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Author: TERRANOVA, ELAINE
Matches Found: 60


Terranova, Elaine    Poet's Biography
60 poems available by this author


1939    Poem Text    
First Line: A woman takes a small girl's hand
Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews; Shoah; Judaism


1939       
First Line: A woman takes a small girl's hand
Last Line: Until the river shines. The two walk on %into the clouds, an ample white, %into a sky that has alrea
Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews


BED AND BREAKFAST    Poem Text    
First Line: We drive on, hoping for fair weather
Last Line: With its steady thread of flame
Subject(s): Travel; Hotels


BETROTHAL AT THE WALL    Poem Text    
First Line: At a well, a maiden (na'arah)
Subject(s): Courtship


BLACK NARCISSUS, THE MOVIE       
First Line: The shadow of the bell
Last Line: On squat gray donkeys.
Subject(s): Motion Pictures; Movies; Cinema


BLIND MAN    Poem Text    
First Line: He will not see those first golden notches
Last Line: Those trembling eclipses of light
Subject(s): Blindness


BLIND MAN       
First Line: He will not see those first golden notches
Last Line: Turning their backs ot their shadows, %those trembling eclipses of light


BREAKING COVER    Poem Text    
First Line: I grew up in the church. I learned
Last Line: Like a coffin bearng a flag
Subject(s): Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975; Peace Movements


CHORAL SONG    Poem Text    
First Line: Soon greek oars will whip up
Subject(s): Politics & Government; War


CHORAL SONG       
First Line: Soon greek oars will whip up
Last Line: As easily as one plucks a flower?'
Subject(s): Politics; War


DAY AND NIGHT       
First Line: The rain would stop, then begin again
Last Line: She'd have felt it %under the mattress where they lay


DEATH CAME AT ME    Poem Text    
First Line: On a motorcycle
Subject(s): Death; Dead, The


DINNER AT THE HOLIDAY INN       
First Line: Not much with me, a jacket and my book


FERAL GIRL FOUND IN A SUBURBAN HOUSE    Poem Text    
First Line: We know her by her two perfect
Last Line: A hiss that gives nothing away
Subject(s): Girls


FIRST TIME       
First Line: Last night for the first time
Last Line: Shadow falling over %the face of the apple


FLOATER    Poem Text    
First Line: I had to push myself
Last Line: Kept it dark and no one came
Subject(s): Alienation (social Psychology)


FOR ONE WHO CAME LATE TO POETRY       
First Line: Not someone I knew well, not close
Last Line: Everything a grown woman wants.
Subject(s): Poetry & Poets


GOODWIFE PLAYING THE VIRGINALS; AFTER A PAINTING BY DE WITTE       
First Line: The woman's hands are hungry birds
Last Line: The man is trapped by the open door.
Subject(s): Housewives; Marriage; Women; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


HEAT AND LIGHT: HEAT       
First Line: The sun at the edge. It falls
Last Line: Until I had no past, cast no shadow


HEAT AND LIGHT: LIGHT       
First Line: Don't move. %we'll move you.' a bounce. A child
Last Line: Clockwise: the way if it were up to me, %it would go


HEAT AND LIGHT: STRUCK       
First Line: From the start, you find no rest. Traffic
Last Line: First of a foot, then leg, the torso


HEAT AND LIGHT: THE TREATMENT       
First Line: The elevator sinks to that half-life
Last Line: You would pull back your hand


HER STORIES       
First Line: My mother loved to cry. Oh, how
Last Line: Until the end, until I grew up


HUMMINGBIRD    Poem Text    
First Line: What with foresight and dancing,
Subject(s): Hummingbirds; Death; Dead, The


HUNTER'S MOON       
First Line: The moon was a bull's eye, %so large it dwarfed anything else
Last Line: With that liberated smell, hay or manure, %something not yet in the world


IN THE BINDERY    Poem Text    
First Line: The shift begins. Metal clanks
Last Line: A change of heart but then goes on.
Subject(s): Factories; Industrial Workers Of The World (i.w.w.); Labor & Laborers; Labor Unions; Work; Workers


LATE AFTERNOON       
First Line: Oh see the gorgeous warring clouds
Last Line: And other things I can't name I can't %be held responsible for
Subject(s): Relationships; Winter


LATERNA MAGICA       
First Line: What you remember
Last Line: That rise like faces out of smoke.
Subject(s): Accidents; Disasters; Hospitals; Miracles


LESSON       
First Line: That was edena's mother, %whizzing the mixer, eggs, butter
Last Line: Was there, so they meant it to stick


LILA'S WORD, HER VIGIL    Poem Text    
First Line: There are no windows
Last Line: Like great chords of music
Subject(s): Homeless Shelters


