZING THE CHILD       
First Line: You can't keep it, I say
Last Line: My judges, my blind jury


COMMUTER    Poem Text    
First Line: How many times have I traveled
Subject(s): Commuters; Railroads; Railways; Trains


COMMUTER       
First Line: How many times have I traveled
Last Line: Into the dark station
Subject(s): Commuters; Railroads


CONCERT       
First Line: The harpist believes there is music
Last Line: On the podium flaps his wings %and death is no excuse
Subject(s): Music And Musicians


COOK       
First Line: No wonder she thinks there's more
Last Line: Although the paint is dry


COSTUME       
First Line: A few weeks before halloween a local theater is selling some of its


CURRICULUM VITAE    Poem Text    
First Line: I was born in a free city, near the north sea
Subject(s): Birth; Family Life; Parents; Child Birth; Midwifery; Relatives; Parenthood


CURRICULUM VITAE       
First Line: 1) I was born in a free city, near the north sea.
Last Line: 20) so far, so good. The brilliant days and nights are breathless in their hurry. %we follow, you an


DAUGHTER       
First Line: My next poem will be happy
Last Line: And this exhilerating day %cannot change that


DAY LIKE ANY OTHER       
First Line: Such insignificance: a glance


DEAF DANCING TO ROCK       
First Line: The eardrums of the deaf are already broken; they like it loud
Last Line: Waving arms signal the sea and pull its great waves ashore
Subject(s): Music, Rock


DESIRE       
First Line: Night after night %june bugs hammer our windows
Last Line: The radiance they are barred from


DOVES       
First Line: A pair of mourning doves


DRAWINGS BY CHILDREN    Poem Text    
First Line: The sun may be visible or not
Subject(s): Art & Artists


DRAWINGS BY CHILDREN       
First Line: The sun may be visible or not
Subject(s): Art And Artists


END OF SCIENCE FICTION       
First Line: This is not fantasy, this is our life
Last Line: First steps across a room


EPILEPSY, PETIT MAL       
First Line: There are times, each day, when their child leaves them
Last Line: Those mock deaths, over and over, for nothing


ESCAPE       
First Line: Pain lines the inside of her skin
Last Line: Outward through unimagined space, %already a star without memory


EX MACHINA       
First Line: My word processor does not know shakespeare
Last Line: But when he said it, his eyes were blank


EXHIBIT       
First Line: My uncle in east germany


EYES AND EARS       
First Line: Perhaps it's my friendship with dick
Last Line: The white heat trapped inside you


FACETS       
First Line: When you look at a bee


FALL OF THE MUSE       
First Line: Her wings are sold for scrap


FAMILY AND FRIENDS       
First Line: We are sitting around the table


FAREWELL, A WELCOME       
First Line: Good-bye pale cold inconstant
Last Line: Our footprints stamp you mortal


FENESTRATION       
First Line: The surgeon says he will cut


FICTION    Poem Text    
First Line: Going south, we watched spring
Subject(s): Southern States; Colors; Nature, Travel; South (u.s.)


FICTION       
First Line: Going south, we watched spring
Last Line: And meet again, shy as strangers


FIGURE FOR A LANDSCAPE       
First Line: Look, the solitary walker


FILM SCRIPT       
First Line: A tall, redheaded woman
Last Line: And she is lost, like breath given back to the air


FIRT SNOW IN LAKE COUNTY       
First Line: All night if fell around us %as if the sky had been sheared
Last Line: And digging through the snow %to the scents and sounds below


FIVE FOR COUNTRY MUSIC       
First Line: The bulb at the front door burns and burns


FOR A NATIVITY       
First Line: Look: florentines and umbrians have made whole


FOR A THIRTEENTH BIRTHDAY       
First Line: You have read war and peace
Last Line: Start out with that, at least


FOR RICHER, FOR POORER    Poem Text    
First Line: Three times over, since that day
Subject(s): Marriage; Aging; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


FOR THE STRANGERS       
First Line: Even this late in the century


FOUND IN THE CABBAGE PATCH    Poem Text    
First Line: The shiny head is round
Subject(s): Birth; Child Birth; Midwifery


