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Author: STERN, GERALD
Matches Found: 533


Stern, Gerald    Poet's Biography
533 poems available by this author


1-DEC-94       
First Line: I put the pyracantha in a blue vace
Last Line: Two registers, a little rusty gasp from the upper


18TH BOOK FAIR       
First Line: An embarrassment of poverty, we waded into
Last Line: Kaplan put together for the 18th book fair


1940 LA SALLE       
First Line: Did I or didn't I write about lucky burkin?
Last Line: His mother was called gittel, I don't know in england


1940 LASALLE    Poem Text    
First Line: Did I or didn't I write about lucky burkin?
Subject(s): Crime & Criminals; Gambling; Death; Wagering; Betting; Dead, The


2-JUL-83       
First Line: This is what it's come to on my primrose path
Last Line: And a minute and a half of sleep, and a minute and a half of silence


27-MAR       
First Line: The hat he bought in 1949, for
Last Line: And he would finish his scraping, god or no god
Subject(s): Gardens And Gardening; Life; Religion


3/27/2013       
First Line: The hat he bought in 1949, for


82/83       
First Line: Before the winter is over I'll have some sticks
Last Line: For the last sliver again, then darkness again %and the first sliver again, ferocious phases


96 VAMDAM       
First Line: I am going to carry my bed into new york city tonight
Last Line: To the sound of garbage grinding in the street below %and the smell of coffee cooking in the window


96 VANDAM       
First Line: I am going to carry my bed into new york city tonight
Last Line: And the smell of coffee cooking in the window above


A GARDEN; FOR GRETCHEN CARACAS AND HOWARD ROGOVIN    Poem Text    
First Line: This was my garden in 1985
Subject(s): Flowers; Gardens & Gardening


ABERDEEN PROVING GROUNDS, 1946       
First Line: I have had the honor of being imprisoned, the
Last Line: The greasy window, since I was cleaning everything


ACACIA    Poem Text    
First Line: In locust trees the roots run along the ground
Subject(s): Locust Trees; France


ACACIA       
First Line: In locust trees the roots run along the ground
Last Line: Fainting from the beauty, %growing hungry from the climb, %changed forever halfway through our lives


ACACIA       
First Line: In locust trees the roots run along the ground
Last Line: Changed forever halfway through our lives


ADLER    Poem Text    
First Line: The jewish king lear is getting ready
Last Line: That isadora duncan came to worship him
Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)


ADLER       
First Line: The jewish king lear is getting ready
Last Line: Still sang in bitterness, still wept and warbled in sorrow


ADLER       
First Line: The jewish king lear is getting ready
Last Line: Sitting on top of the barrels, as if there were flowers-- %still sang in bitterness, still wept and
Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews


ALBATROSS I       
First Line: Please listen, there's a thing back there I killed
Last Line: Name be erased for the thing back there


ALL I DID FOR HIM       
First Line: When I fought the dog we almost danced
Last Line: Even find my pocket, I couldn't take out a dollar


ALL I HAVE ARE THE TRACKS, THERE WERE A DOG'S       
Last Line: That fought the wind, and the mouth that struggled for air, %and love and hate, and all their shamel


ALONE       
First Line: I was alone and I could do what I wanted
Last Line: I wore two pair of socks and hid my money


ALREADY APRIL    Poem Text    
First Line: The second day in a row I watched the same
Subject(s): April


ALREADY APRIL       
First Line: The second day in a row I watched the same
Last Line: I had been so ashamed and outmaneuvered
Subject(s): April


ANGEL POEM       
First Line: My broken wing is on the left near the large joint
Last Line: And buy my ticket at the frosted window %for easton, pennsylvania, or new york, new york


ANOTHER INSANE DEVOTION    Poem Text    
Subject(s): Love - Lost; Cats; Food & Eating; Hunger


ANOTHER INSANE DEVOTION       
First Line: This was gruesome - fighting over a ham sandwich


ANOTHER INSANE DEVOTION       
First Line: This was gruesome -- fighting over a ham sandwich
Last Line: The wind blowing through his hair. His jaws working


APOCALYPSE    Poem Text    
First Line: Of all sixty of us I am the only one who went
Subject(s): Judgment Day; End Of The World; Doomsday; Fall Of Man


ARRANGING A THORN       
First Line: I am wandering through newark, new jersey
Last Line: Sitting in a chair, reading the paper, pity, %turning a leaf to the light, arranging a thorn


ART    Poem Text    
First Line: When he died, or when he was thinking of dying
Subject(s): Art & Artists; Death; Dead, The


ART       
First Line: When he died, or when he was thinking of dying
Last Line: Began her drop, it was already in his mind
Subject(s): Art And Artists; Death


ARTHUR'S LILY       
First Line: I could never feel sorry for arthur vogelsang
Last Line: Knowing he is practicing footprints, %knowing he is planning another ecstatic voyage


AT BICKFORD'S    Poem Text    
First Line: You should understand that I use my body now for everything
Subject(s): Aging; Restaurants; Cafes; Diners


AT BICKFORD'S       
First Line: You should understand that I use my body now for everything
Last Line: I will sit and read in my chair; %I will wave from my window
Subject(s): Aging; Restaurants


AT BICKFORD'S       
First Line: You should understand that I use my body now for everything
Last Line: I will wave from my window


AT JANE'S       
First Line: I touch the rose to see what happens there
Last Line: Thinking my thoughts, my wise and tender thoughts, %the mayor's palace, marietta, ohio


AUGUST 20-21    Poem Text    
First Line: In the age of loosestrife
Subject(s): August; Weeds


AUGUST 20-21       
First Line: In the age of loosestrife
Last Line: He loves the wetness, he hates the violent sneezing
Subject(s): August; Weeds


BAJA       
First Line: These tiny mexican mosquitoes are like lost souls
Last Line: A little kindness for insects, a little pity for the dead


BAJA       
First Line: These tiny mexican mosquitoes are like lost souls
Last Line: A dish for the blood, a little love for strangers, %a little kindness for insects, a little pity for


BEE BALM    Poem Text    
First Line: Today I'm sticking a shovel in the ground
Subject(s): Flowers; Gardens & Gardening


BEE BALM       
First Line: Today I'm sticking a shovel in the ground
Last Line: So I can live by secrecy and sorrow
Subject(s): Flowers; Gardens And Gardening


BEHAVING LIKE A JEW    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: When I got there the dead opossum looked like
Subject(s): Ethnic Groups - United States; Minorities - United States; U.s. - Race Relations


BEHAVING LIKE A JEW       
First Line: When I got there the dead opossum looked like
Last Line: From his round belly and his curved fingers %and his black whiskers and his little dancing feet
Subject(s): Ethnic Groups - United States; Minorities - United States; U.s. - Race Relations


BEHAVING LIKE A JEW       
First Line: When I got there the dead opossum looked like
Last Line: And his black whiskers and his little dancing feet


BELA       
First Line: This version of the starving artist
Last Line: I put the arrow through it, I place the letters %one inside the other. I sleep, I sleep


BELA       
First Line: This version of the starving artist
Last Line: One inside the other. I sleep, I sleep


BELOW FOURTEENTH STREET       
First Line: Somewhere above fourteenth he pulled up his shirt sleeves
Subject(s): New York City; Manhattan; New York, New York; The Big Apple


BELOW FOURTEENTH STREET       
First Line: Somewhere above fourteenth he pulled up his shirt sleeves
Last Line: The man in busy cuffs, the cat in the harness
Subject(s): New York City


BERKELEY       
First Line: Today I saw the weird leg of apollo
Last Line: With all the secrets inside. Keeping my secrets. %thinking of poland again. Getting ready for snow


BIG ANNIE ROONEY    Poem Text    
First Line: Counting the beats in a different way he used
Subject(s): Music & Musicians


BIG ANNIE ROONEY       
First Line: Counting the beats in a different way he used
Last Line: Blinking, the subversion, big bill broonzy, big annie %rooney
Subject(s): Music And Musicians


BIRTHDAY    Poem Text    
First Line: It is that they spend so much time in the sky
Subject(s): Nature


BIRTHDAY       
First Line: It is that they spend so much time in the sky
Last Line: A month or two before. It has to be %the oldest craving of all, the first mercy
Subject(s): Nature


BITE       
First Line: I didn't start taking myself seriously as a poet
Last Line: Everything, suddenly everything is up there in the mind, %all the beauty of the race gone %& my life


BITE       
First Line: I didn't start taking myself seriously as a poet
Last Line: And my life merely an allegory


BITTER THOUGHTS    Poem Text    
First Line: I didn't listen to one stone this year
Last Line: That saved the world and an overcoat that renewed it
Subject(s): Nature


BITTER THOUGHTS       
First Line: I didn't listen to one stone this year
Last Line: For most of a life, near a water-stained lampshade %that saved the world and an overcoat that renewe
Subject(s): Nature


BLACKER THAN EVER       
First Line: You should know this, who live in your own decade
Last Line: Drinking my tea, haranguing, that was mine


BLESSED       
First Line: He who destroys, he who reigns, he who meditates
Last Line: It is the weariness of work. %it is the gravity of love. %itis the dignity of isolation


BLINK OF AN EYE       
First Line: Twilight is like the blink of an eye


BLUE       
First Line: What I was hunting for was a skeleton key
Last Line: Green was my rotten liver. Blue were my bloodshot eyes


BLUE SKIES, WHITE BREASTS, GREEN TREES       
First Line: What I took to be a man in a white beard
Last Line: That I dressed in white, and sent across the river, %weepingand weeping and weeping %inside his torn


BLUE SKIES, WHITE BREASTS, GREEN TREES       
First Line: What I took to be a man in a white beard
Last Line: Inside his torn sheet


