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Author: OLIVER, MARY Matches Found: 442 Oliver, Mary Poet's Biography 442 poems available by this author 1945-1985: POEM FOR THE ANNIVERSARY First Line: Sometimes, %walking for hours through the woods Last Line: She nuzzled her child wildly A DREAM OF TREES Poem Text First Line: There is a thing in me that dreamed of trees, Subject(s): Trees A FIRST TIME PERCY CAME BACK Poem Text Subject(s): Homecoming A LETTER FROM HOME Poem Text First Line: She sends me news of bluejays, frost Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives A THOUSAND MORNINGS Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: All night my heart makes its way Subject(s): Morning A VISITOR Poem Text First Line: My father, for example, / who was young once Subject(s): Fathers & Daughters ACID First Line: In jakarta, %among the venders Last Line: Insult and anger, %the great movers ACID First Line: In jakarta ALEX First Line: Where is alex, keeper of horses Last Line: And maybe, with luck, he's dead ALLIGATOR POEM First Line: I knelt down %at the edge of the water Last Line: For hours in my trembling hands they glittered %like fire AM I NOT AMONG THE EARLY RISERS Last Line: The green paths of the world AMERICAN PRIMITIVE First Line: Mr. Hiram stark, a night Last Line: Pulling the light with him; chopping, burning; ordering the darkness back AN OLD WHOREHOUSE Poem Text First Line: We climbed through a broken window Subject(s): Innocence; Prostitution; Harlots; Whores; Brothels ANNE First Line: The daughter is mad, and so Last Line: Or tending so desperately all %the small civilities ANSWERS First Line: If I envy anyone it must be Last Line: All the wild sauces of the brimming year AT BLACK RIVER Poem Text First Line: All day / its dark, slick bronze strokes Subject(s): Crocodiles AT BLACK RIVER First Line: All day %its dark, slick bronze soaks Last Line: The rolling away %of the stone AT BLACKWATER POND First Line: At blackwater pond the tossed waters have settled Last Line: Oh what is that beautiful thing %that just happened AT GREAT POND First Line: At great pond %the sun, rising Last Line: On its sleeves of light AT LOXAHATCHIE First Line: All day AT ROUND POND First Line: Owl %make your little appearance now Last Line: From mere incidence into %the lush of meaning AT SEA First Line: The haze AT THE LAKE First Line: A fish leaps Last Line: That breathless space AT THE SHORE First Line: This morning %wind that light-limbed dancer was all Last Line: Meaningless fire, wildfire, shaking the heart AUGUST Poem Text First Line: Our neighbor, tall and blonde and vigorous, the mother Subject(s): Neighbors; Sickness; Illness AUGUST First Line: When the blackberries hang Last Line: The black bells, the leaves; there is %this happy tongue AUGUST First Line: Our neighbor, tall and blonde and vigorous Last Line: Wrong, and nowhere to go. His hands over his eyes AUNT ELSIE'S NIGHT MUSIC Poem Text First Line: Aunt elsie hears AUNT ELSIE'S NIGHT MUSIC First Line: Aunt elsie hears %singing in the night Last Line: To bite on, like a bullet AUNT ELSIE'S NIGHT MUSIC Subject(s): Family Life AUNT LEAF First Line: Needing one, I invented her Last Line: This old woman made out of leaves BAILING THE BOAT First Line: In ohio we did not have boats, we had horses Last Line: And with arched neck she steps out over the water BANYAN Poem Text First Line: Something screamed / from the fringes of the swamp Subject(s): Banyan Trees BANYAN First Line: Something screamed BEAVER MOON - THE SUICIDE OF A FRIEND First Line: When somewhere life BEING COUNTRY BRED First Line: Being country bred, I am at ease in darkness Last Line: Her summoning explosions underground BESIDE THE WATERFALL Poem Text First Line: At dawn / the big dog Subject(s): Dogs BESIDE THE WATERFALL First Line: At dawn Last Line: Clear of the trees and dropped its wild, clawed light %over BEYOND THE SNOW BELT First Line: Over the local stations, one by one Last Line: All news arrives as from a distant land BITTERNESS First Line: I believe you did not have a happy life Last Line: Oh, cold and dreamless under the wild, amoral, reckless, peaceful %flowers of the hillsides BLACK OAKS First Line: Okay, not one can write a symphony, or a dictionary Last Line: I don't even want to come in out of the rain BLACK SNAKE First Line: When the black snake %flashed onto the morning road Last Line: Happily all spring through the green leaves before %he came to the road Subject(s): Animals; Snakes BLACK SNAKE THIS TIME First Line: Lay %under the oak trees Last Line: Like a rollicking finger of snow BLACK SNAKES First Line: Suddenly %there I was BLACK WALNUT TREE First Line: My mother and I debate: %we could sell Last Line: And, month after month, the whip-%crack of the mortgage Subject(s): Environment BLOSSOM First Line: In april %the ponds %open %like black blossoms Last Line: Into the body of another BLUE HERON First Line: Like a pin Last Line: Like a blue rose BOAT First Line: I think a great deal about shelley's boat, a little world Last Line: We possibly say of death, that black leaf, that has in it any %believable finality? BONE Poem Text First Line: Understand, I am always trying to figure out Subject(s): Soul BONE POEM First Line: The litter under the tree Last Line: The rat will learn to fly, the owl %will be devoured BOWING TO THE EMPRESS First Line: Through the forest BREAKAGE Poem Text First Line: I go down to the edge of the sea Subject(s): Leisure; Marine Animals; Sea; Ocean BREAKAGE First Line: I go down to the edge of the sea Last Line: Then you begin, slowly, to read the whole story Subject(s): Leisure; Marine Animals; Sea BUCK MOON -- FROM THE FIELD GUIDE TO INSECTS First Line: Eighty-eight thousand six-hundred Last Line: The perfection, the rising, the happiness %of their dark wings BUDDHA'S LAST INSTRUCTION First Line: Make of yourself a light,' Last Line: Slowly, beneath the branches, %he raised his head. %he looked into the faces of that frightened crow CATBIRD First Line: He picks his pond, and the soft thicket of his world Last Line: For he will never grow pockets in his gray wings CERTAIN SHARPNESS IN THE MORNING AIR