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Author: corso, gregory
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Corso, Gregory Nunzio    Poet's Biography
Alternate Author Name(s): Corso, Gregory
200 poems available by this author


12 ASH ST. PLACE       
First Line: That house is a ghost of pretty things
Last Line: I told him I didn't think that was nice of him %because the color burned


1959       
First Line: Uncomprimising year I see no meaning to life
Last Line: Must I settle into phantomness %and not say I understand things better than god?


2 WEIRD HAPPENINGS IN HAARLEM       
First Line: Four windmills, acquaintanceships
Last Line: And ate up a canal!


3       
First Line: How new %to know the sky
Last Line: America after europe: %100,000 buffalo %900,000 indians


30TH YEAR DREAM       
First Line: I dreamed a man unknown to me in a city no


ACTIVE NIGHT       
First Line: A tarsier bewrays the end of an epical rain
Last Line: And up comes a manatee with a sea-anemone %on its nose


AH... WELL       
First Line: People...Nobody loves them
Last Line: The apothecarian earth blooms the poppy %at best


ALCHEMY       
First Line: A blue bird
Last Line: Alights upon a yellow chair %spring is here


AMERICA POLITICA HISTORIA, IN SPONTANEITY       
First Line: O this political air so heavy with the bells
Last Line: Mast to wind? Shore to sea? Death to life? %the last president


AMERICAN WAY: 1       
First Line: I am a great american
Last Line: But I am afriad to return to america %I'm even afraid to go into the american express
Subject(s): United States


AMERICAN WAY: 2       
First Line: They are frankenstien christ in america
Last Line: Tuesday wednesday thrursday friday saturday %and sunday campaigns


AMERICAN WAY: 3       
First Line: It is a time in which no man is extremely wonderous
Last Line: America to be as proud and victorious as st. %michael on the neck of the fallen lucifer


AMNESIA IN MEMPHIS       
First Line: Who am I, flat beneath the shades of isis
Last Line: Fall unto the jackal's plate
Subject(s): Amnesia; Memphis, Tennessee


APPLES       
First Line: In this lovely lonely orchard
Last Line: Has me reach for that out of reach one %and quite make it


ARMY       
First Line: Thrice I've see the two-gunned ghost of patton
Last Line: Holy be to patton he gives hills to death! %army!Army! Army!Army!


BERLIN ZOO: 1       
First Line: O the great slaughter of kangaroos
Last Line: Saying I never are meat %when I've eaten herds


BERLIN ZOO: 2       
First Line: The berlin zoo %has two pay entrances
Last Line: They both join at the gater %and stream toward the monkeys


BIRTHPLACE REVISITED    Poem Text    
First Line: I stand in the dark light in the dark street
Subject(s): Memory


BIRTHPLACE REVISITED       
First Line: I stand in the dark light in the dark street
Last Line: Aims a knife at me %I pump him full of lost watches
Subject(s): Memory


BOTTICELLI'S 'SPRING'       
First Line: No sign of spring!
Last Line: Ah, botticelli opens the door of his studio
Subject(s): Botticelli, Sandro (1444-1510); Paintings And Painters


BUT I DO NOT NEED KINDNESS    Poem Text    
First Line: I have known the strange nurses of kindness
Subject(s): Kindness


BUT I DO NOT NEED KINDNESS       
First Line: I have known the strange nurses of kindness
Last Line: Can I say people, sitting in parks, are kinder?
Subject(s): Kindness


CAMBRIDGE, FIRST IMPRESSIONS       
First Line: It is not easy to walk
Last Line: To sneak out a back door
Subject(s): Cambridge, Massachusetts


CLOWN: 1       
First Line: Laughter dies long after jest
Last Line: Bella, the memory of the heart %yet the face is a joker smiling no joke


CLOWN: 10       
First Line: But %I am an always clown
Last Line: Will never leave my organic pyx %thank god


CLOWN: 2       
First Line: Like the jester who blew out candles
Last Line: Yetall I do is walk up and down hands behind back %dreaming dungeons spikes and squeaking racks


CLOWN: 3       
First Line: And why do they say be a man, not a clown?
Last Line: Mr. Death has the hero by the balls! %I can commemorate black laughter, too!


