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Author: OLDS, SHARON
Matches Found: 453


Olds, Sharon    Poet's Biography
453 poems available by this author


19       
First Line: When we took the acid, his wife was off
Last Line: Pore on my skin he closed that old couple's eyes


1954       
First Line: Then dirt scared me, because of the dirt
Last Line: To look into those eyes, and see the human


35/10    Poem Text    
First Line: Brushing out my daughter's dark
Subject(s): Mothers & Daughters; Women


35/10       
First Line: Brushing out my daughter's dark
Last Line: The story of replacement
Subject(s): Mothers And Daughters; Women


49 1/2       
First Line: The first long month, waiting and waiting
Last Line: The one past bearing, the human gone out upon its longest thread


5 CENTS A PEEK       
First Line: The day my class was to go to the circus
Last Line: Sidelong, blindly, and shudder them at seven beats a second


ADOLESCENCE       
First Line: When I think of my adolescence, I think
Last Line: Kneeling, reaching for my life


AFTER MAKING LOVE IN WINTER    Poem Text    
First Line: At first, not even a sheet on me
Subject(s): Love - Erotic


AFTER MAKING LOVE IN WINTER       
First Line: At first, not even a sheet on me
Last Line: Want to be born, I want to stay here %with you
Subject(s): Erotic Love


AFTER MAKING LOVE, WINTER SOLSTICE       
First Line: Except for the ochre face of the glow-in-the


AFTER PUNISHMENT WAS DONE WITH ME       
Last Line: The ashes of the earth
Variant Title(s): After My Mother Was Done With M


AFTER THE RAPE IN OUR BUILDING       
First Line: The day after we heard about it
Last Line: Sealed and unfruitful


AIRPORT HOTEL       
First Line: The mother leans against the hotel window


ALCATRAZ    Poem Text    
First Line: When I was a girl, I knew I was a man
Subject(s): Prisons & Prisoners; Children; Discipline; Convicts; Childhood


AM AND AM NOT       
First Line: When I am tilted forward, brushing my teeth
Last Line: Undulant one, she is dancing upright in her dream


ANIMAL MUSIC       
First Line: The first time, my eyes were closed
Last Line: Its waking dream


APRIL, NEW HAMPSHIRE       
First Line: Outside their door, a tiny narcissus
Last Line: Looking at us for the last time %on earth


ARMOR    Poem Text    
First Line: Just about at the tripled-barrelled pistol
Subject(s): Arms & Armor; Mothers & Sons; Weapons; Ammunition


ARMOR       
First Line: Just about at the triple-barreled pistol


ASPIC AND BUTTERMILK    Poem Text    
First Line: There were two foods I hated to eat, / so those were foods he like me to eat
Subject(s): Food & Eating


ASPIC AND BUTTERMILK       
First Line: There were two foods I hated to eat, %so those were foods he like me to eat
Last Line: More passion for life on almost any %terms than death
Subject(s): Food And Eating


AT HOME       
First Line: Then, when he is drifting off
Last Line: In the room, on every surface


AT THE BAY       
First Line: At four in the morning, the waning crescent
Last Line: Ready, the second time left to right, so you can read it


AT THE HOSPITAL FOR THE PARALYZED    Poem Text    
First Line: If I were in the wheelchair next to julia
Subject(s): Hospitals; Paralysis


AT THE HOSPITAL FOR THE PARALYZED       
First Line: If I were in the wheelchair next to julia
Last Line: You, arrow of eros, once a deer-hunter
Subject(s): Hospitals; Paralysis


ATTEMPTED BANQUET       
First Line: Lugging of shellfish in coolers, boiling
Last Line: Just be eaten, portion of flesh and salt


BABYSITTER       
First Line: The baby was about six months old
Last Line: Upside-down, just under the ceiling of the world
Subject(s): Adolescence; Babies


BACCHANAL IN MEMORY       
First Line: In the morning, I can hardly remember it
Last Line: Precursor of our earth


BAROMETER       
First Line: Being a woman whose elder sister


BATHING THE NEW BORN       
First Line: I love with an almost fearful love
Last Line: Move his silky limbs at will in the water


BATHROBE       
First Line: On his last birthday, my father's wife


BEAST       
First Line: Without thinking, I drop my notebook


BED       
First Line: My father's new wife was looking out a window
Last Line: And woman as god had made them, almost %my parents, in love
Subject(s): Beds; Fathers; Relationships


BEYOND HARM    Poem Text    
First Line: A week after my father died
Subject(s): Fathers & Daughters; Death; Dead, The


BEYOND HARM       
First Line: A week after my father died
Last Line: I suddenly thought, with amazement, he will always %love me now, and I laughed - he was dead, dead!


BIBLE STUDY: 71 B.C.E.    Poem Text    
First Line: After marcus licinius crassus


BIRTHDAY POEM FOR MY GRANDMOTHER LOTTIE BEDA MACLEAN       
First Line: I stood on the porch tonight - which way do we


BODY REMEMBERS       
First Line: The day before high school graduation


BONDING       
First Line: He comes home from the braces doctor
Last Line: Open in pain and amazement


BOULDER CREEK       
First Line: It was time to leave the cabin, the cellar
Last Line: Dreamless. My mother was driving, she was a relative of god's


BURNED DIARY       
First Line: She lay down, in her world, in its concentric
Last Line: Had been the earth


BY EARTH       
First Line: I will lie at the front of a church, in a box
Last Line: Rosewood roof of my heaven, the balsam cot


BY FIRE    Poem Text    
First Line: When I pass an abandoned, half-wrecked building
Subject(s): Conduct Of Life; Death; Dead, The


BY FIRE       
First Line: When I pass an abandoned half-wrecked building
Last Line: To go out as a pugilist


CAMBRIDGE ELEGY       
First Line: I hardly know how to speak to you now


CAST       
First Line: When the doctor cut off our son's cast
Last Line: At a wedding, when we see the two who have been joined


CELIBACY AT TWENTY    Poem Text    
First Line: After I broke up with someone
Subject(s): Celibacy


CELIBACY AT TWENTY       
First Line: After I broke up with someone
Last Line: Entered the pit I did not want ever to come up out of it
Subject(s): Celibacy


CEREMONY OF BURIAL       
First Line: Looking south, at the base of the year
Subject(s): Funerals; Burials


CHAMBER THICKET    Poem Text    
First Line: As we sat at the feet of the string quartet


CHERRY       
First Line: I love the blackish scarlet, under
Last Line: Like the arth,it did not love you it shone before your eyes


CHRISTIAN CHILD       
First Line: The maroon velvet of the armrests was dense
Last Line: Against, and then come to the hollow body, one %bite and it exploded


CHRISTIAN CHILD       
First Line: I remember the dark maroon of the armrests


CLASP       
First Line: She was four, he was one, it was raining, we had colds
Last Line: Who loved her most, near the source of love %was this
Subject(s): Love; Mothers And Daughters


CO-ED FOUND       
First Line: Evenn if the newspaper is upside down
Last Line: Mattapoisett, and the careful marking of the waste-field


COMING HOME AFTER VACATION       
First Line: The car rolled into the drive at dusk and stopped


COMING OF AGE, 1966       
First Line: When I came to sex in full, not sex
Last Line: March, my heart aching with righteousness


CONNOISSEUSE OF SLUGS       
First Line: When I was a connoisseuse of slugs
Last Line: Gleaming in the dark air, eager and so %trusting you could weep
Subject(s): Flowers; Gardens And Gardening