First Line: In the morning %it shuffles, unhurried Last Line: I was shaggy, and beautiful, %like a rose CHANCE TO LOVE EVERYTHING First Line: All summer I made friends Subject(s): Animals CLAM Poem Text First Line: Each one is a small life, but sometimes long, if its Subject(s): Clams CLAM MAN First Line: He shuffles, and his face is white and lazy Last Line: To scare the little breathers in their shells CLAMMING First Line: I rise COLD POEM Poem Text First Line: Cold now. / close to the edge. Almost Subject(s): Cold COMING HOME Poem Text First Line: When we're driving, in the dark Subject(s): Automobile Drivers; Homecoming COMING HOME First Line: When we're driving, in the dark CONSEQUENCES First Line: Afterward %I found under my left shoulder CREEKS First Line: The dwindled creeks of summer Last Line: They wash above the bones CROSSING THE SWAMP First Line: Here is the endless %wet thick cosmos, the center Last Line: Make of its life a breathing %palace of leaves CROWS First Line: From a single grain they have multiplied Last Line: The deep muscle of the world CROWS First Line: It is january, and there are the crows CROWS First Line: In japan, in seattle, in indonesia-there they were Last Line: They lounge, they squabble in the vast, rose-colored light DAISIES First Line: It is possible, I suppose, that sometime Last Line: The suitability of the field for the daisies, and the %daisies for the field DANCERS AT BANSTEAD First Line: I went inside the place to find Last Line: Except to let the dancers dance; %except to know the moon is wrong DEATH AT A GREAT DISTANCE Poem Text First Line: The ripe, floating caps Subject(s): Death; Dead, The DEATH AT A GREAT DISTANCE First Line: The ripe, floating caps Last Line: Like a stream of glowing syrup into %the dark water, as death %blurted out of that perfectly arrange DECEMBER First Line: Then the deer stepped from the woods Last Line: And then it is gone DEER First Line: You never know Last Line: When we die the body breaks open %like a river; %the old body goes on, climbing the hill DEER IN THE MEADOW First Line: Wind and rain Last Line: Come down %over their eyes DIPPER First Line: Once I saw %in a quick-falling, white-veined stream Last Line: Like a dark bird dipping in and out, tasting and singing Subject(s): Birds; Nature; Pleasure DOG HAS RUN OFF AGAIN First Line: And I should start shouting his name Last Line: To come back to walk by my side, obedient DOGFISH First Line: Some kind of relaxed and beautiful thing Last Line: Looking for an easier world, %they can do it DOGS First Line: Over %the wide field Last Line: Here is the black the red the bottomless pool DREAM OF TREES First Line: There is a thing in me that dreamed of trees Last Line: Who ever made music of a mild day DREAMS Poem Text First Line: All night / the dark buds of dreams DREAMS First Line: When the rain is over Last Line: Two graves under the leaves DREAMS First Line: All night %the dark buds of dreams Last Line: And the fire surges through the wood, %and the blossoms blossom Subject(s): Dreams; Night DRIVING THROUGH THE WIND RIVER RESERVATION: A POEM First Line: In the time of snow, in the time of sleep EARLY MORNING, NEW HAMPSHIRE First Line: Near wolfeboro Last Line: Then the sweet, dark falling EARLY SNOW First Line: Amazed I looked %out of the window and saw Last Line: The silence; the blank, white, glittering subline EGRET First Line: Every time %but one Last Line: What is this dark death %that opens %like a white door EGRETS First Line: Where the path closed %down and over Last Line: Over every dark thing ENCOUNTER First Line: I lift the small brown mouse Last Line: Over, the wind has spoken ENTERING THE KINGDOM First Line: The crows see me. %they stretch their glossy necks Last Line: No dreamer, %no eater of leaves ESQUIMOS HAVE NO WORD FOR WAR First Line: Trying to explain it to them Last Line: They chew their bones, and smile at one another EVENING STAR: 1 First Line: Once %in the woods %snake came %like a whip Last Line: For, dear god, %we also are down here %in such darkness EVENING STAR: 10 First Line: The first streak of light in the darkness Last Line: And more than itself EVENING STAR: 11 First Line: The pickerel %swims up from the pond from its roses of slow decay, and Last Line: What is it I don't know that I need to know? EVENING STAR: 12 First Line: Think of me %when you see the evening star Last Line: Through the thickening flowers of the snow EVENING STAR: 2 First Line: It is easy to fall down on your knees Last Line: As torn as muddy as golden as that EVENING STAR: 3 Last Line: The snake never shuts its eyes EVENING STAR: 4 First Line: I have lit candles Last Line: (though I am not ready, I am simmering) EVENING STAR: 5 First Line: And certainly and easily I can see Last Line: It's after that %it gets difficult EVENING STAR: 6 First Line: The snake never shuts its eyes Last Line: The mouse sits tight EVENING STAR: 7 First Line: The good shepherd of the fields, whoever he is Last Line: Oh, see how I run! EVENING STAR: 8 First Line: The snake never shuts its eyes Last Line: The mouse sits tight %in the beautiful field EVENING STAR: 9 First Line: I went down all alone, to the black pond Last Line: If I could adore him %adore him EVERY MORNING Poem Text First Line: I read the papers Subject(s): Newspapers; Journalism; Journalists EVERY POEM A BIRD First Line: With early-dawn scissor-song Last Line: They are not feathered as birds EVERYTHING First Line: No doubt in holland Last Line: Nothing in the world mattered, or ever would %but the insensible light FALL Poem Text First Line: The black oaks Subject(s): Oak Trees; Autumn; Fall FALL First Line: The black oaks Last Line: Dashing its silver seeds %against the house FAMILY First Line: The dark things of the wood Last Line: We have run away from FARM COUNTRY First Line: I have sharpened my knives, I have Last Line: I have entered %the hen house FIELD NEAR LINDEN, ALABAMA First Line: For hours %they float in the distance Last Line: The grass rises thick and clean, it %shines like the sea FINCHES First Line: Ice in the woods, snow in the fields, a few finches singing Last Line: Take off my jacket, and