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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: STRAND, MARK Matches Found: 304 Strand, Mark Poet's Biography 304 poems available by this author 2032 First Line: It is evening in the town of x Last Line: And golden boa, blowing kisses to the trees A MORNING Poem Text First Line: I have carried it with me each day: that morning I took Subject(s): Boats; Solitude; Loneliness A SHORT PANEGYRIC Poem Text First Line: Now that the vegetarian nightmare is over and we are back to Subject(s): Food & Eating A.M. Poem Text First Line: ... And here the dark infinitive to feel Subject(s): Environment; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation A.M. First Line: ... And here the dark infinitive to feel Last Line: How well they shine upon the fatal sprawl %of everything on earth. How well they love us all Subject(s): Environment ACCIDENT First Line: A train runs over me Last Line: The end of my life begins ALWAYS Poem Text First Line: Always so late in the day Subject(s): Doubt; Skepticism ALWAYS; FOR CHARLES SIMIC First Line: Always so late in the day Last Line: Another yawned, another gazed at the window: %no grass, no trees ... %the blase of promise everywher ANOTHER PLACE Poem Text First Line: I walk / into what light BABIES First Line: Let us save the babies Last Line: Let us try to save the babies Subject(s): Babies BEACH HOTEL First Line: Oh, look, the ship is sailing without us! And the wind Last Line: Had we not taken his place BLACK MAPS Poem Text First Line: Not the attendance of stones Subject(s): Self BLACK MAPS First Line: Not the attendance of stones Last Line: Is holding up the black stars BLACK SEA Poem Text First Line: One clear night while the others slept, I climbed Subject(s): Longing BLACK SEA First Line: One clear night while the others slept, I climbed Last Line: That the world offers would you come only because I was here? BREATH First Line: When you see them Last Line: That breath is what I give them when I send my love CENTO VIRGILIANUS First Line: And so, passing under the dome of the great sky Last Line: Chilled us to the bone. %we'd come to a place %where everything weeps for how the world goes CHEKHOV: A SESTINA First Line: Why him? He woke up and felt anxious. He was out of sorts Last Line: Have thought he was in love? How out of character! How very unlike him! COMING OF LIGHT First Line: Even this late it happens Last Line: Even this late the bones of the body shine %and tomorrow's dust flares into breath Subject(s): Love; Travel COMING TO THIS Poem Text First Line: We have done what we wanted. Subject(s): Togetherness COMING TO THIS First Line: We have done what we wanted Last Line: No place to go, no reason to remain CONTINENTAL COLLEGE OF BEAUTY First Line: The city was flooded with light CONTINENTAL COLLEGE OF BEAUTY First Line: When the continental college of beauty opened its doors Last Line: How quickly the great unfinished world came into view %when the continental college of beauty opened CONTINUOUS LIFE First Line: What of the neighborhood homes awash Last Line: Small tremors of love through your brief, %undeniable selves, into your days, and beyond COURTSHIP Poem Text First Line: There is a girl you like so you tell her Subject(s): Desire COURTSHIP First Line: There is a girl you like so you tell her Last Line: Taken by storm, she is the girl you will marry Subject(s): Desire DANCE First Line: The ghost of another comes to visit and we hold %communion Last Line: And who isn't borne again and again into heaven? DANSE D'HIVER First Line: We've seen them all: the torments of distance Last Line: Will anyone know us when we arrive? %will mother and father feed us or let us go? DARK HARBOR: 1 Poem Text First Line: In the night without end in the soaking dark Subject(s): Travel; Journeys; Trips DARK HARBOR: 1 First Line: In the night without end, in the soaking dark Last Line: Of the body is worthless and goes only so far DARK HARBOR: 10 First Line: It is a dreadful cry that rises up Last Line: As it lives in what it could not be DARK HARBOR: 11 First Line: A long time has passed and yet it seems Last Line: Its violence, its terrible omens of the end DARK HARBOR: 12 First Line: So it came of its own like the sun that covers Last Line: Which would end in either dismissal or doubt DARK HARBOR: 13 First Line: The mist clears. The morning mountains Last Line: To take on a light of its own, green and piercing DARK HARBOR: 14 First Line: The ship has been held in the harbor Last Line: Since the cloud behind the nearby mountain moved DARK HARBOR: 15 First Line: What light is this that says the air is golden Last Line: And going under, becoming what no one remembers DARK HARBOR: 16 Poem Text First Line: It is true, as someone has said, that in Subject(s): Farewell; Parting DARK HARBOR: 16 First Line: It is true, as someone has said, that in