BOB SUMMERS' BODY    Poem Text    
First Line: I never told this -- I saw bob summers' body
Subject(s): Healing; Cures


BOB SUMMERS' BODY       
First Line: I never told this -- I saw bob summers' body
Last Line: Nodding and smiling in the plush darkness
Subject(s): Healing


BOB SUMMERS: THE FINAL POEM       
First Line: There are two men I know who wander around all winter as I do
Last Line: Always ready to guide him through his weakness, %ready to give him back his health and wisdom


BOB SUMMERS; THE FINAL POEM       
First Line: There are two men I know who wander around all winter as I do
Last Line: Ready to give him back his health and wisdom


BOLERO    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: So one day when the azalea bush was firing
Subject(s): Songs; Nostalgia


BOOKS    Poem Text    
First Line: How you loved to read in the snow and when your
Subject(s): Books; Librarians & Libraries; Reading; Library; Librarians


BOTH OF THEM WERE SIXTY-FIVE    Poem Text    
First Line: Ordinarily I wouldn't be introducing aaron copland to ida stern
Subject(s): Birthdays; Love


BOTH OF THEM WERE SIXTY-FIVE       
First Line: Ordinarily I wouldn't be introducing aaron copland to ida stern
Last Line: A fiddle to match, a fire -- and candles -- burning
Subject(s): Birthdays; Love


BOX OF CIGARS    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: Io tried either one or two but they were stale
Subject(s): Smoking; Tobacco; Pipes; Cigars; Cigarettes


BOX OF CIGARS       
First Line: I tried either one or two but they were stale
Last Line: Into his empty can. We were visionaries


BRAIN OF MY HEART    Poem Text    
First Line: Thank god for the walnut in 1986
Subject(s): Mind, The; Walnuts


BRAIN OF MY HEART       
First Line: Thank god for the walnut in 1986


BREAD WITHOUT SUGAR       
First Line: The first time I saw the stone


BULL-ROARER       
First Line: I only saw my father's face in butchery
Last Line: Locked up in that whirling stone, dear father
Subject(s): Farm Life


BURNING       
First Line: Where is the mind that asked whether the drug store
Last Line: Battles explode and paper flutes burn and birdsong


BURYING AN ANIMAL ON THE WAY TO NEW YORK       
First Line: Don't flinch when you come across a dead animal lying on the road
Last Line: Slow down with your radio off and your window open %to hear the twittering as you go by


BURYING AN ANIMAL ON THE WAY TO NEW YORK       
First Line: Don't flinch when you come across a dead animal lying on the road
Last Line: To hear the twittering as you go by


CEMETERY OF ORANGE TREES IN CRETE       
First Line: In crete the old orange trees are cut back until they are stumps
Last Line: The other hands on the hill, my white heart remembering %theviolence and sorrow that gave us our lif


CEMETERY OF ORANGE TREES IN CRETE       
First Line: In crete the old orange trees are cut back until they are stumps
Last Line: The violence and sorrow that gave us our life again


CHEESE    Poem Text    
First Line: And those who live on government cheese and carry it
Subject(s): Welfare; Social Commentaries


CHRISTMAS STICKS       
First Line: Before I leave I'll put two sticks on the porch
Last Line: Two great masters of suffering and sadness %singing sons about love and regeneration


CHRISTMAS STICKS       
First Line: Before I leave I'll put two sticks on the porch
Last Line: Singing songs about love and regeneration


COLEMAN VALLEY ROAD       
First Line: This is where I had my sheep vision
Last Line: And sighs, it cracks with desire, it sobs with fatigue. %it is the loudest sound of all. A shreiking


COUNTING    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: You remind me always it's thirteen years
Subject(s): Time


COW WORSHIP       
First Line: I love the cows best when they are a few feet away
Last Line: Glittering singers and isolated thinkers %at pasture


CROSSHATCHING       
First Line: All this time I was leading another life
Last Line: Close to the sun, the dates in corrupted purple


DANCING       
First Line: In all these rotten shops, in all this broken furniture
Last Line: Oh god of mercy, oh wild god


DANCING       
First Line: In all these rotten shops, in all this broken furniture
Last Line: From the other dancing - in poland and germany - %of god of mercy, oh wild god
Subject(s): Ethnic Groups - United States; Minorities - United States; U.s. - Race Relations


DAY OF GRIEF    Poem Text    
First Line: I was forcing a wasp to the top of a window
Subject(s): Grief; Sorrow; Sadness


DAYS OF 1978    Poem Text    
First Line: This is the only thing that clarifies my life
Subject(s): Memory; Cavafy, Constantine P. (1863-1933)


DAYS OF 1978       
First Line: This is the only thing that clarifies my life
Last Line: A new sweetness and clarity beginning %to monopolize my own memory


DAYS OF 1978       
First Line: This is the only thing that clarifies my life
Last Line: To monopolize my own memory


DEAR MOLE       
First Line: Dear mole, I have forgotten you!
Last Line: Always beginning, always starting over, %his head down, his poor sould warbling and wailing


DEAR MOLE       
First Line: Dear mole, I have forgotten you
Last Line: His head down, his poor soul warbling and wailing


DEATH BY WIND        Recitation by Author


DIARY       
First Line: I am at last that thing, a stranger in my own life
Last Line: And holding on between the few late pinched tomatoes %and the whistling dove
Subject(s): Alienation (social Psychology); Diaries; Dissenters; Exiles; Marginality, Social


DID I SAY    Poem Text    
First Line: This time of year I kneel on my jacket. The ice
Subject(s): Gardens & Gardening; Winter


DID I SAY       
First Line: This time of year I kneel on my jacket. The ice
Last Line: Too? Did I say I was winged and scattered?
Subject(s): Gardens And Gardening; Winter


DOG       
First Line: What was I doing with my white teeth exposed
Last Line: As you have taught me, oh distant and brilliant and lonely
Subject(s): Animals; Dogs


DOMESTIC    Poem Text    
First Line: He picked a leaf, there just had to be
Subject(s): Household Employees; Servants; Domestics; Maids


DOMESTIC       
First Line: He picked a leaf, there just had to be
Last Line: For its deathbed speech he swept up or he scattered
Subject(s): Household Employees


DORIS       
First Line: Never went to birdland, so what, went to the y
Last Line: Nor what the sofa was like and what our struggle was


DOVE'S NECK       
First Line: The dove's neck is so thin
Last Line: My bitter personal heavens
Subject(s): Doves


DROWNING ON THE PAMET RIVER    Poem Text    
First Line: Because of the pull I ended up swimming in the grasses
Subject(s): Drowning; Love; Rivers


DROWNING ON THE PAMET RIVER       
First Line: Because of the pull I ended up swimming in the grasses
Last Line: So much that's why I kissed you so desperately
Subject(s): Drowning; Love; Rivers


DUCKS ARE FOR OUR HAPPINESS       
First Line: Ben franklin again, down by the esplanade
Last Line: He says to the river. My god, their happiness, fresno
Subject(s): Nature


E.P.       
First Line: Nothing matters but the quality of the affection
Last Line: One was a shut garden of pear trees, dancing nancy


E.P.: 2       
First Line: I meant the personal and the social
Last Line: Now? How you like dubya vomit? Wyoming hath need of thee


EGG       
First Line: And I have been a mother to geese and what not
Last Line: Orange, and huge, I was so hungry then


EGGSHELL    Poem Text    
First Line: The color of life is an almost pale white robin's green
Subject(s): Eggs


EGGSHELL       
First Line: The color of life is an almost pale white robin's green
Last Line: To prop up a rosebush, the way we do, sweet larry
Subject(s): Eggs


ELAINE COMPARONE       
First Line: I love to sit down
Last Line: In the drawing rooms of petrograd and stockholm, %dreaming of sunlight and rain and endless dancing


ELAINE COMPARONE       
First Line: I love to sit down
Last Line: Dreaming of sunlight and rain and endless dancing


ESSAY ON RIME       
First Line: God knows those apes my father's relatives
Last Line: From the same fire I sang with my broken fingers


EXORDIUM AND TERMINUS       
First Line: In your rendition of the year 25-25
Last Line: Love, and how the pigs have taken over doomsday


EXPULSION       
First Line: I'm working like a dog here, testing my memory
Last Line: Down which we sometimes shuffle, and sometimes run


EXPULSION       
First Line: I'm working like a dog here, testing my memory
Last Line: The secret rooms, the long and brutal corridor %down which we sometimes shuffle, and sometimes run
Subject(s): Memory


EYES ARE ALWAYS BROWN       
First Line: I spend an hour watching the yellow parrots
Last Line: Drifting through the water towers? Why %did I stop to liste n to that music, poor love?