sit down at the table, and go over %my verses again FIRE First Line: That winter it seemed the city FIRST SNOW First Line: The snow %began here Last Line: And through the fields, %feels like one FISH First Line: The first fish %I ever caught Last Line: We feed this feverish plot, we are nourished %by the mystery FISH First Line: She climbs from the sea; moonlight FISH BONES First Line: Maybe michelangelo Last Line: How it wanted to rise %on its invisible muscle, %how it wanted to shine %like fire FIVE A.M. IN THE PINEWOODS Poem Text First Line: I'd seen / their hoofprints in the deep Subject(s): Environment; Nature; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation FIVE A.M. IN THE PINEWOODS First Line: I'd seen %their hoofprints in the deep Last Line: So this is how you pray Subject(s): Environment; Nature FLARE Poem Text First Line: Welcome to the silly, comforting poem Subject(s): Life; Poetry & Poets FLETCHER OAK First Line: There is a tree here so beautiful it even has a name Last Line: To rise like a slow and beautiful poem. To live a long time FORTY YEARS Poem Text First Line: For forty years / the sheets of white paper have Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary FORTY YEARS First Line: For forty years %the sheets of white paper have Last Line: Golden page to another FOX First Line: You don't ever know where Last Line: Thatg you again and again should shiver with praise FOXES IN WINTER First Line: Every night in the moonlight the foxes come down the hill Last Line: Softly down. %then it shines like a field %of white flowers.Then it tightens GANNETS First Line: I am watching the white gannets Last Line: Then rise from the water inseparable %from the gannets' wings GESTURE First Line: On the dog's ear, a scrap of filmy stuff Last Line: Onto the bark, it hung on; it rested; it began to climb GHOSTS First Line: Have you noticed %where so many millions of powerful bawling beasts Last Line: In my dream I knelt down and asked them %to make room for me GIFT First Line: I wanted to thank the mockingbird for the vigor of his song Last Line: And mostly I'm grateful that I take this world so seriously GOING TO WALDEN First Line: It isn't very far as highways lie Last Line: Trick of living, and finding it where you are GOLDENROD First Line: On roadsides, %in fall fields, %in rumpy bunches Last Line: In the pure peace of giving %one's gold away GOLDFINCHES Poem Text First Line: Some goldfinches were having a melodious argument at the edge of a puddle Subject(s): Goldfinches GOLDFINCHES First Line: In the fields %we let them have Last Line: Have you ever been so happy in your life GRASS First Line: Those who disappointed, betrayed, scarified! Last Line: Life, in which I mean to rest GRATITUDE First Line: I was walking the field Last Line: Long spine of grammar, whether or not they rhyme GRAVEL First Line: When death %carts me off to the bottomlands Last Line: I know you as if you were myself %how could I be afraid? HAPPINESS First Line: In the afternoon I watched Last Line: Swaying from flower to flower %day after shining day HATTIE BLOOM First Line: She was, grandfather said, a fly-by-night Last Line: Lost hattie bloom became that perfect thing HAVE YOU EVER TRIED TO ENTER THE LONG BLACK BRANCHES First Line: Have you ever tried to enter the long black branchs of other lives Last Line: I float %I ramble my way home HAWK Poem Text First Line: This morning / the hawk / rose up Subject(s): Birds HAWK First Line: This morning %the hawk %rose up Last Line: Turned into a white blade, which fell Subject(s): Birds HER GRAVE First Line: She would come back, dripping thick water, from the green bog Last Line: Finally %the slick mountains of love break %over us HERMIT CRAB First Line: Once I looked inside Last Line: Which is the only argument there is %against the sea HERONS IN WINTER IN THE FROZEN MARSH Poem Text First Line: All winter / two blue herons Subject(s): Herons; Winter HERONS IN WINTER IN THE FROZEN MARSH First Line: All winter %two blue herons Last Line: Above its gleaming and substantial shadows, %toss in the breeze, %like wings HONEY AT THE TABLE Poem Text First Line: It fills you with the soft Subject(s): Honey HONEY TREE First Line: And so at last I climbed Last Line: Of my body stretching %and singing in the %heaven in the %heaven of appetite HOUSE First Line: Because we lived our several lives Last Line: No child can mend or trade away HOUSE First Line: It grows larger HOW TURTLES COME TO SPEND THE WINDER IN THE AQUARIUM, ... First Line: Somewhere down beach, in the morning, at water's edge, I found Last Line: Today, who could deny it, I am an important person HUMM Poem Text First Line: What is this dark hum among the roses? Subject(s): Bees; Beekeeping HUMMINGBIRD PAUSES AT THE TRUMPET VINE First Line: Who doesn't love %roses, and who Last Line: Stones, that last almost %^forever HUMMINGBIRDS Poem Text First Line: The female, and two chicks Subject(s): Hummingbirds HUMMINGBIRDS First Line: The female, and the two chicks Last Line: The shimmering, heart-stabbing %questions without answers %before I climbed down HUMPBACKS Poem Text First Line: There is, all around us Subject(s): Environment; Sea Monsters; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation; Sea Serpents HUMPBACKS First Line: There is, all around us Last Line: Even the great whale, %throbs with song Subject(s): Environment; Sea Monsters HUNTER'S MOON -- EATING THE BEAR First Line: Good friend, %it is a long afternoon Last Line: Some invisible dead-center HURRICANE Poem Text First Line: It didn't behave Subject(s): Hurricanes I FOUND A DEAD FOX Last Line: Watchmen of the night I LOOKED UP First Line: I looked up and there it was Last Line: And, as I said, wreathed in fire ICE First Line: My father spent his last winter Last Line: And I write back: mother, please %save everything ICH BIN DER WELT ABHANDEN GEKOMMEN First Line: Today is %gustave mahler's Last Line: A song %made so obviously for me. %at what unknowable cost. %and by a stranger IN BLACKWATER WOODS Poem Text First Line: Look, the trees Subject(s): Forests; Nature; Woods IN BLACKWATER WOODS First Line: Look, the trees %are turning