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Author: OSTRIKER, ALICIA SUSKIN
Matches Found: 484


Ostriker, Alicia Suskin    Poet's Biography
484 poems available by this author


A CHINESE FAN PAINTING       
First Line: It is late afternoon, the cherries bloom
Subject(s): China; Fans; Paintings And Painters


A CLEARING BY A STREAM       
First Line: What impels the mind to soar forth?
Subject(s): Brooks; Streams; Creeks


A CLEARING BY THE STREAM    Poem Text    
First Line: What impels the mind to soar forth?
Subject(s): Butterflies


A GLASS PANE TOWARD THE SPECTRAL, MYSTERIOUS GARDEN'    Poem Text    
Last Line: When all the forests you have burned are green
Subject(s): Change; Relationships


A GLASS PANE TOWARD THE SPECTRAL, MYSTERIOUS GARDEN'       


A MEDITATION IN SEVEN DAYS       
First Line: If your mother is a jew, you are a jew
Subject(s): Day; Jews - Women; Meditation


A MINOR VAN GOGH (HE SPEAKS)    Poem Text    
First Line: The strokes are pulses: from my shapely cloud
Subject(s): Art & Artists; Van Gogh, Vincent (1853-1890)


A QUESTION OF TIME       
First Line: I ask a friend. She informs me it is ten years
Subject(s): Time


A YOUNG WOMAN, A TREE    Poem Text    
First Line: The life spills over, some days
Subject(s): Trees; Women; Youth


AARON       
First Line: It is written that he was meek
Last Line: No wild men %no revelation


ABOUT TIME       
First Line: What we have been doing
Subject(s): Time


ABOUT TIME       
First Line: What we have been doing
Last Line: Not yet %soon
Subject(s): Time


AFTER ILLNESS       
First Line: I picked the books to come along with me
Last Line: Is to follow instructions


AFTER THE REUNION (1)       
First Line: We stood beside the cafe windowsill
Last Line: I love, and I shall never see again


AFTER THE REUNION (2)       
First Line: We kept our collard up against the chill
Last Line: I love, and I shall never see again


AFTER THE SHIPWRECK    Poem Text    
First Line: Lost, drifting, on the current, as the sun pours down
Subject(s): Disasters; Shipwrecks; Water


AFTER THE SHIPWRECK       
First Line: Lost, drifting, on the current, as the sun pours down
Last Line: To coat us with salt, we stop talking. We try to remember
Subject(s): Disasters; Shipwrecks; Water


ALICE BEFORE HER WIDOWHOOD       
First Line: I called him fool, she said
Last Line: She folded up the sheets %I called him fool


AMERICAN LONELINESS       
First Line: American loneliness joins us, it is the truth


ANECDOTE WITH FLOWERS: 1919       
First Line: Renoir at the end painting with brushes strapped to his hand
Last Line: Like roses, like sunflowers, like peonies


ANECDOTE WITHOUT FLOWERS: 1919       
First Line: This year he interviewed
Last Line: So much was missing


ANGINA       
First Line: The flat field of my chest
Last Line: Is going to happen, happen


ANNIE, APHRODITE, AND THE ELEVATOR       
First Line: Annie was some years older, so I trusted
Last Line: Stared at me, smiled, and shook her shining head
Subject(s): Aphrodite; Elevators; Mythology - Classical; Relationships


ANSELM KIEFER       
First Line: At the border between reality and the imagination
Subject(s): Fights; Reality


ANSELM KIEFER       
First Line: At the border between reality and the imagination
Last Line: The rails battered to silence behind your back -
Subject(s): Fights; Reality


ANXIETY ABOUT DYING    Poem Text    
First Line: It isn't any worse than what


ANXIETY ABOUT DYING       
First Line: It isn't any worse than what
Last Line: It seems they are leaving by train for a vacation. %I'll meet them in the country when I can


APPEARANCE AND REALITY    Poem Text    
First Line: Amphibian, crustacean? The nooked neck
Subject(s): Facades; Reality; Appearances


APPEARANCE AND REALITY       
First Line: Amphibian, crustacean? The nooked neck
Last Line: By watching stuff. It's friendly. Really a mammal
Subject(s): Facades; Reality


APRIL    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: The optimists among us
Subject(s): Spring


APRIL ONE       
First Line: Can't believe it
Last Line: Even the lost people are combing their hair
Subject(s): April


APRIL ONE       
First Line: Can't believe it
Last Line: Even the lost people are combing their hair
Subject(s): April


AS IN A GALLERY       
First Line: As in a gallery, a large posh art gallery, it may happen
Last Line: Is solid iron, in the gallery


AT THE VAN GOGH MUSEUM       
First Line: No, we say -- it wouldn't have looked that way
Last Line: Even blacker than the navy sky
Subject(s): Van Gogh, Vincent (1853-1890)


BALLAD OF LYLE AND ERIC       
First Line: Now lyle and eric %were privileged boys
Last Line: But the moral of this story is %wait till the twenty-first!


BECKY AND BENNY IN FAR ROCKAWAY    Poem Text    
First Line: Near the atlantic ocean, past the last subway station
Subject(s): Sea; Ocean


BECKY AND BENNY IN FAR ROCKAWAY       
First Line: Near the atlantic ocean, past the last subway station
Last Line: You should eat and be healthy, they said
Subject(s): Sea


BEER       
First Line: After the store and the gas station close
Last Line: The movements, and how everything goes together / for hours
Subject(s): Alcoholism & Alcoholics; Bars & Bartenders; Beer; Drinks & Drinking; Pubs; Taverns; Saloons; Ale; Wine


BEER       
First Line: After the store and the gas station close
Last Line: The movements, and how everything goes together %for hours
Subject(s): Alcoholics And Alcoholism; Bars And Bartenders; Beer; Drinks And Drinking


BEFORE DAWN       
First Line: The hour before dawn, there is


BERKELEY: YOUTH AND AGE       
First Line: Winter cabbages blooming in pots
Last Line: And try another cadence. %-- buddy, can I buy your dog


BIRDCALL    Poem Text    
First Line: Tuwee, calls a bird near the house,
Subject(s): Birds


BIRTH OF VENUS: 1       
First Line: Huge shell the remnant of my great-grandmother dragon
Last Line: The effect is of scarcely tolerable pleasure


BIRTH OF VENUS: 10       
First Line: It is one thing to gaze, from the self's jail, at things
Last Line: Use me as your mirror


BIRTH OF VENUS: 11       
First Line: Before my birth you were an animal
Last Line: The contemplative pearl of my form, my air of trust


BIRTH OF VENUS: 12       
First Line: The limousine that dropped me on your street
Last Line: And the shore onto which I am about to step


BIRTH OF VENUS: 2       
First Line: If I am anything I am young, so young
Last Line: If I am anything I am unreal


BIRTH OF VENUS: 3       
First Line: Some further hints: the patchy blues of sky
Last Line: Or a looseness...Beyond perfection


BIRTH OF VENUS: 4       
First Line: I am a factory of flowers. Lilies without, rose within
Last Line: Delved and planted around a hothouse, a navel


BIRTH OF VENUS: 5       
First Line: The navel, smallest of circles, at the latitude of the horizon
Last Line: Echoed by nipples


BIRTH OF VENUS: 6       
First Line: Hair uncoiling in breeze
Last Line: At the back of the canvas


BIRTH OF VENUS: 7       
First Line: Knees together, slightly inturned
Last Line: Presently, everything blows with the wind


BIRTH OF VENUS: 8       
First Line: I dream I am a warrior, a revolutionary
Last Line: That I appear to ask pardon for my beauty?


BIRTH OF VENUS: 9       
First Line: Now that I am here I will proliferate
Last Line: And these thin areas of gilt, sapphire, white


BIRTHDAY SUITE, SELS.       


BLOOD       
First Line: He closed his mouth like a door. The blood of the chicken was there
Last Line: He was embarrassed. In due time, he would make his heart clot


BOIL    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: Boil over - it's what the nerves do
Subject(s): Life


BOIL       
First Line: Boil over - it's what the nerves do
Last Line: Boil, it's what water %and everything else teaches
Subject(s): Life


BONNARD RETROSPECTIVE       
First Line: What ripe interiors whose wallpapers
Last Line: Of a mail clerk, a peeled %onion, chinless, imprurient, effaced


BOOK OF LIFE       
First Line: Everything very hardy
Last Line: Jews like ourselves have just begun to plant
Subject(s): Books; Life


BORN IN THE U.S.A.    Poem Text    
First Line: Born in 1937 in the usa
Subject(s): United States; Self; Patriotism; America


BOYS, THE BROOM HANDLE, AND THE RETARDED GIRL       
First Line: Who was asking for it -
Last Line: That flag they've hung there, though we'd all avoid %touching the girl
Subject(s): Boys; Fights; Girls


BRIDE       
First Line: Jerusalem sits on her mountains, a woman
Last Line: Heavy because so angry %so angry
Subject(s): Brides


BUS STATION    Poem Text    
First Line: Those bus station bathrooms are bad
Subject(s): Buses


CAIN AND ABEL: A QUESTION OF ETHICS       
First Line: It felt good, committing the first murder. It felt good, to
Last Line: People? No, if they are people. Yes, if they are the enemy. %isn't it good, this life we are living?


