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Author: PALMER, MICHAEL
Matches Found: 314


Palmer, Michael    Poet's Biography
280 poems available by this author


(OVERHEARD AT THE) MAYAKOVSKY STATION       
First Line: I am not that one who once spoke with you
Last Line: By one who never resembled me'


...BY THE NAME OF CERAN       
Last Line: Blooming fields of weeds' %what letters displaced


A       
First Line: A table erased
Last Line: And what will become of us


AB URBE CONDITA       
First Line: Call it the first distinction %the mark of a mark
Last Line: The man can be seen swallowing a frog


ALL THOSE WORDS WE ONCE USED FOR THINGS       
Last Line: With oil, pepper, salt and wild oregano


ALOGON       
First Line: It is light and dark a book lay on the table beside the sun are moon
Last Line: Dead men are playing cards


AND       
First Line: The ship-what was her name, its name?
Last Line: And the moon did not appear that night


AND SIGHS AGAIN (AUTOBIOGRAPHY 15)    Poem Text    
First Line: A sea of small killings, invisibilities, precise
Subject(s): Sighs


AND SIGHS AGAIN (AUTOBIOGRAPHY 15)       
First Line: A sea of small killings, invisibilities, precise
Last Line: Skin of a retinal machine %salt sea of invisibilities
Subject(s): Sighs


ANNIVERSARY       
First Line: What was it %that code of cloud
Last Line: Whose laws were secret


ANODE (20 XII 94)       
First Line: By that fractured lion in the park
Last Line: After all. Is that what you said? %begun to rain after all?


ANODE (27 VIII 96-26 V 99)       
First Line: What shadow lights %the buddings of salt
Last Line: Grammar of bone %fistfuls of dust


ANODE (27 XII 94)       
First Line: The words she spoke in sleep
Last Line: Is it made of sleep we ask %does it carry across the ice


AS       
First Line: As if the small voices
Last Line: Before all the rest


AS A REAL HOUSE       
First Line: I said darkling and you said sparkling'
Last Line: By the sound she hears %pouring from her fingers


AS IF BY SAYING 'MORNING' ON JANUARY 8TH       
Last Line: Where the serpent lives this is is his nest


AT THE TABLE WE SAY       
Last Line: Now it's the liar's burning house


AUTOBIOGRAPHY       
First Line: All clocks are clouds
Last Line: They are not angels. %something else


AUTOBIOGRAPHY 13       
First Line: The hand has numbers on it
Last Line: Aloft, carrying you, jane, and you, bill, %and music will play of its own will


AUTOBIOGRAPHY 2 (HELLOGOODBY); FOR A.C.       
First Line: The book of company which %I put down and can't pick up
Last Line: They are soldering the generals %back onto their pedestals


AUTOBIOGRAPHY 3       
First Line: Yes, I was born on the street known as glass-as paper, scissors or rock
Last Line: Last night the moon was divided precisely in half. %today a terrifying wind


AUTOBIOGRAPHY 4 (IDEM)       
First Line: Voice: do you see that purple tint the sky has taken on?
Last Line: V.: the form is fulfilled at thirty-six. %o.V.: magenta


AUTOBIOGRAPHY 5       
First Line: Not exactly a mark, not exactly a trace
Last Line: The people come in shades of blue. %they take everything from you


AUTOBIOGRAPHY 6       
First Line: My name is johnny jump-up
Last Line: His head rolled down the marble stairs %all this is really true


AUTOBIOGRAPHY 7       
First Line: You go out for a walk in the rain
Last Line: But what of these shadow-flowers with yellow stems? %what of panthers in the skins of men?


AUTOBIOGRAPHY 8       
First Line: You must have confused me with myself
Last Line: On the razor of ockham %I swear I do not


AUTOBIOGRAPHY 9       
First Line: The last two monuments went by very fast
Last Line: Here is a well with no bottom at all %and in this well we dance


BALLAD OF NECESSITIES       
First Line: The moon has been sheared %and so this medicine is no good
Last Line: To be asked. Just leave them out, our shadows, to sing %awful words and dance


BARELY ANYTHING TO SAY...       
Last Line: And that each of those letters has a distinctive shape. Or shade. Impossi- %ble to remember


BAUDELAIRE SERIES       
First Line: A hundred years ago I made a book


BOOK OF       
First Line: A book of nothing gives %him its elbow %or its fist
Last Line: The rest %seemed to be metal. %you will write some salt


BOOK OF THE YELLOW CASTLE    Poem Text    
First Line: This can be seen as placing a mirror against the page
Subject(s): Language Poetry


BOOK OF THE YELLOW CASTLE       
First Line: This can be seen as placing a mirror against the page
Last Line: These are scalings of a sentence
Subject(s): Language Poetry


BUT       
First Line: But the birth and death of stars?
Last Line: Pages turning themselves %in the paper house?