Last Line: And, when the time comes to let it go, %to let it go IN BLACKWATER WOODS First Line: For weeks %the center of the universe Last Line: Exaltation of the dead, or the not-yet-born, who still know IN MALAYSIA Poem Text First Line: Moonlight / washes the red tiles Subject(s): Malaysia; Nature IN MALAYSIA First Line: Moonlight %washes the red tiles Last Line: Cup each flower %in their small %daggered hands IN OUR WOODS, SOMETIMES A RARE MUSIC Poem Text First Line: Every spring / I hear the thrush singing Subject(s): Thrushes IN POBIDDY, GEORGIA First Line: Three women Last Line: Perfectly finished, perfectly heartbroken, perfectly wild INDONESIA First Line: On the curving, dusty roads Last Line: We raised them to our lips JOHN CHAPMAN First Line: He wore a tin pot for a hat, in which Last Line: In the forests that are left you can still find %sign of him: patches %of cold whit fire JOURNEY First Line: One day you finally knew %what you had to do, and began Last Line: Determined to save %the only life that you could save JUNE First Line: A single swallow glides in the air above the water Last Line: Swings, glides, turns toward the sea, is gone KILLING THE OWL First Line: The snow that night KINGFISHER First Line: The kingfisher rises out of the black wave KITTEN First Line: More amazed than anything KNIFE First Line: Something %just now KOOKABURRAS First Line: In every heart there is a coward and a procrastinator Last Line: I lie in the dark, my heart pounding LAMPS First Line: Eight o'clock, no later Last Line: An inscrutable presence, it has the final word %outside every door LANDSCAPE Poem Text First Line: Isn't it plain the sheets of moss, except that Subject(s): Nature; Crows LANDSCAPE First Line: Isn't it plain the sheets of moss, except that Last Line: Their lives to be, and imagined %their strong, thick wings LAST DAYS First Line: Things are %changing; things are starting to Last Line: Booms the muscle of the wind LEARNING ABOUT THE INDIANS First Line: He danced in feathers, with paint across his nose Last Line: Tires screeching, out of the schoolyard into the night LETTER FROM HOME First Line: She sends me news of bluejays, frost Last Line: Drift scraps of borage, woodbine, rue Subject(s): Family Life LILIES First Line: I have been thinking Last Line: Just rises and floats away LILIES BREAK OPEN OVER THE DARK WATER First Line: Inside %that mud-hive, that gas-sponge Last Line: And so, dear sorrow, are you LINES WRITTEN IN THE DAYS OF GROWING DARKNESS Poem Text First Line: Every year we have been Subject(s): Nature LINGERING IN HAPPINESS First Line: After rain after many days without rain Last Line: Will feel themselves being touched LITTLE OWL WHO LIVES IN THE ORCHARD First Line: His beak could open a bottle Last Line: It could be a valentine LITTLE SUMMER POEM TOUCHING THE SUBJECT OF FAITH First Line: Every summer %I listen and look Last Line: Is sure to be there LONELY, WHITE FIELDS Poem Text First Line: Every night / the owl / with his wild monkey-face Subject(s): Nature LONELY, WHITE FIELDS First Line: Every night %the owl %with his wild monkey-face Last Line: The snow goes on falling %flake after perfect flake Subject(s): Nature LONG AFTERNOON AT THE EDGE OF LITTLE SISTER POND Poem Text First Line: As for life, / I'm humbled Subject(s): Life; Love LONG AFTERNOON AT THE EDGE OF LITTLE SISTER POND First Line: As for life, %I'm humbled Last Line: I can't wait to be the hummingbird, %can you? Subject(s): Life; Love LOOKING AT A BOOK OF VAN GOGH'S PAINTINGS, ... First Line: Don't try %to tell me Last Line: What a light it becomes %anywhere at all %it rubs against this earth-- %this crazy old home LOOKING FOR SNAKES First Line: Because it is good Last Line: As well as the plunge back into the shadows, %and the heart's thudding song LOON ON OAK-HEAD POND Last Line: As though it were your own twilight. %as though it were your own vanishing song LOON ON OAK-HEAD POND First Line: Cries for three days, in the gray mist MAGELLAN First Line: Like magellan, let us find our islands Last Line: And thus magellan lives, although he died MAPLES First Line: The trees have become Last Line: Rimming the fields and the long roads hurrying by MARCH First Line: There isn't anything in this world but mad love Last Line: Whom I love, madly MARENGO Poem Text First Line: Out of the sump rise the marigolds. Subject(s): Death; Swamps; Dead, The; Bogs; Fens; Marshes MARSH HAWKS First Line: In the morning they glide MAY First Line: What lay on the road was no mere handful of snake Last Line: We are so alive MAYBE First Line: Sweet jesus, talking %his melancholy madness Last Line: A thousand times more frightening %than the killer sea MEETING First Line: She steps into the dark swamp Last Line: To be utterly %wild MEMBERS OF THE TRIBE First Line: Ahead of me MILKWEED First Line: The milkweed now with their many pods are standing MOCASSIN FLOWERS First Line: All my life, %so far, %I have loved %more than one thing Last Line: Into the floor of darkness, they %become the trees MOCCASIN FLOWERS First Line: All my life MOCKINGBIRDS Poem Text First Line: This morning Subject(s): Mockingbirds MOCKINGBIRDS First Line: This morning Last Line: I was listening Subject(s): Mockingbirds MORNING Poem Text First Line: Salt shining behind its glass cylinder Subject(s): Morning; Cats MORNING First Line: Salt shining behind its glass cylinder Last Line: I stand in the cold kitchen, everything wonderful around me MORNING AT GREAT POND First Line: It starts like this Last Line: To look and look, %to hurry anywhere, %to believe in everything MORNING GLORIES Poem Text First Line: Blue and dark blue Subject(s): Flowers; Morning Glories MORNING GLORIES First Line: Blue and dark blue Last Line: Weeds without value humorous %beautiful weeds Subject(s): Flowers; Morning Glories MORNING IN A NEW LAND First Line: In trees still dripping night some nameless birds Last Line: Like tissue on some vast, incredible gift MORNING POEM Poem Text First Line: Every morning / the world / is created Subject(s): Night; Bedtime MORNING POEM First Line: Every morning %the world %is created Last Line: You have ever dared to pray Subject(s): Night