FACES I LOVE       
First Line: Once and for all I will lie down here like a dead man
Last Line: To put them back together-- %the names I can't forget, the faces I love


FACES I LOVE       
First Line: Once and for all I will lie down here like a dead man
Last Line: The names I can't forget, the faces I love


FINDING THE BUSH       
First Line: There is no shame in this, I left one bush
Last Line: Gardenias for a blossom, not that jujube


FIRST DAY OF SPRING       
First Line: I have been such a flower


FIRST LIGHT       
First Line: Sooner or later everyone's eyes are opened
Last Line: And what was destroyed, and how the streaks mattered


FLEUR       
First Line: No sense lying -- my own two rows of pompoms
Last Line: Before the leaves, and how she knew it, my fleur


FLEXIBLE FLYER       
First Line: The tale I have to tell. I lit a match
Last Line: The snow was blue I washed my face in lavender


FOR NIGHT TO COME       
First Line: I am giving instructions to my monkey
Last Line: Hugging each other in the white grass


FOR NIGHT TO COME       
First Line: I am giving instructions to my monkey
Last Line: Like the good souls we are, %a hairy man and a beast %hugging each other in the white grass


FOR ONCE       
First Line: It was in southern florida I reached
Last Line: Wandering through a forest of cypress roots, %finding someone that old and wise. I loved it


FOR ONCE       
First Line: In was in southern florida I reached
Last Line: Finding someone that old and wise. I loved it


FOR SONG       
First Line: I am sitting thirty feet above the water
Last Line: I am raising my eyes, I am listening to the worms %for song


FOUNDER       
First Line: There was a kind of drooping bronze head
Last Line: The sun shining down, the melodies never ending


FRITZ       
First Line: This is too good for words. I lie here naked
Last Line: It was the fire that moved me


FRITZ       
First Line: This it too good for words. I lie here naked
Last Line: Tears, and coleridge's soft flight, and dostoevski's %rack -it was the fire that moved me
Subject(s): Music And Musicians


GARDEN; FOR GRETCHEN CARACAS AND HOWARD ROGOVIN       
First Line: This was my garden in 1985
Last Line: Or cleaned a leaf or found another bottle
Subject(s): Flowers; Gardens And Gardening


GERT'S GIFTS       
First Line: There were two jokes played on me on my first long walk in florida
Last Line: And the sweet honeys walk by on silk platforms %promising luxury and renewal in the green darkness


GERT'S GIFTS       
First Line: There were two jokes played on me on my first long walk in florida this winter
Last Line: Promising luxury and renewal in the green darkness


GLUT    Poem Text    
First Line: The whole point was getting rid of glut
Subject(s): Conduct Of Life


GOD OF RAIN, GOD OF WATER       
First Line: Each spring the long-nosed god of rain
Last Line: To pay him for his tears, to pay the old god for his tear, %apart from everything else, to pay him f


GOD OF RAIN, GOD OF WATER       
First Line: Each spring the long-nosed god of rain
Last Line: Apart from everything else, to pay him for his tears


GOLD FLOWER       
First Line: This is the season for chrysanthemums
Last Line: Dear hidden rules. Dear hidden men and women %carrying the sunlight down into the soft dirt with you


GRAPEFRUIT    Poem Text    
First Line: M eating breakfast even if it means standing
Subject(s): Food & Eating


GRAPEFRUIT       
First Line: I'm eating breakfast even if it means standing
Last Line: Thou milkweed queen of the sky, burster of seeds, %who bringeth forth juice from the earth


GRAPEFRUIT       
First Line: I'm eating breakfast even if it means standing
Last Line: Who bringeth forth juice from the earth


GRASS AND WATER    Poem Text    
First Line: The geese have their heaven and I have mine,
Subject(s): Geese; Social Commentaries


GREEK NEIGHBOR HOME FROM THE HOSPITAL       
First Line: Where he hung the bird feeder a month ago
Subject(s): Greece; Home; Neighbors; Greeks


GREEK NEIGHBOR HOME FROM THE HOSPITAL       
First Line: Where he hung the bird feeder a month ago
Last Line: Too much away to the poisonous squirrels, poor greek
Subject(s): Greece; Home; Neighbors


GRINNELL, IOWA       
First Line: Guy daniels would haved loved mary
Last Line: He almost is ready for his molt, he almost %is ready for his week of rage and sorrow


GRINNELL, IOWA       
First Line: Guy daniels would have loved may
Last Line: Is ready for his week of rage and sorrow


GULLS       
First Line: The other side of the reservoir uphill
Last Line: Were distant and vicious then, everything was hungry


HANGING SCROLL    Poem Text    
First Line: I have come back to princeton three days in a row
Last Line: Waiting for love
Subject(s): Art & Artists


HANGING SCROLL       
First Line: I have come back to princeton three days in a row
Last Line: Which I think about and watch and agonize over %day and night, %like a worried spirit %waiting for l
Subject(s): Art And Artists


HANGING SCROLL       
First Line: I have come back to princeton three days in a row
Last Line: Like a worried spirit %waiting for love


HATS    Poem Text    
First Line: For the sake of the fleabane growing rose a little
Subject(s): Roses; Hats


HE SAID       
First Line: Thank god for summer, he said, and thank god the window
Last Line: And roared in the grapes, he said, and melted mountains


HER RIGHT EYE CATCHES THE LAVENDER       
First Line: What is the easter gull called? Is it the same one
Last Line: Only? Could I not stand in the mud %beside my black willow, thinking of her and %loving her?


HER RIGHT EYE CATCHES THE LAVENDER       
First Line: What is the eastern gull called? Is it the same one
Last Line: Beside my black willow, thinking of her and loving her


HERE I AM WALKING       
First Line: Here I am walking between ocean and neptune
Last Line: Just where I was then, %getting rid of baggage, %living in dreams, %finding a way to change, or swee


HERE I AM WALKING       
First Line: Here I am walking between ocean and neptune
Last Line: Finding a way to change, or sweeten, my clumsy life


HIDDEN JUSTICE       
First Line: This is my forest now, this christmas cactus


HINGLISH       
First Line: Sacre dieu, I said for the very first time
Last Line: Beside the hemlock, %reading max jacob, %speakin' a hinglish


HINGLISH       
First Line: Sacre dieu, I said for the very first time
Last Line: Reading max jacob %speakin' a hinglish


HIS ANIMAL IS FINALLY A KIND OF APE       
First Line: His animal is finally a kind of ape - after all - and not an elephant
Last Line: Because of these animals I was able to break away, %I am in their debt


HIS ANIMAL IS FINALLY A KIND OF APE       
First Line: His animal is finally a kind of ape -- after all -- and not an elephant
Last Line: I am in their debt


HIS SONG OF THE GREEN WILLOW       
First Line: I guide my darling under the willow tree
Last Line: Her thoughts again - for him her thoughts - his song %of the green willow, her song of pain and seve


HIS SONG OF THE GREEN WILLOW       
First Line: I guide my darling under the willow tree
Last Line: Of the green willow, her song of pain and severance


HOBBES       
First Line: I am here again


HONEY LOCUST       
First Line: Here are about seventy snakes waiting to come to life
Last Line: And sing about their lives like old musicians %singing about theirs


HOT DOG       
First Line: One white mushroom lying in the street across
Last Line: Getting ready again for the next eternity


HOW A WORD CAN BREATHE       
First Line: I don't know who said first the hardened beetle
Last Line: From tightening the lugs and how you waited


HOW WOULD IT BE       
First Line: How would it be at my age to burn some land
Last Line: Smear her face with dirt? Couldn't she explode


HUNDRED YEARS FROM NOW       
First Line: A hundred years from now nobody will know who zane grey was
Last Line: O babylonian, I am swimming in the deep off the island %of my own death and birth. Stay with me!


HUNGARIAN       
First Line: If I waited till september
Last Line: To keep them from greed and hatred, %to save them for the serious souls to come


HYDRANGEA       
First Line: I was pleased by blue hydrangea because at
Last Line: May god forgive me, lord of the lost and destitute


I AM IN A WINDOW       
First Line: I move from chair to chair, thinking of liszt
Last Line: I'll lie there for hours thinking of my mountains, %reading keats


I AM IN LOVE       
First Line: Everyone who dances understands what I am doing
Last Line: Sometimes I do the birch tree searching for the sun, %sometimes I do route 30. I am in love


I DO A PIECE FROM GREECE       
Last Line: Once I heard it I could never stop


I DO A PIECE FROM GREECE       
First Line: I do a piece from greece. I haven't done that
Last Line: My way was with the soaring and the singing. %once I heard it I could never stop


I HATE MY MOANING       
First Line: I hate my staring. I hate my moaning. Sometimes
Last Line: Comes through the threads, it is a greyish light, %perfect for either love or bitterness, %no exagge


I PITY THE WIND       
First Line: I am taking off my glasses
Last Line: I pity this hero, %so in love with fire, %so warlike, %so bent on teaching


I PITY THE WIND       
First Line: I am taking off my glasses
Last Line: So bent on teaching


I REMEMBER GALILEO    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: I remember galileo describing the mind
Subject(s): Galileo (1564-1642); Squirrels; Paper; Galileo Galilei


I REMEMBER GALILEO       
First Line: I remember galileo describing the mind
Last Line: Finishing his wild dash across the highway, %rushing up his green ungoverned hillside


I REMEMBER GALILEO       
First Line: I remember galileo describing the mind
Last Line: Rushing up his green ungoverned hillside


I SLEPT LIKE THAT       
First Line: It was always a soothing position


I SOMETIMES THINK OF THE LAMB       


I SOMETIMES THINK OF THE LAMB       
First Line: I sometimes think of the lamb when I crawl down
Last Line: As long as there are hooves - and clattering-- %as long as there is screaming and butchering


I SOMETIMES THINK OF THE LAMB       
First Line: I sometimes think of the lamb when I crawl down
Last Line: As long is there is screaming and butchering


I WOULD CALL IT DERANGEMENT       
First Line: I cut a stick for my love. It is too early
Last Line: The clouds into overturned trees or smiling in greek


IDA       
First Line: Well, I am like a palm tree
Last Line: My secret and sorrowful mother


IDA       
First Line: Well, I am like palm tree
Last Line: My secret and sorrowful mother


IF THE ARK HAD THORNS       
First Line: A ghost I know too well stands bitterly by
Last Line: And reads the yellow page, sometimes he chews %on one flamboyant leaf, sometimes on another


IF YOU FORGET THE GERMANS       
First Line: If you forget the germans climbing up and down the acropolis
Last Line: As it was when we lay down and loved in the old darkness


IF YOU SAW ME WALKING       
First Line: If you saw me walking one more time on the island
Last Line: You would know there was one more day of happiness %before the water rose again for another year