COOL BREEZE       
First Line: You talked to me a lot about your kid sister
Last Line: Blood, brother - reebabecka's brother


COULDN'T       
First Line: At length, there came the day my mother
Last Line: And brought each other off, in the brilliant %waste of the power of creation
Subject(s): Women


CRAZY    Poem Text    
First Line: I've said that he and I had been crazy
Subject(s): Marriage; Divorce; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


CULTURE AND RELIGION       
First Line: When the witch flew up to the left right left I
Last Line: Bent and groaned, there was a strong wind, we were murderers


DAY THEY TIED ME UP       
First Line: None of the pain was sharp. The sash
Last Line: Discordant fuel - she wanted me to thrive, and decipher


DEAD BODY ITSELF       
First Line: It killed me, after he died, the way we left him
Last Line: Already lived on this earth before god %took that special clay and made his own set of people


DEAR HEART    Poem Text    
First Line: How did you know to turn me over
Subject(s): Love - Erotic


DEAR HEART       
First Line: How did you know to turn me over
Last Line: To fire to ash, dust to bloom to dust
Subject(s): Erotic Love


DEATH OF MARILYN MONROE       
First Line: The ambulance men touched her cold
Last Line: Woman %breathing
Subject(s): Monroe, Marilyn (1926-1962); Popular Culture - United States


DEFENSE       
First Line: When I walked into the seminar room
Last Line: On end, in the saline


DIAGNOSIS    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: By the time I was six months old, she knew something
Subject(s): Wit & Humor; Children; Childhood


DIRTY MEMORIES       
First Line: The boy down the street dug a pit, in his yard
Last Line: I'm saying I was glad


DRAGONS       
First Line: Something moves on the grass, bent
Last Line: Swimming like an inland sea


DROWNING       
First Line: The mothers are siting in the kitchen, late


EARLIEST MEMORY    Poem Text    
First Line: Light - not bright, but deep. No beams
Subject(s): Memory


EARLIEST MEMORY       
First Line: Light, not bright, but deep. No beams
Last Line: In light, striped, where I lay, whole, and watched


EARLY IMAGES OF HEAVEN    Poem Text    
First Line: It amazed me that the shapes of penises
Subject(s): Love - Erotic


EARLY IMAGES OF HEAVEN       
First Line: It amazed me that the shapes of penises
Last Line: The father all around me
Subject(s): Erotic Love


ECSTASY    Poem Text    
First Line: As we made love for the third day
Subject(s): Love - Erotic


ECSTASY       
First Line: As we made love for the third day
Last Line: Place from which no one has ever come back
Subject(s): Erotic Love


ELDER SISTER       
First Line: When I look at my elder sister now
Last Line: Bofy held in front of me
Subject(s): Sisters


ELECTRICITY SAVIOR       
First Line: He jumps up from supper, turns off the light
Last Line: To his chest, like a lamp


ELOPEMENT       
First Line: It was raining upwards, sideways, each
Last Line: Kissed on our wedding day


EMILY DICKINSON'S WRITING TABLE IN HER BEDROOM AT THE HOMESTEAD    Poem Text    
First Line: The chair next to her writing table
Subject(s): Dickinson, Emily (1830-1886)


EMILY DICKINSON'S WRITING TABLE IN HER BEDROOM AT THE HOMESTEAD       
First Line: The chair next to her writing table
Last Line: Out of that house, it would have to come from me
Subject(s): Dickinson, Emily (1830-1886)


EMPIRE STATE BUILDING AS THE MOON       
First Line: I walk the city, my eyes on her so she


ENCHANTMENT       
First Line: When I say, to my mother, what was a good
Last Line: Love, would she do me the honor of continued ensorcelling?


ENCOUNTER       
First Line: I am combing my hair in front of the mirror


EVEN NOW       
First Line: I don't know why I loved him so much
Last Line: Calling, the cry of separated from one's kind


EVERY TIME       
First Line: When I lie down to do a breast exam


FACTORS       
First Line: Sometimes we seem almost to be working
Last Line: Come, come, yes, my darling, my %sweetheart, come


FALLS       
First Line: He reached out
Last Line: Fished me back, and gave me to my mother to %strip and towel-dry, to burnish


FEARED DROWNED       
First Line: Suddenly nobody knows where you are


FERRYER       
First Line: Three years after my father's death


FIFTY MOTHERS       
First Line: Then the crocus are out, I go out on the porch
Last Line: As if they never met her, they do not %know whose girl they are


FIRE ESCAPE       
First Line: It held with rusted struts to the rear
Last Line: Horizontal, now - burned up, ash


FIRE ESCAPE       
First Line: It stood a little away from the rear
Last Line: Up, ash, I want to go back and sail %down the drain of rescue


FIRST       
First Line: He stood in the sulphur baths, his calves
Last Line: Into and under the start of the western sea


FIRST BIRTH       
First Line: I had thought so little, really of her
Last Line: I was nothing, no one, I was everything to her, I was hers


FIRST BOYFRIEND       
First Line: We would park on any quiet street


FIRST FORMAL       
First Line: She rises up above the strapless, her dewy
Last Line: And gaze at the world and at us in dubious willingness


FIRST HOUR    Poem Text    
First Line: That hour, I was most myself. I had shrugged
Last Line: And took me to my mother
Subject(s): Mothers


FIRST LOVE    Poem Text    
First Line: It was sunday morning, I had the new york
Subject(s): Love - Loss Of; Death; Dead, The


FIRST NIGHT       
First Line: I lay asleep under you


FIRST SEX    Poem Text    
First Line: I knew little, and what I knew
Subject(s): Love - Erotic


FIRST SEX       
First Line: I knew little, and what I knew
Last Line: Said and more, I rubbed it into my %hands like lotion, I signed on for the duration
Subject(s): Erotic Love


FIRST THANKSGIVING    Poem Text    
First Line: When she comes back, from college, I will see
Subject(s): Mothers & Daughters; Homecoming; Thanksgiving Day


FIRST THANKSGIVING       
First Line: When she comes back, from college, I will see
Last Line: The corrected curve of their departure


FIRST WEEKS       
First Line: Those first weeks, I don't know if
Last Line: I fell in love, I became human


FISH OIL    Poem Text    
First Line: One midnight, I got home from work
Last Line: From the dream of judgment
Subject(s): Cooking & Cooks; Smells


FISH OIL       
First Line: One midnight, I got home from work
Last Line: Wake to the pungent day, one could awake %from the dream of judgment


FISH STORY       
First Line: The mother watched her daughter kneeling
Subject(s): Daughters


FISH STORY       
First Line: The mother watched her daughter kneeling
Subject(s): Daughters


FISHING OFF NOVA SCOTIA       
First Line: Visiting their father's childhood home


FIVE-YEAR-OLD-BOY       
First Line: Gabriel at five is leaning on the world


FOR AND AGAINST KNOWLEDGE       
First Line: If you don't have to ask it, fine


FOR AND AGAINST KNOWLEDGE       
First Line: What happened to her? As long as it was she
Last Line: Away, disperse, do not meet here


FOR MY DAUGHTER       
First Line: That night will come. Somewhere someone will be


FOR MY MOTHER    Poem Text    
First Line: You were my first child, really.
Subject(s): Mothers


FOR MY MOTHER       
First Line: You were my first child, really.
Last Line: Milk, it was seven years since then, I had forgotten nothing
Subject(s): Mothers


FORGIVENESS       
First Line: Maybe I should forgive myself
Last Line: As if it were a sealed gate %down into the earth
Subject(s): Mothers