MORNING WALK First Line: Little by little %the ocean Last Line: And shell by broken shell MOSS First Line: Maybe the idea of the world as flat isn't a tribal memory Last Line: Upon the rock, I touch her tenderly, %sweet cousin MOTHS First Line: There's a kind of white moth, I don't know Last Line: In those dark halls of honey MURDERER'S HOUSE First Line: Now small boys come to stare across the garden Last Line: In such a distance as could strike us all MUSHROOMS First Line: Rain, and then %the cool pursed Last Line: Slide back under the shining %fields of rain MUSIC LESSONS First Line: Sometimes, in the middle of the lesson MUSSELS First Line: In the riprap, %in the cool caves Last Line: From my grasping fingers NATURE First Line: All night %in and out of the slippery shadows Last Line: Were as red songs that rose and fell %in their accustomed place NEXT TIME Poem Text Subject(s): Nature NIGHT FLIGHT First Line: Traveling at thirty thousand feet, we see Last Line: Up there alone, in the impartial dark NIGHT TRAVELER First Line: Passing by, he could be anybody Last Line: Will hold you like a mossy jaw. %a bath of light. An answer NO VOYAGE First Line: I wake earlier, now that the birds have come Last Line: Here or nowhere I will make peace with the fact NOTEBOOK First Line: Six a.M.-- Last Line: And there is still time %to let the last roses of the sunrise float down %into my uplifted eyes OAK TREE AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE BLACKWATER POND First Line: Every day %on my way to the pond Last Line: And powerful ship, over %the dangerous sea, as a tall %and beautiful stranger OCTOBER First Line: There's this shape, black as the entrance to a cave Last Line: So this is the world. %I'm not in it. %it is beautiful OLD WHOREHOUSE First Line: We climbed through a broken window Last Line: It would be years before %we'd learn how effortlessly %sin blooms, then softens, %like any bed of fl Subject(s): Innocence; Prostitution ON LOSING A HOUSE: 1 First Line: The bumble bees %know where their home is Last Line: They enter %the darkness %humming ON LOSING A HOUSE: 2 First Line: Where will we go %with our table and chairs, %our bed Last Line: Where will we put up %our rose-colored, %rice-paper %shades? ON LOSING A HOUSE: 3 First Line: We never saw %such a beautiful house Last Line: We only smiled. %unwise! Unwise! ON LOSING A HOUSE: 4 First Line: O, what is money? %o, never in our lives have we thought Last Line: Can turn the key. %o dark, o heavy, o mossy money ON LOSING A HOUSE: 5 First Line: Amazing %how the rich %don't even %hesitate-up go the Last Line: The water, away, waving and waving %their fog-colored hands ON LOSING A HOUSE: 6 First Line: Don't tell us %how to love, don't tell us Last Line: Sickness, don't tell us, %dear friends ON LOSING A HOUSE: 7 First Line: Goodbye, house. %goodbye, sweet and beautiful house Last Line: Where it plunges and rises still %on the black and dreamy sea ON WINTER'S MARGIN First Line: On a winter's margin, see the small birds now Last Line: Thin to a starting point beyond this squalor ONCE First Line: What is autobiography anyway but a story rich and Last Line: Compassion, all around ONE HUNDRED WHITE-SIDED DOLPHINS ON A SUMMER DAY Poem Text First Line: Fat / black, slick Subject(s): Dolphins; Porpoises ONE HUNDRED WHITE-SIDED DOLPHINS ON A SUMMER DAY: 1 First Line: Fat, %black, slick, %galloping in the pitch %of the waves, in the pearly Last Line: They circle around us, %they swim with us ONE HUNDRED WHITE-SIDED DOLPHINS ON A SUMMER DAY: 2 First Line: A hundred white-sided dolphins %on a summer day Last Line: With the moon of his eye %into my heart ONE HUNDRED WHITE-SIDED DOLPHINS ON A SUMMER DAY: 3 First Line: And find there %pure, sudden, steep, sharp, painful Last Line: From the boat's plain plank seat %into the world's ONE HUNDRED WHITE-SIDED DOLPHINS ON A SUMMER DAY: 4 First Line: Unspeakable kindness %it is my sixty-third summer on earth Last Line: We sailed on through the brisk cheerful day ONE OR TWO THINGS First Line: Don't bother me %I've just %been born Last Line: And vanished %into the world OPOSSUM Poem Text First Line: Beauty of fox, lemur, panther Subject(s): Nature OPOSSUM First Line: The dogs descend Last Line: The mossy banks of the past Subject(s): Nature ORION Poem Text First Line: I love orion, his fiery body, his ten stars Subject(s): Orion (constellation) ORION First Line: I love orion, his fiery body, his ten stars Subject(s): Orion (constellation) OSPREY First Line: This morning %an osprey Last Line: To both sides %of the knife OTHER First Line: At night, in the high trees, the owl OWL First Line: Last night the owl bunched in the tree Last Line: Over the fields, softly, on our own dark wings OWL IN THE BLACK OAKS First Line: If a lynx, that plush fellow Last Line: Like a cup of gold PEONIES Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: This morning the green fists of the peonies are getting ready Subject(s): Peonies PEONIES First Line: This morning the green fists of the peonies are getting ready Last Line: To be wild and perfect for a moment, before they are %nothing, forever PICKING BLUEBERRIES, AUSTERLITZ, NEW YORK, 1957 First Line: Once, in summer, %in the blueberries, %I fell asleep, and woke Last Line: Beautiful girl, %where are you PILOT SNAKE First Line: Had it %lived it would have grown Last Line: That soft dark building %death PINEWOODS First Line: This morning Last Line: They are still walking toward me PIPEFISH Poem Text First Line: In the green / and purple weeds Subject(s): Environment; Nature; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation PIPEFISH First Line: In the green %and purple weeds Last Line: Gathering and closing %so dry and slow Subject(s): Environment; Nature POEM Poem Text First Line: The spirit / / ikes to dress up like this Subject(s): Night; Bedtime POEM First Line: The spirit Subject(s): Night POEM FOR MY FATHER'S GHOST Poem Text First Line: Now is my father Subject(s): Family Life; Fathers; Relatives POEM FOR MY FATHER'S GHOST First Line: Now is my father Last Line: A brother who has walked his thousand miles Subject(s): Family Life; Fathers POEM FOR