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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: PHILLIPS, CARL Matches Found: 269 Phillips, Carl Poet's Biography 269 poems available by this author A KIND OF MEADOW Poem Text Subject(s): Landscape; Nature A MATHEMATICS OF BREATHING Poem Text First Line: Think of any of several arched Last Line: Is how it starts Subject(s): Breath AFRICA SAYS First Line: Before you arrive, forget Last Line: To make each move count. %you may have learned nothing at all AFTERWORD First Line: In the long dreaming, the old gods are again Last Line: Knock wood, the matter; somewhere you're still %with me, you're not with me AGAINST HIS QUITTING THE TORN FIELD First Line: How, entering %inside him, it became more Last Line: Thus, the shield %she set the clattering bronze down, before him ALBA: AFTER First Line: So you were spared Last Line: By it, that can keep us from that beauty ALBA: COME First Line: #name? Last Line: The guarantee, safe passage away Subject(s): Homosexuality ALBA: FAILURE First Line: If the bare trees at the glass were kings Last Line: Next town is soon, soon. Come. We turn here ALBA: INNOCENCE First Line: Sunday. The bells, as expected. I cannot Last Line: Toward a dark we couldn't fast enough get to ALL ART...' Poem Text First Line: Routinely the sea / unbuckling, out ALL ART...' First Line: Routinely the sea %unbuckling, out Last Line: Let the limbs be cut back Variant Title(s): Interior: 'all Art... Subject(s): Sea ALL IT TAKES First Line: Any force_ %generosity, sudden updraft Last Line: -already-you are leaving. You have %crossed the water AND FITFUL MEMORIES OF PAN: 1. THE ARGUMENT First Line: The argument that rules out %excess must be Last Line: Achingly the light %tips across it AND FITFUL MEMORIES OF PAN: 2. FAVOR First Line: Even from this distance, I can tell %a man, clearly Last Line: Up, through itself -- %give. What he wants, he shall have AND FITFUL MEMORIES OF PAN: 3. NOR BREATH NOR HEAT First Line: Nor stir %as when -- to those Last Line: -- they %do, the lifeless AND FITFUL MEMORIES OF PAN: 4. DROPPED FLUTE First Line: I do not say there weren't signs Last Line: Yet to reach it, their most %full, most slaughterable ripeness AND FITFUL MEMORIES OF PAN: 5. DAPPLED SHROUD First Line: Inside the man %stays -- regardless, mere Last Line: The notes %the music AND IT BEGINS LIKE THIS Recitation by Author AND OTHER ANIMALS Poem Text First Line: Roughly the river, running swift, and silver Last Line: Kneeling before me as if to receive their last crowns ANIMAL First Line: The shadow, leaving %the tree's shadow is -- Last Line: Trapped there. Beating %there ANY MOMENT First Line: Any moment, you'll rise, wash Last Line: How a stranger thing happens ARCADIA: 1. DESIRE First Line: The horse does not drink, but I am sure Last Line: Gentle, bring him to me ARCADIA: 2. HE IS A LOVER OF HORSES First Line: He is a lover of horses, but a troubled child also Last Line: It has a name, he tells the men, when they call him ARCADIA: 3. A LATE AND SOLITARY FIGURE First Line: Thunder, and lightning. He keeps his head down Last Line: That he thinks so. He is sure he is the one flower in it ARCADIA: 4. THE TAMING First Line: He is not like the others, who say nothing and leave Last Line: Silk and not water. To look at, unbroken, clean. His AS A BLOW, FROM THE WEST First Line: Names for the moon: %harvest; and blue, and %don't touch me Last Line: My truest self? Why won't you take it-if a gift, if yours? AS FROM A QUIVER OF ARROWS Poem Text First Line: What do we do with the body, do we Subject(s): Aids (disease); Gays & Lesbians; Sickness; Homoeroticism; Lesbians; Gay Women; Gay Men; Illness AS FROM A QUIVER OF ARROWS First Line: What do we do with the body, do we Last Line: Swim? What will I do now, with my hands? Subject(s): Aids (disease); Homosexuality; Sickness AUBADE FOR EVE THE ARBOR First Line: To the buzz and drowse of flies coupling over and over Last Line: Tell me, it seems to say, what can you know of the world AUBADE: SOME PEACHES, AFTER STORM Poem Text First Line: So that each Subject(s): Fruit AUTUMN. A MIXED MUSIC. First Line: Believe me, I would sooner %speak true -- Last Line: