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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: WOOD, SUSAN Matches Found: 91 Wood, Susan Poet's Biography 91 poems available by this author 19 PEARL STREET First Line: So this is your house-the model Last Line: It's japanese for what persists: the quest for beauty 26 PIAZZA DI SPAGNA First Line: The day I walk there the sun %lies down in the streets of rome and presses Last Line: Breaking is always the same sound Subject(s): Keats, John (1795-1821); Poetry And Poets ALL THE WAY FROM LOUISIANA First Line: This morning the smoke inexplicable Last Line: Shining like a light all around them ANALYSIS OF THE ROSE AS SENTIMENTAL DESPAIR First Line: Here it is, the impressionist garden Subject(s): Levis, Larry (1946-1996) ANALYSIS OF THE ROSE AS SENTIMENTAL DESPAIR First Line: Here it is, the impressionist garden Last Line: Dashed to the ground, drifting and blowing %in the late spring rain Subject(s): Levis, Larry (1946-1996) BALLOONS First Line: It was something I thought I'd never do Last Line: Earth shone for a moment from that distance BIRTHRIGHT First Line: At 2 a.M. The train begins its whistle somewhere Last Line: Then he covers them with his own BODIES TERRESTRIAL First Line: My childhood face floats above fever Last Line: But even in death the body remains %terrestrial. Under the endless stars the dead %spin and spin, an BODY OF THE DREAM First Line: It was evening and gold light fell Last Line: Trying so hard to get back to Subject(s): Dreams; Giotto Di Bondone (1276-1337); Mothers BOOK OF DAYS First Line: Days turning over like leaves of a book Last Line: Before she wakes up and discovers it's her own BRIDGE TO HEAVEN First Line: When a friend told me, almost Last Line: And higher %still, farther out above the horizon, %the curved bridge that leads to heaven CAMPO SANTO First Line: This far south november Last Line: Which is the greater sorrow, to feel %you can't live without him or to find, %after all, that you ca CHEKHOV First Line: In a movie I saw once, the actors were playing actors in a play by %chekhov Last Line: Gold-dusted with sunflowers, their light poured back into the sky. I can go %there CHRISTMAS EVE AT ROSEMOUND CEMETERY Poem Text First Line: And on the graves the poinsettias Subject(s): Cemeteries; Christmas; Graveyards; Nativity, The CHRISTMAS EVE AT ROSEMOUND CEMETERY First Line: And on the graves the poinsettias Last Line: Till they cried at how foolish %we were, as though we could ever be %above reproach, like them CIVILIZATION 1. First Line: The mother kneels and bends Last Line: He will run away %in his red tennis shoes. See, %already he is leaving her CIVILIZATION 2. First Line: The mother focuses on the boy and presses Last Line: So he turns that face to her, %to the world, as if to prove once more %she is lying. Mother is alway DAILY LIFE Poem Text First Line: A parrot of irritation sits Subject(s): Conduct Of Life DE KOONING'S WOMEN First Line: I've seen those paintings and I think he must hate women. Must hate Last Line: Tongues, no matter what we fear, learn to speak no other language but %the body's? DEAR EVERYONE First Line: How easy it is to sentimentalize Last Line: There are those who suffer, even unto death, %and are not me, and cannot be consoled DESIRE'S KIMONO First Line: Whatever we do, the self %goes on spinning desire %from deep inside, the self Last Line: And lie down. We rise. We begin again DIARY Poem Text First Line: Twenty years ago, a spring / like this one, azaleas spilling Last Line: Together, this blossom, this flower Subject(s): Diaries; Memory DIARY First Line: Twenty years ago, a spring %like this one, azaleas spilling Last Line: We wanted to make this child %together, this blossom, this flower Subject(s): Diaries; Memory DISTANCES First Line: Now time has made us Last Line: Some day, years from now, one of us %will hear of the death of the other EGGS Poem Text First Line: Morning broke like an egg Subject(s): Eggs; Conduct Of Life EGGS First Line: Morning broke like an egg Last Line: Our faces golden %and laughing, both of us beautiful and flawed EMILY DICKINSON IN LOVE Poem Text First Line: When sue walked in and saw them Last Line: Before she wakes up and discovers it's her own Subject(s): Dickinson, Emily (1830-1886) EMILY DICKINSON IN LOVE First Line: When sue walked in and saw them Last Line: So sweet, so thick, it was almost overwhelming Subject(s): Dickinson, Emily (1830-1886) FALSE SPRING First Line: False spring erupts in february and everywhere the cherry Last Line: Are open, as if in astonishment, gaping, like fish FAMILY TABLE First Line: Old hurts aren't forgotten exactly- Last Line: Dessert, we say, because we all