IF YOU SAW ME WALKING       
First Line: If you saw me walking one more time on the island
Last Line: Before the water rose again for another year


IMMANUEL KANT AND THE HOP!       
First Line: There was a time
Last Line: One of the dravidians - so that nothing will %be lost, nothing I tramp upon, nothing I %chew, nothin


IMMANUEL KANT AND THE HOPI       
First Line: There was a time
Last Line: Chew, nothing I remember


IMMENSITY       
First Line: Nothing is too small for my sarcasm. I know
Last Line: Through their vile blue, sneezing madly in the midst of that%life of theirs, weighed down by madness


IMMENSITY       
First Line: Nothing is too small for my sarcasm
Last Line: Life of theirs, weighed down by madness and sorrow


IN BEAUTY BRIGHT    Poem Text    
Subject(s): Lilies; Blake, William (1757-1827)


IN CARPENTER'S WOODS       
First Line: This is a corner of heaven here
Last Line: That is has a serious history; %that it was always there, from the beginning


IN KOVALCHIK'S GARDEN       
First Line: It is dusk, the drive-ins are opening, the balloon is coming to rest
Last Line: Her cry is part wistful, part mordant. %she is getting rid of corpses


IN KOVALCHIK'S GARDEN       
First Line: It is dusk, the drive-ins are opening the balloon is coming to rest
Last Line: She is getting rid of corpses


IN MEMORY OF W.H. AUDEN    Poem Text    
First Line: I am going over my early rages again
Subject(s): Auden, Wystan Hugh (1907-1973); Poetry & Poets


IN MEMORY OF W.H. AUDEN       
First Line: I am going over my early rages again
Last Line: Whose neck I'd hang on, that magician %who could realease me now, whom I release and remember
Subject(s): Auden, Wystan Hugh (1907-1973); Poetry And Poets


IN TIME    Poem Text    
Subject(s): Clocks


IN TIME       
First Line: As far as clocks-and it is time to think of them
Last Line: The day looks like and is the rooster loyal


INKSPOTS       
First Line: The thing about the dove was how he cried in
Last Line: Playing the inkspots, the engineer roaring


IT WAS A RISING       
First Line: It was a rising that brought the worms. They came
Last Line: Ready for my own visionary window, %ready for a whole morning of sunlight and silence


IT WAS A RISING       
First Line: It was a rising that brought the worms
Last Line: Ready for a whole morning of sunlight and silence


IT WAS IN HOUSTON    Poem Text    
First Line: It was in houston I saw this disgusting sideboard
Subject(s): Furniture; Writing & Writers


IT WAS IN HOUSTON       
First Line: It was in houston I saw this disgusting sideboard


IT WAS IN HOUSTON       
First Line: It was in houston I saw this disgusting sideboard
Last Line: Little white one in the ravaged world


IT'S NICE TO THINK OF TEARS       
First Line: It's nice to think of tears as polliwogs
Last Line: Where the hands were hanging down, %where the dark old hands were helpless and hanging down


IT'S NICE TO THINK OF TEARS       
First Line: It's nice to think of tears as polliwogs
Last Line: Where the dark old hands were helpless and hanging down


JEW AND THE ROOSTER ARE ONE       
First Line: After fighting with his dead brothers and his dead sisters
Last Line: Tethered to a table, he was slaughtered


JOHN'S MYSTERIES       
First Line: I've been seeing these tombstone beef sticks
Last Line: And the little sticks of meat inside, his own %wild voyage behind him, his own sad life ahead


JOHN'S MYSTERIES       
First Line: I've been seeing these tombstone beef sticks
Last Line: Wild voyage behind him, his own sad life ahead


JOSEPH POCKETS       
First Line: Have you ever lived through seven fat years and grown soft
Last Line: Of life disappearing like drops of snow %as we pick up speed going east on the empty turnpike


JOURNEY    Poem Text    
First Line: How dumb he was to wipe the blood from his eye


JUNE FIRST    Poem Text    
First Line: Some blossoms are so white and luscious, when they
Subject(s): Love


JUNE FIRST       
First Line: Some blossoms are so white and luscious, when they
Last Line: Your curved arms and your jeweled fingers %waving slowly again in the hot sun
Subject(s): Love


JUNE FIRST       
First Line: Some blossoms are so white and luscious, when they
Last Line: Waving slowly again in the hot sun


JUNE FOURTH    Poem Text    
First Line: Today as I ride down twenty-fifth street I smell honeysuckle
Subject(s): Medmory


JUNE FOURTH       
First Line: Today as I ride down twenty-fifth I smell honeysuckle
Last Line: The mixture of pain and pleasure - terror and hope - %what he calls 'honeysuckle.'


JUSTICE       
First Line: Only, to hear him scream, you had to know
Last Line: My clothes were red, my neck and face were scarlet


KINGDOM    Poem Text    
First Line: As far as the color red
Subject(s): Courts & Courtiers; Property; Possessions


KINGDOM       
First Line: As far as the color red
Last Line: And sang in an amorous voice, as far as that
Subject(s): Courts And Courtiers; Property


KISSING STIEGLITZ GOOD-BYE    Poem Text    
First Line: Every city in america is approached
Subject(s): Farewell; Stieglitz, Alfred (1864-1946); Parting


KISSING STIEGLITZ GOOD-BYE       
First Line: Every city in america is approached
Last Line: On a sagging porch. I would have believed in everything


KISSING STIEGLITZ GOODBYE       
First Line: Every city in america is approached %through a work of art
Last Line: There is a man %on a sagging porch. I would have believed I n everything


KNOWLEDGE       
First Line: Take water and fire, any disturbance between them
Last Line: Swimming in milk, thinking of living again


KNOWLEDGE FORWARDS AND BACKWARDS       
First Line: This was city living in the 1930's
Last Line: When nothing is lost, when I can go forth and forth, %when the chain does not break off, that is par


KNOWLEDGE FORWARDS AND BACKWARDS       
First Line: This was city living in the 1930s
Last Line: When the chain does not break off, that is paradise


LA PERGOLA       
First Line: Finally daisies and tomatoes, I have settled for
Last Line: The bald daisies, stinking blue vase, stinking dixie cup


LARGE POTS       
First Line: It's like coming through a chrysanthemum forest
Last Line: A coral rose, I hold for nine or ten seconds


LAST BLUE    Poem Text    
First Line: You want to get the color blue right
Last Line: It always sounded like that--everything living
Subject(s): Blue (color); Colors


LAST BLUE       
First Line: You want to get the color blue right
Last Line: It always sounded like that - everything living
Subject(s): Blue (color); Colors


LAST HOME       
First Line: The alley is called pine street where the rottweiler
Last Line: The roar, and if you still could hear the ringing


LAST SELF-PORTRAIT       
First Line: Now I know why I have kept this orange flower wrapped up in tissue
Last Line: Holding my chin up for the last self-portrait


LAVENDER    Poem Text    
First Line: Just for experiment I am burning the lavender
Subject(s): Fire; Lavender; Smells; Odors; Aromas; Fragrances


LAVENDER       
First Line: Just for experiment I am burning the lavender
Last Line: And the box full of silk, I was such an enemy
Subject(s): Fire; Lavender; Smells


LEAVES    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: He was cleaning leaves for one at a time
Subject(s): Trees


LEAVING ANOTHER KINGDOM       
First Line: I think this year I'll wait for the white lilacs
Last Line: Losing the buick, walking into the water, %leaving another island, leaving another %retreat, leaving


LEAVING ANOTHER KINGDOM       
First Line: I think this year I'll wait for the white lilacs
Last Line: Retreat, leaving another kingdom


LET ME PLEASE LOOK INTO MY WINDOW    Poem Text    
Subject(s): Farewell; Parting


LET ME PLEASE LOOK INTO MY WINDOW       
First Line: Let me please look into my windo on 103rd street one more time
Last Line: As we turn left, as we cross the water, as we leave the light


LET ME PLEASE LOOK INTO MY WINDOW       
First Line: Let me please look into my window on 103rd street one more time
Last Line: As we turn left, as we cross the water, as we leave the light


LIGHT    Poem Text    
First Line: The second day of eastern standard
Subject(s): Birds


LIGHT       
First Line: The second day of eastern standard
Last Line: One of us shameless and adored


LILACS FOR GINSBERG    Poem Text    
First Line: I was most interested in what they looked like dead
Subject(s): Flowers; Lilacs


LILACS FOR GINSBERG       
First Line: I was most interested in what they looked like dead
Last Line: Good and thoughtful became, for a moment, sorrowful
Subject(s): Flowers; Lilacs


LILIES       
First Line: Those lilies of the field, one sunday night
Last Line: Were blue, his tires were bald, what christ owes me!