C       
First Line: Called poem of the end


CALL       
First Line: If I do not watch the printer it will print a thing I %recognize not
Last Line: She is practicing her figured eights


CALLED POEM OF THE END       
Last Line: In broken sevens like this


CARNIVAL, AND THE ODD LIGHT...       
Last Line: Words to revive them. Fire as a sign


CHANGES AROUND THE BAY       
First Line: In this kind of weaather
Last Line: We came %it's also later


CITES       
First Line: Can lie, but %under the grey %a part seen
Last Line: Prolapsed in shadow %a raised arm


CITES       
First Line: Can lie, but
Last Line: Prolapsed in shadow %a raised arm


CLASSICAL STYLE       
First Line: It seems they never complete these things
Last Line: Into the less %renamed the present


COIL       
First Line: Sad coil of streets emitted by a scream
Last Line: Or dissolved into another, %pick one


COMET       
First Line: That year the end of winter stood under a sign
Last Line: As forecast long ago by the prophets %in a circus farce


CREASE       
First Line: Crease in the snowy field
Last Line: This heap of photographs


CROSSING THE HILL       
First Line: Queens and kings of the perilous edge
Last Line: To decorate a hill


DANCE OF THE BEES: SEPTEMBER       
First Line: As the sun's %light caught in a mirror
Last Line: Avoid all suicide pacts


DEAD SEASON       
First Line: An hour glares narrowly at five %our house burning but quiet, torsos
Last Line: Others at noon intensified by purple frames %that bend


DEAR LEXICON, I DIED IN YOU       
Last Line: I couldn't understand the rest


DEAR M       
First Line: Look this figure half-hidden is not a book
Last Line: And hurried to unlearn them


DEAR M       
First Line: Yes it is sex and money that matters, a long canyon wind effects, water
Last Line: The foreign version tells us neither more nor less


DEAR M       
First Line: The sky today yes and no. I am writing a play about a man with a pebble
Last Line: Born in the false spring of 1732. This letter is to confirm that your visit has %occurred or soon wi


DEAREST READER       
First Line: He painted the mountain over and over again
Last Line: Or the photograph of nothing but pigeons %and grackles by the shadow of a fountain


DECK, SEL.       
First Line: Card of rags and of willows. Of the sweeper lying down before
Last Line: Our grammar, outsides for insides, afters in befores


DESIRE WAS A QUOTATION FROM SOMEONE       
Last Line: And the tribe to show you its tongue. It has only one


DISCLOSURES       
First Line: Beneath the writing on the wall
Last Line: On the reverse of this sheet


DOCUMENTATION       
First Line: This road ends in a field of grain
Last Line: And we have half forgotten each word's name %the sky moves that quickly through the frame


DREAM CALLED THE HOUSE OF JEWS       
First Line: Many gathered many friends maybe everyone
Last Line: The room is not the place or the name


ECHO       
First Line: Which resounds. Re-sounds. Where first
Last Line: And told him again


ECHO       
First Line: The two poles. We didn't disagree %that meetings should be begun
Last Line: Again and again %seemed entirely different


ECHO       
First Line: Which in a dry season might %begin or might precede its
Last Line: And monkey-flower; the key first %spoken of; wide azure borders


EIGHTH SKY       
First Line: It is scribbled along the body
Last Line: Into an alphabet in stone


END OF THE ICE AGE AND ITS WITNESSES       
First Line: Yesterday your fever returned
Last Line: Is coming to understand itself'


EROLOG       
First Line: Asked, don't you dream, do you ever
Last Line: We pointed toward space %as it is before day


FACADES FOR NORMA COLE    Poem Text    
First Line: These ornaments as we pass
Subject(s): Language Poetry


FACADES FOR NORMA COLE       
First Line: These ornaments as we pass
Last Line: It came about by itself %during yesterday's storm
Subject(s): Language Poetry


FALSE PORTRAIT       
First Line: He-she bends at the mirrored waist
Last Line: The water's body has stored up light


FALSE PORTRAIT OF D.B. AS NICCOLO PAGANINI       
First Line: Those who have lived here since before
Last Line: And let nations strike medals in his name


FALSE PORTRAIT OF HANNA H       
First Line: Empty faces of %and tomorrow's alternate idea
Last Line: And the rider's grey horse %before the city walls


FAR AWAY NEAR       
First Line: As it's said in the fragments
Last Line: Where the rain continues


FIFTH PROSE       
First Line: Because I'm writing about the snow not the sentence
Last Line: First a razor then a fact


FIFTH SYMMETRICAL POEM       
First Line: The way the future uses up blood and light
Last Line: We would move them %to get somewhere


FIGURE       
First Line: Figure %the gammadion
Last Line: In sagittarius the centaur %'diurnal archer


FIRST FIGURE       
First Line: The name is spelled without letters how can this be
Last Line: Quite a short pleasure. The police know all about it


FIVE EASY POEMS; FOR ANNE-MARIE ALBIACH: 1       
First Line: Two pictures of a rose in the dark
Last Line: Hanging over it %as if asleep while writing this


FIVE EASY POEMS; FOR ANNE-MARIE ALBIACH: 2    Poem Text    
First Line: Two pictures of a rose in the dark
Subject(s): Flowers; Photography & Photographers; Roses