Last Line: In the wine as it waits in the glass DARK HARBOR: 16 First Line: It is true, as someone has said, that in Last Line: In the wine as it waits in the glass DARK HARBOR: 17 First Line: I have just said goodbye to a friend Last Line: Of ice and snow, the straight pines, the frigid moon DARK HARBOR: 18 First Line: I would like to step out of my heart's door and be Last Line: Of the dancing, of the inmost dancing DARK HARBOR: 19 First Line: I go out and sit on my roof, hoping Last Line: Let's name him after our plant. Whoa DARK HARBOR: 2 First Line: I am writing from a place you have never been Last Line: And everyone staring, stunned into magnitude DARK HARBOR: 20 Poem Text First Line: Is it you standing among the olive trees DARK HARBOR: 20 First Line: Is it you standing among the olive trees Last Line: That whispers in my ear: alas, alas DARK HARBOR: 21 First Line: Low shadows skim the earth, a few clouds bleed Last Line: So long as they are not left behind DARK HARBOR: 22 First Line: It happened years ago and in somebody else's Last Line: Just come, take me away, and put me to bed DARK HARBOR: 23 First Line: And suddenly we heard the explosion Last Line: The dangers of being invited to her house for dinner DARK HARBOR: 24 First Line: Now think of the weather and how it is rarely the same Last Line: The new color of the sky, its random blue DARK HARBOR: 25 First Line: Is what exists a souvenir of the time Last Line: That promises much, but settles for summer DARK HARBOR: 26 First Line: I have come from my cabin, from my place high Last Line: Of your wisdom as you have passed it on to me DARK HARBOR: 27 First Line: Of this one I love how the beautiful echoed Last Line: And keeping him company all this time DARK HARBOR: 28 First Line: There is a luminousness, a convergence of enchantments Last Line: The shapes and sounds of paradise are buried DARK HARBOR: 29 Poem Text First Line: The folded memory of our great and singular elevations Subject(s): Language; Self; Words; Vocabulary DARK HARBOR: 29 First Line: The folded memory of our great and singular elevations Last Line: They cast their shadowy pomp wherever they wish DARK HARBOR: 3 First Line: Go in any direction and you will return to the main drag Last Line: He's reading the paper, she's killing a fly DARK HARBOR: 30 First Line: There is a road through the canyon Last Line: My face. Whenever I take a breath I hear cracking DARK HARBOR: 31 First Line: Here we are in labrador. I've always Last Line: Happy in labrador, dancing into the wee hours DARK HARBOR: 32 First Line: Out here, dwarfed by mountains and a sky of fires Last Line: Largely imperfect so long as it lasts DARK HARBOR: 33 First Line: I was visiting the shabby villa of a friend Last Line: While a fair fire roared in the hearth DARK HARBOR: 34 First Line: It's a pity that nature no longer means Last Line: To the life that gathers upon it DARK HARBOR: 35 First Line: The sickness of angels is nothing new Last Line: Melting the moment they land DARK HARBOR: 36 First Line: I cannot decide whether or not to stroll Last Line: Making rebuilding impossible, especially in winter DARK HARBOR: 37 First Line: On sunday she sits in a silver chair in an echoing hall Last Line: Of a distant will, a fatal music rising everywhere DARK HARBOR: 38 First Line: And so he appears at the back of the hall Last Line: A fragment, a piece of a larger intention, that is all DARK HARBOR: 39 First Line: When after a long silence one picks up the pen Last Line: Atg least for the moment, the moment it passes into song DARK HARBOR: 4 First Line: There is a certain triviality in living here Last Line: As timid, a sign of shallowness or worse DARK HARBOR: 40 First Line: How can I sing when I haven't the heart, or the hope Last Line: Improve, that whatever I sing is a blank DARK HARBOR: 41 First Line: Sometimes after dinner when I wander out Last Line: You will be light-years away by the time I speak DARK HARBOR: 42 First Line: Our friends who lumbered from room to room Last Line: A melancholy place of failed and fallen stars DARK HARBOR: 43 First Line: All afternoon I have thought how alike Last Line: Who have gone, and the leaves, and all that was just here DARK HARBOR: 44 First Line: I recall that I stood before the breaking waves Last Line: Sending up stars of salt, loud clouds of spume DARK HARBOR: 45 First Line: I am sure you would find it misty here Last Line: It was an angel, one of the good ones, about to sing DARK HARBOR: 5 First Line: The soldiers are gone, and now the women are leaving Last Line: See how perfectly everything fits in its space DARK HARBOR: 6 First Line: Where would it end and how would it matter Last Line: Will be all yours and will only increase DARK HARBOR: 7 Poem Text First Line: Oh you can make fun of the splendors of moonlight DARK HARBOR: 7 First Line: O you can make fun of the splendors of moonlight Last Line: Is