CLOWN: 4       
First Line: I still don't know if the clown should die
Last Line: The clocked tower's scythed crime %bodes sorrow and the life of a man equal time


CLOWN: 5       
First Line: Proud boastful buffoon! At full your fancies
Last Line: You'll get to god %and ease his dreadful tightrope


CLOWN: 6       
First Line: The punches of winter knocked out a herd of deer
Last Line: My joy could never wedge free %from sorrow's old crack


CLOWN: 7       
First Line: To the unicorn cling, failing
Last Line: Clown! %homeless clown in serious!


CLOWN: 8       
First Line: Of course the unicorn will be killed
Last Line: Explosively haw-haws out of jams; %no, nor is it the tricker in whose hand the rope ends


CLOWN: 9       
First Line: The comedy gone mad!
Last Line: Fifty shrouded clowns pile out %from a tiny tomb


COLUMBIA U POESY READING-1975: POEM       
First Line: Summoned by the muse
Last Line: Was singing: 'true! True!' %'not so!' rang the spirit, 'not so!'


COLUMBIA U POESY READING-1975: PROLOGUE       
First Line: What a 16 years it's been
Last Line: Without spilling a drop of blood %blessed be revolutionaries of the spirit!


COMMISSION UNFULFILLED       
First Line: Field marshall hawks is finally happy
Last Line: Where the nose that smelled the foe? %wherethe mouth that gave the command?


CONEY ISLAND       
First Line: Not so laughable this ocean that touches this fun-ruled shore
Last Line: That made this ocean decide this shore


CRIME       
First Line: Into a burning animal his crime
Last Line: And their faces fell away


D. SCARLATTI       
First Line: Scarlatti counts his breath with a nasty suicide wound
Last Line: Ears open for an old echo


DANGER       
First Line: Because of me narcotics are
Last Line: My property is sorrow! %no fence %no warning there


DEAR GIRL       
First Line: With people conformed
Last Line: And indicates a new light %who'll take care of the cats?


DEAR VILLON       
First Line: Villon, how brotherly our similarities
Last Line: I claim to know all there is to know %because there ain't that much to know


DEMENTIA IN AN AFRICAN APARTMENT HOUSE       
First Line: A bullet-holed lion excited the dying child
Last Line: Lion, lion,' she said, 'my mind is not well.'


DESTINY       
First Line: They deliver the edicts of god
Last Line: That a messenger-spirit %ever stumbled into darkness


DIALOGUE - 2 DOLLMAKERS       
First Line: Let's not use eyes anymore


DIALOGUES FROM CHILDREN'S OBSERVATION WARD       
First Line: - you don't paint nice. You paint faces on window shades
Last Line: - she didn't even say, hello


DIFFERENCE OF ZOOS       
First Line: I went to the hotel broog
Last Line: I went to the zoo %and oh thank god the simple elephant
Subject(s): Animals


DIRECTION SIGN IN LONDON ZOO       
First Line: Giant panda 5lions
Last Line: Humming birds %ladies


DOLL POEM       
First Line: A favorite doll %knows the pain of a child's farewell
Last Line: Long mad anvious journey. %soda and fig-newtons will erupt from the mouth


DON'T SHOOT THE WARTHOG       
First Line: A child came to me
Last Line: And gnawed the child's bones


DOUBT OF LIE       
First Line: Was humankind told me
Last Line: But neitherof us %will believe %your big sad lie


DOUBT OF TRUTH       
First Line: In the muse %there is no rest home
Last Line: And saw a chinese man %crying in the sun


DREAM OF A BASEBALL STAR    Poem Text    
First Line: I dreamed ted williams
Subject(s): Baseball; Sports; Williams, Theodore (ted)


DREAM OF A BASEBALL STAR       
First Line: I dreamed ted williams
Last Line: Hosannah the home run! D sun
Subject(s): Baseball; Sports; Williams, Theodore (ted)


DREAMED REALIZATION       
First Line: The carrion-eater's nobility calls back from god
Last Line: Crow jackal hyena vulture worm woke to necessity %dipping into death like a soup


EARLIEST MEMORY       
First Line: What's the first thing you remember?
Last Line: That from which we're born %abathed in that from which all life came


ECCE HOMO       
First Line: Inside the wounded hands and feet
Last Line: Impossible to forget