Listen: that doesn't happen in this world BILLET-DOUX First Line: Nobody lied; left to themselves, the waves Last Line: This morning: blue luck, a stone hand %coins, that all but give themselves up BLACK BOX First Line: The body, how %then it seemed the length of Last Line: The steep %slope like prairie, %disappears? BLIZZARD Poem Text First Line: After agony had left his body to find another, Subject(s): Betrayal; Relationships BLUE Poem Text First Line: As through marble or the lining of Subject(s): Race Awareness; Ancestors & Ancestry; Heritage; Heredity BLUE First Line: As through marble, or the lining of Last Line: Apparently misinformed about the rumored %stuff of dreams: everywhere I inquired, %I was told look f BLUE CASTRATO: 1. TO HIS SAVIOR IN CHRIST First Line: If I did not, as I do, know well Last Line: I sing - and see? The grasses open BLUE CASTRATO: 2. TO HIS DIARY First Line: Played mister lazy, mostly. Found Last Line: Some hunger (food, et al.). Resisted Subject(s): Diaries BLUE CASTRATO: 3. TO HIS RIGHT HAND First Line: Soft! - is it you? Idiot. Who's Last Line: As usual. I'm better than this. I am BLUE CASTRATO: 4. TO HIS PSYCHIATRIST First Line: Volcano. No, a bud that brooks Last Line: My way. Plays horn. Spits up: - a lily BLUE CASTRATO: 5. TO HIS SAVIOR IN CHRIST First Line: Haven't I hymned your praise enough Last Line: I'm no less yours. In need, your servant BLUE CASTRATO: 6. TO HIS BODY AT 42 (A VALENTINE) First Line: Dear vessel - little boat - of me Last Line: These still-immaculate-sounding notes BRIGHT WORLD First Line: -and it came to pass, that meaning faltered; came detached Last Line: Distracted, has stopped struggling-and the heart gives in BRIGHT WORLD, AND BRIGHTENING First Line: He said forsythia, he was Last Line: And watched it grow steadily %useless in my hands BROCADE First Line: As when the vine, climbing Last Line: Softly, as I sway among them CANOE First Line: The brow of a man who, %when he takes to his own Last Line: I want forgiveness to be as easy as the gestures for it, it %isn't, is it? CARAVAN First Line: Clarion, %boom-time, %yes-though, more often Last Line: Apparently. I am leading the way CHAMBER MUSIC First Line: Like something broken of wing, lying there Last Line: Constrain-me. Turn it over. Now do it again CHARM First Line: Years, now.-cities %past that. To be %able to name them Last Line: Means, doesn't it, %to be saved? CHOSEN FIGURE First Line: That was the winter of three Last Line: Where the lord has touched you CIVILIZATION Poem Text Subject(s): Longing; Relationships; Ambition CLARITY First Line: No dream-but as %if so, moving at first %with the force of Last Line: I take it, in the darkness, to my face CLAY First Line: The shape of any thing Last Line: When did I choose %the flesh, wanting CLEARING First Line: Had the light %changed, possibly-or Last Line: If stay my hand-where %rest it? CLOUD COUNTRY Recitation by Author COMPASS First Line: A star %dog with torch in its mouth Last Line: What is lovely -- an arrow CORTEGE Poem Text First Line: If the sea could dream, and if the sea Subject(s): Life; Grief; Relationships; Sorrow; Sadness CORTEGE First Line: If the sea could dream, and if the sea Last Line: Vincent and matthew and, last, what bore your name COTILLION First Line: Every one of these bodies, those in drag, those Last Line: Maybe, but not on air: this time through water CUSTOM Poem Text First Line: There is a difference it used to make, DEAD RECKONING First Line: Filled, finally, with Last Line: About the trees, where %trees were DEAREST WON First Line: Soon, I suspect, I shall be done with Last Line: Am like damage, be sure. I do not fail DEATH OF THE SIBYL First Line: The world, when it comes, is not the fist Last Line: Har the rush of whole lives passing %elsewhere, without you,and still believe %you have not been ent DEPOSITION First Line: Whether it more was like %the ocean, %or more Last Line: That sort of wind, nor a tunnel, or through one, it %was not like that DOMESTIC Poem Text First Line: If, when studying road atlases Subject(s): Gays & Lesbians; Love; Family Life; Travel; Homoeroticism; Lesbians; Gay Women; Gay Men; Relatives; Journeys; Trips DOMESTIC First