covered and silent in the stoniness of its sleep DARK HARBOR: 8 First Line: If dawn breaks the heart, and the moon is a horror Last Line: Into change, that what I have said has not been said for me DARK HARBOR: 9 First Line: Where is the experience that meant so much Last Line: And postures we had dismissed until now DEAD First Line: The graves grow deeper Last Line: Clearly enough. We never will DELIRIUM WALTZ First Line: I cannot remember when it began. The lights were low. We were Last Line: Figures of fallen light. I cannot remember, but I think you were there, whoever you were DOOR First Line: The door is before you again and the shrieking Last Line: Your hand is on the door. This is where you came in DREADFUL HAS ALREADY HAPPENED' First Line: The relatives are leaning over, staring expectantly Last Line: I find his feet. He is what is left of my life DREAM First Line: The top of my head opens Last Line: And lie down in the dark %and look at you DRESS First Line: Lie down on the bright hill Last Line: Yourself making and remaking until it is perfect EATING POETRY Poem Text First Line: Ink runs from the corners of my mouth Subject(s): Poetry & Poets EATING POETRY First Line: Ink runs from the corners of my mouth Last Line: I romp with joy in the bookish dark Subject(s): Poetry And Poets ELEGY 1969 (AFTER CARLOS DRUMMOND DE ANDRADE) First Line: You slave away into your old age Last Line: Because you can't, all by yourself, blow up manhattan island ELEGY FOR MY FATHER: 1. THE EMPTY BODY Poem Text First Line: The hands were yours, the arms were yours Subject(s): Fathers ELEGY FOR MY FATHER: 1. THE EMPTY BODY First Line: The hands were yours, the arms were yours Last Line: But you were not there Subject(s): Fathers ELEGY FOR MY FATHER: 2. ANSWERS Poem Text First Line: Why did you travel? Subject(s): Fathers ELEGY FOR MY FATHER: 2. ANSWERS First Line: Why did you travel? Last Line: Yes, I am tired and I want to lie down Subject(s): Fathers ELEGY FOR MY FATHER: 3. YOUR DYING Poem Text First Line: Nothing could stop you Subject(s): Fathers ELEGY FOR MY FATHER: 3. YOUR DYING First Line: Nothing could stop you Last Line: Not the life you had. %nothing could stop you Subject(s): Fathers ELEGY FOR MY FATHER: 4. YOUR SHADOW Poem Text First Line: You have your shadow Subject(s): Fathers ELEGY FOR MY FATHER: 4. YOUR SHADOW First Line: You have your shadow Last Line: I have carried it with me too long. I give it back Subject(s): Fathers ELEGY FOR MY FATHER: 5. MOURNING Poem Text First Line: They mourn for you / when you rise at midnight Subject(s): Fathers; Mourning; Bereavement ELEGY FOR MY FATHER: 5. MOURNING First Line: They mourn for you %when you rise at midnight Last Line: They mourn for you the way they can Subject(s): Fathers; Mourning ELEGY FOR MY FATHER: 6. THE NEW YEAR Poem Text First Line: It is winter and the new year Subject(s): Fathers; Holidays; New Year ELEGY FOR MY FATHER: 6. THE NEW YEAR First Line: It is winter and the new year Last Line: Because it is winter and the new year Subject(s): Fathers; Holidays; New Year EMPIRE OF CHANCE First Line: Its terrain is dry and spreads out so you glimpse only bits Last Line: It is the hard truth of what I do. %my shadow shudders in the morning air ET CETERA, ET CETERA First Line: It could be said, even here, that what remains of the self Last Line: And the future no more than et cetera, et cetera...But fast and forever Variant Title(s): In Memory Of Joseph Brodsk FAMOUS SCENE First Line: The polished scarlets of sunset sink as failure Last Line: Talking aloud to ourselves, repeating the words %that have always been used to describe our fate FEAR OF THE NIGHT First Line: I'm telling you, melissus FICTION Poem Text First Line: I think of the innocent lives Subject(s): Conduct Of Life; Novels & Novelists FICTION First Line: I think of the innocent lives FIRE Poem Text First Line: Sometimes there would be a fire and I would walk into it Subject(s): Fire FIVE DOGS Poem Text First Line: I, the dog they call spot, was about to sing. Autumn Subject(s): Dogs FOR HER Poem Text First Line: Let it be anywhere Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships; Male-female Relations FOR HER First Line: Let it be anywhere FOR JESSICA, MY DAUGHTER Poem Text First Line: Tonight I walked Subject(s): Fathers & Daughters FOR JESSICA, MY DAUGHTER First Line: Tonight I walked Last Line: In the dark %when I am away Subject(s): Fathers And Daughters FROM A LITANY First Line: Let the shark keep to the shelves and closets of coral Last Line: Let the earth suck at roots and discover the emblems of %weather FROM A LITANY First Line: There in an open field I lie down in a hole I once dug Last Line: I praise the evening whose son I am FROM A LOST DIARY Poem Text First Line: I had not begun the great journey I was to undertake. I did not Last Line: Though the sun continues to stand at my door