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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: VALENTINE, JEAN Matches Found: 361 Chace, Jean Valentine 1 poems available by this author VISIT TO A HOSPITAL First Line: I have come to where the world drops off Valentine, Jean Poet's Biography 360 poems available by this author 1943, THE VISION Recitation by Author 1945 Poem Text First Line: A year in the pacific Subject(s): Fathers; War 1945 First Line: A year in the pacific Last Line: - ah jeanie, you're still in words Subject(s): Fathers; War 3 A.M. IN NEW YORK First Line: I have been standing at the edge Last Line: The flat of his coat, %the shut out of his eye A WEED GREEN Poem Text Last Line: Goes after life Subject(s): Weeds ABORTION CHILD Poem Text First Line: I thought: / you live somewhere Subject(s): Abortion; Imagination; Fancy ABORTION CHILD First Line: I thought Last Line: Time to see you, thirty earth years ABOUT LOVE First Line: No when you went to her Last Line: My lips, their silk %stem ACTUARIAL FILE Poem Text First Line: Orange peels, burned letters, the car lights shining on the grass, Subject(s): Conduct Of Life ADVENT CALENDAR First Line: In the tiny window for december 21st Last Line: They can do anything AFTER CONCIOUSNESS OF THIS BIG FORM First Line: Sam and I chose a workshop called Last Line: When I get up in the morning I am water and wine %with this big form, this pouring out spiral of sta AFTER ELEGIES Poem Text First Line: Almost two years now I've been sleeping Subject(s): Kent State University - Riot, 1970 AFTER ELEGIES First Line: Almost two years now I've been sleeping Last Line: Asian faces; flat %earth - your face - fern - coal Subject(s): Kent State University - Riot, 1970 ALCOHOL ALCOHOL ALCOHOL Last Line: You just have to accept it.' ALFRED AND THE ABORTION First Line: Alfred, what did they do with your arm bones? Last Line: Your hand working, and the virtue of your wrist ALONE, ALIVE First Line: Alone, alive %with you Last Line: Before your light %your eye %your hair AMERICAN RIVER SKY ALCOHOL FATHER Poem Text First Line: What is pornography? What is dream? Last Line: Your hand. I wouldn't swim. I would fly Subject(s): Alcoholism & Alcoholics AMERICAN RIVER SKY ALCOHOL FATHER First Line: What is pornography? What is dream? Last Line: The dock, the water, the fragile, tough beach grass. %your hand. I wouldn't swim. I wouldn't fly Subject(s): Alcoholics And Alcoholism AND YOUR MOTHER First Line: My grandmother %her two-room apartment Last Line: You didn't know they were safe, you were safe ANGEL First Line: O mud mother lick me before I die Last Line: Nose, your stomach (secretly!), who carried you, it's me 'the %one to whom you belong in reality.' ANNUNCIATION: THE BREAKINGS First Line: I saw my soul become flesh breaking open Last Line: Pelvis thinning out into god ANNUNCIATIONS: THE BREAKINGS Poem Text First Line: I saw my soul become flesh breaking open Last Line: Pelvis thinning out into god Subject(s): God APRIL Poem Text First Line: Suppose we are standing together a minute Subject(s): Prayer; Death; Dead, The ARCHANGEL Poem Text First Line: It's dark in here Subject(s): Angels AS THE CONFERENCE ON WOMEN IN THE ACADEMY First Line: The young scholar, her weeping finger Last Line: Under the room of what we say Variant Title(s): Her Lost Book, Part 1: At The Conference On Women In The Academ AT A HOTEL IN ANOTHER STAR Recitation by Author First Line: At a hotel in another star. The rooms were cold and Subject(s): Hotels; Inns; Innskeepers; Motels; Boarding Houses AT CULLENS' ISLAND First Line: Eimear was dead: %every rock was a green womb, lit from inside Last Line: Eimear was dead: %every rock was a green womb, lit from inside AT MY MOTHER'S GRAVE First Line: Being told, %go away Last Line: Pablo neruda, %radio flier, %fly me in AT THE CONFERENCE ON WOMEN IN THE ACADEMY Poem Text First Line: The young scholar, her weeping finger Subject(s): Academia; Women; Reality AT THE DOOR First Line: Seeing my daughter I the circle of lamplight Last Line: Hold your long haunches %wide open: be %ungodly I AUTUMN DAY First Line: The house in the air is rising, not Last Line: And the names of friends of friends AVALON Last Line: Hot coal in no one's mouth, dying day by day %to avenal AWAKE, THIS SUMMER First Line: I see you a minute, a year ago, at the door Last Line: The shallowest breath is life BADLANDS SAID First Line: I am the skull %under your hundred doubts. I, I Last Line: I am love's sorrow, %the desert's violet needle and gray star BARRIE'S DREAM, THE WILD GEESE First Line: I dreamed about elizabeth bishop Last Line: Under our radiant sleep they were bearing us all night long BEES Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: A man whose arms and shoulders Subject(s): Bees; Beekeeping BEES First Line: A man whose arms and shoulders Last Line: The first original bees off, one by one BEFORE THE EXPECTED STREET INTO TOWN Last Line: #name? BIRTHDAY LETTER FROM SOUTH CAROLINA First Line: Yellow apple %star inside the apple %seed star quiet Last Line: Red mica dust to drift across the new day's light, and the %heat BLACK FOR THE PEOPLE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: The man I am with is black Subject(s): Love - Cultural Differences; Racism; Racial Prejudice; Bigotry BLACK WOLF First Line: Suffocated in the country Last Line: On the green hill sheep %kneel and feed' BLIND STIRRING OF LOVE First Line: I rub my hands my cheeks Last Line: You have been inside me %streaming %unforsakeness BLUE DORY, THE SOUL First Line: I left the blue dory Last Line: I left the edges of 'my' face %'my' hands