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Author: morley, hilda
Matches Found: 265


Morley, Hilda    Poet's Biography
Alternate Author Name(s): Auerbach, Hilda; Wolpe, Stefan, Mrs.
265 poems available by this author


5 MEN IN THEI 90S ON A RICKETY PORCH IN THE APPALACHIANS       
First Line: The hilarity of the old who, in spite of
Last Line: Stroke after pointed stroke %(bells high up in a tower) %clear as pebbles %in icy alpine water


ABSENCE       
First Line: There's a great gap. Air
Last Line: A little always. For each beginning, %a disappearance


ADVERTISMENT       
First Line: The catalogue said %sea-scene
Last Line: Perch solemnly on the shore explore the seascape %and set the sea-air blowing here forever


AFTER THE MOON-WALK       
First Line: Moon, moon %I want to talk to you
Last Line: Breathing behind my skin


ALEXANDRA DANILOVA AT 70       
First Line: Simplicity of a life geared to
Last Line: Floating high up there for a moment %above the world


ALPHABET       
First Line: Leaves carpeting the streets here
Last Line: To baffle, %to remind us


ALTAMIRA       
First Line: Across under that changing
Last Line: I cannot learn %if we are lost, %if we are not %spoken for


AMULET       
First Line: Ten stones hang in my ears
Last Line: Of initiation, amulet for guidance, %sign %of a bodily joy


AND I IN MY BED AGAIN    Poem Text    
First Line: Last night / tossed in
Last Line: Wind from the east
Subject(s): Night; Rain


ANEMONE       
First Line: The anemone plant she gave me
Last Line: With a little fan: a green leaf doubled %& a double garden


ANIMULA VAGULA       
Last Line: The burden of %your service, aphrodite


ANOTHER PETAL       
First Line: The last time, mallorca
Last Line: Seeing it %drop another, another, then %another petal on the floor


APPLE OF IT       
First Line: Apple of my mornings: %neruda
Last Line: Filling up its emptiness %these mornings


APR-43       
First Line: Mordecai anielewicz, %zivia lubetkin
Last Line: Know what you know


AS A KNIFE       
First Line: The tail of the male swan
Last Line: As a knife is, %his weapon, %is %as cruel


AS A WAVE RISES       
First Line: That I forgot to take you
Last Line: Taught us: - energy %is joy


AS GOLD TO AIRY THINNESS       
First Line: Send my roots rain, %o warming
Last Line: Its sides, whose voice sounds, %beating %on the crowded air %& sounds again


AS IF FOR THE FIRST TIME       
First Line: Years of looking at %that photograph
Last Line: Try the unforseeable everything %as if the first time %our own


AS IN THE BEGINNING OF TIME       
First Line: Returned now from that journey
Last Line: In those shuttered eyes


ASTERS       
First Line: Autumn - the time of
Last Line: Who make it %on their own


AT THE CONCERT       
First Line: Next to me %how the light
Last Line: My hands reaching toward %without choosing, %without knowledge of you there


AUGURY       
First Line: Plucking the ripe rosechips
Last Line: Not to, - take to the air %& float towards %me: %blessings


AUTOBIOGRAPHY       
First Line: Staring, as once in the ten-year old's bedroom
Last Line: Nourishment, %blazing %of the eyes' inlet


BALLACHULISH       
First Line: I want to go to ballachulish
Last Line: Men, their breath once very much alive %now dead


BARTER       
First Line: That love of hospitality
Last Line: Equal to bliss, of bliss in lying equal %to destruction


BATHED IN THAT SOUTHERNNESS       
First Line: Bathed in that
Last Line: Down %the cold comes %suddenly. %it darkens quickly


BEHIND THE CELLAR-DOOR       
First Line: 20 times at least I remember
Last Line: So the center be unfingered %the depth unbroken


BETWEEN NOW AND THE RED SEA       
First Line: The sea I swam in the eilath
Last Line: Between now and the red seam between %isreal and egypt


BETWEEN THE ROCKS       
First Line: Be like a rock, she said
Last Line: Between the flowers %& the rocks


BIRD TALKING       
First Line: When you keep silent
Last Line: What needs to be said


BIRDS OF THE SUN       
First Line: I said: humming-birds
Last Line: For the mayans they were %the birds of the sun


BIRTHDAY       
First Line: Observe %there was a day
Last Line: So I can accept your gift of a cactus %without too much gratitude, %politely


BRISONS       
First Line: They stick up here in front of me
Last Line: Sea - planted %on the sky