FOUND IN THE CABBAGE PATCH       
First Line: The shiny head is round
Last Line: You look good enough to eat


FROM DISCO QUEEN TO GOSPEL PREACHER       
First Line: Beautiful cindy chants


FUGITIVE       
First Line: My life is running away with me


FULFILLING THE PROMISE       
First Line: A man I know named booker


GARDEN       
First Line: I bring my mother back to life


GODSPEED       
First Line: The right taillight continues
Last Line: More than his own or the magic %of friends who wish him well


GRACKLE OBSERVED       
First Line: Watching the black grackle
Last Line: As vision, as pure light


GREAT PERFORMANCES       
First Line: Again this morning I have escaped


HALCYON DAYS       
First Line: All summer long the sun %was our patron on the hill
Last Line: Had been arrested and we had another chance


HAPPY AND UNHAPPY FAMILIES: 1    Poem Text    
First Line: If all happy families are alike
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


HAPPY AND UNHAPPY FAMILIES: 1       
First Line: If all happy families are alike
Last Line: To deserve their happiness
Subject(s): Family Life


HAPPY AND UNHAPPY FAMILIES: 2    Poem Text    
First Line: According to the director
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


HAPPY AND UNHAPPY FAMILIES: 2       
First Line: According to the director
Last Line: Here at home, this winter, %we have no name for it
Subject(s): Family Life


HEARTBREAK       
First Line: It's in the farthest reaches that


HEARTLAND    Poem Text    
First Line: Now that we've given our hearts away
Subject(s): Hearts


HEARTLAND       
First Line: Now that we've given our hearts away
Last Line: From some anonymous ceiling %a speaker blares mon coeur, corazon, %dein ist mein ganzes herz


HIGHWAY 2, ILLINOIS       
First Line: Look at this country
Subject(s): Illinois; Roads; Solitude; Paths; Trails; Loneliness


HIGHWAY POEMS       
First Line: The narrow black veins on the map


HIGHWAY POEMS: 1       
First Line: The narrow black veins on the map
Last Line: Crossed fingers %broken teeth


HIGHWAY POEMS: 2       
First Line: Between the roof of the howard johnson
Last Line: Outside a numbered door?


HIGHWAY POEMS: 3       
First Line: Hardly anyone takes
Last Line: And news from a world with receding walls


HIGHWAY POEMS: 4       
First Line: Camping, you learn people
Last Line: I don't believe it


HIGHWAY POEMS: 5       
First Line: Illinois, indiana, iowa
Last Line: Is if finished, your poem?


HIGHWAY POEMS: 6       
First Line: We keep coming back to the old hotel,
Last Line: We came from somewhere, that we are real


HISTORICAL MUSEUM, MANITOULIN ISLAND    Poem Text    
First Line: After a while it dawns on us
Subject(s): Museums; Art Gallerys


HOPE    Poem Text    
First Line: It hovers in dark corners
Subject(s): Hope; Optimism


HOPE       
First Line: It hovers in dark corners
Last Line: It is in this poem, trying to speak


IDENTICAL TWINS       
First Line: When they walk past me in the park


IMAGINARY PAINTINGS: 1. HOW I WOULD PAINT THE FUTURE       
First Line: A strip of horizon and a figure
Last Line: Seem from the back, forever approaching


IMAGINARY PAINTINGS: 2. HOW I WOULD PAINT HAPPINESS       
First Line: Something sudden, a windfall
Last Line: Too beautiful to touch


IMAGINARY PAINTINGS: 3. HOW I WOULD PAINT DEATH       
First Line: White on white or black on black
Last Line: Which I will never finish


IMAGINARY PAINTINGS: 4. HOW I WOULD PAINT LOVE       
First Line: I would not paint love


IMAGINARY PAINTINGS: 5. HOW I WOULD PAINT THE LEAP OF FAITH       
First Line: A black cat jumping up three feet
Last Line: To reach a three-inch shelf