BRIDE'S HOUR: 1. DAWN First Line: I try to hold your face in my mind's million eyes Last Line: To terror of man and horse BRIDE'S HOUR: 2. THE BATH First Line: My sisters walk around touching things, or loll Last Line: I am the hollow circle closed by the ring BRIDE'S HOUR: 3. NIGHT First Line: I am thrown open like a child's damp hand Last Line: Shows blank orion where to dip his hand BROKEN-DOWN GIRL Poem Text First Line: Imagine her quick Subject(s): Girls BUD First Line: Christmas night, I dreamed my father said, jean Last Line: No. Ethereal. Ethereal, but my friend. %and I got my prayer answered: %I died with my life around me BUTANE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: The huge aluminum airship Subject(s): Gas; Fire; Airships BUTANE First Line: The huge aluminum airship %is gliding over us Last Line: The dwarf says, hold it! Walking up between my legs %into mybody: I'd better see the fire skin BY THE TEKAPO RIVER, 100 DEGREES First Line: Water %hot green plastic bucket Last Line: Not toothed as you are, but as you were, %safe in your first, soft shirt CHILD Poem Text First Line: You are in a blind / desert -- child Last Line: Who sees Subject(s): Children; Childhood CHILD First Line: You are in a blind %desert -- child Last Line: Third star %who sees Subject(s): Children CHILDHOOD HOUSE First Line: Snow family: big snow father Last Line: Father? King queen? Brother? Snow %streamed upward %into the scree CHURCH First Line: Thank you for the food,' we said Last Line: Candle of 'find it.' my life Subject(s): Churches COLTRANE, SYEEDA'S SING FLUTE Poem Text First Line: To marilyn, to peter, / playing, making things: the walls, the stairs Last Line: Up to the shins, up the eyes, / closed over Subject(s): Children; Coltrane, John (1926-1967); Jazz; Music & Musicians; Childhood COLTRANE, SYEEDA'S SING FLUTE First Line: To marilyn, to peter, %playing, making things: the walls, the stairs Last Line: Left up here, playing Subject(s): Children; Coltrane, John (1926-1967); Jazz; Music And Musicians COME AHKMATOVA First Line: A homeless woman with harsh white hair Last Line: In the siege of leningrad: %'can you write about this?' 'I can.' COUNSELOR RETIRES, AND THEN HE DIES First Line: Getting each other's jokes Last Line: Floating up the white sky COUVRE-FEU; AFTER PAUL ELUARD (IN PEACETIME) Poem Text First Line: What could you expect Last Line: Were on flesh one bone Subject(s): City & Town Life DEAREST Poem Text First Line: This day broke Subject(s): Family Life; Disappointment; Relatives DEATH ASPHODEL First Line: --I feel like I've buried somebody inside of me Last Line: My daughter to me? %my mother to me. Green flowers soon to bloom DECEMBER Poem Text First Line: We all walk up and down Subject(s): Christmas; Nativity, The DECEMBER 21ST First Line: How will I think of you Last Line: At the star of a girl's nipple DO FLIES REMEMBER US Last Line: Our footprints feeling %over us %thirstily DO YOU REMEMBER? Last Line: Spring snow was coming was coming DON'T SILENCE YOUR SELF, NO TE CALLES Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: He took some words from the bowl Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary DOOR IN THE MOUNTAIN Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Never ran this hard through the valley Subject(s): Deer DOOR IN THE MOUNTAIN First Line: Never ran this hard through the valley Last Line: Door in the mountain %let me in DREAM BARKER Poem Text First Line: We met for supper in your flat-bottomed boat Last Line: Bone dry, old, in a dry land, jim, my jim Subject(s): Dreams; Dinners & Dining DREAM BARKER First Line: We met for supper in your flat-bottomed boat Last Line: Bone dry, old, in a dry land, jim, my jim DREAM INTERVIEW WITH STRAVINSKY First Line: Gossip is travel Last Line: To travel, %or, to love' DRINKER First Line: You -- breathless Last Line: Will take you out Subject(s): Drinks And Drinking DRINKER'S WIFE WRITES BACK First Line: You never hear me, your letter said Last Line: I did not do this Subject(s): Alcoholics And Alcoholism DRINKER: 2 First Line: In the doorway %your face a candle Last Line: - oh my darling, %where do you look for me? Variant Title(s): The Drinker (2 DU MUSST DEIN LEBEN ANDERN - RILKE Poem Text First Line: What was once is still Subject(s): Conduct Of Life DUFY POSTCARD First Line: The postcard taped on your white kitchen wall has roses Last Line: Who will the others be ELEGY FOR JANE KENYON Poem Text First Line: Jane is big Subject(s): Kenyon, Jane (1947-1995); Death; Dead, The ELEGY FOR JANE KENYON: 2 First Line: Jane is big %with death, don Last Line: Was made of iron. No %said jane %of flesh ELEVENTH BROTHER Poem Text First Line: One arm still a swan's wing Subject(s): Brothers; Half-brothers EMBRYO Poem Text First Line: Still mermaid / inside her Last Line: To the real life Subject(s): Birth; Child Birth; Midwifery EMBRYO First Line: Still mermaid %inside her Last Line: Listening listening %to the real life Subject(s): Birth EVERYONE WAS DRUNK Poem Text First Line: South dakota, august 1989. The buffaloes' deep red-brown Last Line: For joy. Journalism. Stories Subject(s): Alcoholism & Alcoholics EVERYONE WAS DRUNK First Line: South dakota, august 1989. The buffaloes' deep red-brown Last Line: So why was I handed out of the burning window? %for joy. Journalism. Stories Subject(s): Alcoholics And Alcoholism EVERYTHING STARTS WITH A LETTER Last Line: The false self will do much worse than that, %to get away FATHER LYNCH RETURNS FROM THE DEAD Poem Text First Line: There's one day a year Subject(s): Death, Return From FEARS: NIGHT CABIN First Line: Snake tick %black widow Last Line: Curled cold in the kerosene lamp FELLINI IN PURGATORY Poem Text First Line: He was shoveling sand Subject(s): Purgatory; Fellini, Federico (1920-1993) FIELD First Line: A sculpture in a bare white gallery Last Line: The hacked-out cots of silk %bog children FIRESIDE First Line: The fox went under the garden Last Line: Desire for desire, %nicer than god FIRST ANGEL First Line: Fat slippery angels, %two by two Last Line: Your layers of habitation, your perfect find-tray FIRST LIGHT First Line: First light at the window %the blue and white %teapot Last Line: Our happiness %over bread %and tea and sun FIRST LOVE First Line: How deep we met in the sea, my love Last Line: How deep we met, how dark, %how wet! Before the world began FIRST STATION First Line: The first silver work of kindness Last Line: Through the first station %and there we'd lean %and listen and listen... FLOWER First Line: You, I, steadying %in our in-borne, out-borne sparks Last Line: Of empathy, the flower %of earth: wet red fireworks-flower FOR A WOMAN DEAD AT THIRTY: 2 Poem Text First Line: In memory / you / go through that Last Line: Opened into the third / star-darkness Variant Title(s): For A Woman Dead At Thirty (2) Subject(s): Death; Memory; Dead, The FOR A WOMAN DEAD AT THIRTY: 2 First Line: In memory %you %go through that Last Line: As your words %opened into their third %star-darkness Variant Title(s): For A Woman Dead At Thirty (2 Subject(s): Death; Memory FORAGING First Line: Why did you keep finding me where I was? Last Line: And then it was the boards %and then it was the luminous room FORCES Poem Text First Line: This man, blind and honored Last Line: God break me out / of this stiff life I've made Subject(s): Alcoholism & Alcoholics FORCES First Line: This man, blind and honored Last Line: God break me out %of this stiff life I've made Subject(s): Alcoholics And Alcoholism FORCES (2): SONG First Line: Weeds breaking up through stone Last Line: Through the live horn, the bone, to this %day, calm FORGIVENESS DREAM: MAN FROM THE WARSAW GHETTO First Line: He looked about six or seven, only much too thin Last Line: This quiet, these still unvisitable stars %move with choices. %our kin are here. %were here FOX GLACIER First Line: The tourist: blue plough bones %high eye socket Last Line: Most wanted: favorite: %wanted and needed and loved: diaspora FREE ABANDONMENT BLUES First Line: Now I don't have to leave this place not for anybody Last Line: Maybe not today the amazing loveliness but it won't be long for us to wait FRIEND Poem Text First Line: Friend I need your hand every morning Subject(s): Friendship GHOST ELEPHANTS Poem Text First Line: In the elephant field Subject(s): Elephants; Ghosts GO CLEAR First Line: Go clear he said %his high grey 19th c. %postmortem jaw Last Line: From under the earth to over the earth %air to not air GOLDFINCH IN THE RAIN Last Line: Rocking %not touching GRAIN OF THE WOOD Last Line: Under my skin and away in the knuckly powder GREEN FOR THE LAND First Line: Because why--I was dis Last Line: Of my land, my childhood thief GUARDIAN ANGEL IN NEW YORK First Line: You stood in the doorway in the snow Last Line: You touched you finger to your lips, you said, %here: wisdom. Wisdom and power HALF AN HOUR Poem Text First Line: Hurt, hurtful, snake-charmed, Subject(s): Togetherness HAPPINESS Poem Text First Line: Remember our happiness? Last Line: This is the happiness he leaned his head against Subject(s): Happiness; Joy; Delight HAPPINESS First Line: Remember our happiness? Last Line: This is the happiness he leaned his head against Subject(s): Happiness HAPPINESS First Line: The moment you turned to me on w. 4th st. %your gentleness to me Last Line: Much sleep there was in sleep how no %suffering is lost HAPPINESS (3) Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: The moment you turned to me on w. 4th st. Subject(s): Relationships HAPPINESS: 2. THE I CHING First Line: (alone) %'unconcerned' %'undaunted' Last Line: : the dead don't go away %: you Variant Title(s): Happiness (2): The I Chin HAWKINS STABLE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: It was years before you could climb Subject(s): Stables HE LEAVES THEM: Poem Text Last Line: Loses the blue HE LEAVES THEM: Last Line: - the other thing holds us %in its mouth Variant Title(s): Away From Yo Subject(s): Togetherness HE SAID First Line: When I found where we had crashed, in the snow, the Last Line: Some days %all I can want is sleep' HE SAYS TO ME, IN IRELAND Last Line: More than your silver or your gold art HER LOST BOOK, PART II, SELECTION Poem Text First Line: She wrote a book. Lost to us Subject(s): Books HER LOST BOOK, PART II, SELS. First Line: She wrote a book. Lost to us Last Line: Generation to generation, %bone to bone Subject(s): Loss HERE THERE IS NO LANGUAGE Poem Text First Line: Drink -- cut my wrists Last Line: Doctors looking down a well Subject(s): Suicide HERE THERE IS NO LANGUAGE First Line: Drink -- cut my wrists Last Line: Doctors looking down a well Subject(s): Suicide HIGH SCHOOL BOYFRIEND Poem Text First Line: You were willing to like me, and I did something, Last Line: Is so wrong Subject(s): Youth; Love - Beginnings HIGH SCHOOL BOYFRIEND First Line: You were willing to like me, and I did something Last Line: Nowhere near my old home: no one anywhere %is so wrong HOME First Line: Breath entering, leaving the leaf Last Line: Two soft old children's books %with the red and blue and green canyons still warm on us HOME First Line: I left my clothes Last Line: Our sign %life twice HOSPITALS: STRANGE LIGHTS Poem Text First Line: I needed a