Line: If, when studying road atlases Last Line: All I want of the world, coming down ELEGY Poem Text First Line: Poor eros: sadly, as in the boning of fowl Last Line: Pink legs working whole crowds into longing Subject(s): Gays & Lesbians ELEGY First Line: Poor eros: sadly, as in the boning of fowl Last Line: Pink legs working whole crowds into longing Subject(s): Homosexuality ENDING: SAN FRANCISCO: 1. SEAL ROCK First Line: We saw: no seals Last Line: An abrupt, changed want ENDING: SAN FRANCISCO: 2. INTERLUDE: MUIR WOODS First Line: Many trees, red as rumored; cool as rumor confirmed, their cast shadows Last Line: #name? ENDING: SAN FRANCISCO: 2. THE PIER First Line: In the open air, stone basins Last Line: The skilled hands to let the sheets down ETUDE IN D First Line: Late-american. A boy mostly, but with a Last Line: Himself the last to give a name to it FALLING Poem Text Subject(s): Life; Nature; Birds FERVOR First Line: Somewhere between %to be lit %and to be Last Line: It sang all night FFLIGHT OF DOVES Poem Text First Line: I have been the king for whom the loveliest beasts Last Line: I brush the snow from his hair, as I take him, in my arms Subject(s): Gays & Lesbians FILM NOIR First Line: We've just pulled out of Last Line: Between us, the two of us %dissolving, as the door falls down FLUME First Line: The idea is to pretend Last Line: Long for this world FOR ERIN, FOR OTHERS First Line: There are places in this world where Last Line: A word, that's all, like yes, so yes you %say, I'll come, you tell him show me FOR THE FALCONER Poem Text First Line: The hunt -- was good; the kill Subject(s): Hunting; Hunters FOR THE FALCONER First Line: The hunt -- was good; the kill Last Line: (what it most sounded like) %(plunder) Subject(s): Hunting FOUNTAIN First Line: Therefore, not this ocean's %ordinary enough wave and Last Line: You're coming %closer. The body -- gleams FRAY First Line: There it lay, before me, as they had Last Line: To give to shapelessness %a form FREEZE First Line: The only light in the room Subject(s): Snow FREEZE First Line: The only light in the room Last Line: I wondered %if the snow fell there, too Subject(s): Snow FRETWORK First Line: Reports are various- %conflicting also Last Line: #name? FROM THE DEVOTIONS: 1 Poem Text First Line: As if somewhere, away, a dorr had slammed shut Last Line: I can't. I could not save you Subject(s): Aids (disease); Sickness; Illness FROM THE DEVOTIONS: 1 First Line: As if somewhere, away, a dorr had slammed shut Last Line: I can't, I could not save you? Subject(s): Aids (disease); Sickness FROM THE DEVOTIONS: 2 Poem Text First Line: Not, despite what you believed, that Last Line: We were walking, that we are walking upon them Subject(s): Aids (disease); Sickness; Illness FROM THE DEVOTIONS: 2 First Line: Not, despite what you believed, that Last Line: We were walking that we were talking %upon them Subject(s): Aids (disease); Sickness FROM THE DEVOTIONS: 3 Poem Text First Line: All night, again, / a wind that failed to bring storm Last Line: Then we rise; are astounded Subject(s): Aids (disease); Sickness; Illness FROM THE DEVOTIONS: 3 First Line: All night, again, %a wind that failed to bring storm Last Line: Struck down. Then we rise; are astounded Subject(s): Aids (disease); Sickness FULL ACREAGE OF MOURNING First Line: The truth is, I was at the point of utter ruin Last Line: Now, little shield, or little sir refuge, here FUSE First Line: From inside a stillness like that %of leaves hanging in the same %damp and Last Line: Their shouting was %not, I think, the shout of joy? GESTURE, POSSIBLY ARCHAIC First Line: Careful confident both, and %prone, the two of them, to Last Line: The men won't, either %one of them, be missed GIRDING First Line: Clarity verus blur. %it is very-in that way-like the body Last Line: The straps adjust. %like so GLADS First Line: Three, at the most four days later Last Line: Like rescue birds hope clouds mercy GODS First Line: It is not that they don't exist but that they are Last Line: And that clean. Easily it breaks, and it breaks clean GODS LEAVING First Line: That they carry away, with them Last Line: Into it, I did not think to cry out GOLDEN First Line: There, behind the raised %and extended Last Line: Believe each gets what %each deserves GREAT NOISE First Line: Then he died Last Line: To the highest, brightest star GROVE First Line: Half litter, %half decoration Last Line: How it gives them away HALO First Line: In the dream, as if to remind %himself of his own power-that he Last Line: Inexorable as luck-the dream, turning, %with you HEAVEN First Line: Here, to no wave or bough even a least trembling Last Line: The same wilderness -- the way light is windless -- as here HERE, ON EARTH First Line: When the battle, like favor, shifts Last Line: You carried me. You took me. You hid your face HERMAPHRODITE First Line: Named half after the god Last Line: All over again in myself, %in this body of mine HOME MOVIE First Line: Nearly everyone in it's a dead man Last Line: Or after. The people came back and, yes, %there's a difference; but that's not it HONEY HUSH First Line: It will be as if: fur. As if trust Last Line: Or despair: no struggle attends that descent HOUR OF DUSK First Line: Finally, hero means only having %with more distinction, nerve, or Last Line: The event between them that -- is %need until, unflinchingly, it isn't HOW WE MET THE BARBARIANS First Line: We knew by the boots Last Line: History makes - %one life folding %into another HUNTERS First Line: That they, in fitful bands, came Last Line: Stringing his bow; another, the way he had raised his HUSTLER SPEAKS OF PLACES First Line: I've known places: %I've known places weary as the flesh when it's had some Last Line: My soul has been changed in places HYMN Poem Text First Line: Less the shadow Subject(s): God; Death; Relationships; Dead, The HYMN First Line: Less the shadow %than you a stag, sudden, through it Last Line: All the unglittering other dropped stones HYMNS AND FRAGMENTS First Line: These are the gloves-of doeskin-he had specially made Last Line: This is how you paint a sleeping bird I SEE A MAN First Line: He has just had sex. I can tell by the way, when he Last Line: It's easy, still, to say a thing like that. Write it down. %even. Call it a poem IF A WILDERNESS Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Then spring came: Subject(s): Spring IF POLARIZED, IF FILTERED, THEN MORE TRUE First Line: He meant the light. %no %no, he meant the water Last Line: Look like stones mostly-released, as %from a sling IN LOVE First Line: Here, when the light deepens Last Line: Being good, provides IN STONE First Line: Their clothes; their rings as well, until Last Line: All that water. What's done is done IN THE BLOOD, WINNOWING: 1 Poem Text First Line: Before the dumb hoof Subject(s): Aids (disease); Sickness; Illness IN THE BLOOD, WINNOWING: 1 First Line: Before the dumb hoof Last Line: Alone can't account for Subject(s): Aids (disease); Sickness IN THE BLOOD, WINNOWING: 2 Poem Text First Line: What is it but / yours, the one hand Subject(s): Aids (disease); Sickness; Illness IN THE BLOOD, WINNOWING: 2 First Line: What is it but %yours, the one hand Last Line: Of conclusion, %all it ever was Subject(s): Aids (disease); Sickness IN THE BLOOD, WINNOWING: 3 Poem Text First Line: Stones do not matter Subject(s): Aids (disease); Sickness; Illness IN THE BLOOD, WINNOWING: 3 First Line: Stones do not matter Last Line: You are all the stones %that keep missing the glass Subject(s): Aids (disease); Sickness IN THE BLOOD, WINNOWING: 4 First Line: Nothing stops %for your admiring the hair Last Line: Where things don't wash off Subject(s): Aids (disease); Sickness IN THE BORGHESE GARDENS First Line: The sad roman emperors were not the many Last Line: Like it's history, or the heart, and not bread IN THE DAYS OF THROWN CONFETTI First Line: You remember. %back when, I suppose Last Line: Took someplace else their hunger IN THE PICTURE First Line: He's younger, early thirties. He's already been Last Line: Do always: leaden, defiant. He seems happy IN THIS LIGHT Poem Text First Line: Sure, I used to say his name like a truth that, just Subject(s): Language; Grief; Words; Vocabulary; Sorrow; Sadness INTERIOR: THE KILL First Line: The last time I gave my body up %to you, I was minded Last Line: Suffering, and love would %out all suffering INTERLUDE First Line: Briefly, an ease %akin to those parts of %the air that Last Line: The body %over.