IMAGINARY PAINTINGS: 6. HOW I WOULD PAINT THE BIG LIE       
First Line: Smooth, and deceptively small
Last Line: Never mind %the poison inside


IMAGINARY PAINTINGS: 7. HOW I WOULD PAINT NOSTALGIA       
First Line: An old-fashioned painting, a genre piece
Last Line: Watching the water rush %away, away, away


IMMORTALITY    Poem Text    
First Line: In sleeping beauty's castle
Subject(s): Sleeping Beauty; Time; Flies


IMMORTALITY       
First Line: In sleeping beauty's castle
Last Line: Still craved its particular share %of sweetness, a century later


IN MEMORY OF ANTON WEBERN, DEAD SEPTEMBER 15, 1945    Poem Text    
First Line: Tinged leaves lie
Subject(s): Webern, Anton (1883-1945); Death; Dead, The


IN MEMORY OF ANTON WEBERN, DEAD SEPTEMBER 15, 1945       
First Line: Tinged leaves lie
Last Line: After the sense of things


IN NOVEMBER    Poem Text    
First Line: Outside the house the wind is howling
Subject(s): Conduct Of Life


IN NOVEMBER       
First Line: Outside the house the wind is howling
Last Line: That, by all rights, should have been mine


IN PRAISE OF SURFACES       
First Line: When I touch you
Last Line: Rock by wet rock, %piecemeal, %I collect you


IN THE MUSEUM       
First Line: What draws me over and over


IN THE THRIVING SEASON    Poem Text    
First Line: Now as she ctahches fistfuls of sun
Subject(s): Babies; Infants


IN THE THRIVING SEASON       
First Line: Now as she catches fistfuls of sun
Last Line: Love grows by what it remembers of love


INTO SPACE       
First Line: How light we are becoming


JANUARY AFTERNOON, WITH BILLIE HOLIDAY    Poem Text    
First Line: Her voice shifts as if it were light
Subject(s): African Americans - Women; Holiday, Billie (1915-1959); Jazz; Music & Musicians; Singing & Singers; Songs


JANUARY AFTERNOON, WITH BILLIE HOLIDAY       
First Line: Her voice shifts as if it were light
Last Line: Tomorrow is something she remembers
Subject(s): African Americans - Women; Holiday, Billie (1915-1959); Jazz; Music And Musicians; Singing And Singers


JOY    Poem Text    
First Line: Don't cry, it's only music
Subject(s): Happiness; Grief; Love - Erotic; Joy; Delight; Sorrow; Sadness


JOY       
First Line: Don't cry, it's only music
Last Line: While our eyes fill with tears


LARGE JIGSAW PUZZLE       
First Line: I start with the sky, my primeval


LATE HOURS    Poem Text    
First Line: On summer nights the world
Subject(s): Night; Bedtime


LATE HOURS       
First Line: On summer nights the world
Last Line: Over imaginary lives


LATE NEWS       
First Line: For months, numbness %in the face of broadcasts
Last Line: As if I were still human


LATE-BORN DAUGHTERS       
First Line: The late-born daughters of famous fathers
Last Line: They sit up all night with their fathers


LAUGHTER OF WOMEN       
First Line: The laughter of women sets fire
Last Line: We heard the laughter, we understood the freedom


LETTER       
First Line: After you left college %your room was finally orderly
Last Line: To wear a patch in his carpeted cage


LETTER FROM THE END OF THE WORLD       
First Line: The reason no longer matters
Last Line: If this reaches you, wait for me


LETTER TO CALIFORNIA       
First Line: We write to each other as if


LIFE OF A QUEEN: 1. CHILDHOOD       
First Line: For two days her lineage is in doubt
Last Line: They open her mouth and force it down


LIFE OF A QUEEN: 2. THE FLIGHT       
First Line: She marries him in midair
Last Line: Nothing of him, or their fall


LIFE OF A QUEEN: 3. THE RECLUSE       
First Line: They make it plain
Last Line: Outside, a nation %crowns its queen


LONESOME DREAM       
First Line: In the america of the dream
Last Line: Still innocent of us