FIVE EASY POEMS; FOR ANNE-MARIE ALBIACH: 2       
First Line: Two pictures of a rose in the dark
Last Line: Back toward the whir %and the whistling of things
Subject(s): Flowers; Photography And Photographers; Roses


FIVE EASY POEMS; FOR ANNE-MARIE ALBIACH: 3       
First Line: It is as it was in the film
Last Line: The camera shuttles nervously %eddies of dust rise up
Subject(s): Motion Pictures


FIVE EASY POEMS; FOR ANNE-MARIE ALBIACH: 4 (MEZZA VOICE)    Poem Text    
First Line: Does he incline his head to become calligraphy
Last Line: Of the odeum?
Subject(s): Voices


FIVE EASY POEMS; FOR ANNE-MARIE ALBIACH: 4 (MEZZA VOICE)       
First Line: Does he incline his head to become calligraphy
Last Line: What is the space %of the odeum?
Subject(s): Voices


FIVE EASY POEMS; FOR ANNE-MARIE ALBIACH: 5       
First Line: All poems %are esay poems
Last Line: The easiest poems %of all
Subject(s): Poetry And Poets


FLOWER OF CAPITAL       
First Line: The flower of capital is small and white large and grey-green in a storm its
Last Line: As for example: one-two-three? And can it curve into closure from %there to here?


FONTANA DOM       
First Line: Somewhere before the gate
Last Line: In silence on the windows


FOR L.Z.       
First Line: A reasonable ear %in music. Bottom
Last Line: As the bridge came down %following the song


FOR PAOLO AND ANDY       
Last Line: Warm today in a field of crows


FOR VOICE       
First Line: A little faithful to the dream mirror
Last Line: As if asleep %eye precedes ear


FOURTH SYMMETRICAL POEM       
First Line: A book with lines through the words cannot be read
Last Line: In one sense to be done


FRACTAL SONG       
First Line: I do not know where I will be in july %sam said or said sam
Last Line: Clouds are not spheres we know %now, and mountains not cones


FRENCH FOR APRIL FOOL'S       
First Line: I will name it anything I will name you this
Last Line: What should we do in the coming white days


FROM C       
First Line: Paper universe of primes


FROM THE ANTHOLOGY (W'S DREAM)       
First Line: A book full of dark pictures
Last Line: Or creation's mists


HE STOPPED PART WAY ACROSS THE FIELD TO       
Last Line: Is not the sun secretly dying %during the night


HEADLESS MAN WALKS, LIVES       
Last Line: A bark sets out on the honeycomb's flow %we called it le depart


HERE THE IMAGE OF A CHILD ON A HILL       
Last Line: Then ego scriptor gets blotted out


HERON IS RIDING       
Last Line: The animals surround him


HOLY TUESDAY       
First Line: Bright with haze, %the duke came
Last Line: Moon through the first quarter


HUNDRED YEARS AGO I MADE A BOOK       
Last Line: Yes I just dreamed another dream and nobody was in it


I AM AN ARCHITECT IN VIENNA       
Last Line: My tears are for the person I miss, the down on her lip


I DO NOT    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: I do not know english
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


I DO NOT       
First Line: I do not know english
Last Line: I do not know english
Subject(s): Language


I HAVE ANSWERS TO ALL...       
Last Line: Tears, tiny bubbles of spit. It is a head from another century, the last %one or the next


I KILLED A BEE ON THE STREET OF SCISSORS       
Last Line: Then you were not a photograph


I WAS TALKING TO THE BARONESS       
First Line: I was talking to the baroness in the green room
Last Line: The scene as always is tropical


IDEAS AREN'T WORTH ANYTHING       
Last Line: Your eyes are tired so keep them closed %once an image broke an arm


IDEM 1       
First Line: Let's see, how could you describe this to a listener? How can I describe
Last Line: Now I remember-the play has begun!


IDEM 2       
First Line: Rebeginning and beginnings is what she told me or what she showed me
Last Line: And a sound like water


IDEM 3       
First Line: Tree and book and book and tree and book. Music we refuse to forget. A
Last Line: Morning thinking he had heard a scream


IDEM 4       
First Line: Look I have been had entered a room large or small had entered have
Last Line: Her palm no image no city no images to come


IF NOT, NOT       
First Line: They tell each other stories
Last Line: Pond, stagnant in the shadow %of smoke. The late flowers


IN AN X       
First Line: I describe this as if it were before me it is not before me
Last Line: Not %wake


IN C       
First Line: Pared and lettered to an edge
Last Line: Our nils a century's redress


IN THE EMPIRE OF LIGHT       
Last Line: Chalk-marks show them where to stand


ITS FORM       
First Line: Its form, at tables by fours
Last Line: By eyes, and seeing twice


KN'       
First Line: We made a week of eight days
Last Line: Run your fingers down the page


LEFT UNFINISHED SIXTEEN TIMES       
First Line: I is the director of three letters and the dead director
Last Line: Insist 'I cannot remember.' who is it will admit to this


LENS    Poem Text    
First Line: I failed to draw a map and you followed it perfectly
Subject(s): Language Poetry