-up. Into yours JUST SOUTH OF THE KINGDOM Poem Text First Line: It is for, you see, eventually the deer Subject(s): Hunting & Hunters JUST THE WIND FOR A SOUND, SOFTLY Poem Text First Line: There's a weed whose name I've meant all summer Last Line: Like your own body to you. And now I can't forget Subject(s): Weeds; Memory; Love JUSTICE First Line: Nameless, or else %many-named, no matter, but the dog must come Last Line: Undamaged, %mercy- %from her mouth. And want no more KIND OF MEADOW First Line: - shored %by trees at its far ending Last Line: Out, the one dappled way, back KING OF HEARTS Poem Text First Line: Somewhere now, someone is missing him Subject(s): Gays & Lesbians KING OF HEARTS First Line: Somewhere now, someone is missing him Last Line: You're the king, you're the king, him saying Subject(s): Homosexuality KIT First Line: At first, %the more obvious, slack-chested tokens may Last Line: Less, at first, like joy that runs you through LAND First Line: The extended tumble %that has been Last Line: The dusk, the light %- for me, say them LANDFALL First Line: Conquest first, of course, then the usual Last Line: So it seemed at first, as the darkness itself %tossed, and shifted LATE APOLLO First Line: Brief in the light of street-lamp, then back again Last Line: That one clear note it gives LATE EMPIRE First Line: To those who were born wanting, the mornings came Last Line: With the patience only echo can sustain, gave back LAY ME DOWN First Line: Lay me down %let me Last Line: Everything, they said %I say it now LEDA, AFTER THE SWAN Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Perhaps, / in the exaggerated grace Subject(s): Leda; Swans LEVITATION First Line: While presumably you %are flying over fields of wild mustard Last Line: Bits I am even now forgetting LIBRETTO First Line: The letter arrived open, unsigned Last Line: For on their faces lay no sign LIGHT AND DIPLOMATIC BIRD Last Line: Bird balance, bleach: make miniature %valhalla of my heart LIKE CUTTINGS FOR A WREATH OF PRAISE AND RANSOM First Line: Abbreviation, %part that gives what is left Last Line: The legs go here. The straps adjust. %like so LIKE HISTORY First Line: For a time, it is as they told me and Last Line: Shall have been-to the street %he, darkening, equals? LIKE STITCHES WHERE THE MOTHS HAVE MADE AN OPENING First Line: Star-in-the-hand cupped fire fist Last Line: Not now. Listen: someone is calling my name LITTLE DANCE OUTSIDE THE RUINS OF UNREASON First Line: Nothing about that life %was incidental Last Line: (singing) %nothing unforgivable %(singing) %everything to forgive LOST CHORUS First Line: One saying %we faltered, we %loved, oh Last Line: Relief %their invisible hands LOWER MARSHES First Line: Maybe humility is what the needs Last Line: The reeds do. It's what the lost are for LUCK Poem Text First Line: What shall we not perhaps get over. We Last Line: Only in this, there was some Subject(s): Mowing & Mowers LULLABYE FOR THE WOUNDED EROS First Line: If now, after all that he's Last Line: Be still while you still %can be. Don't wake him LUNA MOTH Poem Text First Line: No eye that sees could fail to remark you Subject(s): Gays & Lesbians LUNA MOTH First Line: No eye that sees could fail to remark you Last Line: Seemed, bringing the small ripped thing to me Subject(s): Homosexuality MAN WITH THE CLITORIS IN HIS EAR Last Line: I say you could do damage, just dreaming MASTERY First Line: Dry waterfall %that eventually, almost Last Line: Comes first? Then you do? MATHEMATICS OF BREATHING First Line: Think of any of several arched Last Line: Breathe in, %breathe out %is how it starts Subject(s): Breath MEDITATION: EXEMPLA First Line: The one lemon, restive, then settling to the bottom of its porcelain bowl Last Line: Discernible object but more sky MEDITATION: ISAIAH First Line: Who are these that fly - like cloud Last Line: And be broken - and rushes - and snared MEDITATION: PERFECTION First Line: To take everything back, reverse the limbs turned out Last Line: Like a spire: no discernible object but more sky MEDITATION: SURRENDER Poem Text First Line: As