BROOK-NEW HAMPSHIRE       
First Line: Mosses, ferns in the brook ophelia
Last Line: Make this a stream for living %and not dying in


BY CHOICE       
First Line: An absence in which I have nothing
Last Line: Of what you're thinking


CAFE GUERBOIS       
First Line: Not the cafe guerbois
Last Line: Filled those cells with %a strong taste, %a strange sweetness, %wild honey


CANDLES       
First Line: It is the silence which surrounds them that makes me
Last Line: Neither evening nor morning %something watched over here, %but not a phrase yet, not a syllable


CAPE CORNWALL       
First Line: That narrow path I travelled
Last Line: From then on, scoured to my vitals %decade after decade %to this day


CARDINAL       
First Line: Looking outward from the self
Last Line: Nuzzle him: the glass between us %nothing


CASTLE, ELSINORE       
First Line: Great empty rooms, %out of long windows
Last Line: Mid summer sun unfolding %calmly, %the shadows fearless


CAVE PAINTING       
First Line: In the aurignscisn cave they drew
Last Line: Us out of and into season, time and over and cold %the year %finally on us


CHARLOTTE'S PAINTING AT THE LAUNDRY       
First Line: Pale 2/3 of a moon over the green leaves
Last Line: Shudder, makes it climb %into itself, %that makes it rest


CLAIRE       
First Line: That she delights in so much
Last Line: Fierce &leave its edge of fire %in the air %not to be extinguished


CLAIRE MOORE, HER DRAWING       
First Line: There are the boats you drew, - the tugboat
Last Line: The small flames seething inside your initials: %c.M. In red


CLOUDLESS AT FIRST       
First Line: The sky cloudless at first
Last Line: Disappearing & rooted at once %for cezanne has seen it?


CLOUDS STRETCH OUT       
First Line: Looking across %the space of winter changing into
Last Line: How much one can walk now and even %later (even later) %nothing is over, %only a further depth %refl


COIN       
First Line: Splashing of wings %in the air
Last Line: The newly-minted coin %taken out to shine %in the sun again & again


COLD WARM GLITTER ABOVE ME       
Last Line: (a fresh day of %weather forecast in the city


CORNWALL       
First Line: Granite walls out of
Last Line: Without giving me %a name


CURIOUS FLOWER       
First Line: I eternally see her figure
Last Line: Disclosing all its fullness %in pride %the day before its death only


CURVE OF THE WATER       
First Line: To make that curve of the water
Last Line: Itself impossible %to hold


DESERT       
First Line: That I raged up and down tonight
Last Line: Can be (and must you go too? %forgive then


DUST COVERS MY SHOES       
First Line: The demonstrate against pinochet now
Last Line: Choked back that make my vioce so heavt, that whiteness %a weight of ice that gives forth fire


EARLY MORNING MUSIC       
First Line: A low whistle, a chirring in
Last Line: Exhaled, never stilled %completely, %become %music


EARLY OCTOBER, 1995       
First Line: Early october, 1995 %blotches & clusters
Last Line: For the next plunge


EGRET OF THE GULF WAR       
First Line: That time I wrote: 'the snowy egret
Last Line: Their flight dies, - their still living coffins stiffen


EGRETS, ANTIGUA    Poem Text    
First Line: With what pleasure
Last Line: Tireless
Subject(s): Antigua; Egrets


ELEGY 2       
First Line: Disappeared %suddenly not there
Last Line: That safety %we failed to know of %giving


ELEGY FOR DYLAN THOMAS       
First Line: Suddenly that %voice as it had been
Last Line: From the dry sporangia to the always %now the alwys ending summer


EPIDAURUS       
Subject(s): Epidaurus, Greece


EQUINOX       
First Line: The sun %is out half-warm the little
Last Line: The long vibration %of a new bird's note %comforts me


ESTEBAN'S DRAWING       
First Line: What's held %along the edges & the center
Last Line: Your drawing, esteban vicente, %has made me happy


EVEN THEN       
First Line: Not tristan & isolde
Last Line: And not to live richly only, %but %to give that richness back


EVEN NOW, OVER 6 YEARS LATER       
Last Line: Let it not be forgiven


EVEN WITHOUT MOVING       
First Line: So to suspend it %forever
Last Line: That consumes itself again to %each time %more radient


EVERY THREE DAYS       
First Line: Every 3 days a storm
Last Line: As I was shaken %by your suffering %& then brought past it %by your courage


