|
|
|
|
Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: REZNIKOFF, CHARLES Matches Found: 659 Reznikoff, Charles Poet's Biography 659 poems available by this author A DESERTER Poem Text First Line: Their new landlord was a handsome man. On his rounds to collect rent she became friendly Subject(s): Desertion & Nonsupport; Jealousy; Fathers & Daughters; Suicide A SHORT HISTORY OF ISRAEL; NOTES AND GLOSSES: 11 Poem Text First Line: A hundred generations, yes, a hundred and twenty-five Subject(s): Israel A SON WITH A FUTURE Poem Text First Line: When he was four years old, he stood at the window during a Subject(s): Sons; Conduct Of Life; Death; Dead, The APHRODITE VRANIA Last Line: The ceaseless weaving of the uneven water AUTOBIOGRAPHY: HOLLYWOOD First Line: I like the streets of new york city, where I was born Last Line: Your spears %have begun to flower, too! AUTOBIOGRAPHY: HOLLYWOOD (3 - 1) First Line: A street of strange trees Last Line: Skips about the lawns %how jauntily it rides a palm leaf here! AUTOBIOGRAPHY: HOLLYWOOD (3 - 10) First Line: I look at the opaque red of the passion-flower coldly Last Line: Native to the soil and sun - %a bright democracy, a company yet each alone AUTOBIOGRAPHY: HOLLYWOOD (3 - 11) First Line: The bush beneath my window has grown Last Line: Neither food nor a fee %nor even that I look at you AUTOBIOGRAPHY: HOLLYWOOD (3 - 12) First Line: It has been raining for three days Last Line: But the gilt has been washed from the sky: %we see the iron world Variant Title(s): Rainy Seaso AUTOBIOGRAPHY: HOLLYWOOD (3 - 13) First Line: The cold wind and black fog and the noise of the sea AUTOBIOGRAPHY: HOLLYWOOD (3 - 14) First Line: An actress %powdered yellow for the camera Last Line: The mexican has finished playing; %he lifts his guitar and kisses it AUTOBIOGRAPHY: HOLLYWOOD (3 - 15) First Line: The paths are deserted as always Last Line: Must it be diluted %with alcohol, conversation, and music? AUTOBIOGRAPHY: HOLLYWOOD (3 - 16) First Line: The greeks would have made a myth about you, my fine girl Last Line: From branch to branch %after the indifferent passer-by AUTOBIOGRAPHY: HOLLYWOOD (3 - 17) First Line: These gentlemen are great; they are paid Last Line: To teach me that you are great? %I nevr doubted it until now AUTOBIOGRAPHY: HOLLYWOOD (3 - 18) First Line: The flies are %flying about Last Line: I, too, am learning how to be silent, %and have learnt long ago how to be alone AUTOBIOGRAPHY: HOLLYWOOD (3 - 19) First Line: In the thick fog Last Line: No, these are not street-lamps %to light the way for me AUTOBIOGRAPHY: HOLLYWOOD (3 - 2) First Line: I wish that they were with me here Last Line: Horrified and compassionate, %stood bravely watching AUTOBIOGRAPHY: HOLLYWOOD (3 - 20) First Line: At twilight, twenty years or so ago Last Line: To chirp a while - plesanter company. %surely, I am not unblessed of god AUTOBIOGRAPHY: HOLLYWOOD (3 - 21) First Line: I never thought that I should knock Last Line: Will suddenly, as it has, fly all to pieces %for us - just us AUTOBIOGRAPHY: HOLLYWOOD (3 - 22) First Line: I will not question the sunshine Last Line: An earthquake will tumble a wall upon our heads %or a thorn scratch a finger and we shall die AUTOBIOGRAPHY: HOLLYWOOD (3 - 23) First Line: The cloudy afternoon is as pleasant Last Line: I had grown tired of walking, %yes, even of the sunshine AUTOBIOGRAPHY: HOLLYWOOD (3 - 24) First Line: I will take off my coat and tie; unbotton Last Line: But the brass knob of the closed door shines - %ready for use AUTOBIOGRAPHY: HOLLYWOOD (3 - 25) First Line: I would be the rock Last Line: And am both and neither - %being flesh AUTOBIOGRAPHY: HOLLYWOOD (3 - 26) First Line: In the discipline I set myself Last Line: Abstinence, reticence, diligence - %hunger, silence, and sweat AUTOBIOGRAPHY: HOLLYWOOD (3 - 27) First Line: Strangers would say %these flowers have no fragrance Last Line: In a land of sunshine - %among flowers? AUTOBIOGRAPHY: HOLLYWOOD (3 - 3) First Line: I like this secret walking Last Line: A rod away - %and only the narrow present is alive AUTOBIOGRAPHY: HOLLYWOOD (3 - 4) First Line: I like this walk in the morning Last Line: And if they order me about, %I do not have to obey AUTOBIOGRAPHY: HOLLYWOOD (3 - 5) First Line: Shining on grass and flowers Last Line: At this man %plodding along talking to himself? AUTOBIOGRAPHY: HOLLYWOOD (3 - 6) First Line: These plants %which once halted the traveller Last Line: Have become ornaments %to guard beds of flowers AUTOBIOGRAPHY: HOLLYWOOD (3 - 7) First Line: In the picture, %a turbaned man and woman seated in garden Last Line: Yet both picture and blossoming tree %have lived through time and tide AUTOBIOGRAPHY: HOLLYWOOD (3 - 8) First Line: A clear morning %and another - yet another Last Line: Your spears %have begun to flower, too! AUTOBIOGRAPHY: HOLLYWOOD (3 - 9) First Line: The grass is high beside the asphalt Last Line: This is a sidewalk %made by a man for men AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK Poem Text First Line: It is not to be bought for a penny Last Line: And along the streets of los angeles Subject(s): New York City; Social Commentaries AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 1) First Line: It is not to be bought for a penny Last Line: Cucumbers and melons, %you should have stayed in egypt AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 10) First Line: I do not believe that david killd goliath Last Line: I will fight in my own way %with a couple of pebbles and a sling Subject(s): Bible; Religion AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 11) First Line: Shall I go there?' 'as you like Last Line: Thinking of this, sunned myself %and, for the moment, was content AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 12) First Line: There is nobody in the street Last Line: Alone in my unimportance %to do as I like AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 13) First Line: Your angry words - each false name Last Line: They are no part of me, which I keep; %but the way I go, and over which I flow AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 14) First Line: In a cloud bones of steel AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 15) First Line: This pavement barren %as the mountain Last Line: Shining against my legs %the bumper of a motor car AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 16) First Line: A beggar stretches out his hand Last Line: Stealing its warmth for his fingr tips AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 17) First Line: The elevator man, working long hours Last Line: To be so heroic %he wears a uniform AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 18) First Line: This subway station %with its electric lights, pillars of Last Line: But, look! On this wall %a primitive drawing AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 19) First Line: People moving, people standing still, crowds Last Line: And upstairs, in the street, %the sun is shining as it shines in june AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 2) First Line: I am alone - %and glad to be alone Last Line: In the little mirrors of the slot-machines %before the closed stores AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 20) First Line: There is anguish there, certainly Last Line: Now male and female, %come again to worship in a stable AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 21) First Line: The white cat on the lawn Last Line: An atheist? %why, this might be the god bacchus! AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 22) First Line: The bearded rag-picker Last Line: Tells us it is six, %and would persuade us that the night is spent AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 23) First Line: Men and women with open books before them Last Line: Merely for warmth %not light AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 24) First Line: A row of tenements, windows boarded up Last Line: Tell us %the way, please AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 25) First Line: The young fellow walks about Last Line: A stranger he has just met; hesitates; %and offers me a cigarette AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 26) First Line: I am always surprised to met, after ten or twenty years Last Line: There is a father in heaven, %after all? AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 27) First Line: On a sunday, when the place was closed Last Line: Who crowd this expensive tea-room, %you must not think that you alone are blessed of god Variant Title(s): On A Sunda AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 28) First Line: A fine fellow, trotting easily without a sound Last Line: And left the road to the automobiles and me - %to the heels and wheels of the citizens AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 29) First Line: The sun sinks %through the grey heavens Last Line: A stooping negress walking slowly %through the slowly falling snow AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 3) First Line: Walking along the highway Last Line: And I am just a fool %to be loitering here alone AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 30) First Line: In your warm room Last Line: And huddle on top, %facing east, away from the wind AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 31) First Line: The sky is cloudy Last Line: Empty your heart of thoughts, %your mind of dreams AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 32) First Line: The leaves are solid Last Line: Until these two, %his arm about her waist AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 33) First Line: Stream that a month ago Last Line: In the trash-basket, %in the trash-basket AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 34) First Line: Holding the stem of the Last Line: As if it were still %a rose AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 35) First Line: The train leaves new york - leaves the tunnel: yesterday's Last Line: Single lights; many lights; lights along highways, lights along streets, %and along the streets of l AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 4) First Line: I like the sound of the street Last Line: Beside an open window %and behind a closed door AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 5) First Line: Winter is here indeed; the leaves have long been swept Last Line: But the troubles of the unsuccessful middle-aged %are so uninteresting! AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 6) First Line: Now it is cold: where the snow was melting Last Line: To the pigeons %in the snow AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 7) First Line: The ropes in the wind Last Line: Because the street-lamp has been broken %and it is cold and late AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 8) First Line: Bright upon the table Last Line: They say politely, %this is you! AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NEW YORK (2 - 9) First Line: I am afraid %because of the foolishness Last Line: And cure myself %in the sunshine and wind BEGGAR WOMAN Poem Text First Line: When I was four years old my mother led me to the park. Subject(s): Childhood Memories; Begging & Beggars BODY IS LIKE ROOTS STRETCHING Last Line: Which joshua could command but for an hour BODY IS LIKE ROOTS STRETCHING DOWN INTO THE EARTH BUILDING BOOM Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: The avenue of willows leads nowhere Last Line: Their beauty cannot save them Subject(s): Buildings & Builders; Deforestation BUILDING BOOM First Line: The avenue of willows leads nowhere Last Line: Surely the tide comes in twice a day Subject(s): Hebrew Literature BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 1) First Line: My grandfather, dead long before I was born Last Line: Still speaks through me %as mine BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 10) First Line: The horse that draws a cab through the park Last Line: Pecking away at the oats he scatters as they are at his active hoof BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 11) First Line: You must not suppose Last Line: Are happy: I have heard the gulls screaming %from the reservoir in central park BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 12) First Line: The dying gull %alone on a rock Last Line: Now and then - %with a sharp cry Subject(s): Birds; Death - Animals; Gulls BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 13) First Line: The sparrow with its beak taps the bettle Last Line: And it begins to buzz loudly %as if the bird has set off an alarm-clock BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 14) First Line: Horsefly, %on the window of the automobile agency Last Line: You're out of business now BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 15) First Line: Ah, the drill %breaking open the pavement Last Line: This is the nightingale %that sings in our streets BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 16) First Line: A grove of small trees, branches thick with berries Last Line: For want of leaves %are hung with paper - strips of dirty paper BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 17) First Line: Too early in the morning Last Line: But a young man %badly in need of a shave BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 18) First Line: At the zoo, the camel and zebra are quarreling Last Line: Through the bars between them. %of course, they come from different continents BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 19) First Line: The flowers of the garland at the base of the statue Last Line: Time has written its epilogue %to the inscription BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 2) First Line: My grandmother in her old