when, / into the canyon that means Subject(s): Gays & Lesbians MEDITATION: SURRENDER First Line: As when, %into the canyon that means Last Line: That he, impossibly, might catch it Subject(s): Homosexuality MEDITATION: THE DARK GROTTO First Line: If he is disease, he is also Last Line: And tasting, I knew the tongue MEDITATION: THE RIVER ROAD First Line: That certain birds Last Line: It has surprised you, thus to understand the soul MEDITATION: THE VEIL BETWEEN First Line: That is, they with their backs to us, they with their hands Last Line: Cold, hollow. Us calling it song or saying no, it is grace MOCKINGBIRD First Line: Nothing so fuels desire %as imitation Last Line: We shall not miss it. %it weighed nothing MOVING TARGET First Line: If to be patient were less %an exercise Last Line: A face, turning. And %then a turned one MY MEADOW, MY TWILIGHT Poem Text Subject(s): Conduct Of Life NAKED MAN First Line: I have a body, I believe Last Line: Everyone suffering - how %shall I choose? Subject(s): Faith; Religion NO KINGDOM First Line: So little wakes you - why Last Line: Here, where you'll find it NORTH First Line: Earthstar, %seastar- %more dark than either-he mistakes me Last Line: O him, beneath me OF THAT CITY, THE HEART First Line: You lived here once. City -- remember? -- Last Line: Noteless now; of tracks whose end is here Subject(s): Cities ON BEING ASKED TO RECALL THE ANNUNCIATION First Line: Clearly, no one was expected; nothing Last Line: Not to believe each word as it fell, the way %hands too soon fall away from prayer ON MORALS First Line: Naturally, the preference is for Last Line: Risen. That is, it appears to ON RESTRAINT First Line: One could do worse than to begin Last Line: But very like a horse, how he ran ONE SEES PICTURES OF DANTE: First Line: In byzantine profile, looking about Last Line: In some way concern the soul OUR LADY First Line: In the final hour, our lady-of Last Line: Once, so eagerly sought him PARABLE First Line: There was a saint once Last Line: Lose themsleves eyes open PASSING Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: When the famous black poet speaks, Subject(s): Ancestors & Ancestry; Heritage; Heredity PASSING First Line: When the famous black poet speaks Last Line: A lung of the famous black poet %saying nothing I want to understand PERENNIAL First Line: Something to do with thunder Last Line: Everything, though it leave, it %must come back PHOTOGRAPHER First Line: Sees with his eyes, %he tells me, like it's the one way Last Line: Will they do now, in all this water PORCELAIN Poem Text First Line: As when a long forgetfulness lifts suddenly, and what Subject(s): Sex PORTAGE First Line: No longer that country %the vision came from Last Line: Forever stuck inside %their excellent, downed throats PYGMALION First Line: He's up to something, they say Last Line: Truly one who holds the gods' favor QUARTER-VIEW, FROM NAUSET First Line: Love, etc. Have been remembering Last Line: Times, a color you'd call anything but blue RAVAGE First Line: He has made me to know, %in myself, a compassion I have %no use for Last Line: Lying still %in the part at least I had thought %to keep? REACH First Line: Out here, whre any rambling bed-of sea Last Line: Sticky and heavy-foreign-on my tongue RECUMBENT First Line: Here, the ribs end, they - divide, into Last Line: - a crown, for %how it flashes REGALIA FIGURE First Line: We were mistaken, I think Last Line: A crown, for %how it flashes RENDERINGS: ANACREON (1) First Line: Madness, in all forms Last Line: In the winter-cold flood-tide %of longing RENDERINGS: ANACREON (2) First Line: You, %a boy Last Line: You are no charioteer RENDERINGS: ANONYMOUS First Line: The yellow, once-noisy Last Line: There will be other games than this one RENDERINGS: ARCHILOCHUS First Line: By the spear, let's call it Last Line: Had not yet undone mine RENDERINGS: FROM AN EPITAPH First Line: Stranger, stopping to read this Last Line: None of this, in the end, %could save me RENDERINGS: MIMNERMUS First Line: What is life or anything sweet Last Line: Then, too, let go my body RENDERINGS: SAPPHO First Line: Need, desire: %that which we must have Last Line: They have not met your son RESCUE First