EXCHANGE       
First Line: What was golden earlier
Last Line: The light looking back at us %enters into us becoming %an exchange of eyes


EYE OF PISSARRO       
First Line: Let us begin with the eyes: wide-open
Last Line: By our actions, %that eye refusing %everything at variance %with truth


EYE OPENED       
First Line: Blue & yellow of the sun & green
Last Line: Eighth street & university place, %the eye opened making %essential


EYE-CHANT       
First Line: Eye of the storm
Last Line: Eye of my inside ocean & of %the outside valleys %tumbling %greening


FIESTA, IBIZA       
First Line: Warm crystal %of my little
Last Line: Its lights - burning %the unshadowed joys


FIRE-SIGN       
First Line: Lovely %o fire of %my heart
Last Line: A warmth that %whirls & scatters: %flung light


FISHERMAN       
First Line: On the beach at cullera
Last Line: Retreat,as the wave recedes, %subsiding %with the ebb of the sea


FLUTE       
First Line: In a human wasteland
Last Line: Funelling itself into %clarity of intention, %into beginning, %completion


FOR B. N.       
First Line: And what if I missed the sun outside today in
Last Line: Winding inside my transatlantic ears


FOR BELLAGIO, THE VILLA SERBELLONY, SPRINGTIME       
First Line: A hummingbird that's what I should have been
Last Line: Insistent, small flicker of %tenderness, %a morning star


FOR CARRINGTON       
First Line: Just now at montauk point, I saw kites shaped like birds
Last Line: Yourself in a kind of trance


FOR CESAR VALLEJO 1       
First Line: In this, our time, a century of
Last Line: Lagrima y lagrima en la polareda' %'tear after tear in a cloud of dust' %to slake our thirst


FOR CREELEY       
First Line: Whatever 'wandering minstrel' look in
Subject(s): Creeley, Robert (b. 1926)


FOR CREELEY       
First Line: Whatever 'wandering minstrel' look in
Last Line: That first image: %wandering minstrel
Subject(s): Creeley, Robert (b. 1926)


FOR ELAINE DE KOONING       
First Line: Oh, she said
Last Line: A possibility -- the speed of it


FOR FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA       
First Line: For years now / I have been
Subject(s): Garcia Lorca, Federico (1898-1936)


FOR FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA       
First Line: For years now %I have been
Last Line: Commanding recognition, %perfectly arched %& clear, %asserting grace
Subject(s): Garcia Lorca, Federico (1898-1936)


FOR FRANZ KLINE       
First Line: May 23rd, grace church, new york
Last Line: Grace church, on lower broadway, %may 23rd, 1962


FOR GIACOMETTI       
First Line: That head, / mountain, or
Subject(s): Giacometti, Albetro (1901-1966)


FOR GIACOMETTI       
First Line: That head, %mountain, or
Last Line: (the grounded %breast
Subject(s): Giacometti, Albetro (1901-1966)


FOR JOHN CAGE'S ETUDES AUSTRALES       
First Line: The shape within a shape
Last Line: It can go, %until the inside %becomes the outside


FOR MARGHARITA ROSPIGLIOSI       
First Line: That light step, %that dancing walk
Last Line: To work and %think in. The air %charged with your answers


FOR MARINA TSVETAEVA       
First Line: A spurt of lightning this evening
Subject(s): Tsvetayeva, Marina (1892-1941)


FOR MARINA TSVETAEVA       
First Line: A spurt of lightning this evening
Last Line: Where there was no longer any air
Subject(s): Tsvetayeva, Marina (1892-1941)


FOR MELODY R.       
First Line: That cold day, london
Last Line: Have it: it's yours, %she says


FOR PASOLINI       
First Line: Pier paolo pasolini, / I've tried to
Subject(s): Pasolini, Pier Paolo (1922-1975)


FOR PASOLINI       
First Line: Pier paolo pasolini, %I've tried to
Last Line: A body staring, %the deafened face
Subject(s): Pasolini, Pier Paolo (1922-1975)


FOR PIET MONDRIAN       
First Line: From the beginning, / the horizontal
Subject(s): Mondrian, Piet (1872-1944)


FOR PIET MONDRIAN       
First Line: From the beginning, %the horizontal
Last Line: Of the utmost one %&the utmost other
Subject(s): Mondrian, Piet (1872-1944)


FOR ROBERT DUNCAN 1919-1988       
First Line: Not looking at me, - but always
Subject(s): Duncan, Robert (1919-1988)