age Last Line: More carefully %than I must minutes BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 20) First Line: The face of the old woman Last Line: But, sitting alone on a park bench, %at whom is she screaming? BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 21) First Line: The beggar who has been sitting and sleeping Last Line: Feeding with crumbs the pigeons and sparrows %in a broad circle about her BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 22) First Line: This puerto rican - just an ordinary laborer Last Line: Swinging his rake %like a cane! BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 23) First Line: The park is growing dark and quiet Last Line: Here and there, near a light %leaves and lawn are gren again BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 24) First Line: The plebian leaves of the trees Last Line: But what are you doing here, %rose petals? BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 25) First Line: In the blaze of sunshine Last Line: In the tailorshop on the corner, %the white steam rising into his face BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 26) First Line: The autumn rains have begun Last Line: The lonely walker hears %only the swift motor-cars BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 27) First Line: A row of brownstone buildings Last Line: Excuse me, sir, %are you father time? BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 28) First Line: Many fair hours have been buried here Last Line: To spring up again as flowers - %on hats Variant Title(s): Millinery Distric BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 3) First Line: Whenevr my sister used to practice Last Line: Did not heaar; and I am reminded of a hindu saying: %a work of art has many faces BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 30) First Line: In the subway car all are reading intently Last Line: Deep in thought - %doing a cross-word puzzle BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 31) First Line: Do not underestimate the value of an education Last Line: How else could one scribble %this on a wall? BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 32) First Line: The princess %on the way to the guillotine Last Line: Saw a stain on her gown %and was annoyed BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 33) First Line: White, bloodless face, red eyes Last Line: And tight bitter mouth BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 34) First Line: In the lobby of one of the best hotels Last Line: Look like dolls %and he the only living creature BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 35) First Line: The rabbi would read off the names of the congregation he used Last Line: That he was still alive - feeble in body and feebler still in mind BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 36) First Line: The invitation read: not to mourn Last Line: And yet, even as he read, %he began to cry Subject(s): Mourning BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 37) First Line: In my dream, %long dead, he stood in front of me Last Line: That led into other rooms - %all with open doors BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 38) First Line: Waiting to cross the avenue Last Line: With that we both smiled wryly, %gave our names and parted BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 39) First Line: A god could have brought the body of hector back Last Line: She would hand him his spear hen he missed %but he had to throw it again BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 4) First Line: The windows opened on blank walls Last Line: How even, mild, and wonderful the light - %just sunlight BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 40) First Line: The victorious greeks before troy, according to homer Last Line: Reproach ourselves %about our hurry? BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 41) First Line: When the prophet of the greeks, kalchas Last Line: Was killed on his way back from beth-el. %is it possible that he was killed by a captain of the king BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 42) First Line: To see a god plain Last Line: Could catch no more than a glimpse of him %as he turned away BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 43) First Line: Three clouds - %steps %leading into the blue sky Last Line: There are no angels, ascending and descending, %upon it now BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 44) First Line: Fireworks against the evening sky Last Line: Are pretty and even dramatic: %but I prefer the crescent moon and evening star BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 45) First Line: Indifferent as a statue Last Line: Words like drops of water on a stove - %a hiss and gone Variant Title(s): Simile BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 46) First Line: You understand the myths of the aztecs Last Line: Would have pried from your witty mouth %your golden teeth BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 47) First Line: Malicious but polite %she said the usual things against jews Last Line: That polishes %the facets of my jewishness BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 48) First Line: You would crack my bones Last Line: Ah, these little animals: %what a waste of my time! BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 49) First Line: The man who planned the bridge Last Line: He died %but the ferryboats, too, are gone BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 5) First Line: The birds sing %in the spring woods Last Line: I see that nature, too, %can use an efficiency engineer BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 51) First Line: Not the five feet of water to your chin Last Line: But the inch above the tip of your nose Variant Title(s): Epitap BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 52) First Line: Give me the strength Last Line: To dance before your ark %as king david did BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 53) First Line: Blessed %in the light of the sun and at the sight of world Last Line: And my knowledge slight though it is %and my life brief though it was BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 6) First Line: Please do not underestimate the starling Last Line: And has taken over some of the handsomest houses of the city%to roost on BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 7) First Line: The blue jay is beautiful Last Line: As it flies from branch - to branch - %but it cries! BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 8) First Line: The pigeon saunters along the path Last Line: Not only athena's owl %knows the history of man BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (1 - 9) First Line: The cat behind the windowpane Last Line: At the pigeons walking about on the laws. %dreams, idle dreams BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (2 - 1) First Line: Leaving the beach on a sunday in a streetcar Last Line: The corners of her mouth far down and her eyes, %bright and dry, looking sharply through her glasses BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (2 - 10) First Line: The new janitor is a puerto rican Last Line: As one might look at a photograph of one's mother %long dead BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (2 - 11) First Line: The chinese girl in the waiting room of the busy railway station Last Line: Stylized into squares: %she is planting a small private garden BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (2 - 12) First Line: Four sailors on the bus, dressed in blue denim shirts Last Line: From a bush he is passing %and giving them to the girl beside him BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (2 - 13) First Line: Most of the stock in the hardware store Last Line: Straw by precious straw, %he is building himself a home BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (2 - 14) First Line: The dark subway-station was almost empty at a little after ten Last Line: Hoping that the negro with his disturbance %would not enter the brightly-lit car BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (2 - 15) First Line: Two men were seated near me in a bus Last Line: In the best of american with not a trace of a foreign accent: %'she's a little cracked, isn't she?' BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (2 - 16) First Line: A husky red-faced young fellow Last Line: Became grim and sad, %particularly the jews BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (2 - 17) First Line: It was a pleasant restaurant Last Line: Talking against them in the best of tempers %with smiling faces and cheerful well-bred voices BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (2 - 18) First Line: I saw him walking along slowly at night Last Line: No nazi death-camp in germany? %how can you still go about so calmly? BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (2 - 19) First Line: We have a print of marc chagall's picture of a green-faced jew Last Line: But crack ran over the word 'hai' %but the cracked glass held in the frame BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (2 - 2) First Line: The fat italian restaurant-keeper and his wife with big Last Line: His wrinkled face pink and malicious, %lowerd his head to hide a smile BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (2 - 20) First Line: I was wearing a belt buckle Last Line: Perhaps,' my friend answerred gently, %'he wore it because it was a gift.' BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (2 - 21) First Line: I sat at home writing, using up my savings Last Line: When I did hear the radio again with its cheap music, %it no longer bothered me at all BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (2 - 22) First Line: I finally found a berth with a firm publishing law books Last Line: A childish lie, %although I tried to persuade myself there was some truth in it BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (2 - 23) First Line: When I was beginning to go to school Last Line: He just did not feel like meeting anyone %or even talking BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (2 - 24) First Line: Every now and then I buy a german newspaper Last Line: She was 'lucky' to be that, %no matter what the pay and how easy the job! BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (2 - 25) First Line: I was walking along forty-second street as night was falling Last Line: And just then the greaat clock on top of a building across the park %began to shine BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (2 - 26) First Line: The nurse who had been working all night Last Line: No longer the proud carriage of head and body %with which she entered the bus - and life BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (2 - 27) First Line: A sign on a store window: no fancy name - just mrs. Smith's Last Line: But I have no time to dilly-dally; %I am old and alone BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (2 - 28) First Line: During the second world war, I was going home one night Last Line: He took the bag of apples from my hands again %and took out one of the smalaler apples and put in a BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (2 - 29) First Line: In the street, nine stories below, the horn of an automobile Last Line: Like ducks on a stream, into the cool silence, %and talked again quietly, smiling at each other BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (2 - 3) First Line: Would I write a letter for him? Last Line: I thought of a plain bird with only two or three notes %piping away on a tree in winter BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (2 - 30) First Line: When I reached the park, the fog Last Line: I walked on, hearing no one and meeting no one, %tense as a wild animal in a cage BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (2 - 31) First Line: A cold wind was blowing down the street in gusts Last Line: And only the tired walker knew %how often it rose into the teeth of the wind BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (2 - 32) First Line: The hillside facing the river was much used by the citizens last Last Line: Has come fluttering out of the sunshine %to admire them, too BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (2 - 33) First Line: It was after midnight before I got into bed Last Line: Looking at it I forgot myself %and fell into a deep and untroubled sleep BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (2 - 4) First Line: The cook in a little italian restaurant Last Line: You talk to me but when they are here - %you are quiet BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (2 - 5) First Line: The experienced waitress was impatient Last Line: Honey chile,' they were saying and grinning to each other. %'honey chile!' BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (2 - 6) First Line: The beggar was making his rounds Last Line: It was the beggar, %and he walked on before I could even thank him BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (2 - 7) First Line: The highway I was walking on Last Line: As fast as he could go %bolting over the sand hills BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (2 - 8) First Line: When I came for my laundry, I found a shirt missing Last Line: Smiled and spoke up in yiddish, %'we won't have to go to the rabbi about it, will we?' BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (2 - 9) First Line: In my neighborhood there is a small congregation of puerto Last Line: And above it, in the pane above, is the star %with the cracks in the glass for rays BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (3 - 1) First Line: My