Line: But the field he brings me to, it is Last Line: It falls like decline on a living legend's perfect face RETREAT First Line: The sea and then, before it, the salted %meadow of sea-bay, the meadow Last Line: Not tenderly, just -- responsibly, pulls %shut. The body first. Then the soul RETURN TO THE LAND OF THE GOLDEN APPLES First Line: Blue wash. The winged horses look %like horses-artless, free Last Line: Unfolding-as if %map, then shroud-its song REVISION First Line: Which is worse-not being Last Line: Speak first. And I'll answer ROCK HARBOR First Line: The wind was high-it gave to your Last Line: Also, there is nothing I'll forget ROMAN GLASS First Line: Even in the latter, raveling days of the republic, the romans clung archaically Last Line: Even should the subject prove, the entire time, to have been lost Subject(s): Caesar, Julius (100-44 B.c.); Poetry And Poets; Roman Empire ROMANCE First Line: At the museum whose entrance is mostly Last Line: Still, at first we both call it an omen SAFARI FIGURE First Line: An intention toward Last Line: My face, or his, that I'm startled by Subject(s): Jungles SANCTUM First Line: Then broke off reading Last Line: Might least offend. And only then as if %for flight SEASCAPE First Line: As before %green of soon Last Line: A song I could once believe birds-asleep, ghosting-make SEMINAR: PROBLEMS IN RENAISSANCE PAINTING First Line: In the first panel, for example: the way Last Line: The angel shouldering his way into the room SIBYL First Line: Crossroads vision Last Line: I am falling through SINCE YOU ASK Poem Text First Line: Through the air, over water, Subject(s): Falcons; Horses SINGING Poem Text Subject(s): God SIR LIEGE First Line: Like love, you must lie somewhere sleeping Last Line: Tell me, skimming the blue of what hereafter SLEIGH RIDE First Line: What I remember is - actual reindeer Last Line: Next will tear us - revenant, and forward SMELL OF HAY First Line: If I speak of suffering Last Line: To blow across. And it flew. It scattered SO THE MIND SWINGS OPEN LIKE A GATE Poem Text First Line: When it comes what, eventually, it must come to Last Line: Meaning it anyway. He touches me, or I touch him, or don't Subject(s): Gays & Lesbians; Love – Meaning Of SOMEWHERE HOLY Poem Text First Line: There are places in this world where Subject(s): Drugs & Drug Abuse; Narcotics; Opium; Cocaine; Crack; Heroin STRUNG ABSENTIA First Line: What happened %was the less the fault of, more Last Line: Best, I should let him %softly, then-softly, I moved away STUDY BETWEEN COLORS First Line: Now everything comes %simple. Ladder, for Last Line: Or what, and called thief SUITE FOR ROPE AND BELLS: 1. AS OF BIRDS First Line: You, %no god but %to whose breast Last Line: Beneficence, this drowning SUITE FOR ROPE AND BELLS: 2. SOUVENIR First Line: The flesh: %how, %again finding the air Last Line: The heart: there is still %here a darkness SUITE FOR ROPE AND BELLS: 3. NIGHT HARBOR First Line: Having seen waver, rock Last Line: Given time, the rope frays SUMMER First Line: The latest once-more-with-feeling-please Last Line: A lovely rumor. Then summer was over SUNDAY First Line: All morning, I watch him Last Line: The changing of tires, reminding how it feels to be stranded SURROUNDED AS WE ARE, UNLIT, UNSHADOWED Poem Text Recitation by Author Subject(s): Love SWAIN'S INVITATION First Line: The barn is warm, come inside, lie down Last Line: Only how tired you were, how warm the barn SWEAR-TO-GOD First Line: So much for the fanfare others call disaster. Sure Last Line: No one gets hurt TEACHING OVID TO SIXTH-GRADERS First Line: Easy enough, now, %listening to this uneven rustle Last Line: The lesson beginning %all over again, %but different TETHER First Line: Small release %bird, risen, flown Last Line: And now I have lain my body on his own THE BLUE CASTRATO: 2. TO HIS DIARY Poem Text First Line: Played mister lazy, mostly. Found Subject(s): Diaries THE LEAVES FIRST Poem Text First Line: Before this crown Subject(s): Love - Erotic THE PINNACLE Poem Text First Line: Having found a trail, we THE TRUTH Poem Text First Line: And now, / the horse is entering Subject(s): Seashore; Horses; God; Beach; Coast; Shore TO BREAK, TO