friend but Subject(s): Hospitals I AM FANE A PAGE IN THE COURT OF SPACE Recitation by Author I COULDN'T Last Line: Whiskey marriage %children whiskey I HAVE LIVED IN YOUR FACE Poem Text Subject(s): Love - Complaints I HAVE LIVED IN YOUR FACE Last Line: -up to now I always wanted it %but not this I WAS DARK AND SILENT Last Line: Don't give the children their baths %or feed them.' I WOULD BE First Line: I would be thick soft fleece Last Line: Quiet against the noise, shade from the lights IF MY MOTHER WAS ONE Last Line: The string in the dark. Alone IKON First Line: Swim in you, sleep %in you, let me, %mother lord Last Line: And my name is written in it, my heart makes %an earth crib for your heart IN FEAR (1) First Line: By the st. Vrain river Last Line: What is going to happen? Now the ambulances. %someone was here and is gone IN FEAR (2) First Line: M. Comes and hits me Last Line: In hell, compelled to unhappy action: %'it hurts everyone.' IN OUR CHILD HOUSE Poem Text Last Line: Father .. Sorrow Subject(s): Family Life; Childhood Memories IN PRISON Poem Text First Line: In prison / without being accused Subject(s): Grief; Sorrow; Sadness IN THE EVENING First Line: In the evening %I saw them Last Line: You beauty %little ferryman IN THE PUBLIC LIBRARY Poem Text Subject(s): Librarians & Libraries; Library; Librarians IN THE PUBLIC LIBRARY Last Line: It's time for him to close. He closes Variant Title(s): Her Lost Book, Part I: "in The Public Library IN THIS EGG First Line: My mother as a child Last Line: Who will brood over them? Who will make a good roof over them INKWELL DAYBREAK Poem Text Recitation by Author Subject(s): Childhood Memories INSIDE First Line: Your red eye- %soap, you said Last Line: Close close you drew me in, %injury IRONWOOD First Line: November 17th %dear michael Last Line: Waking up, I thought: no, this is the other michael Variant Title(s): The Mother Drea JAMES WRIGHT: IN MEMORY First Line: Looking back at me Last Line: Unknowable, beginning in joy, his voice %is closer to me than I am to myself JULIANA First Line: Our lives went differently, %we lost touch Last Line: That he said, waiting is what we do, in this life, we wait KINDNESS: THE I CHING First Line: #name? Last Line: Heaven under the lake Subject(s): Kindness KING First Line: You take the card of your self out Last Line: Not heard but drowned in the deep sea LA CHALUPA, THE BOAT Poem Text First Line: I am twenty, Subject(s): Boats LABRADOR First Line: Crossing a fenced-off railroad track Last Line: He's barking at himself he won't let me near %I left him LATE Poem Text First Line: Late have I called & Last Line: In the sun I took my arms away Subject(s): Love – Erotic LEAVING Poem Text First Line: The dark black line Last Line: Wet canvases . . . Subject(s): Love - Loss Of LEAVING First Line: The dark black line Last Line: Waiting for you. %I wanted to Subject(s): Love - Loss Of LETTER Recitation by Author LETTER First Line: The hornet holds on the curtain, almost Last Line: These two red ribbons, my mouth, my other mouth, %the mouth of my soul LINDIS PASS, BORAGE First Line: Mary %when you swam up (in reality rose, Last Line: Not flat like here, all oil, all pleasantness and heat LINES IN DEJECTION First Line: Remember how we spread our hair on the sea Last Line: Holding us in their charred arms like water LISTENING Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: My whole life I was swimming listening Subject(s): Conduct Of Life LITTLE FAINTLY BLUE CLAY EGGS Last Line: Frozen little couple in hats, %frozen beaks LITTLE MAP First Line: The white pine Last Line: Image %or %word LITTLE SONG IN INDIAN SUMMER First Line: I am %is my name and your name, I am is Last Line: With welcome, with letting go LIVING TOGETHER First Line: Dawn, streaks of rose-brown, dry Last Line: But how does this one %go with the one before, the next LOCKED WARD: O.T. First Line: Poster paints, big brushes Last Line: Do you have in your life. %-sir --none LOCKED WARD: O.T. First Line: Poster paints, big brushes Last Line: #name? MANDELSTAM First Line: My mother's house %russia Last Line: To hold to your hand, useless MARE AND NEWBORN FOAL Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: When you die Subject(s): Horses; Birth; Death; Child Birth; Midwifery; Dead, The MARE AND NEWBORN FOAL Last Line: You draw the black straw out of me MARGARET, D. 1985 Poem Text First Line: At the back of the church Variant Title(s): Her Lost Book, Part 1: Margaret, D. 1985 Subject(s): Death; Dead, The MARGARET, D. 1985 First Line: At the back of the church Last Line: The maggots' miner's lamp Variant Title(s): Her Lost Book, Part 1: Margaret, D. 198 Subject(s): Death MESSENGER: 1. THE FATHER First Line: In the strange house %in the strange town Last Line: Her hair back from her eyes. His eyes %settle. On us Subject(s): Fathers And Daughters MESSENGER: 2. THE MESSENGER First Line: You are the messenger Last Line: I'll live. That's always been your story MESSENGER: 3. THE HILL First Line: The dogwood blossoms stand in still, horizontal planes Last Line: That was always your story MILES FROM HOME First Line: Grown, and miles from home, who do I shy Last Line: The watering-can's bland nozzle gleams like a hoof MISSOURI SPEAKS First Line: Jonathan, %I am the pearl Last Line: Fire and bones and flesh %all I give will sheave MORNING OF MY MOTHER'S DEATH First Line: A thumbnail-sized globe of blood Last Line: (whisper this:) %her silk spirit is leaving the crown of her head MOTHER AND CHILD, BODY AND SOUL Poem Text First Line: You've boarded me over like a window or a well. Subject(s): Mothers MOTHER BONES First