LOSING MY SIGHT       
First Line: I never knew that by august
Last Line: Of sound extended to me, %the perfect listener


LOST AND FOUND       
First Line: The gold ring is lost, it lies


LOVE LIKE SALT    Poem Text    
First Line: It lies in our hands in crystals
Subject(s): Love - Nature Of; Salt


LOVE LIKE SALT       
First Line: It lies in our hands in crystals
Last Line: Talking of holidays by the sea


MAGNOLIA    Poem Text    
First Line: This year spring and summer decided
Subject(s): Seasons; Spring; Magnolias


MAGNOLIA       
First Line: This year spring and summer decided


MARY       
First Line: Mary points to a fellow patient


MERCE CUNNINGHAM AND THE BIRDS       
First Line: Last night I saw merce cunningham and his ten amazing dancers
Last Line: And disappear into nowhere


MERMAID       
First Line: All day he had felt her stirring
Last Line: To the darkness he would not enter


METAPHOR       
First Line: Your question persists, like the scent


MIDNIGHT       
First Line: The spirits are not fooled


MIDWINTER NOTES       
First Line: On my shelf of photographs
Last Line: Late in the day, when the dead %are allowed their brief shining


MILKWEED PODS IN WINTER       
First Line: Months in the house have steamed them open


MIRRORS       
First Line: After I put on lipstick
Last Line: Intrusive glare to make them explode


MISSING THE DEAD    Poem Text    
First Line: I miss the old scrawl on the viaduct
Subject(s): Parker, Charlie (bird) (1920-1955); Parents; Death; Parenthood; Dead, The


MISSING THE DEAD       
First Line: I miss the old scrawl on the viaduct
Last Line: How they keep getting brighter %as we keep moving toward each other


MONET REFUSES THE OPERATION    Poem Text    
First Line: Doctor, you say there are no halos
Subject(s): Monet, Claude (1840-1926)


MONET REFUSES THE OPERATION       
First Line: Doctor, you say there are no halos
Last Line: To claim this world, blue vapor without end
Subject(s): Monet, Claude (1840-1926)


MONEY REFUSES THE OPERATION       
First Line: Doctor, you say there are no haloes
Last Line: To claim this world, blue vapor without end


MOON FISHING       
First Line: When the moon was full they came to the water
Last Line: In the soft, bottomless mud


MOULIN ROUGE       
First Line: The feminine form for clown seems to be


MUSE    Poem Text    
First Line: What I look at when I type is a poster: edward hopper's nighthawks
Subject(s): Hopper, Edward (1882-1967)


MUSE       
First Line: What I look at when I type is a poster: edward hopper's nighthawks
Subject(s): Hopper, Edward (1882-1967)


MUSHROOMS    Poem Text    
First Line: Only the dead could be
Subject(s): Mushrooms; Morels


MUSHROOMS       
First Line: Only the dead could be
Subject(s): Mushrooms


MY GRANDMOTHER'S GOLD PIN       
First Line: The first fleur-de-lis is for green-stemmed glasses with swirls
Last Line: An age when the dream of man nearly came true


NAMES    Poem Text    
First Line: A few names tell it all
Subject(s): Names; Social Commentaries


NAMES       
First Line: A few names tell it
Last Line: Scrubs out our mouths %till we cry mercy


NAMING THE ANIMALS       
First Line: Until he named the horse horse
Last Line: Of who she was, with her small hands


NECESSITIES       
First Line: A map of the world. Not the one in the atlas
Last Line: So we could name our deepest sadness
Variant Title(s): Second Languag


NEED TO HOLD STILL       
First Line: Winter weeds, %survivors %of a golden age
Last Line: Lines in the rock %on the wall %the page


NEW YEAR'S       
First Line: Outside the house a crow


NIGHT SONG       
First Line: Among rocks, I am the loose one
Last Line: Among the bones you find on the beach, %the one that sings was mine


NIGHT VOYAGE: A DREAM       
First Line: The boatman, a silhouette
Last Line: We were not frightened, only entranced