deserve %some sweetness in the end FILM MEDITATION I: DECALOGUE (NO. 8) First Line: Today is yom kippur and because there is no special day Last Line: Cutting lilies, putting them in a cheap crockery jar FILM MEDITATION II: PONETTE First Line: That's where it all began, the minute Last Line: Shining up at me through the pure joy of tears FOUR ROSES First Line: Outside my door four roses Last Line: And rabbit opens his glove %to catch it, one hand, and end the game? FOURTH OF JULY, TEXAS, 1956 Poem Text First Line: The night was nothing we knew. We'd never seen Subject(s): Stars FOURTH OF JULY, TEXAS, 1956 First Line: The night was nothing we knew. We'd never seen Last Line: Stars %raining down all over us, us and the earth, %what the sky comes down to GEOGRAPHY First Line: Summer afternoon, henry james said Last Line: Everything before her facing home HER FATHER'S COAT: ANNA FREUD, 1982 First Line: It's papa's coat she's wrapped in Subject(s): Freud, Anna (1895-1982) HER FATHER'S COAT: ANNA FREUD, 1982 First Line: It's papa's coat she's wrapped in Last Line: With his great white wings. He was a god %surely this is the mystery of things Subject(s): Freud, Anna (1895-1982) HILLS ABOVE HALF MOON BAY Poem Text First Line: Often, those first mornings, pale disc Last Line: Had begun, and nothing you would do could make it stop Subject(s): Keats, John (1795-1821); Poetry & Poets HILLS ABOVE HALF MOON BAY First Line: Often, those first mornings, pale disc Last Line: That something final %had begun, and nothing you would do could make it stop HOLLOW First Line: I never knew, then, why it was named that Last Line: For what she suffered, my shame %for all our ignorance seem somehow like that name, hollow HOPE Poem Text First Line: What saves us begins Last Line: In which going and coming are the same word Subject(s): Greek Language HOPE First Line: What saves us begins Last Line: Like ancient greek a difficult language %in which going and coming are the same word Subject(s): Greek Language IMMERSION First Line: In the stained glass window behind the choir loft Last Line: Are salome whirling and whirling and the message %is always the same: for love %you must pay with yo IN CARTONA, THINKING OF BILL First Line: No wonder you loved this country, place Last Line: And how close they are, our suffering %and what saves us IN THE VENICE GHETTO First Line: Venice, july, so hot it's white, glass Last Line: His name drifting away on the dark water JANUARY, 1946 First Line: In san francisco the light comes down the hills Last Line: And everywhere she looksa re frozen fields of wheat %caught,like breah, against the sky KNOWING THE END Poem Text First Line: It's like knowing a girl named roxy Last Line: The climax comes, the screen goes dark Subject(s): Bars & Bartenders; Pubs; Taverns; Saloons KNOWING THE END First Line: It's like knowing a girl named roxy Last Line: Before we're ready %the climax comes, the screen goes dark Subject(s): Bars And Bartenders LAST RESORT First Line: This morning a cruise ship at rest %in the harbor, a great white whale Last Line: Now that she had touched such otherness LATE-BLOOMERS First Line: It doesn't know it's time Last Line: Who doesn't think she's beautiful enough, for anne, %for me,this weedy shrub, for all late-bloomers LAUNDRY First Line: This morning she's there again, squatting like a squaw Last Line: An offering to the gods, the god of cleanliness, the god of fresh starts LEAFING Poem Text First Line: Autumn twilights Last Line: As a jack-o'-lantern Subject(s): Autumn; Growth; Life; Seasons; Fall LEAFING First Line: Autumn twilights Last Line: Listen, you tell me, listen, %we are making a shelter inside you Subject(s): Autumn; Growth; Life; Seasons LEPIDOPTERAN First Line: This morning a steady drizzle, forsythia Last Line: Of silver coins, a butterfly extinguished in the sea Subject(s): Dickinson, Emily (1830-1886); Hull, Lynda (1954-1994) LETTER TO TORU FROM PROVINCETOWN First Line: Almost sunset at herring cove, %red sun bowing low Last Line: I would send it if I knew Subject(s): Love - Complaints LOSS First Line: Yu hate that I've lost everything you gave me Last Line: Of winter, now streaked with red, now gray and cold MATINEE First Line: There's that moment in to catch a thief Last Line: Night spread like a satin %across the red brick streets of my hometown, a world %grown suddenly dark MY GRANDMOTHER'S POEMS First Line: They've disappeared now, as you did Last Line: Two sunstruck tatters dancing in the mirror Subject(s): Grandparents NEW HOPE First Line: They called it new hope, who hadn't much Last Line: Rakes up %the leaves and puts a pot of zinnias out. %the hot october wind blows everything away NINETEEN First