LILLIAN HARVEY       
First Line: This is lovesick for you - charles koechlin
Last Line: His mouth against her knee or lifter her thighs. %for she was the muse. You never fuck the muse


LITTLE DID THE JUNCO KNOW    Poem Text    
First Line: Little did the junco know who he was keeping cmpany with this christmas
Subject(s): Birds


LITTLE DID THE JUNCO KNOW       
First Line: Little did the junco know who he was keeping company with this
Last Line: That soft gray one with the long tail %and the monotonous voice, %gorging himself at the battered al


LITTLE DID THE JUNCO KNOW       
First Line: Little did the junco know who he was keeping company with this christmas
Last Line: Gorging himself at the battered aluminum pan


LITTLE WHITE SISTER       
First Line: It was in philadelphia that I first lived a life of deferment
Last Line: Making kissing sounds with her red lips, %moaning with pleasure for the last indignity


LITTLE WHITE SISTER       
First Line: It was in philadelphia that I first lived a life of deferment
Last Line: Moaning with pleasure for the last indignity


LORD, FORGIVE A SPIRIT       
First Line: So what shall we do about this angel
Last Line: Lost somewhere in the broken glass and the cinders, %a foot below the soft nails and the hinges


LOST WITH LIEUTENANT PIKE       
First Line: How was I to know - in 1938 - that anyone but
Last Line: 9,000 miles from jerusalem, with the ice forming %inside your nostrils, and to feel your own wisdom


LOVE FOR THE DOG    Poem Text    
First Line: Before he opened his eyes, as he lay there under the window
Subject(s): Dogs


LOVE FOR THE DOG       
First Line: Before he opened his eyes, as he lay there under the window
Last Line: Like wild water through all his troubled veins


LOVE FOR THE DOG       
First Line: Before he opened his eyes, as he lay there under the window
Last Line: As if there was not life still pouring out voluptously %likewild water through all his troubled vein
Subject(s): Animals; Dogs


LOVE ME       
First Line: It was in a good city
Last Line: The fruit first, then the blossoms


LOVESICK       
First Line: The dead straw in those trees, the
Last Line: Their bellies are moaning and howling, %their souls are cooing and cawing


LUCKY LIFE    Poem Text    
First Line: Lucky life isn't one long string of horrors
Subject(s): Kent State University - Riot, 1970


LUCKY LIFE       
First Line: Lucky life isn't one long string of horrors
Last Line: Lucky life is that. Lucky life. Oh lucky life. %oh lucky lucky life. Lucky life
Subject(s): Kent State University - Riot, 1970


LYRIC       
First Line: I wonder who has pissed here
Last Line: To see what the tast is %or lifted a rose mum to his face %to see if he'll live forever?


LYRIC       
First Line: I wonder who has pissed here
Last Line: To see if he'll live forever


MAGNOLIA    Poem Text    
First Line: The mayor, in order to marry us, borrowed
Subject(s): Marriage; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


MAGRITTE DANCING    Poem Text    
First Line: Every night I have to go to bed twice
Subject(s): Insomnia; Neighbors; Dancing & Dancers; Sleeplessness


MAGRITTE DANCING       
First Line: Every night I have to go to bed twice
Last Line: Of the bluejay, then the white door slamming, %then the voices rising and falling in sudden harmony


MAKING THE LIGHT COME       
First Line: My pen was always brown or blue, with stripes
Last Line: Scattering handfuls of gypsum and moss, still worshiping?


MALAGUENA       
First Line: With a dead turtle floating down my canal
Last Line: I am letting the sound of the islands %go through my veins again, like water


MALAGUENA       
First Line: With a dead turtle floating down my canal
Last Line: Go through my veins again, like water


MATINS    Poem Text    
First Line: Look in whose clouded eye behind the red vein
Subject(s): Social Classes; Caste


MATINS       
First Line: Look in whose clouded eye behind the red vein
Last Line: Why doesn't he clean the window, early moon?


MEMOIR       
First Line: I already said we put each other's eyes out
Last Line: What the world was doing, how I exploded


MENTIONING OF THE SOULS       
First Line: If I get up one more time in the dark
Last Line: And remember, with your own lips, %as I go over the victories and the failures


MEXICAN    Poem Text    
First Line: By holding the mirror above my head your face
Subject(s): Love


MEXICAN       
First Line: By holding the mirror above my head your face
Last Line: Were starting to hunt for grasses while we made love
Subject(s): Love


MIMI    Poem Text    
First Line: For all the grackles are despised
Subject(s): Grackles; Nature; Animals


MIMI       
First Line: For all that grackles are despised
Last Line: Tristan der melancholish, alfredo %der ethical, der loyal, dear mimi


MODERN LOVE       
First Line: In a month all these frozen waterfalls
Last Line: Looking for their wild eyes, burning with fear and shyness %in the stunted remains of last summer's


MODERN LOVE       
First Line: In a month all these frozen waterfalls
Last Line: In the stunted remains of last summer's silk forest


MORNING HARVEST    Poem Text    
First Line: Pennsylvania spiders / not only stretch their silk between the limbs
Subject(s): Civilization; Insects; Pennsylvania; Spiders; Bugs


MORNING HARVEST       
First Line: Pennsylvania spiders %not only stretch their silk between the limbs
Last Line: Bringing language and mathematics and religion into darkness
Subject(s): Civilization; Insects; Pennsylvania; Spiders


MORNING HARVEST       
First Line: Pennsylvania spiders
Last Line: Bringing language and mathematics and religion into the darkness


MOSCOW       
First Line: I love to bend down over my love
Last Line: The carved houses forever on our wild faces


MOSCOW       
First Line: I love to bend down over my love
Last Line: The horns of sciabin rising through the dreary street, %the carved housed forever on our wild faces
Subject(s): Love


MOST OF MY LIFE       
First Line: A squirrel eating her way in and a mother cardinal
Last Line: Dried her tears. I did it for most of my life by


MUSIC       
First Line: He is not the only one getting ready only
Last Line: Not to change for you, rigid lover
Subject(s): Music And Musicians


MY FAVORITE DEMON       
First Line: My favorite demon holds me by the hair


MY FAVORITE FAREWELL       
First Line: There is a kind of mop hanging down from the tree
Last Line: My love of childish trees and light blue skies %and flowing robes. %I have to be forgiven
Subject(s): Farewell


MY FAVORITE FAREWELL       
First Line: There is a kind of mop hanging down from the tree
Last Line: And flowing robes. I have to be forgiven


MY FIRST KINGLET       
First Line: I saw my first kinglet in iowa city
Last Line: Puerto rican and bronx hasidic inside, %a thicket fit for a king or a wandering kinglet


MY FIRST KINGLET       
First Line: I saw my first kinglet in iowa city
Last Line: A thicket fit for a king or a wandering kinglet


MY SISTER'S FUNERAL    Poem Text    
First Line: Since there was no mother for the peach tree we did it
Subject(s): Sisters; Death - Children; Funerals; Grief; Death - Babies; Burials; Sorrow; Sadness


MY SWALLOWS    Poem Text    
First Line: For hours I sit here facing the white wall
Subject(s): Swallows


MY SWALLOWS       
First Line: For hours I sit here facing the white wall
Last Line: Sitting against my wall, closing my eyes, %singing my dirges
Subject(s): Swallows


MY SWALLOWS       
First Line: For hours I sit here facing the white wall
Last Line: Singing my dirges


NAMING OF BEASTS       
First Line: You were wrong about the blood
Last Line: Is it not divorce - it is custody; %it not blood - it is supineness


NAMING OF BEASTS       
First Line: You were wrong about the blood
Last Line: It is not blood -- it is supineness


NEAR EASTON       
First Line: January 2 there was a body moving north
Last Line: On the loud music, and I was keeping time
Subject(s): Pennsylvania


NEITHER ENGLISH NOR SPANISH       
First Line: It was when I went out to get an angry soul
Last Line: And I opened the door to that embattled kitchen %and shook hands all around, I and the sister


NEITHER ENGLISH NOR SPANISH       
First Line: It was when I went out to get an angry soul
Last Line: And shook hands all around, I and the sister


NETTLE TREE       
First Line: Mine was the nettle tree, the nettle tree
Last Line: Half hanging in the wind - half leaning, half standing. %it was my only link. It was my luxury


NETTLE TREE       
First Line: Mine was the nettle tree, the nettle tree
Last Line: It was my only link. It was my luxury


NEVER WENT TO BIRDLAND    Poem Text    
First Line: Never went to birdland, so what, went to the y,
Subject(s): Ancestors & Ancestry; Jews; Love - Beginnings; Heritage; Heredity; Judaism


NICE MOUNTAIN       
First Line: Great little berries in the dogwood
Last Line: Nice crimson berries, nice desert, nice mountain


NIGHT    Poem Text    
First Line: If only the bell keeps him alive though that is
Subject(s): Night; Bedtime


NIGHT       
First Line: If only the bell keeps him alive though that is
Last Line: Shocking stroke and sometimes he changes pillows
Subject(s): Night


NO LONGER TERROR       
First Line: In the sunset glow and early twilight and first star-sprinkling


NO WIND       
First Line: Today I am sitting outside the dutch castle


NOBODY ELSE ALIVE       
First Line: Nobody else alive knows the four heart sounds


NOBODY ELSE LIVING       
First Line: Nobody else living knows that song as well as I do
Last Line: Now rich and reminiscent and warm, %now cloudy and haunted


ODD MERCY       
First Line: I kick a piece of leather; except for the claw
Last Line: Of odd mercy another one for me


OF BLESSED NAME    Poem Text    
First Line: Here in this huge dining room
Subject(s): Spinoza, Baruch (1632-1677)


OLD SCARF       
First Line: Where he was the silk
Last Line: Cover his whole head, he could curtsy and sway


ON MY POOR ROAD       
First Line: On my poor road there is nothing but opossum and groundhop
Last Line: And the heart breaks in tow to the words of old songs %and the memory of other small radios in other


ON THE FAR EDGE OF KILMER       
First Line: I am sitting again on the steps of the burned out barrack
Last Line: I am standing between the wall and the white sky. %I am holding open the burnt door


ON THE ISLAND       
First Line: After cheating each other for eighteen years
Last Line: Still remembering the first conversion to blood %and the forcing of the sea into those cramped vesse


ON THE ISLAND       
First Line: After cheating each other for eighteen years
Last Line: And the forcing of the sea into those cramped vessels


ONE ANIMAL'S LIFE       
First Line: This is how I saved one animal's life
Last Line: Sitting there humming, feeling pure and indignant %beside the chewed-up bags and the black droppings


ONE ANIMAL'S LIFE       
First Line: This is how I saved one animal's life
Last Line: Beside the chewed-up bags and the black droppings