ELEGIAC FEELINGS AMERICAN: 1       
First Line: How inseperable you and the america you saw yet was
Last Line: It asunder, wholly all and forever, like a wind %out of nowhere into nowhere


ELEGIAC FEELINGS AMERICAN: 2       
First Line: How so like clark gable hands your hands...' (mexico
Last Line: America beyond your last dreamed hill hovers %real


ELEGIAC FEELINGS AMERICAN: 3       
First Line: How alike our hearts and time and dying, how our america
Last Line: The windows are tight, are not for jumping; from %hell none e'er fell


ELEGIAC FEELINGS AMERICAN: 4       
First Line: In hell angels sing too
Last Line: And soon behind thee %there came a-following %the children of flowers


EMILY DICKINSON-THE TROUBLE WITH YOU IS       
First Line: Stop mounting pain %if centuries
Last Line: I can't look at a fly with my obvious betterness %and ask why


EUROPEAN THOUGHTS 1959       
First Line: If there was never a home to go to
Last Line: When he has been happy all too happy %in an insufferable place


FEELINGS ON GETTING OLDER       
First Line: When I was young I knew
Last Line: With all the comings come %and all the goings have gone


FIELD REPORT       
First Line: Night dies into dawn
Last Line: But like holderin sayeth I am closer to god %away from him %stop


FIRE REPORT-NO ALARM       
First Line: And that I did not adhere
Last Line: And upon my finger %the ring of poetry


FOR       
First Line: What stinking beady wart
Last Line: They were sickly sad %and drugs were a filthy nurse


FOR HOMER       
First Line: There's rust on the old truths
Last Line: All's caught what could not be found %all's brought what was left behind
Subject(s): Poetry And Poets


FOR LISA, 2       
First Line: I saw an angel today
Last Line: With human smile %and nothing to say


FOR MILES    Poem Text    
First Line: Your sound is faultless
Last Line: Yet unimaginable score?
Subject(s): Davis, Miles (1926-1991); Jazz; Music & Musicians


FOR MIRANDA       
First Line: My daughter %walks in grace
Last Line: To his visor'd mouth %there are white horses in manhattan
Subject(s): Fathers And Daughters


FRAGMENT FROM THE DECADENCE       
First Line: Fortunato giappinelli spat upon the rampart of servius
Last Line: And there the furious giappinelli family awaited him


FRIEND       
First Line: Friends be kept %friends be gained
Last Line: Without friends life would be different not miserable d does one need a friend in heaven


FROM ANOTHER ROOM       
First Line: Dumb genuis blows
Last Line: Through the crack! Through the crack! %my feast was in the easy blood that flowed


GALACTIC BIRTH       
First Line: The de-opiated body
Last Line: Circa 1080 a.D. %slowly develop in a polariod sky


GAME       
First Line: Man devil mandrill
Last Line: May the better man win


GETTING TO THE POEM       
First Line: I have lived by the grace of jews and girls
Last Line: I will live %and never know my death


GIANT TURTLE       
First Line: You rise from the sea an agony of sea
Last Line: You cease your slow %dawn %and you plop in the sea like a big rock


GOD IS A MASTURBATER       
First Line: Folks, sex has never been
Last Line: Thank god there's a place %in all this he and she %and he and he %and she and she %for a me and me


GREENWICH VILLAGE SUICIDE       
First Line: Arms outstretched %hands flat against the windowsides
Last Line: And a storekeeper throws hot water on the sidewalk


GUIDE FOR MY INFANT SON       
First Line: Simple perfection %perfect simplicity
Last Line: It's easy %like painting a flower %of %snapping it dead


HAIR       
First Line: My beautiful hair is dead
Last Line: Veronica lake truman capote ishka bibble messiahs paganinis %bohemians hawaiians poodles


HALLOWEEN       
First Line: Children and many strangely things
Last Line: And in a little dark corner %trembles the entire room


HAPPENING ON A GERMAN TRAIN       
First Line: Fram a fast-moving train window
Last Line: A white american jet fighter plane %crashboom and billows orange


HELLO       
First Line: It is disastrous to be a wounded deer
Last Line: In the great serenade of things, %am I the most cancelled passage?