Line: Nothing matters, he says, nothing Last Line: How much love matters, subject and object, %and the fine down on a bare thigh NOT THE FIRST LOVE POEM First Line: When your fever spiked and the clear green Last Line: Of wisdom, and beside it %the bear, keeper of dreams ON FIRE Poem Text First Line: Someone was playing with fire, I'd hear Last Line: And awe for him, and, yes, / with shame Subject(s): Fire; Love ON FIRE First Line: Someone was playing with fire, I'd hear Last Line: I was on fire with love %and awe for him and, yes, %with shame ONLY CHILDHOOD First Line: It was only childhood, I could say and mean Last Line: When did I learn %to distrust the world, its love %and shame? I wasn't even looking PHOTOGRAPH First Line: She stands off to one side, a wagon train crossing her brow Last Line: The baby she held was anna. It was september PINETUM First Line: All afternoon I've walked these fields Last Line: Still %saved by the white, irresistible lies PINK VISTA First Line: In the dream I carry inside me Last Line: The story of the child %who disobeyed the parent and so must swim %forever in the stream beside our PIRATE'S BEACH First Line: If lafitte did bury treasure on this beach Last Line: And wake like sleepwalkers, %surprised in our bodies, %opening our eyes, suddenly, alone, in the dar POEM FOR THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF MY MOTHER'S DEATH First Line: Lost in the crowd pushing Last Line: My hot cheek pressed %against your hand those hours in the hospital, %as if my body's heat would sto PROVINCETOWN First Line: Off provincetown, in june, the whales Last Line: If life is a body, %this is its heart we fold in our four hands QUATTROCENTO First Line: Inside the bus the strangled air, stuck windows, and then Last Line: Even now, evening presses her cool cheek to the earth READING DAVID COPPERFIELD First Line: Tonight david is imprisoned Last Line: The way a boy %puzzles all day over his tear-streaked slate,%marking it, rubbing it out RHYTHM AND BLUES Poem Text First Line: Those days our bodies dove us, churning Last Line: Every part of them on fire Subject(s): Youth; Music & Musicians RHYTHM AND BLUES First Line: Those days our bodies drove us, churning Last Line: Going down like teenagers in the backseat %of a father's borrowed chevy, burning, %every part of the RUMORS Poem Text First Line: In tornado weather, my mother said, the day Last Line: The candles in case the lights went out Subject(s): Family Life; Fear RUMORS First Line: In tornado weather, my mother said, the day Last Line: My mother roamed the house, %checking the windows for prowlers, counting %the candles in case the li SLEEPWALKER First Line: It isn't faith that leads the dreamer Last Line: To wake, rinsed, in the lather of morning STRANGE FRUIT First Line: I am listening to lady in satin, columbia records, 1958 Last Line: I fell in love with you the first time I looked at you SUNDAY NIGHTS First Line: The man I married grew sad Last Line: Come back, it hums, come back, my continent, %my love, my heart's desire, you know %I'm all you've e SWAMP First Line: Once, at the bottom of summer, %we pushed on through the late afternoon Last Line: Until it takes us with it, under, down to the dark, %rank grave of the water TENDERNESS First Line: I can hardly believe the story Last Line: Lifting me up to the window, whispering, %all this is yours TERRIBLE ALGEBRA First Line: Here, in paris, in the cavernous apartment, vases Last Line: What are the limits to knowledge in this world? THE BODY OF THE DREAM First Line: It was evening and gold light fell Subject(s): Dreams; Giotto Di Bondone (1276-1337); Mothers; Nightmares THE SOUL BONE Poem Text Subject(s): Soul; Death; Dead, The TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE First Line: Small towns in texas have names Last Line: Or how a life might prove %to be a long and rambling story, too true %any longer to be good TRICK First Line: The voice on the other end of the phone asks if I'm susan wood Last Line: What did they think? Did they think they were going to live forever? UNTHOUGHT First Line: When the weight fell and took the tip of my finger Last Line: Now disappearing into the crowd outside san stae WATER-BABIES First Line: In the story by kingsley the boy Last Line: The car, %the mother said, came out of nowhere. %I'm a parent now. This is the story I believe WISHFUL THINKING First Line: If every dream is a wish, then maybe the afterlife Last Line: The yellow apple of the moon, and nothing's very clear WITNESS First Line: It would be summer, saturday - the only day Last Line: A child lifted in her father's arms %slowly giving in to sleep |
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