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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: VAN DUYN, MONA Matches Found: 133 Van Duyn, Mona Poet's Biography 133 poems available by this author A BOUQUET OF ZINNIAS Poem Text First Line: One could not live without delicacy, but when Last Line: Bruisable petals curve sweetly over their centers Subject(s): Flowers; Gardens & Gardening A CHRISTMAS CARD, AFTER THE ASSASSINATIONS Poem Text First Line: What is to be born already fidgets in the stem Last Line: Who forms himself from a wish, our best or last Subject(s): Christmas; Nativity, The A GARLAND FOR CHRISTOPHER SMART Poem Text First Line: For cosmos, which has too much to live up to Subject(s): Flowers; God; Smart, Christopher (1722-1771) A KIND OF MUSIC Poem Text First Line: Irrelevance charactizes the behavior of our puppy Subject(s): Dogs; Human Behavior; Conduct Of Life; Human Nature A SERIOUS CASE Poem Text First Line: If we happen to choke ujp on history, none too soon Subject(s): Psychiatric Hospitals; Mad Houses; Insane Asylums A SMALL EXCURSION Poem Text First Line: Take a trip with me Subject(s): Travel; Journeys; Trips A TIME OF BEES Poem Text First Line: All day my husband pounds on the upstairs porch Subject(s): Bees; Marriage; Beekeeping; Weddings; Husbands; Wives ACCUSATION First Line: I accuse the earth of uncaring Last Line: One broken wing can be mended, %for no lie can conceal the truth &that our kind was built to be cari ADDENDUM FOR A FUTURE VISIT TO THE HECHT STUDY: 1 First Line: Someone once described the japanese garden Last Line: Its grasp on our hearts being as miniature %as the memory of one faultless, serene day Variant Title(s): Garde ADDENDUM FOR A FUTURE VISIT TO THE HECHT STUDY: 2 First Line: But there is another kind of garden, another Last Line: Between marbles of calm athena and hurrying eros %where the beautiful folly of having lived can be s ADVICE TO GOD Poem Text First Line: Before you leave her, the woman who though you lavish Subject(s): God; Farewell; Parting AT THE NEW ORLEANS ZOO First Line: A four-legged bouquet of black peonies on tan hide Last Line: What your mild genes, at the top of the flowery neck, told you you %saw BALLOON GLOBE First Line: Knowing its nature, its soap-bubble fragility Last Line: No need to write, 'dear--- %wish you were here.' %here we always are BIRTHDAY CARD FOR A PSYCHIATRIST Poem Text First Line: Your friends come fondly to your living room Last Line: To join us in this neurotic enterprise Subject(s): Christmas Cards; Psychiatry BIRTHDAY CARD FOR A PSYCHIATRIST First Line: Your friends come fondly to your living room Last Line: To join us in this neurotic enterprise Subject(s): Birthdays BIRTHSTONES First Line: When I was young and we were poor Last Line: Dazzled I walk the world my mother gave me, %whose stony streets are paved with emerald BLOCK First Line: Childless, we bought the big brick house on the block Last Line: Hot dogs or something like that, I said. Too late, %time inits merciless blindness, gave us children BOUQUET OF ZINNIAS First Line: One could not live without delicacy, but when Last Line: Welcome dutch irises whose transcendent blue, %bruisable petals curve sweetly over their center Subject(s): Flowers; Gardens And Gardening BURNING OF YELLOWSTONE First Line: Squaring their papers - tap, tap - the news team finds Last Line: Of its debt to the artistry of their beholding, %of their culpability for its final bloom CARING FOR SURFACES First Line: Birds build but not I build, no, but wipe, time's wife Last Line: Men carve, dig, break, plunge as I smooth, shine, spread CERTAIN AGE (MINIMALIST SONNET) First Line: Say 'may I?' Last Line: To say %I may CHAGALL'S LES PLUMES EN FLEUR First Line: At first glimpse an unearthly efflorescence Last Line: Then pretez-moi, I pray, pour ecrire un mot, %la plume, birds-in-blossom, mes pierrots! CHOICE (MINIMALIST SONNET) First Line: Blind love, %awake, %will shove Last Line: Untrue %to you CHRISTMAS CARD, AFTER THE ASSASSINATIONS First Line: What is to be born already fidgets in the stem