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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... 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 |
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