Line: B. Is dragging his mother's bones Last Line: But you can't grow %grass from cuttings MOTHER, First Line: Any life you got Last Line: Who do you think you are MY MOTHER'S BODY, MY PROFESSOR, MY BOWER First Line: Who died? My mother's body Last Line: Dear silky fastness: ecstatic lungs' breath, %you can't protect yourself, %there is nothing to get MY OLD BODY Poem Text Recitation by Author Subject(s): Self NIGHT First Line: From this night on god let me eat Last Line: A little to one side of straight ahead NIGHT LAKE Poem Text First Line: He must have been one or two, I was five Last Line: "the solitude drunk Subject(s): Alcoholism & Alcoholics NIGHT LAKE First Line: He must have been one or two, I was five Last Line: In the kerosene lamplight at the caravan table Subject(s): Alcoholics And Alcoholism NIGHT OF MY MOTHER'S DEATH First Line: The night of my mother's death: %what I saw Last Line: Water-spider rowing over danger adn death: four white lines,%four white lines: nothing over nothing NIGHT OF WALLY'S SERVICE, WALLY SAID First Line: Most people will reflect back to you Last Line: Most people wanted me to come back %but not mark Subject(s): Aids (disease); Sickness NO ONE'S A HOUSE Last Line: Like ice on a stove and I will drink it NOON IN THE LINE OUTSIDE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: The pretty woman with a prisoner number, cdcp ****, written in ballpoint on the palm of her hand Subject(s): Prisons & Prisoners; Convicts NOON IN THE LINE OUTSIDE First Line: The pretty woman with a prisoner number. Cdcp*****, written in Last Line: I find his number, with her pen I write it on the palm of my hand NOVEMBER Last Line: - I have to leave %and I have to watch OCTOBER PREMONITION Last Line: Of light crack of the depression world OH YES THEY ARE BUT Last Line: Shut down and opened wrong OLD LOVE First Line: What keeps you going? Last Line: Fame! I just had to wait for someone to take me up the side of the mountain Subject(s): Love; New York City ON A PASSENGER FERRY Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: The deck is big, and crowded. In one corner Subject(s): Paley, Grace (1922-2007) ON THE MENTAL FLOOR Last Line: Chewing up the mirror the mother %was not someone else ONCE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Once there was a woodcutter Subject(s): Love - Loss Of; Love - Beginnings ONCE First Line: Once there was a woodcutter Last Line: You won't go unsampled! ONE FOOT IN THE DARK Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: People forget Subject(s): Memory ONE YOU WANTED TO BE IS THE ONE YOU ARE First Line: She saying, you don't have to do anything Last Line: Like a deer's silence. Tolstoy %wrote about this: all misunderstanding ORPHANAGE LANDING First Line: We her countrypeople are deep asleep Last Line: This is not happening ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE Poem Text First Line: You. You running across the field Last Line: Tossing a shoe up, a handful of hair Subject(s): Eurydice (nymph); Mythology - Classical; Orpheus ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE First Line: You. You running across the field Last Line: The river %tossing a shoe up, a handful of hair Subject(s): Eurydice (nymph); Mythology - Classical; Orpheus OUTSIDE THE FRAME First Line: It is enough, now, anywhere Last Line: Growing into their lives, in their sleep PEN First Line: The sandy road, the bright green two-inch lizard Last Line: A bow lying across the strings %not moving held Subject(s): Writing And Writers PHOTOGRAPH OF DELMORE SCHWARTZ Poem Text First Line: A young king Subject(s): Schwartz, Delmore (1913-1966); Grief; Sorrow; Sadness PHOTOGRAPH OF DELMORE SCHWARTZ First Line: A young king, %oak, painted and glided, writing Last Line: At that great head lying flat out, gray, %waiting for the slow police PILGRIMS First Line: Standing there they began to grow skins Last Line: Why are we in this life POEM FOR REGINALD SHEPHERD Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Dear reginald, / it is morning. Subject(s): Shepherd, Reginald (1963-2008) POET First Line: The gods are quiet Last Line: On the drums of your empty upside-down shoes POETRY Poem Text First Line: You, poem Last Line: World electric with you Subject(s): Poetry & Poets POETRY First Line: You, poem Last Line: World electric with you Subject(s): Poetry And Poets POWER TABLE First Line: You, lying across the wide bed, vertical, %I, horizontal Last Line: But I want world-light %and this-world company PRIMITIVE PAINTING: LIBERATION DAY First Line: Everyone is wearing work clothes, old clothes, boots; and Last Line: Painter's fear is white in his paint PUSH OR FLY First Line: The push or fly of the snow Last Line: As you have me, spring weather RADIO: POETRY READING, NPR First Line: I heard your voice on the radio Last Line: #name? Variant Title(s): Radi RAIN First Line: Snakes of water and light in the window Last Line: You the ground of my underground. READING THE MANDELSTAMS Poem Text First Line: Snow falling the sixth night Subject(s): Mandelstam, Osip (1892-1941) READING THE MANDELSTAMS First Line: Snow falling the sixth night Last Line: Lines of ice %in the night window notes REBECCA, 14 First Line: Squat, slant-eyed, speaking in phrase-book phrases, the Last Line: The water-lit, dotted lines of home start coloring in RED CLOTH Poem Text First Line: Red cloth / I lie on the ground RED FOR BLOOD First Line: My sister comes around the corner of the house Last Line: Eternity, %you, me, up on a rope like geese REDEMPTION First Line: Nan, the poet in rome, new york, yesterday Last Line: And all around us %a line like