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Author: RAS, BARBARA
Matches Found: 35


Ras, Barbara    Poet's Biography
35 poems available by this author


A BOOK SAID DREAM AND I DO    Poem Text    
First Line: There were feathers and the light that passed through feathers
Subject(s): Dreams; Nightmares


A WIFE EXPLAINS WHY SHE LIKES THE COUNTRY    Poem Text    
First Line: Because those cows in the bottomland are black and white, colors
Subject(s): Country Life; Likes & Dislikes


ALL THIS AND HEAVEN       
First Line: I was telling you about the unfortunates
Last Line: As they appear in the south, large and fluffy


CHILDHOOD       
First Line: Driving the last stretch before the home stretch, past the lake
Last Line: When children owned the streets


CORRECT ANALYSIS       
First Line: The day began simply, about nothing
Last Line: The sugar will be taken from you right hand


DAMAGE    Poem Text    
First Line: Hard to tell in this abandonment what was what
Subject(s): Teenagers


DOGS       
First Line: Across the street, chained to the back porch and intent on %barking
Last Line: And I'll tilt my head back and howl


EARLY MORNING       
First Line: Before the moon goes down behind the jagged line of trees
Last Line: That will consecrate the moment, give us over to here, now, yes


GHOST WEATHER       
First Line: Now the sky is the color of absinthe
Last Line: And then the thunder


GIRL IN THE WIDOW'S WALK       
First Line: She sits above the house in a room on the roof
Last Line: Of her damaging, and she will look away


HISTORY       
First Line: Of course wars, of course lice, of course limbs on opposing sides
Last Line: That had come up to lean against your side %like a rock


IN THE NEW COUNTRY       
First Line: I love america. Ham bones and shoes
Last Line: We'll feed to the pig in the cellar
Subject(s): Alienation (social Psychology); Dissenters; Exiles; Marginality, Social


LETTER TO THE FRONT, 2    Poem Text    
First Line: When it is still, I listen for your voice.
Subject(s): War - Home Front; Absence; Longing; Family Life; Letters; Separation; Isolation; Relatives


LETTING GO OF LAND       
First Line: Like some animals, seals, snails, so full


LOW PLANES       
First Line: From the freeway, at first just a single low fat
Last Line: Who are arriving to a new language, one they're relearning every day, %with new sounds to speak hell


MARGIN OF ERROR       
First Line: If it's true, wrong action can lead to salvation, then no need to fix
Last Line: The promise of good hands on its good head


MOVING WITH CHILDREN    Poem Text    
First Line: Should you prepare them for homesickness?
Subject(s): Moving & Movers; Children; Homesickness; Childhood


MOVING WITH CHILDREN       
First Line: Should you prepare them for homesickness?
Last Line: You will see that they are happy too, %happy enough


MY TRAIN       
First Line: Just a few of us here at midday
Last Line: To get my earring, I jumped down to get my earring


NO ONE ARGUED ABOUT WHAT TO CALL THE BIRDS       
First Line: A night sky with pain in it poured its dark
Last Line: All looking the same way in the rain


PREGNANT POETS SWIM LAKE TARLETON, NEW HAMPSHIRE       
First Line: You dive in, head for the other side, sure
Last Line: The dark water that draws light down to life


RHAPSODY TODAY       
First Line: Maybe today will be the day you wake and for the first time watch the full
Last Line: In a whisper, and overhead the fabulous wingspan of new birds, %already laughing


SADNESS OF COUPLES       
First Line: After the chemistry that made their atoms wobble
Last Line: Will stay up there %this time


SADNESS OF FAILURE       
First Line: Maybe the dwarf is dreaming
Last Line: Or a failure of sleep to wake yourself out of a dream, laughing softly


SADNESS OF KIDS       
First Line: No archaeology. No ladders. Our bodies smooth
Last Line: The pumpkins wait and wait


SADNESS OF MEMORY       
First Line: Like bees aftering being out in the world, gathering and sucking up their lot
Last Line: The junkyard dog, the coyote, the wolf


SADNESS OF PARENTS       
First Line: The sadness of fruit is like the sadness
Last Line: To live with less


THE SADNESS OF PARENTS    Poem Text    
First Line: The sadness of fruit is like the sadness
Subject(s): Mothers; Family Life; Grief; Relatives; Sorrow; Sadness


THE SADNESS OF PUPPIES    Poem Text    
First Line: Up there, squirrels, teasing and clacking
Subject(s): Grief; Dogs; Sorrow; Sadness


TOP DOG       
First Line: If I could, I would take your grief, dig it up
Last Line: Using truth as a weapon


TROPICAL LIGHT       
First Line: No matter that it doesn't penetrate the sugar cane
Last Line: Brushes your open face


WASHING THE ELEPHANT    Poem Text    
Subject(s): Childhood Memories; Circus; Confession; Religion; Family Life; Elephants; Theology; Relatives


WHERE I GO WHEN I'M OUT OF MY MIND       
First Line: Leaping out of the barn dance of my brain, where everyone else
Last Line: Stretching ahead like some infallible sentence


YOU CAN'T HAVE IT ALL    Poem Text    
First Line: But you can have the fig tree and its fat leaves like clown hands
Subject(s): Carpe Diem


YOU CAN'T HAVE IT ALL       
First Line: But you can have the fig tree and its fat leaves like clown hands
Last Line: It will always whisper, you can't have it all, %but there is this