FOR ROBERT DUNCAN 1919-1988       
First Line: Not looking at me, - but always
Last Line: In time, %stronger %than our forever
Subject(s): Duncan, Robert (1919-1988)


FOR SIMONE WEIL       
First Line: Would you / perhaps / write for the poor
Subject(s): Weil, Simone (1909-1943)


FOR SIMONE WEIL       
First Line: Would you %perhaps %write for the poor
Last Line: The deeper almost blue %which moves most often %in bending
Subject(s): Weil, Simone (1909-1943)


FOR STEFAN 26 MONTHS LATER       
First Line: To take off for distant
Last Line: Tablecloth between us, %nothing more


FOR VALLEJO 2       
First Line: In zivogosce, here, vallejo
Last Line: Your grief become %the blackness %of a diamond, %its transparency


FOR VALLEJO 3       
First Line: What your face lives
Last Line: Which shall have been worn out %as honey out of %the carcass of the lion


FOR W.C. WILLIAMS    Poem Text    
First Line: In all the deepest thrusting
Last Line: Of this, make it of this
Subject(s): Williams, William Carlos (1883-1963)


FOR W.C. WILLIAMS       
First Line: In all the deepest thrusting
Last Line: & even by indirection %your shadow lengthening toward me, %of this, make it of this
Subject(s): Williams, William Carlos (1883-1963)


FROM OUTER SPACE       
First Line: Moving & delicate %we saw you
Last Line: O small bell, lit with living, %swinging into danger!


GIFT       
First Line: I would wish to give you
Last Line: (whatever you've thought of %when my name happened to occur to you


GIRL READING A LETTER (VERMEER)       
First Line: The light impinging on space
Last Line: A million surfaces hav eshed themselves %into this measure of bliss, %this depth


GLASSES WOULD STAND FIRM       
First Line: A man with a beard & dark hair
Last Line: A vine-wreathed coffin %in a yellow-painted cart %'with bright red wheels'


GLOBE       
First Line: A plastic globe of the world
Last Line: The fingers' %reach, to touch you %there, %in that thinner air


GREENWICH OBSERVATORY       
First Line: The moon at the full in cornwall
Last Line: Time flowing %through the funnel of your cupped hand


HAGSTGROM'S MAP OF THE WORLD       
First Line: It arches across the gulf
Last Line: With it %let me lie upon it


HAIFA       
First Line: Scooped out of a fiercer morning, cup
Last Line: Tension of thorny hill & donkey braying %hardens the breath %hold still, %small city, %your cup


HAMLET ACT 1 SCENE 1       
First Line: Who's there %(so it begins)
Last Line: The universe reflecting %itself, %yourself %reflected


HANUKKAH    Poem Text    
First Line: This season for us, the jews
Last Line: Drop of fuel enough to leap from
Subject(s): Hanukkah; Jews


HAUNTED       
First Line: The last time we were together
Last Line: Our hands were haunted, %until one by one %the stars we had watched %went out


HAWK       
First Line: Cactus-wren %in the desert, barely
Last Line: For which we can be grateful. %the hawk %joins the


HEDDA       
First Line: A fine snow falling %quickly. Crystals
Last Line: Dark the wreath uncoiling %in redness the frozen hair


HITTITES       
First Line: All winter and early spring
Last Line: Bring life, %mayim khayim


HOUSE       
First Line: My last sunlit november days in
Last Line: To come through


HOW COULD WE HAVE STAYED UP       
First Line: How could we have stayed up all that night, - laughing
Last Line: To the night's ending, %the day's beginning


HOW YOU LOVED YOUR BIRTHDAY       
Last Line: To what is deepest


HULL, POLLENSA       
First Line: That january day - the mast in the sailing
Last Line: A game - each effort recovers dignity, %a line of grace


HUNDRED LESSONS       
First Line: Having known at 18 that I would always
Last Line: Behind which there is always %eachtime %a new place


HYDRANGEA       
First Line: If you should say 'hydrangea'
Last Line: What she had sought & longed for blindly %my love


I BEGIN TO LOVE       
First Line: I begin to love the beauty
Last Line: Women in black holding the hand of a little %child in an apricot smock


I CAN'T WRITE FOR YOU, MOON       
First Line: I can't write for you %any longer
Last Line: Is without ebbing %without recall


I REMEMBER       
Last Line: Heavy & close as your hand %& your wonder %that my breasts could be so white


I REMEMBERED OF YOU THE KINDNESS       
Last Line: Became the tail-end %of a process