Subject(s): Diaries; Conduct Of Life FROM A LOST DIARY First Line: I had not begun the great journey I was to undertake. I did not Last Line: Look at the night, the velvety, fragrant night, which has already %come, though the sun continues to Subject(s): Diaries FROM THE LONG SAD PARTY Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Someone was saying Subject(s): Parties FUTILITY IN KEY WEST Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: I was stretched out on the couch, about to doze off GARDEN First Line: It shines in the garden GHOST SHIP First Line: Through the crowded street Last Line: Do not %turn or close GIVING MYSELF UP Poem Text First Line: I give up my eyes which are glass eggs Subject(s): Self GIVING MYSELF UP First Line: I give up my eyes which are glass eggs Last Line: Again without anything GOOD LIFE First Line: You stand at the window Last Line: And you are there GREAT POET RETURNS First Line: When the light poured down through a hole in the clouds Last Line: Can anyone die without even a little GREAT SIBERIAN ROSE First Line: The movie about the great siberian rose Last Line: The golden age of dust will now begin' GRETE SAMSA'S LETTER TO H. First Line: Dear h., we have been in the new house almost a year, and mother Last Line: Of course, of the work before me. %what sadness, what joy GROTESQUES: THE COUPLE First Line: The scene is a midtown station Last Line: An empty downtown local %screams through the grimy air %a couple dies in the subway; %couples die ev GROTESQUES: THE HUNCHBACK First Line: It was the middle of the night Last Line: Beside the corpse and slept, unloved, untouched, %in the dull, moon-flooded garden air Variant Title(s): Fran GROTESQUES: THE KING First Line: Not far from the palace Last Line: He closed his eyes. There was nothing %in the ruins of the night that was not his Variant Title(s): Ruin GUARDIAN First Line: The sun setting. The lawns on fire Last Line: Preserve my absence. I am alive HARMONY IN THE BOUDOIR Poem Text First Line: After years of marriage, he stands at the foot of the bed and Subject(s): Marriage; Nothingness; Weddings; Husbands; Wives; Nihilism; Voids HERE Poem Text First Line: The sun that silvers all the buildings here Subject(s): Nature HERE First Line: The sun that silvers all the buildings here Last Line: Curled up before its cave in saurian repose, %and about how good it is to be survived Subject(s): Nature HILL First Line: I have come this far on my own legs Last Line: That is the way I do it HISTORY OF POETRY First Line: Our masters are gone and if they returned Last Line: Than now, for hasn't the enemy always existed, %and wasn't the church of the world already in ruins? HOUR First Line: The extra hour given back to eternity Last Line: The hour of moonlight upon her body I HAD BEEN A POLAR EXPLORER Poem Text First Line: I had been a polar explorer in my youth Subject(s): Writing & Writers; Imagination; Fancy I WILL LOVE THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY First Line: Dinner was getting cold. The guests, hoping for quick Last Line: Oh, I said, putting my hat on, 'oh IDEA First Line: For us, too there was a wish to possess Last Line: But that it was ours by not being ours, %and shoud remain empty. That was the idea IN CELEBRATION Poem Text First Line: You sit in a chair, touched by nothing, feeling Subject(s): Transience; Impermanence IN CELEBRATION First Line: You sit in a chair, touched by nothing, feeling IN MEMORIAM First Line: We never found the last lines he had written Last Line: It does not matter. The fact that he died %is reason enough to believe there were reasons IN THE PRIVACY OF THE HOME First Line: You want to get a good look at yourself. You stand before a mirror Last Line: You examine the mirror. There you are, you are not there ITSELF NOW First Line: They will sayn it is feeling or mood, or the world, or the Last Line: One word after another erasing the world and leaving instead%the invisible lines of its calling: out KEEPING THINGS WHOLE Poem Text First Line: In a field / I am the absence Subject(s): Self KEEPING THINGS WHOLE First Line: In a field %I am the absence Last Line: I move %to keep things whole KITE (FOR BILL AND SANDY BAILEY) First Line: It rises over the lake, the farms Last Line: And the man turns in his chair, %slowly beginning to wake Subject(s): Kites LAST BUS First Line: It is dark Last Line: And I shall never come back LATE HOUR First Line: A man walks towards town Last Line: The lonely and the feckless end LEOPARDI Poem Text First Line: The night is warm and clear and without wind Subject(s): Leopardi, Giacomo (1798-1837) LEOPARDI First Line: The night is warm and clear and without wind Last Line: Dying little by little into the distance, %wounded me, as this does now Subject(s): Leopardi, Giacomo (1798-1837) LETTER First Line: Men are running across a field Last Line: It is all I have. I give it all to