FORTY YEARS LATER       
First Line: When I suddenly sensed the rubber band which I had
Subject(s): Parents; Parenthood


FORTY YEARS LATER       
First Line: When I suddenly sensed the rubber band which I had
Last Line: It could not be fit in them, they could not contain it
Subject(s): Parents


FORTY-ONE, ALONE, NO GERBIL    Poem Text    
First Line: In the strange quiet, I realize
Subject(s): Death - Animals; Solitude


FORTY-ONE, ALONE, NO GERBIL       
First Line: In the strange quiet, I realize
Last Line: Powerful call of a young animal


FRONTIS NULLA FIDES       
First Line: Sometimes, now, I think of the back
Last Line: He was a gentleman on whom I built %an absolute trust


FROSTED ELFIN    Poem Text    
First Line: When I was a child, I could look down
Subject(s): Bodies


FULL SUMMER       
First Line: I paused, and paused, over your body
Last Line: I had thought I would have to die to each


GEOGRAPHY       
First Line: I have come here to the end of the world


GIFT       
First Line: If I could change one physical thing
Last Line: Midwived me out, I came toward him in her ribbons, through her favors


GIRL       
First Line: They chased her and her friend through the woods
Last Line: And she does a cartwheel, the splits, she shakes the %shredded pom-poms in her fists


GLASS       
First Line: I think of it with wonder now
Last Line: On the table, these last mouthfuls
Subject(s): Cancer (disease); Fathers; Glasses (tumblers); Love


GOOD WILL       
First Line: Sorting clothes, if ind our son's old
Last Line: Blue knee open, singing of the boy


GREED AND AGGRESSION    Poem Text    
First Line: Someone in quaker meeting talks about greed and agression
Subject(s): Men


GREED AND AGGRESSION       
First Line: Someone in quaker meeting talks about greed and agression
Last Line: Faint, our mouths running, into sleep
Subject(s): Men


GREY GIRL       
First Line: We were walking down park, on the grates over
Last Line: And flowers, I went back to the beginning


GUILD       
First Line: Every night, as my grandfather sat
Last Line: That young man my father
Subject(s): Men


HAIRS       
First Line: At 53, I start to save
Last Line: Streaks of energy as I use up my life


HAND       
First Line: After he falls, and his elbow is turned backwards
Last Line: Expected to know it


HE COMES FOR THE JEWISH FAMILY, 1942    Poem Text    
First Line: When the german came, they knew he would take them
Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Terror; Shoah


HEAVEN TO BE       
First Line: When I would picture my death, I would be lying on my back
Last Line: As lovers do in a formal walk, %and take that step


HER FIRST WEEK    Poem Text    
First Line: She was so small I would scan the crib a half-second
Subject(s): Babies; Infants


HER FIRST WEEK       
First Line: She was so small I would scan the crib a half-second
Last Line: Felt she was serious, I believed she was willing to stay
Subject(s): Babies


HER LAST AUGUST       
First Line: Underwater, I lay back
Last Line: Can help me there. I pick up her book at occluded sunrise


HER LIST       
First Line: At breakfast, my mother has a list of things
Last Line: Womb swimming, free, through her body, %toward their place of mooring
Subject(s): Mothers


HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR    Poem Text    
First Line: For seventeen years, her breath in the house
Subject(s): High School Students; Mothers & Daughters


HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR       
First Line: For seventeen years, her breath in the house
Last Line: From hand to hand, to be weighed and then reweighed


HIS COSTUME       
First Line: Somehow I never stopped to notice
Last Line: Over into himself, and back, %over, and back


HIS FATHER'S CADAVER       
First Line: The old man had always wanted
Last Line: The mortal boy they had made


HIS SMELL    Poem Text    
First Line: In the last days of my father's life
Subject(s): Death; Fathers; Smells; Dead, The; Odors; Aromas; Fragrances


HIS SMELL       
First Line: In the last days of my father's life
Last Line: Smelling him, breathing him in %as you would breathe the air deeply before going into exile
Subject(s): Death; Fathers; Smells


HIS STILLNESS    Poem Text    
First Line: The doctor said to my father, you asked me
Subject(s): Fathers; Incurable Diseases; Courage; Valor; Bravery


HIS TERROR       
First Line: He loves the portable altar the minister
Last Line: He has kept inside him all his life %and there are weeks left


HISTORY OF MEDICINE       
First Line: Finally I fondly remember even benylin
Last Line: Bottles behind her, she is struggling to be good, to be healed


HOMAGE       
First Line: I know. You don't want to hear about it
Last Line: And think about her for a moment, %think of nothing but her


HOUR       
First Line: After we made love, a bird sang
Last Line: Even, because love would have it so, precious


HOUSEWIVES WATCHING MORNING TV       
First Line: Of course, your male fire-setter sets


I AM THE SHRINK'S WIFE       


I AS YOU       
First Line: One minute, you're talking to him
Last Line: Made of wind, water, starlight poured %mouth to mouth


I CANNOT FORGET THE WOMAN IN THE MIRROR       
First Line: Backwards and upside down in the twilight, that
Last Line: True life on this earth


I COULD NOT TELL    Poem Text    
First Line: I could not tell I had jumped off that bus,
Subject(s): Mothers; Suicide; Buses


I COULD NOT TELL       


I GO BACK TO MAY 1937    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: I see them standing at the formal gates of their colleges
Subject(s): Parents; Marriage; Failure; Parenthood; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


I GO BACK TO MAY 1937       
First Line: I see them standing at the formal gates of their colleges
Last Line: Do what you are going to do, and I will tell [you] about it


I LOVE IT WHEN       
First Line: I love it when you roll over
Last Line: Unfolded in silence


I SEE MY GIRL       
First Line: When I see you off to camp, I see you


I WANTED TO BE THERE WHEN MY FATHER DIED       
Last Line: Where the daughter of death was made, it was well to say %into other hands than ours %we commend thi


IDEOGRAPHS    Poem Text    
First Line: The small scaffolds, boards in the form of
Subject(s): China; Photography & Photographers; Labor & Laborers; Work; Workers


IDEOGRAPHS       
First Line: The small scaffolds, boards in the form of
Last Line: He looks at us in the silence. He says %save me, there is still time


IMMERSION COIL       
First Line: Its curled forelock goes into the water
Last Line: Until he dies, rolling his eden-ploughed- %under eyes


IMMIGRANTS       
First Line: Sometimes I don't want to think about the human, the


IN THE CELL    Poem Text    
First Line: Sitting in the car at the end of summer, my
Subject(s): Body, Human; Men


IN THE HOSPITAL, NEAR THE END    Poem Text    
First Line: Suddenly my father lifted up his nightie, I
Variant Title(s): The Lifting
Subject(s): Death; Fathers & Daughters; Dead, The


IN THE HOSPITAL, NEAR THE END       
First Line: Suddenly my father lifted up his nightie, I
Last Line: The veils would fall from our eyes, we would know everything
Variant Title(s): The Liftin
Subject(s): Death; Fathers And Daughters


IN WHAT DIRECTION OR WHEN    Poem Text    
First Line: By the time I find he was gone, it is
Subject(s): Fathers


IN WHAT DIRECTION OR WHEN       
First Line: By the time I find he has gone, it is
Last Line: Chemical honor back down into the water table


INDICTMENT OF SENIOR OFFICERS       
First Line: In the hallway above the pit of the stairwell
Last Line: Someone sent to the front lines %without training %or a weapon