mother and I were going to the park Last Line: Guilty and ashamed, %unworthy to be trusted among the splendors of the park BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (3 - 10) First Line: My grandmother could not get along Last Line: That all our love for it and our praise %was not unmerited BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (3 - 11) First Line: The house in which we now lived was old Last Line: And stood up, embarassed, %as I looked at her and smiled BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (3 - 12) First Line: I still went to school in brooklyn Last Line: I was no longer carefree at school: %the ice on which I walked seemed to me everywhere thin BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (3 - 13) First Line: There was a small settlement-house near where we lived Last Line: And I turned slowly %and stood at a distance waiting for the train BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (3 - 14) First Line: My father bought a house near brownsville Last Line: To say that so trivial a matter %should not come between a poet and a philosopher BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (3 - 15) First Line: I went to my grandfather's to say good-bye Last Line: For it is not easy to be a jew or, perhaps, a man - %doomed by his ignorance to stumble and blunder Subject(s): Jews BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (3 - 16) First Line: I now went to law school in the evening Last Line: To write. My bulky lawbooks had become, over night, %too heavy to lift and the cases palaver BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (3 - 17) First Line: I had been bothered by a secret weariness Last Line: When they moved, the press was dismantled, %coated with oil,stored, and finally sold - and lost Variant Title(s): From Early History Of A Write BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (3 - 18) First Line: During the first world war, I was back in law school Last Line: Raucously, %as the lights of the city began to shine BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (3 - 19) First Line: I now set myself to finishing anothr booklet Last Line: So trivial did all my troubles seem %after what I hadjust lived through on the stage BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (3 - 2) First Line: When a child of four or five Last Line: I would lean back in the chair %to wait patiently for the next car BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (3 - 20) First Line: The rest is like the manna of the israelites Last Line: Made a great heap %but did not outlast the day BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (3 - 3) First Line: The game was to walk - run if you dared Last Line: We ran along the curb, %eager to be back before the familiar doors BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (3 - 4) First Line: On election night, %there was a great bonfire in the street Last Line: In which were scattered hundreds of blackened nails of all kinds - %blunted and good only to kick at BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (3 - 5) First Line: We had just moved again Last Line: Which, time and again, %almost knocked me down? BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (3 - 6) First Line: Next to the house in which we now lived was a stable Last Line: Yes, that humor, learning and discipline %were quenched in a casual wave BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (3 - 7) First Line: I had been given a box of water colors Last Line: And even their impertinence, %and the rude fellowship of boys BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (3 - 8) First Line: My father's parents were a strange pair Last Line: With two open beaks, %from which my father and mother and so many others had fled BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (3 - 9) First Line: The bright boys of the east side Last Line: And only found it again, after many years, %among my mother's treasures BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING (COMPLETE) First Line: The fish has too many bones Last Line: But did not outlast the day Variant Title(s): The Old Me BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING: 12 Poem Text First Line: The dying gull / alone on a rock Last Line: With a sharp cry Subject(s): Gulls BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING: 15 Poem Text First Line: I went to my grandfather's to say good-bye Last Line: Doomed by his ignorance to stumble and blunder Subject(s): Grandparents; Jews; Farewell BY THE WELL OF LIVING AND SEEING: 36 Poem Text First Line: The invitation read: not to mourn Last Line: He began to cry Subject(s): Mourning DEERFIELD: 1703 Poem Text First Line: Before the break of day the minister was awakened Subject(s): Deerfield, Massachusetts; Native Americans; Massacres; Indians Of America; American Indians; Indians Of South America DEPRESSION Poem Text First Line: So proudly she came into the subway car Subject(s): Unemployment; Disappointment; Poverty; Indifference; Depressions, Economic; Recessions DEW First Line: Let other people come as streams Last Line: The tellers will be jews amd their speech hebrew DOMESTIC SCENES Poem Text First Line: It was nearly daylight when she gave birth to the child, Subject(s): Family Life; Stillbirth; Marriage; Death; Fights; Murder; Poisons & Poisoning; Relatives; Death - Childbirth; Weddings; Husbands; Wives; Dead, The DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR Poem Text First Line: During the second world war, I was going home one night Subject(s): World War Ii; Sons; Survival; Thanksgiving; Second World War EPIDEMIC Last Line: Streamers of crepe idling before doors EPITAPHS: 1 First Line: Drowning %I felt for a moment reaching towards me Last Line: Finger tips against mine EPITAPHS: 2 First Line: You mice Last Line: That ate the crumbs of my freedom %lo! EPITAPHS: 3 First Line: The clock strikes Last Line: These are the steps of our departure EPITAPHS: 4 First Line: A brown oak leaf Last Line: Scraping the sidewalk %frightened me EPITAPHS: 5 First Line: Proserpine %swallowed only six seeds Last Line: I was a glutton FIFTH BOOK OF THE MACCABEES (1) First Line: Along the wall of the courtyard Last Line: O my soul, %you have trodden down strength! FIFTH BOOK OF THE MACCABEES (2) First Line: Her nose was small and straight and her eyes blue Last Line: In ringlets; %and little golden bells were about her ankles FIFTH BOOK OF THE MACCABEES (3) First Line: With stony faces and naked swords Last Line: He who did not see this %never saw true rejoicing FIFTH BOOK OF THE MACCABEES (4) First Line: Above, in the gardens of the king Last Line: Gathered in a hollow %out of the cold wind FIFTH BOOK OF THE MACCABEES (5) First Line: Many quoted the psalm: weeping may lodge for a night Last Line: From which the horse of a mede %will not be eating straw FIFTH BOOK OF THE MACCABEES (6) First Line: Then the legions marched away from jerusalem Last Line: O my soul, %you have trodden down strength! FIFTH GROUP OF VERSE: 9. DAVID Poem Text First Line: The shadow that does not leave my feet Last Line: And the sparrow follows mit gracefully Subject(s): Sparrows; Beetles; Death FIVE GROUPS OF VERSE (1) First Line: I charge you, lips and teeth Last Line: Keep watch upon my tongue: %silence is legal tender everywhere FIVE GROUPS OF VERSE (10) First Line: I know a little about bushes and trees Last Line: When I think of my life as snarled. %was not knowledge first on trees? FIVE GROUPS OF VERSE (11) First Line: A star rides the twilight now Last Line: All heaven to itself FIVE GROUPS OF VERSE (12) First Line: The curved leaves of the little tree are shining Last Line: They settle down upon a roof; %the children shout, the owner swings his bamboo FIVE GROUPS OF VERSE (13) First Line: The avenue of willows leads nowhere Last Line: And will be cut down; %their beauty cannot save them FIVE GROUPS OF VERSE (14) First Line: How difficult for me is hebrew Last Line: Even the hebrew for mother, for bread, for sun %is foreign. How far have I been exiled, zion FIVE GROUPS OF VERSE (15) First Line: I have learnt the hebrew blessing before eating bread Last Line: Is there no blessing before reading hebrew? FIVE GROUPS OF VERSE (16) First Line: My thoughts have become like the ancient hebrew Last Line: In two tenss only, past and future - %I was and I shall be with you FIVE GROUPS OF VERSE (17) First Line: God saw adam in a town Last Line: There is no furniture for a room %like a beautiful woman FIVE GROUPS OF VERSE (18) First Line: The wun shone into the bare, wet tree Last Line: It became a pyramid of criss-cross lights, %and in each corner the light nested FIVE GROUPS OF VERSE (19) First Line: After I had worked all day at what I earn my living Last Line: And slowly my strength came back to me. %surely, the tide comes in twice a day FIVE GROUPS OF VERSE (2) First Line: I have a quarrel with the clock Last Line: Sun, of all that lived god has only listened to joshua, %howshall I hope that he will listen to me? FIVE GROUPS OF VERSE (20) First Line: All day I am before the altar Last Line: Content, I serve the land, %whoever lives here and whoever p sses FIVE GROUPS OF VERSE (3 - 1) First Line: Margaret. I have never regretted that my father gamed away Last Line: In lies. %margaret. In love! FIVE GROUPS OF VERSE (3 - 2) First Line: Margaret to farquhar who has become consumptive Last Line: That we should be togethr once again - %oh, that would be too lucky for the like of me! FIVE GROUPS OF VERSE (4 - 1) First Line: The music within the house is loud, the dancing swift Last Line: The second woman. She worked hard; now she eats the %fruit of it FIVE GROUPS OF VERSE (4 - 2) First Line: A woman. Who's dead? Last Line: The first woman. What a heavy tread on the stairs! ... %theyare bringing down the coffin FIVE GROUPS OF VERSE (4 - 3) First Line: A woman. He is marrying again Last Line: Sees her dead daughter and begins to cry - %the children have had enough of sorrow FIVE GROUPS OF VERSE (4 - 4) First Line: A woman. Who's dead? Last Line: The first woman. Do you live on this block? Who's dead? %another. A young woman. She died in childbe FIVE GROUPS OF VERSE (4 - 5) First Line: The mother of the dead women. I had this lump of lead Last Line: But my blood when younger %could warm it into tears FIVE GROUPS OF VERSE (4 - 6) First Line: A woman to another. If their mother lived Last Line: If at least home - %but their home! FIVE GROUPS OF VERSE (5) First Line: The asphalt winds in and out Last Line: The grass is brightly green; %but all these lights do not warm the wind FIVE GROUPS OF VERSE (6) First Line: No one is on the lawn so early but the birds Last Line: Sparrows and robins pecking at the seeds %the wind has blownhere; the wind itself is gone FIVE GROUPS OF VERSE (7) First Line: How miserly this bush is Last Line: Holding on to your little copper leaves? %have you no faith in spring? FIVE GROUPS OF VERSE (8) First Line: From the fog a gull flies slowly Last Line: And is lost in fog. The buildings are only clouds FIVE GROUPS OF VERSE (9) First Line: The shadow that does not leave my feet Last Line: I seem to walk but I dance about, %you think me wilent but I shout Variant Title(s): Davi Subject(s): Bible; Religion GHETTO FUNERAL Poem Text First Line: Followed by his lodge, shabby men stumbling over the cobblestones, Subject(s): Funerals; Burials HEBREW OF YOUR POETS, ZION Last Line: None are like you, shulamite HIS FATHER CARVED UMBRELLA HANDLES Poem Text Subject(s): Ghettos; Teaching & Teachers; Family Life; Poverty; Despair; Educators; Professors; Relatives HIS MOTHER STERPPED ABOUT HER KITCHEN Poem Text Subject(s): Family Life; Jews; Friendship; Bullies; Jobs; Relatives; Judaism HOLOCAUST, SELECTION Poem Text First Line: Jews from holland, france, and hungary, and later from greece Last Line: And there were two pyres of bodies burning all the time Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Concentration Camps HOLOCAUST, SELS First Line: When the second world war began Last Line: He was gone in the woods Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews HOLOCAUST, SELS First Line: Once, among the transports, was one with children - two freight cars full Last Line: And then the child who had been so gay %burst into tears Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews HOLOCAUST, SELS First Line: Jews from holland, france, and hungary, and later from greece Last Line: And there were two pyres of bodies burning all the time Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews HOLOCAUST: 7. WORK CAMPS: 3 Poem Text First Line: When the second world war began Last Line: Next morning they were taken to the gas chambers Subject(s): Camps HOLOCAUST: 8. CHILDREN Poem Text First Line: Once, among the transports, was one with children - two freight cars full Last Line: Holocaust, jewish (1939-1945); children; Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Children HOW DIFFICULT FOR ME IS HEBREW Last Line: Is foreign. How far have I been exiled, zion I SAW HIM WALKING ALONE SLOWLY AT NIGHT Poem Text Subject(s): Jews; Youth; Courage; Judaism; Valor; Bravery I WILL GO INTO THE GHETTO IN MEMORIAM: 1933 (1. SAMARIA FALLEN: 722 B.C.E.) First Line: The sentry. Samaria is fallen, king and princes of judah! Last Line: That lies, blackened with smoke and blood, fallen from his %throne IN MEMORIAM: 1933 (2. BABYLON: 539 B.C.E.) First Line: An elder. Our fathers were saved from the deaths Last Line: Trodden under foot today %and here tomorrow morning IN MEMORIAM: 1933 (3. THE ACADEMY AT JAMNIA: ANNO 70) First Line: A rabbi. When I was a boy, sent a captive to rome Last Line: Only a school %will float our cargo IN MEMORIAM: 1933 (4. THE SYNAGOGUE DEFEATED: ANNO 1096) First Line: The monk. A thousand, yes, more than a thousand, years Last Line: Your blood shall grow for us %between the cobblestones of our streets IN MEMORIAM: 1933 (5. SPAIN: ANNO 1492) First Line: Torquemada. Now that castile and aragon in holy wedlock Last Line: As we flourished, %giving shade and fruit IN MEMORIAM: 1933 (6. POLAND: ANNO 1700) First Line: An old jew. There we were throughout poland Last Line: Now swiftly, %towards night and towards noon IN MEMORIAM: 1933 (7. RUSSIA: ANNO 1905) Poem Text First Line: A young jew. The weed of their hatred Subject(s): Jews; Russia; Anti-semitism; Judaism; Soviet Union; Russians IN MEMORIAM: 1933 (7. RUSSIA: ANNO 1905) First Line: A young jew. The weed of their hatred Last Line: Raining its sound %from the wide sky Subject(s): Jews; Russia IN THE SHOP, SHE, HER MOTHER, AND GRANDMOTHER Last Line: Or women reading, a glow on resting hands INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (1) First Line: Where is that mountain of which we read in the bible Last Line: And out of those who met only with hate, %a people of love, a compassionate people INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (10) First Line: The golden sun hangs in the shining mist Last Line: I will be adam in his paradise this hour %and never think of ploughing INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (11) First Line: Put it down in your ledger Last Line: On the bright water; %snow on the yellow branches of th sycamore INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (12) First Line: Hardly a breaath of wind Last Line: Where the fugatives %are only birds and leaves INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (13 - 1) First Line: The solid houses in the mist Last Line: As the servants %you have inherited INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (13 - 2) First Line: The great giver has ended his disposing Last Line: I rejoice, a mote in your world, %a spark in your seeing INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (13 - 3) First Line: This was a season of our fathers' joy Last Line: But I remembr how slowly I have learnt, how little, %how fast the year went by, the years - how few INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (13 - 4) First Line: The swollen dead fish float on the water Last Line: Not by might nor by power %but by your spirit, lord INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (14) First Line: My heart in the east Last Line: But, dreaming of the end of their captivity, %I am like a harp for your songs INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (15) First Line: Because I saw the desolation of zion Last Line: Image of man %may live INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (16) First Line: The lamps are burning in the synagogue Last Line: In the morning, afternoon, and evening %be at ease in zion INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (17) First Line: This I light for you Last Line: Shining like a star that has %crumbled out of heaven INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (18) First Line: A shadow on the bright sidewalk Last Line: I know that they shriek only to themselves. %the stars in their courses did not fight for us INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (19) First Line: I died last week, last year Last Line: Because I died. The fault, the weaknes, %was mine, of course. Mine alone INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (2) First Line: The indian of peru, I think Last Line: May be able %to see the day through INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (20) First Line: As I was wandering with my unhappy thoughts Last Line: It is,' he answered. 'this is the sun that shone on adam once; %the very wind that blew upon him, to INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (21) First Line: I have neither the time nor the weaving skill, perhaps Last Line: How brilliant a green the grass is, %how blinding white the snow INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (22) First Line: Not because of victories Last Line: Not for a seat upon the dais %but at the common table Variant Title(s): Te Deu Subject(s): Bible; Religion INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (23) First Line: Salmon and red wine Last Line: To ride and outlast %the winter's blast Variant Title(s): Raisins And Nut INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (24) First Line: Scrap of paper %blown about the street Last Line: You would like to be cherished, I suppose, %like a bank-note INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (25) First Line: A well-phrased eulogy, a low-pitched dirge Last Line: I see that from the rude young man you were %you have gone far INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (26) First Line: I know you did not approve of the struggle at all Last Line: Now stay if you liike %but, if you want to, go INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (27) First Line: Again cool windy days Last Line: And see mankind - %only through a windowpane INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (28) First Line: It had been snowing at night Last Line: The room lighter; %morning came - almost at noon INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (29) First Line: Now on our way through the park one meets Last Line: A soothsayer might read a message in their flight %and I can spell a good omen, too INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (3) First Line: One of my sentinels, a tree Last Line: The summer is over - %forever INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (30) First Line: Here where the bushes are beginning to bud Last Line: No, no, my friend, it is only adam, %too old to plough and cain and abel dead INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (31) First Line: This added kindnes: %as when, revisiting a grove Last Line: For the symmetry of trunk and twigs, %we find the trees in flower INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (32) First Line: After the rain that fell all of last night Last Line: In spite of the big book in the crook of his arm %and two fingers raised in blesing INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (33) First Line: The park is green and quiet Last Line: I know them, %although they look like starlings INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (34) First Line: Blue flowers in the hot sun Last Line: Nose to the ground, %busy about his own affairs INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (35) First Line: Another generation of leaves is lying Last Line: Now the wind %taking, taking INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (36) First Line: Silent and sullen, in a bitter debate with the dead Last Line: As if - in the machine of which they are a part - %somethinghas gone wrong INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (37) First Line: The nail is lost. Perhaps the shoe Last Line: Horse and rider, kingdom, too INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (38) First Line: The dogs that walk with me are now and here Last Line: For he would lead me far into the past %and there I'd lose myself: his name is if INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (39) First Line: My parents were of a great company Last Line: Among blocking rock %and through sands and sand INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (4) First Line: This is the old familiar twilight Last Line: And some - grey-haired or bald - planning still and hoping, %walk in the twilight beside the rosy ti INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (40) First Line: Because, the first-born, I was not redeemed Last Line: (whom god strengthened) %my strength, such as it is, is his INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (41) First Line: Of course, we must die Last Line: Utterly useless - %to call INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (42) First Line: I remember very well when I asked you Last Line: Looking like one %who has been a great beauty INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (43) First Line: These days when I dare not spend freely Last Line: For I find myself weeping that you are dead - %who have been dead for a long time INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (44 - 1) First Line: The sky is a peculiar blue Last Line: But the inside is brown and decayed, %and she eats it with small, dainty bites INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (44 - 2) First Line: The barber shop has curtains Last Line: Sanitary barber shop,' %and there are those, I suppose, who believe it INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (45) First Line: Fraser, I think, tells of a roman Last Line: And I do not think it would be allowed %in central park INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (46 - 1) First Line: The jewess, hadassah, takes the name of the moon-goddess Last Line: The hands, heavy with rings, are esther's %but the voice is the voice of hadassah INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (46 - 2) First Line: Begin with the disgrace and end with the glory,' the rabbis say Last Line: To choose the lord: %that is, the bread of affliction and freedom INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (46 - 3) First Line: In a world where each man must b of use Last Line: Light not one light but eight - %not to see by but to look at INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (47) First Line: O lord, be with us!' Last Line: With her doves about her' %but the god of battles INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (48) First Line: Blurred sight and trembling fingers Last Line: That still would feed %the failing me, the dying I INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (49) First Line: How grey you are! No, white! Last Line: Scratches her master's coat %to show she is tired INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (5) First Line: You are young and contemptuous Last Line: Wounded %you would not wep INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (50) First Line: It is very pleasant to walk in the woods Last Line: And you are a fool to look for anything else %than song for song and joke for joke INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (51 - 1) First Line: She enters the bus demurely Last Line: And he a larger package: %a brand-new windowshade INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (51 - 2) First Line: A young man, wearing a loose jacket of light brown with a Last Line: And he turns away in disgust. %'ah, tragic, tragic, tragic!' INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (52) First Line: I saw within the shadows of the yard the shed Last Line: That day was lost - that month as well; %and year and year for all that I can tell INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (53) First Line: We who had known the desert's grit and granit Last Line: Shouting %and hurry out of this land! INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (6) First Line: It was raining and the street Last Line: But how big my feet look! I looked at her again: %only this was left - vanity INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (7) First Line: Two girls of twelve or so at a table Last Line: In their shining innocence seeing %in him only another human being INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (8) First Line: He had with him a bag, a heavy bag Last Line: Digging them up %to have a fresh salad on which husbands sup INSCRIPTIONS: 1944 - 1956 (9) First Line: The two have told each other all that they have brooded Last Line: The park %and all its paths are dark INSCRIPTIONS: 1944-1956, SELECTION Poem Text First Line: Out of the strong, sweetness; Subject(s): Jews; Russia; Anti-semitism INSCRIPTIONS: 1944-1956, SELS. First Line: Out of the strong, sweetness; Last Line: And out of these who met only with hate, %a people of love, a compassionate people Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews ISRAEL (1) First Line: Our eldest son is like ishmael, jacob is like you Last Line: Your son's coat or not; %and he will think a beast tore joseph to pieces ISRAEL (2) First Line: Since potiphar made you his overseer Last Line: I will establish my people like a pyramid, %no longer to be blown along like sand Subject(s): Bible; Religion ISRAEL (3) First Line: Our lives are bitter with service in mortar and brick Last Line: You shall write them upon the door-posts of your house and %upon your gates ISRAEL: 2 Poem Text First Line: Since potiphar made you his overseer Last Line: Jews; russia; anti-semitism; Subject(s): Jews JACOB First Line: In his dream jacob was in a wilderness Last Line: It is good to rest JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (1) First Line: The hebrew of your poets, zion Last Line: I have married and married the speech of strangers; %none are like you, shulamite JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (10) First Line: These days the papers in the street Last Line: Play about, %those for a moment lie still and sun themselves JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (11) First Line: The river is like a lake this morning Last Line: That cover but cannot hide %the black gnarled branches JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (12) First Line: At night walking along the streets, the darker because trees Last Line: And the pavement under the branches was white with flowers %too JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (13) First Line: On this beach the waves are never high Last Line: Lifting his eyes from the page he chanted, %'and god saw the earth and seas - that it was good.' JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (14) First