Last Line: Who forms himself from a wish, our best or last Subject(s): Christmas CLOSURES Poem Text First Line: Line fourteen / closes COMMENCEMENT First Line: In the mute beginning %the world was with god Last Line: For earth's radiant star %with their standing ovation CONDEMNED SITE First Line: Peter, tom, david, jim and howard are gone Last Line: A house of shades is crumpled by life, the great stock exchanger COTTON WAGONS First Line: Down highways walled with green, both leafed and pine Last Line: For mixing five-spice powder and soya in a paste. %I rub the paste on the cold skin with my fingers DEATH BY AESTHETICS Poem Text First Line: Here is the doctor, an abstracted lover Subject(s): Physicians; Examinations; Women Patients; Doctors DOUBLE SONNET FOR MINIMALISTS First Line: The spiral shell EARTH TREMORS FELT IN MISSOURI Poem Text First Line: The quake last night was nothing personal Last Line: Whose bright ordeal leaves cool men woebegone Subject(s): Earthquakes; Missouri EARTH TREMORS FELT IN MISSOURI First Line: The quake last night was nothing personal Last Line: Whose bright ordeal leaves cool men woebegone Subject(s): Love ENDINGS: 2 Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Setting the v.C.R. When we go to bed Subject(s): Motion Pictures; Movies; Cinema EROS TO HOWARD NEMEROV Poem Text First Line: It's funny, howard, I never thought I'd be Subject(s): Poetry & Poets; Nemerov, Howard (1920-1991) EXTRA TIME Poem Text First Line: Today the morning paper's nearly buried Subject(s): Newspapers; Journalism; Journalists EXTRA TIME First Line: Today the morning paper's nearly buried Last Line: In black and white, yet feel time's heavy steps %as extra, the heart's path to a buried light? FALLEN ANGEL First Line: Not from rebellion does the angel fall Last Line: And the angel smiles and sinks, safe for us all, %in a grave, sweet, sticky foam of memory FALLING IN LOVE AT SIXTY-FIVE Poem Text First Line: It is like the first and last time I tried a coleman Last Line: To answer what was being insisted on Subject(s): Books; Insects; Maine (state); Night; Old Age; Love – Nature Of; Reading; Bugs; Bedtime FALLING IN LOVE AT SIXTY-FIVE First Line: It is like the first and last time I tried a coleman Last Line: In answer to what was being insisted on Subject(s): Books; Insects; Maine (state); Night FERRIS WHEEL First Line: It revolves, the great segmented seedpod FIRST TRIP THROUGH THE AUTOMATIC CARWASH First Line: Clamped to another will, the self in its glass Last Line: A hoot from behind makes her shift to self-control, %and the muddle of everywhere falls on her clear FOOTNOTES TO 'THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BETRAND RUSSELL': (2) First Line: This seems, in a world where love must take its chances Last Line: The bed whereon seven pairs of canine eyes %would gaze at each other with a wild surmise FOR DAVID KALSTONE First Line: Chronos gathered the gods one day on their mountain Last Line: And a loving heart.' but that god could not look. %the eyes of eros were blind with his own tears FOR MAY SWENSON Poem Text First Line: The world beside this one, imagination's egg Subject(s): Poetry & Poets FOR MAY SWENSON First Line: The sorld beside this one, imagination's egg Last Line: Moved quietly to that shining, intimate %open place in the shell and entered it FROM THE MANTEL First Line: Out of mexico Last Line: The grace one can show %at each dark surprise, %the helpless sorrow %of being wise GARDENER TO HIS GOD First Line: I pray that the great world's flowering stay as it is Last Line: Down, down into the great world's flowering GLAD HEART AT THE SUPERMARKET Poem Text First Line: Still more regimented than the daily run Subject(s): Supermarkets; Food & Eating GLAD HEART AT THE SUPERMARKET First Line: Still more regimented than the daily runs Last Line: In mind today, I picked out produce I needed. %something called jicama rolled and fell at my feet HAVE YOU SEEN ME? First Line: My face in your mail Last Line: Someone wants me %to be where I'm not HEADLINES First Line: The great black bellow