ONE BIRD TO LOVE FOREVER    Poem Text    
First Line: If I were to pick one bird to love forever
Subject(s): Sparrows


ONE BIRD TO LOVE FOREVER       
First Line: If I were to pick one bird to love forever
Last Line: Something to give me the desert again when I want it, %the blazing sunlight for grief, a little shad


ONE OF THE SMALLEST    Poem Text    
First Line: Made of the first grey light
Subject(s): Imagination; Night; Fancy; Bedtime


ONE OF THE SMALLEST       
First Line: Made of the first grey light
Last Line: A stone at first, I turned %garish for awhile and burned
Subject(s): Imagination; Night


ONE THING IN LIFE       
First Line: Wherever I go now I lie down on my own bed of straw
Last Line: It is what I keep to myself; what I return to; %the one thing that no one else wanted


ONLY ELEGY       
First Line: I couldn't change the image I had of her
Last Line: On the east coast of america. Now you can love her


ORACLE       
First Line: I have a blue chair; there is a blue rock
Last Line: Droning, voices shrieking, I am grateful


ORANGE ROSES       
First Line: I am letting two old roses stand for everything I believe in
Last Line: His pencil uprooted, his own orange roses dark and hidden


ORANGE ROSES       
First Line: I am letting two old roses stand for everything I believe in
Last Line: His body spread out in all directions, %his pencil uprooted,his own orange roses dark and hidden


OSKAR       
First Line: You know, the squirrel was made for me and not me for
Last Line: And ask his forgiveness for selling him for a dollar
Variant Title(s): Osca


PAG    Poem Text    
First Line: I don't know his name yet nor that his eyes
Subject(s): Mjusic & Musicians


PAG       
First Line: I didn't know his name yet nor that his eyes
Last Line: Reduced to a wet ball, from pity and anger


PAIR OF HANDS       
First Line: That is a pair of white hands I see
Last Line: Were an agony. I lived by touching and holding. %it was my ruin


PAMET HARBOR        Recitation by Author


PAMET HARBOR       
First Line: Going west to east on the pamet river I sang
Last Line: With wings alone (though christ could!) makin' whooppee


PARIS    Poem Text    
First Line: As I recall the meal I ate was liver
Subject(s): Food & Eating; Paris, France; Travel; Journeys; Trips


PARIS       
First Line: As I recall the meal I ate was liver
Last Line: My only belief, what I went there for
Subject(s): Food And Eating; Paris, France; Travel


PEACHES       
First Line: What was I thinking of when I threw one of my
Last Line: I ate my fallen apple, loving sister


PEDDLER'S VILLAGE       
First Line: The small gray bird that fit inside the hand
Last Line: Before the bitter wire snapped him in two, %before a thousand tragedies took away his warmth and hap


PEDDLER'S VILLAGE       
First Line: The small gray bird that fit inside the hand
Last Line: Before a thousand tragedies took away his warmth and happiness


PERSONAL       
First Line: I am a moth of sorts the way I strip down
Last Line: Gave whom the vinegar and what did I sing


PICASSO POEM       
First Line: It was when the bridal wreaths were all out
Last Line: Beside the hostas and the mugho pine, %the dirty bottles and the stones %fixing the boundary for ano
Subject(s): Picasso, Pablo (1881-1973)


PICK AND POKE       
First Line: I began this fall by watching a thin red squirrel
Last Line: From wire to wire, from empty hole to empty hole, %singing, singing, always singing, of that amorous


PICK AND POKE       
First Line: I began this fall by watching a thin red squirrel
Last Line: Singing, singing, always singing, of that amorous summer


PICKING ASTERS       
First Line: Now he knew the sycamore was imitating
Last Line: Trying to catch his breath you'd say he was dancing


PICKING THE ROSES       
First Line: I am picking the roses for next time
Last Line: Like heavy birds in last year's muddy grass


PICKING THE ROSES       
First Line: I am picking the roses for next time
Last Line: Like birds in the muddy grass, %like heavy birds in last year's muddy grass


PILE OF FEATHERS       
First Line: This time there was no beak
Last Line: Their long legs twisted in embarrassment, %their knees scraping the stones, %they begin crawling aft


PILE OF FEATHERS       
First Line: This time there was no beak
Last Line: They begin crawling after the spirit


PLUMA    Poem Text    
First Line: Once, when there were no riches, somewhere in southern
Last Line: A dog had started to bark arid lights were burning
Subject(s): Mexico; Pens & Pencils; Writing & Writers


PLUMA       
First Line: Once, when there were no riches, somewhere in southern
Last Line: A dog had started to bark and lights were burning
Subject(s): Mexico; Pens And Pencils; Writing And Writers


POEM OF LIBERATION       
First Line: The smell of piss is what we have in the city
Last Line: Like a korean rope master, %my small steel shovel %humming and singing in the blue dust


POEM OF LIFE       
First Line: For three days now I have been watching the blue jay take over
Last Line: Two delectable jews, %spending our happy and cunning lives %in the honeysuckles


POEM OF LIFE       
First Line: For three days now I have been watching the blue jay take over
Last Line: Spending our happy and cunning lives %in the honeysuckles


POTPOURRI    Poem Text    
First Line: I see my wife struggling in the dirt
Subject(s): Flowers


POWER OF MAPLES       
First Line: If you want to live in the country you have to understand the power
Last Line: You have to stick it in the gournd like a piece of willow; %you have to plant your table under its l


POWER OF MAPLES       
First Line: If you want to live in the country you have to understand the power of maples
Last Line: You have to plant your table under its leaves and begin eating


PROGRESS AND POVERTY       
First Line: In the days of henry george
Last Line: Watching myself explode, it was exploding


PUSSY WILLOW       
First Line: For fifty years I have rubbed these soft hands


R FOR ROSEMARY       
First Line: I heard a fluttering-just inside the door


RED BIRD       
First Line: Now I feel safe
Last Line: Something between a metallic chirp and a whistle-- %to the one from pennsylvania, the one who loves


RED COAL       
First Line: Sometimes I sit in my blue chair trying to remember
Last Line: In the cars and the kitchens and the bookstores; %in the crowded restaurants, in the empty woods and


RED COAL       
First Line: Sometimes I sit in my blue chair trying to remember
Last Line: In the crowded restaurants, in the empty woods and libraries


RED WITH PINK       
First Line: It is a great weariness, isn't it
Last Line: Very dark red. I live %by myself now. I am scattered


REJOICINGS       
First Line: I put the sun behind the marlborough blenheim
Last Line: I am burying our nietzsche; %I am touching his small body for the last time


ROAR       
First Line: That was the last time I would walk up those five flights
Last Line: In my other dream, on the cold and empty river


ROAR       
First Line: That was the last time I would walk up those five
Last Line: As sweet as my own roar %in my other dream, on the cold and empty river


ROMANCE       
First Line: After thirty years
Last Line: Humming to myself and turning on my right side %for words


ROMANIA, ROMANIA    Poem Text    
First Line: I stand like some country crow across the street
Subject(s): Music & Musicians


ROMANIA, ROMANIA       
First Line: I stand like some country crow across the street
Last Line: Bending ddown over the tables, %the great stern himself %dragging his heart from one ruined soul to
Subject(s): Music And Musicians


ROMANIA, ROMANIA       
First Line: I stand like some country crow across the street
Last Line: Dragging his heart from one ruined soul to another


ROSE WAREHOUSE       
First Line: Ah tunnel cows
Last Line: Throwing in dirt, throwing in flowers, kissing the shovel good-by, kissing the small shovel


ROSE WAREHOUSE       
First Line: Ah tunnel cows
Last Line: Kissing the shovel good-bye, kissing the small shovel


ROSES    Poem Text    
First Line: There was a rose called guy de maupassant,
Subject(s): Roses; Brotherhood


ROSES       
First Line: There was a rose called guy de maupassant
Last Line: And we were brothers for life, we swore it in french


ROTTEN ANGEL       
First Line: My friends, still of this world, follow me to the bottom of the river
Last Line: Swarming after him in the dirty sunlight %a million miles from his new york and his baltimore and hi


ROTTEN ANGEL       
First Line: My friends, still of this world, follow me to the bottom of the river
Last Line: A million miles from his new york and his baltimore and his boston


ROYAL MANOR ROAD       
First Line: It would be worth it to go ninety miles out of your way
Last Line: To reach my hand inside %and touch the bony forehead and the stiff hair %would be worth it


SACRED SPINE       
First Line: It will always be invisible, it will
Last Line: On the bleached wood and the pillows and the warm air %and the weeds and the water
Subject(s): Healing


SALT       
First Line: I was sitting at a picnic table at
Last Line: The animals happier, it would have blessed our supper


SAMARITANS       
First Line: I can't remember what the class trip was
Last Line: Of course and my own eyes were closed-I was sleeping


SAME MOON ABOVE US       
First Line: When I see a man sleeping over the grilles
Last Line: And his other exile, far from rome's domain, %and far from new york's domain, now silent and peacefu


SAME MOON ABOVE US       
First Line: When I see a man sleeping over the grilles
Last Line: And far from new york's domain, now silent and peaceful


SAVEL KLIATCHKO       
First Line: He is either dead or alive and his father
Last Line: Light a candle for him, do one for savel


SAVING MY SKIN FROM BURNING    Poem Text    
First Line: There was a hole in the ground once; there was a manhole
Last Line: Into a pillow; I lay on my back recovering
Subject(s): Escapes; Fugitives


SAVING MY SKIN FROM BURNING       
First Line: There was a hole in the ground once; there was a manhole
Subject(s): Escapes


SCRATCH       
First Line: He woke up every morning with apricot juice on his hands
Last Line: The first warm day, always laboring from scratch