Line: The tree in the twilit street Last Line: The twinkling of an eye, %we should see the frenzy of growth JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (15) First Line: In the street I have just left Last Line: Of gum, tinfoil, %pieces of newspaper JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (16) First Line: Going to work in the subway Last Line: In the store, or about the machines %in the shop where you work? JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (17) First Line: Rails in the subway, %what did you know of happiness Last Line: When you were ore in the earth; %now the electric lights shine upon you JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (18) First Line: Walk about the subway station Last Line: A flat black fungus %that was chewing-gum JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (19) First Line: This is the gift of hephaestus, the artificer Last Line: The god men say is lame JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (2) First Line: As I, barbarian, at last, although slowly, could read greek Last Line: The head slightly bent forward under the heavy helmet, %as if to listen; the beautiful lips slightly JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (20) First Line: In steel clouds %to the sound of thunder Last Line: Only another street-light - %a little crooked Variant Title(s): Four Songs Of The City: JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (21) First Line: In the clear morning Last Line: Where the sewers empty %their slow ripples JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (22) First Line: The pigeon on the rocks has an anklet about each foot Last Line: Holes %between the rocks JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (23) First Line: Upon a warm sunny afternoon in june Last Line: The blue-black pigeons walk along the edges, %wading, and the spray ruffles their feathers JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (24) First Line: No one is in the street but a sparrow Last Line: It hops on the glittering sidewalk, %and at last flies - into a dusty tree JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (25) First Line: About an excavation %a flock of bright red lanterns Last Line: Has settled JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (26) First Line: The twigs of our neighbor's bush are so thin Last Line: I can hardly see the black lines; %the green leaves seem to float in the air JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (27) First Line: The bush with gaudy purple flowers is in the back yard Last Line: Seen only by its mistress, cats, and the white butterflies JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (28) First Line: The cat in our neighbor's yard has convulsions Last Line: From her mouth a green jet on the pavement - %she has added a leaf to their garden JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (29) First Line: The trees have worn their leaves shabby JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (3) First Line: The moon shines in the summer night Last Line: What then must happen, you jeremiahs, %to me who look at moon and stars and trees? JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (30) First Line: These streets, crowded an hour ago, are empty Last Line: Will be the scavengers? %the winds of night JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (31) First Line: All day the street has been quiet Last Line: Not a branch sways, %only the leaves of the corner tree twinkle JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (32) First Line: The branches about the street-lamp Last Line: Only on a flag of pavement; %leaf behind leaf the night rings JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (33) First Line: The blue luminous sky furrowed into clouds; the clean air Last Line: Crowded with rain - the dark harvest JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (34) First Line: The motor-cars on the shining street move in semicircles of Last Line: Spray, semicircles of spray JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (35) First Line: The morning light %is dim and blue Last Line: The slight yet multitudinous %noise of rain JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (36) First Line: Along the flat roofs beneath our window Last Line: In the morning sunshine, %I read the signature of last night's rain JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (37) First Line: See, your armor of scales, snake Last Line: Pink flesh of your body showing, %and the sharp teeth of your open mouth JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (38) First Line: Of our visitors - I do not know which I dislike most Last Line: The silent beetles or these noisy flies JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (39) First Line: What are you doing in our street among the automobiles Last Line: Horse? %how are your cousins, the centaur and the unicorn? Variant Title(s): Four Songs In The City: JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (4) First Line: Shameless moon, naked upon the cloudless sky Last Line: Must now be bathing on a housetop in the pool of evening, %bathsheba JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (40) First Line: Rooted among roofs, their smoke among the clouds Last Line: Factory chimneys - our cedars of lebanon JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (41) First Line: If a naturalist came to this hillside Last Line: He'd find many old newspapes among the weeds %to study JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (42) First Line: Permit me to warn you Last Line: Against this automobile rushing to embrace you %with outstretched fender JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (43) First Line: From the middle of the pool Last Line: Upon the water. The untidy trees %drop their leaves upon the pavement JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (44) First Line: Now the white roses, wilted and yellowing fast Last Line: Now they are scattered over the pavements - %the delicate skeletons of the leaves Variant Title(s): Lament Of The Jewish Women For Tammuz; Ezekiel 8:1 JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (45) First Line: In the light of the street-lamp a dozen leaves Last Line: Cling to the twigs of our tree for dear life; %an eager star is dogging the moon JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (46) First Line: Feast, you who cross the bridge Last Line: This cold twilight %on these honeycombs of light, the buildings of manhattan JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (47) First Line: I thought for a moment, the bush in the backyard has Last Line: Blossomed: %it was only some of the old leaves covered with snow JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (48) First Line: This smoky winter morning Last Line: Do not despise the green jewel shining among the twigs %because it is a traffic light JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (49) First Line: About the railway station as the taxicabs leave Last Line: Stinking flowers, budding, unfolding, over the ruts in the %snow JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (5) First Line: In a strange street, among strangers Last Line: You were there, sole companion many a night - %the moon JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (50) First Line: A black horse and a white horse, pulling a truck this winter Last Line: As the smoke of their nostrils reaches to the ground, %seem fabulous JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (51) First Line: The dead tree at the corner Last Line: That, bare and brown, are only leafless %in a winter of your lives JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (52) First Line: Now that black ground and bushes Last Line: Only the melting snow %drop from the twigs JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (53) First Line: The street lights %begin to shine Last Line: Falls %a handful of snowflakes JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (54) First Line: The days are long again, the skies are blue Last Line: But by day the snow of your absence is melting: %soon may will be here and you the queen of the may JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (55) First Line: You tell me that you write only a little now Last Line: And I am glad that you do not belong %to those whose beauty is all song JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (56) First Line: Meeting often, we find we cannot meet enough Last Line: Sighs and misty eyes; and the old poems - %I find them true JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (57) First Line: It was in my heart to give her wine and dainties Last Line: When she would see a row of street-lamps shining, %how beautiful, she would say JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (58) First Line: You think yourself a woman Last Line: With only orion and the pleiades to see us, %you begin to skip JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (59) First Line: All day the pavement has been black Last Line: And saying not a word, %amen, you answered JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (6) First Line: From my window I could not see the moon Last Line: Snow upon it, %an oblong in the darkness JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (60) First Line: Though our thoughts often, we ourselves Last Line: We should call them partings, and of our words %I remember most 'good-by' JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (61) First Line: Our nightingale, the clock Last Line: Sings so steadily: %o bird of prey! JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (62) First Line: The clock %on the bookcase ticks Last Line: These busy insects %are eating away my world JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (63) First Line: My hair was caught in the wheels of a clock Last Line: And torn from my head: see, I am bald! JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (64) First Line: If you ask me about the plans that I made last night Last Line: I think the sun must have melted them, %or this gentle wind blown them away JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (65) First Line: I once tore up a sapling to make myself a stick Last Line: A woman passing nodded her head as if to say, what a pity, %and I had no joy of the stick and threw JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (66) First Line: If there is a scheme Last Line: And the lights go out - %but are on again in a moment Variant Title(s): Four Songs Of The City: JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (67) First Line: The sun shining on the little waves of the bay, the little leaves Last Line: Of the hedge - %with these I school myself to be content JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (68) First Line: The house is warm in winter, cool in summer Last Line: The leaves of the shade tree are uneasy, %the twigs of the bushes keep nodding together JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (69) First Line: Among the heaps of brick and plaster lies Last Line: A girder, still itself among the rubbish JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (7) First Line: In the dark woods Last Line: With your single star, new moon, %come to light this darkness? JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (70) First Line: Out of the inexhaustible sea Last Line: Wave after wave %rising out of the sea JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (71) First Line: When the sky is blue, the water over the sandy bottom is Last Line: But these the patient waters corrode, those a patient moss %covers JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (72) First Line: The sun lights up Last Line: Finds the page blurred %and lights the lamp JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (73) First Line: Brown and black felt, unevenly stitched with purple thread Last Line: This pincushion, %lunatic? JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (74) First Line: They landed and could Last Line: Bows in their %mouths JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (75) First Line: Jeremiah, in the stocks in the gate of benjamin, cried to Last Line: But the elders reply, he prophesies in the name of the lord - %he shall not die! JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (76) First Line: Because of their abominations under every tree Last Line: And did not forget jerusalem nor the citadel of the lord, %let them live, let them live JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (77) First Line: You hebrews are too snug in ur Last Line: Citizens of the great cities, %talking hebrew in every language under the sun Variant Title(s): Joshua At Scheche Subject(s): Bible; Religion JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (78) First Line: The sentences we studied are rungs upon the ladder jacob saw Last Line: For, as our god was never of wood or bone, %our land is not of stones or earth Variant Title(s): Luzzato; Padua 172 Subject(s): Jonathan (bible); Luzzato, Moshe Hayyim (1707-1747) JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (79 - 1) First Line: The men of war spoke: your hand against mine Last Line: And you shall not build the lord's house, %because your hands have shed much blood JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (79 - 2) First Line: Then spoke the prophets: our god is not of clay Last Line: And in justice to him who takes his hire from your hand; %for I am the god of justice, I am the god JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (79 - 3) First Line: He is in the stars Last Line: Nothing was but as he willed it; %as he wills it, so it will be JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (79 - 4) First Line: We shall arise while the stars are still shining Last Line: From each according to his strength, %to each according to his need JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (8) First Line: The wind blows the rain into our faces Last Line: Until we reach at last the crushed earthworms %stretched and stretching on the wet sidewalk JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN (9) First Line: On the hillside %facing the morning sun Last Line: But, of course, %this is the festival of spring JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN : 77. JOSHUA AT SCHECHEM Poem Text First Line: You hebrews are too snug in ur Last Line: Talking hebrew in every language under the sun Subject(s): Jews - Exodus From Egypt JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN: 15 Poem Text First Line: In the street I have just left Subject(s): City & Town Life JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN: 16 Poem Text First Line: Going to work in the subway Subject(s): Clothing & Dress JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN: 17 Poem Text First Line: Rails in the subway Subject(s): Happiness; Joy; Delight JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN: 18 Poem Text First Line: Walk about the subway station Subject(s): Subways JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN: 19. FOR AN INSCRIPTION OVER THE ENTRANCE TO A SUBWAY STATION JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN: 38 Poem Text First Line: Of our vsiitors, I do not know which I dislike most Subject(s): Beetles; Flies JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN: 39 Poem Text First Line: What are you doing in our street among the automobiles, horse? Subject(s): Horses; Modern Life JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN: 40 Poem Text First Line: Rooted among roofs, their smoke among the clouds Subject(s): Factories; Pollution JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN: 41. SUBURB Poem Text First Line: If a naturalist came to this hillside Subject(s): Time JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN: 42 Poem Text First Line: Permit me to warn you Subject(s): Automobiles; Cars JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN: 43 Poem Text First Line: From the middle of the pool Subject(s): Fountains JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN: 52. WINTER SKETCHES Poem Text First Line: Now that black ground and bushes Subject(s): Winter; Snow; New York City; Subways; Landscape; Manhattan; New York, New York; The Big Apple JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN: 59 Poem Text First Line: All day the pavement has been black Subject(s): Prayer JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN: 6 Poem Text First Line: From my window I could not see the moon Subject(s): Moon JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN: 69 Poem Text First Line: Among the heaps of brick and plaster lie JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN: 74. THE ENGLISH IN VIRGINIA, APRIL 1607 Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: They landed and could Subject(s): United States - Colonial Periodl Nature JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN: 75 - JEREMIAH IN THE STOCKS, Poem Text Recitation First Line: ",""jeremiah, in the stocks in the gate of benjamin, cried to the"",,,""jer" JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN: 78. LUZZATO, PADUA 1727 Poem Text First Line: The sentences we studied are rungs upon the ladder jacob saw Last Line: Our land is not of stones or earth Subject(s): Jerusalem JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN: 97. Poem Text First Line: The men of war spoke: your hand against mine Subject(s): Jews; Marx, Karl (1818-1883); Spinoza, Baruch (1632-1677); David (d. 962 B.c.); Judaism JEWS IN BABYLONIA (1 - 1) First Line: Plough, sow and reap Last Line: And a white one for ploughing); %plough, sow, cut, bind, thresh, winnow, and set up a stack JEWS IN BABYLONIA (1 - 2) First Line: A cow to plough with Last Line: A bed on which to sit %and a table at which to eat JEWS IN BABYLONIA (1 - 3) First Line: Plane the wood %into boards Last Line: The hoof kicks, %the teeth bite JEWS IN BABYLONIA (1 - 4) First Line: The bread has become moldy Last Line: But where are the dead of the flood %and where the dead of nebuchadnezzar? JEWS IN BABYLONIA (2 - 1) First Line: Palm trees in a valley Last Line: The tide of the sea, %and water dripping from the roof JEWS IN BABYLONIA (2 - 2) First Line: The old man may have forgotten most of what he knew Last Line: But even the fragments of the broken tables of the law %werekept - out of respect - in the ark JEWS IN BABYLONIA (2 - 3) First Line: As when a girl with smooth shining yellow hair Last Line: Comes into a room where three young men are hard at work %and all three look up smiling joyfully JEWS IN BABYLONIA (2 - 4) First Line: When her father walked from his house to the house of study Last Line: Now his daughter is picking barley grains in the dung of arab cattle, %looking for barley grains amo JEWS IN BABYLONIA (2 - 5) First Line: A purple cloak and a white horse with a red bridle Last Line: But, rejoicing at your lot, %you are rich JEWS IN BABYLONIA (2 - 6) First Line: If the ship you are traveling on is wrecked Last Line: And on it you may ride wave after wave %until you walk again on dry land JEWS IN BABYLONIA (3 - 1) First Line: The rock is hard Last Line: And the clouds carry the water away %and the wind scatters them JEWS IN BABYLONIA (3 - 2) First Line: The hyena will turn into a bat Last Line: And a bt into a thron JEWS IN BABYLONIA (3 - 3) First Line: The dog eats the lamb and a cat the hens Last Line: And lions fill their dens with prey JEWS IN BABYLONIA (3 - 4) First Line: The blood of his wounds Last Line: Does not distinguish %between the righteous and the wicked JEWS IN BABYLONIA (3 - 5) First Line: If you cannot look at the sun Last Line: Only one of god's ministers - %how can you see god himself? JEWS IN BABYLONIA (4 - 1) First Line: Clap hands and slap your thighs Last Line: Adding indulgence to indulgence, sin to sin, %the thread of the spider becomes a rope JEWS IN BABYLONIA (4 - 2) First Line: Only bones and nut shells left on the table Last Line: Degenerate son; %vinegar, son of wine! JEWS IN BABYLONIA (4 - 3) First Line: They praise each other Last Line: Like whores %painting one another JEWS IN BABYLONIA (5) First Line: I kill and I quicken Last Line: And the creatures that live in the air %and those that live in fire KADDISH Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: In her last sickness, my mother took my hand in hers Last Line: Prayers with words and lights Subject(s): Mourning; Bereavement KADDISH First Line: In her last sickness, my mother took my hand in hers Last Line: Prayers and words and lights Subject(s): Mourning KADDISH First Line: Upon israel and upon the rabbis Last Line: To them and to you %life KING DAVID (1) First Line: His height was six cubits and a span Last Line: Now david shall stay among the men of war, %and be michal's husband KING DAVID (2) First Line: Tell us how ehud stabbed the king of moab Last Line: Bring him to me at once for he shall die! %why should he die? What has he done? Subject(s): Moah (kingdom), Bible KING DAVID (3) First Line: The grave men who will write Last Line: I cannot. He is sick. %why have you fooled me and let my enemy escape? KING DAVID (4) First Line: His brothers and all his father's house have come to david Last Line: Let me hear no more of this david - %except to hear that he is dead KING DAVID (5) First Line: So the leader of the philistines said to the king of gath Last Line: Let us steal away saul's body and the bodies of his sons %and bury them herre in jabesh-gilead KING DAVID (6) First Line: Why have you taken my father's concubine? Last Line: Or david's sword may take a swift dislike to you %at the thought of the five sons she has borne you KING DAVID (7) First Line: While I was away on this foray to bring spoil for my lord Last Line: And pleased me, newly from the sheepfold. %the sweat and fingerprints of another man upon her KING DAVID (8) First Line: I should like to see the mighty men david has Last Line: I made them as dust before the wind; %I threw them away as dirt in the street KING DAVID (9) First Line: God- %who chose me rather than your father and all his house Last Line: Wandering about the farden of the kind, %and you a glorious kind, a glorious king KING DAVID: 2. THE FEAST IN SAUL'S HOME Poem Text First Line: Tell us how ehud stabbed the king of moab Subject(s): Saul (bible); Jews; Illness LAST POEMS (1 - 1) First Line: She worked as a maid Last Line: The flesh rotted off %and all her cothing in a heap beside her LAST POEMS (1 - 2) First Line: Before the break of day the minister was awakened Last Line: And left the body %as meat for the fowls and beasts LAST POEMS (1 - 3) First Line: The two had gone through unsettled country Last Line: His mane fluttered for a moment on the water %and then the sand closed over him LAST POEMS (1 - 4) First Line: To begin with, the slaves had to wash themselves well Last Line: And to behave herself %or he would give her something really to cry about LAST POEMS (10 - 1) First Line: Of all that I have written Last Line: The oak has many acorns %that a single oak might live LAST POEMS (10 - 2) First Line: Young men and women in a ballet Last Line: To photograph it: %this is realism LAST POEMS (10 - 3) First Line: Sometimes, as I cross a street Last Line: Than the traveler in a forest - long ago - %whom a pack of wolves pursue LAST POEMS (10 - 4) First Line: After forgetting this and that Last Line: That I must have my own mental crutch - %a notebook LAST POEMS (10 - 5) First Line: Not like flowers in the city Last Line: But like dandelions %scattered on a lawn Variant Title(s): Free Vers LAST POEMS (10 - 6) First Line: Even the patient carried through the traffic Last Line: Is silent, %and the ambulance screams for him LAST POEMS (11) First Line: Whatever unfriendly stars and comets do Last Line: That all the straws and rubbish of the world %only feed its flame LAST POEMS (2) First Line: Day after day in the wilderness Last Line: Yes, but you have to climb a mountain %to speak with god LAST POEMS (3) First Line: The blind man with a white can Last Line: But will it keep him from a pool of rain %on the sidewalk? LAST POEMS (4) First Line: Listen! %the police-car's siren Last Line: And that's a fire-engine. %our city, too, has its native birds LAST POEMS (5) First Line: Young trees in a circle Last Line: A sparrow, and scraps of white paper LAST POEMS (6) First Line: Reading some of the german poets of the last century Last Line: And I opened it: %hitler! LAST POEMS (7) First Line: Now that you are seventy-five, basil bunting Last Line: But the english found it useful enough during the second %world war LAST POEMS (8 - 1) First Line: Fifth avenue has many visitors Last Line: Her grey hair disheveled %and her face also streaked with smudges LAST POEMS (8 - 2) First Line: The tramp with torn shoes Last Line: Takes a comb out of his pocket %and carefully combs his hair LAST POEMS (8 - 3) First Line: It has been raining at night Last Line: And is dividing into quarters %with the bird's sharp bill LAST POEMS (8 - 4) First Line: A dozen pigeons on a roof Last Line: Head lifted, %the gilt rooster LAST POEMS (9) First Line: A tree in the courtard blossomed early this spring Last Line: But what is its song? %a prayer for the dead flowers? LEAVING THE BEACH ON A SUNDAY IN A STREETCAR Poem Text Subject(s): Mothers & Sons; Daughters; Relationships LET OTHER PEOPLE COME AS STREAMS MASS GRAVES, SELS. MASS GRAVES: 3 First Line: In the morning the jews were line up by an officer Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews; Shoah; Judaism MASS GRAVES: 3 First Line: In the morning the jews were line up by an officer Last Line: A thousand bodies would be put on a pyre; %and there wre two pyres of boides burning all the time Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews MASSACRES Poem Text First Line: The first day the germans came into the city Last Line: The officers poured kerosene under them %and set it on fire MEDITATIONS ON THE FALL AND WINTER HOLIDAYS: 1. NEW YEAR'S First Line: The solid houses in the mist Last Line: You have inherited MEDITATIONS ON THE FALL AND WINTER HOLIDAYS: 2. DAY OF ATONEMENT Poem Text First Line: The great giver has ended his disposing Last Line: "not by might not by power Subject(s): Bible; Religion; Theology MEDITATIONS ON THE FALL AND WINTER HOLIDAYS: 2. DAY OF ATONEMENT First Line: The great giver has ended his disposing Last Line: A spark in your seeing Subject(s): Bible; Religion MEDITATIONS ON THE FALL AND WINTER HOLIDAYS: 3. FEAST OF BOOTHS First Line: This was a season of our fathers' joy Last Line: How fast the year went by, the years - how few MEDITATIONS ON THE FALL AND WINTER HOLIDAYS: 4. HANUKKAH First Line: The swollen dead fish float on the water Last Line: But by your spirit, lord NEGROES Poem Text First Line: One night in april or may Subject(s): African Americans; Racism; Cruelty; Negroes; American Blacks; Racial Prejudice; Bigotry NEGROS First Line: Alice's father was a white man Last Line: That the less he had to say about the matter the better NEW NATION Poem Text First Line: A mountain of white ice Subject(s): United States - History; Native Americans; Massacres; Slavery; Indians Of America; American Indians; Indians Of South America; Serfs NEW YEAR'S, SELS. First Line: This is the autumn and our harvest Subject(s): Rosh Hashanah NIGHT-PIECE Poem Text First Line: I saw within the shadows of the yard the shed