INDISPENSIBILITY OF THE EYES       
First Line: Holding hands with the blind girls


INFINITE BLISS    Poem Text    
First Line: When I first saw snow cover the air
Last Line: Reflected snow, where we lay
Subject(s): Snow; Love - Erotic


INFINITE BLISS       
First Line: When I first saw snow cover the air


ISSUES       
First Line: Just don't tell me about the issues
Last Line: Don't speak to me about %politics. I've got eyes, man
Subject(s): Politics


JAPANESE-AMERICAN FARMHOUSE, CALIFORNIA, 1942       
First Line: Everything has been taken that anyone
Last Line: In wartime, of ignorant people


JUNIOR LIFESAVING       
First Line: He was a high school math teacher, during the winter
Last Line: Geometry and algebra, 4th period, he was mr. Bliss
Subject(s): Adolescence; Lifeguards


KILLERS       
First Line: I understand them, you see. I took the


KILLING MY SISTER'S FISH       
First Line: I picked up the bottle with its gladiator shoulders
Last Line: Had been accomplished


KNOW-NOTHING    Poem Text    
First Line: Sometimes I think I know nothing about sex
Subject(s): Knowledge; Sex


KNOW-NOTHING       
First Line: Sometimes I think I know nothing about sex
Last Line: In the balance with birth, and ignorance with love
Subject(s): Knowledge; Sex


KNOWING       
First Line: Afterwards, when we have slept, paradise
Last Line: Beyond the body itself, we are making love
Subject(s): Love - Marital


KNOWN TO BE LEFT       
First Line: If I pass a mirror, I turn away
Last Line: Old heart. What is living, anyway, %but dying


LADY BUG       
First Line: The day our daughter gets into college
Last Line: I swore to her I'd raise her until in her strength she could leave me


LAMENT       
First Line: Finally someone knocks it over and breaks it
Last Line: Cool, till night in the cavern of her body %fresh, and pliant


LANGUAGE OF THE BRAG       
First Line: I have wanted excellence in the knife-throw
Last Line: And I am putting my proud american boast %right here with the others
Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships; Poetry And Poets; Whitman, Walt (1819-1891); Women; Women's Rights


LAST BIRTHDAY AT HOME       
First Line: The last night before you were born, you were
Last Line: Walked across them and stood at the moment of your appearing
Variant Title(s): January, Daughte
Subject(s): Birth; Daughters


LAST DAY       
First Line: The last day of my father's life
Last Line: It moved so easily, and his ear, %gently crushed in the lasthour, %unfolded in the air


LAST HOUR       
First Line: In the middle of the night, I made myself a bed
Last Line: Muffled, the marguerite, the mother of %pearl moon


LAST NIGHT    Poem Text    
First Line: The next day, I am almost afraid.
Subject(s): Love - Erotic


LAST NIGHT       
First Line: The next day, I am almost afraid.
Last Line: The mornng after love
Subject(s): Erotic Love


LAST WORDS       
First Line: Three days ago, my suitcases
Last Line: Leave till he had done so, I will not let thee go except thou %beg for it


LATE       
First Line: The mist is blowing across the yard


LATE POEM TO MY FATHER    Poem Text    
First Line: Suddenly I thought of you
Subject(s): Fathers; Grandparents; Love; Alcoholics & Alcoholism; Grandmothers; Grandfathers; Great Grandfathers; Great Grandmothers


LEARNER       
First Line: When my mother tells me she has found her late husband's
Last Line: I have come near a clearing, where a spirit of mourning %is bathing herself, and signing
Subject(s): Mothers


LEAVING THE ISLAND       
First Line: On the ferry, on the last morning of summer
Last Line: Tightly around father and son, shielding them


LENINGRAD CEMETERY, WINTER OF 1941    Poem Text    
First Line: That winter, the dead could not be buried
Subject(s): Corpses; Leningrad, Siege Of (1941); Cadavers


LENINGRAD CEMETERY, WINTER OF 1941       
First Line: That winter, the dead could not be buried
Last Line: Even to the icy winter, and the siege
Subject(s): Corpses; Leningrad, Siege Of (1941)


LIFE WITH SICK KIDS    Poem Text    
First Line: One child coughs once
Subject(s): Children; Sickness; Childhood; Illness


LIFE WITH SICK KIDS       
First Line: One child coughs once
Last Line: Thinking I hear the unconceived one %cough a little introductory cough
Subject(s): Children; Sickness


LIFELONG       
First Line: When I think of your tail-bone, the tart sweetness
Last Line: Door that opens in that floor, and stands open, and we dive


LISP       
First Line: Sometimes they liked me. When I was a kid
Last Line: Get me to say it again, they would ask me to speak


LOOK       
First Line: When my father started choking again
Last Line: Without reluctance and looked at me %directley, for just a moment, with a dark %face and dark shinin


LOVE BETWEEN US       
First Line: That love between us I called a stillborn


LOVE FOSSIL       
First Line: My da on his elegant vegetarian ankles


LOVE IN BLOODLINE    Poem Text    
First Line: When I saw my blood on your leg, the drop so
Subject(s): Love - Erotic; Blood


LOVE OBJECT       
First Line: Love invents the body that is not an object


LOVE'S EYESIGHT       
First Line: When we drive away after visitor's day
Last Line: I felt I knew him, I could not have described him and I loved him


MAIDEN NAME       
First Line: It's akin to icelandic kobbi, seal
Last Line: Or mend, coarsely, as I patch or botch %these cobbl'd rhymes


MAKARIS       
First Line: Sometimes it seems as if they are trying to get
Last Line: To each other, it is the one they murder


MAKING LOVE    Poem Text    
First Line: You wake up, and you do not know
Subject(s): Love - Erotic


MAKING LOVE       
First Line: You wake up, and you do not know
Last Line: You will not remember, you will never know
Subject(s): Erotic Love


MATTHEWS AH UM       
First Line: Dear bill, on the pavement to your service, in the ginkgo
Last Line: Rich with song, gleaming with new love's knowing


MAY-68       
First Line: When the dean said we could not cross campus
Last Line: They slept in a circle around my body and my daughter


MAY-68       
First Line: The dean of the university said
Last Line: Dark circle around my body and my daughter


MILK-BUBBLE RUINS       
First Line: In the long, indolent mornings of fifth-grade
Last Line: Conjures and breaks each small room of milk


MOLE       
First Line: My girl found it on the way to the garden
Last Line: That I know she will die, my dark sleek %secretive daughter


MOM AS COMET    Poem Text    
First Line: How do they know that it won't decide
Last Line: Reckless energy, to astound and delight me
Subject(s): Mothers


MOM AS COMET       
First Line: How do they know that it won't decide
Last Line: Reckless energy, to astound and delight me


MOMENT OF MY FATHER'S DEATH       
First Line: When he had breathed his last breath it was he
Last Line: Waves of it, the unliving glistening %matter of this world


MONARCHS    Poem Text    
First Line: All morning, as I sit thinking of you
Last Line: The beauty and silence of the great migrations
Subject(s): Longing; Love - Erotic; Butterflies; Migration


MONARCHS       
First Line: All morning, as I sit thinking of you
Last Line: The beauty and silence of the great migrations
Subject(s): Alienation (social Psychology); Exiles; Longing


MONEY       
First Line: Filthy lucre, dough, lettuce
Last Line: Green cry, it was a ticket to ride


MONTH OF JUNE: 13 1/2       
First Line: As my daughter approaches graduation and
Subject(s): Daughters


MORNING AFTER KRISTALLNACHT       
First Line: The germans gather in front of the store, they