you. Yours, LIFE IN THE VALLEY Poem Text First Line: Always so late in the day Subject(s): Valleys LIFE IN THE VALLEY First Line: Like many brilliant notions - easy to understand LIKE THE MOON DEPARTING First Line: It is all in the mind, you say, and has Last Line: Like the moon departing after a night with us LINES FOR WINTER Poem Text Recitation First Line: Tell yourself / as it gets cold and gray falls from the air Subject(s): Winter; Self-love LOST DIARY, SELS First Line: I had not begun the great journey I was to undertake. I did not feel like Last Line: Already come, though the sun continues to stand at my door LUMINISM First Line: And though it was brief, and slight, and nothing MAILMAN First Line: It is midnight Last Line: You shall forgive Subject(s): Forgiveness; Postal Service MAN AND CAMEL Poem Text First Line: Ometimes there would be a fire and I would walk into it Subject(s): Middle Age; Camels MAN IN BLACK First Line: I was walking downtown Last Line: Swung back and forth in the sultry air like chandeliers MAN IN THE MIRROR First Line: I walk down the narrow Last Line: I stand here scared %that you will disappear, %sacred that you will stay MAN IN THE TREE First Line: I sat in the cold limbs of a tree Last Line: May not be this poem MAP First Line: Composed, generally defined Last Line: Of how the world might look could we %maintain a lasting, %perfect distance from what is Subject(s): Maps MARRIAGE First Line: The wind comes from opposite poles Last Line: The wind is everything to them Subject(s): Labor And Laborers; Love - Marital MIDNIGHT CLUB First Line: The gifted have told us for years that they want to be loved Last Line: But mainly they sit, hunched in the dark, feet on the floor,%hands on the table, shirts with bloodst MIRROR Poem Text First Line: A white room and a party going on Subject(s): Mirrors; Disappointment MOONTAN Poem Text First Line: The bluish, pale Subject(s): Solitude; Loneliness MOONTAN First Line: The bluish, pale Last Line: Invisible %as anyone MORNING First Line: I have carried it with each day: that morning I took Last Line: The one clear place given to us when we are alone MORNING, NOON AND NIGHT: 1 First Line: And the morning green, and the build-up of weather, and my brows Last Line: Hoping it would pass. What might have been still waited for its chance MORNING, NOON AND NIGHT: 2 First Line: Whatever the starcharts told us to watch for or the maps Last Line: Was to be no nearer the end, no farther from where we began MORNING, NOON AND NIGHT: 3 First Line: These nights of pinks and purples vanishing, of freakish heat Last Line: To prove, to no one in particular, how false his life had been MY DEATH First Line: Sadness, of course, and confusion Last Line: To write or to die, I did not have to do either MY LIFE Poem Text First Line: The huge doll of my body Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships; Male-female Relations MY LIFE First Line: The huge doll of my body Last Line: And getting smaller. The world is green %nothing is all MY LIFE BY SOMEBODY ELSE Poem Text First Line: I have done what I could but you avoid me. Subject(s): Biography; Biographers MY LIFE BY SOMEBODY ELSE First Line: I have done what I could but you avoid me Last Line: Somebody else has arrived. Somebody else is writing MY MOTHER ON AN EVENING IN LATE FALL Poem Text First Line: When the moon appears Subject(s): Mothers MY NAME Poem Text First Line: Once when the lawn was a golden green Subject(s): Self MY SON Poem Text First Line: My son / my only son Subject(s): Sons MYSTERIOUS MAPS First Line: There is a certain triviality in living here Last Line: Erased all signs of the sorrow that had been, %its violence,its terrible omens of the end? MYSTERY AND SOLITUDE IN TOPEKA Poem Text First Line: Afternoon darkens into evening. A man falls deeper and deeper into the slow spiral of Subject(s): Sleep NARRATIVE POETRY First Line: Yesterday at the supermarket I overheard a man and a woman Last Line: You're absolutely right,' said my mother. 'there's no other way %to think of it.' and she hung up NEW POETRY HANDBOOK First Line: If a man understands a poem Last Line: And be kissed by white paper NEXT TIME: 1 First Line: Nobody sees it happening, but the architecture of our time Last Line: How long the ruins would last we would never complain NEXT TIME: 2 First Line: Perfection is out of the question for people like us Last Line: The silent, haze-filled sleep of the farmer and his wife NEXT TIME: 3 First Line: It could have been another story, the one that was meant Last Line: And start again, the sun's compassion as it disappears NO PARTICULAR DAY First Line: Items of no %particular day %swarm down Last Line: Upon us %particular %ideas of light NO WORDS CAN DESCRIBE IT Poem Text First Line: How those fires burned that are no longer, how the weather worsened Subject(s): Languagel Time NOCTURNE OF THE POET WHO