IBIZA I, III       
First Line: The rocks lie in this sea - half
Last Line: Beautiful is not enough


IBIZA, SUMMER 1961       
First Line: The pale fair-haired
Last Line: Out of the party bowl


IL POSTINO       
First Line: Mario, the postman, how much you
Last Line: Once the sheen of it %had ripened


IN THAT ROCK-POOL       
First Line: In that rock-pool %the 2 of us
Last Line: Meet in kinship, %making us %over, new


IN THE ILLNESS       
First Line: In the illness %the fragments
Last Line: Streaks of light %reverse themselves


IRRESOLUTE, HELD BACK       
First Line: The promontory, from zivogosce
Last Line: Thunder rumbles %the sound of the waves %irresolute, %held back


IS THIS ILLYRIA?       
Last Line: The rocks on the mountain %will remain, the ten thousand %eyes of stone, waiting %for retribution


IT IS THE LIVING       
First Line: It is the living who cannot
Last Line: What they see seems to us %nothing


JAPANESE LADY       
First Line: Inside the lamp, the candle
Last Line: What she tastes %is acrid


JOHN KEATS       
First Line: Who walked those hills in the springtime
Last Line: For the ultimate accuracy


JOURNEY TO MUZOT       
First Line: Through the mountain-landscape
Last Line: What I am doubtful of %in rilke


JUSTICE, JUSTICE       
First Line: Justice, justice shall you
Last Line: Hug the dusty earth


LA GRANDE SARAH       
First Line: And why the photograph
Last Line: That final %instrument, the mouth


LACKAWANNA COAL-MINE       
First Line: Deep, deep, we went down in
Last Line: Up heath street in hampstead, %singing


LATE THIS AFTERNOON       
First Line: Late this afternoon
Last Line: Enfolding us


LEAF       
First Line: Southward %and the first warm breath
Last Line: Into coldness, extremity of cold, %lays bare for us %the fire that keeps us warm


LEAN HARD       
First Line: Lean hard, - over the deck railing
Last Line: Sometimes, - has a coldness, %has darkness


LEARN TO BREATHE DEEPLY       
Last Line: If it were you %who were my familiar


LESSON IN FLOATING       
First Line: Leap out into the air to begin with
Last Line: Light is the element, %it is inexhaustible


LETTER FOR STEFAN 15 YEARS LATER       
First Line: But I love life, said varese, climbing
Last Line: Fear, even here now, where there is no home except in %writing %lighting up the 19th of july, 1987,


LIFE BEHIND THE LIFE GOES ON       
Last Line: They return to me, - as %at the very end


LIFE RETURNING       
First Line: There you were %& it was
Last Line: & in the eyes of the little child, %life returning to him, %gleaming


LIGHT GIVEN       
First Line: Above the 8th floor, westbeth
Last Line: That tread daily, nightly %on the flesh of my heart


LIONS       
First Line: These hills swelling, %heaving
Last Line: This moment of april %is what their dance is, %what we praise


LIZARD       
First Line: The lizard's heart throbs
Last Line: Our own tears to bewilder us


LONG CURVE       
First Line: The spray on both headlands
Last Line: Could begin to %signify a returnign, %a coming home


LONG ISLAND XMAS       
First Line: Glimpses %there were, intimations
Last Line: The cracks in the sky had light in them %hours later %our eyes were shuttered


LOOKING AT THAT SKY       
First Line: Looking at that sky, %I thought, at first
Last Line: More open still, %untouched


MACAW       
First Line: The philosophers say we know nothing
Last Line: Aware of %everthing, at once, %our eyes glare out %into the evening


MADE OUT OF LINKS       
First Line: Your weight sweetly upon me
Last Line: Those weights, those lightnesses %borne down upon me


MALLORCAN LOVE SONG       
First Line: I know why for a week
Last Line: With your touch


MATISSE: LARGE RED INTERIOR 1945       
First Line: In the red room, %a window
Last Line: Nothing %fatigues. %where tension like this is %there is joy also
Subject(s): Matisse, Henri (1869-1954)


MISTS GATHER & THICKEN       
Last Line: That the impossible %may make all things possible %again


MOON-DUST       
First Line: Tender as spanish dust & gentle
Last Line: I held your feet in my hands %moon-white %ibiza lay %innocent


MOURNING STONES       
First Line: Three white stones: %I found them
Last Line: The carcass with its holes getting redder %& redder all the time