an eggshell of light RING First Line: The ring was %three times too small for a finger Last Line: Can you do it: love %something that was there that is being taken away Variant Title(s): Rome Drea RIVER AT WOLF First Line: Coming east we left the animals Last Line: The animals. The snake's %green skin, lit from inside. Our second life Subject(s): Alcoholics And Alcoholism RODNEY DYING: 3 Poem Text First Line: I vacuumed your bedroom Last Line: Everything is sad but what's real Variant Title(s): Rodney Dying (3) Subject(s): Cleanliness; Death; Dead, The RODNEY DYING: 3 First Line: I vacuumed your bedroom Last Line: Took off your heavy shoes and socks and swam Variant Title(s): Rodney Dying (3 Subject(s): Cleanliness; Death RUNNING FOR A TRAIN Last Line: The moon-faced boy watching by the side of the tracks Variant Title(s): Running For A Trai SANCTUARY Poem Text Subject(s): Fear; Death; Solitude; Dead, The; Loneliness SASHA AND THE POET First Line: Sasha: I dreamed you and he Last Line: By shakespeare.' and walked away SCARAB ROLLING A BALL OF DUNG Last Line: Across the sky %atlantic SEA OF SERENITY First Line: The sea of serenity: %my mother's body: ashes Last Line: Who died? %who died? SECOND DREAM First Line: We all heard the alarm. The planes were out Last Line: Liquid as butterflies, with nothing to do SECOND MOTHER First Line: Black hair Last Line: You held out safety like a sugar cube, %but how could I get to suck on it? In this world ... SECOND MOTHER First Line: Black hair, %and the white hill Last Line: You held out safety like a sugar cube, %but how could I get to suck on it? In this world... SECRET ROOM, DANGER HOUSE Last Line: This is trouble we can see the ending of SEEING YOU First Line: I was born under the mudbank %and you gave me your boat Last Line: Your tree. Its heavy green sway. The bright male city. %oh that was the garden of abundance, seeing SEP-63 First Line: We've been at home four years, in a kind of peace Last Line: White world going on, white hand in hand, %world without end SEPARATION Poem Text First Line: Ok my child Subject(s): Absence; Separation; Isolation SEPARATION First Line: Ok my child, said the quiet priest Last Line: Poure violence and mend and mend SEX First Line: All the years waiting, the whole, barren, young Last Line: And the thing itself not the thing itself, %but a metaphor SHE WROTE A BOOK. LOST TO US Last Line: But my money was no good there.' SHEEP First Line: With the winter and mud and shit roped into your wool Last Line: Cold you, unbearable clamor and rust SILENCES: A DREAM OF GOVERNMENTS First Line: From your eyes I thought %we could almost move Last Line: Listening for a human voice - %your name, my name SINGLE MOTHER, 1966 First Line: No money Last Line: -and god making %words %words Subject(s): Mothers SKATE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Now a year after your death, fish-mother, skate Subject(s): Fish & Fishing; Anglers SKATE First Line: Now a year after your death, fish-mother, skate Last Line: The spelling of the world %kneels down before the skate SLEEP DROPS ITS NETS First Line: Sleep drops its nets for monsters old s the flood Last Line: And then day sweeps the castle dry SNOW Last Line: Two birches, blown together SNOW FALLING Last Line: You %a breath on a coal SNOW LANDSCAPE, IN A GLASS GLOBE First Line: A thumb's-length landscape: snow, on a hill Last Line: And lived on the living earth' SO WILD Last Line: Outstretching in the thin blue planet water SOMETHING BAD IS HAPPENING Last Line: Generation to generation, %bone to bone SOUL HAS NO 'OTHER AFTERNOON' Last Line: Two still dark figures kneeling in gemini SPRING AND ITS FLOWERS First Line: Then, tell me your fantasies, you said Last Line: We were so close %to the world's mouth, the drunk bear's ashy thing STILL LIFE, FOR MATISSE First Line: Light %old leaf spine Last Line: Light wave after wave %swim cockatoo %green, blue STILL LIFE: IN THE EPIDEMIC Poem Text First Line: Light / old leaf spine Last Line: Green, blue Subject(s): Aids (disease); Sickness; Illness STILL LIFE: IN THE EPIDEMIC First Line: Light %old leaf spine Last Line: Chew me, gingerly, like chewing ice, %eat me. My america. Eat me Subject(s): Aids (disease); Sickness STINGS First Line: Bare-handed, I hand the combs Last Line: The mausoleum, the wax house Subject(s): Honey; Women SUMMER WAS NOT LONG ENOUGH First Line: Stanley, my ex, the painter, %stepped out of his van Last Line: And the fortresses around our eyes, to touch our first fingers, %you and I, like god, across everyth Subject(s): Alcoholics And Alcoholism SUNSET AT WELLFLEET First Line: A spit of sky, awash with venetian gold Last Line: Where it curls on emptiness: there I sing SUSAN'S PHOTOGRAPH Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: I am the razorthat has been put away, also Subject(s): Suicide SUSAN'S PHOTOGRAPH First Line: I am the razor that has been put away, also Last Line: Anywhere, with %everyone you love there to talk to TEACHER AND THE STUDENT First Line: The dead teacher said %I wish someone had ever taught me Last Line: Flowed over the street, and the door TELL ME, WHAT IS THE SOUL Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: There is a prison room, Subject(s): Soul; Mandelstam, Osip (1892-1941) TELL ME, WHAT IS THE SOUL First Line: There is a prison room Last Line: Bread and the canned stuff, %which he took THAT I HAD TREATED YOU BADLY Last Line: On the flat bowl of the window, the train THE BASKET HOUSE Poem Text Recitation by Author Subject(s): Relationships THE BLUE DORY, THE SOUL Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: -- I left the