CALL       
First Line: Rain does not freshen
Last Line: And their smokeless fume


CAMBODIA    Poem Text    
First Line: My son gabriel was born on may 14, 1970 during the vietnam war, a
Subject(s): Cambodia; Vietnam


CAMBODIA       
First Line: My son gabriel was born on may 14, 1970 during the vietnam war, a
Last Line: What does this have to do with cambodia?
Subject(s): Cambodia; Vietnam


CAMPING BY THE PACIFIC       
First Line: Crept from the tent at midnight, out alone
Last Line: Panting and pacified, jealous and never sated


CARAVAGGIO: THE PAINTING OF FORCE AND VIOLENCE: 1       
First Line: Abraham's thumb digs into isaac's jaw
Last Line: Do you place yourself in the hands of the living god?


CARAVAGGIO: THE PAINTING OF FORCE AND VIOLENCE: 2       
First Line: The inner life holds no interest
Last Line: A man who despises plato


CARAVAGGIO: THE PAINTING OF FORCE AND VIOLENCE: 3       
First Line: As a chemist experiments patiently combining
Last Line: Leaving his neck not in spurts but stripes, like paint


CARAVAGGIO: THE PAINTING OF FORCE AND VIOLENCE: 4       
First Line: When the head is finally removed and the body nowhere in sight
Last Line: While david regards the horror his future holds


CAVE       
First Line: Cave girl mama %don't you go down on me
Last Line: Put some lipstick on your mouth and we'll %cakewalk into town


CEREMONY OF HOUSES       
First Line: A row of grand houses facing a river
Last Line: The dark assurance of elders, who question nothing


CEREMONY OF THE BATHTUB       
First Line: The man and his son in the bathtub have a conference
Last Line: Somewhat relaxes the man and his son, helps them forget themselves


CEREMONY OF THE BOX       
First Line: Of his own free will he worked on this for many years
Last Line: Appears to fall directly upon the grass of the garden below


CHANGE       
First Line: Happening now! It is happening
Last Line: Can you sense, under the ground, the great melting
Subject(s): Change; Daughters


CHINESE FAN PAINTING       
First Line: It is late afternoon, the cherries bloom
Last Line: Cherry trees blooming in both the worlds
Subject(s): China; Fans; Paintings And Painters


CLASS       
First Line: We say things in this class. Like why it hurts
Last Line: Though she would never say so in class
Subject(s): Classmates; Schools


CLEARING BY A STREAM       
First Line: What impels the mind to soar forth?
Last Line: Next to it, and it isn't afraid, it mounts %my ridged finger and walks stiffly across my hand
Subject(s): Brooks


CONTEST    Poem Text    
First Line: He was unarmed, still the cintest was fair
Subject(s): Marriage; Murder; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


CONTEST       
First Line: He was unarmed, still the contest was fair
Last Line: Under the blanket, where it is her own %brain that the slug is in


CORRESPONDENCE       
First Line: Two asian men and a boy keep busy
Last Line: As if to correspond were capital


COURAGE       
First Line: Caught in the snow
Last Line: For many miles


COVENANT: 1. PREPARING FOR PASSOVER       
First Line: Doors flung open %bread tossed to the birds
Last Line: And strong men %fall to trembling


COVENANT: 2. DURING THE BOMBING OF KOSOVO       
First Line: Hevel may be translated vanity %or mist or vapor
Last Line: Because we are your image %confess you prize %the cruel theater of it


COVENANT: 3. QUESTION AND ANSWER       
First Line: The love of suffering %the suffering of love
Last Line: Of one to whom you have given your soul


COVENANT: 4. THE WHEEL       
First Line: Of history %of revelation revolution
Last Line: Your sandals forever after %printed on the mississippi tar


COWS       
First Line: Dawn breaks
Last Line: Ahead to the good, as your father knew you would
Subject(s): Cows


COWS       
First Line: Dawn breaks
Last Line: Ahead to the good, as your father knew you would
Subject(s): Cows


CRAZY LADY SPEAKING       
First Line: I was the one in the irt tunnel
Last Line: From each of their graves I rise, daughter. Embrace me
Subject(s): Insanity; Talk; Women


CROSSTOWN    Poem Text    
First Line: Back in new york I grab a taxi at port authority
Last Line: X-rays, so it’s cancer
Subject(s): New York City; City Traffic; Taxis; Buses; Democracy; War; Politics & Politicians; African Americans; Racism; Nightmares


CROSSTOWN    Poem Text    
First Line: Back in new york I grab a cab at port authority
Subject(s): New York City; Taxis; Immigrants; City & Town Life; Manhattan; New York, New York; The Big Apple; Emigrant; Emigration; Immigration


DAFFODILS    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: The day the war against iraq begins
Subject(s): Iraq War (2003); Daffodils


DAFFODILS       
First Line: The day the war against iraq begins
Last Line: To defend the day we see the daffodils?


DAY OF HEAVY FOG       


DEAF CITIES       
First Line: When the angel's instructions finished
Last Line: Clap if you think anyone heard


DEATH GHAZALS       
First Line: If a raindrop enters the ocean, good
Last Line: Does your smeared forehead out-top the gracious mountain
Variant Title(s): Ghazals; Death Of Ghazal
Subject(s): Death


DEATH IS ONLY       
Last Line: But why? What did it fear? %it can't remember. %-embarked, it whispers %to itself. Embarked


DEATH OF THE POET, HARTFORD 1955       
First Line: The world his book, it cunningly condenses
Last Line: Proudly, to please the mother


DEMETER TO PERSEPHONE    Poem Text    
First Line: I watched you walking up out of that hole
Subject(s): Rain; Love


DEMONSTRATION       
First Line: They would lie down on the tracks as a demonstration
Last Line: The dried thoraxes of crickets or mantises found in the grass


DIASPORA    Poem Text    
First Line: The forsythia bush is made of yellow fire
Subject(s): Learning; Nature


DIASPORA       
First Line: The forsythia bush is made of yellow fire
Last Line: More and more will be expected of you
Subject(s): Learning; Nature


DIGGING TO CHINA       
First Line: Yes, when the man began to dig to china
Last Line: Yes, there were crickets in the damp grass, %yes, there was peacefulness on earth, %it all had been


DISCO       
First Line: Another view of the hot young dancers
Last Line: But of incomprehension


DISSOLVE IN SLOW MOTION       
First Line: When you watch a marriage / dissolve, in slow motion
Last Line: It all gets thrown away
Subject(s): Marriage; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


DISSOLVE IN SLOW MOTION       
First Line: When you watch a marriage %dissolve, in slow motion
Last Line: It all gets thrown away
Subject(s): Marriage


DIVER       
First Line: Giving the self to water, a diver
Last Line: The diver's body is saying a kind of prayer


DOGS AT LIVE OAK BEACH, SANTA CRUZ       
First Line: As if there could be a world
Last Line: For absolutely nothing but joy
Subject(s): Animals; Dogs; Seashore


DON'T BE AFRAID       
First Line: This is when I want to open you
Last Line: Air of your heart, looking at clouds and buildings


DOOR CLICKS. HE RETURNS TO ME'       
Last Line: Measureless pleasure? %is it measureless pain?
Subject(s): Pain; Relationships


DOWNSTAIRS       
First Line: When he walked downstairs %into the ground
Last Line: Where he rested his forehead


DREAM: THE DISCLOSURE       
First Line: If I would further than I have
Last Line: The juices are harmless, they are not poison, they are life
Subject(s): Dreams; Nightmares


DREAM: THE DISCLOSURE       
First Line: If I would further than I have
Last Line: The juices are harmless, they are not poison, they are life
Subject(s): Dreams


DREAMING OF HER       
First Line: Outside the longhouse, in a black and drizzling night
Last Line: Hunger of daughterlove. As if it were I


EIGHTH AND THIRTEENTH       
First Line: The eighth of shostakovich
Last Line: Again and again %- that music
Subject(s): Change


ELEGY FOR ALLEN    Poem Text    
First Line: That was a break
Subject(s): Ginsberg, Allen (1926-1997)


ENCOUNTERING THE DEAD    Poem Text    
First Line: With my father it happened driving
Subject(s): Driving & Drivers; Fathers; Death; Dead, The


END OF THE LINE       
First Line: Finally the last passengers
Last Line: When you begin to run


EVERYWOMAN HER OWN THEOLOGY    Poem Text    
First Line: I am nailing them up to the cathedral door
Last Line: My paper will tell this being where to find me
Subject(s): Religion; Women; Theology


EVERYWOMAN HER OWN THEOLOGY       
First Line: I am nailing them up to the cathedral door
Last Line: In a kitchen, and bump its chest against mine, %my paper will tell this being where to find me
Subject(s): Religion; Women


EXCHANGE       
First Line: I am watching a woman swim below the surface
Last Line: And I, having exchanged with her, will swim %away, in the cool water, out of reach
Subject(s): Dreams; Relationships; Swimming; Women


EXILE    Poem Text    
First Line: The downward turning touch
Subject(s): Mothers


EXODUS       
First Line: High clouds gaze
Last Line: Correlate supplies with population, %run an imaginary thumb %over a spear point


EXTRATERRESTRIAL: A WEDDING FOR NINA AND JOHN       
First Line: Nina and john: there are spaceships circling above us
Last Line: Who are they really? Maybe rilke was right. %maybe they're angels


FIFTY    Poem Text    
First Line: This is what a fifty-year-old
Last Line: Quitting time, do you still answer never?
Subject(s): Aging; Women


FIFTY       
First Line: This is what a fifty-year-old
Last Line: Quitting time, do you still answer never
Subject(s): Aging; Women


FIGURE OF METAPHOR       
First Line: What a trip, the morning I first saw it
Last Line: As from each jukebox tenors croon of love