MORTAL ETERNAL       
First Line: Starfish rubble and sand on the floor
Last Line: Till death do us part


MORTAL ONE       
First Line: All my life I had seen that long
Last Line: The tiny naked dead one in the corner, %the mortal one


MOTHER       
First Line: Whatever she was to me, she was
Last Line: Pour forth a newborn's caroling


MOTHER       
First Line: In the dreamy silence after bath
Last Line: Ead, necessity after all being %the mother of invention


MOTHER AT THE END OF JUNE       
First Line: After they go away to summer camp
Last Line: I thought I could slake, but I could only slake and feed


MOUNT MORIAH, 4000 B.C.E.       
First Line: When they got here, the son was carrying the wood
Last Line: Seek what I have lost, I will kneel and worship it


MRS. KRIKORIAN    Poem Text    
First Line: She saved me. When I arrived in sixth grade
Subject(s): Education; Schools; Students


MRS. KRIKORIAN       
First Line: She saved me. When I arrived in sixth grade
Last Line: With the eerie comfort of what is neither good nor evil
Subject(s): Education; Schools


MY FATHER SPEAKS TO ME FROM THE DEAD       
First Line: I seem to have woken up in a pot-shed
Last Line: I mean look down at your hand, move it, %that motion is matter's love, for human %love go elswhere


MY FATHER'S DIARY (1)    Poem Text    
First Line: I get into bed with it, and spring
Subject(s): Diaries; Fathers & Daughters


MY FATHER'S DIARY (2)    Poem Text    
First Line: When I sit on the bed, and spring the brass
Subject(s): Fathers & Daughters; Diaries


MY FATHER'S DIARY (2)       
First Line: When I sit on the bed, and spring the brass
Last Line: Someone to know him


MY FIRST HOUR       
First Line: That hour, I was most myself. I had shrugged
Last Line: And took me to my mother


MY FIRST WEEKS       
First Line: Sometimes, when I wonder what I'm like, underneath
Last Line: And flame, I have known heaven


MY MOTHER'S COLLEGE       
First Line: I am going to be there where her body was when it was


MY MOTHER'S PANSIES    Poem Text    
First Line: And all that time, in back of the house,
Subject(s): Pansies; Mothers


MY MOTHER'S PANSIES       
First Line: And all that time, in back of the house
Last Line: Each sex like a spirit - shy, flushed, praying


MY SON THE MAN    Poem Text    
First Line: Suddenly his shoulders get a lot wider
Subject(s): Sons


MY SON THE MAN       
First Line: Suddenly his shoulders get a lot wider
Last Line: To learn the way out, then smiled and let himself be manacled


NATIVE       
First Line: This touching of him, on the borders of sleep
Last Line: Wander on him, hold to him and move %on and hold to him, I feel I am home again


NATURAL HISTORY       
First Line: When I think about eels, I think about seattle


NECKING       
First Line: I remember the arabic numerals [or, greenish lights] on the dashboards
Last Line: Endless then, the apprenticeship to the mortal


NECKLACE       
First Line: At the worst of the depression, one moment in the office
Last Line: Wobble along me, earth on her axis, %chariot-wheel of the morning


NEW MOTHER       
First Line: A week after our child was born
Last Line: Until it is whole, until it can run again


NEW STRANGER       
First Line: They would peer in the carriage and ask was your father
Last Line: Your mother smile


NIGHT POEM TO MY MOTHER       
First Line: When I was eight, nine, ten, I


NIGHT TERRORS       
First Line: She has so strongly this sense of someone coming after her


NURSE WHITMAN    Poem Text    
First Line: You move between the soldiers' cots
Subject(s): Poetry & Poets; Whitman, Walt (1819-1891)


NURSE WHITMAN       
First Line: You move between the soldiers' cots
Last Line: We conceive, walt, with the men we love, thus, now, %we bring to fruit
Subject(s): Poetry And Poets; Whitman, Walt (1819-1891)


ON THE SUBWAY    Poem Text    
First Line: The boy and I faced each other
Subject(s): Subways; Race Awareness


ONCE       
First Line: I saw my father naked, once, I
Last Line: Bulge of the hip-joint, border of the pelvic cradle


ONE GIRL AT THE BOYS PARTY       
First Line: When I take my girl to the swimming party
Last Line: Sparkle and fall to the power of a thousand from her body
Subject(s): Adolescence


OPENING       
First Line: Finally one night there was a high wind


ORDEAL       
First Line: When our son gets braces, the next day
Last Line: Curves out into the air


OTHER LIFE       
First Line: I walk around turning off lights


OUTDOOR SHOWER       
First Line: Crusted with dried brack, dusted with
Last Line: The world as heaven, you body at the edge of it


OUTSIDE THE OPERATING ROOM OF THE SEX-CHANGE DOCTOR    Poem Text    
First Line: Outside the operating room of the sex-change doctor, a tray / of penises
Subject(s): Sex; Surgery


PAJAMAS       
First Line: My daughter's pajamas lie on the floor
Last Line: Sharp fragrance like peach brandy-- %the birth-room pungence of her released life


PARENT VISITING DAY       
First Line: In the science room, the model person
Last Line: If there had been a task to perform I would have performed it. %but you could not be helped. That wa


PARENTS' DAY    Poem Text    
First Line: I breathed shallow as I looked for her
Subject(s): Mothers & Daughters


PARENTS' DAY       
First Line: I breathed shallow as I looked for her
Last Line: And to know she was mine


PARTS OF THE BODY       
First Line: Seeing the wind at the airport blowing on his hair
Last Line: Which will mean all children, then, %all those living


PEDIATRICIAN RETIRES       
First Line: This is the archway where I stood, next to the
Last Line: But I think that until the end of our life we are here


PEELED GRAPES       
First Line: When I call my mother on mothers day
Last Line: But she said it: be yourself


PHOTOGRAPH OF THE GIRL       
First Line: The girl sits on the hard ground
Last Line: Golden as drops of grain


PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF THE FALL RIVER HISTORICAL SOCIETY       
First Line: The lady in ruched sateen is lying


PHYSICS       
First Line: Her first puzzle had three pieces
Last Line: Inside her life. I have not been born yet


PILGRIMAGE       
First Line: I watch you standing far down on the rocks


PLANNED CHILD       
First Line: A hated the fact that they had planned me, she had taken
Last Line: Was enough, for her, without me


POEM TO OUR SON AFTER A HIGH FEVER       
First Line: When what you hear speeds up, again,
Last Line: Fear, as if you are prepared to bear %anything


POEM TO THE READER       
First Line: Since I was thirteen, I have wondered what I am
Last Line: For this brief kiss


POEMS FOR THE BREASTS    Poem Text    
First Line: Like other identical twins, they can be
Subject(s): Breasts; Divorce


PORTRAIT OF A DAUGHTER       
First Line: You get so soft when you get sick


POSSESSIVE       
First Line: My daughter - as if I
Last Line: The watch fires of an enemy, a while before %the war starts
Subject(s): Daughters


PRAYER       
First Line: Let me be faithful to the central meanings


PRAYER DURING A TIME MY SON IS HAVING SEIZURES    Poem Text    
First Line: Finally I just lean on the door-frame, a
Subject(s): Sons; Sickness; Prayer; Illness


PRAYER DURING THAT TIME       
First Line: I would sometimes find myself leaning on a doorframe
Last Line: He might be in hell. But alive! But alive in hell