SELF-PORTRAIT       
First Line: When I turn the ceiling light on
Last Line: Slowly mastering the sky. In honor of albert einstein. %in honor of eugene debs. In honor of emma go


SELF-PORTRAIT IN HIS SIXTIES       
First Line: Going wild in the batik shop
Last Line: The white leaves, especially the blue wayside


SENSITIVE KNIFE       
First Line: Every day the dark blue sky of brother van gogh
Last Line: And the roasted egg on a white napkin %I climb over the rhodedendrons and the dead trees to meet him


SHAD       
First Line: Sometimes he reached for a blood orange
Last Line: Long, you can believe it, and how I labored


SHAKING MYSELF AND SIGHING       
First Line: What a sweet urinal it was in narbonne


SHIRT POEM       
First Line: It is ten years since I have seen these shirts
Last Line: Above the abandoned shoes, weeping in silence, %moaning in exhaustion, %getting ready again to live


SHIRT POEM       
First Line: It is ten years since I have seen these shirts
Last Line: Getting ready again to live in darkness


SHORT WORDS    Poem Text    
First Line: Some dried-up phlox so old the blue was white
Subject(s): Death; Language; Dead, The; Words; Vocabulary


SHORT WORDS       
First Line: Some dried-up phlox so old the blue was white
Last Line: Dried-out marsh grass, dead lilies, august roses
Subject(s): Death; Language


SILVER HAND       
First Line: There is that little silver hand. I wrap
Last Line: Green or shiny on the outside, black on the inside. %give to the hand!


SILVER HAND       
First Line: There is that little silver hand.
Last Line: Give to the hand


SINGING       
First Line: I have been waiting for a month
Last Line: With hatred, how long it took to convert %death and sadness into beautiful singing


SINGING       
First Line: I have been waiting for a month
Last Line: Death and sadness into beautiful singing


SIXTEEN MINUTES       
First Line: There in the sky above lewisburg
Last Line: Through all the killing and hounding, we all but worshipped
Subject(s): Ireland; Jews; Lewisburg Penitentiary (pennsylvania)


SLOW AND PAINFUL RECOVERY       
First Line: Richard strauss, my hero, here you are
Last Line: The red bud is split in two, the poppies are opening. %it was a slow and painful recovery


SMALL SUNFLOWERS       
First Line: I never saw three disks like that
Last Line: She won't be vexed as long as I was


SMELL OF DEATH       
First Line: Green fishes swimming in the street
Last Line: With yours - I always had to - a foot away %from the sullen lupines and the ruthless lilies, my darl


SOAP    Poem Text    
First Line: Here is a green jew
Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews; Shoah; Judaism


SOAP       
First Line: Here is a green jew
Last Line: The odor of irish spring, the stench of ivory
Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews


SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME    Poem Text    
First Line: It is not knowing what a mulberry sidewalk looks like
Subject(s): Mulberry Trees


SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME       
First Line: It is not knowing what a mulberry sidewalk looks like
Last Line: For belief and one for just pleasure I wouldn't be singing
Subject(s): Mulberry Trees


SOMETHING FOR ME       
First Line: The tree that leaned against the side of the house
Last Line: With a poem rolled up inside. Donkey, pass by


SOMETHING NEW       
First Line: This year I sat with women, gathering up
Last Line: As she does under the buried notes and the combs, %singing and humming and sleeping by the sea she l


SONG       
First Line: There's nothing in this gardenous world more delightful
Last Line: One of the many pink and white blossoms, %one of the many on the brutal lawn


SONG       
First Line: There's nothing in this gardenous world more delightful
Last Line: One of the many on the brutal lawn


SONG FOR THE ROMEOS       
First Line: I'm singing a song for the romeos
Last Line: And the cement sidewalk


SONG FOR THE ROMEOS       
First Line: I'm singing a song for the romeos
Last Line: Tapping and knocking and clapping on the wooden steps %and the cement sidewalk


SOULS FROM EMERSON       
First Line: This is a kind of sunflower
Last Line: The cars rushing west to cleveland and ypsilanti %and the cars rushing east to whitehouse and coney


SOUNDS OF WAGNER       
First Line: You could call him a lachrymose animal
Last Line: He felt, and bitter, and how he weathered it


ST. MARK'S       
First Line: Still like a child, isn't it?
Last Line: Red-and-yellow swollen rainwashed tulip


ST. MARK'S       
First Line: Still like a child, isn't it
Last Line: Red and yellow swollen rainwashed tulip


STEPPING OUT OF POETRY       
First Line: What would you give for one of the old yellow streetcars
Last Line: In the dark afternoons, at the old scarred tables


STEPS       
First Line: There are two hundred steps between my house
Last Line: To the left to see the oven, I count the bricks, %I look at the clock again, I chew my flower


STEPS       
First Line: There are two hundred steps between my house
Last Line: I look at the clock again, I chew my flower


STERN COUNTRY       
First Line: For sleeplessness, your head face down, your shoulder blades
Last Line: By a mack truck, then she'll be ready to mourn


STILL BURNING    Poem Text    
First Line: Me trying to understand say whence
Subject(s): Books; Thought; Reading; Thinking


STOLEN FACE       
First Line: There is a face stolen from the twelfth century


STOPPING SCHUBERT    Poem Text    
First Line: Stopping schubert, ejecting him, changing the power
Subject(s): Composers; Schubert, Franz (1797-1828)


STOPPING SCHUBERT       
First Line: Stopping schubert, ejecting him, changing the power
Last Line: I have kept it a secret for forty years, %the tortured composer from pennsylvania, franz schubert
Subject(s): Composers; Schubert, Franz (1797-1828)


STOPPING SCHUBERT       
First Line: Stopping schubert, ejecting him, changing the power
Last Line: The tortured composer from central pennsylvania %franz schubert


STRAUS PARK    Poem Text    
First Line: If you know about the babylonian jews
Subject(s): Nostalgia


STRAUS PARK       
First Line: If you know about the babylonian jews
Last Line: Do not burn again for nothing. %do not cry out again in clumsiness and shame
Subject(s): Nostalgia


STRAUS PARK       
First Line: If you know about the babylonian jews
Last Line: Do not cry out again in clumsiness and shame


STRING-BEAN       
First Line: A string-bean is born every second, par example
Last Line: And who can sing beethoven best, and swim underwater


SUPREME SUBJECT       
First Line: At an unexpected turn in the kiskiminetas
Last Line: --kiss, kiss mamma for me. Say hellow to your mary. %goombye, hunkies. Goombye, goombye, hunkies


SWAN LEGS       
First Line: Just for a second, when mao stood up and walked
Last Line: To soften the wild flesh and kill the suffering


SWAN SONG    Poem Text    
First Line: A bunch of old snakeheads down by the pond
Last Line: Bolts of wisdom from their foreheads
Subject(s): Animals


SWAN SONG       
First Line: A bunch of old snakeheads down by the pond
Subject(s): Animals


SWEETNESS OF LIFE       
First Line: After the heavy rain we were able to tell about the mushrooms
Last Line: Finally accepting the sweetness of life, %on my own mushy log, %in the white and spotted moonlight


SWEETNESS OF LIFE       
First Line: After the heavy rain we were able to tell about the mushrooms
Last Line: In the white and spotted moonlight


SWIFTS    Poem Text    
First Line: Bing crosby died in spain
Subject(s): Crosby, Bing (harry Lillis) (1904-1977); Franco, Francisco (1892-1975); Singing & Singers; Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)


SYCAMORE    Poem Text    
First Line: It was march third I came outside and saw
Subject(s): Plane Trees; Sycamores


SYCAMORE       
First Line: It was march third I came outside and saw
Last Line: Across the desert, and here I am now in new york %and here I am now in pittsburgh, the perfect wilde
Subject(s): Plane Trees


SYCAMORE       
First Line: It was march third I came outside and saw
Last Line: And here I am now in pittsburgh, the perfect wilderness


SYLVIA    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: Across a space peopled with stars I am
Subject(s): Sisters; Death - Children; Grief; Death - Babies; Sorrow; Sadness


SYLVIA       
First Line: Was is eros doing
Last Line: Would have touched her cheek and stroked her hair %as she did her darling libbie. As I did too


SYLVIA       
First Line: Across a space peopled with stars I am
Last Line: Living only as dust and dirt, little sister


TASHLIKH       
First Line: This one shows me standing by the delaware


THE BULL-ROARER    Poem Text    
First Line: I only saw my father's face in butchery
Subject(s): Farm Life; Agriculture; Farmers


THE DANCING    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: In all these rotten shops, in all this broken furniture


THE DOG    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: What was I doing with my white teeth exposed
Subject(s): Animals; Dogs


THE DOVE'S NECK    Poem Text    
First Line: The dove's neck is so thin
Subject(s): Doves


THE EXPULSION    Poem Text    
First Line: I'm working like a dog here, testing my memory


THE EYES ARE ALWAYS BROWN    Poem Text    
First Line: I spent an hour watchjing the yellow parrots
Last Line: Did I stop to listen to that music, poor love?
Subject(s): Travel; Conduct Of Life; Irish; Judaism


THE HAMMER    Poem Text    
First Line: What did a foot of snow matter when
Subject(s): Cold


THE JEW AND THE ROOSTER ARE ONE    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: After fighting with his dead brothers and his dead sisters
Subject(s): Soutine, Chaim (1893-1943); Paintings & Painters; Jews; Butchery; Judaism


THE MUSIC    Poem Text    
First Line: He is not the only one getting ready only
Subject(s): Music & Musicians


THE NAME    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: Having outlived allen I am the one who
Subject(s): Ginsberg, Allen (1926-1997); Social Commentaries


THE NEW MOSES    Poem Text    
First Line: Look at those poor cattails
Last Line: Of ancient new york
Subject(s): Future