FISHERMAN    Poem Text    
First Line: Imagine a fisherman in summer deep
Subject(s): Fish & Fishing; Anglers


FISHERMAN       
First Line: Imagine a fisherman in summer deep
Last Line: His line again and again in the heavy heat


FIX       
First Line: The puzzled ones, the americans, go through their lives
Last Line: We would fix it if we knew what was broken


FOOL STANDS UP TO TEACH KING LEAR AGAIN       
First Line: The systematic murder of the young
Last Line: All I can do is demonstrate my joy
Subject(s): Teaching And Teachers


FOR THE DAUGHTERS       
First Line: A god can do it. But how, answer me, shall
Last Line: A breath for nothing. A flight in god. A wind


FROM PRADO ROTUNDA: THE FAMILY OF CHARLES IV, AND OTHERS       
First Line: Francisco jose de goya y lucientes
Last Line: Which demands, like everything alive, / love
Subject(s): Family Life; Paintings And Painters; Prado (museum), Madrid; Relatives


FROM PRADO ROTUNDA: THE FAMILY OF CHARLES IV, AND OTHERS       
First Line: Francisco jose de goya y lucientes
Last Line: Which demands, like everything alive, %love
Subject(s): Family Life; Paintings And Painters; Prado (museum), Madrid


FROWNING AT EMILY    Poem Text    
First Line: The entire room was frowning at emily
Subject(s): Dickinson, Emily (1830-1886)


FROWNING AT EMILY       
First Line: The entire room was frowning at emily
Last Line: But hell, we're grateful for whatever comes, aren't we
Subject(s): Dickinson, Emily (1830-1886)


GAME       
First Line: Arrogance and loneliness. If a man
Last Line: Clean red and blue, and how the pebbled ball %drops from thesky, directly into his hands


GEORGE IN HOSPITAL       
First Line: For a while, in the hospital
Last Line: This is terrible
Subject(s): Hospitals


GEORGE IN HOSPITAL       
First Line: For a while, in the hospital
Last Line: To yell, 'oh mary and jesus, %this is terrible.'
Subject(s): Hospitals


GLASS PANE TOWARD THE SPECTRAL, MYSTERIOUS GARDEN'       
Last Line: Overturn %this body
Subject(s): Change; Relationships


GLASSBLOWER'S BREATH       
First Line: No point repeating what's already known
Last Line: Everyone joins in, even the driver


GLOBULE    Poem Text    
First Line: To be transparent, to contain the world
Subject(s): Science; Scientists


GLOBULE       
First Line: To be transparent, to contain the world
Last Line: Textured fleck afloat in a wet world
Subject(s): Science


GRANDCHILD    Poem Text    
First Line: I take her to the park, I swing her in the little swing
Subject(s): Grandchildren; Grandsons; Granddaughters


GREEDY BABY    Poem Text    
First Line: Greedy baby / sucking the sweet tit
Subject(s): Babies; Breast Feeding; Infants; Nursing (infants)


GREEDY BABY       


GUARDS KNEELED, THEY RAISED THEIR WEAPONS, THEY FIRED'       
Last Line: Finally is liberated, then they pull the body out
Subject(s): Fights


HATING THE WORLD       
First Line: I hate the world! You scream


HAWK'S SHADOW       
First Line: Got to push on. Snowy trail
Last Line: Look, things are alive here. %there is a hawk above the icy crest %and there is the hawk's shadow


HE GETS DEPRESSED WHENEVER WE ARGUE    Poem Text    
First Line: Man, I am talking to you
Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships; Male-female Relations


HE GETS DEPRESSED WHENEVER WE ARGUE       
First Line: Man, I am talking to you
Last Line: I need to know how it is in california


HELIUM    Poem Text    
First Line: For some reason you got up that morning
Last Line: And we were glad of this
Subject(s): Balloons


HELIUM       
First Line: For some reason you got up that morning
Last Line: And we were glad of this
Subject(s): Balloons


HERE IS THE STRONG ONE, THE OTHER ONE'    Poem Text    
Last Line: Here is the strong one, the other after
Subject(s): Change; Strength


HERE IS THE STRONG ONE, THE OTHER ONE'       


HERE IS THE STRONG ONE, THE OTHER ONE'       
Last Line: Here is the strong one, the other after
Subject(s): Change; Strength


HIS SPEED AND STRENGTH    Poem Text    
First Line: His speed and strength, which is the strength of ten
Last Line: Away, pedaling hard, rocket and pilot
Subject(s): Strength


HIS SPEED AND STRENGTH       
First Line: His speed and strength, which is the strength of ten
Last Line: Away, pedaling hard, rocket and pilot
Subject(s): Strength


HISTORY OF AMERICA       
First Line: A linear projection: a route. It crosses
Last Line: Wonder you fear this bleeding pulse, no wonder
Subject(s): History; United States


HOLOCAUST    Poem Text    
First Line: And about burning people -
Last Line: A rapid, persistent / chemical / reaction
Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews; Shoah; Judaism


HOLOCAUST       
First Line: And about burning people -
Last Line: Chemical %reaction
Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews


HOMAGE TO DANTE       
First Line: He stood as on a station platform, the wind
Last Line: And sickened, and then fainted


HOMAGE TO MATISSE       
First Line: Because one cares above all and only for this presence
Last Line: Pleasant to recall that they and we are poised, voyaging, %and simply burning, like the inhuman star


HOMAGE TO RUMI, SELS.       


HOMECOMING    Poem Text    
First Line: We know that nothing
Last Line: With goddesses, mortal women, pigs, and homecoming
Subject(s): Home


HOMECOMING       
First Line: We know that nothing
Last Line: With goddesses, mortal women, pigs, and homecoming
Subject(s): Home


HORSES       
First Line: What was the first animal
Last Line: Are never tamed, never entirely tamed
Subject(s): Animals; Horses


HORSES       
First Line: What was the first animal
Last Line: Now when they stop, bent %to our oated hands, muzzles so soft, the horses %are never tamed, never en
Subject(s): Animals; Horses


HURT EYE       
First Line: It is one week after your accident
Last Line: I mean they used to say so. %I am a student of this, an ignorant student, %my love, my half-life


I BROOD ABOUT SOME CONCEPTS, FOR EXAMPLE       
First Line: A concept like 'I,' which I am told by many
Last Line: To disclose. The thing itself ...
Subject(s): Language; Philosophy & Philosophers; Thought; Words; Vocabulary; Thinking


I BROOD ABOUT SOME CONCEPTS, FOR EXAMPLE       
First Line: A concept like 'I,' which I am told by many
Last Line: So that is what he inteded, they intended %to disclose. The thing itself....
Subject(s): Language; Philosophy And Philosophers; Thought


I CAN'T SPEAK    Poem Text    
First Line: It's hopeless. Our heads are full of television
Subject(s): Conversation; Language; Words; Vocabulary


I COME THE WAY THAT'       


I COME THE WAY THAT'       
Last Line: Want to see it, I want to
Subject(s): Activity; Change


IDEA OF MAKING LOVE       
First Line: The idea of making love - as sticking your tongue
Last Line: Are always thirsty for the nectar of others


IMPULSE OF SINGING       
First Line: That journey he made
Last Line: How bitterly beautiful, before the crazy women [or, madwomen] ripped him?
Subject(s): Singing And Singers; Travel


IN EVERY LIFE    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
Subject(s): Self


IN OUR TIME: A POEM TO APHRODITE       
First Line: Breathing times square air
Last Line: Stopped meeting your free, limitless gaze


IN SPRING RAIN       
First Line: The sodden graves, below their windy puddles
Last Line: It conquers, seeping, in gusts, like a mild kiss


IN THE AUTUMN OF MY THIRTY-SEVENTH BIRTHDAY       
First Line: Going to work %on the bus
Last Line: I go to him


IN THE DUST    Poem Text    
First Line: This year, she announces to us all at dinner
Last Line: Is going willingly. I send her willingly
Subject(s): Daughters; Dust; Growth


IN THE DUST       
First Line: This year, she announces to us all at dinner
Last Line: Is going willingly. I send her willingly
Subject(s): Daughters; Dust; Growth


IN THE FORTY-FIFTH YEAR OF MARRIAGE IT GOES ON    Poem Text    
First Line: I would never say I feel like a million dollars, but I whistle
Subject(s): Marriage; Time; Conduct Of Life; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


IN THE FORTY-FIFTH YEAR OF MARRIAGE IT GOES ON       
First Line: I would never say I feel like a million dollars, but I whistle
Last Line: And the eye is not filled with seeing


IN THE TWENTY-FIFTH YEAR OF MARRIAGE, IT GOES ON       
First Line: Damn it, honey, neither one of us
Last Line: With some kind of kick in the tail
Subject(s): Marriage; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


IN THE TWENTY-FIFTH YEAR OF MARRIAGE, IT GOES ON       
First Line: Damn it, honey, neither one of us
Last Line: Life that is always surprising us, %as my father used to say, %with some kind of kick in the tail
Subject(s): Marriage


IN THE TWENTY-FIFTH YEAR OF MARRIAGE, IT GOES ON: 1    Poem Text    
First Line: Damn it, honey, neither one of us


INITIATION       
First Line: I was still a kid
Last Line: Row one, plot one


INSOMNIA    Poem Text    
First Line: But it's really fear you want to talk about
Subject(s): Insomnia; Conduct Of Life; Fear; Failure; Sleeplessness