NINE MONTHS MAKING    Poem Text    
Subject(s): Pregnancy; Birth; Child Birth; Midwifery


NOCTURNE       
First Line: Sometimes, in the dead of night, I wake up in an immense hole of


NOT ONLY ESKIMOS    Poem Text    
Subject(s): Snow


NOT ONLY THE ESKIMOS       
First Line: We have only one noun
Last Line: With childhood again each year


NUDE BY EDWARD HOPPER       
First Line: The light %drains me of what I might be
Last Line: Between these bones - %I live here


O BRAVE NEW WORLD, THAT HATH SUCH PEOPLE IN IT'       
First Line: Soon you will be like her, prospero's daughter
Last Line: Banish yourself from the one flawless place


ON FINDING A BIRD'S BONES IN THE WOODS       
First Line: Even einstein, gazing
Last Line: Of sound and motion


ON READING AN ANTHOLOGY OF POSTWAR GERMAN POETRY    Poem Text    
First Line: America saved me
Subject(s): Poetry & Poets; Germany; Germans


ON READING AN ANTHOLOGY OF POSTWAR GERMAN POETRY       
First Line: America saved me
Last Line: And splits, a living cell, %into its destinies


ONE MORE HYMN TO THE SUN       
First Line: You know that like an ideal mother
Last Line: Changed its shape again and again


ORAL HISTORY       
First Line: I will never forget the day


PALINDROME    Poem Text    
First Line: Somewhere now she takes off the dress I am putting
Subject(s): Self


PALINDROME       
First Line: Somewhere now she takes off the dress I am putting
Last Line: With both of us looking the other way
Subject(s): Self


PAPER-WHITE NARCISSUS    Poem Text    
Subject(s): Paperwhite Narcissus


PAPER-WHITE NARCISSUS       
First Line: Strange, how they got their name
Last Line: Protection or violation, %and they are blind


PAUL DELVAUX: THE VILLAGE OF THE MERMAIDS       
First Line: Who is that man in black, walking


PEOPLE AT THE PARTY       
First Line: They are like tightrope walkers, unable to fall


PHOTOGRAPH       
First Line: It must have taken her eighteen years-
Last Line: How heaped %in fine, pale threads around her feet, %and turns her newborn face toward me


PICKING RASPBERRIES       
First Line: Once the thicket opens
Last Line: Which has no place there


PIGEONS    Poem Text    
First Line: Like every kingdom
Subject(s): Pigeons


PIGEONS       
First Line: Like every kingdom %the kingdom of birds
Last Line: And welcomed them to our gardens


PILLAR OF SALT       
First Line: More and more I resemble
Last Line: Seeping back into the sea


PLACE AND TIME    Poem Text    
First Line: Last night a man on the radio
Subject(s): War; Transience; Family Life; Impermanence; Relatives


PLACE AND TIME       
First Line: Last night a man on the radio
Last Line: As an empty threat


PLEASE STAND BY       
First Line: With the sound off, they look like us when we dream


POEM FOR MY BIRTHDAY    Poem Text    
First Line: I have stopped being the heroine
Subject(s): Birthdays; Self


POEM FOR MY BIRTHDAY       
First Line: I have stopped being the heroine


POPPY       
First Line: When they stop reaching for the moon
Last Line: They will tell you as gently as they can


POPULAR MUSIC       
First Line: She does like lurid plots, but opera
Last Line: Needs to be quiet %while someone lays down tracks of pain %over hers like a pair of hands


POSSESSIVE CASE       
First Line: Your father's mustache
Last Line: My papa's waltz %your father's mustache


POWER OF MUSIC TO DISTURB       
First Line: A humid night. Mad june bugs dash themselves
Last Line: By shock of ecstasy and heat of pain


PRIVATE LIFE       
First Line: What happens, happens in silence
Last Line: One sudden silent flower, %one inscrutable life


PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT    Poem Text    
First Line: Three images flash on the screen
Subject(s): Pasteur, Louis (1822-1895); Hitler, Adolf (1889-1945); Books; Youth; Reading


PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT       
First Line: Three images flash on the screen


QUEEN OF SHEBA SAYS FAREWELL       
First Line: Sir, as one royal personage to another
Last Line: I shall not come again


QUESTIONING       
First Line: Mute and dazed, she has surfaced


READER       
First Line: A husband. A wife. Three children. Last year they did not exist
Last Line: Would have let me say good-bye


READING THE BROTHERS GRIMM TO JENNY    Poem Text    
First Line: Jenny, your mind commands
Subject(s): Fairy Tales; Grimm, Jacob Ludwig Carl (1785-1863); Grimm, Wilhelm Carl (1786-1859)


READING THE BROTHERS GRIMM TO JENNY       
First Line: Jenny, your mind commands
Last Line: The terror and the bliss, %the world as it might be?
Subject(s): Fairy Tales; Grimm, Jacob Ludwig Carl (1785-1863); Grimm, Wilhelm Carl (1786-1859)


RESONS FOR NUMBERS       
First Line: Because I exist
Last Line: There is nothing like it in nature
Variant Title(s): Reasons For Number


ROMANTICS    Poem Text    
First Line: The modern biographers worry
Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships; Brahms, Johannes (1833-1897); Schumann. Clara (1819-1896); Male-female Relations


ROMANTICS       
First Line: The modern biographers worry
Last Line: Leaving us nothing to overhear


SANS SOUCI (FREDERICK THE GREAT'S SUMMER PLACE NEAR POTSDAM)       
First Line: It does not make sense in terms of historical fact


SCENARIOS       
First Line: She always thinks it's only


SCENIC ROUTE       
First Line: Someone was always leaving


SECOND SIGHT       
First Line: How cruel to have the future stuffed in one's eyes


SEEING THEM ON TELEVISION    Poem Text    
First Line: The miner's wives and children
Subject(s): Industry; Labor & Laborers; Work; Workers


SEEING THEM ON TELEVISION       
First Line: The miner's wives and children
Last Line: That has dropped low enough %for decorum
Subject(s): Industry; Labor And Laborers


SHORT HISTORY OF THE ROSE       
First Line: You will know me
Last Line: Awaiting %a special evening


SILENCE AND DANCING       
First Line: Silence and dancing %is what it comes down to
Last Line: From the well-groomed words on her lips


SLEEPLESS    Poem Text    
First Line: No use pushing against the dark
Subject(s): Insomnia; Sleeplessness


SLIDES       
First Line: My friend has no wish to travel, 'I don't have to visit las vegas,' he
Last Line: Pristine, tucked-in, that gives no hint of its intentions


SMALL POEM ABOUT THE HOUNDS AND THE HARES       
First Line: After the kill, there is the feast
Last Line: How lovely their scared, gentle eyes
Variant Title(s): A Poem About The Hounds And The Hare


SNOW       
First Line: Telephone poles relax their spines
Last Line: Feel how light they are, our lives


SOMETIMES, WHEN THE LIGHT    Poem Text    
First Line: Sometimes, when the light strikes at odd angles
Subject(s): Childhood Memories


SOMETIMES, WHEN THE LIGHT       
First Line: Sometimes, when the light strikes at odd angles
Last Line: You would die, or be happy forever


SOUTHPAW       
First Line: Were you an only child?' she asks
Last Line: The song of a mermaid with two left arms


STALKING THE POEM       
First Line: Only one word will do. It isn't on the tip of your tongue, but you


STATUES       
First Line: In prague, or perhaps budapest
Last Line: Whose streamers promise water


STILL LIFE       
First Line: Think of the time the words


STONE SOUP       
First Line: So easy to stir up a feast


STORM       
First Line: To see the lightning


STORY       
First Line: You are telling a story
Last Line: And they will, they will


SUNLIGHT AND SHADOW    Poem Text    
First Line: Watch any cool northern girl
Subject(s): Women; Italy; Sex; Italians


TALKING TO HELEN: 1. THE SOURCE       
First Line: A well %that ran deeper
Last Line: Before %it bloomed %into light