THE PICASSO POEM    Poem Text    
First Line: It was when the bridal wreaths were all out
Subject(s): Picasso, Pablo (1881-1973)


THE POWER OF MAPLES    Poem Text    
First Line: F you want to live in the country you have to understand the power of maples.
Subject(s): Maple Trees


THE PREACHER    Poem Text    
First Line: As if the one tree you love so well and hardly
Subject(s): Old Age; Nature; Social Commentgaries; Country Life; Death; Dead, The


THE SACRED SPINE    Poem Text    
First Line: It will always be invisible, it will
Subject(s): Healing; Cures


THE SPARROW    Poem Text    
Subject(s): Sparrows; Food & Eating; Mothers; Miami Beach


THERE I WAS ONE DAY       
Last Line: A stork from broadway, a heron from mexico, %a pink flamingo from greece


THERE I WAS ONE DAY       
Last Line: A pink flamingo from greece


THERE I WAS ONE DAY       


THERE IS WIND, THERE ARE MATCHES    Poem Text    
First Line: A thousand times I have sat in restaurant windows
Subject(s): Civilization; Restaurants; Cafes; Diners


THERE IS WIND, THERE ARE MATCHES       
First Line: A thousand times I have sat in restaurant windows
Last Line: Whistling bach and muczynski through the closed blinds
Subject(s): Civilization; Restaurants


THINKING ABOUT SHELLEY    Poem Text    
First Line: Arm over arm I swam out into the rain
Subject(s): Swimming & Swimmers; Poetry & Poets; Shelley, Percy Bysshe (1792-1822)


THINKING ABOUT SHELLEY       
First Line: Arm over arm I swam out into the rain
Last Line: I dragged my body up and alive, %to the small landing under the flowering highway, %full of silence


THINKING ABOUT SHELLEY       
First Line: Arm over arm I swam out into the rain
Last Line: Full of silence now and clarity


THIS IS IT       
First Line: It is my emotions that carry me through lambertville, new jersey
Last Line: For the truck out back to start, for the collie to die, %forthe flies to come, for the summer to bri


THIS IS IT       
First Line: It is my emotions that carry me through lamberville, new jersey
Last Line: For the flies to come, for the summer to bring its reckoning


THIS IS LORD HERBERT MOANING       
First Line: This is lord herbert moaning and sighing over his lost manuscripts
Last Line: It is beautiful letting the brain move in and out of its own%cloudbank


THIS IS LORD HERBERT MOANING       
First Line: This is lord herbert moaning and sighing over his lost manuscripts
Last Line: It is beautiful letting the brain move in and out of its own cloudbank


THIS LIFE    Poem Text    
First Line: Mostly I opened my napkin with a flair
Subject(s): Clouds; Gifts & Giving; Life


THIS LIFE       
First Line: Mostly I opened my napkin with a flair
Last Line: And if it was sweet and vernal, the cloud I gave you
Subject(s): Clouds; Gifts And Giving; Life


THIS TIME    Poem Text    
First Line: That was his picnic table and those were his two
Subject(s): Change; Time


THIS TIME       
First Line: That was his picnic table and those were his two
Last Line: And three or four poor staccatos, hard time this time
Subject(s): Change; Time


THIS WAS A WONDERFUL NIGHT       
Last Line: In the new country, my heart forever pounding


THIS WAS A WONDERFUL NIGHT       


THIS WAS A WONDERFUL NIGHT       
First Line: This was a wonderful night. %I heard the brahms
Last Line: A little less for me, going east and west %in the new country, my heart forever pounding


THOSE ARE SAUCERS THAT WERE HIS EYES       
First Line: Me and my critic, me and my wife, a dog that
Last Line: Who cares about your life, bastard hero?


THOSE THINGS       
First Line: With one foot on the standpipe
Last Line: Will turn the petals to the light, %that he will have yearning again, and greed, and sorrow


THOUGHT OF HEAVEN       
First Line: There is one blossom on my redwood table
Last Line: Not too disgraceful for the chicory, %solemn and blue as it is, such is my thinking


THOUGHT OF HEAVEN       
First Line: There is one blossom on my redwood table
Last Line: Solemn and blue as it is, such is my thinking


THREE HEARTS       
First Line: A chicken with three hearts, that is a vanished breed
Last Line: To disappear in those grasses, to pick those trillium


THREE SKIES       
First Line: I always remember the crone. I always think of her
Last Line: All of them illuminated, all of them ecstatic, %every one changed, for a minute, by his own memory


THREE TEARS       
First Line: If you have seen single yellow iris
Last Line: Choosing its own movement and its own light


THREE TEARS: 1       
First Line: If you have seen a single yellow iris
Last Line: Have seen the saddest sight of all, %a nest inside a ruined building, %a father hugging his child, %


THREE TEARS: 2       
First Line: You would have to sit at my bedroom window
Last Line: Hw is so clean-smelling and so peaceful %that we forget the strength in his huge body %and the malic


THREE TEARS: 3       
First Line: I have to lie on my back for two hours
Last Line: If I could have let my eye go freely down the line %choosingits own movement and its own light?


TIE       
First Line: The other time I wore a tie my friend mark
Last Line: About his life in the polish and ukrainian marshes


TODAY A LEAF       
First Line: Today it was just a dry leaf that told me
Last Line: Of franz joseph haydn and domenico scarlatti and gustave mahler %forever


TODAY A LEAF       
First Line: Today it was just a dry leaf that told me
Last Line: Of franz joseph haydn and domenico scarlatti and gustav mahler forever


TURNING INTO A POND       
First Line: All I need is one foot in the mud
Last Line: The weeds and grasses are beginning to struggle for attention; %the water is turning warm; we are go


TWO DAWS       
First Line: The false dawn in wheeling, west virginia
Last Line: Is fighting for his life and the lily of the valley %is bowing her head in shame, shouldn't I love o


TWO MOONS       
First Line: I'm looking at the moon, I'm half resting
Last Line: Believing in water, bowing to sparrows, bowing %to white deer, refusing to shame the spirit


TWO THINGS       
First Line: I have balanced two things, the black-faced
Last Line: I was their windfall, I was their sorrow


TWO VASES       
First Line: She was a darling with her roses and I
Last Line: My eyes with the rough cloth, for I love her
Subject(s): Candles; Light


UKRAINIAN       
First Line: Before I go outside I daub my face
Last Line: Shames the tulips, he whose carnal cry %is alway loud and florid, he is my witness


UKRAINIAN       
First Line: Before I go outside I daub my face
Last Line: Is always loud and florid, he is my witness


UNDERGROUND DANCING    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
Subject(s): Birds


UNDERGROUND DANCING       
First Line: There's a bird pecking at the fat
Last Line: Let everyone go blind! %let everyone be buried in his own litter


UNDERGROUND DANCING       
First Line: There's a bird pecking at the fat
Last Line: Let everyone be buried in his own litter


UNITY       
First Line: How strange it is to walk alone
Last Line: Women and men of all sizes and all ages %living together, without satire


UNITY       
First Line: How strange it is to walk alone
Last Line: Living together, without satire


VISION AND WHAT IT WAS       
First Line: I looked at the sun as huxley did according
Last Line: Under a naked light bulb, to name just three


VISITING FLORIDA AGAIN       
First Line: At eleventh and euclid I stood in front of an air
Last Line: Sitting in the old reference room, %reading thomas paine & william blake & peter kropotkin, %creatin


VISITING MY OWN HOUSE IN IOWA CITY    Poem Text    
First Line: The three large dogs in my house
Subject(s): Houses; Iowa


VISITING MY OWN HOUSE IN IOWA CITY       
First Line: The three large dogs in my house
Last Line: I came to transform and to love
Subject(s): Houses; Iowa


VIVALDI YEARS       
First Line: I lay forever, didn't I, behind those old windows
Last Line: Life, wasn't it. The true world without end


VIVALDI YEARS       
First Line: I lay forever, didn't I, behind those old windows
Last Line: Sandess after another. That was the everlasting %life, wasn't it. The true world without end


WAR AGAINST THE JEWS       
First Line: Look how peaceful these wooden figures are


WASHINGTON SQUARE       
First Line: Now after all these years I am just that one pigeon
Last Line: His skinny neck; remember the one pigeon %fighting his way through the filthy marijuana, %sighing


WASHINGTON SQUARE       
First Line: Now after all these years I am just that one pigeon
Last Line: Fighting his way through the filthy marijuana %sighing


WAVING GOOD-BYE    Poem Text     Recitation by Author
First Line: I wanted to know what it was like before we
Subject(s): Fathers & Daughters


WAVING GOOD-BYE       
First Line: I wanted to know what it was like before we
Last Line: As they made their turn into the empty highway
Subject(s): Fathers And Daughters


WHAT IT IS LIKE       
First Line: I will have to tell you what it is like
Last Line: If you were facing south. I think I never %slept that night.I only dozed. And ranted


WHAT IT IS LIKE       
First Line: I will have to tell you what it is like
Last Line: Slept that night. I only dozed. And ranted


WHEN I HAVE REACHED THE POINT OF SUFFOCATION       
Last Line: To learn how to leave the place %of oppression; %and how to make your own regeneration %out of nothi


WHEN I HAVE REACHED THE POINT OF SUFFOCATION       
Last Line: And how to make your own regeneration %out of nothing


WINTER THIRST       
First Line: I grew up with bituminous in my mouth
Last Line: Was like and how a candle instructed me


YOUR ANIMAL       
First Line: The final end of all but purified souls
Last Line: --it is my poem against the starving heart. %it is my victory over meanness


YOUR ANIMAL       
First Line: The final end of all but purified souls
Last Line: It is my victory over meanness