MT. STE-VICTOIRE       
First Line: Old savage - among the little hills
Last Line: But with precision in & beyond %that light


MYTH, BUT NO SEA THERE       
Last Line: Preternatural, invoked, %freely hel; become art


NEW YORK SUBWAY    Poem Text    
First Line: The beauty of people in the subway
Subject(s): Subway; New York City; Manhattan; New York, New York; The Big Apple


NIKE OF SAMOTHRACE       
First Line: There she is (john said %coming round the corner %of the hall
Last Line: Above her in the fullness %of her courage %knows nothing %that cannot be transformed, %knows of %no


NO OTHER MAGIC       
First Line: At the end of the summer there is a darkness
Last Line: They are the poems %which the poem obscures %while it is %being written


NO WORD       
First Line: The language %is not %does not
Last Line: With the face of a phophet, %beaten %to the ground


NOTES FROM EASTHAMPTON - MARCH       
First Line: Oh, but the sky is
Last Line: Flows out of them


NOTTINGHAM LANDSCAPE       
First Line: A fresh, rich greenness I'd remembered
Last Line: Whatever rises in them into %a warmth of into %light


OF JUSTICE       
First Line: That it barely %exists at all
Last Line: No matter %how beautiful %in injustice %is terrible


ONE VOICE       
First Line: Sundays %walking on hampstead heath I heard it
Last Line: To the pond & kjack straw's castle, %where they %massed singing: %one voice


OUT OF BLACKNESS       
First Line: Rocks brown-golden in
Last Line: A rising out of blackness where nothing %is accepted


OUT OF NOTHING       
First Line: That time, over 20 years ago, in venice
Last Line: Purlioned on pilgrimages %desperate errands %in irrelevance


OUT OF THE WORLD'S FRAME       
First Line: Out of the world's frame I fell
Last Line: Extending hospitality everywhere


PARENTS       
First Line: Small %& with intensely %blue eyes - I remember her
Last Line: The strangeness would have %been %most natural


PARIS       
First Line: That world where no one
Last Line: When laughter reaches a pitch when it brims over %into intelligence


PASEO HOUR       
First Line: Light's whitness %ibiza
Last Line: Whiteness %deepens a %crystal %gradually %darkening %growing%darker


PERHAPS       
First Line: Perhaps it is time, I thought
Last Line: The span of years, a wave, %buoys me to this moment %when I discover %nothing was too much


PIERRE MATISSE 1903-1989       
First Line: The dousing of %another flame
Last Line: Brought forward to this instant, %september


POMEGRANATES       
First Line: My chin is stained with the dark-red
Last Line: Stately in the fog %beyond all misery relentless


PORTRAIT OF A GIRL (VERMEER)       
First Line: Turn of the head there
Last Line: An opposite, - becoming %a fate


POSTSCRIPT       
First Line: The bridge with splinters overhanging
Last Line: Continuing - (to breathe me there) %a dazed sun


PRAISE       
First Line: The hospital %beginnings
Last Line: Praise & glory to god, giver of life, giver %of all things, %giver of %death


PRESENCE, WILD       
First Line: Well over 30 years ago
Last Line: This place for them, known %enough to be forgotten


QUAYSIDE, IBIZA, AUGUST       
First Line: If you do take, %take joy
Last Line: The ec-stasis, without which %you might be lost, %spaniards


QUEBRADILLAS - FEBRUARY 18, 1982       
First Line: The stars here not as bright as
Last Line: Has only a little more


RIM       
First Line: To come to the continent's edge
Last Line: My hosts of the western rim


ROMAN WINTER       
First Line: Cold stars th other night
Last Line: Forward to a steepness, %a shaft: %beginning %of a winter


ROME, 1970       
First Line: I lean out %closing the shutters
Last Line: Brightness, gaiety, %a welcomer


RONDANINI PIETA       
First Line: His face seems blinded
Last Line: Make a space that is %windless %beneath them


ROSE       
First Line: The sent red roses, a dozen
Last Line: Decaying filled the air with a particular %sweetness, %a royal redness


SALISBURY       
First Line: Entering %through that arch into
Last Line: No more, no less than %they, %havinggot beyond %grieving


SEA INSIDE       
First Line: Those afternoons, %the hot wind
Last Line: The heaving, the waywardness %out of the other's breath


SEA-MAP       
First Line: Taste of salt on my fingers
Last Line: Of the now most fragile, %always travelled %patiently enduring world


SEASON       
First Line: You standing always on a
Last Line: This year: I have scarcely %seen them