LENS       
First Line: I failed to draw a map and you followed it perfectly
Last Line: A few steps should be enough
Subject(s): Language Poetry


LENS       
First Line: You are identical with a wooden match
Last Line: Did we listen to part song through a lens


LEONARDO IMPROVISATIONS: 1       
First Line: Can the %two be
Last Line: The two %be drawn %apart


LEONARDO IMPROVISATIONS: 2       
First Line: What of the words reversed
Last Line: Appear as more than real %reflected there


LEONARDO IMPROVISATIONS: 3       
First Line: First write of all water
Last Line: Book of the earth split in half


LEONARDO IMPROVISATIONS: 4       
First Line: The measure of the actual body
Last Line: On the plane of the imaginary page


LEONARDO IMPROVISATIONS: 5       
First Line: Curl of leaf and wave
Last Line: As much what has disappeared %as what remains


LETTERS TO ZANZOTTO: LETTER 1       
First Line: Wasn't it done then undone by
Last Line: Said what to them %and to us as them


LETTERS TO ZANZOTTO: LETTER 2       
First Line: Belowabove: hum of the possible-to-say
Last Line: Of an alphabet underground


LETTERS TO ZANZOTTO: LETTER 3       
First Line: Our errors at zero: milk for mist, grin
Last Line: In this tongue which will pass


LETTERS TO ZANZOTTO: LETTER 4       
First Line: Almost or more than or almost alive
Last Line: A snow more red than white


LETTERS TO ZANZOTTO: LETTER 5       
First Line: Desired, the snow falls upward
Last Line: Figment and testament as one


LETTERS TO ZANZOTTO: LETTER 6       
First Line: Dear z %so we accused mimesis, accused
Last Line: And the circle of shadow


LETTERS TO ZANZOTTO: LETTER 7       
First Line: But the buried walls and our mouths of fragments
Last Line: Put on your latest gear


LETTERS TO ZANZOTTO: LETTER 8       
First Line: So a's finally, alephs and arcades
Last Line: For that earth and that smoke


LIBRARY IS BURNING       
First Line: The library is burning floor by floor
Last Line: It felt the most precise
Subject(s): Language Poetry


LIES OF THE POEM       
First Line: We welcomed the breeze
Last Line: And where expectation plays no part


MAN UNDERGOES PAIN SITTING AT A PIANO       
Last Line: Such thoughts destroy music %and this at least is good


MARCH '93'       
First Line: As what's-his-name says in 109, movement three
Last Line: For a while. It's enough


MARIA'S GIFT       
First Line: Noir for example, negro, as in any case
Last Line: To prove winter among double stars


MEADOW       
First Line: Resembling a meadow
Last Line: Whose readers are unable to read


MEI-MEI, HERE IS THE TABLE       
Last Line: Chin's hardness %'forehead filled with dust'


MEN WITHOUT ARMS THEIR HEADS IN A BOX       
Last Line: The beginning of the story from the end


METAPHYSICIAN OF PRAGUE (AUTOBIOGRAPHY 11)       
First Line: The metaphysician of prague whom %I will call quod, short for quodlibet
Last Line: And quod whiter than white, whiter than %the page? Do you remember the page?


MULTIPLES       
First Line: Well the hearts are-is- %where you find 'em
Last Line: Causing us to walk %somewhat differently %than before


MUSIC BY DAVID HUME       
First Line: You are there because it surrounds you %it has the appearance of air
Last Line: The eyes shuttling helplessly %by the morning of the fifty-fourth day


MUSIC REWRITTEN       
First Line: Yes and no then yes and no
Last Line: Which is the wrong name in any case


MUSICA FICTA       
First Line: This I will never tell. I slept under a thing. It was a feather. Then the
Last Line: A city made of sand made of glass. Or a measured distance for which the %octave stands


NIGHT SKY       
First Line: A chair grows from the floor %now that the age
Last Line: The rows of passengers content %with the absence of movement


NINTH SYMMETRICAL POEM       
First Line: It's november the thirty-third
Last Line: Mirrored we reflect such things %as they've seen


NO PAGE (UNTURNED)       
First Line: From the speaker's place of speech there's nothing
Last Line: Last year's performance, refusing to become speakers themselves


NOTES FOR ECHO LAKE: 1       
First Line: He says this red as dust, a literal self among selves and picks the coffee %up
Last Line: Where only recently had occurred the abandonment of signs


NOTES FOR ECHO LAKE: 10       
First Line: He would live against sentences %trees here broad of leaf the several speakers
Last Line: He would live inside the well


NOTES FOR ECHO LAKE: 11       
First Line: An eye remembers history by the pages of the house in flames, rolls forward
Last Line: Tences they form should not exist. Poems will sometimes overcome them, %or else stones


NOTES FOR ECHO LAKE: 12       
First Line: These poles don't seem to light our way
Last Line: We saw, objects much like those everyone had known


NOTES FOR ECHO LAKE: 2       
First Line: He would assume a seeing into the word, whoever was there to look
Last Line: We have never been happy here have never been happier