PREPOSITIONS       
First Line: When I started junior high, I thought
Last Line: Fourteen, the breaking of childhood, beginning of memory


PRIMITIVE       
First Line: I have heard about the civilized


PROMISE       
First Line: With the second drink, at the restaurant
Last Line: Binding your soul are your own wrists, I will cut them
Subject(s): Alcoholics And Alcoholism; Death


PROTESTOR       
First Line: We were driving north, through the snow, you said
Last Line: Swallowed and carried in the ark of the body itself
Subject(s): Kent State University - Riot, 1970


PULL       
First Line: As the flu goes on, I get thinner and thinner
Last Line: Felt the suction of his tongue, his palate, his %head, his body, his death pulling at my hand


QUAKE THEORY    Poem Text    
First Line: When two planes of earth scrape along each other
Subject(s): Disasters; Earthquakes


QUAKE THEORY       
First Line: When two planes of earth scrape along each other
Last Line: The earth cracks %and innocent people slip gently in like swimmers
Subject(s): Disasters; Earthquakes


QUEST       
First Line: The day my girl is lost for an hour
Last Line: Pressed to my breast, I cannot get it to her fast enough


RACE       
First Line: When I got to the airport I rushed up to the desk
Last Line: All night %I watched him breathe
Subject(s): Fathers And Daughters; Men


RACE RIOT, TULSA, 1921       
First Line: The blazing white shirts of the white men


READING YOU       
First Line: It is as if


REMEDY       
First Line: He did not have a fever, but he looked
Last Line: Then both our souls forward with birth-room crying


REPUBLICAN LIVING ROOMS       
First Line: I have known the republican living rooms


REQUEST       
First Line: He lay like someone fallen from a high
Last Line: Eyes and he passed out and never %came up again, now he could move %steadily down


RISING DAUGHTER       
First Line: As I sucked life from my mother's body


RITE OF PASSAGE       
First Line: As the guests arrive at my son's party


RITES OF PASSAGE    Poem Text    
First Line: As the guests arrive at my son's party
Subject(s): Boys; Birthdays


SATAN SAYS       
First Line: I am locked in a little cedar box
Last Line: Hands at the dancer's %rudy eye-- %the fire, the suddenly discovered knowledge of love


SATURN    Poem Text    
First Line: He lay on the couch night after night
Subject(s): Men


SATURN       
First Line: He lay on the couch night after night
Last Line: What a man's life was
Subject(s): Men


SCHOOLHOUSE BELL       
First Line: She stood on the cropped hill, wind %flattening skirt against pelvis, tassels
Last Line: Up her ass, our sister rings %the twentieth century %in


SEEKER       
First Line: Suddenly, at night, in a strange town
Last Line: And he would not take it. But he might. But he would not


SEVENTH BIRTHDAY OF THE FIRST CHILD    Poem Text    
First Line: The children were around my feet like dogs
Subject(s): Children; Childhood


SEVENTH BIRTHDAY OF THE FIRST CHILD       
First Line: The children were around my feet like dogs
Last Line: Newborn eyes. You sit in the boughs, %blossoms breaking like porcelain cups around you
Subject(s): Children


SEX AT COLLEGE (CELIBACY)       
First Line: I've forgotten, really, what it was like, being


SEX WITHOUT LOVE    Poem Text     Recitation
First Line: How do they do it, the ones who make love
Subject(s): Love - Erotic; Lust; Sex; Sports


SEX WITHOUT LOVE       
First Line: How do they do it, the ones who make love
Last Line: Single body alone in the universe %against it own best time
Subject(s): Erotic Love; Lust; Sex; Sports


SHORE       
First Line: The water was clear, grey-green, when I dove
Last Line: Or speaking, and then eased out, into its sleep


SIBLINGS       
First Line: When our daughter's cough brings on choking attacks
Last Line: Presses down, he will accompany her down into life


SIGN OF SATURN       
First Line: Sometimes my daughter looks at me with an


SILENCE, WITH TWO TEXTS       
First Line: When we lived together, the silence in the home
Last Line: And by night silence lay down with blindness, %and sang, and saw


SISTERS OF SEXUAL TREASURE       
First Line: As soon as my sister and I got out of our
Last Line: Proved our theory of the lost culture: %that if mother said it wasn't there, %it was there


SLEEP SUITE       
First Line: To end up in a little hotel suite
Last Line: In the room with our son and daughter


SLOWLY HE STARTS    Poem Text    
First Line: And slowly he starts to seem more far / away, he seems to waft, drift
Subject(s): Loss


SOCKS       
First Line: I'll play ninja death with you
Last Line: Soul to clothe it, the mother given to the child


SOLITARY       
First Line: I keep thinking of you standing in korea, in the courtyard
Last Line: Pass it on: a poet, a woman, %a witness, standing %alone %ina prison %courtyard %in korea


SOLO       
First Line: Our son shrugs into his macho jacket
Last Line: His throat opens, and he breathes a low o


SOMETIMES       
First Line: And then, sometimes, you have come many times
Last Line: Behind the pine boughs - keep you from despair


SOUND       
First Line: The morning our daughter has come home, I hear
Last Line: Audible, as if matter itself were merciful


SOURCE       
First Line: It became the deep spring of my life
Last Line: Pure calm, as if each one of us is whole


SPACE HEATER       
First Line: On the ten-below-zero day, it was on
Last Line: The heat of vision, the power of the heat, %the pleasure of the power


SPONGE       
First Line: Each spring, in the crucifixion movie, it was
Last Line: Prepare its scroll and indict it with what felt to me like %stern improvisation


SPOUSES WAKING UP IN THE HOTEL MIRROR       
First Line: The man looked like himself, only more so
Last Line: Or semen, the first skein from a boy's heart
Variant Title(s): The Couple Waking Up In The Hotel Mirro


SSSHH    Poem Text    
First Line: There was someone asleep in the next room
Subject(s): Sleep


SSSHH       
First Line: There was someone asleep in the next room
Last Line: The lovers, and now the paper whisper, %ssshh, ssshh
Subject(s): Sleep


STAG'S LEAP    Poem Text    
First Line: Then the drawing on the label of our favorite red wine
Subject(s): Marriage; Absence; Weddings; Husbands; Wives; Separation; Isolation


STAG'S LEAP       
First Line: Then the creature on the label of our favorite red
Last Line: Blowpipes as dark, green, wavering groans


STATION       
First Line: Coming in off the dock after writing
Last Line: In the truth of our situation, the poems %heavy as poached game hanging from my hands


STILL LIFE    Poem Text    
First Line: At moments almost thinking of her, I was
Subject(s): Mothers; Sickness; Illness


STILL LIFE IN LANDSCAPE    Poem Text    
First Line: It was night, it had rained, there were pieces of cars
Subject(s): Death; Dead, The


STILL LIFE IN LANDSCAPE       
First Line: It was night, it had rained, there were pieces of cars
Last Line: Glass, bone, metal, flesh, and the family
Subject(s): Death


STRUGGLE       
First Line: When the minister would come into the hospital room
Last Line: Awake, the raw boy of his heart stood %up each time a grown man %entered his death-room


SUMMER SOLSTICE, NEW YORK CITY    Poem Text    
First Line: By the end of the longest day of the year he could not stand it
Subject(s): Summer Solstice; Crime & Criminals


SUMMER SOLSTICE, NEW YORK CITY       
First Line: By the end of the longest day of the year he could not stand it
Last Line: Back at the beginning of the world