SHADOW       
First Line: So little done, at my age


SHEEP LANGUAGE       
First Line: What have I done that I should find myself
Last Line: These little churches built, as %morris saw them %in joyful dedication, %out of love


SHIPS MOVE ON       
First Line: Freckles on my thighs, my legs
Last Line: That amazing handwriting %(now only half-familiar) %on the skin of our years


SHIRT       
First Line: No leaf moves. The weather
Last Line: Nothing %is clear to me except the smell of you %& the feel %your skin


SIMONE, SIMONE WEIL       
First Line: Simone,simone weill, - we're turning
Last Line: When everything stands still


SINGLE THREAD       
First Line: These leaves, - brown & yellow-reddish
Last Line: Into nothing: %a beginning


SLIPMOON       
First Line: One out every six of the leaves
Last Line: Sprinlike as the slipmoon %this withering


SNARE       
First Line: Full of anger because I saw sharply in
Last Line: The mshing infallible %of heat, flesh & bone - %trap that is not of our making


SOMETHING ELSE       
First Line: The woman ahead of me at %the grocery counter
Last Line: Something else has %come instead


SONG OF THE TERRIBLE    Poem Text    
First Line: Finally, the fine went up
Subject(s): Accidents; Love


SONG OF THE TERRIBLE       
First Line: Finally, the fire went up


SOUND OF THIS SEA       
Last Line: Movement, %answering them


STEPS       
First Line: It's too easily comforting
Last Line: Into a space we climb as they do: %stone, light, %height, distance %& closeness


STOP LOOK LISTEN       
First Line: Stop hold still. You're
Last Line: Your ears %indented %ride out then %through the fuller %season


SUMMER STILL       
First Line: I look around %& it is
Last Line: Wher the roots push down into %a darkness


SURVIVORS       
First Line: Out of the bare, dried-up
Last Line: Flown there with the hopes of new year's eve %9 gallant moons %bobbing there, %dauntless


SWUNG OFF THE PARKWAY       
First Line: Swung off the parkway swiftly
Last Line: Of seas %and a world's unrolling


THAT BALLERINA WAIST       
First Line: That ballerina waist, arched
Last Line: Can be borne, - so distant


THAT BRIGHT GREY EYE    Poem Text    
First Line: The grey sky, lighter & darker
Last Line: Is a munificence now, / is justified
Subject(s): Aging; Activity


THAT LAST WALK       
Last Line: Was it? A jungle of %bitterness? %of the seldom %touching?


THAT STRANGER       
Last Line: Where no bee of any pleasure %foreknowable %can sting him


THE WHITENESS    Poem Text    
First Line: Deep, deep under white now I longed to be
Subject(s): Snow; City & Town Life


THIS ALMOST LAST DAY       
First Line: Last final light, - rosy
Last Line: Is what we have always known


THIS COULD BE WHERE I LIVE       
First Line: That I might find this place
Last Line: Sudden lifts of earth, %peacefulness


THIS LEDGE       
First Line: Haunted here, %my roots dangle
Last Line: Who proved the need for %continuance


THIS UGLY CONCRETE BUILDING       
First Line: This ugly concrete building %seems to
Last Line: Grows in distinctness, %my life in clarity


THOSE TWO FIRES       
First Line: What do you mean then?
Last Line: So long in moving together %difficult & slow in %meeting


THOUSAND BIRDS       
First Line: A thousand birds they flew out of
Last Line: Breathe in the stillness %& must set that power %moving, %those enormous wings %flying again


THREAD OF SCARLET: 1       
First Line: Huge letters placards in paris
Last Line: Upon others & in that place of your belonging as %few of us belong to place today


THREAD OF SCARLET: 2       
First Line: I, born in new york, where you shouted
Last Line: For rememberence, we rootless ones, for encouragement, for %learning of you


THREAD OF SCARLET: 3       
First Line: A yellow moon, pale yellow & enormous
Last Line: Winding toward us, %feeding %the earth we stand on %now %after fifty years


TIDE       
First Line: Under the pine-trees
Last Line: Take refuge in those eyes %exhaling %a darkness


TO DRAW THE BLINDS       
First Line: To draw the blinds down
Last Line: The shade dropping %till it cuts me down


TO KNOW THE FULLNESS OF       
Last Line: The earth that stirs, stirs with it, %the earth that rustles


TOLSTOY'S ANNA       
First Line: Ann, the small curlsd on the nape of her neck
Last Line: Is without conditions, %unfitting her %for what would not destroy her