HI       
First Line: There is no god
Last Line: Surely there can be no god %when gregorys are called gregs


HORSE WAS MILKED       
First Line: In a room a spoon upon the fire
Last Line: Deep in the night he rolled and groaned. %o never was a poor soul so stoned


HOW HAPPY I USED TO BE       
Last Line: Children, have you not heard of my meeting %with isreal hans, isreal hans


HOW NOT TO DIE       
First Line: Around people %if I feel I'm gonna die
Last Line: When I feel I'm going to die %so far it's worked


I AM 25       
First Line: With a love a madness for shelley
Last Line: And steal their poems
Subject(s): Poetry And Poets


I GAVE AWAY       
First Line: I gave away the sky
Last Line: All you gave is ours! We made it all, even the likes of you!' %and so I gave the gods away


I HELD A SHELLEY MANUSCRIPT       
First Line: My hands did numb to beauty
Last Line: And I, as though tipping a pitcher of milk, %pour secrecy upon the dying page
Subject(s): Poetry And Poets; Shelley, Percy Bysshe (1792-1822)


I MET THIS GUY WHO DIED       
First Line: We caroused %did the bars
Last Line: O gregory' he moaned %'you brought up something to die'
Subject(s): Poetry And Poets


I MISS MY DEAR CATS       
First Line: My water-colored hands are catless now
Last Line: My sad life of cats hangs


IN MY BEAUTIFUL...AND THINGS       
First Line: All beautiful things
Last Line: With nylons and sticks of tea and no things


IN PRAISE OF NEANDERTHAL MAN       
First Line: In a birth old and horrendous
Last Line: Throught the world %he was philosoph supreme


IN THE EARLY MORNING       
First Line: In the early morning beside the runaway hand-in-pocket
Last Line: He is waiting flat against the trees


IN THE FLEETING HAND OF TIME       
First Line: On the steps of the bright madhouse
Last Line: And leads me into conditional life


IN THE MORGUE       
First Line: I remember seeing their pictures in the papers
Last Line: Here they were young and clean shaven and well-shaped


IN THE TUNNEL-BONE OF CAMBRIDGE       
First Line: In spite of voices
Last Line: A black ahead a black and nothing more


INNER & OUTER RHYME       
First Line: Last night was the nightest
Last Line: Sure as snow beneath snow is whitesr %shall the god surface the human face


INTO THE APERTURE OF AN UNLIKELY ARCHIMAGE       
First Line: On coming past a thing of hand
Last Line: The thing you hold most and now sleep


ITALIAN EXTRAVAGANZA       
First Line: Mrs. Lombardi's month-old son is dead
Last Line: And ten black cadillacs to haul it in
Subject(s): Death - Children; Funerals


KING CROW       
First Line: Old crow is king crow
Last Line: Is gold in old crow's land


LAST GANGSTER       
First Line: Waiting by the window
Last Line: ...Guns rusting in their arthritic hands
Subject(s): Crime And Criminals


LAST NIGHT I DROVE A CAR       
Last Line: I stopped at hedgeville %and slept in the back seat %excited about my new life


LAST WARMTH OF ARNOLD       
First Line: Arnold, warm with god
Last Line: When he fell and died beneath the brooklyn bridge


LEAKY LIFEBOAT BOYS       
First Line: Waiting for the world
Last Line: Wondering how the planet as well %can get out alive


LINES WRITTEN NOV. 22, 23 - 1963 IN DISCORD       
First Line: So what's it like being an american assassin this silly uncertain day?
Last Line: And though the crew weeps the loss %the stars in the skies %are still boss
Subject(s): Assassination; Kennedy, John Fitzgerald (1917-1963)


LOVE OF TWO SEASONS       
First Line: When once in wildhood times
Last Line: I've a snow owl %and it loves you it loves you'


LOVE POEM FOR THREE FOR KAYE & ME       
First Line: I'll dress you %in anything anytime anywhere
Last Line: The continuum %by thy behest %I bequeathed


MAD YAK       
First Line: I am watching them churn the last milk
Last Line: And that beautiful tail! %how many shoelaces will they make of that!
Subject(s): Animals; Yaks


MAN       
First Line: The good scope of him is history, old and ironic
Last Line: King agamemnon! Mortal man! %ah, immortality


MAN SEATED OUTSIDE MY WINDOW       
First Line: Time on a garden's wintry quietness
Last Line: Your finger marking your thoughts upon a stone