tells us together HOMEWORK Poem Text First Line: Lest the fair cheeks begin their shrivelling Last Line: I cupboarded these pickled peaches in time's despite Subject(s): Literary Form; Peaches; Time HOMEWORK First Line: Lest the fair cheeks begin their shrivelling Last Line: I cupboard these pickled peaches in time's despite Subject(s): Literary Form IN BED WITH A BOOK Poem Text First Line: In police procedurals they are dying all over town, Subject(s): Books; Crime & Criminals; Reading IN BED WITH A BOOK First Line: In police procedurals they are dying all over town Last Line: But all that's toward the end of the book. Meantime, tonight, %without a clue I enter sleep's little IN THE COLD KINGDOM Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Poised upside down on its duncecap Subject(s): Ice Cream INSIDERS Poem Text First Line: Within / the stout INSIGHT LADY OF ST. LOUIS ON ZOOS First Line: The other day I had an insight Last Line: I knew what book they would put in my zoo pen. %it would be that book, building bicycles INTO MEXICO First Line: Past the angular maguey fields, a ride on the optic nerve Last Line: Where the map bulges into belief, relief, presents sea, %mountains, macadam, presents a strange and JOURNAL JOTTINGS First Line: Along each one-hour segment of the unimaginable Last Line: In a concert hall I never hear %the first note of a symphony %without tears coming to my eyes LAST WORDS OF PIG NO. 6707 First Line: The width of one of my bristles lies between LATE LOVING Poem Text First Line: If in my mind I marry you every year Last Line: That the house is filled again with the odor of ointment Subject(s): Love; Old Age LATE LOVING First Line: If in my mind I marry you every year Last Line: That the house is filled again with the odor of ointment Subject(s): Love LEDA Poem Text First Line: Not even for a moment. He knew, for one thing, what he was Last Line: And melted away in the storm of everyday life Subject(s): Leda; Mythology - Classical LEDA First Line: Not even for a moment. He knew, for one thing, what he was Last Line: She married a smaller man with a beaky nose, %and melted away in the storm of everyday life Subject(s): Leda; Mythology - Classical LEDA RECONSIDERED Poem Text First Line: She had a little time to think Last Line: Almost with tenderness Subject(s): Birds; Leda; Mythology - Classical; Swans LEDA RECONSIDERED First Line: She had a little time to think Last Line: Her hand moved into the dense plumes %on his breast to touch%the utter stranger Subject(s): Birds; Leda; Mythology - Classical; Swans LETTERS FROM A FATHER Poem Text First Line: Ulcerated tooth keeps me awake, there is Last Line: So the world woos its children back for an evening kiss Subject(s): Fathers; Letters LETTERS FROM A FATHER First Line: Ulcerated tooth keeps me awake, there is Last Line: So the world woos its children back for an evening kiss Subject(s): Fathers LINES WRITTEN IN A GUEST BOOK First Line: Both god and the gods in righteous anger hurled Last Line: It's a classic dish that has come to stay, %so for life's pot-luck, here's a heart brulee LIVES OF THE POETS Poem Text First Line: I was fortunate enough to have Subject(s): Poetry & Poetgry; Teaching & Teachers; Educators; Professors LONG STRETCH MINIMALIST SONNET Poem Text First Line: You were out of town Subject(s): Literary Prizes LONG STRETCH MINIMALIST SONNET First Line: You were out of town Last Line: But here, loving each other, %it's easy to know %who the real winners are MADRID, MAY 1977 First Line: Tooting down the gran via Subject(s): Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) MADRID, MAY 1977 First Line: Tooting down the gran via Last Line: And a share of responsibility for the world Subject(s): Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) MEMOIR First Line: As the conch tells the human ear MINIMALIST SONNETS First Line: Line fourteen %closes %to serene Last Line: So happy %to bicker %and win, %to be %in that thicker %skin MIRANDA GROWS UP (MINIMALIST SONNET) First Line: Prospero %foreknew %what snow Last Line: Brave %new world