NOTES FOR ECHO LAKE: 3       
First Line: Words that come in smoke and go
Last Line: In the poem he learns to turn and turn, and prose seems always a sentence long


NOTES FOR ECHO LAKE: 4       
First Line: Who did he talk to %did she trust what she saw
Last Line: Who taught you not to speak %whose is the voice that empties


NOTES FOR ECHO LAKE: 5       
First Line: The tree's green explains what a light means, an idea, the bomb or donald
Last Line: Drank from an actual glass of beer. An outstretched arm offers me its hand


NOTES FOR ECHO LAKE: 6       
First Line: A tree's streaming imitates light. Water gathers light behind the arm. The
Last Line: Coffee is sent. Here dancing is done in fear across rooftops


NOTES FOR ECHO LAKE: 7       
First Line: So this was the story is a story gibbous moon 1:10 am he falls toward the
Last Line: Blue as of a letter red as of a name written backward


NOTES FOR ECHO LAKE: 8       
First Line: Abragrammatica %he she will or did
Last Line: There is this end and what resembles it %there is a certain distance


NOTES FOR ECHO LAKE: 9       
Last Line: Was lying in am lying on I is I am it surrounds


NOVEMBER TALKS       
First Line: Certain faces seem to be ours %pieces of april broken from the main part
Last Line: Here, so many missing %who might have been here


NOWNESS AND NOWNESS SINGS THE CROW       
Last Line: We are alive we are covering our eyes %tell the spires


O YOU IN THAT LITTLE BARK       
Last Line: The signature obviously forged


OF       
First Line: Of this photograph no one has taken
Last Line: This photograph no one has seen %offers itself in evidence


OF THIS CLOTH DOLL WHICH (SARAH'S FOURTH)    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: Of this cloth doll which
Subject(s): Dolls; Toys


OF THIS CLOTH DOLL WHICH (SARAH'S FOURTH)       
First Line: Of this cloth doll which
Last Line: To out of the whale's mouth
Subject(s): Dolls; Toys


ON THE WAY TO LANGUAGE    Poem Text    
First Line: The answer was / the sun, the question
Subject(s): Language Poetry


ON THE WAY TO LANGUAGE       
First Line: The answer was %the sun, the question
Last Line: Crossed by the bridge %of frequent sighs
Subject(s): Language Poetry


OPENING IS READ BY THE TONGUE       
Last Line: Of flies gathered %at lips and eyes


ORDER OF ISLANDS HERE       
Last Line: Whenever we find it %missing


OWNERLESS HOUSES       
First Line: Traffic light-wooden box, slat walls, a sofa
Last Line: Above, white chair of fragile plastic-bush %building, veranda


PAINTED CUP       
First Line: This was not experience %but life itself and the hills
Last Line: That to speech are as distant, %or dissonant, matter


PAPER UNIVERSE OF PRIMES       
Last Line: ('moths') %are figured there


PICTURE (AUTOBIOGRAPHY 18)       
First Line: If 'on a stair' %and gazing through glass
Last Line: Now say the word 'fault' %then stare at this mark


POEM       
First Line: We will not go out to hear the 'mysterious and private'
Last Line: Sounds because of this storm


POEM IN TWO PARTS       
First Line: And I arrived there with closed eyes
Last Line: The accelerator and off came his head


POEMS WITHIN A MATRIX FOR WAR: 1. H       
First Line: We sat on the cliff-head
Last Line: Gaia the bag lady %in sadness below


POEMS WITHIN A MATRIX FOR WAR: 2. CONSTRUCTION OF THE MUSEUM       
First Line: In the hole we found beside the road
Last Line: What a noise the words make %writing themselves


POEMS WITHIN A MATRIX FOR WAR: 3. (APRIL '91)       
First Line: La narrativa says you must paint a flower
Last Line: Studio at night %everything in place


POEMS WITHIN A MATRIX FOR WAR: 4. H       
First Line: Yet the after is still a storm
Last Line: Present which cannot be found


POEMS WITHIN A MATRIX FOR WAR: 5. WHEEL       
First Line: You can say the broken word but cannot speak
Last Line: Which would open either way


POEMS WITHIN A MATRIX FOR WAR: 6. 24 LOGICS IN MEMORY OF LEE HICKMAN       
First Line: The bend in the river followed us for days
Last Line: Enough at last to close our eyes


POEMS WITHIN A MATRIX FOR WAR: 7. 'OR ANYTHING RESEMBLING IT'       
First Line: The hills like burnt pages
Last Line: To those who say we are burning the pages


PORTRAIT NOW BEFORE THEN       
First Line: That is a, that is anna speaking. That is a, that is no one speaking and it's
Last Line: Coming to the age I am


PRE-PETRARCHAN SONNET       
First Line: Someone identical with dante %sits beside a stone. Enough
Last Line: Here and there it was very light and dark


PRELUDE       
First Line: The limit of the song is this
Last Line: Why the delay


PROJECT OF LINEAR INQUIRY       
First Line: Let a be taken as...
Last Line: Before us, nothing to fear