IRISES: 1       
First Line: Gigantic purple irises
Last Line: They made me somewhat imagine %a hand around them, collapsing and crushing them


IRISES: 2       
First Line: The flower's form is there before the flower
Last Line: Of course transformed, lightly transformed, %in another instance, in a %thousand other instances


IRISES: 3       
First Line: Showing that I meant friendship
Last Line: And sang italian songs to them, so that %they grew enormous


IRISES: 4       
First Line: Being reborn not once
Last Line: Take these stalks. The blooms pour in our veins %an intense deliquescence


IT HURTS IT IS IMPOSSIBLE'    Poem Text    
Last Line: Please come when it happens
Subject(s): Pain; Suffering; Misery


IT HURTS IT IS IMPOSSIBLE'       


IT HURTS IT IS IMPOSSIBLE'       
Last Line: Please come when it happens %please
Subject(s): Pain


JERSEY TRANSIT    Poem Text    
First Line: That black woman with the extraordinary earrings
Subject(s): Commuters; Railroads; Social Commentaries; Railways; Trains


JERSEY TRANSIT       
First Line: The black woman with the extraordinary earings


JONAH'S GOURD VINE       
First Line: Outside papyrus books, upper broadway
Last Line: But no sign yet we're ready to repent
Subject(s): Vines And Vineyards


JONAH'S GOURD VINE       
First Line: Outside papyrus books, upper broadway
Last Line: But no sign yet we're ready to repent
Subject(s): Vines And Vineyards


KH'BIN GEKUMIN ZAYEN ZEYEN IN DER VELT, SAYS THE HOLY MAN       
Last Line: To me and to all peoples in your true form %of ruthless radiance


LAMENTING THE INEVITABLE       
First Line: The world dances with hate
Last Line: Of the burning world
Subject(s): Ethnic Groups - United States; Minorities - United States; U.s. - Race Relations


LAMENTING THE INEVITABLE       
First Line: The world dances with hate
Subject(s): Ethnic Groups - United States; Minorities - United States; U.s. - Race Relations


LEAF PILE       
First Line: Now here is a typical children's story
Last Line: The mark of my hand a blush on my son's cheek
Subject(s): Family Life; Mothers; Sons


LETTING THE DOVES OUT       
First Line: The imaginary lover, form in the mind
Last Line: And draws more iridescent scarves from his sleeve
Subject(s): Doves; Freedom; Liberty


LETTING THE DOVES OUT       
First Line: The imaginary lover, form in the mind
Last Line: Lets his doves out, murmurs them home again %and draws more iridescent scarves from his sleeve
Subject(s): Doves; Freedom


LIKE AN ORPHAN       
First Line: Like an orphan, perpetually insecure and exiled from the soul, b. Learned
Last Line: Of their leaves sweeping about in the fresh breeze of this exhilarating %autumn


LIKE FRUIT       
First Line: Men are like fruit, best full of juice,' she thought
Last Line: A bird called every now and then


LISTEN       
First Line: Having lost you, I attract substitutes
Subject(s): Grief; Love - Loss Of; Relationships; Sorrow; Sadness


LOCKER ROOM CONVERSATION    Poem Text    
First Line: There are some men my husband never sees
Last Line: A couple of friends.-what did you think of that guy? / -what guy, they said
Subject(s): Bodies; Men; Nudity; Nakedness


LOCKER ROOM CONVERSATION       
First Line: There are some men my husband never sees
Last Line: A couple of friends. - what did you think of that guy? %- what guy, they said
Subject(s): Bodies; Men; Nudity


LOCKOUT       
First Line: He sets his campus security cap on the stairs
Last Line: Resuming his cap, pocketing the master keys


LONG HORN       
First Line: A and z were having lunch at the long horn: cold cuts
Last Line: And blankness begins to turn blue, and the sun rises


LOOKOUT    Poem Text    
First Line: He sets his campus security cap on the stairs
Subject(s): Immigrants; Emigrant; Emigration; Immigration


MARIE AT TEA       
First Line: You remember the extremes
Last Line: Love, of marriage, the / extreme
Subject(s): Change; Food & Eating; Relationships; Tea


MARIE AT TEA       
First Line: You remember the extremes
Last Line: Love, of marriage, the %extreme
Subject(s): Change; Food And Eating; Relationships; Tea


MARRIAGE NOCTURNE       
First Line: Stopped at a corner, near midnight, I watch
Last Line: Home to my marriage, my safety, through this wounded %world that we cannot heal, that is our bride
Subject(s): Marriage; Night


MASTECTOMY POEMS: 1. THE BRIDGE       
First Line: You never think it will happen to you
Last Line: Elevation to depth, vista to crawling
Subject(s): Cancer, Breast


MASTECTOMY POEMS: 10. YEARS OF GIRLHOOD (FOR MY STUDENTS)       
First Line: All the years of girlhood we wait for them
Last Line: When the babies nuzzle like bees
Subject(s): Breasts


MASTECTOMY POEMS: 11. THE RIVER       
First Line: Sluiced with the city's detritus
Last Line: I hear you, I will come
Subject(s): Mothers


MASTECTOMY POEMS: 12. EPILOGUE: NEVERTHELESS       
First Line: The bookbag on my back, I'm out the door
Last Line: The bookbag on my back, I have to run
Subject(s): Breasts; Health


MASTECTOMY POEMS: 2. THE GURNEY       
First Line: What's this long corridor above the street
Last Line: How good it is, not to be anywhere
Subject(s): Hospitals; Surgery


MASTECTOMY POEMS: 3. RIDDLE: POST-OP       
First Line: A - tisket a - tasket
Last Line: Guess what it is %it's nothing
Subject(s): Cancer, Breast; Surgery


MASTECTOMY POEMS: 4. MASTECTOMY       
First Line: I shook your hand before I went
Last Line: Those almost insignificant cells that might %or might not have lain dormant forever
Subject(s): Cancer, Breast


MASTECTOMY POEMS: 5. WHAT WAS LOST       
First Line: What fed my daughters, my son
Last Line: Ready to be harvested and eaten
Subject(s): Breasts


MASTECTOMY POEMS: 6. DECEMBER 31       
First Line: I say this year no different
Last Line: Well and happy %new year
Subject(s): Holidays; New Year


MASTECTOMY POEMS: 7. WINTERING       
First Line: It snows and stops, now it is january
Last Line: But a missing breast, well, you get used to it
Subject(s): Breasts


MASTECTOMY POEMS: 8. NORMAL       
First Line: First classes, the sun is out, the darlings
Last Line: To view it pickled in a mason jar
Subject(s): Cancer, Breast


MASTECTOMY POEMS: 9. HEALING       
First Line: Brilliant -
Last Line: I make vow after vow
Subject(s): Breasts; Healing


MATISSE TOO    Poem Text    
First Line: Matisse, too, when the fingers ceased to work
Last Line: Damn the fathers. We are talking about defiance
Subject(s): Matisse, Henri (1869-1954); Courage; Art & Atists; Perseverance; Fathers


MATISSE, TOO    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: Matisse, too, when the fingers ceased to work
Subject(s): Paintings & Painters


MAY RAIN, PRINCETON    Poem Text    
First Line: Green, green, the luminous maples preen
Subject(s): Rain; Princeton, New Jersey


MEDITATION IN SEVEN DAYS       
First Line: If your mother is a jew, you are a jew
Last Line: I am the woman, and about to enter
Subject(s): Day; Jews - Women; Meditation


MEETING THE DEAD       
First Line: If we've loved them, it's what we want, and sometimes
Last Line: The orderly gardens and homes of the living
Subject(s): Death; Family Life; Peace; Dead, The; Relatives


MEETING THE DEAD       
First Line: If we've loved them, it's what we want, and sometimes
Last Line: On suburb streets, I was quietly passing %the orderly gardens and homes of the living
Subject(s): Death; Family Life; Peace


MESSAGE FROM THE SLEEPER AT HELL'S MOUTH: 1. THE POET TO HER BOOK       
First Line: When she sings, when she dances, it is asking
Last Line: Go, book, and say this time she conquers


MESSAGE FROM THE SLEEPER AT HELL'S MOUTH: 2. MOTHER       
First Line: The musicians are tuning their instruments, the weather
Last Line: Over and over you walk to the edge of a cliff


MESSAGE FROM THE SLEEPER AT HELL'S MOUTH: 3. FIRST SISTER       
First Line: The mirror tweezes its eyebrows
Last Line: Best is a loser. I like your outfit


MESSAGE FROM THE SLEEPER AT HELL'S MOUTH: 4. SECOND SISTER       
First Line: So much gets buried, probably she remembers
Last Line: Hot inside.' I am positive she will return


MESSAGE FROM THE SLEEPER AT HELL'S MOUTH: 5. GODDESS       
First Line: They do not know, none
Last Line: How my hands burn, but I love nobody


MESSAGE FROM THE SLEEPER AT HELL'S MOUTH: 6. ONESELF AT HELL'S MOUTH    Poem Text    
First Line: It wasn't only my sisters
Subject(s): Cupid; Psyche (mythology); Eros


MESSAGE FROM THE SLEEPER AT HELL'S MOUTH: 6. ONESELF AT HELL'S MOUTH       
First Line: It wasn't only my sisters
Last Line: Come soon, with all your arrows
Subject(s): Cupid; Psyche (mythology)


METAPHOR    Poem Text    
First Line: What a trip, the first morning I saw it
Subject(s): Athens, Greece