RIDE First Line: That, nightly, %some blooms fold, %some open; how Last Line: Be more close than we are now TO GET THERE First Line: Thus would I have a large wound coming Last Line: Follow me. %I'll take you there, he'll promise TO THE INTERIOR First Line: To each a gift, to the gifts Last Line: Now our falling seemed more swift TORN SASH First Line: To each his colors: mauve, and yellow. And Last Line: All appearances equally each forgave the other TOURING MAN LOSES HIS WAY First Line: With all the wreckage Last Line: Shingles flashing, weathering TOWER WINDOW First Line: The glass is old Last Line: How cool the glass is TOYS Poem Text First Line: Seeing them like this Subject(s): Gays & Lesbians; Popular Culture - United States; Homoeroticism; Lesbians; Gay Women; Gay Men TOYS First Line: Seeing them like this Last Line: That it also comes this way, in parts Subject(s): Homosexuality; Popular Culture - United States TRADE First Line: Bending-as no %flower bends- %casting the difficult rule Last Line: Or the stillness, afterwards, %that they found; or the way they seemed to TRANSLATION First Line: Stillness of a body that seizure has just finished visiting has Last Line: Flowers. The rest you know TREES First Line: All night. From behind Last Line: Not to know that it has already left us TROPHY First Line: When was the burning %that of fire? Last Line: I am rowing, it seems TRUTH First Line: And now %the horse is entering Last Line: Its back %and love you too TUNNEL Poem Text First Line: Come now, if ever. / when it is raining this gentle Subject(s): Aids (disease); Gays & Lesbians; Sickness; Illness TUNNEL First Line: Come now, if ever. %when it is raining this gentle Last Line: The wounds are to be %left open Subject(s): Aids (disease); Homosexuality; Sickness TURNING WEST First Line: Through a distance like that between writing from a life Last Line: Above me, the banner opens and furls, and opens TWO VERSIONS OF THE VERY SAME STORY First Line: In ravenna, dante's dying. He's alone Last Line: Where floorboards, bars don't change. The people do UNBEAUTIFUL First Line: Not blond not %well-fashioned not cut Last Line: Stars -- %every one VANITY OF WISHES First Line: To take everything back Last Line: Nor have got there. To thirst %gothically, to want - %like a spire VIA SACRA First Line: The horse rides easy. %intermittently, %that I can ride at all, still, can Last Line: Who stammers; who's %let his candle fall WANTED First Line: In dream, every one of the mind's lakes is Last Line: Used, elimination: not him, not him, not him WAY AS PROMISED First Line: He shot the ass %in the head. Simple Last Line: A single road. %as far as santiago WHAT MYTH IS First Line: Not only what lasts, but what Last Line: To believe they fly, ever WHERE IT HURTS First Line: When he speaks of his childhood Last Line: The sound of hooves through a garden WHITE DOG Poem Text First Line: First snow-I release her into it- Subject(s): Dogs WHITE DOG First Line: First snow -- I release her into it Last Line: I release her. It's as if I release her %because I know WINTER TREES First Line: The wet dawn inks are doing their blue dissolve Last Line: The shadows of ringdoves chanting, but easing nothing Subject(s): Trees; Winter WOULD-BE EVERLASTING First Line: There is a sea there. Nobody looks at it, or rarely, and even then only as, in Last Line: Was true? Not native to it, how much has from that country been my own %rough translation? YOU ARE THERE First Line: You start here--cozumel--it's an island, some people Last Line: The lobby, just in case you never get where you're going YOUR COUNTRY First Line: The light here is not god Last Line: Miles and lives around us %don't really spell america, %but I say they do-- %I am dying in your coun YOUR DREAM First Line: You're wrong. %not the whitest pigeon Last Line: The one window out %will be ours YOURS, AND THE ROOM AFTER First Line: I admit to entering them %both-no Last Line: Water inside a budvase the color %of water YOUTH WITH SATYR, BOTH RESTING First Line: There are certain words-ecstasy, abandon Last Line: In the manner of any number of unresolvable %themes, let dangle |
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