THE BLUE HERON: 1. First Line: Now the blue heron Last Line: Winter POEM FOR THE BLUE HERON: 2. First Line: I do not remember who first said to me, if anyone did Last Line: And led me back %from wherever I was POEM FOR THE BLUE HERON: 3. First Line: Toward evening %the heron lifts his long wings Last Line: Is a cave he can hide in %and live POEM FOR THE BLUE HERON: 4. First Line: Now the woods are empty Last Line: I gather wood, kindling, paper; I make fire %after fire after fire POEM OF THE ONE WORLD Poem Text First Line: This morning / the beautiful white heron Subject(s): Herons; Nature; Beauty PONDS First Line: Every year %the lilies %are so perfect Last Line: Of each flawed blossom rising and fading. And I do POPPIES Poem Text First Line: The poppies send up their Subject(s): Poppies POPPIES First Line: The poppies send up their %orange flares; swaying Last Line: What can you do %about it -- %deep, blue night PORCUPINE First Line: Where %the porcupine is Last Line: From the thick tree PRAISE First Line: Knee-deep %in the ferns Last Line: Over the water, %over the ferns, %over the world's roughage %as it bleeds and deepens RABBIT First Line: Scatterghost, %it can't float away Last Line: Are you listening, death? -- warm in the rabbit's fur RABBIT First Line: Scatterghost Last Line: I find a small bird's nest lined pale %and silvery and the chicks, %are you listening, death? Warm I RAGE First Line: You are the dark song Last Line: In your dreams you have sullied and murdered, %and dreams do not lie RAIN Poem Text First Line: All afternoon it rained, then Subject(s): Rain; Barbed Wire; Swamps; Fathers; Gardens & Gardening; Forests; Life; Bogs; Fens; Marshes; Woods RAIN First Line: All afternoon it rained, then Last Line: He begins to bleed through %like satin RAIN First Line: Out of the sump rise the marigolds Last Line: And anyone who comes must travel, slowly and with thought, %as around the edges of the great swamp Variant Title(s): Mareng RAIN IN OHIO First Line: The robin cries: rain Last Line: Pours himself swift and heavy %into the ground RAIN, TREE, THUNDER AND LIGHTNING First Line: Clouds rolled %from the west Last Line: Broken but burning, %like a golden tree RAPTURE First Line: All summer %I wandered the fields Last Line: Such wild, blind wings RETURN First Line: The deed took all my heart Last Line: And the earth shook. %and the thread held RICE First Line: It grew in the black mud Last Line: I want you to fill your hands with the mud, like a blessing RIVER First Line: Just because I was born RIVER STYX, OHIO First Line: We drove through october, grandmother pointing at cows Last Line: I tensed my knuckles, felt the first stab of pain ROBERT SCHUMANN First Line: Hardly a day passes I don't think of him Last Line: He runs up the dark staircase, humming ROSES First Line: The look on her face in a dream Last Line: As a woman, finally, cannot do ROSES First Line: The last dollar went, then the last dime Last Line: Just where you were headed ROSES, LATE SUMMER First Line: What happens %to the leaves after Last Line: Or any other foolish question RUMOR OF MOOSE IN THE LONG TWILIGHT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE First Line: Neighbors described %the long neck Last Line: Empty in the moonlight SAND DABS, FIVE First Line: What men build, in the name of security, is built of straw Last Line: Come with me, I want my poems to say. And do the same SAND DABS, FOUR First Line: She said, 'the fox hunt is good for the fox' Last Line: Tracks in the snow SAND DABS, SIX First Line: Sweet emerson - always passionate about ideas, always reasonable about passion Last Line: The thrush sings %like a finger of god SAND DABS, THREE First Line: Six black ibis Last Line: Into the sea SEA First Line: Stroke by %stroke my %body remembers that life and cries for Last Line: Beginning and %conclusion of our own SEA MOUSE First Line: What lay this morning Last Line: Filling with death SELF-PORTRAIT Poem Text First Line: I wish I was twenty and in love with life Subject(s): Aging; Regret SEPTEMBER First Line: I walk through a grove of pines and startle the nighthawk Last Line: Restful, apparently, to both of us SERENGETI First Line: When he comes Last Line: Are almost tender, and I don't know when I have been so frightened, %or so happy SEVEN WHITE BUTTERFLIES Poem Text SHADOWS First Line: Everyone knows the great energies running amok cast SHARK First Line: The domed head rose above the water, white SHELLEY First Line: When I'm dying %and near paradise Last Line: How time extends SINGAPORE Poem Text First Line: In singapore, in the airport Subject(s): Singapore; Airports; Restroom Attendants SINGAPORE First Line: In singapore, in the airport Last Line: The way this poem is filled with trees, and birds SKUNK CABBAGE First Line: And now as the iron rinds over Last Line: What blazes the trail is not necessarily pretty SLEEPING IN THE FOREST Poem Text First Line: I thought the earth remembered me, Subject(s): Sleep; Nature SLEEPING IN THE FOREST First Line: I thought the earth %remembered me, she Last Line: I had vanished at least a dozen times %into something better SNAILS First Line: You stand inside the lime-green house of the salt marsh Last Line: Your own delicate hands, you touch your lips SNAKE Poem Text First Line: And here is the serpent again Variant Title(s): Spring Subject(s): Animals; Snakes; Serpents; Vipers SNAKE First Line: And here is the serpent again Last Line: I follow the snake down to the pond, %thick and musky he is %as circular as hope Variant Title(s): Sprin Subject(s): Animals; Snakes SNOWSHOE HARE First Line: The fox %is so quiet Last Line: And across the field and into %another year SO First Line: This morning %the dogs %were romping and stomping Last Line: That it tossed itself around, in the boughs of light, and sang SOME HERONS First Line: A blue preacher %flew toward the swamp Last Line: Where they fished, all day SOME QUESTIONS YOU MIGHT ASK First Line: Is the soul solid, like iron Last Line: What about the grass SOME THINGS, SAY THE WISE ONES First Line: Some things, say the wise ones who know everything Last Line: Each one, just now, so thoroughly