MID-FEBRUARY       
First Line: The mare rears, she has almost thrown her rider


MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN AT A POND    Poem Text    
First Line: The first of june, grasses already tall
Last Line: Is a response. I swim across the ring of it
Subject(s): Lakes; Women; Pools; Ponds


MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN AT A POND       
First Line: The first of june, grasses already tall
Last Line: Is a response. I swim across the ring of it
Subject(s): Lakes; Women


MIGRANT       
First Line: Desire comes up in us
Last Line: To a show that has always been playing
Subject(s): Migrant Labor; Migratory Workers; Agricultural Laborers


MIGRANT       
First Line: Desire comes up in us
Last Line: To a show that has always been playing
Subject(s): Migrant Labor


MILLENNIAL POLKA    Poem Text    
First Line: Using words this way
Last Line: Among the bloody berries
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


MILLENNIAL POLKA       
First Line: Using words this way
Last Line: About in the full barns %among the bloody berries
Subject(s): Language


MINOR VAN GOGH (HE SPEAKS)       
First Line: The strokes are pulses: from my shapely cloud
Last Line: Locked in the light of earth, compassionate
Subject(s): Art And Artists; Van Gogh, Vincent (1853-1890)


MISERY AND FRUSTRATION    Poem Text    
First Line: They say one part of wisdom
Subject(s): Drinks & Drinking; Conduct Of Life; Wine


MISERY AND FRUSTRATION       
First Line: They say one part of wisdom
Last Line: But that's a knowledge you already know


MOON AND EARTH       
First Line: Of one substance, of one
Last Line: Make the image %of everything


MORNING IN THE MUSEUM: A GROUP ON THE TOP FLOOR       
First Line: Rauschenberg
Last Line: What about %licking it %a dog tongue %hungry


MORNING IN THE MUSEUM: BOOKSTORE       
First Line: The signs of that constriction are everywhere
Last Line: Bow in the hands of penelope; but nobody %seems able to string and draw it


MORNING IN THE MUSEUM: CLAES OLDENBURG: 3 SOFT SCULPTURES       
First Line: God bless
Last Line: Falling shoestring potatoes %(yellow canvas sculputre %dropsfrom kapok sawtooth %edge paper bag.)


MORNING IN THE MUSEUM: JIM DINE       
First Line: A) the bathrobe paintings
Last Line: Like the femur %of a tall man %elegant to the point %of pain


MORNING IN THE MUSEUM: LOBBY: LADY TO OTHER LADY       
First Line: We could bring the boys
Last Line: And scuffed portfolio %under his arm, what do they know %does anybody know


MORNING IN THE MUSEUM: MARK ROTHKO: THREE PAINTINGS       
First Line: Tragedy, ecstasy
Last Line: Wind blows ceaselessly %eastward above the surface, %remote from any earth where buildings stand


MORNING IN THE MUSEUM: SEGAL'S DINER       
First Line: The shabby poetry is in the pathos
Last Line: If he don't watch out %he's gonna bunk %inta the tree.'


MOTH IN APRIL    Poem Text    
First Line: Can I concentrate, cani I
Subject(s): Moths


MOTH IN APRIL       
First Line: Can I concentrate, can I


MOTHER IN AIRPORT PARKING LOT       
First Line: This motherhood business fades, is almost over
Subject(s): Air Travel; Mothers; Women


MOTHER IN AIRPORT PARKING LOT       
First Line: This motherhood business fades, is almost over
Last Line: I am one small woman in a great space, %temporarily free andclear. %I am by myself, climbing into my
Subject(s): Air Travel; Mothers; Women


MOTHER/CHILD: CODA    Poem Text    
First Line: Fear teaches nothing
Last Line: Consciousness is a blessing
Subject(s): Change; Growth


MOTHER/CHILD: CODA       
First Line: Fear teaches nothing
Last Line: This is what we mean when we say %consciousness is a blessing
Subject(s): Change; Growth


MOTHER: 1. EYESIGHT       
First Line: Please, please %I can't see well %reassure me with your touch
Last Line: So I drive over and find it %on the counter among the flies


MOTHER: 2. OUR MOTHERS: A CORRESPONDENCE       
First Line: I send you my whitehaired poems
Last Line: Smoothing the folds of her dress: this means pity %arms crossed: this signifies judgement


MOTHERWORDS       
First Line: Although I have put an ocean between us
Last Line: Your barrel of scum-coated blessings. %find me one


MOVE    Poem Text    
First Line: Whether it's a turtle who drags herself
Last Line: For the song that is to follow
Subject(s): Moving & Movers


MOVE       
First Line: Whether it's a turtle who drags herself
Last Line: For the song that is to follow
Subject(s): Moving And Movers


NATURE OF BEAUTY       
First Line: As sometimes whiteness forms in a clear sky
Last Line: Tell where we've really been, much less remain
Subject(s): Beauty; Nature


NEOPLATONIC RIFF       
First Line: May, and after a rainy spring
Last Line: Didn't I used to be you


NORMAL LIGHT    Poem Text    
First Line: Normal light never killed anything
Subject(s): Light; Superman; Vision


NOSTOS       
First Line: A pair of tennis shorts in a stuck drawer
Last Line: More friendly, and the wicker furniture whiter, %the mother's and father's voices more resounding


NUDE DESCENDING    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: Like a bowerbird trailing a beakful of weeds
Last Line: Into beige rectangles
Subject(s): Nudity; Nakedness


NUDE DESCENDING       
First Line: Like a bowerbird trailing a beakful of weeds
Last Line: They have torn her apart %into beige rectangles
Subject(s): Nudity


NULIAJUK, A SEQUENCE       
First Line: Old man of all oceans
Last Line: In a blanket of sea-anemones


O'KEEFFE       
First Line: New york: you are staring safely down from steiglitz's apartment
Last Line: One magnolia opens her taffeta skirt
Subject(s): Change; Magnolias; O'keeffe, Georgia (1887-1986)


O'KEEFFE       
First Line: New york: you are staring safely down from steiglitz's apartment
Last Line: One magnolia opens her taffeta skirt
Subject(s): Change; Magnolias; O'keeffe, Georgia (1887-1986)


OLD MEN    Poem Text    
First Line: It seems to me the kindliness of old men


ONCE MORE OUT OF DARKNESS, SELS.       


ONE IS INSIDE'    Poem Text    
Last Line: That is beautiful
Subject(s): Pregnancy


ONE IS INSIDE'       


ONE IS INSIDE'       
Last Line: Vanish but reappear %that is beautiful
Subject(s): Change


OPINION OF HAGAR       
First Line: I have no opinion
Last Line: We were women together


ORANGE CAT       
First Line: The orange cat on the porch
Last Line: Minus the awkward lover


OTHER STANZAS, TO YOU, PYTHAGORAS       
First Line: When I said, I would hear the harmony
Last Line: I wonder if that is the song %even the stars are singing, %sharp and perfect as they appear
Variant Title(s): Stanzas To Pythagora


PLEIADES IN DECEMBER: LINE OF SIGHT       
First Line: The pleiades %emitted this
Last Line: Heavy lines, %cracks %water


POEM BEGINNING WITH A LINE BY DICKINSON    Poem Text    
First Line: After great pain, a formal feeling comes
Last Line: That wouldn't happen to him, and we happily kissed
Subject(s): Dickinson, Emily (1830-1886)


POEM BEGINNING WITH A LINE BY DICKINSON       
First Line: After great pain, a formal feeling comes
Last Line: Not to worry, honey, %that wouldn't happen to him, and we happily kissed
Subject(s): Dickinson, Emily (1830-1886)


POEM BEGINNING WITH A LINE BY FITZGERALD/HEMINGWAY    Poem Text    
First Line: The very rich are different from us, they
Last Line: Can know before the very day arrives
Subject(s): Change; Hemingway, Ernest (1899-1961); Fitzgerald, F. Scott (1896-1940)


POEM BEGINNING WITH A LINE BY FITZGERALD/HEMINGWAY       
First Line: The very rich are different from us, they
Last Line: Our life, to save doomed lives, and none of us %can know before the very day arrives
Subject(s): Change


PORTRAIT OF A MAN       
First Line: You wear glasses
Last Line: Having cogitated, you begin again to write
Subject(s): Men; Portraits


PORTRAIT OF A MAN       
First Line: You wear glasses
Last Line: Having cogitated, you begin again to write
Subject(s): Men; Portraits


PORTRAITE DE L'ARTISTE       
First Line: When everybody's in bed
Last Line: Even in sleep, not separated
Subject(s): Art & Artists; Portraits


PORTRAITE DE L'ARTISTE       
First Line: When everybody's in bed
Last Line: Even in sleep, not separated
Subject(s): Art And Artists; Portraits


PRAYING FOR THE END OF ANGER       
First Line: It was 1913 and there was no money
Last Line: I too hungered to give abundant life to my children


PROPAGANDA POEM: MAYBE FOR SOME YOUNG MAMAS       
First Line: Oh young girls in a classroom
Last Line: Damaged when put to use, we get like wornout houses, but only %the life that hoards and coffins itse


PSALM    Poem Text    
First Line: I am not lyric any more
Subject(s): Relationships; Love; Hate


PSALM       
First Line: I endure impure periods
Last Line: Nothing between us %only breath


PSALM       
First Line: When I return to you %wet from the bath
Last Line: Who cares how it happens


PSALM       
First Line: My head is uncovered to my naked hair
Last Line: I am waiting for you %in a bed of pleasure


PSALM       
First Line: Like a skin on milk %I write to you
Last Line: What is the story %we want to know


PURE PRODUCTS OF AMERICA       
First Line: In the middle of the southeast asian war
Last Line: But I wish he'd quit
Subject(s): Children; United States; War


PURE UNKNOWN       
First Line: At this time every year I speculate
Last Line: Boldly announced, through clear air, like a bell?