TONGUE IN YOUR HEAD       
First Line: But you have had so much
Last Line: Michigan on acid-free paper


TREE       
First Line: Seeing the trees lit up
Last Line: & holding each other inside that circle %of pleasures %on the edge of the sea


TREE PLANTED       
First Line: They tore my clothes
Last Line: White with %that fire, %burning, %burning in her pride


TRURO, JANUARY 1964       
First Line: Facing into %the snow I sit writing
Last Line: A wideness %resurgent toward me


TRYING OUT       
First Line: At 9:30 in the morning, september 20th, 1983
Last Line: Strength uncommitted %& the blaze of it building still


TURNING       
First Line: With the late dark of the year
Last Line: That voice saying %(the only one in %this dark place) %begin, %begin again


TWO REDS       
First Line: Two reds there are: %strawberries
Last Line: Either in heat ofr light %consimed as color %is, by fire %insweetness


UNDER THAT DARK       
First Line: From the plane window, mid-atlantic
Last Line: Pressed more tightly than ever %together %under that dark


UNTITLED       
First Line: I am a daughter of %the daughters of jerusalem
Last Line: Stop our kissing, hugging, smiling, squeezing, %murmuring, could not stop %our joy


VISIT TO STEFAN'S GRAVE, AUGUST 25, 1992       
First Line: The little pine-tree, - evergreen
Last Line: To slake your hunger %for a new depth


VOICE SUSPENDED       
First Line: This was the year in which four beautiful
Last Line: Gratitude is now, %is always, what cannot be said, %is of the present


VOICES       
First Line: That one could say simply
Last Line: Raises his head & moves in a %rhythm of singing a thrust out of %africa of araby %flamenco


WARMTH OF THIS NIGHT       
Last Line: To speak, to make itself %known %against the morning


WAS THAT SERBIA       
First Line: 12 years ago in the village of zivogosce
Last Line: Harboring what they would not disclose, remember, %reluctant to forgive


WEATHER       
First Line: That odor, %late january
Last Line: Steadier in the southwest wind than I am, %as I am not


WEIGHT & LIGHTNESS       
First Line: If at first the kissing
Last Line: Washed away in a twinning & everything %exhaled together & %at once


WELL OF SANCREED       
First Line: The dark-green richly smelling
Last Line: We would be& thickly covered, %a few days, a week perhaps %2weeks there equal %to centuries


WHAT I HEARD       
First Line: Hear me %do you hear me
Last Line: A challenge, - as though %it were in his hands


WHAT MADE YOU STAND THERE       
First Line: What made you stand there, that
Last Line: In the coil of your ears


WHAT THERE - IN WALES       
Last Line: Not there - (not there, %not there %& still there, %there


WHERE THE LIGHT IS EQUAL       
First Line: To be in that place again where the light is
Last Line: To them in fullness, %as we are


WHICH OF THE HEAPS       
First Line: Which of the heaps of ashes at
Last Line: What never was, %what %might be


WHITE SNAKE       
First Line: Give birth to yourself, he said
Last Line: The air his own, will hear a watery sound in %this dry country, %will see it all %beginning aagain


WHITENESS       
First Line: Deep, deep under white now I longed to be
Last Line: To get ready, time lost that %can be made up, %under this covering, %this whiteness


WHO WAS IT OPENED MY EYES TO SEE?       
Last Line: Pitilessly as you did when %you were a child


WILD GEESE       
First Line: They say that the flocks of
Last Line: Beginning of a slow upsurge


WILD OLEANDER       
First Line: I remember the stony hillside
Last Line: Because uncared-for, %tossed away %so only stones could see them
Subject(s): Oleanders


WINTER STOLSICE    Poem Text    
First Line: A cold night crosses
Last Line: (the dance unmoving)
Subject(s): Winter; Cold; Moon; Earth


WITH CAVAFY       
First Line: At a slight angle to the universe
Last Line: Again and again %& over & over


WORLD THEN       
First Line: The world then much more black and white than
Last Line: Blackness %blackened out


YEATS AT SEVENTY       
First Line: The imposssible: as the wind
Last Line: Blue out of the earth, %clematis %take action after much thought


YOUR COLOR       
First Line: More in some ways than when you were alive, I try to please you
Last Line: This city's grayness, %this room's whiteness


YOUR ROOM       
First Line: Your room. The big tree outside you
Last Line: What we do then is what the sea %does! Enormous