Subject(s): Conduct Of Life; Transience; Impermanence NOTES ON THE SPRING HOLIDAYS: 3. HANUKKAH Poem Text First Line: In a world where each man must be of use Subject(s): Spring; Hanukkah PASSING THE SHOP AFTER SCHOOL Poem Text First Line: Passing the shop after school, he would look up at the sign Subject(s): Jobs; Money; Life Change Events; Food & Eating POEMS (1) First Line: The sun was low over the blue morning water Last Line: The waves of the bay were silent on the smooth beach, %wherein the night the silver fish had died ga POEMS (10) First Line: Sleepless, breathing the black air, he heard footsteps along Last Line: Rubber tube out of his mouth; %but he felt dizzy, too weak to move POEMS (11) First Line: She sat by the window opening into the airshaft Last Line: Slashed with wrinkles. %'come in,' she said as gently as she could and smiled POEMS (12) First Line: The house was pitch-dark Last Line: Now he was through. He closed door after door softly behind %him POEMS (13) First Line: From where she lay she could see the snow crossing the Last Line: Dead, nailed in a box, her son was being sent to her, %through fields and cities cold and white with POEMS (14) First Line: The twigs tinge the winter sky Last Line: Brown POEMS (15) First Line: A slender tree, alone in the fields Last Line: In the open %the birds are faintly overheard POEMS (16) First Line: The city breaks in houses to the sea, uneasy with waves Last Line: Hides, %pound the sparks flying about their hoofs POEMS (17) First Line: In the streets children beneath tall houses at games greedily Last Line: Remembering clocks, the house-cats lapping time POEMS (18) First Line: Kitten, pressed into a rude shape by cart wheels Last Line: An end to your slinking away and trying to hide behind the ash-cans POEMS (19) First Line: The baby woke with curved, confiding fingers Last Line: Glimmer. %a rat walked slowly from under the washtub POEMS (2) First Line: Old men and boys search the wet garbage with fingers Last Line: This fat old man has found the hard end of a bread %and bites it POEMS (20) First Line: Ships dragged into the opaque green of the sea Last Line: Visible winds flinging houses apart - %and here the poplar roots lifting the pavement an inch POEMS (21) First Line: Speaking and speaking again words like silver bubbles Last Line: Triangular pools form in the square cracks of the pavement, %noisy with rain POEMS (22) First Line: Suddenly we noticed that we were in darkness Last Line: In and about the house darkness lay, a black fog; %and each on his bed spoke to himself alone, makin POEMS (23) First Line: Hour after hour in a rocking-chair on the porch Last Line: Shining words, sometimes, like fireflies in the darkness - %lighting and going out and after all no POEMS (24) First Line: I walked in a street, head high Last Line: I gave no help with blow or cry, %but hurried on glad it wasn't I POEMS (25) First Line: The ceaseless weaving of the uneven water POEMS (26) First Line: The trees' shadows lie in black pools on the lawns POEMS (27) First Line: The stiff lines of the twigs Last Line: Blurred by buds Variant Title(s): Apri POEMS (28) First Line: I have watched trees and the moon and walked on Last Line: She would be beauty to go wherever I go POEMS (29) First Line: Still much to read, but too late Last Line: Tomorrow up early, %the crowded street-car, the factory ' POEMS (3) First Line: The girls outshout the machines Last Line: Soon she, too, will speak %their speech glibly POEMS (30) First Line: A clerk tiptoeing the office floor Last Line: What at last have these men done, %the young men who were sobright? POEMS (4) First Line: The pedlar who goes from shop to shop Last Line: Has seated himself on the stairs in the dim hallway, %and the basket of apples upon his knees, breat POEMS (5) First Line: Her work was to count linings Last Line: The day's seconds in dozens POEMS (6) First Line: They have built red factories along lake michigan Last Line: And the purple refuse coils like congers in the green depths POEMS (7) First Line: The house-wreckers have left the door and a staircase Last Line: Now leading to the empty room of night Variant Title(s): The House-wrecker Subject(s): Cities POEMS (8) First Line: Followed by his lodge, shabby men stumbling over the Last Line: Wanted to go %and was not strong enough POEMS (9) First Line: Showing a torn sleeve, with stiff and shaking fingers the old Last Line: Pulls off a bit of the baked apple, shiny with sugar, %eating with reverence food, the great comfort Variant Title(s): Four Songs Of The City: POEMS: 7 Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: The house-wreckers have left the door and a staircase Last Line: Now leading to the empty room of night RHYTHMS (1) First Line: The stars are hidden Last Line: Blown by the wind %away RHYTHMS (10) First Line: Hair and faces glossy with sweat in august Last Line: Store-lamps dimmed behind frosted panes, %stars, like the sun broken and scattered in bits RHYTHMS (11) First Line: I walked through the lonely marsh Last Line: The trumpets blare war %and the streets are filled with the echoes RHYTHMS (12) First Line: Wringing, wringing his pierced hands Last Line: Among these skeletons, through these white sands, %wringing,wringing his pierced hands RHYTHMS (13) First Line: The troppers are riding, are riding by Last Line: They are clean of the dirt of shop and store, %and they ride out clean to war RHYTHMS (14) First Line: How shall we mourn you who are killed and wasted Last Line: Sure that you would not die with your work unended, %as if the iron scythe in the grass stops for a RHYTHMS (15) First Line: Her kindliness is like the sun Last Line: Her understanding is like the sun, %shining through mist on a width of sea RHYTHMS (16) First Line: The fingers of your thoughts Last Line: Are washing your face %beautiful RHYTHMS (17) First Line: When you sang moving your body proudly Last Line: Before me wondering who you were %suddenly remembred, messalina RHYTHMS (18) First Line: The sea's white teeth Last Line: His might will be lost %in her depths RHYTHMS (19) First Line: My work done, I lean on the window-sill Last Line: From the bare twigs %rows of drops like shining buds are hanging RHYTHMS (2) First Line: The dead are walking silently Last Line: I raised on each a brown hill, %the dead are walking slow and still RHYTHMS (3) First Line: So one day, tired of the sky and host of stars Last Line: I'll thrust the tinsel by RHYTHMS (4) First Line: I step into the fishy pool Last Line: I, too, become %cold-blooded, dumb RHYTHMS (5) First Line: The dead man lies in the street Last Line: The supper done, the table set, %waits for his coming out of the wet RHYTHMS (6) First Line: They dug her grave so deep Last Line: And quietly she lies %when her girl cries RHYTHMS (7) First Line: On brooklyn bridge I saw a man drop dead Last Line: Above us rose manhattan; %below, the river spread to meet sea and sky RHYTHMS (8) First Line: I met in a merchant's place Last Line: Through the woods I had looked for her %and beside the waves RHYTHMS (9) First Line: The shopgirls leave their work Last Line: Darken. %the silent rounds of mice and roachs begin RHYTHMS 2 (1) First Line: I have not even been in the fields Last Line: Nor lain my fill in the soft foam, %and here you come blowing, cold wind RHYTHMS 2 (10) First Line: On the kitchen shelf the dusty medicine bottles Last Line: She in her room heaped under a sheet, %and men and women coming in with clumsy steps RHYTHMS 2 (11) First Line: She who worked patiently Last Line: Her children grown, %lies in her grave patiently RHYTHMS 2 (12) First Line: Beggars about the streets Last Line: Down the earth between stones %until black rocks in ledge on ledge RHYTHMS 2 (13) First Line: It rains. %the elms curve into clouds of twigs Last Line: The lawns are empty RHYTHMS 2 (14) First Line: Dark early and only the river shines Last Line: Like grey ice, the ships moored fast RHYTHMS 2 (15) First Line: Streamers of crepe idling before doors RHYTHMS 2 (16) First Line: Shadows, mice whisk over the unswept floor Last Line: Biting the paper into yellowed flakes %and leaving crumbs of filth RHYTHMS 2 (17) First Line: The sandwiches are elaborate affairs Last Line: We sip our coffee watching the rouged women %walk quickly to their seats, unsmiling, contemptuous RHYTHMS 2 (18) First Line: The imperious dawn comes Last Line: To the clink of milk bottles %and round-shouldered sparrows twittering RHYTHMS 2 (19) First Line: We heard no step in the hall Last Line: She came %sudden as a rainbow RHYTHMS 2 (2) First Line: I leave the theatre Last Line: Night falls %it still flakes RHYTHMS 2 (20) First Line: A white curtain turning in an open window Last Line: Was gone like noise from a street, %snow falling RHYTHMS 2 (21) First Line: The horses keep tossing their heads and stamp the hollow Last Line: The samll hoofs newly oiled, %heads high, their red nostrils taking the air RHYTHMS 2 (22) First Line: No stars %in the blu curve Last Line: In the green gloom %of the meadow RHYTHMS 2 (3) First Line: I knocked. A strange voice answered Last Line: Until alone. %I wonder where they have moved to RHYTHMS 2 (4) First Line: I look across the housetops Last Line: Broad-bosomed and golden, %coming toward us RHYTHMS 2 (5) First Line: The winter afternoon darkens Last Line: An old woman waits, %rubbing the cold from her hands RHYTHMS 2 (6) First Line: Stubborn flies buzzing Last Line: The flat roofs, higher, lower, %chimneys, water-tanks, cornices RHYTHMS 2 (7) First Line: One shoulder lower, %with unsure step like a bear errect Last Line: Scratching with four stiff fingers her half-bald head, %smiling RHYTHMS 2 (8) First Line: In the shop, she, her mother, and grandmother Last Line: Thinking at times of women at windows in still streets, %or women reading, a glow on resting hands RHYTHMS 2 (9) First Line: With green stagnant eyes Last Line: Loose ends of string in a wind, %keep smiling at your father Variant Title(s): The Idio ROMANCE Poem Text First Line: The troopers are riding, are riding by Subject(s): War SEPARATE WAY (1 - 1) First Line: Now the sky begins to turn upon its hub Last Line: Our lives are leaking from the places, %and the day's brightness dwindles into stars SEPARATE WAY (1 - 2) First Line: If my days were like the ants Last Line: Let them step and stamp upon you as they can, %I shall escape with a few grains SEPARATE WAY (1 - 3) First Line: The dark green leaves Last Line: Burn brightly - %the work of man is not yet over SEPARATE WAY (1 - 4) First Line: How pleasant %the silence of a holiday Last Line: To those who listen %to the long dialogue of heart and clock SEPARATE WAY (10) First Line: The rain is falling Last Line: Athens must perish! %long live sparta! SEPARATE WAY (11 - 1) First Line: A mountain of white ice Last Line: Will turn and come to it %to warm their hands and hearts SEPARATE WAY (11 - 2) First Line: Glaciers pushing so far and surely Last Line: Shall we not share it %as we share water? SEPARATE WAY (12) First Line: The east is alight as far as hebron Last Line: And you, the god of our fathers, %of abraham, isaac, and jacob SEPARATE WAY (13) First Line: Upon israel and upon the rabbis Last Line: To them and to you %life SEPARATE WAY (2) First Line: Malicious women greet you saying, so this is marie! Last Line: And sasons, and still aglow %through twilight and darkness, through moths and snow SEPARATE WAY (3 - 1) First Line: I will write songs against you Last Line: I will marshal against you %the fireflies of the dusk SEPARATE WAY (3 - 2) First Line: I eat and am happy Last Line: Means that among the little %I am such SEPARATE WAY (4 - 1) First Line: Drowning %I felt for a moment reaching towards me Last Line: Finger tips against mine SEPARATE WAY (4 - 2) First Line: You mice, %that ate the crumbs of my freedom Last Line: Lo! SEPARATE WAY (4 - 3) First Line: The clock strikes Last Line: These are the steps of our departure SEPARATE WAY (4 - 4) First Line: A brown oak leaf Last Line: Frightened me SEPARATE WAY (4 - 5) First Line: Proserpine %swallowed only six seeds Last Line: And had to stay six months among the dead - %I was a glutton SEPARATE WAY (5 - 1) First Line: The black sloop at anchor Last Line: Row after row, %the street lamps burst into light SEPARATE WAY (5 - 2) First Line: The branches, %sloping towards each other Last Line: Drops of rain %become falling sparks SEPARATE WAY (5 - 3) First Line: The swift river, foaming into waves Last Line: Or ledge on ledge %rising in barren cliffs SEPARATE WAY (5 - 4) First Line: The water is freezing in straight lines across the ripples Last Line: Only the tired walker knows how much there is to climb, %howthe sidewalk curves into the cold wind SEPARATE WAY (6) First Line: The clouds, piled in rows like merchandise Last Line: The clean air of the streets %sweet after the smell of merchandise Variant Title(s): Millinery Distric SEPARATE WAY (7) First Line: Take no stock in the friendly words of friends Last Line: We'll spare another friendly word for you; %and go our separate ways to death SEPARATE WAY (8) First Line: So proudly she came into the subway car Last Line: But does not move from his place, %well drilled in want SEPARATE WAY (9) First Line: The night is warm Last Line: Between the cobblestones of alleys and on the pavement of %avenues SHORT HISTORY OF ISRAEL; NOTES AND GLOSSES (1 - 1) First Line: The prince who once left and ancient city Last Line: To step out of the sea %among the breaking waves SHORT HISTORY OF ISRAEL; NOTES AND GLOSSES (1 - 10) First Line: To wake at midnight Last Line: And my house the least in israel; %am I also among the prophts? SHORT HISTORY OF ISRAEL; NOTES AND GLOSSES (1 - 11) First Line: A hundred generations, yes, a hundred and