SUMMER-CAMP BUS PULLS AWAY FROM THE CURB       
First Line: Whatever he needs, he has or doesn't
Last Line: Unpacked and lined up on a bunk in the underpine light


SUNDAY NIGHT    Poem Text    
First Line: When the family would go to a restaurant,
Subject(s): Waiters & Waitresses; Fathers; Bad Behavior; Shame; Sex


SUNDAY NIGHT IN THE CITY       
First Line: Hand in hand, we lie on the bed


SWIMMER       
First Line: The way the seed that made me raced


SWIMMING RACE       
First Line: Noon, orinda park pool, three girls
Last Line: Face flushed with pleasure and the shade of the yardarm


TAKE THE I OUT    Poem Text    
First Line: But I love the I, steel I-beam
Subject(s): Poetry & Poets


TAKE THE I OUT       
First Line: But I love the I, steel I-beam
Last Line: Which throws its cones as far as it can in a fire


TALK       
First Line: In the dark square wooden room at noon
Last Line: A deep pond - and she cannot swim, %the child cannot swim
Subject(s): Mothers And Daughters; Swimming


TALKERS       
First Line: All week, we talked. We talked
Last Line: They are not going to touch each other


THAT MOMENT       
First Line: It is almost too long ago to remember
Last Line: And then like a god I turned and brought them in


THAT YEAR       
First Line: The year of the mask of blood, my father
Last Line: For the six million, but was a word for me %and for many others. I was: %a survivor


THE ABANDONED NEWBORN    Poem Text    
First Line: When they found you, you were not breathing
Subject(s): Babies; Abandonment; Infants; Desertion


THE BABYSITTER    Poem Text    
First Line: The baby was about six months old
Subject(s): Adolescence; Babies; Teen Agers; Infants


THE CAST    Poem Text    
First Line: When the doctor cut off my son's cast the
Subject(s): Sons; Plaster Casts


THE CLASP    Poem Text    
First Line: She was four, he was one, it was raining, we had colds
Subject(s): Love; Mothers & Daughters


THE CONNOISSEUSE OF SLUGS    Poem Text    
First Line: When I was a connoisseuse of slugs
Subject(s): Flowers; Gardens & Gardening


THE COULDN'T    Poem Text    
First Line: And then, one day, though my mother had sent me
Subject(s): Women


THE DAY THEY TIED ME UP    Poem Text    
First Line: None of the pain was sharp. The sash was


THE DEATH OF MARILYN MONROE    Poem Text    
First Line: The ambulance men touched her cold
Subject(s): Monroe, Marilyn (1926-1962); Popular Culture - United States


THE ELDER SISTER    Poem Text    
First Line: When I look at my elder sister now
Subject(s): Sisters


THE ENCHANTMENT    Poem Text    
First Line: When I say, to my mother, what was a good
Subject(s): Mothers


THE FEAR OF ONE'S SELF    Poem Text    
First Line: As we get near the house. Taking off our gloves
Subject(s): Self


THE FERRYER    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: Three years after my father's death
Subject(s): Fathers


THE FLURRY    Poem Text    
First Line: When we talk about when to tell the kids
Subject(s): Divorce


THE FOOD-THIEF    Poem Text    
First Line: They drive him along the road in the steady


THE GLASS    Poem Text    
First Line: I think of it with wonder now
Subject(s): Cancer (disease); Fathers; Glasses (tumblers); Love


THE GUILD    Poem Text    
First Line: Every night, as my grandfather sat
Subject(s): Men


THE ISSUES    Poem Text    
First Line: Just don't tell me about the issues
Subject(s): Politics & Government


THE KNOWING    Poem Text     Recitation
First Line: Afterwards, when we have slept, paradise
Subject(s): Love - Marital; Wedded Love; Marriage - Love


THE LANGUAGE OF THE BRAG    Poem Text    
First Line: I have wanted excellence in the knife-throw
Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships; Poetry & Poets; Whitman, Walt (1819-1891); Women; Women's Rights; Male-female Relations; Feminism


THE LAST BIRTHDAY AT HOME    Poem Text    
First Line: The last night before you were born, you were
Variant Title(s): January, Daughter
Subject(s): Birth; Daughters; Child Birth; Midwifery


THE LATEST INJURY    Poem Text    
First Line: When my son comes home from the weekend trip where he
Subject(s): Accidents; Injuries; Sons


THE LEARNER    Poem Text    
First Line: When my mother tells me she has found her late husband's
Last Line: Bathing itself, and singing
Subject(s): Mothers


THE LEGLESS FIGHTER PILOT    Poem Text    
First Line: He takes his calf in his hand, lifts the
Subject(s): Air Warfare; Aviation & Aviators; Amputees; World War Ii; Airplanes; Air Pilots; Second World War


THE MEAL    Poem Text    
First Line: Mama, I never stop seeing you there
Subject(s): Food & Eating; Mothers; Family Life; Relatives


THE MONTH OF JUNE: 13 1/2    Poem Text    
First Line: As my daughter approaches graduation and
Subject(s): Daughters


THE MORTAL ONE    Poem Text    
First Line: Three months after he lies dead, that
Subject(s): Fathers; Death; Dead, The


THE ONE GIRL AT THE BOYS PARTY    Poem Text    
First Line: When I take my girl to the swimming party
Subject(s): Adolescence; Teen Agers


THE PLANNED CHILD    Poem Text    
First Line: I always hated the way they planned me, she
Subject(s): Birth Control; Disappointment; Contraception


THE POPE'S PENIS    Poem Text    
First Line: It hangs deep in his robes, a delicate
Subject(s): Popes; Papacy


THE POSSESSIVE    Poem Text    
First Line: My daughter - as if I
Subject(s): Daughters


THE PROMISE    Poem Text    
First Line: With the second drink, at the restaurant
Subject(s): Alcoholism & Alcoholics; Death; Drunkards; Alcohol Abuse; Dead, The


THE PROTESTOR    Poem Text    
First Line: We were driving north, through the snow, you said
Last Line: Swallowed and carried in the ark of the body itself
Subject(s): Kent State University - Riot, 1970


THE PULL    Poem Text    
First Line: As the flu goes on, I get thinner and thinner
Subject(s): Fathers & Daughters; Absence; Separation; Isolation


THE RACE    Poem Text    
First Line: When I got to the airport I rushed up to the desk
Subject(s): Fathers & Daughters; Men


THE SHYNESS    Poem Text    
First Line: Then, when we were joined, I became
Subject(s): Shyness; Love - Erotic; Solitude


THE SUMMER-CANP BUS PULLS AWAY FROM THE CURB    Poem Text    
First Line: Whatever he needs, he has or doesn't
Subject(s): Camping; Summer; Farewell; Camps; Summer Camps; Parting


THE TALK    Poem Text    
First Line: In the dark square wooden room at noon
Subject(s): Mothers & Daughters; Swimming & Swimmers


THE UNJUSTLY PUNISHED CHILD    Poem Text    
First Line: The child screams in his room. Rage
Subject(s): Punishment


THE VICTIMS    Poem Text    
First Line: When mother divorced you, we were glad. She took it and
Subject(s): Divorce


THE WEDDING VOW    Poem Text    
First Line: I did not stand at the altar, I stood
Subject(s): Love - Marital; Marriage; Wedded Love; Marriage - Love; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


THE WINDOW    Poem Text    
First Line: Our daughter calls me, in tears - like water
Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish - Aftermath


THEN       
First Line: And then, I opened my eyes, and saw you
Last Line: For a moment, stop stalking