LOVED THE MOON Poem Text First Line: I have grown tired of the moon, tired of its look Subject(s): Moon NOSTALGIA First Line: The professors of english have taken their gowns Last Line: It is yesterday. It is still yesterday NOT DYING First Line: These wrinkles are nothing Last Line: Remembers and holds fast OLD MAN LEAVES PARTY First Line: It was clear whn I left the party Last Line: Be only myself, this dream of flesh, from moment to moment OLD PEOPLE ON THE NURSING HOME PORCH Poem Text First Line: Able at last to stop Subject(s): Emptiness; Nursing Homes; Old Age; Old Age Homes; Assisted Living OLD PEOPLE ON THE NURSING HOME PORCH First Line: Able at last to stop Subject(s): Emptiness; Nursing Homes; Old Age ONE SONG First Line: I prefer to sit all day Last Line: I long for more ONE WINTER NIGHT First Line: I showed up at a party of hollywood stars Last Line: When he lifted his head, he loosed a bellow that broke & rolled %like thunder in the rooms below. Th ORPHEUS ALONE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: It was an adventure much could be made of: a walk Subject(s): Mythology - Classical; Orpheus OUR MASTERPIECE IS THE PRIVATE LIFE Poem Text First Line: Is there something down by the water keeping itself from us, Subject(s): Privacy OUR MASTERPIECE IS THE PRIVATE LIFE: 1 First Line: Is there something down by the water keeping itself from us Last Line: Air? Why look for more OUR MASTERPIECE IS THE PRIVATE LIFE: 2 First Line: And now, while the advocates of awfulness and sorrow Last Line: For anything else? Our masterpiece is the private life OUR MASTERPIECE IS THE PRIVATE LIFE: 3 First Line: Standing on the quay between the roving swan and the star immaculate Last Line: All the day's rewards waiting at the doors of sleep Subject(s): Love PIECE OF THE STORM First Line: From the shadow of domes in the city of domes Last Line: It's time. The air is ready. The sky has an opening POOR NORTH Poem Text First Line: It is cold, the snow is deep Subject(s): Cold; Family Life; Relatives POT ROAST Poem Text First Line: I gaze upon a roast Subject(s): Food & Eating; Solitude; Childhood Memories; Loneliness PRECIOUS LITTLE First Line: If blindness is blind to itself Last Line: Between blindness lost and blindness regained PREDICTION First Line: That night the moon drifted over the pond Last Line: And taking the moon and leaving the paper dark READING IN PLACE Poem Text First Line: Imagine a poem that starts with a couple Subject(s): Farm Life; Agriculture; Farmers READING IN PLACE First Line: Imagine a poem that starts with a couple Subject(s): Farm Life RECOVERY First Line: I stood alone in the weather Last Line: And it was no more than anyone might have predicted REMAINS First Line: I empty myself of the names of others Last Line: I empty myself of my life and my life remains Subject(s): Self ROOM First Line: It is an old story, the way it happens Last Line: Where nothing, when it happens, is never terrible enough SARGENTVILLE NOTEBOOK First Line: A man in utah hates my work Last Line: One of my dogs was eaten by the other dogs SE LA VITA EN SVENTURA ...? First Line: Where was it written that today Last Line: And feel the fall of flesh into time, and feel it turn, %soundlessly, slowly, as if righting itself, SEVEN POEMS Poem Text First Line: At the edge Subject(s): Relationships SEVEN POEMS First Line: At the edge %of the body's night Last Line: It is darker and I walk in SHOOTING WHALES Poem Text First Line: When the shoals of plankton Subject(s): Animals SHOOTING WHALES First Line: When the shoals of plankton Last Line: They were luring me %downward and downward %into the murmurous %waters of sleep Subject(s): Animals SLEEP First Line: There is the sleep of my tongue Last Line: Out of which I shall never appear SLEEPING WITH ONE EYE OPEN Poem Text First Line: Unmoved by what the wind does Subject(s): Night; Anxiety; Bedtime SLEEPING WITH ONE EYE OPEN First Line: Unmoved by what the wind does Last Line: Hoping %that nothing, nothing will happen SNOWFALL Poem Text First Line: Watching snow cover the ground, cover itself Subject(s): Snow SO YOU SAY Poem Text First Line: It is all in the mind, you say, and has Subject(s): Relationships SOME LAST WORDS First Line: It is easier for a needle to pass through a camel Last Line: Just go to the graveyard and ask around STONE First Line: The stone lives on Last Line: To the long meadows of your looking STORY OF OUR LIVES First Line: We are reading the story of our lives Last Line: They are the book and they are %nothing else STORY YOU KNOW First Line: You dreamed all night of waking, of turning SUCCESS STORY First Line: Had I known at the outset the climb would be slow, difficult, at Last Line: There? I count myself among the blessed. My life is all downhill SUICIDE First Line: I jump from a building Last Line: As if I were dreaming %I were alive SUITE OF APPEARANCES: 1 First