asleep SOMETIMES I AM VICTORIOUS AND EVEN BEAUTIFUL... Last Line: Smiling, %washing my hands SONG OF THE BUILDERS Poem Text First Line: On a summer morning Subject(s): Crickets; Conduct Of Life SPIDERS First Line: In fall, in the garden and the fields beyond, Last Line: I live here, duck your head SPRING Poem Text First Line: Somehwere / a black bear Subject(s): Spring SPRING First Line: This morning %two birds Last Line: When he opened his hands to the world SPRING First Line: In april the morgan was bred. I was chased away Last Line: Blades from the fields of spring SPRING First Line: Somehwere %a black bear Last Line: All day I think of her-- %her white teeth, %her wordlessness, %her perfect love Subject(s): Environment; Nature SPRING AZURES First Line: In spring the blue azures bow down Last Line: To a life of the imagination SPRING IN THE CLASSROOM First Line: Elbows on dry books, we dreamed Last Line: All furry and blooming against the old brick wall %in the art teacher's arms STANLEY KUNITZ First Line: I used to imagine him Last Line: The wild and shapeless air STARFISH Poem Text First Line: In the sea rocks, / in the stone pockets Subject(s): Starfish STARFISH First Line: In the sea rocks, %in the stone pockets Last Line: Like by little to love %our only world Subject(s): Starfish STARK COUNTY HOLIDAY First Line: Our mother's kingdom does not fall Subject(s): Family Life STARLINGS IN WINTER Poem Text First Line: Chunky and noisy Subject(s): Starlings STARS First Line: Here in my head, language Last Line: One hot sentence after another STORIES First Line: Do you know Last Line: Lifting up the darkness %by that much STORM First Line: The temperature %cruises down, slides STORM First Line: Now through the white orchard my little dog Last Line: Oh, I could not have said it better myself STORM IN MASSACHUSETTS, SEPTEMBER 1982 First Line: A hot day STRAWBERRY MOON First Line: My great-aunt elizabeth fortune Last Line: Women want to lash out %with a cutting edge SUMMER DAY First Line: Who made the world Last Line: With your one wild and precious life SUN First Line: Have you ever seen Last Line: Or have you too %gone crazy %for power, %for things SUNFLOWERS First Line: Come with me %into the field of sunflower Last Line: The coarse roots in the earth %so uprightly burning SUNFLOWERS First Line: Come with me SUNRISE First Line: You can %die for it Last Line: Of the ways to enter %fire SUNRISE First Line: You can SWAN First Line: Across the wide waters %something comes Last Line: Oh, what will I do, what will I say, when those %white wings %touch the shore SWANS ON THE RIVER AYR First Line: Under the cobbled bridge the swans float, Last Line: And streamed shoreward like a white armada %with heads reared back to strike and wings like knives. SWIMMER First Line: All winter the water SWIMMING LESSON First Line: Feeling the icy kick, the endless waves Last Line: How to survive in my place Subject(s): Survival TASTING THE WILD GRAPES First Line: The red beast TECUMSEH First Line: I went down not long ago Last Line: He will still be %so angry TERNS First Line: The birds shrug off Last Line: The passage in and out, the bristling %swing of the sea THAT SWEET FLUTE JOHN CLARE Last Line: Light of the world, hold me THE BLACK SNAKE Poem Text First Line: When the black snake / flashed onto the morning road Subject(s): Animals; Snakes; Serpents; Vipers THE BLACK WALNUT TREE Poem Text First Line: My mother and I debate: / we could sell Subject(s): Environment; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation THE CHANCE TO LOVE EVERYTHING Poem Text First Line: All summer I made friends Subject(s): Animals THE DEER Poem Text First Line: You never know. Subject(s): Deer THE DIPPER Poem Text First Line: Once I saw / in a quick-falling, white-veined stream Subject(s): Birds; Nature; Pleasure THE HERMIT CRAB Poem Text First Line: Once I looked inside Subject(s): Crabs THE JOURNEY Poem Text First Line: One day you finally knew THE KINGFISHER Poem Text First Line: The kingfisher rises out of the black wave Subject(s): Kingfishers THE KITTEN Poem Text First Line: More amazed than anything Subject(s): Cats THE LOON Poem Text First Line: Not quite four a.M., when the rapture of being alive Subject(s): Insomnia; Books; Loons; Sleeplessness; Reading THE MANGO Poem Text First Line: One evening / I met the mango Subject(s): Mangoes THE MOTHS Poem Text First Line: There's a kind of white moth I don't know Subject(s): Moths THE PLACE I WANT TO GET BACK TO Poem Text First Line: Is where / in the pinewoods Subject(s): Forests; Deer; Gratitude; Woods THE POET GOES TO INDIANA Poem Text First Line: I'll tell you a half-dozen things Subject(s): Indiana; Country Life THE POET VISITS THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS Poem Text First Line: For a long time Subject(s): Art & Artists THE SHARK Poem Text First Line: The domed head rose above the water, white Subject(s): Sharks THE SNOWSHOE HARE Poem Text First Line: The fox / is so quiet Subject(s): Rabbits; Hares THE SON Poem Text First Line: The son my father never had Subject(s): Daughters THE SUMMER DAY Poem Text First Line: Who made the world? Subject(s): Grasshoppers; Life THE SUN Poem Text First Line: Have you ever seen Subject(s): Sun THE SWAN Poem Text First Line: Did you too see it, drifting, all night, on the black river? Subject(s): Swans; Beauty THE SWIMMING LESSON Poem Text First Line: Feeling the icy kick, the endless waves Subject(s): Survival THE WATERFALL Poem Text First Line: For all they said Subject(s): Waterfalls THE WINTER WOOD ARRIVES Poem Text First Line: I think / I could have Subject(s): Winter THEIR WINGS First Line: In summer the bats %fly like dots and dashes Last Line: But lean forward, like green wings, %upon the air THIS MORNING AGAIN IT WAS IN THE DUSTY PINES First Line: Not in shyness but in disgust Last Line: Through the wind %like a knife THREE POEMS FOR JAMES WRIGHT First Line: I went out %from the news of your illness Last Line: In its deep %and miraculous %composure THREE PROSE POEMS First Line: Oh, yesterday, that one, we all cry out. Oh, that one! How Last Line: Over the landscape its extraordinary light