PROMISES OF GLASS (AUTOBIOGRAPHY 17)       
First Line: Will be will have been
Last Line: This new pen hardly works at all %grace notes and ghost notes bouncing off the walls


PROSE 22       
First Line: Plan of the city of o. The great square
Last Line: Larger and less perfect box


PROSE 31: THE LOGIC OF CONTRADICTIONS       
First Line: A logical principle is said to be an empty
Last Line: Conceals another anacoluthon


PROSE 9       
First Line: Prose 9 is about the space between the
Last Line: Leaving a mountain


PROSE FOR THE WORLD'S BODY       
First Line: Perhaps there is danger; perhaps
Last Line: Moth at the windowpane, a %pulse. It is no one


PURPLES OF BARLEY       
First Line: And all of the time you are seeing these things she
Last Line: Loudly but with authority


Q       
First Line: Quod reflects %upon the amulet
Last Line: Lost among them %attempts to hum


QUAX THE HARD LUCK PILOT       
First Line: This light must be coming from somewhere
Last Line: I ellerkamp his projectionist


QUESTIONS OF CROWS       
First Line: There is dust. Are we %to love the dust? There
Last Line: Are we to love the %dust? Make tents of shadows?


REASONED REPLY TO GILBERT RYLE       
First Line: Sound becomes difficult
Last Line: Unless the window itself %is broken


RECURSUS       
First Line: The voice, because of its austerity, will often cause dust to rise
Last Line: We think to say in some language


RED YELLOW BLUE       
First Line: Now that you know all the words
Last Line: If you choose, as choose you must %all along, %a song


SAID THE SPEAKER       
Last Line: To be cut %as a tongue or a knot


SAID THE SPEAKER       
Last Line: Curled like leaves %black as tongues


SAO PAULO SIGHS (AUTOBIOGRAPHY 14)       
First Line: Our sighs in sao paulo
Last Line: From sulfur
Subject(s): Sao Paulo, Brazil; Sighs


SB       
First Line: So a seed or syllable pitched into the well
Last Line: Measured step by step


SCALE       
First Line: The red vowels, how they spill
Last Line: Or will they huddle out of sight %in confusion and fear


SECOND NIGHT SONG (AUTOBIOGRAPHY 16)       
First Line: Nail we saw %edging along a sentence
Last Line: Arkadii are you counting %the shards of shattered glass


SECRET REMAINS IN THE BOOK       
Last Line: Nights that like the book are lost


SEVEN FORBIDDEN WORDS    Poem Text    
First Line: Who peered from the invisible world
Subject(s): Language Poetry


SEVEN FORBIDDEN WORDS       
First Line: Who peered from the invisible world
Last Line: And the inhabitants welcomed them
Subject(s): Language Poetry


SEVEN LINES OF EQUAL LENGTH       
First Line: He describes a city that apparently never was
Last Line: Lies open on the reading stand %'the sun is well above the horizon'


SHE SAYS, YOU ARE THE NEGATIVE       


SHE SAYS, YOU ARE THE NEGATIVE-       
Last Line: Far less than a second will have passed


SIGN       
First Line: Are you asleep m. Valdemar
Last Line: Everything of smoke was ours


SIX HERMETIC SONGS       
First Line: How did we measure
Last Line: Lotus and hawk %palette plus ink-pot


SIX ILLUSTRATIONS: 1. LITTLE FIRES       
First Line: From the balcony we see a town we see a lake we see walkers along the shore
Last Line: To the figure asleep and the watching child


SIX ILLUSTRATIONS: 2. CARLUCCIO       
Last Line: From the singing mouth the thread plays out


SIX ILLUSTRATIONS: 3. ATLANTIC WINDOW       
First Line: They are lovers aligned by blue
Last Line: And flares on the surface of the lake


SIX ILLUSTRATIONS: 4. THE QUESTION       
First Line: Do you not know yet
Last Line: How lightly they rest


SIX ILLUSTRATIONS: 5. SCENE INCLUDING       
First Line: The house arrives then the house arrives
Last Line: Then form a bridge with no one on it


SIX ILLUSTRATIONS: 6. THE QUESTION       
First Line: Sometimes they will murder each other %then go to sleep
Last Line: There is a reason for this %which they will forget


SMALL NIGHT SONG FOR JACQUES ROUBAUD       
First Line: In the night of glass
Last Line: Glass of night


SO       
First Line: So the promise of happiness?
Last Line: Beyond the night itself


SO THE DARK FIGURE       
First Line: So the dark figure falls
Last Line: Upon and taken %into this painting


SO WE TRAVELED       
Last Line: And whispered the coming of snow %though far too softly to be heard


SO WITH HIS DAUGHTER ANTIGONE       
Last Line: Has come to resemble not exactly a mountain


SONG OF THE ROUND MAN       
First Line: The round and sad-eyed man puffed cigars as if
Last Line: And we'll puff cigars from noon till night %as if we were alive


SONNET: NOW I SEE THEM       
First Line: Now I see them sitting me before a mirror
Last Line: For a face, and dark lines for arms


SOON       
First Line: Soon the present will arrive
Last Line: Or will they huddle out of sight %in confusion and fear


SOUVENIR OF JAPAN       
First Line: There are shadow figures for a new world
Last Line: The patterns in such a space %would repeat and repeat


SPEECH (ACROSS TIME)       
First Line: If, instead of whispering
Last Line: A' a as in 'far


STANZA       
First Line: A ringing in your left ear....'
Last Line: Does distance cause the call %do nights spin


STONE       
First Line: What of that wolfhound at full stride?
Last Line: What of that wolfhound at your back?