MANY HAVE FALLEN       
First Line: In 1958 I took to prophecy
Last Line: Until two decades later %when the dead finally died


MARRIAGE    Poem Text    
First Line: Should I get married? Should I be good?
Subject(s): Honeymoons; Love - Marital; Marriage; Wedded Love; Marriage - Love; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


MARRIAGE       
First Line: Should I get married? Should I be good?
Last Line: So I wait bereft of 2,000 years and the bath of life
Subject(s): Honeymoons; Love - Marital; Marriage


MEXICAN IMPRESSIONS       
First Line: Through a moving window
Last Line: They have ordinary %american cows
Subject(s): Mexico


MORTAL INFLICTION       
First Line: I think of polyphemus bellowing his lowly woe
Last Line: And how wise was he %who blinded a thing of immortality?


MY HANDS ARE A CITY       
First Line: My hands are a city, a lyre
Last Line: While my hands burn


NEVERMORE BALTIMORE       
First Line: O blessed dowser of lustration
Last Line: You would-be!' screeched she %'at least he knew a wicca from a wicce!'


NEW YORK CITY - 1935       
First Line: I was 5 years old %it was new york december %horses pulling wagons
Last Line: And it's driver %head bowed %walking slowly %like the sad italian peasant %he was
Subject(s): Accidents; New York City; Poetry And Poets


NEW YORK MAN       
First Line: He's come to cambridge
Last Line: Afraid to knock


NO WORD       
First Line: It is better man a word elongate
Last Line: His eyes speak and listen as well as see


NOTED FOR HAVING HARD HEADS (TESTA DURA)       
First Line: Halcyon stupidities %flock my brain
Last Line: To the girl clouds %making babies %of rain


NOTES AFTER BLACKING OUT       
First Line: Lady of the legless world I have
Last Line: Nothing sits on nothing of many nothings %a nothing king


ODE TO COIT TOWER       
First Line: O anti-verdurous phallic were't not for your pouring height
Last Line: Sprinting toward the gauzy eradication of swindleresque ink
Subject(s): San Francisco


ODE TO OLD ENGLAND & ITS LANGUAGE       
First Line: To express what's seen, what's heard, imagined
Last Line: And ladies in tight bodices fasten their mantles %with wrought butterflies


OF ONE MONTH'S READING OF ENGLISH NEWSPAPERS       
First Line: Ah, pierced is october; the to tocsin tolls
Last Line: The girl scouts are near %the girl scouts are near


OLD MAN SAID HE ONCE SAW EMILY DICKINSON       
First Line: Unhappy face - tight rich white face
Last Line: That is, nothing that I could see


ON CHESSMAN'S CRIME       
First Line: Be abnormal sex a crime?
Last Line: Sew up your cunts! %and be done with these walking products of crime


ON PONT NEUF       
First Line: I leave paradise behind me
Last Line: Beneath one of france's famous men's horses %do I focus myself


ON THE WALLS OF A DULL FURNISHED ROOM       
First Line: I hang old photos of my childhood girls
Last Line: The golden hair of susan


ONE DAY       
First Line: One day while peter-panning the sky
Last Line: For solitude refuses to lower a gentle hand %upon his long sad face


PARANOIA IN CRETE       
First Line: Damned minoan crevices, that I clog them up!
Last Line: One more crevice to, and lo! %I forfeit the echinadian isles


PARIS       
First Line: Childcity, aprilcity
Last Line: Dollhouse of mama war


PASTORAL FETISH       
First Line: Old mac donald wears clod-hoppers
Last Line: It's the old bastard's greatest kick


POET TALKING TO HIMSELF IN THE MIRROR       
First Line: Hi, I'm me %it has become glaringly absurd
Last Line: No way, gregory, stay %close to the poem!!!