MISERS First Line: On the streets of new york I've seen them rummaging, the grizzled Last Line: He bends down and takes it, thinking, 'I saw it, it is mine.' %only the rich-the gifted-know how to MOCKINGBIRD MONTH Poem Text First Line: A pupa of pain, I sat and lay one july Last Line: I resolved to husband my own apprentice words Subject(s): Mockingbirds MOCKINGBIRD MONTH First Line: A pupa of pain, I sat and lay one july Last Line: Tribute to his voice. Leaving my pencils at home, %I resolved to husband my own apprentice words Subject(s): Birds MR. AND MRS. JACK SPRAT IN THE KITCHEN Poem Text First Line: About half a box Subject(s): Cooking & Cooks; Marriage; Women's Rights; Cookery; Weddings; Husbands; Wives; Feminism MR. AND MRS. JACK SPRAT IN THE KITCHEN First Line: About half a box' Last Line: And cracked, scraped, old %still the bowl glows gold NEAR CHANGES Poem Text First Line: Bob holt, a 20-year-old seattle man NEAR CHANGES First Line: Bob holt, a 20-year-old seattle man Last Line: Bob holt was coasting in for a landing, %without flapping his wings ON A MAJOLICA SUNFLOWER PLATE AMERICAN, EARLY 1880'S First Line: Near to the sun, the sunflower faces him Last Line: Till, near to the sun, a new sunflower faces him, %her face the food of song, death's antonym ON RECEIVING A POSTCARD FROM JAPAN First Line: If you can breakfast together,' the gods said Last Line: And in tender aqueous light of early morning %eat a late breakfast of sea-weed where I drowned ONE STRATEGY FOR LOVING THE WORLD First Line: To accept this vale Last Line: Some loving apostle %whose gospel never reached %that heart's printing press OPEN LETTER FROM A CONSTANT READER Poem Text First Line: To all who carve their love on a picnic table Subject(s): Loneliness; Consolation; Letters OPEN LETTER, PERSONAL Poem Text First Line: My friends: if thirty people gather in a room Subject(s): Letters; Friendship; Fidelity; Faithfulness; Constancy OUR BLOCK First Line: Three new babies are due all at once on the block,' Last Line: Couples, frail graybeards, gays - 'hello? Good-bye?' %reaching out of the newborn blue of the sky PASSING THOUGHT Poem Text First Line: It must be peaceful to come to the end Subject(s): Poetry & Poets PASSING THOUGHT First Line: It must be peaceful to come to the end Last Line: Is wiped quickly, guiltlessly away, %being nothing more meaningful than that PHOTOGRAPHS Poem Text First Line: Take what you want, we'll throw the rest away Subject(s): Photography & Photographers; Memory; Parents; Parenthood PIGEON EGGS First Line: Some days, these days, the world's too hot to handle Last Line: Then howie came home and hugged me! Those were the days! S wings POETS IN LATE WINTER Poem Text First Line: The poets of missouri stare at astonishing winter Last Line: And ends that tiny, unearthly song Subject(s): Nature; Birds; Winter POETS IN LATE WINTER First Line: The poets of missouri stare at astonishing winter Last Line: He tries to hum again, but chokes up %and ends that tiny, unearthly song Subject(s): Nature POETS' PAINT POTS: EXTENDED MINIMALIST SONNET First Line: My poems are not dick wilbur!' Last Line: His perfect carnal weight, %alive in transparent form RECOVERY First Line: In mexico the little mixed herds come home in the evening SINCE YOU ASKED ME .... Poem Text First Line: For the sweet sake of inscapes Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary SONNET FOR MINIMALISTS Poem Text First Line: From a new peony Last Line: But it could be worse Subject(s): Literary Form SONNET FOR MINIMALISTS First Line: From a new peony Last Line: The world's perverse, %but it could be worse Subject(s): Literary Form STREAM First Line: Four days with you, my father three months dead Last Line: Here at my feet I see, after sixty years, %the welling water-to which I add these tears TALKER First Line: One person present steps on his pedal of speech Last Line: I think he only loves himself out loud TEARS First Line: All spring the grim machines ground out the verdict Last Line: Don't cry in an open wound,' news headlines blazoned. %'ai ds-related virus