Line: Out of what dark or lack has he come to wait Last Line: Story, which continues wherever the end is happening SUITE OF APPEARANCES: 2 First Line: No wonder - since things come into view then drop from sight Last Line: Before tonight, the history of ourselves, leaves us cold SUITE OF APPEARANCES: 3 First Line: How it comes forward, and deposits itself like wind Last Line: Any idea of yourself must include a body surrounding a song SUITE OF APPEARANCES: 4 First Line: In another time, we will want to know how the earth looked Last Line: Seen with a disguise, and never be seen without one SUITE OF APPEARANCES: 5 First Line: To sit in this chair and wonder where is endlessness Last Line: So long in coming, keep us from mourning the loss SUITE OF APPEARANCES: 6 First Line: Of occasions flounced with rose and gold in which the sun Last Line: The other, so brief they may have been lost to begin with THE BABIES Poem Text First Line: Let us save the babies Subject(s): Babies; Infants THE COMING OF LIGHT Poem Text First Line: Even this late it happens Subject(s): Love; Travel; Journeys; Trips THE CONTINENTAL COLLEGE OF BEAUTY Poem Text First Line: When the continental college of beauty opened its doors THE CONTINUOUS LIFE Poem Text First Line: What of the neighborhood homes awash Subject(s): Parents; Parenthood THE DREADFUL HAS ALREADY HAPPENED Poem Text First Line: The relatives are leaning over, staring expectantly Subject(s): Babies; Time; Ancestors & Ancestry; Infants; Heritage; Heredity THE END Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Not every man [or, everyone] knows what he shall sing at the end Subject(s): Environment; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation THE EVERYDAY ENCHANTMENT OF MUSIC Poem Text First Line: A rough sound was polished until it became a smoother sound, which was polishe Subject(s): Music & Musicians THE GARDEN Poem Text First Line: It shines in the garden Subject(s): Gardens & Gardening; Family Life; Relatives THE GHOST SHIP Poem Text First Line: Through the crowded street Subject(s): Ghost Ships THE HISTORY OF POETRY Poem Text First Line: Our masters are gone and if they returned Subject(s): Poetry & Poets THE IDEA Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: For us, too, there was a wish to possess Subject(s): Relationships THE KING Poem Text First Line: I went to the middle of the room and called out Subject(s): Dreams; Nightmares THE KITE (FOR BILL AND SANDY BAILEY) Poem Text First Line: It rises over the lake, the farms Last Line: Slowly beginning to wake Subject(s): Kites THE LATE HOUR Poem Text First Line: A man walks towards town Subject(s): Love - Unrequited THE MAILMAN Poem Text First Line: It is midnight Subject(s): Forgiveness; Postal Service; Clemency; Postmen; Post Office; Mail; Mailmen THE MAN IN THE MIRROR Poem Text First Line: I walk down the narrow Subject(s): Mirrors; Self; Aging THE MAN IN THE TREE Poem Text First Line: I sat in the cold limbs of a tree Subject(s): Trees THE MAP Poem Text First Line: Composed, generally defined Last Line: Perfect distance from what it is Subject(s): Maps THE MARRIAGE Poem Text First Line: The wind comes from opposite poles Subject(s): Labor & Laborers; Love - Marital; Work; Workers; Wedded Love; Marriage - Love THE MIDNIGHT CLUB Poem Text First Line: The gifted have told us for years that they want to be loved Subject(s): Social Commentaries THE MINISTER OF CULTURE GETS HIS WISH Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: The minister of culture goes home after a grueling day at the office Subject(s): Patience; Nothingness; Nihilism; Voids THE MONUMENT: 29 Poem Text First Line: It occurs to me that you may be a woman. What then? I suppose I Subject(s): Women THE MONUMENT: 30 Poem Text First Line: Sometimes when I wander in these woods whose prince I am, I hear a THE MONUMENT: 34 Poem Text First Line: They are back, the angry poets. But look! They have come with hammers Subject(s): Poetry & Poets THE MYSTERIOUS ARRIVAL OF AN UNUSUAL LETTER Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: It had been a long day at the office and a long ride back to the small apartment Subject(s): Letters; Fathers THE NEW POETRY HANDBOOK Poem Text First Line: If a man understands a poem, Subject(s): Poetry & Poets THE NIGHT, THE PORCH Poem Text First Line: To stare at nothing is to learn by heart Subject(s): Self THE OLD AGE OF NOSTALGIA Poem Text First Line: Those hours given over to basking in the glow of an imagined Subject(s): Nostalgia THE POEM OF THE SPANISH POET Poem Text First Line: In a hotel room somewhere in iowa an american poet, tired of his poems Subject(s): Poetry & Poets THE PREDICTION Poem Text First Line: That night the moon drifted over the pond, Subject(s): Future THE REMAINS Poem Text First Line: I empty myself of the names of others Subject(s): Self THE STORY OF OUR LIVES Poem Text First Line: We are