TALKING TO HELEN: 2. THE WORD WATER       
First Line: The word water, meaning
Last Line: For the real name of the world


TALKING TO HELEN: 3. THE SAVIORS       
First Line: Before you knew the word dream
Last Line: Language, the word saved


TALKING TO HELEN: 4. THE WORD FEELING       
First Line: You feel with your fingers
Last Line: Meaning the thin-skinned sisters %of the fleshier reds


TALKING TO HELEN: 5. THE WORD VAST       
First Line: Flying above the clouds
Last Line: Into four brief letters, %already obsolete


TALKING TO HELEN: 6. THE WORD AUTUMN       
First Line: Helen, this is a maple leaf
Last Line: Before moving on to another town


TEARS       
First Line: The first woman who ever wept
Last Line: Carried the sea inside her body


THE ARTIST'S MODEL, CA. 1912    Poem Text    
First Line: In 1886 I came apart
Subject(s): Models; Aging; Transience; Impermanence


THE BLIND LEADING THE BLIND    Poem Text    
First Line: Take my hand. There are two of us in this cave
Subject(s): Love


THE BRIDE'S COMPLAINT    Poem Text    
First Line: I saw the face of my loved naked
Subject(s): Marriage; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


THE CONCERT    Poem Text    
First Line: The harpist believes there is music
Subject(s): Music & Musicians


THE DEAF DANCING TO ROCK    Poem Text    
First Line: The eardrums of the deaf are already broken; they like it loud
Subject(s): Music, Rock; Rock & Roll


THE END OF SCIENCE FICTION    Poem Text    
First Line: This is not fantasy, this is our life.
Subject(s): Modern Life


THE GIFT OF FIRE    Poem Text    
First Line: In a time of damnation
Subject(s): Antiwar Movements; Self-immolation; Anti-war Protests


THE LONESOME DREAM    Poem Text    
First Line: In the america of the dream
Subject(s): Dreams; United States; Race Awareness; Nightmares; America


THE MERMAID    Poem Text    
First Line: All day he had felt her stirring
Subject(s): Mermaids & Mermen


THE POEM OF LOVE    Poem Text    
First Line: Not about her who turns dancer
Subject(s): Love


THE SIEGE    Poem Text    
First Line: Once, when he was away, across the sea
Subject(s): Absence; Separation; Isolation


THE STORY    Poem Text    
First Line: You are telling a story
Subject(s): Love - Nature Of


THE WEB    Poem Text    
First Line: I am stuck fast and so


THERE ARE MORNINGS       
First Line: Even now, when the plot


THINGS    Poem Text    
First Line: What happened is, we grew lonely
Subject(s): Body, Human


THINGS       
First Line: What happened is, we grew lonely
Last Line: So we could pass into safety


THIS WINTER       
First Line: Each morning I used to open my eyes


THOUSAND AND FIRST NIGHT       
First Line: I did what the rug makers do


THREE POEMS ABOUT THE VOICELESS       
First Line: The voiceless wear scarves pulled tight


TRIAGE    Poem Text    
First Line: Bertolt brecht lamented that he lived in an age when it was almost
Subject(s): Brecht, Bertolt (1898-1956)


TRIAGE       
First Line: Bertolt brecht lamented that he lived in an age when it was almost
Last Line: Dissapointment settling in your face
Subject(s): Brecht, Bertolt (1898-1956)


TRIAGE       
First Line: Bertolt bercht leamented that he lived in an age when it was almost a crime to
Last Line: This as you listen to me, disappointment settling in your face


TRIUMPH OF LIFE: MARY SHELLEY       
First Line: My father taught me to think


UNANSWERED QUESTION       
First Line: If I had been the lone survivor
Last Line: What word would it have been


UP NORTH       
First Line: Already they are flying back


VERTUOSI    Poem Text    
First Line: People whose lives have been shaped
Subject(s): Parents; Parenthood


VIRTUOSI       
First Line: People whose lives have been shaped


VISITING MY NATIVE COUNTRY WITH MY AMERICAN-BORN HUSBAND       
First Line: I am as much of a stranger