found in tears!' Subject(s): Aids (disease); Sickness THE BALLAD OF BLOSSOM Poem Text First Line: The lake is known as west branch pond Subject(s): Owls; Cows; Nature; Dogs THE BEGINNING Poem Text First Line: The end / of passion Subject(s): Friendship THE BURNING OF YELLOWSTONE Poem Text First Line: Squaring their papers - tap, tap - the news team Subject(s): Yellowstone National Park THE CASE OF THE Poem Text First Line: Drinking the seconal dissolved in bourbon Subject(s): Illness THE CHALLENGER Poem Text First Line: Old liar, death, do you think I don't see you? Subject(s): Death; Dead, The THE CREATION Poem Text First Line: Now that I know you are gone Subject(s): Mourning; Death; Bereavement; Dead, The THE GARDENER TO HSI GOD Poem Text First Line: I pray that the great world's flowering stay as it is Subject(s): Gardens & Gardenng; God; Prayer THE GENTLE SNORER Poem Text First Line: When summer came, we locked up our lives and fled Subject(s): Vacation; Snoring THE GOOD MAN Poem Text First Line: It is almost unbearably harmonious Subject(s): Nature; Animals THE MISER Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: I was out last night Subject(s): Self; Reality; Misers; Obsessions THE VISION TEST Poem Text First Line: My driver's license is lapsing and so I appear Last Line: For normal people who know where they want to go Subject(s): Literary Form; Examinations; Vision; Driving & Drivers THE WISH TO BE BELIEVED Poem Text First Line: It is never enough to know what you want Subject(s): Faith; Belief; Creed THREE VALENTINES TO THE WIDE WORLD Poem Text First Line: The child disturbs our view. Tow-head bent, she Last Line: Love and art, which are compassionate Subject(s): Valentine's Day THREE VALENTINES TO THE WIDE WORLD: 3 First Line: When, in the middle of my life, the earth stalks me Last Line: Love and art, which are compassionate Subject(s): Middle Age; Women TO A FRIEND WHO THREW AWAY HAIR DYES Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Surely history's seen a happy ruler! Subject(s): Time TO A FRIEND WHO THREW AWAY HAIR DYES First Line: Surely history's seen a happy ruler! Last Line: At their first sight on the balcony of a beautiful, %brilliant head wearing its first cold crown TOWARD A DEFINITION OF MARRIAGE Poem Text First Line: It is to make a fill, not find a land Subject(s): Love - Marital; Marriage; Wedded Love; Marriage - Love; Weddings; Husbands; Wives TOWARD A DEFINITION OF MARRIAGE First Line: It is to make a fill, not find a land Last Line: Of marriage, which is the politics of love Subject(s): Love - Marital; Marriage TWINS First Line: My sweet-faced, tattle-tale brother was born blind Last Line: My painted person crouched in his painted heart TWO POEMS, WITH BIRDS: 1. ADDENDUM TO ANY DAY, POEMS Poem Text First Line: Assume, in a bird's eye, the world as a dainty bulge Subject(s): Birds; Thought; Thinking VIEW First Line: You drive, the road aims for a mountain Last Line: I'm admiring the scenery, and am o.K VIEWS Poem Text First Line: I fly all the time, and still I'm afraid to fly Subject(s): Air Travel; Fear VIEWS: FIRST POET First Line: I fly all the time, and still I'm afraid to fly Last Line: Surely god has no special fate in mind for them, %I tell myself, lik a plane falling out of the sky VISION TEST First Line: My driver's license is lapsing and so I appear Last Line: For normal people who know where they want to go Subject(s): Literary Form WHAT I WANT TO SAY Poem Text First Line: It is as simple as it can be Subject(s): Honesty WHAT THE MOTORCYCLE SAID Poem Text First Line: Br-r-r-am-m-m, rackety-am-m, om, am Subject(s): Motorcycles And Motorcycling; Sound WHAT THE MOTORCYCLE SAID First Line: Br-r-r-am-m-m, rackety-am-m, om, am Last Line: All - gr-r-rin, oooohgah, gl-l-utton-- %am, the world's my smilebutton Subject(s): Motorcycles And Motorcycling; Sound WORDS FOR THE DUMB First Line: And if there are no children? The same gear Last Line: Pumpkin seeds, gazing into her own, %puzzled, imploring. Shesmiles, tears' veteran |
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