QUESTION OF TIME       
First Line: I ask a friend. She informs me it is ten years
Last Line: And barefoot, at that time, %and how you let me rest %a half a minute in your suntanned arms
Subject(s): Time


RAINY SEASON       
First Line: The marketplace opens
Last Line: The pavement's slippery with rotten things, %and wetly shines, reflecting heaven


RAVEL PIANO TRIO       
First Line: Say I am a starving trembling fawn on your lawn
Last Line: Do you throw me food with your own %nailbitten agitated hand?


RAVEN OF DEATH       
First Line: A grey november morning. We make love
Last Line: Softly lifts to a black dot in the sky


REBECCA'S WAY       
First Line: It is written that isaac loved me
Last Line: I came a great distance %hoping to do exactly what I did


REDON       
First Line: Blurred outlines and shadowed dove grays
Last Line: Here is a sinister eye, an invitation


REVOLUTION AS DESIRE       
First Line: Imagine yourself in the water
Last Line: Such a lovesick roar


RUNNER       
First Line: Sweat glides on the forehead of the gasping runner
Last Line: Must be useless %to the runner
Subject(s): Track Athletics


RUSSIAN ARMY GOES INTO BAKU       
First Line: When the ethnic riots start, and the civilized west
Last Line: Do not spend too much time %with an unhappy man


RVR: WORK AND LOVE       
First Line: Your coach spins forward like an act of love
Last Line: And skill shadowed by pain, helping me to face %bravely my own short art and my long defeat


SAN JUAN WATERFRONT       
First Line: The balconied hotels present their rock fronts to the roaring sea
Last Line: And vegetation, which the big hotels, lifting their knees, trample


SATURDAY NIGHT    Poem Text    
First Line: And here it comes: around the world
Last Line: Out of their gourds, invent the sacred dance
Subject(s): Night; Bedtime


SATURDAY NIGHT       
First Line: And here it comes: around the world
Last Line: Out of their gourds - invent the sacred dance
Subject(s): Night


SEASONAL       
First Line: When the full sun is on me this way
Last Line: Everything else is theology and folly


SECRET SHARER       
First Line: How many times in childhood, you were running


SEX    Poem Text    
First Line: I see the bare feet on the warm boardwalk
Subject(s): Mothers & Daughters; Seashore; Beach; Coast; Shore


SEX DREAM       
First Line: I see the bare feet on the warm boardwalk
Last Line: Who will bow, rise, and salute her %when she makes her move


SINGING SCHOOL       
First Line: First they asked you to step through the many rooms
Last Line: Now you have to make %your own story
Subject(s): Family Life; Schools; Singing And Singers


SINGLE WOMAN SPEAKING    Poem Text    
First Line: The imaginary lover, form in the mind
Subject(s): Imaginary Conversations; Single People; Bachelors; Unmarried People


SISTERS       
First Line: See-saw! See-saw!
Last Line: Later, when they are not, %they say. %and we obey!


SOFTEN AND MELT    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: The man made me soften and melt
Subject(s): Love - Erotic


SOMALIA       
First Line: Compared to being burned alive
Last Line: Is very good, yes, good %as life can be


SOME DAYS IN MARCH       
First Line: Sunlight between the blinds
Last Line: And spring went away weeping


SONG    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: Some claim the origin of song
Subject(s): Songs


SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND OF EXPERIENCE       
First Line: A fine freedom a thrill %flows up our vertebrae
Last Line: We are that mixed animal %you are that mixed god


SONGS OF MIRIAM       
First Line: I'm a young girl
Last Line: I who am maiden %woman and crone %I who am %miriam


SONNET. TO TELL THE TRUTH    Poem Text    
First Line: To tell the truth, those brick housing authority buildings
Last Line: Now I've said everything nice I can about this
Subject(s): Truth


SONNET. TO TELL THE TRUTH       
First Line: To tell the truth, those brick housing authority buildings
Last Line: Now I've said everything nice I can about this
Subject(s): Truth


SPACE OF THIS DIALOGUE, SELS       
First Line: 12/16/98 %volcano %let me speak it to you in a whisper
Last Line: You can tell I'm lonely


SPOON       
First Line: A child in his high chair when the spoon approaches
Last Line: And self and utterance alike are gone


STANZAS IN OCTOBER       
First Line: A long sound when the sky is overcast
Last Line: Or dogs, we are listening %for the starry music %like listening is autumn for the honking
Variant Title(s): The Memor


STARING AT THE PACIFIC, AND SWIMMING IN IT       
First Line: The mind, she thinks
Last Line: Haze, how the ocean holds
Subject(s): Pacific Ocean; Swimming & Swimmers


STARING AT THE PACIFIC, AND SWIMMING IN IT       
First Line: The mind, she thinks
Last Line: Haze, how the ocean holds
Subject(s): Pacific Ocean; Swimming


STILL LIFE: A GLASSFUL OF ZINNIAS ON MY DAUGHTER'S KITCHEN TABLE    Poem Text    
First Line: In the interminable quest for truth
Last Line: A glassful of zinnias on the table
Subject(s): Daughters; Flowers


STILL LIFE: A GLASSFUL OF ZINNIAS ON MY DAUGHTER'S KITCHEN TABLE       
First Line: In the interminable quest for truth
Last Line: A glassful of zinnias on the table
Subject(s): Daughters; Flowers


STOPPED AT A CORNER, NEAR MIDNIGHT, I WATCH       
First Line: Stopped at a corner, near midnight, I watch


STORM       
First Line: The sky became the color of a bruise
Last Line: Faint, fainter, trails of an explosion


STORY OF JOSHUA       
First Line: We reach the promised land
Last Line: To destroy jericho
Subject(s): Bible; Religion


STREAM    Poem Text    
First Line: With swift delusional energy
Last Line: A delusional / solidity
Subject(s): Brooks; Streams; Creeks


STREAM       
First Line: With swift delusional energy
Last Line: A delusional %solidity
Subject(s): Brooks


STUDIO (HOMAGE TO ALICE NEEL)       
First Line: An oily rag at her feet in the warehouse of scents
Last Line: And you're back in the basement studio
Subject(s): Art And Artists; Paintings And Painters


SUNLIGHT       
First Line: Low-flying: like watching one's own shadow


SURFER DAYS       
First Line: Those were strange days, when we were kids
Last Line: Gone like a flash %strange days


SURVIVING    Poem Text    
First Line: It is true that in this century
Last Line: Tell me it is not merely the duty of grief
Subject(s): Survival


SURVIVING       
First Line: It is true that in this century
Last Line: Tell me it is not merely the duty of grief
Subject(s): Survival


TAKING THE SHUTTLE WITH FRANZ    Poem Text    
First Line: A search for metaphors to describe the thick
Last Line: Vermin,' they think, imagining stamping us out
Subject(s): Air Travel; Business; Travel; Businessmen; Businesswomen; Journeys; Trips


TAKING THE SHUTTLE WITH FRANZ       
First Line: A search for metaphors to describe the thick
Last Line: Throbs within them, under cashmere and cambric: %'vermin,' they think, imagining stamping us out
Subject(s): Air Travel; Business; Travel


TAVERNA, ATHENS 1974       
First Line: Exactly right
Last Line: We say to the guest, %it is we who invented the good %god dionysos, %the good word demos


TAYLOR LAKE       
First Line: Sunning myself %I gaze at the naked bottom
Last Line: I ain't holding my breath


TEARING THE POEM UP AND EATING IT       
First Line: Take this, you said
Last Line: I speak of all your countries, my dear god


TERROR       
First Line: If nature is orderly we must create disorder
Last Line: This very bad moment, %this very bad feeling. %go ahead, son. Conquer it


TERRORIST TRIAL AND THE GAMES       
First Line: At the trail, half the people on the stand were maimed
Last Line: A difference, murmurs the voice of rosemary


THE ANNIVERSARY       
First Line: Of course we failed, by succeeding
Last Line: In nothing. Don't leave me, don't leave me
Subject(s): Anniversaries; Marriage; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


THE BLESSING OF THE OLD WOMAN, THE TULIP, AND THE DOG    Poem Text    
First Line: To be blessed
Subject(s): Blessings; God


THE BOOK OF LIFE    Poem Text    
First Line: Everything very hardy
Last Line: Jews like ourselves have just begun to plant
Subject(s): Books; Life; Reading


THE BOYS, THE BROOM HANDLE, AND THE RETARDED GIRL    Poem Text    
First Line: Who was asking for it -
Last Line: Touching the girl
Subject(s): Boys; Fights; Girls


THE BRIDE       
First Line: Jerusalem sits on her mountains, a woman
Last Line: Heavy because so angry, / so angry
Subject(s): Brides


THE CHANGE    Poem Text    
First Line: Happening now! It is happening
Last Line: Can you sense, under the ground, the great melting?
Subject(s): Change; Daughters


THE CLASS    Poem Text    
First Line: We say things in this class. Like why it hurts
Last Line: Though she would never say so in a class
Subject(s): Classmates; Schools; Schoolmates; Students


THE CRAZY LADY SPEAKING    Poem Text    
First Line: I was the one in the irt tunnel
Last Line: From each of their graves I rise, daughter. Embrace me
Subject(s): Insanity; Talk; Women; Madness; Mental Illness