VOICES FROM THE FOREST: 1. THE VOICE OF THE TRAVELER WHO ESCAPED       
First Line: No matter how exhausted you are
Last Line: And throws away the key


VOICES FROM THE FOREST: 2. WARNING TO VIRGINS       
First Line: Each year you become more wary
Last Line: There is no second chance


VOICES FROM THE FOREST: 3. A VOICE FROM OUT OF THE NIGHT       
First Line: Remember me, I was a celebrity
Last Line: And cry, 'not me! Not me


VOICES FROM THE FOREST: 4. THE HUNTER'S VOICE       
First Line: Happily, I am exempt
Last Line: I have changed the plot of your lives


VOICES FROM THE FOREST: 5. THE FALSE BRIDE'S SIDE OF THE STORY       
First Line: Kindness ran in your blood
Last Line: I may step out of the sun, %large and dark as life


VOICES FROM THE FOREST: 6. THE THIRD SON'S CONFESSION       
First Line: Early on I was chosen
Last Line: But I've forgotten the wish


VOICES FROM THE FOREST: 7. FLESH AND BLOOD       
First Line: This is my brother the fat, caged boy
Last Line: Human, you'll leave me, my six mute swans


VOICES FROM THE FOREST: 8. THE VOICE FROM UNDER THE HAZEL BUSH       
First Line: I died for you. Each spring
Last Line: With the wedding dance, it goes on


VOYAGER       
First Line: No one's body could be that light


WEDNESDAYS       
First Line: Each wednesday afternoon


WHAT IS LEFT TO SAY       
First Line: The self steps out of the circle


WHAT THE DOG PERHAPS HEARS    Poem Text    
First Line: If an inaudible whistle
Subject(s): Animals; Dogs; Music & Musicians


WHAT THE DOG PERHAPS HEARS       
First Line: If an inaudible whistle
Last Line: The egg broken, the nest alive, %and we heard nothing when the world changed
Subject(s): Animals; Dogs; Music And Musicians


WHAT WILL YOU DO       
First Line: What did you do when the glacier
Last Line: That's what you will do


WHEN I AM ASKED    Poem Text    


WHEN I AM ASKED       
Last Line: The only thing that would grieve with me
Subject(s): Flowers; Gardens And Gardening; Poetry And Poets


WHOEVER YOU ARE: A LETTER       
First Line: Someone who does not know you
Last Line: Had anything to do with you


WHY I NEED THE BIRDS    Poem Text    
First Line: When I hear them call
Subject(s): Birds


WHY I NEED THE BIRDS       
First Line: When I hear them call
Last Line: Which they announce %from their high lookouts %before dawn has quite broken for me


WHY WE TELL STORIES    Poem Text    
First Line: Because we used to have leaves
Subject(s): Story-telling


WHY WE TELL STORIES       
First Line: Because we used to have leaves
Last Line: We will begin our story %with the word and


WIDOW       
First Line: What the neighbors bring to her kitchen
Last Line: Dries out on the kitchen table


WORK TO BE DONE       
First Line: Whatever happens, I was once


WRITING IN THE EIGHTIES    Poem Text    
First Line: Memoirs used to be written
Subject(s): Writing & Writers


WRITING IN THE EIGHTIES       
First Line: Memoirs used to be written


YOUR TIRED, YOUR POOR: 1. ASYLUM       
First Line: I cannot ask you to paint the tops
Last Line: My leper's rattle, my yellow star


YOUR TIRED, YOUR POOR: 2. ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE    Poem Text    
First Line: The underpaid young teacher
Subject(s): English As A Second Language; Teaching & Teachers; Educators; Professors


YOUR TIRED, YOUR POOR: 2. ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE       
First Line: The underpaid young teacher
Last Line: Could be curled seedlings, could take root, %could develop leaves
Subject(s): English As A Second Language; Teaching And Teachers


YOUR TIRED, YOUR POOR: 3. CROSSING OVER       
First Line: There comes a day when the trees
Last Line: That surprise you with their strange, bright birds