blue dory THE BRANCHES Poem Text First Line: The branches looked first like tepees Subject(s): Trees THE CARRIERS Poem Text First Line: The father was a carrier Last Line: Little brothers, I miss you. so. heavy-laden Subject(s): Men; Conduct Of Life; Absence; Separation; Isolation THE CHURCH Poem Text First Line: Thank you for the food,' we said Last Line: Candle of 'find it.' my life Subject(s): Churches; Food & Eating; Cathedrals THE COIN Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: While you were alive Subject(s): Death; Dead, The THE DRINKER Poem Text First Line: You -- breathless Last Line: Will take you out Subject(s): Drinks & Drinking; Wine THE GROWING CHRIST OF TZINTZUNTZAN Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Come in / at the narrow door, and then THE IMAGINATION SCHOOL Poem Text First Line: Imagine / getting each other's jokes Last Line: Unremarkable friendship… Subject(s): Friendship; Death; Dead, The THE JUST-BORN RABBITS Poem Text First Line: The just-born rabbits in the garden Last Line: Thy leave to sleep Subject(s): Rabbits; Hares THE KNIFE Poem Text First Line: In my sleep: Subject(s): Sleep; Relationships THE LOCKED WARD: O.T. Poem Text First Line: Poster paints, big brushes Last Line: Sir … none Subject(s): Hospitals; Insanity; Mothers THE MESSENGER: 1. THE FATHER Poem Text First Line: In the strange house / in the strange town Last Line: His eyes / settle on us Subject(s): Fathers & Daughters THE NIGHT OF WALLY'S SERVICE, WALLY SAID Poem Text First Line: Most people will reflect back to you Last Line: Most people wanted me to come back, / but not mark Subject(s): Aids (disease); Sickness; Illness THE ORPHANAGE LANDING Poem Text First Line: We her countrypeople are deep asleep Subject(s): Orphans; Foundlings THE PEN Poem Text First Line: The sandy road, the bright green two-inch lizard Last Line: Not moving / held Subject(s): Writing & Writers THE POWER TABLE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: You, lying across the wide bed, vertical, Subject(s): Relationships THE RING Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: The ring was Variant Title(s): Rome Dream Subject(s): Rings THE RIVER AT WOLF Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Coming east we left the animals Last Line: Green skin, lit from inside. Our second life Subject(s): Alcoholism & Alcoholics THE ROSE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: A labyrinth, / as if at its center, Subject(s): Body, Human; God THE SECOND DREAM Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: We all heard the alarm. The planes were out Subject(s): Air Raids THE SUMMER HOUSE Poem Text First Line: She took his hand Subject(s): Human Behavior; Books; Solitude; Love; Conduct Of Life; Human Nature; Reading; Loneliness THE SUMMER WAS NOT LONG ENOUGH Poem Text First Line: Stanley, my ex, the painter, / stepped out of his van Last Line: You and I, like god, across everything Subject(s): Alcoholism & Alcoholics THE UNDER VOICE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: I saw streaming up out of the sidewalk the homeless women and men Subject(s): Homeless THE VERY BAD HORSE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: My first own home THE WELSH POET Poem Text Recitation by Author Subject(s): Mothers; Death; Poetry & Poets; Dead, The THE WINDOWS Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Funeral dream Subject(s): Dreams; Nightmares THE WOMEN'S PRISON Poem Text First Line: The women in the prison Subject(s): Women; Prisons & Prisoners; Convicts THEY LEAD ME Last Line: Gone where %nothing joins THIS MINNUTE Poem Text First Line: The videotape runs Last Line: Watching. and here it starts over Subject(s): Motion Pictures; Movies; Cinema TO A FRIEND Poem Text First Line: I cannot give you much or ask you much Last Line: My hands, my eyes, my tongue are like bark to the touch Subject(s): Love TO A FRIEND First Line: I cannot give you much or ask you much Last Line: My hands, my eyes, my tongue are like bark to the touch Subject(s): Love TO A YOUNG POET First Line: This january night at ten below I wish you Last Line: What does it taste like? %true desire. Eye- %shadow, cinnamon TO IRELAND First Line: By the granary river Last Line: With a white and english eye TO MY SOUL (AFTER HADRIAN AND RONSARD) First Line: Scattered milkweed, valentine Last Line: Laugh, my little nuncio TO PLATH, TO SEXTON First Line: So what use was poetry %to a white empty house? Last Line: It was the use to you. %it was the flower TO RAPHAEL, ANGEL OF HAPPY MEETING First Line: The pear tree buds shine like salt Last Line: Of our wishes, still too light for us to hold TO SALTER'S POINT First Line: Here in framingham, black, unlikely Last Line: And come to nothing but this mouthful of earth, %all endings over TO THE BARDO Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: I dreamed I finally got through to c on the phone Subject(s): Illness TO THE BARDO First Line: I dreamed I finally got through to c on the phone Last Line: Old chinese poet: %fire: %to see the way TO THE BLACK MADONNA OF CHARTRES Poem Text First Line: Friend or no friend Subject(s): Forgiveness; Clemency TO THE HALF-WAY HOUSE Last Line: Do you have in your life. %- sir none TO THE MEMORY OF DAVID KALSTONE Poem Text First Line: Here's the letter I wrote Last Line: That's my work in life Subject(s): Aids (disease); Sickness; Illness TO THE MEMORY OF DAVID KALSTONE First Line: Here's the letter I wrote Last Line: And the ghost letter, underneath -- %that's my work in life Subject(s): Aids (disease); Sickness TONIGHT I CAN WRITE First Line: Tonight I can write the lightest