twenty-five Last Line: And feast because of you %on unleavened bread and herbs Subject(s): Jews SHORT HISTORY OF ISRAEL; NOTES AND GLOSSES (1 - 2) First Line: Despite this and despite this Last Line: Why not, israel, %despite this and despite this, too? SHORT HISTORY OF ISRAEL; NOTES AND GLOSSES (1 - 3) First Line: The pharaoh of the exodus is eight feet tall Last Line: And the spearmen with frizzled beards %lean on their spears in the palace SHORT HISTORY OF ISRAEL; NOTES AND GLOSSES (1 - 4) First Line: Wouldn't they have been surprised, saint louis and his Last Line: In answer to your question %still denied me! SHORT HISTORY OF ISRAEL; NOTES AND GLOSSES (1 - 5) First Line: Moses, who left a cool palace and pleasant walks Last Line: You will not find it poison %as the gentiles do SHORT HISTORY OF ISRAEL; NOTES AND GLOSSES (1 - 6) First Line: I have heard of this destruction Last Line: Smelling a pungent weed, noting a bird's %two notes Variant Title(s): The Lette SHORT HISTORY OF ISRAEL; NOTES AND GLOSSES (1 - 7) First Line: On a seat in the subway, staring out of the window at Last Line: Yet, neither very poor nor drunk, %why are you unhappy, aryan? SHORT HISTORY OF ISRAEL; NOTES AND GLOSSES (1 - 8) First Line: A dead gull in the road Last Line: Has there been a purge of jews %among the birds? SHORT HISTORY OF ISRAEL; NOTES AND GLOSSES (1 - 9) First Line: I will go into the ghetto: the sunlight Last Line: Breathe deeply: %how good and sweet the air is SLAVE TRADE: NEW ORLEANS Poem Text First Line: To begin with, the slaves had to wash themselves well Subject(s): Slavery; Mothers; Grief; Serfs; Sorrow; Sadness SPAIN:: ANNO 1492 Poem Text First Line: Torquemada. Now that castile and aragon in holy wedlock Subject(s): Torquemada, Tomas De (1420-1498); Spain; Inquisition; Jews; Judaism TE DEUM Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Not because of victories Last Line: But at the common table Subject(s): Praise TESTIMONY (4 - 1) First Line: The company had advertised for men to unload a steamer Last Line: Their hands slipping off and %reaching for the cakes of ice TESTIMONY (4 - 2) First Line: Amelia was just fourteen and out of the orphan asylum; at Last Line: Until the scalp was jerked from her head, %and the blood was coming down all over her face and waist TESTIMONY (4 - 3) First Line: They had been married in italy in may Last Line: Long john brought her a cup of coffee. %'drink it,' he said. 'never mind, never mind!' TESTIMONY (4 - 4) First Line: Outside the night was cold, the snow was deep Last Line: And, mother, if you are a beggar, sooner or latr, %there is poison in your bread THE BREAD HAS BECOME MOLDY Poem Text Subject(s): Death; Dead, The THE HOUSE IN WHICH WE NOW LIVED WAS OLD Poem Text Subject(s): Family Life; Youth; Fear; Household Employees; Relatives; Servants; Domestics; Maids THE IDIOT Poem Text First Line: With green stagnant eyes Subject(s): Fathers THE LAMPS ARE BURNING Poem Text Subject(s): Jews; Religion; Anti-semitism; Judaism; Theology THOUGH OUR THOUGHTS OFTEN, WE OURSELVES Last Line: I remember most 'good-by' URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (1) First Line: On stones mossed with hot dust, no shade but the thin, Last Line: Rats, covered with rust, crep in and out. %the white edges of the clouds like veining in a stone URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (10) First Line: Isolde of the white hands and her knights, holding their noses Last Line: At prisoners whose bellis soldiers open, pulling the guts into basins URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (11 - 1) First Line: Almost midnight. 'good night.' 'good night.' Last Line: The black courtyard smells of water: it has been raining. %what were we talking about? URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (11 - 2) First Line: He leans back along the sofa. I talk. His fingers twitch Last Line: I talk. I turn my pockets inside out. %in his oblique eyes a polite disdain URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (12) First Line: This noise in the subway will sound no louder than the wind Last Line: Care %whether you ride in subways or on horses URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (13) First Line: Sparrows scream at the dawn one note Last Line: How should they learn melody %in th street's noises? URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (14) First Line: The trees in the windless field like a herd asleep URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (15) First Line: The men in the field are almost through stacking rows of pale Last Line: Yellow cornstalks. %on the lawn a girl is raking the leaves into a fire URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (16) First Line: We children used to cross the orchard, the brown earth covered Last Line: Daisies and yellow daisies, goldenrod and buttercups. %it was so hot the field smelt of cake baking URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (17) First Line: After dinner, sunday afternoons, we boys would walk slowly Last Line: Light after light, as the lamplighter went his way and women%lit the gas in kitchens to make supper URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (18) First Line: Swiftly the dawn became day. I went into the street Last Line: Hidden in trees and on the roofs, %loudly and cheerfully the sparrows chirped URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (19) First Line: He showed me the album. 'but this?' I asked, surprised at Last Line: They kept no lights in the window. A single gas jet flared in %the empty store URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (2) First Line: Scared dogs looking backwards with patient eyes Last Line: This is where I walked night aftr night; %this is where I walked away many years URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (20) First Line: It had long been dark, though still an hour before supper Last Line: On the street were long shadows of clods of snow. %he took his sled and went back into the house URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (21) First Line: Grandfather was growing blind. He sat in his chair beside the Last Line: Tears rolled out of his blind eyes and fell upon his hands. %uncle came, bare-headed blood oozing ou URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (22) First Line: His sickness over, he was still abed Last Line: He went down the stairs singing happily. %his father said, 'there's so much trouble - and he sings.' URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (23) First Line: At six o'clock it was pitch-dark. It might have been after Last Line: The symmetry in growth and life on earth, our sense of order, %is not controlling in the universe URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (24) First Line: Their boarder had come to america before his wife and Last Line: She wondered that she was not falling she went down the %stairs so fast URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (25) First Line: The trees at the end of the lawn were still as cliffs Last Line: Each other's smiling face %and sleepy eyes URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (26) First Line: He woke in the dawn and saw in front of the house the Last Line: Through it, %her yellow hair and the white flesh of her hands shone URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (27) First Line: On the counter were red slabs and rolls of beef. Bolognas Last Line: He arose and went out. He walked down the street slowly, %asking himself if he wasn't a fool URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (28) First Line: His mother stepped about her kithen, complaining in a low Last Line: He waited for kore at the other side of the pier, watching the %empty waves come in URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (29) First Line: The shop in which he worked was on the tenth floor. After six Last Line: The third floor, the shop on the tenth. He would have to %pass windows and the stairwell always URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (3) First Line: When I was four years old my mother led me to the park Last Line: The witch in my fairy-book came walking along. %she stooped to fish some mouldy grapes out of the gu URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (30) First Line: In high school she liked latin and the balances of algebra Last Line: Self to her father. A good match, they all said. Besides, %home was uncomfortable with a nagging ste URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (31) First Line: When the boys next door practiced on the 'cello, he would Last Line: When he reached home, he tried to walk upstairs, but afraid %of fainting, he went up on hands and kn URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (32) First Line: He was afraid to go through their grocery store, where his Last Line: Borrow some? 'yes.' his father paused. %'I hope you get it.' URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (33) First Line: Passing the shop after school, he would look up at the sign Last Line: Fruit juice dripping over the saucer. %he was growing fat URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (34) First Line: Her father and mother were anxious to see her married and Last Line: He slapped her face. 'tell your fathr! And if he doesn't help %me out - !' URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (35) First Line: When he was four years old, he stood at the window during a Last Line: Is my son's chance. %they did not tell him that his son was dead of influenza URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (36) First Line: In a month they would be married Last Line: Of noting their children's quirks and screeches fearfully - %how the moonlight had been glittering I URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (37) First Line: Their new landlord was a handsome man. On his rounds to Last Line: She married again. Her daughter married and had children. %she named none after her father URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (38) First Line: At night, after the day's work, he wrote. Year after year he Last Line: The paper was good to scribble on. Then they tore it into bits. %at night the mother came home and s URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (39) First Line: When at forty he went to america, the family was glad to be Last Line: Upon the sky. %he would chase them in his jerky way URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (4) First Line: Under cloud on cloud the lake is black Last Line: Wheeling locomotives in the yard %pour their smoke into the crowded sky URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (40) First Line: As he read, his mother sat down beside him. Read me a Last Line: Cotton sheets that she spread and ironed; %from the shelf the alarm-clock ticked and ticked rapidly URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (41) First Line: He had a rich uncle who sent him to a univrsity and would Last Line: He went back to cigar peddling. His wife's hair had become %white, but it gave her new beauty URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (42) First Line: His father carved umbrella handles, but when umbrella Last Line: He would just keep on. He had lost this world and knew there%was no other URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (43) First Line: A man made cloaks of material furnishd. The man for whom Last Line: Engineers and make the boss - %why was he spending his life n such squabbles? URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (44) First Line: Both daughters had married well; their husbands earned Last Line: I am sharpening a knife to kill my grandchildren, but not you: %you must pay for my board here URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (45) First Line: He had a house of his own and a store. His wife took care of Last Line: He turned his face from mendel; and so they stood, two old %men URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (46) First Line: When the club met in her home, embarassed, she asked them Last Line: Honor of your visit. I suppose you would like to hear %some of my poems. And he began to chant URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (47) First Line: The neighbors called her die schiesterka - the shoemaker's Last Line: Drink the fresh air, children,' she shouted, %'drink, drink, ach gut! If only papa was here!' URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (48) Last Line: The stove bubbled and hissed. His friend walked up and %downthe cellar in shoes newly cobbled and bl URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (48) First Line: The shoemaker sat in the cellar's dusk beside his bench and Last Line: The stove bubbled and hissed. His friend walked up and %downthe cellar in shoes newly cobbled and bl URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (5) First Line: Between factories the grease coils along the river Last Line: Tugs drag their guts of smoke, like beetles stepped on URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (6) First Line: Out of the hills the trees bulge Last Line: The sky hangs in lumps of cloud URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (7) First Line: All night the wind blew Last Line: The wild geese far away %were flying south in squads URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (8) First Line: With broad bosom and hips, her head thrown back Last Line: She parades, her high heels clacking, %having conquered troublesome youth and not yet afraid of age URIEL ACCOSTA: A PLAY AND A FOURTH GROUP OF VERSE (9) First Line: Head bowed beneath her black turban, she glances up at her Last Line: Daughter %who eyes in the mirror herself, yellow hair and beautiful face |
|