THREE SONGS First Line: A band of wild turkeys is coming down the hill. They are Last Line: Not dream, on its long white bones, of turning into song TOAD First Line: I was walking by. He was sitting there Last Line: Anguish of language passed over him TOM DANCERS GIFT OF A WHITEBARK PINE CONE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: You never know what opportunity is going to travel to you, or through you. Subject(s): Exrement; Bears; Pine Trees TRILLIUMS First Line: Every spring TROUT LILIES First Line: It happened I couldn't find in all my books Last Line: When she went back to a difficult house, at the end of the day TRURO BEAR First Line: There's a bear in the truro woods Last Line: Required much evidence to begin %its leaf-green breathing TURTLE First Line: Breaks from the blue-black Last Line: Are tied to her by an unbreakable string TURTLE First Line: Now I see it-- Last Line: Down into the dark pond, into %the cool water, and the light of the lilies, %to live TWO KINDS OF DELIVERANCE First Line: Last night the geese came back Last Line: Smiling, hating us, %dancing for his life UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL, BOSTON Poem Text First Line: The trees on the hospital lawn Subject(s): Healing; Cures UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL, BOSTON First Line: The trees on the hospital lawn Last Line: As I stand there, loving you Subject(s): Healing VISITOR First Line: My father, for example, %who was young once Last Line: Had we loved in time Subject(s): Fathers And Daughters VULTURES First Line: Like large dark %lazy %butterflies they sweep over Last Line: The huddle of death to fuel %those powerful wings WALKING TO OAK-HEAD POND, AND THINKING OF THE PONDS I WILL VISIT IN THE NEXT DAYS AND WEEKS Poem Text First Line: What is so utterly invisible Subject(s): Ponds; Future WARBLERS First Line: In may Last Line: Deep in the sharp and glittering gears, and the %o-ring WATER SNAKED First Line: I saw him %in a dry place Last Line: Swinging, swinging %through the green leaves WATERFALL First Line: For all they said Last Line: In the deep and green and utterly motionless pools after all that %falling WAVES First Line: The sea WEST WIND First Line: If there is life after the earth-life, will you come with me Last Line: I am always thinking of you WHAT I HAVE LEARNED SO FAR Poem Text First Line: Meditation is old and honorable, so why should I Subject(s): Conduct Of Life WHAT IS IT? Poem Text First Line: Who can say / is it a snowy egret? Subject(s): Nature; Animals WHAT IS IT? First Line: Who can say, %is it a snowy egret Last Line: That anything, in spite of its absence, %ever dies %a perfect death? WHELKS First Line: Here are the perfect %fans of the scallops Last Line: That long, blue body of light WHEN DEATH COMES Poem Text Subject(s): Death; Dead, The WHEN DEATH COMES First Line: When death comes %like the hungry bear in autumn Last Line: I don't want to end up simply having visited this world WHEN I AM AMONG TREES Poem Text Subject(s): Trees WHERE DOES THE DANCE BEGIN, WHERE DOES IT END? Poem Text First Line: Don't call this world adorable, or useful, that's not it Subject(s): Nature WHERE DOES THE TEMPLE BEGIN, WHERE DOES IT END? First Line: There are things you can't reach. But Last Line: Of god, the blue air WHISPERS First Line: Have you ever WHISTLER First Line: All of a sudden she began to whistle. By all of a sudden Last Line: This clear, dark, lovely whistler? WHITE FLOWERS First Line: Last night %in the fields Last Line: And the roots and the stems and the flowers %began WHITE NIGHT First Line: All night %I float %in the shallow ponds Last Line: Gathering %the tall lilies %of sleep WHITE OWL FLIES INTO AND OUT OF THE FIELD First Line: Coming down %out of the freezing sky Last Line: In which we are washed and washed %out of our bones WHITE PINE First Line: The sun rises late in this southern county Last Line: In the darkness, under the tree WHITE-EYES Poem Text First Line: In winter / all the singing is in Subject(s): Birds; Winter WHY I WAKE EARLY Poem Text First Line: Hello, sun in my face Subject(s): Morning; Sun WILD GEESE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: You do not have to be good Subject(s): Geese; Despair; Conduct Of Life WILD GEESE First Line: You do not have to be good Last Line: Over and over announcing your place %in the family of things WILLIAM First Line: Now there's william. He comes pecking, like a bird Last Line: My portion, my world -- he may have it WILLIAMS CREEK First Line: Because it is winter Last Line: As though the life of everything %were in it WINGS Poem Text First Line: I saw the heron WINGS First Line: My dog came through the pinewoods dragging a dead fox Last Line: I would have risen from the ground WINGS First Line: I saw the heron Last Line: They fought, they wanted %to lie down in that silky mash %ofthe swamp, the sooner %to fly Subject(s): Flight; Herons; Wings WINTER Poem Text First Line: And the waves / gush pearls Subject(s): Nature WINTER First Line: And the waves %gush pearls Last Line: In this world I am as rich %as I need to be Subject(s): Nature WINTER AND THE NUTHATCH Poem Text First Line: Once or twice and maybe again, who knows Subject(s): Nuthatches; Winter WINTER AT HERRING COVE First Line: Years ago %in the bottle-green light Last Line: The sniff waters once more begin to kick and flow WINTER IN THE COUNTRY First Line: The terror of the country Last Line: In the blue sack of weather WOLF MAN First Line: Now is the season %of hungry mice Last Line: From bed to bed, %from dreamer to dreamer WORK (1) First Line: How beautiful Last Line: And walk back through the pinewoods %to pasture pond WORK (2) First Line: I am a woman sixty years old and of no special courage Last Line: This is the world, and this is the work of the world Subject(s): Earth; Labor And Laborers WRENS First Line: Here I go Last Line: Diligent at last %foolish birds WRITING POEMS First Line: This morning I watched YES! NO! First Line: How necessary it is to have opinions! Last Line: To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work |
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