POETS HITCHHIKING ON THE HIGHWAY    Poem Text    
First Line: Of course I tried to tell him
Subject(s): Hitchhikers; Poetry & Poets


POETS HITCHHIKING ON THE HIGHWAY       
First Line: Of course I tried to tell him
Last Line: We ended by melting away, %hating the air
Subject(s): Hitchhikers; Poetry And Poets


POWER       
First Line: We are the imitation of power
Last Line: That drops my woe andall woe to the floor %like a shot spy


PROXIMITY       
First Line: A star %is as far %as the eye
Last Line: Can see %and %as near %as my eye %is to me


PUMA IN CHAPULTEPEC ZOO       
First Line: Long smooth slow swift soft cat
Last Line: In the puerto rican section
Subject(s): Pumas


RACE OF SOUND       
First Line: Sounds are running a race the trek the climb the swim
Last Line: The crowds are going wild! Yelling and kicking and jumping %so wild they win the race


REFLECTION       
First Line: Instinctive seers who abandon this lovely age
Last Line: Life a universal deathrow %such seers deem it so


REMBRANDT - SELF PORTRAIT       
First Line: When I draw the magnificent dutch girl
Last Line: Get me gold linen!Cold jewels! %let me lightdrench the saddest of men
Subject(s): Rembrandt Harmensz Van Riij (1606-1669)


REQUIEM FOR 'BIRD' PARKER, MUSICIAN       
First Line: This prophecy came by mail
Last Line: First and second and third voices %yeah, yeah
Subject(s): Parker, Charlie ("bird") (1920-1955)


RUNAWAY GIRL       
First Line: Ever since running away from home
Last Line: Yet she cannot turn around


SACRE-COEUR CAFE       
First Line: The fierce girls in the sacre-coeur cafe
Last Line: And the algerins %they don't go to the sacre-coeur cafe


SAUSAGES       
First Line: I ate sausages with you at the feast
Last Line: The butcher counted his daughter's feet!


SAVING QUALITY       
First Line: Bad nights of drunk
Last Line: Ducks and gulls below %assuring myself: %day or night %you're all right


SEA CHANTY       
First Line: My mother hates the sea
Last Line: - thy mother's feet - was its answer
Subject(s): Mothers; Sea


SEASPIN       
First Line: To drown to be slow hair
Last Line: To stay to pin my hair %on the sea-horse's stirrup


SECOND NIGHT IN N.Y.C. AFTER 3 YEARS       
First Line: I was happy I was bubbly drunk
Last Line: No no no no!' he said %and hurried away


SEED JOURNEY       
First Line: There they go %and where they stop
Last Line: For some seeds %bread is the end of the journey


SHAKEDOWN       
First Line: I spun another man's prayer
Last Line: And the mouth knelt down to drink my terrible flow


SHE DOESN'T KNOW HE THINKS HE'S GOD       
First Line: He is god %jim blaze is god
Last Line: Pounds her fists against the wall %'jim the baby will die!'


SNIPER'S LAMENT       
First Line: Hear beautiful %hear through me still
Last Line: And it still bleeds


SOME GREEK WRITINGS       
First Line: In a way %the greeks today
Last Line: Beneath the starriest sky I ever saw %we all did wonderously pee


SONG       
First Line: Oh, dear! Oh, me! Oh, my!
Last Line: When I take her to the slaughter! %why? Why? Why?


SPIRIT       
Last Line: Unafraid %of becoming %the sea


SPONTANEOUS REQUIEM FOR THE AMERICAN INDIAN       
First Line: Wakonda! Talako! Deathonic turkey gobbling in the soft
Last Line: Down the wide amber speedway of death, little richard, %tubamirum, the vast black jacket brays in th
Subject(s): Native Americans


ST. LUKES, SERVICE FOR THOMAS       
First Line: The white horse innkeeper
Last Line: And strode back to his inn
Subject(s): Thomas, Dylan (1914-1953)


ST. TROPEZ, EARLY MORNING       
First Line: How all night long I waited
Last Line: Towards heaven we're going %towards heaven I'm told


STARS       
First Line: Central the hole of creation
Last Line: Uncreatures of space leap out %vivid fossils embeddedin the night


SUN       
First Line: Sun hypnotic! Holy ball protracted long and sure! Firey
Last Line: O constant hole where all beyond is true byzantium


SUNRISE       
First Line: I am rich %I've used my blood
Last Line: And divined a message theron %I bring it to you %in cupped hands


SUNSET       
First Line: At the gate %of the wood
Last Line: In her long hand %humming a sura %falls the sun %slowly %like %a %shot circle


THE MAD YAK    Poem Text    
First Line: I am watching them churn the last milk
Subject(s): Animals; Yaks


THEY       
First Line: They, that unnamed 'they'
Last Line: Nothing moves a mountain but itself %they, I've long ago named them me