lines Last Line: And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture' TOUCH WITH YOUR FINGER Last Line: Your face caved in, your covered-over %silence TOWER ROOF First Line: No music Last Line: This far and no farther TRIM MY HOOVES Poem Text Recitation by Author TRUST ME Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Who did I write last night? Leaning Last Line: God fills us as a woman fills a pitcher Subject(s): Alcoholism & Alcoholics TRUST ME First Line: Who did I write last night? Leaning Last Line: God fills us as a woman fills a pitcher Subject(s): Alcoholics And Alcoholism TRUTH Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Sharing bread / is sharing life Last Line: Wet canvases . . . Subject(s): Truth TRUTH First Line: Sharing bread %is sharing life Last Line: A turned-over boat, %the walls %wet canvases Subject(s): Truth TURN First Line: This is the new apartment new Last Line: Nothing like anything I know TURN (2): AFTER YEARS First Line: January. At the window Last Line: Say: other say, thou TWO POEMS FOR MATTHEW SHEPARD First Line: But what about the blue dory-the soul Last Line: Into the sky thief's arms UNDER Last Line: On the other side of the sky's line no lines UNDER VOICE First Line: I saw streaming up out of the sidewalk the homeless women and men Last Line: Everyone else may leave you, I will never leave you, fugitive VERY BAD HORSE First Line: My first own home %my big green 'bed-sit' %in london, in 1956 Last Line: Four stories up and dropped me %-still I wouldn't budge VISIT First Line: This warm house, masculine; our old Last Line: Can't you see my death, can't you see anything?' VISITING DAY AT SCHOOL First Line: The tall, good, raw-boned, wrong Last Line: Through all the king's gold, %back, %to you WAITING First Line: Ask, and let your words diminish your asking Last Line: Numbering our hairs, our bright blue feathers WE CUT THE NEW DAY Last Line: I heard it fall, %and fall, %I was living inside a rain stick WE DIDN'T KNOW EACH OTHER Last Line: Underground rivers, caves WE DON'T EVEN KNOW WE'RE BORN First Line: Friend I need your hand every morning Last Line: You won't be killed today. %we don't even know we're born WE GO THROUGH OUR MOTHER'S THINGS First Line: When we started that day %to paint snow for earth Last Line: Then we knew it was time to light the last candle. %this ring is yours. %this lamp WEED GREEN Last Line: How hungrily life %like an o %goes after life WELSH POET Last Line: The mother has a gold body now WHAT GOD SAID Poem Text First Line: After she died / her son destroyed her paintings Variant Title(s): Her Lost Book, Part 1: What God Said Subject(s): Death; Dead, The WHAT GOD SAID First Line: After she died %her son destroyed her paintings Last Line: Like a needle to a magnet Variant Title(s): Her Lost Book, Part 1: What God Sai Subject(s): Death WILLI, HOME; IN MEMORY Poem Text First Line: Last night, just before sleep, this: a bright Last Line: Brave. Tall. Home. Deep. Blue Subject(s): Aids (disease); Sickness; Illness WILLI, HOME; IN MEMORY First Line: Last night, just before sleep, this: a bright Last Line: Brave. Tall. Home. Deep. Blue Subject(s): Aids (disease); Sickness WISDOM GRAVY First Line: Goosedown on the warm curve of a pail Last Line: I've carried it home to you under my white hat WISH-MOTHER First Line: I've never felt Last Line: All the say home to new york my heart hurt. %(the second time you died this year.) WISH-MOTHER First Line: I've never felt %so close to you, wish-mother. Wings, oh Last Line: All the way home to new york my heart hurt. %(the second time you died this year.) WOMEN'S PRISON First Line: The women in the prison Last Line: The tooth pit the grave WORLD LIGHT First Line: Do well in the world Last Line: We too - we were %the neverhere X Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: The boatpond, broken off, looks back at the sky Subject(s): Aids (disease) X: FOR PATRICK HENISSE, DEAD OF AIDS, IN MEMORY (1) Poem Text First Line: The boatpond, broken off, looks back at the sky Subject(s): Aids (disease); Sickness; Illness X: FOR PATRICK HENISSE, DEAD OF AIDS, IN MEMORY (1) First Line: The boatpond, broken off, looks back at the sky Last Line: On your bedspread at the edge of the ocean Subject(s): Aids (disease); Sickness X: FOR PATRICK HENISSE, DEAD OF AIDS, IN MEMORY (2) First Line: The earthblue eye of the boatpond smiled at the sky Subject(s): Aids (disease); Sickness; Illness X: FOR PATRICK HENISSE, DEAD OF AIDS, IN MEMORY (2) First Line: The earthblue eye of the boatpond smiled at the sky Last Line: On your bedspread at the edge of the ocean Subject(s): Aids (disease); Sickness YEAR OF THE SNAKE First Line: I had to ask you questions: if I didn't, well Last Line: Shining lifesnake drinking at my lips milky with life YIELD EVERYTHING, FORCE NOTHING First Line: Years circling the same circle: %the call to be first Last Line: And here is your garden: %cinnamon. Eyeshadow. Dove YOU ASK Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: \ Subject(s): Relationships YOU WALK ACROSS YOUR SELF Last Line: Crossing a line sun kind to you sun you YOUR MOUTH 'APPEARED TO ME' Poem Text First Line: Your mouth 'appeared to me' Last Line: Transparences of every hand and mouth Subject(s): Body, Human YOUR MOUTH 'APPEARED TO ME' First Line: Your mouth 'appeared to me' Last Line: Transparencements of every hand and mouth Subject(s): Mouths YOUR NUMBER IS LIFTING OFF MY HAND Poem Text Recitation by Author Subject(s): Relationships YOUR NUMBER IS LIFTING OFF MY HAND Last Line: Down your cheek %ancient injury |
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