THESE DAYS       
First Line: Whenever I see large breasts
Last Line: Of the spheres. And I don't %want it to be %my mother. I want to start over


THINGS OF THIS WORLD       
First Line: Sometimes I think I made it up


THINGS THAT ARE WORSE THAN DEATH       
First Line: You are speaking of chile
Last Line: Gracious and eternal death %who permits departure


THIS HOUR       
First Line: We could never really say what it is like
Last Line: It is the summer night, we are in it


TIME-TRAVEL       
First Line: I have learned to go back and walk around
Last Line: She does not know she is the one %survivor


TO A POET       
First Line: Out here, at the end of the world


TO MY FATHER       
First Line: When I stood hip-deep in the pond, on a day
Last Line: Writ on water in waste, and pulled to the %dam and dashed down over it


TO MY HUSBAND       
First Line: At their wedding service, outdoors, the young bridesmaids'
Last Line: Mother sitting in the precinct, holding %my cocked pinky


TO OUR MISCARRIED ONE, AGE THIRTY NOW       
First Line: Though I never saw you, only your clouds
Last Line: To see you again, I never thought to seek you


TOPOGRAPHY    Poem Text    
First Line: After we flew across the country we
Subject(s): United States; Togetherness; America


TOPOGRAPHY       
First Line: After we flew across the country we
Last Line: Nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all


TOTH FARRY    Poem Text    
First Line: In the back of the charm-box, in a sack, the baby
Subject(s): Babies; Teeth; Infants; Toothaches


TOUSLED DARLING       
First Line: If, when you first arrived, I looked
Last Line: Just above the earth, its heaven


TRANSFORMED BOY       
First Line: At twelve, he stops wearing polo shirts
Last Line: And then, if you're lucky, you ask her


TRICKS       
First Line: My mother %the magician %can make eggs


TRUE BLUE       
First Line: Sometimes my father let us vote
Last Line: For the prevention of sin, the resurrection of the body


TRUE LOVE    Poem Text    
First Line: In the middle of the night, when we get up
Subject(s): Love - Erotic; Love


TRUE LOVE       
First Line: In the middle of the night, when we get up
Last Line: I cannot see beyond it. I cannot see beyond it
Subject(s): Erotic Love; Love


TRY-OUTS       
First Line: Rat! Torturing my brain!' is the aria
Last Line: Off-key cries of my kind


TRYING TO BELIEVE IN MY FATHER'S DEATH       
First Line: Last night I remembered his dead body


TWELVE YEARS OLD       
First Line: When our daughter and her friend walk away
Last Line: Knife into the chicken in a dream when she is really hungry


ULTRASOUND       
First Line: It looked, inside my womb, on the screen
Last Line: Worrying about, you'll live forever, %and then I fell to earth


UNBORN       
First Line: Sometimes I can almost see, around our heads


UNDERLIFE       
First Line: Waiting for the subway, bad station, no one near me, the


UNJUSTLY PUNISHED CHILD       
First Line: The child screams in his room. Rage
Last Line: He is stronger. The long impurification %has begun this morning
Subject(s): Punishment


URN       
First Line: I had thought it would be tapered, with a small
Last Line: Turned away from us, or could not %look at us, just the pressure of their weight is a blessing


VICTIMS       
First Line: When mother divorced you, we were glad. She took it and
Last Line: Given it all away and had nothing %left but this
Subject(s): Divorce


VIRGINAL ORGY    Poem Text    
First Line: In our sophomore year, solomon wheat
Subject(s): High School Students


VISION       
First Line: Suddenly, staring at a motel wall
Last Line: I saw it was the soul
Variant Title(s): In His Hand


VISION       
First Line: We were lying on the bed - and what if we
Last Line: Anyone who goes near that porch


VISITING MY MOTHER'S COLLEGE       
First Line: This is where her body was
Last Line: Tiny room was flecked with sour bright citrus


VOGUE SHOOT    Poem Text    
Subject(s): Photography & Photographers; Models; Cosmetics


VOICES    Poem Text    
First Line: Our voices race to the towers, and up beyond
Subject(s): Voices


WAITING       
First Line: No matter how early I would get up
Last Line: Waiting for his daughter


WAITING ROOM       
First Line: I would love to see him walk in this moment


WARRIOR: 5TH GRADE       
First Line: I don't remember who had set it up
Last Line: Fucked blind, pummelled half dead with it


WATCHERS: FILM       
First Line: The car moved slowly, into the frame
Last Line: And grew bigger and bigger, until the screen was dark


WATCHERS: STILL       
First Line: It is almost a relief to see him again
Last Line: We stood behind the camera in perfect safety, like demons


WEDDING VOW       
First Line: I did not stand at the altar, I stood
Last Line: I do. I take as he takes - we have been %practicing this. Do you bear this pleasure? I do
Subject(s): Love - Marital; Marriage


WELLSPRING       
First Line: It is the deep spring of my life, this love for men


WEST       
First Line: The hair I pull, out of my comb
Last Line: Someone, somewhere, were saying, to me, we are one now


WESTERN WIND       
First Line: Pacific-huge piece of the pattern
Last Line: On their way to the ice fields


WHAT I LIKED ABOUT IT       
First Line: I liked the round, hooked rug
Last Line: There was nothing I liked, I had been pushed from earth %theway she had once pressed me out of heave


WHAT IF GOD    Poem Text    
First Line: And what if god had been watching when my mother
Subject(s): God; Mothers


WHAT IF GOD       
First Line: And what if god had been watching, when my mother
Last Line: Take that woman by the nape of the neck like a young cat %and lift her up, and deliver her over to m


WHAT IS THE EARTH?       
First Line: The earth is a homeless person. Or
Last Line: Were a god, who could eat the earth, a god %of homelessness


WHAT IT MEANT       
First Line: I didn't know what it meant that he was born
Last Line: In the beauty of her lily


WHEN    Poem Text    
First Line: I wonder now only when it will happen
Last Line: It will look so beautiful.
Subject(s): Amputees; Antinuclear Movement; Nuclear War; Nuclear Freeze; Atomic Bomb; Hydrogen Bomb


WHEN IT COMES       
First Line: Even when you're not afraid you might be pregnant
Last Line: As if life moaned a little, in wonder, and we were it


WHEN THE DEAD ASK MY FATHER ABOUT ME       
First Line: No, I could not speak about her
Last Line: To labor it out, lever it into her %mouth I am audible, listen! This is my song


WHERE WILL LOVE GO?       
First Line: Where will love go? When my father
Last Line: Is powerless, and means nothing


WHILE HE TOLD ME       
First Line: While he told me, I looked from small thing
Last Line: Living, my imagined shepherd in impermanent paradise


WINDOW       
First Line: Our daughter calls me, in tears - like water
Last Line: The breathing of her own body as she sees
Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish - Aftermath


YOU KINDLY       
First Line: Because I felt too weak to move
Last Line: Did not love me, how he trained me not to be loved


YOUNG MOTHERS (1)       
First Line: That look of attention


YOUNG MOTHERS (2)       
First Line: She is all eyes and ears for damage


YOUNG MOTHERS (4)       
First Line: The look on the face if the young mother


YOUNG MOTHERS (5)       
First Line: In the room with the baby, the young mother


ZNAMENSKAYA SQUARE, LENINGRAD, 1941    Poem Text    
First Line: The older girl pulls the child's
Subject(s): Saint Oetersburg, Russia; World War Ii; Children - Death; Second World War


ZNAMENSKAYA SQUARE, LENINGRAD, 1941       
First Line: The older girl pulls the child's