THIS IS AMERICA       
First Line: This is america and I'm fun in it
Last Line: And a fourteen year old wife


THIS WAS MY MEAL       
First Line: In the peas I saw upside down letters of monk
Last Line: I wanted to drop fire-engines from my mouth! %but in ran the moonlight and grabbed the prunes


THOUGHTS ON A JAPANESE MOVIE       
First Line: Let us love a thing together once
Last Line: I want to run vermilion through your hair


THREE: 1       
First Line: The streetsinger is sick
Last Line: Crouched in the doorway, holding his heart. %one less song in the noisy night


THREE: 2       
First Line: Outside the wall %the aged gardener plants his shears
Last Line: A new young man %has come to snip the hedge


THREE: 3       
First Line: Death weeps because death is human
Last Line: Spending all day in a movie when a child dies


TO A DOWNFALLEN ROSE       
First Line: When I laid aside the verses of mimnermus
Last Line: The hateful law of the earth and sun, and the screaming rose between


TRANSFORMATION & ESCAPE: 1       
First Line: I reached heaven and it was syrupy
Last Line: Gasping in the confectionery of his gentility %I wept, caressing my intimidated legs


TRANSFORMATION & ESCAPE: 2       
First Line: They caught me. %they took my legs away
Last Line: And I swear that great territory did quake %when I fell, free


UCCELLO       
First Line: They will never die on that battlefield
Last Line: Lance never to die but to be endless a golden prince of pictorial war


UNDER PEYOTE       
First Line: The flower that bounces sneaking through a
Last Line: The difference of minutes %for %summer %children %target %bacteriae


VERMEER       
First Line: See him stand beside a tiny gate
Last Line: While lonely men with heavy knives slice bread %and older wives in secret feel their silk


VESTAL LADY ON BRATTLE       
First Line: Within a delicate grey ruin
Last Line: Drunk with child


VISION EPIZOOTICS       
First Line: I see upon my bed
Last Line: Nothing, I want nothing.'


VISION OF ROTTERDAM       
First Line: September 1957 summoned by my vision-agent
Last Line: The scheme of a new rotterdam humming in the vacancy


WATERCHEW!       
First Line: He climbs the stair


WHAT THE CHILD SEES       
First Line: The child sees %the foolishness of age
Last Line: And suffers the proximity %of the nullified moment


WHEN A BOY       
Last Line: And in summer camp %I kissed the moon %in a barrel of rain


WHEN WE ALL       
First Line: When we all wake up again
Last Line: I too am crashing %crashing %ah, spring will %bring a smoot h landing


WHOLE MESS ALMOST       
First Line: I ran up six flights of stairs
Last Line: All I could do with humor was to say: %'out the window with the window!'


WINDOW       
First Line: I say unto you
Last Line: And it's them, tell you, you gotta die; %be seeing you on the rebound


WISDOM       
First Line: I feel there is an inherent ignorance in me
Last Line: A nose clogged with blood %mixed with the odor of an old man's belongings


WRECK OF THE NORDLING       
First Line: One night fifty men swam away from god
Last Line: Came up with fifty souls %and pointed towards eternity


WRIT ON THE EVE OF MY 32ND BIRTHDAY       
First Line: I am 32 years old
Last Line: Or my behavior toward society, %but it does tell me my soul has a shadow
Subject(s): Aging


WRIT ON THE STEPS OF PUERTO RICAN HARLEM       
First Line: There's a truth limits man
Last Line: Man is not god %life is a century %death an instant


WRIT WHEN I FOUND OUT HIS WAS AN UNMARKED GRAVE       
First Line: Children children don't you know
Last Line: Though graves be many %he hasn't any


YOU CAME LAST SEASON       
First Line: You came and made penny candies with your thumbs
Last Line: You stained something awful


YOU, WHOSE MOTHER'S LOVER WAS GRASS       
First Line: You, whose mother's lover was grass in the greenest season
Last Line: His jealousy makes bastards of us all


YOUTHFUL RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCES       
First Line: When I was five
Last Line: I cannot totally comprehend %what it all meant if it meant anything at all


ZIZI'S LAMENT       
First Line: I am in love with the laughing sickness
Last Line: Who it would do the most good, %will I ever get it?