THE DEATH GHAZALS    Poem Text    
First Line: If a raindrop enters the ocean, good
Last Line: Does your smeared forehead out-top the gracious mountain?
Variant Title(s): Ghazals;death Of Ghazals
Subject(s): Death; Dead, The


THE DOGS AT LIVE OAK BEACH, SANTA CRUZ    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: As if there could be a world
Last Line: Does your smeared forehead out-top the gracious mountain?
Subject(s): Animals; Dogs; Seashore; Beach; Coast; Shore


THE DOOR CLICKS. HE RETURNS TO ME'    Poem Text    
Last Line: Is it measureless pain?
Subject(s): Veterans; Homecoming; Marriage; Fathers & Sons


THE DOOR CLICKS. HE RETURNS TO ME'    Poem Text    


THE EIGHTH AND THIRTEENTH    Poem Text    
First Line: The eighth of shostakovich
Subject(s): Change


THE END OF THE LINE    Poem Text    
First Line: Finally the last passengers
Subject(s): Trolley Cars


THE EXCHANGE    Poem Text    
First Line: I am watching a woman swim below the surface
Subject(s): Dreams; Relationships; Swimming & Swimmers; Women; Nightmares; Swimmers


THE FOOL STANDS UP TO TEACH KING LEAR AGAIN       
First Line: The systematic murder of the young
Last Line: All I can do is demonstrate my joy
Subject(s): Teaching & Teachers


THE GUARDS KNEELED, THEY RAISED THEIR WEAPONS, THEY FIRED'    Poem Text    
Last Line: Finally is liberated, then they pull the body out
Subject(s): Birth; Sedation


THE GUARDS KNEELED, THEY RAISED THEIR WEAPONS, THEY FIRED'    Poem Text    


THE HISTORY OF AMERICA    Poem Text    
First Line: A linear projection: a route. It crosses
Last Line: Wonder you fear this bleeding pulse, no wonder
Subject(s): History; United States; Historians; America


THE IDEA OF MAKING LOVE    Poem Text    
First Line: The idea of makling love - as sticking your tongue
Subject(s): Love - Erotic


THE IMPULSE OF SINGING       
First Line: That journey he made
Last Line: How bitterly beautiful, before the madwomen ripped him?
Subject(s): Singing & Singers; Travel; Journeys; Trips


THE LEAF PILE    Poem Text    
First Line: Now here is a typical children's story
Last Line: The mark of my hand a blush on my son's cheek
Subject(s): Family Life; Mothers; Sons; Relatives


THE MARRIAGE NOCTURNE       
First Line: Stopped at a corner, near midnight, I watch
Last Line: World that we cannot heal, that is our bride
Subject(s): Marriage; Night; Weddings; Husbands; Wives; Bedtime


THE MASTECTOMY POEMS: 1. THE BRIDGE    Poem Text    
First Line: You never think it will happen to you
Last Line: Elevation to depth, vista to crawling
Subject(s): Cancer, Breast


THE MASTECTOMY POEMS: 10. YEARS OF GIRLHOOD (FOR MY STUDENTS)    Poem Text    
First Line: All the years of girlhood we wait for them
Last Line: When the babies nuzzle like bees
Subject(s): Breasts


THE MASTECTOMY POEMS: 11. THE RIVER    Poem Text    
First Line: Sluiced with the city's detritus
Last Line: I hear you, I will come
Subject(s): Mothers


THE MASTECTOMY POEMS: 12. EPILOGUE: NEVERTHELESS    Poem Text    
First Line: The bookbag on my back, I'm out the door
Last Line: The bookbag on my back, I have to run
Subject(s): Breasts; Health


THE MASTECTOMY POEMS: 2. THE GURNEY    Poem Text    
First Line: What's this long corridor above the street
Last Line: How good it is, not to be anywhere
Subject(s): Hospitals; Surgery


THE MASTECTOMY POEMS: 3. RIDDLE: POST-OP    Poem Text    
First Line: A - tisket a - tasket
Last Line: "guess what it is
Subject(s): Cancer, Breast; Surgery


THE MASTECTOMY POEMS: 4. MASTECTOMY    Poem Text    
First Line: I shook your hand before I went
Last Line: Or might not have lain dormant forever
Subject(s): Cancer, Breast


THE MASTECTOMY POEMS: 5. WHAT WAS LOST    Poem Text    
First Line: What fed my daughters, my son
Last Line: Ready to be harvested and eaten
Subject(s): Breasts


THE MASTECTOMY POEMS: 6. DECEMBER 31       
First Line: I say this year no different
Last Line: Well and happy / new year
Subject(s): Holidays; New Year


THE MASTECTOMY POEMS: 7. WINTERING    Poem Text    
First Line: It snows and stops, now it is january
Last Line: But a missing breast, well, you get used to it
Subject(s): Breasts


THE MASTECTOMY POEMS: 8. NORMAL       
First Line: First classes, the sun is out, the darlings
Last Line: To view it pickled in a mason jar
Subject(s): Cancer, Breast


THE MASTECTOMY POEMS: 9. HEALING    Poem Text    
First Line: Brilliant -
Last Line: I make vow after vow.
Subject(s): Breasts; Healing; Cures


THE NATURE OF BEAUTY    Poem Text    
First Line: As sometimes whiteness forms in a clear sky
Last Line: Tell where we've really been, much less remain
Subject(s): Beauty; Nature


THE ORANGE CAT    Poem Text    
First Line: The orange cat on the porch
Subject(s): Cats; Desire


THE PLATEAU    Poem Text    
First Line: The climb was long
Subject(s): Togetherness; Relationships


THE PURE PRODUCTS OF AMERICA    Poem Text    
First Line: In the middle of the southeast asian war
Last Line: But I wish he'd quit
Subject(s): Children; United States; War; Childhood; America


THE RUNNER    Poem Text    
First Line: Sweat glides on the forehead of the gasping runner
Last Line: To the runner
Subject(s): Track Athletics; Running Races; Pole Vaulting; Discus Throwing; Shot Putting; Running Hurdles


THE RUSSIAN ARMY GOES INTO BAKU    Poem Text    
First Line: When the ethnic riots start, and the civilized west
Last Line: With an unhappy man
Subject(s): Russia – Army; War; Freedom; Cold War


THE SINGING SCHOOL       
First Line: First they asked you to step through the many rooms
Last Line: Your own story
Subject(s): Family Life; Schools; Singing & Singers; Relatives; Students


THE STORY OF JOSHUA    Poem Text    
First Line: We reach the promised land
Subject(s): Bible; Religion; Theology


THE STUDIO (HOMAGE TO ALICE NEEL)       
First Line: An oily rag at her feet in the warehouse of scents
Last Line: And you're back in the basement studio
Subject(s): Art & Artists; Paintings And Painters


THE VOCABULARY OF JOY    Poem Text    
First Line: I'm on the grass in front of the library, writing
Subject(s): Laughter; Interracial Marriage


THE WAITING ROOM       
First Line: We ladies in the waiting room of the atchley pavilion
Last Line: Tropical design on sleeves) has lit a cigarette
Subject(s): Medicine; Women; Drugs, Prescription


THE WAR OF MEN AND WOMEN: 1    Poem Text    
First Line: I write in rage against my sex
Last Line: You go home
Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships; Male-female Relations


THE WINDOW, AT THE MOMENT OF FLAME    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: And all this while I have been playing with toys
Subject(s): World Trade Center Tragedy (9/11/2001); New York City - Terrorist Attack, 9/11


THE WOMAN WHO RAN AWAY    Poem Text    
First Line: At first no beasts appeared, nothing bright-fanged


THEY HOIST IT, SHINING, THEY SUPPORT IT, UNDER ARTIFICIAL LIGHTS,    Poem Text    
Last Line: A boy to the ring of killers. They bring him, crying,. Her throat leaps
Subject(s): Birth


THEY HOIST IT, SHINING, THEY SUPPORT IT, UNDER ARTIFICIAL LIGHTS,       


THEY HOIST IT, SHINING, THEY SUPPORT IT, UNDER ARTIFICIAL LIGHTS,       
Last Line: A boy to the ring of killers. They bring him, crying. Her throat leaps
Subject(s): Family Life


THIS DREAMER COMETH       
First Line: The reverend is telling the committee on assassinations
Last Line: Any idea why the fbi would want to do something like that


THISTLE    Poem Text    
First Line: Thistle at meadow's edge
Last Line: The snow grows heavier, falls on their stooping shoulders
Subject(s): Politics & Government; War


THISTLE       
First Line: Thistle at meadow's edge
Last Line: We stay away from them
Subject(s): Politics; War


THOSE WHO KNOW DO NOT SPEAK, THOSE WHO SPEAK DO NOT KNOW       
First Line: They split up after attending the excellent experimental film
Last Line: Warm beautiful spring day


THREE MEN WALKING, THREE BROWN SILHOUETTES    Poem Text    
First Line: They remember the dead who died in the resistance
Subject(s): Men; Walking


THREE MEN WALKING, THREE BROWN SILHOUETTES       
First Line: They remember the dead who died in the resistance
Last Line: The snow grows heavier
Subject(s): Men; Walking


THREE WOMEN       
First Line: She came home from the dinner party
Last Line: But she was right, she brooded, yes, she was right


TO KILL THE DOVE       
First Line: You can go at it either way, said the gentleman
Last Line: Again, to rest, to close the eyes, to kill the dove