reading the story of our lives Subject(s): Conduct Of Life THE TUNNEL Poem Text First Line: A man has been standing Subject(s): Doppelgangers THE UNTELLING Poem Text First Line: He leaned forward over the paper Subject(s): Reality; Truth THE WAY IT IS Poem Text First Line: I lie in bed Subject(s): Modern Life; Human Behavior; Conduct Of Life; Human Nature TO HIMSELF Poem Text First Line: So you've come to me now without knowing why Subject(s): Writing & Writers; Time TO HIMSELF First Line: So you've come to me now without knowing why TOMORROW Poem Text First Line: Your best friend is gone Subject(s): Travel; Journeys; Trips TOMORROW First Line: Your best friend is gone Last Line: Will invent an ending that comes out right Subject(s): Travel TRANSLATION: 1 First Line: A few months ago my four-year-old son surprised me. He was Last Line: Someone your own age, whose poems are no good. Then, if your%translations are bad, it won't matter TRANSLATION: 2 First Line: My son's nursery school teacher came over to see me. I don't know Last Line: I see your point,' she said. 'maybe I should take a stab at %baudelaire.' TRANSLATION: 3 First Line: What's up?' I said to the nursery teacher's husband Last Line: Today. So far as I can see, there's nothing to be done with his poems.' %and with that he disappeare TRANSLATION: 4 First Line: To get away from all the talk of translation I went camping by myself Last Line: My things, stuck the tent, and drove back to salt lake city TRANSLATION: 5 First Line: I was in the bathtub when jorge luis borges stumbled in the door Last Line: I opened my eyes, he, and the text into which he was drawn, had %come to an end TRAVEL First Line: It might have been just outside munich or rome or on the new Last Line: Merriment is here, none of the flash and vigor, none of the pain that %kept sending me elsewhere TUNNEL First Line: A man has been standing Last Line: And I have been waiting for days TWO DE CHIRICOS: 1. THE PHILOSOPHER'S CONQUEST First Line: This melancholy moment will remain Last Line: And always the tower, the boat, the distant train TWO DE CHIRICOS: 2. THE DISQUIETING MUSES First Line: Boredom sets in first, and then despair Last Line: Something about the silence of the square UNTITLED Poem Text First Line: As for the poem the adorable one slipped into your pocket Subject(s): Names UNTITLED First Line: As for the poem the adorable one slipped into your pocket Last Line: About to happen just at the moment it serves no purpose at all? Subject(s): Names VARIATIONS ON A THEME First Line: I had gone to the country to visit friends, but found Last Line: Mrs l took it in her hands, and said, 'oooh! It is warm %andcapable isn't it?' VELOCITY MEADOWS First Line: I can say now that nothing was possible VIEW First Line: This is the place. The chairs are white. The table shines Last Line: Of happiness, as if that plain fact were enough and would last VIEWING THE COAST First Line: Sailing a ragged shoreline strewn with rocks VIOLENT STORM Poem Text First Line: Those who have chosen to pass the night Subject(s): Pessimism; Storms VIOLENT STORM First Line: Those who have chosen to pass the night Last Line: That shared our wakefulness are dimming %and the dark brushes against our eyes Subject(s): Pessimism; Storms WALK AT NIGHT First Line: Nothing is like something else. What is not wholly Last Line: Distributed in equal, almost weightless %parts among the stars. How they urge us on WAY IT IS First Line: I lie in bed %I toss all night Last Line: Shall inherit the dead WHAT IT WAS: 1 First Line: It was impossible to imagine, impossible Last Line: And always because, and only because, once having been, it was WHAT IT WAS: 2 First Line: It was the beginning of a chair Last Line: I sat, the way I waited for hours, for days. It was that. Just that WHAT TO THINK OF Poem Text First Line: Think of the jungle, Subject(s): Jungles; Paraguay WHAT TO THINK OF First Line: Think of the jungle Last Line: Like the cold confetti of paradise WHEN THE VACATION IS OVER FOR GOOD Poem Text First Line: It will be strange Last Line: We are dying. Subject(s): Antinuclear Movement; Nuclear War; Vacation; Nuclear Freeze; Atomic Bomb; Hydrogen Bomb WHERE ARE THE ATERS OF CHLDHOOD? Poem Text First Line: See where the windows are boarded up, Subject(s): Children; Water; Childhood WHERE ARE THE WATERS OF CHILDHOOD? First Line: See where the windows are boarded up Last Line: Now you look down. The waters of childhood are there WHOLE STORY First Line: How it should happen this way Last Line: May have lied about the fire WORKSHOP MIRACLE First Line: Scene: a university classroom. Last Line: Whole class: together, together, so poetry will never die. Together, together (etc YOU AND IT First Line: Think what you like, but Last Line: Catching the merest fraction %of sleep, you will know what I mean |
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