STUDY       
First Line: In a darkened room they
Last Line: It is unclear whether they %believe what they are saying


SUBJECT (AUTOBIOGRAPHY 12 )       
First Line: It is not true that I (the subject) is
Last Line: A stone suspended in air %and on it an ancient city


SUN    Poem Text     Recitation
First Line: Write this. We have burned all their villages
Subject(s): Language; Sun; Words; Vocabulary


SUN (1), SELS.       
Subject(s): Language


SUN (2)       
First Line: Write this. We have burned all their villages
Last Line: Known as these letters -- humid, sunless. The writing occurs on their walls
Subject(s): Language


SYMMETRICAL POEM       
First Line: There is interest in being able to feel what you see
Last Line: Look up you may think to tell them %but the words will fail to come out


SYMMETRICAL POEM: THEY WERE AFRAID OF DEATH       
First Line: He would live against sentences
Last Line: Careful to avoid the shore


TENTH SYMMETRICAL POEM       
First Line: A dream in imperfect alexandrines
Last Line: Who are waiting to be translated %do not


THE       
First Line: The red vowels, how they spill
Last Line: And us outside %by other worlds


THE LIBRARY IS BURNING    Poem Text    
First Line: The library is burning floor by floor
Subject(s): Language Poetry


THEE THOU ON LOOKING OUT       
Last Line: On looking out from this house


THEORY OF THE FLOWER       
First Line: I will read a few of these to see if they exist
Last Line: From which we fall toward a window


THERE ARE PIECES OF THE LAKE       
Last Line: These fragments of a face %now weighing %upon %you


THERE IS MUCH THAT IS PRECISE       
Last Line: Between us, two of this %and three of that


THIRD SYMMETRICAL POEM       
First Line: Were you listening and
Last Line: Of the painting of the face


THIS       
First Line: This perfect half-moon
Last Line: And a child this day swept out to sea


THIS IS DIFFICULT BUT NOT IMPOSSIBLE: COFFEE       
Last Line: Will be walking in circles next to the water


THIS TIME       
First Line: Once I fell in the ocean when
Last Line: This time it was me


THROUGH TIME       
First Line: You are in for another surprise too
Last Line: Suspended at eye-level %waiting for the life to start


TO LEARN WHAT TO SAY TO UNLEARN       
Last Line: If I knew it it's what I thought %it was


TO ROBERT E. SYMMES 1933 FOR A GIFT OF RESEMBLANCES       
First Line: His arm slept. Dream-wounded and a former
Last Line: Each is missing part of his name %and each longs to be drawn a face


TOMB OF BAUDELAIRE       
First Line: At the end of the bridge is a state of prison. Then
Last Line: To wear? And how about the motel bill


TOWER       
First Line: Awake way into the night
Last Line: Titled my life as a futurist


UNDER THE PERSEIDS       
First Line: Even as it passes
Last Line: Tremor as the body opens %always perishing


UNTITLED       
Last Line: Only certain %distances to serve %in place of a title


UNTITLED       
First Line: The altered body %in parts or particles
Last Line: Wet it becomes a brick %to play with then discard


UNTITLED (FAR AWAY NEAR)       
First Line: Still early still late
Last Line: Yet let it not reach the ear


UNTITLED (FEBRUARY '92)       
First Line: Sleep said: the unpronounceable shadows
Last Line: It's invisible ink which blots them out


UNTITLED (FEBRUARY 2000)       
First Line: The naked woman at the window
Last Line: As for today, leap year day %the window was empty


UNTITLED (MAY '99)       
First Line: The dance of the three-legged man
Last Line: One last dance three-legged man


UNTITLED (SEPTEMBER '92)       
First Line: Or maybe this
Last Line: As if by intent


VIEW FROM AN APARTMENT       
First Line: The word 'dream' is technical and means nothing
Last Line: You must stay awake until this ends


VILLAGE OF REASON       
First Line: This is a glove
Last Line: This is a poppy, %this an epilogue


VITRUVIAN FIGURE BY JUAN GRIS       
First Line: Begins with a line from donne
Last Line: The limits of the ring


VOICE AND ADDRESS       
First Line: You are the owner of one complete thought
Last Line: Arriving in competing waves %from the ruins of that place


WE WILL CALL TODAY       
Last Line: We floated %and it could be said that we floated


WELL       
First Line: How to make love with %a watch on your wrist
Last Line: Spelled without letters %it dreams of itself


WHITE NOTEBOOK       
First Line: But we have painted over the chalky folds
Last Line: We shared one shadow. %in the heat she tasted of salt