MERRY-GO-ROUND       
First Line: Thus I become conscious
Last Line: As the fireflies the riders %throw over their shoulders explode


MIMOSA       
First Line: It must have been july
Last Line: He'd have heard my heart beating.
Subject(s): Birthdays; Single People; Bachelors; Unmarried People


MINT    Poem Text    
First Line: Already, we’d be driving past
Last Line: The chance of a reprieve
Subject(s): Forests; Man-woman Relationships


MINT       
First Line: Already, we'd be driving past
Last Line: Without making love, without %the chance of a reprieve


NEAR NIGHT    Poem Text    
First Line: The lights of earth came out like stars
Last Line: Each make a plea in the dark
Subject(s): Night


NEEDLEWORK    Poem Text    
First Line: Sometimes fate takes
Last Line: In the butterfly's orange wings.
Subject(s): Clothing & Dress; Convents; Needles; Nuns; Seamstresses


NIGHT BLOOMING CEREUS    Poem Text    
First Line: I pushed away a nearly
Last Line: Throbbing, in the present
Subject(s): Plants


NIGHT-BLOOMING CEREUS       
First Line: I push away a nearly
Last Line: Throbbing, in the present


NOTO       
First Line: She is thinking that something must
Last Line: The two ends of her voice, reattaching


OFFICES       
First Line: I think of days / with numbers hung on them
Last Line: At the holiday party?
Subject(s): Office Employees; Office Work; Clerks


PHOBIA       
First Line: Because from the tour bus
Last Line: With its frantic wings.
Subject(s): Fear; Marriage; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


PRINT SKIRT       
First Line: The zipper is the tricky part
Last Line: And tries again, like her mind learning %to worry through a thought or desire
Subject(s): Clothing And Dress


RETURN TO WINTER    Poem Text    
First Line: That day the starlings didn't eat.
Subject(s): Winter


RIVER BATHERS    Poem Text    
First Line: This was no paradise
Last Line: The grass and rusting iron furniture.
Subject(s): Rivers; Seashore; Water; Beach; Coast; Shore


RUSH HOUR    Poem Text    
First Line: Odd, the baby's scabbed face peeking over
Last Line: Its motion that would begin like a blessing.
Subject(s): Commuters; Travel; Journeys; Trips


SECRET MEANINGS       
First Line: Sometimes our houses shake in the night
Last Line: Though the moon, too, is an ardent hunter


SELF-EXAMINATION       
First Line: He might be tethered
Last Line: To do with us? – madly flashing in the light.
Subject(s): Beauty; Cancer, Breast; Radiology; Regret


SHELLS    Poem Text    
First Line: In the heat, in the high grass
Subject(s): Farewell; Parting


SKIRT       
First Line: It wasn't meant to happen. Like a knife
Last Line: Like a tree with fire at its heart


SMALL HOURS       
First Line: In the park there's always a crow, startled
Last Line: The silver bike handle, ivy flapping in the yard


SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHER; FOR JIM DRAKE       
First Line: As a young man he ran. He knew
Last Line: He can never run out of film.
Subject(s): Photography & Photographers


ST. KEVIN AND THE WOMAN OF DERRYBAWN       
First Line: At night her soul is alive
Last Line: In the world, she lets them fall.
Subject(s): Hunger; Prostitution; Survival; Women - Abused; Harlots; Whores; Brothels; Wife Beating


STAIRWAY    Poem Text    
First Line: Think of the dollhouse
Last Line: The nearly perfect moon
Subject(s): Dollhouses


STRAWBERRY FETE       
First Line: At the hospital grounds that night
Last Line: And the perfect strawberries.
Subject(s): Fruit; Hunger; Strawberries


TABLEAUX VIVANTS; NAPLES, 1790       
First Line: Emma hart looks out into the glare
Last Line: They must prepare for an era of disaster.
Subject(s): Hamilton, Lady Emma (1765-1815); Nelson, Horatio, Viscount (1758-1805); Revolutions


THE ANNIVERSARY    Poem Text    
First Line: That night / the comet could still be seen
Subject(s): Anniversaries


THE RUIN    Poem Text    
First Line: Is the ruin ashell or a skeleton?
Last Line: They meant to tell us
Subject(s): Ruins


THE YOUNG SUICIDES IN IRELAND       
First Line: The sky is lined
Last Line: Ticking, tipping them forward.
Subject(s): Ireland - Famine; Suicide; Youth


THIEF    Poem Text    
First Line: It is daylight still
Last Line: Or whoever lives here
Subject(s): Robbery


WHY YOUR FATHER CRIED       
First Line: Your sister is telling the story. It was
Last Line: "some of the best thoughts I had in my life."
Subject(s): Children; Fathers; Parents; Childhood; Parenthood