TO LOVE IS    Poem Text    


TO LOVE IS       
Last Line: What matter if I can %never accomplish it
Subject(s): Love


TO ONE IN MOURNING       
First Line: Because of your sorrow


TRANSLATION       
First Line: Pelicans with the nine-foot wingspans
Last Line: Baked into concrete, a feather %blown across sand


TRIPTYCH       
First Line: Plunging his arms through storm blue
Last Line: Remote from any earth where buildings stand


TWO WRITERS: FOR J.D.       
First Line: She is packing her bags meticulously, including
Last Line: Turning and sighing. Nobody wants to, he says, but you will


UNSAID, OR WHAT SHE THINKS WHEN SHE GETS MY LETTER       
First Line: Bug off, mom
Last Line: I think how she could yawn, she could tear it up. %she could forget to open it


UPPER BROADWAY SUNDAY       
First Line: It is high noon over upper broadway
Last Line: Dionysos has swallowed apollo
Subject(s): Broadway, New York City; City & Town Life


UPPER BROADWAY SUNDAY       
First Line: It is high noon over upper broadway
Last Line: He imagines apollo has swallowed dionysos, %dionysos has swallowed apollo


VOCABULARY OF JOY       
First Line: I'm on the grass in front of the library, writing
Last Line: In the late twentieth century %when I say this


VOCATION    Poem Text    
First Line: To play among the words like one of them
Subject(s): Girls


VOICES       
First Line: This happens when I am driving
Last Line: To help it through to the end


WAITING ROOM       
First Line: We ladies in the waiting room of the atchley pavilion
Last Line: Tropical design on sleeves) has lit a cigarette
Subject(s): Medicine; Women


WANTING ALL       
First Line: Husband, it's fine the way your mind performs
Last Line: Self as you shut it %like a trunkful of treasures? Wait, %I cry, as the lid slams on my fingers


WANTING TO BE IN LOVE AS IN SUNLIGHT       
First Line: I want it even when nobody's loving me
Last Line: Staying right up there
Subject(s): Love


WANTING TO BE IN LOVE AS IN SUNLIGHT       
First Line: I want it even when nobody's loving me


WAR OF MEN AND WOMEN: 1       
First Line: I write in rage against my sex
Last Line: And never wanted %anything but a little female comfort
Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships


WAR OF MEN AND WOMEN: 2       
First Line: Contents of one day's mail. Amnesty international
Last Line: Do you know, my innocent friend %as I pour you a cup of tea %sometimes I want to kill you
Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships


WAR OF MEN AND WOMEN: 3       
First Line: Please, you say
Last Line: In on me, sneering, we can't afford a bigger %apartment, she used to want me
Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships


WAR OF MEN AND WOMEN: 4       
First Line: The state of the union
Last Line: Lost one third of its crown %survives but is %not beautiful to look at
Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships


WAR OF MEN AND WOMEN: 5       
First Line: Forgive me
Last Line: You are crying %I like to see men cry
Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships


WAR OF MEN AND WOMEN: 6       
First Line: I run my mind over a handful of names
Last Line: I get tired of this pulpy body. %I get damned tired of telling people %what they already know
Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships


WAR OF MEN AND WOMEN: 7       
First Line: Sometimes you feel on the border: an ounce more effort
Last Line: Eat your cookie, drink your tea. %you falsely think I mean to comfort you
Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships


WAR OF MEN AND WOMEN: 8       
First Line: Heaps of broken stones weathering slowly, a mountain
Last Line: A yellow bar of sunlight, in which gray motes %are flying, touches his cage
Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships


WAR OF MEN AND WOMEN: 9       
First Line: The worst of it is that we hear the dead
Last Line: There is my crippled self, who wipes the crumbs %into a garbabe bag, %hands you your jacket back, le
Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships


WARNING       
First Line: I will no longer lightly walk behind


WARNING       
First Line: Let them grow afraid
Last Line: Let them grow afraid %let them grow afraid %in real life let them grow afraid


WAS DREAMING'       


WAS DREAMING'       
Last Line: Cold and %very afraid
Subject(s): Dreams


WATCHING THE FEEDER       
First Line: Snow has been falling, and the purple finches
Last Line: For existence itself
Subject(s): Snow; Birds; Life


WATCHING THE FEEDER       
First Line: Snow has been falling, and the purple finches


WATERLILIES AND JAPANESE BRIDGE    Poem Text    
First Line: He is the drowsy girl who rows 'between the sleeping
Last Line: "-is it from him? Or around him? His old man's forehead /
Subject(s): Bridges; Flowers; Japan; Japanese


WATERLILIES AND JAPANESE BRIDGE       
First Line: He is the drowsy girl who rows 'between the sleeping
Last Line: - is it from him? Or around him? His old man's forehead %garlanded
Subject(s): Bridges; Flowers; Japan


WEST FOURTH STREET    Poem Text    
First Line: The sycamores are leafing out
Subject(s): Imigrants; City & Town Life; Greenwich Village, New York City


WHAT ELSE       
First Line: Here is what else the soul does. It tugs me
Last Line: It likes the beach. In winter, it wants to die
Subject(s): Soul


WHAT ELSE       
First Line: Here is what else the soul does. It tugs me
Last Line: Springtime it goes completely crazy. Summers, %it likes the beach. In winter, it wants to die


WHAT I WANT    Poem Text    
First Line: Yes, that's what I want right now
Subject(s): Conduct Of Life


WHAT I WANT       
First Line: Yes, that's what I want right now
Last Line: What I want %is to listen, what I want %is to follow instructions


WHILE DRIVING NORTH       
First Line: Note: when I drive alone
Last Line: Literature the same
Subject(s): Driving & Drivers; Solitude; Poetry & Poets


WHILE DRIVING NORTH       
First Line: Note: when I drive alone
Last Line: Writing doesn't record tranquillity, %mostly the land records catastrophe. %literature the same


WIDOW IN A STONE HOUSE       
First Line: Someone was calling me: come out! Come out!
Last Line: Listen. We think we can see you
Subject(s): Widows & Widowers


WIDOW IN A STONE HOUSE: 1       
First Line: Someone was calling me: come out! Come out!
Last Line: Back through my white door, hearing coward, coward! %as I thrust my icy feet under my blanket


WIDOW IN A STONE HOUSE: 2       
First Line: Don't hate me. In the morning there will be still
Last Line: Smelling its rooty, complicated freshness, %they will believe there is no nothingness


WIDOW IN A STONE HOUSE: 3       
First Line: Saying goodbye to this world
Last Line: Now the keen cloudy voices say: %listen. We're trying to find you. %listen. We think we can see you


WINDSHIELD       
First Line: You are supposed to roll your windows up
Last Line: Of yours, man, right in his bones
Variant Title(s): Windowglass
Subject(s): Automobiles; Windows; Cars


WINDSHIELD       
First Line: You are supposed to roll your windows up
Last Line: Of yours, man, right in his bones
Variant Title(s): Windowglas
Subject(s): Automobiles; Windows


WISHES       
First Line: The dead man's wishes are flying apart like spores
Last Line: Liberty's song. Its triumph and lament
Subject(s): Wishes


WISHES       
First Line: The dead man's wishes are flying apart like spores
Last Line: Playing, touching his crushed guitar, %liberty's song, its triumph and lament
Subject(s): Wishes


WOMAN WALKING IN THE SUBURBS       
First Line: October stillness and the last leaves hang
Last Line: Flows with all fairness


WOMAN WHO RAN AWAY       
First Line: At first no beasts appeared, nothing bright-fanged
Last Line: Only then did the trees begin to hiss, %boulders to roar, %mushrooms to writhe from the wet forest f


WOODEN VIRGIN WITH CHILD       
First Line: Once the trunk of a lovely tree %she sits on her narrow chair
Last Line: His wish also to pity her, she %who is said to be the incarnation of pity


WOODLAND SPRING       
First Line: To speak of mushrooms
Last Line: And in the forest, too, %even the evil ones melt in a night of rain


WORDS FOR A WEDDING       
First Line: Free and rejoicing, walk into this prison
Last Line: And breathe easy. Finally you are here
Subject(s): Marriage


WORDS FOR A WEDDING       
First Line: Free and rejoicing, walk into this prison


WRINKLY LADY DANCER       
First Line: Going to be an old wrinkly lady dancer
Last Line: The afternoon! I danced! Naked with you!
Subject(s): Dancing & Dancers; Women; Wrinkles


WRINKLY LADY DANCER       
First Line: Going to be an old wrinkly lady dancer
Last Line: The afternoon! I danced! Naked with you!
Subject(s): Dancing And Dancers; Women; Wrinkles


YEARS    Poem Text    
First Line: I have wished you dead and myself dead
Subject(s): Relationships; Time


YEARS       
First Line: I have wished you dead and myself dead
Last Line: And leaned over the railing at the top- %strong and warm, that summer wind
Subject(s): Relationships; Time


YOM KIPPUR       
First Line: We destroy we break we are broken
Last Line: But the foolish old woman who lives there refuses to leave
Subject(s): Yom Kippur


YOU WHO DENY: A HARANGUE       
First Line: You who deny, my impulse is to shake you
Last Line: We go on
Subject(s): Social Protest


YOU WHO DENY: A HARANGUE       
First Line: You who deny, my impulse is to shake you


YOUNG WOMAN, A TREE       
First Line: The life spills over, some days
Last Line: Cold slime, %as deep as that
Subject(s): Trees; Women; Youth