WHO IS TO SAY       
Last Line: Across the river in the dark


WHO IS TO SAY       
Last Line: Across the river in the dark


WITHOUT MUSIC       
First Line: Small sun against the lower edge licking us
Last Line: This poem is called rebuilding the house


WORD IS COMING UP ON THE SCREEN...       
Last Line: Your english I do not speak. A word is coming up on the screen


WORDS SAY, MISSPELL AND MISSPELL YOUR NAME       
Last Line: Full of broken tones %silences we mean to cross one day


WRITER'S DREAM (THE WAGON)       
First Line: Out of the city's
Last Line: Commanded this of me %for spring


WRITER'S DREAM (UNTITLED)       
First Line: Untitled %and at night
Last Line: In place of a title


YES IN A CIRCLE       
Last Line: But in a sealed and measured space %called here and now for now


YOU SAY       
Last Line: Whatever happened then will not happen again %please move my arm


YOU SAY       


YOU, ISLAND IN THIS PAGE       
Last Line: Relax and watch yourself pass %look at the thread


YOU, ISLAND IN THIS PAGE       
Last Line: Evening to eyelid %thread to thread



Palmer. Michael    Poet's Biography
34 poems available by this author


AS A REAL HOUSE    Poem Text    
First Line: I said darkling and you said sparkling
Subject(s): Houses; Imagination; Fancy


AS IF BY SAYING “MORNING” ON JANUARY 8TH    Poem Text    


AUTOBIOGRAPHY    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: All clocks are clouds.
Subject(s): Life; Self


AUTOBIOGRAPHY 2 (HELLOGOODBY)    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: The book of company which
Subject(s): Life; Relationships; Time


AUTOBIOGRAPHY 3    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
Subject(s): Self; Aging; Ancestors & Ancestry; Heritage; Heredity


COMPANY OF MOTHS    Poem Text    
First Line: We thought it could all be found in the book of poor text
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


DEAREST READER    Poem Text    
First Line: He painted the mountain over and over again
Subject(s): Art & Artists


DISCLOSURES    Poem Text    
First Line: Beneath the writing on the wall
Subject(s): Writing & Writers


EIGHTH SKY    Poem Text     Recitation
First Line: It is scribbled along the body
Subject(s): Alphabets; Poetry & Poets


FALSE PORTRAIT OF D.B. AS NICCOLÒ PAGANINI    Poem Text    
First Line: Those who have lived here since before
Subject(s): Paganini, Niccolo (1782-1840)


H    Poem Text    
First Line: Yet the after is still a storm
Subject(s): Time; Poetry & Poets


HE STOPPED PART WAY ACROSS THE FIELD TO    Poem Text    


IDEM 1    Poem Text    
Subject(s): Desire; Writing & Writers


IF NOT, NOT    Poem Text    
First Line: They tell each other stories,


IN THE EMPIRE OF LIGHT    Poem Text    


LETTER 7    Poem Text    
First Line: But the buried walls and our mouths of fragments
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


NOTES FOR ECHO LAKE 1    Poem Text    
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


NOTES FOR ECHO LAKE 4    Poem Text    
First Line: Who did he talk to
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


O YOU IN THAT LITTLE BARK    Poem Text    
Subject(s): Paintings & Painters


PRELUDE    Poem Text    
First Line: The limit of the song is this
Subject(s): Life


PROSE 22    Poem Text    
First Line: Plan of the city of o. The great square
Subject(s): City & Town Life


PROSE 31    Poem Text    
First Line: A logical principle is said to be an empty
Subject(s): Philosophy & Philosophers; Language; Words; Vocabulary


RECURSUS    Poem Text    
First Line: The voice, because of its austerity, will often cause dust to rise.
Subject(s): Voices; Language; Words; Vocabulary


SONG OF THE ROUND MEN    Poem Text    
First Line: The round and sad-eyed man puffed cigars as if
Subject(s): Grief; Identity; Sorrow; Sadness


SONNET    Poem Text    
First Line: Now I see them sitting me before a mirror
Subject(s): Fathers; Numbers


STONE    Poem Text    
First Line: What of the wolfhound at full stride?


THE ORDER OF ISLANDS HERE    Poem Text    


THE PROJECT OF LINEAR INQUIRY    Poem Text    
First Line: [let a be taken as . . .]
Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships; Male-female Relations


THE REPUBLIC OF DREAMS    Poem Text    
First Line: She lay so still that
Subject(s): Dreams; Nightmares


TO LEARN WHAT TO SAY TO UNLEARN    Poem Text    


TOMB OF BAUDELAIRE    Poem Text    
First Line: At the end of the bridge is a state of prison. Then
Subject(s): Poetry Readings; Poetry & Poets


TWENTY-FOUR LOGICS IN MEMORY OF LEE HICKMAN    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: The bend in the river followed us for days
Subject(s): Time; Life; Poetry & Poets


WHEEL    Poem Text    
First Line: You can say the broken word but cannot speak
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


WHO IS TO SAY    Poem Text    
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary