|
|
|
|
Discover our poem explanations - click here!Searching... Author: HALL, DONALD Matches Found: 617 Hall, Donald Poet's Biography 617 poems available by this author 1934 First Line: In nineteen-forty-four we spent july Last Line: Somebody did, who needed it before 1943 First Line: They toughened us for war. In the high-school auditorium Last Line: #name? 1951 First Line: Every night I drank beer Last Line: Reading, the grolier, talk, cronin's 440 First Line: Because I was always Last Line: Line kicking, bill best a yard ahead A BEARD FOR A BLUE PANTRY Poem Text First Line: Bluebeard displayed his wives Subject(s): Marriage; Cancer (disease); Beards; Weddings; Husbands; Wives A CAROL Poem Text First Line: The warmth of cows Last Line: And friend to grief Subject(s): Christmas; Nativity, The A SECOND STANZA Poem Text First Line: I put my hat upon my head Subject(s): Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784) A SISTER ON THE TRACKS Poem Text First Line: Between pond and sheepbarn, by maples and watery birches Subject(s): Railroads; Railways; Trains A SMALL FIG TREE Poem Text First Line: I am dead, to be sure Subject(s): Bible; Curses; Religion; Theology ABROAD THOUGHTS FROM HOME First Line: My history extends Last Line: Which I no longer take %and only partly took ACORN First Line: Thank you for the acorn you brought me ACORNS First Line: An oak twig drops Last Line: A wicker basket up %the slippery path ADULTERY AT FORTY Poem Text First Line: At shower's head, high over the porcelain moonscape Subject(s): Middle Age ADULTERY AT FORTY First Line: At the shower's head, high over the porcelain moonscape Last Line: And heistates, uncertain in which direction to hurl itself ADVENT Poem Text First Line: When I see the cradle rocking Subject(s): Christianity ADVENTURE WITH A LADY First Line: As I watched, the animals Last Line: Of lions smiled %between ivory earrings Subject(s): Love AFFIRMATION Poem Text Recitation First Line: To grow old is to lose everything Subject(s): Aging AFFIRMATION First Line: To grow old is to lose everything. %aging, everybody knows it Last Line: And affirm that it is fitting %and sweet to lose everything AFTER HORACE (ODES III, 5) Poem Text First Line: Ibyas, man of property Subject(s): Old Age; Human Conduct AFTER LIFE First Line: During the eleven days Last Line: In her closet's corner AFTERNOON Poem Text First Line: My mouse, my girl in gray, I speak to her Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives AFTERNOON First Line: My mouse, my girl in gray, I speak to her Subject(s): Family Life AIR SHATTERS IN THE CAR'S SMALL ROOM First Line: Distracting myself %on the recliner between Last Line: Their november postcard %keeping a place, halfway through AIRPORT TOES First Line: When you could not meet me AIRSTRIP IN ESSEX, 1960 First Line: It is a lost road into the air Last Line: In poland the wind rides on a jagged wall. %smoke rises from the stones; no, it is mist Subject(s): War ALCHEMIST First Line: Who imitates %turns gold to quartz Last Line: Writes delmore schwartz ALLIGATOR BRIDE First Line: The clock of my days wind down Last Line: My left hand %leaks on the chinese carpet ALLIGATOR GROOM First Line: Ridiculous. His top hat AMOS Poem Text First Line: No one would listen. He Subject(s): Amos (bible) AN ADVENTURE WITH A LADY Poem Text First Line: As I watched, the animals Last Line: Between ivory earrings Subject(s): Love AN AIRSTRIP IN ESSEX, 1960 Poem Text First Line: It is a lost road into the air Subject(s): War AN OLD LIFE Poem Text First Line: Snow fell in the nght Subject(s): Family Life; Poetry & Poets; Relatives ANOTHER ELEGY; IN MEMORY OF WILLIAM TROUT Poem Text First Line: It rained all night on the remaining elms. April soaked Subject(s): Poetry & Poets ANOTHER ELEGY; IN MEMORY OF WILLIAM TROUT First Line: It rained all night on the remaining elms. April soaked Last Line: Bill dying, shriveled and absolved, wrote on a yellow %pad, 'jesus who walked from the tomb has made Subject(s): Poetry And Poets ANTIQUITIES First Line: At sixty I began Last Line: On a lucite tray in electric shade APOLOGY FOR OLD CLOTHES Poem Text First Line: Cerulean tweed jacket, twenty years old, that blueprints Subject(s): Clothing & Dress APPLES Poem Text First Line: The have gone Subject(s): Apples; Transience; Impermanence APPLES First Line: They have gone %into the green hill Last Line: Hill of the peacock, in the resounding hill ARDOR First Line: Nursing her I felt alive Last Line: To look the other way AS I FOLLOW THE TRACK OF YOUR MIND ASSASSIN Poem Text First Line: The spider glints Subject(s): Spiders AT DELPHI First Line: At delphi where the eagles climb Last Line: Made dactyls on the ground AT EAGLE POND Poem Text First Line: In april the ice rots. Over the pocked glaze Subject(s): Daughters; Illness; Time BALLAD OF GOLDENHAIR First Line: They enter the castle together BAMBOO Poem Text First Line: In clumps like grass Subject(s): Bamboo BASEBALL PLAYERS First Line: Against the bright Last Line: Waits %under the footbridge Subject(s): Baseball; Sports BASEBALL, SEL. First Line: I would like to explain baseball to Last Line: Henry moore wheelchaired at perry green BASEBALL: THE SEVENTH INNING: 1 Poem Text First Line: Baseball, I warrant, is not the whole Subject(s): Baseball; Sports BASEBALL: THE SEVENTH INNING: 1 First Line: Baseball, I warrant, is not the whole Last Line: Her cheekbones cool water; water flows %in her rapid hair. I drink water Subject(s): Baseball; Sports BASEBALL: THE SEVENTH INNING: 2 First Line: From her body as she walks past me Last Line: Pleasure, thoroughly underrated, %is micturition, which is even BASEBALL: THE SEVENTH INNING: 3 First Line: Commoner than baseball. It begins Last Line: Adultery elsewhere. We allow %this sweet release to commence itself BASEBALL: THE SEVENTH INNING: 4 First Line: Addressing a urinal perhaps Last Line: Poignant and crimson bliss, it is as %voluptuous as rain all night long BASEBALL: THE SEVENTH INNING: 5 First Line: After baseball in august's parch. The Last Line: Box seats do. The fourth of july we %exhaust stars from sparklers in the late BASEBALL: THE SEVENTH INNING: 6 First Line: Twilight. We swoop ovals of white-gold Last Line: A dignified spreading cat and a %dog ash-gray on the muzzle BASEBALL: THE SEVENTH INNING: 7 Poem Text First Line: Quickly exhaust this night of farewell Subject(s): Baseball; Sports BASEBALL: THE SEVENTH INNING: 7 First Line: Quickly exhaust this night of farewell Last Line: To add two teams. Therefore minor league %playerrs will advance all too quickly Subject(s): Baseball; Sports BASEBALL: THE SEVENTH INNING: 8 Poem Text First Line: With boys in the bigs who wouldn't have Subject(s): Baseball; Sports BASEBALL: THE SEVENTH INNING: 8 First Line: With boys in the bigs who wouldn't have Last Line: Kurt, I get the notion that you were %another who never discarded Subject(s): Baseball; Sports BASEBALL: THE SEVENTH INNING: 9 Poem Text First Line: Anything, a keeper from way back Subject(s): Baseball; Sports BASEBALL: THE SEVENTH INNING: 9 First Line: Anything, a keeper from way back Last Line: A collage. Ongoing life became %material for kurtschwitters ball Subject(s): Baseball; Sports BEANS AND FRANKS Poem Text Recitation First Line: When newberry's closed Subject(s): Novelty Stores; Store Closings; City & Town Life BEARD FOR A BLUE PANTRY (1) First Line: Bluebeard displayed his wives Last Line: It is blue in the breadless pantry BEARD FOR A BLUE PANTRY (2) First Line: In alice mattison's dream Last Line: The bald woman with %leukemia who stared back at me BEAU OF THE DEAD First Line: John fleming walked in the house his cousin left him Last Line: The beau of the dead, the gallant of dead ladies BEAUTIFUL HORSES First Line: That time we went to suffolk downs to see BEAUTY First Line: Your small curved thighs BERMUDA, BERMUDA First Line: To celebrate her %eightieth birthday, we took my mother Last Line: In a saturation of perfumed air BETWEEN THE CLOCK AND THE BED' First Line: In the yellow light, an old man Last Line: And sleeps %in the clock's light which is yellow BLACK FACED SHEEP First Line: Ruminant pillows! Gregarious soft boulders! Last Line: And death is our shepherd %and we die as the animals die Subject(s): Farm Life; Mortality; Shepherds And Shepherdesses BLUE WING First Line: She was all around me BLUE WING First Line: She is all around me %like a rainy day Last Line: And out of the sea BLUES FOR POLLY First Line: Jane's bookcase and chest of drawers Last Line: The months of sickness and taking care BODY POLITIC (1) First Line: I shot my friend to save my country's life Last Line: Too late I learn: a nation's just a notion BODY POLITIC (2) First Line: I shot my friend to save my country's life Last Line: Man lives by love, and not by metaphor BORDERS First Line: Peonies as big as turkeys Last Line: Gaze into bird and flower, %to inhabit the blossoming now BRAIN CELLS First Line: Inside the brain they are holding a mass funeral for the BREASTS First Line: There is something between us BRIEF LIVES First Line: The world is everything that is the case Last Line: This fitted him to teach creative writing BY THE EXETER RIVER First Line: What is it you're mumbling, old father, my dad? Last Line: We drowned your half-brother. I remember we did CARIBBEAN Poem Text First Line: Montego bay/in its quick curve Subject(s): Caribbean Sea CARLOTTA'S CONFESSION First Line: My grandfather's name was augusto Last Line: Your sins are forgiven,' he said CAROL First Line: The warmth of cows Last Line: A man of sorrows %and friend to grief Subject(s): Christmas CARYATID First Line: Aphrodite of smooth long skin Last Line: That vanished of its own excess CHAIRS NEXT TO EACH OTHER CHILD First Line: He lives among a dog Last Line: He stops suddenly %to hear the black water CHILD'S GARDEN First Line: I'm sure I can't remember where, but some Last Line: Was only grunts. I made no words at all CHRIST CHURCH MEADOWS, OXFORD Poem Text First Line: Often I saw, as on my balcony Subject(s): Oxford University; Students, Foreign CHRIST CHURCH MEADOWS, OXFORD First Line: Often I saw, as on my balcony Last Line: Who cast her, as I told them, on the waters Subject(s): Oxford University; Students, Foreign CHRISTMAS EVE IN WHITNEYVILLE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: December, and the closing of the year; Subject(s): Christmas; Nativity, The CHRISTMAS EVE IN WHITNEYVILLE First Line: December, and the closing of the year Last Line: I will go back and leave you here to stay %where the dark houses harden into sleep CHRISTMAS PARTY AT THE SOUTH DANBURY CHURCH Poem Text First Line: December twenty-first Subject(s): Christmas; Nativity, The CHRISTMAS PARTY AT THE SOUTH DANBURY CHURCH First Line: December twenty-first Last Line: Enters the world as a newborn again CIDER 5 CENTS A GLASS First Line: When I heard monica's %voice on the telephone, I Last Line: Detonation of cider sweet %and harsh in my mouth CLERIHEWS First Line: The prince of wales Last Line: That I developed a taste for escargots.' CLIMBING OUT First Line: Above the timberline CLOSING MY EYES CLOSINGS Poem Text Subject(s): Suicide; Poetry & Poets CLOWN First Line: Practically all you newspaper people Last Line: The clown %cartwheeled across the dressing room, and bowed Subject(s): Clowns COAL FIRE First Line: A coal fire burned in a basket grate Last Line: When it flaked into ash COALITION First Line: If among earth's kings lord gilgamesh should remain unreasonable Last Line: Of pharoah death, imperator death, shogun death, president death Subject(s): Bly, Robert (b. 1926) COFFEE CUP First Line: The newspaper, the coffee cup, the dog's Last Line: New hampshire, putting on socks COLD WATER First Line: He steps around a gate of bushes Last Line: Of pines which are dead or born again COLUMNS OF THE PARTHENON First Line: White bone in the yellow flats of sun Last Line: To guard both granaries and temples COMING TO OUR HOUSE First Line: We lived on our own Last Line: Year-old sills, and became our house CONDUCT AND WORK First Line: Mirror, mirror on the wall Last Line: How can you tell seducer from seduced? CONVERGENCES Poem Text First Line: At sixteen he dismisses his mother with contempt. Subject(s): Life CONVERSATION First Line: At dinner their first night Last Line: And late for the work she loved, she drove away. %green eyes, green eyes CONVERSATION'S AFTERPLAY Poem Text Recitation First Line: At dinner our first night Subject(s): Love - Erotic COPS AND ROBBERS First Line: When I go west you wear a marshal's star Last Line: An outsize penguin lumbers from the herd CORNER First Line: It does not know %its name Last Line: Into the corner, %it will not die COUPLET Poem Text First Line: When the tall puffy Variant Title(s): Old Timers' Day Subject(s): Aging; Baseball; Sports COUPLET First Line: When the tall puffy Last Line: Among shades the shadow %of achilles Variant Title(s): Old Timers' Da Subject(s): Aging; Baseball; Sports CREW-CUTS First Line: Men with crew-cuts %are impossible DANCERS First Line: Bowing he asks her the favor Last Line: They are old, and their children like houses %stand in a row DAVID HUME First Line: I dine, I play a game of backgammon' DAY I WAS OLDER First Line: The clock on the parlor wall, stout as a mariner's clock Last Line: From this cup every day, we will never drink it dry DAYLILIES ON THE HILL First Line: Endurance is good,' he said, 'and best is the endurance Last Line: Vertical birches, hilly road, sunlight slant and descending DAYS First Line: Ten years ago this minute, he possibly sat Last Line: In the sunlight, in connecticut, in an old chair DEATH WORK Recitation by Author Subject(s): Death; Dead, The DIGGING First Line: One midnight, after a day when lilies Last Line: To bees, in the language of green and yellow, white and red DISTRESSED HAIKU Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: In a week or ten days Subject(s): Death; Time; Dead, The DO NOT WAKE ME UP DON'T BE AFRAID.... First Line: Don't be afraid; you look scared, like max the wimpy Last Line: Timidity encourages %death and never prevents dying DREAD AND DESIRE First Line: The body's adversaries %salt the pink filet Last Line: To rub his wrinkles %against smooth skin DUMP First Line: The trolley has stopped long since Last Line: Old men live here, in narrow houses full of rugs, %in this last place EATING THE PIG Poem Text First Line: Twelve people, most of us strangers, stand in a room Subject(s): Pigs; Food & Eating; Boars; Hogs EATING THE PIG First Line: Twelve people, most of us strangers, stand in a room Last Line: Opened your skin together %and tore your body apart, and took it %into our bodies EDWARD'S ANECDOTE First Line: Late one night she told me Last Line: Back to her father: where else %should she look for comfort? EIGHTH INNING First Line: Kurt, terror is merely the thesis Last Line: Fenway of january and snow, %we find ticket stubs in our wallets Subject(s): Sports ELEANOR'S LETTERS First Line: I who picked up the neat Last Line: She signed her dying letter %'as ever, eleanor' ELEGY FOR WESLEY WELLS First Line: Against the clapboards and the window panes Last Line: In andover %while march bent down the cemetery trees ENDING First Line: He wakes under a canopy of ice, and dreads Last Line: Of gorged food, bile, eight knuckles bleeding EXILE First Line: A boy who played and talked and read with me Last Line: And all the streets were new EXILE First Line: Each of us waking to the window's light Last Line: Whatever hand might reach and touch our hand EXTENDED CARE Poem Text First Line: Katherine wears her hat Subject(s): Disease; Illness; Disability EXTENDED CARE First Line: Katherine wears her hat Last Line: Or kathy who politely %inquires if I might be byron EXTRA INNINGS: THE ELEVENTH INNING: 1. First Line: In the nineteen-ninety, kurt, I picked the red sox Last Line: Like everybody else in the universe. %the first time I died I was forty, whining EXTRA INNINGS: THE ELEVENTH INNING: 10. First Line: In the apothegm of baltimore earl weaver Last Line: They pray, they eat peanut butter, they weep tears; %they practice love, sleep, work, cancer, and ba EXTRA INNINGS: THE ELEVENTH INNING: 11. First Line: When you drove me back home from the hospital Last Line: Day's routine, inhabiting this clapboard, %quotidian, rare, sensible paradise EXTRA INNINGS: THE ELEVENTH INNING: 2. First Line: Commonplace miseries of whiskey and love Last Line: The posthumous recognize each other at %store or post office: that one, with the pale shroud EXTRA INNINGS: THE ELEVENTH INNING: 3. First Line: Wound invisibly around her body, who Last Line: Or froze them black. Now in the mild risen sun %we take deliberate pleasure breathing air EXTRA INNINGS: THE ELEVENTH INNING: 4. First Line: Every hours of our lives we inhale deeply Last Line: At forty degrees in fenway, still harder %to hit. But the posthumous never complain EXTRA INNINGS: THE ELEVENTH INNING: 5. First Line: Kurt, I begin to understand what matters Last Line: What strangers said to each other, fit topics %for conversation among men reclining EXTRA INNINGS: THE ELEVENTH INNING: 6. First Line: By the fire after a late meal.' the doctor Last Line: From the morning paper through extra innings %from the west coast - fading with the pale grasses EXTRA INNINGS: THE ELEVENTH INNING: 7. First Line: Of october, returning with the yellow Last Line: While spring training thawed under florida sun %and snow darkened by new london hospital EXTRA INNINGS: THE ELEVENTH INNING: 8. First Line: As his breaths grew quicker, abrupt and panicked Last Line: Into his body. Frightened, watching my grave %open and suggest that I might enter it EXTRA INNINGS: THE ELEVENTH INNING: 9. First Line: As if an owed death assumed me to itself Last Line: When wrinkled flesh warmed itself again, I made %love with jennifer in her grieving body EXTRA INNINGS: THE TENTH INNING: 1. First Line: My friend david tells me that jasper johns Last Line: Despite its generic unpleasantgness %appears under almost all conditions EXTRA INNINGS: THE TENTH INNING: 10. First Line: With no likelihood of metastasis Last Line: Juice, the yankees beaaten three straight, cleveland %comingto town for four, a big series EXTRA INNINGS: THE TENTH INNING: 2. First Line: More attractive than its alternative Last Line: Unless we relish baseball, daydreaming %a game each night; then the morning paper EXTRA INNINGS: THE TENTH INNING: 3. First Line: After the bald surgeon making his rounds Last Line: Open. All night I reached in the darkness %to feel her familiar body again EXTRA INNINGS: THE TENTH INNING: 4. First Line: And at dawn brought coffee to her bedside Last Line: Reran the last days, as a crow returns %to the perfume of putrescent carcass EXTRA INNINGS: THE TENTH INNING: 5. First Line: The drive to the hospital, admissions Last Line: Where tomatoes sagged erupting black juice, %where squash lapsed softly drooling corrupt lymph EXTRA INNINGS: THE TENTH INNING: 6. First Line: And seed, where kentucky wonders curled up Last Line: On the likelihood of metastasis %or probability of recurrence EXTRA INNINGS: THE TENTH INNING: 7. First Line: The entire history of human thought Last Line: I looked covertly at the small bandage %over the smooth skin I kissed so often EXTRA INNINGS: THE TENTH INNING: 8. First Line: While we made love and I nuzzled her neck Last Line: Batter, two or three in a row - left, right, %left; meanwhile the other team's manager EXTRA INNINGS: THE TENTH INNING: 9. First Line: Answers with pinch-hitters - right, left, right, left Last Line: In virulence, encapsulated in %the membrand of the salivary gland EXTRA INNINGS: THE TWELFTH INNING: 1. Poem Text First Line: Before lights, kurt, baseball games were sometimes delayed Subject(s): Baseball; Sports EXTRA INNINGS: THE TWELFTH INNING: 1. First Line: Before lights, kurt, baseball games were sometimes delayed Last Line: The dogers beat the yankees in the world series %for the first time, as johnny podres won three game Subject(s): Baseball; Sports EXTRA INNINGS: THE TWELFTH INNING: 10. First Line: His affection luminous. Baseball is better Last Line: Mountain from an ox-path that became the grafton %turnpike in eighteen-three, later route 4. The cap EXTRA INNINGS: THE TWELFTH INNING: 11. First Line: In its almost two hundred years of adjustment Last Line: Chickadees, nuthatches, and slate-colored juncos; %soon grosbeaks with yellow chests will peck at th EXTRA INNINGS: THE TWELFTH INNING: 12. First Line: In september the red sox lose games in the ninth Last Line: Thinking again how carlton fisk ended game six %in the twelfth inning with a poke over the wall EXTRA INNINGS: THE TWELFTH INNING: 2. First Line: I watched with my father on a seven-inch screen Last Line: While baseball remains the alternative to days. %dock ellis performed poihntguard for his high schoo EXTRA INNINGS: THE TWELFTH INNING: 3. First Line: But pitched for a profession. He threw a no-no Last Line: And devastating. When we fake this way, fake that, %break past the body leaping midair to block us EXTRA INNINGS: THE TWELFTH INNING: 4. First Line: And lay it up behind his back, we are deathless Last Line: In september the red sox have an outside chance %if toronto keeps on clutching, if the tigers EXTRA INNINGS: THE TWELFTH INNING: 5. First Line: Lose games they ought to lose. Today as the leaves fall Last Line: And under the high sun of july prodigious %peonies of privacy, whiter than winter EXTRA INNINGS: THE TWELFTH INNING: 6. First Line: Where buttercups flourished by a stony wellhead Last Line: Buried on christmas eve. For twenty years his death %provoked the choices of my life. I use mornings EXTRA INNINGS: THE TWELFTH INNING: 7. First Line: To work in, and afternoons for reading and love Last Line: She weeps to recall jack who turned into ashes, %remembered by a granite bench with flowering shrubs EXTRA INNINGS: THE TWELFTH INNING: 8. First Line: It is the season for blackberries that prosper Last Line: Prizes for best answers: kurt carcinoma? Kid %chumpleheart? Kitsch champion? Kitchen cat? Kup cake? EXTRA INNINGS: THE TWELFTH INNING: 9. First Line: Steve blass was a control-pitcher one year, the next Last Line: Who still talks baseball for npr on fridays %from tallahassee. His voice was soft and nervous FAIR First Line: In june the fair committee Last Line: A hundred dollar bill. Massachusetts FAMILY First Line: Under the glassy christmas tree Last Line: He is hungry, very hungry; %he thinks he could eat an animal FARM First Line: Standing on top of the hay Last Line: Doze on the bottom FATHERS AND SONS First Line: Over my bed %my father stood Last Line: The form I dread %of father god FETE First Line: Festival lights go on Last Line: When you touch me, there FIFTH INNING First Line: Kurt, last night dwight evans put it all Last Line: Deep; we lost three or two, unable %to rally back. Then the long drive home Subject(s): Sports FIGHTING First Line: Your left foot moves FIVE EPIGRAMS First Line: Begin again. There is no law which says FLIES Poem Text First Line: A fly sleeps on the field of a green curtain. I sit by my grandmother's side Subject(s): Animals; Farm Life; Grandparents; Agriculture; Farmers; Grandmothers; Grandfathers; Great Grandfathers; Great Grandmothers FLIES First Line: A fly sleeps on the field of a green curtain. I sit by my grandmother's side Last Line: I planned long ago I would live here, somebody's grandfather Subject(s): Animals; Farm Life; Grandparents FLYING First Line: In the cellar at the long Last Line: Of hamden and spring glen FOR AN EARLY RETIREMENT Poem Text First Line: Chinless and slouched, gray-faced, and slack of jaw Subject(s): Hate FOR AN EARLY RETIREMENT First Line: Chinless and slouched, gray-faced, and slack of jaw Last Line: This fitted him to teach creative writing Subject(s): Hate FOR AN EXCHANGE OF RINGS First Line: They rise into mind Last Line: To other days as they %moisten and swell FOUNDATIONS OF AMERICAN INDUSTRY First Line: In the ford plant Last Line: Them, and they walk on %their fathers Subject(s): Industry; Labor And Laborers FOUR First Line: At michigan games Last Line: Rather you didn't but I don't mind FOUR EPIGRAMS First Line: On a poet %he sought in his late work, which no one reads Last Line: On a scholar: %ascribed to earth, by bookworms tilled and ploughed, %she wore her learning lightly, FOURTH INNING First Line: As the moment's vowel rolls itself Last Line: Backstop; I struck out; I dropped the ball: %airplanes crashed on my freckless sandlot FRANK O'HARA First Line: If frank was a bird Last Line: You're the type that would sue FRIEND REVISITED First Line: Beside the door %she stood whom I had known before Last Line: Deliberation and a shaping choice %to make a speaking voice FRIENDS NOW First Line: Young robin of christ church Last Line: Or until we died, whichever came first GALLERY First Line: Back home from the grave Last Line: At her home in wilmot GENEROUS TINY HANDS GOGGLES AND HELMET Poem Text First Line: In her living toom Subject(s): Childhood Memories; Mothers; Hospitals GOING OUT First Line: When my parents celebrated Last Line: Christie in large type editions GOLD Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Pale gold of the walls, gold Subject(s): Love GOLD First Line: Pale gold of the walls, gold Last Line: Will find in a thousand years, %shining and whole Subject(s): Love GOODNIGHT First Line: The three-year-old with tight Last Line: In the waiting room, I observe %a copy of goodnight moon GOOGLES AND HELMET First Line: In her living room Last Line: On a pacific atoll near wake %island, and she was safe GOOSEFEATHERS Poem Text Recitation First Line: When I was twelve I sat by myself in the steamliner Subject(s): Childhood Memories; Farm Life; Agriculture; Farmers GORDON OF THE GROLIER BOOK SHOP First Line: He was an old man with a bump Last Line: Atchison, topeka, and santa fe GRACE First Line: God, I know nothing, my sense is all nonsense Last Line: My grief festers, corrupted into dread, %and I know nothing.Give us our daily bread GRANITE AND GRASS First Line: On ragged mountain birches twist from rifts in granite Last Line: Granite is grass in the holy meadow of the soul's repose GRASS First Line: Under grass %among stones and the downward GRAVE, THE WELL First Line: Taking off from kennedy Last Line: Grave, the well, the mine %of fur and scent GREAT DAY IN THE COW'S HOUSE First Line: In the dark tie-up seven huge holsteins Last Line: Through floorboards onto the manure pile in the great day GREEN SHELF First Line: Driving back from the market Last Line: Basil, and tarragon GREEN, RED & WHITE First Line: Blueberry bagels and the globe Last Line: Reprieve into he blood's white water GROWN-UPS First Line: Lady, what are you laughing at? Is it the joke Last Line: Of the laughter, the lies, the responsive pitches HAPPY TIMES First Line: There is straw in the goose bindery HEART First Line: When her young sister married Last Line: I don't believe this heart business.' HENYARD ROUND First Line: From the dark yard by the sheep barn the cock crowed Last Line: Who died one summer at eighty-seven, childish, %deaf, unable to feed herself, demented Subject(s): Poetry And Poets HER FACE First Line: Her death divests the valley Last Line: Over decades and academies %of the haymaking rain HER GARDEN Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: I let her garden go. Subject(s): Gardens & Gardening HER LONG ILLNESS Poem Text First Line: Daybreak until nightfall, Subject(s): Cancer (disease); Kenyon, Jane (1947-1995); Marital Love HER LONG ILLNESS First Line: Daybreak until nightfall %he sat by his wife at the hospital Last Line: So that she could smell the snowy air HERE IS THE UNDERSIDE HIDING Poem Text Recitation First Line: I know she's gone for good. Subject(s): Death; Dead, The HIGGLEDY HIGGINSON? First Line: Higgledy-piggledy %emily dickinson Last Line: Murder and incest are %sweetness and light HIGH PASTURE First Line: I am the hounds Last Line: In the high pasture HIS FACE First Line: My whole life of writing Last Line: To keep my grandfather from dying? HISTORY First Line: When the knife slipped and cut deeply into the fingerpad HOLE First Line: He could remember that in the past, seven months ago Last Line: And lay and twisted and slept, until nobody called him HUNKERING First Line: In october the red leaves going brown heap and scatter Last Line: More tighten themselves for darkness and hunker down HURRICANE First Line: Just after my tenth birthday Last Line: Scribbled upward, writhing in stillness HUT OF THE MAN ALONE First Line: Jerome had lived alone for thirty years Last Line: The shattered pieces of a wall of mirror I AM NO FAUST: UNSALARIED MY SIN Last Line: It is from love I ask the devil in I AWOKE MY BODY DRIFTING I COME TO THE GARDEN ALONE First Line: Among the dead of this village church I DREAMED LAST NIGHT I FEEL AS IF I LOST MY OVERCOAT IN OMOHA First Line: A scarf resides I PASS THE ATTENTIVE I SLUMP IN MY RED CHAIR IDEA OF FLYING First Line: The wings lacking a trunk %flap like a sail Last Line: Look, how the body of %space is a steep dying ILLUSTRATION First Line: In a bookshelf at the dark living room's end Last Line: Empty, inhabited only 'the skeleton in armor' IMPOSSIBLE LOVERS First Line: When the clothes fell away% from your caryatid body Last Line: Although we were impossible lovers, %because we were impossible lovers IMPOSSIBLE MARRIAGE First Line: The bride disappears. After twenty minutes of searching Last Line: Anchoret of amherst! O reticent kosmos of brooklyn! Subject(s): Dickinson, Emily (1830-1886) IN THE MIDDLE OF THINGS THAT CONTAIN YOU IN THE OLD HOUSE First Line: In the kitchen of the old house, late Last Line: He opened the door and met the young %woman who waited for him INDEPENDENCE DAY LETTER First Line: Five a.M., the fourth of july %I walked by eagle pond with the dog Last Line: After the wednesday we buried you INFANT INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL FORMS Poem Text First Line: What the birds say Subject(s): Autumn; Nature; Fall INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL FORMS' (FROM HENRY MOORE'S SCULPTURE) First Line: What the birds say Last Line: Curve inward, and %the seed talks ISLAND First Line: We called it the island, as if Last Line: Never budged from noon %in the permanent connecticut sky IT WAS SIGMUND..., FR. THE MUSEUM OF CLEAR IDEAS First Line: It was sigmund freud, I believe, who inquired Last Line: Ambition's spaceship a million miles an hour a thousand years %to the furthest galaxy at a temperatu JACK AND THE OTHER JACK First Line: Jack told himself the word was pure as soap JAMAICA Poem Text First Line: Nothing is taller than a royal palm Subject(s): Jamaica, West Indies JANE AT PIGALL'S First Line: It is impossible to comprehend this aubergine that strays JE SUIS UNE TABLE First Line: It has happened suddenly Last Line: To relieve on principle %now this intense thickening JEALOUS LOVERS First Line: When he lies in the night away from her Last Line: Her eyes have not shut all night Subject(s): Jealousy KICKING THE LEAVES Poem Text First Line: Each fall in new hampshire, on the farm Last Line: Three of us sitting together, silent, in gray november Subject(s): Grandparents; Farm Life; Grandmothers; Grandfathers; Great Grandfathers; Great Grandmothers; Agriculture; Farmers KICKING THE LEAVES First Line: Kicking the leaves, october, as we walk home together Last Line: In the story of leaves KILL First Line: Sheep move on the grass Last Line: Like a wind or a flood %into the rubble of distance KING AND QUEEN' (FROM HENRY MOORE'S SCULPTURE) First Line: As they grew older Last Line: As a river builds a delta, %they have become still KISS' First Line: The backs twist with the kiss Last Line: Of a green lizard to walls %whole days, and is gone LAOCOON First Line: I lived to tell the truth, and truth was wrong LAST DAYS Poem Text First Line: It was reasonable / to expect. So he wrote. The next day Subject(s): Death; Dead, The LAST DAYS (1) First Line: It was reasonable %to expect. So he wrote. The next day Last Line: With his thumb he closed her round brown eyes Subject(s): Death LAST DAYS (2) First Line: Home from the hospital Last Line: With his thumb he closed her round brown eyes Subject(s): Death LET ENGINE COWLING.... First Line: Let engine cowling rivets Last Line: Mother's and father's souls %otherwise orphaned, giddy with vacuum LETTER AFTER A YEAR First Line: Here's a story I never told you Last Line: It faded as we watched %not seeing it fade LETTER AT CHRISTMAS Poem Text First Line: The big wooden clock you gave me Last Line: In the kearsage mini-mart Subject(s): Christmas; Letters; Nativity, The LETTER AT CHRISTMAS First Line: The big wooden clock you gave me Last Line: I press my penis %into zinc and butcherblock Subject(s): Christmas; Letters LETTER FROM WASHINGTON First Line: Sitting in a swivel chair Last Line: The one who will close them LETTER IN AUTUMN Poem Text Recitation First Line: This first october of your death Subject(s): Death; Marital Love; Mourning; Dead, The; Bereavement LETTER IN AUTUMN First Line: This first october of your death Last Line: Rising from the clump behind you %and I the gray oak alongside LETTER IN THE NEW YEAR First Line: New year's eve I baby-sat Last Line: Love, is a conflagration %of the whole being LETTER TO AN ENGLISH POET First Line: Your letter describes %what you see from your window. You chose Last Line: Without parents we adopt the world LETTER WITH NO ADDRESS Poem Text Recitation First Line: Your daffodils rose up Subject(s): Death; Dead, The LETTER WITH NO ADDRESS First Line: Your daffodils rose up %and collapsed in their yellow Last Line: As if proposing an encounter %dog-fashion, with the honda LIGHT PASSAGE First Line: Light %grunts out of black tubes LITERATURE First Line: Playboy put on a show Last Line: Of stairs to remainder his collarbone LITTLE TOWN First Line: I walk for a long time. These mountains are soft, and LONE RANGER First Line: Vast unmapped badlands sprad without a road Last Line: Why did he wear a mask? He was abstract LONG RIVER First Line: The musk ox smells Last Line: The wood is dark %with old pleasures LONG RIVER First Line: The musk-ox smells %in his long head Last Line: The wood is dark %with old pleasures LOOKING AT THESE POEMS LOST First Line: At three, living in the rented Last Line: Of the other - rocking, %hopeless, wet-faced - provided us house LOST BROTHER First Line: I knew that tree was my lost brother Last Line: Sooner or later, some bag of wind will cut me down LOVE IS LIKE SOUNDS First Line: Late snow fell this early morning of spring Last Line: Where snow hangs still in the middle of the air LOVE POEM Poem Text Recitation First Line: When you fall in love Subject(s): Love LOVING YOU LUNCH First Line: It is necessary Subject(s): Lunch LYCANTHROPY REVISITED Poem Text First Line: When it is truly the moon that he sees Subject(s): Werewolves; Dreams; Nightmares MAKE UP First Line: The daughter with breasts MAN IN THE DEAD MACHINE First Line: High on a slope in new guinea Last Line: Upright, held %by the firm webbing Subject(s): World War Ii MAPLE SYRUP Poem Text First Line: August, goldenrod blowing. We walk Subject(s): Farm Life; Graves; Agriculture; Farmers; Tombs; Tombstones MAPLE SYRUP First Line: August, goldenrod blowing. We walk Last Line: The sweetness preserved, of a dead man %in his own kitchen, %giving us %from his lost grave the gift Subject(s): Farm Life; Graves MARAT'S DEATH' First Line: Charlotte, 'the angel of asssasination,' is relaxed Last Line: Her body is an alpabet MARRIAGE First Line: When in the bedded dark of night MATCH First Line: Yellow fingers %lit a match Last Line: Neatly pushed to %the same quarter MATERIAL First Line: At fourteen, parked Last Line: Like bread, like grass %after warm rain MATTER OF FACT Poem Text First Line: No deposit. No return MAUNDY THURSDAY'S CANDLES First Line: We speak the verses out of mark Last Line: And in bright day, up the hillside, %'they took him to be crucified.' MERLE BASCOM'S .22 Poem Text First Line: I was twelve when my father gave me this .22 Subject(s): Sports MERLE BASCOM'S .22 First Line: I was twelve when my father gave me this .22 Last Line: I cannot throw it away; it was my father's gift Subject(s): Sports MIDSUMMER LETTER First Line: The polished black granite Subject(s): August; Summer MIDSUMMER LETTER First Line: The polished black granite Last Line: To see it huge in the west %as if this were any august Subject(s): August; Summer MIDWINTER LETTER First Line: I wanted this assaulting winter Last Line: The label basil in a familiar hand %a stain on flowery sheets MIGHTY POETS First Line: When I asked wallace Last Line: To guilty sorrow: 'but we were so poor.' MILKERS BROKEN UP First Line: I was sleeping in madison, anthony bradbury's spare room Last Line: Over rocky pastures, ripped meat bloody and still alive MILKMAID First Line: As the clutch of her loving Last Line: Like a milkmaid in a meadow, %petticoats flung upward MIRROR Subject(s): Fairy Tales MOISHE'S HORSE First Line: When the ragpicker's weary MOON First Line: A woman who lived %in a tree caught Last Line: Of a tree, beside %a cold kettle MOON CLOCK First Line: Like an oarless boat through midnight's watery Last Line: Upreared and stony as the moon's mycenaean lions MORBID JOY First Line: We worked all morning. In the fall Last Line: Gathered themselves one april afternoon MORNING IN BED MORNING PORCHES First Line: Even the morning is formal. A coughing dog MORTAL ENGINES: LATE PLEASURES First Line: At ninety, bed-bound Last Line: Breathe, her face gorgeous with ecstasy MORTAL ENGINES: RINGS First Line: She lay in the coffin, her hands Last Line: Sapphire. To please me? It pleases me MORTAL ENGINES: SIGHS First Line: A decade ago, when philippa Last Line: It's good that I married my mother MORTAL ENGINES: TELEPHONE First Line: In the night the phone rang Last Line: Rings although no one is calling MORTAL ENGINES: THE COMFORT First Line: Insofar as coffins Last Line: Was wrong. It was a comfort, I suppose MORTAL ENGINES: WATCH First Line: The old woman's tiny watch Last Line: Second. Interred on christmas eve MOUNT KEARSARGE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Great blue mountain! Ghost Subject(s): Kearsarge (mountain), New Hampshire MOUNT KEARSARGE First Line: Great blue mountain! Ghost Last Line: My eyes, and you rise inside me, %blue ghost Subject(s): Kearsarge (mountain), New Hampshire MOUNT KEARSARGE SHINES... Poem Text First Line: Mount kearsarge shines with ice; from hemlock branches Last Line: For the government of two Subject(s): Togetherness; Weather MOUNT KEARSARGE SHINES... First Line: Mount kearsarge shines with ice; from hemlock branches Last Line: For peepers as spring comes on, never to miss %the day's offering of pleasure %for the government of Subject(s): Kearsarge (mountain), New Hampshire; Nature MOUTH First Line: Your mouth MR. AND MRS. BILLINGS First Line: Your wife,' the doctor said %'will be dead' Last Line: To think of a suitable, and funny, joke MR. WAKEFIELD ON INTERSTATE 90 Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Now I will abandon the route of my life Subject(s): Conduct Of Life MR. WAKEVILLE ON INTERSTATE 90 First Line: Now I will abandon the route of my life Last Line: I will exult in the ecstasy of my concealment MY FRIEND FELIX First Line: Beginning at five o'clock, just before dawn rises Last Line: Continuing straight west I dream %of my lucky friend felix the singlewing halfback MY LIFE AND TIMES: A HISTORY OF ADVENTURE First Line: The gringo baker's howling wonder bread Last Line: Dogmatics barking up arcadia's baobab: %blossoming nymphs, extruding fruitloops MY LIFE AND TIMES: A HISTORY OF HELL First Line: After the fifth week without sight Last Line: Later still, we crowd the ports of hell %awaiting voyage to an alternate damnation MY LIFE AND TIMES: A HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND First Line: The black carnival pitched its tent Last Line: Sable instruction, in order to grow: %awful, laborious, dazzled by dollars MY LIFE AND TIMES: A HISTORY OF PEACE First Line: Like literary theorists, peace never existed,' Last Line: And love without prejudice, while the imagined %theorist empties his magazine into this text MY LIFE AND TIMES: A HISTORY OF PLEASURE First Line: Happiness, pleasure, and bliss hunted Last Line: In its chosen tub of hurts and flares %decorated with our languid purple poesis MY LIFE AND TIMES: A HISTORY OF SEXUAL INTERCOURSE First Line: The green pond boils. In the aftermath Last Line: (what happened afterwards belongs %to the history of affection and nails.) MY LIFE AND TIMES: A HISTORY OF THE PAST First Line: Theorganic or at least mildly decadent Last Line: Robert the philosopher's dog %whimpers sniffing at a healthy hole MY LIFE AND TIMES: A HISTORY OF VIRTUE First Line: Vice's orininal project, ongoing major export Last Line: We establish a herd of plywood hosteins %who confess: peccavi; peccavi; peccavi MY LIFE AND TIMES: A THEORY OF PHILOSOPHY First Line: It is essential to be transparent Last Line: Up resembles the way dwon, the way %parmenides resembles three squares a day MY LIFE AND TIMES: A THEORY OF POETRY First Line: Turn on the (o muse) autism! We sing Last Line: Without fear that a lion leap roaring %from the unexamined wordfinder of life MY LIFE AND TIMES: A THEORY OF SIN First Line: The depleted rose sighs for its jesus Last Line: Beneath the arrangements these adjectives %fess up to, bragging: unforgiven songs MY LIFE AND TIMES: A THEORY OF WORDS First Line: They begin in utero. After a white parlor Last Line: Imagination (who reek of an imbecile perfume) %to howl, loathing the mouse-music of howling MY OLD BOOKS MY SON THE EXECUTIONER Last Line: Observe enduring life in you %and start to die together MY SON, MY EXECUTIONER Poem Text MY SON, MY EXECUTIONER Last Line: Observe enduring life in you %and start to die together Subject(s): Sons MYCENAE First Line: In the shaft graves, butterflies Last Line: To be struck like a zebra %drinking at a water-hole NAMES OF HORSES Poem Text Recitation First Line: All winter your brute shoulders strained against collars, padding Subject(s): Farm Life; Love; Agriculture; Farmers NAMES OF HORSES First Line: All winter your brute shoulders strained against collars, padding Last Line: O roger, mackerel, riley, ned, nellie, chester, lady ghost Subject(s): Farm Life; Love NEW ANIMALS First Line: Waking one morning Last Line: And peacocks that keen %aiee aiee NEW HAMPSHIRE First Line: A bear sleeps in a cellar hole; pine needles Last Line: Where a quarrel %of vines crawls into the spilled body of a plane NEW ROOM First Line: Suddenly I look up NIGHT OF THE DAY First Line: Cool october, monday night. I waited for kickoff Last Line: Not wanting to sleep, happy, amazed by happiness NO COLOR MAN First Line: I lived no-color. In a gray room I talked Last Line: And buried each other continually in gray sand NO DEPOSIT First Line: No deposit - no return %said the bottle dead of beer Last Line: No deposit - no return NO DEPOST NO RETURN NORTH SOUTH Poem Text First Line: Morning is a dog with failing hindquarters Subject(s): Life NOSE First Line: It is an accurate nose Last Line: Do not sit on this nose NOTES FOR NOBODY First Line: The first time I met him henry moore was sixty. Before tea Last Line: Never consider a surface except as the extremity of a volume NOTES FROM CHINA First Line: At shanghai, poplars Last Line: Walk, halting to gaze at our train NOTES FROM INDIA First Line: As I said before (do I Last Line: And endurance under the sun NOTHING, MY AGING FLACCUS.... First Line: Nothing, my aging flaccus, looks so happy next to your ranch Last Line: For a few alert moments before we are granted to die NOTICES First Line: It was an equity Last Line: One actress told me. 'you could just go home.' O CHEESE Poem Text First Line: In the pantry the dear dense cheeses, cheddars and harsh Subject(s): Cheese O CHEESE First Line: In the pantry the dear dense cheeses, cheddars and harsh Last Line: O cheeses that keep to your own nature, like a lucky couple,%this solitude, this energy, these bodie Subject(s): Cheese O FLODDEN FIELD' (IN MEMORY OF EDWIN MUIR) Poem Text First Line: The learned king fought Last Line: Picks up from the heather / a whole sword Subject(s): Flodden Field, England; Muir, Edwin (1887-1959); War O FLODDEN FIELD' (IN MEMORY OF EDWIN MUIR) First Line: The learned king fought Last Line: Picks up from the heather %a whole sword Subject(s): Flodden Field, England; Muir, Edwin (1887-1959); War OLD HOME DAY First Line: Under the eyeless, staring lid OLD HOME WEEK First Line: Old man remembers to old man Last Line: The batter's box washed out in rain OLD HOUSES First Line: Old houses were scaffolding once Last Line: As the old whistling that bend %out with the nails OLD LIFE First Line: Snow fell in the night Last Line: Engagement with the one task and desire OLD LIFE First Line: Sitting in the back seat Last Line: Of the tongue: my life hasn leukemia OLD PILOT'S DEATH; IN MEMORY OF PHILIP THOMPSON First Line: He discovers himself on an old airfield Last Line: He banks and flies to join them Variant Title(s): The Old Pilo OLD ROSES Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: White roses, tiny and old, hover among thorns Subject(s): Roses OLD ROSES First Line: White roses, tiny and old, hover among thorns Last Line: As we call them now, %strolling beside the barn %on a day that perishes OLD SONG First Line: I sort through left-behind Last Line: Of rage, fucking, and tears OLD TIMER'S DAY Poem Text Recitation First Line: When the tall puffy Subject(s): Baseball; Old Age OLIVES Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Dead people don't like olives Subject(s): Aging; Olives; Death; Dead, The ON A HORSE CARVED IN WOOD Poem Text First Line: The horses of the sea; remember Subject(s): Sculpture & Sculptors ON A HORSE CARVED IN WOOD First Line: The horses of the sea; remember Last Line: Sacred to poseidon are both the %nimble dolphin and the stiff pine tree Subject(s): Sculpture And Sculptors ON REACHING THE AGE OF TWO HUNDRED First Line: When I awoke on the morning Last Line: And in each of the two hundred beds %me sleeping ONE DAY First Line: As I sit by myself, middle-aged in my yellow chair ONE DAY WE MADE ONION SOUP ORDER First Line: That time I needed to order Last Line: He grinned with hungarian competence: %'what kind of a head?' ORDINARY PARENTS First Line: Jane's father played Last Line: He was a professional gambler ORIGINS OF PSYCHOANALYSIS First Line: Money is shit,' said freud Last Line: A less disgusting word OUR WALK IN YORKSHIRE First Line: Sheep mutter as we pass Last Line: By pastures where sheep mutter OUT OF BED First Line: They remove themselves, one after one, leaving Last Line: An angry tongue that specifies the drowned OX CART MAN First Line: In october of the year Last Line: For next year's ox in the barn, %and carves the yoke, and saws planks %building the cart again OX-CART MAN Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: In october of the year, Subject(s): Farm Life; Agriculture; Farmers OYSTERS AND HERMITS First Line: We live by love, but not by love alone Last Line: And never leave your hands nothing to do PAINTING YOU DID FOR ME AT CHRISTMAS PAPER TO WRITE ON First Line: Covered with lions PARTING First Line: We romped together night and day Last Line: And an old lover, and withdrew. %love, broken-hearted PASSAGE TO WORSHIP First Line: Those several times she cleaved my dark Last Line: But honoring the steadfast dead PEACEABLE KINGDOM First Line: Rarely did her toenails %scrape the ceiling. Twice Last Line: Scratches on the horizon PERFECT LIFE First Line: Unicorns envy their cousin Last Line: Envies an other who fondles %a pistol in a motel room PERSISTENCE OF 1937 First Line: After fifty years amelia earhart's lockheed fretted with rust Last Line: Slices of wonder bread, listening to the philco for bulletins %from the navy: after 50 years her loc PHOTOGRAPHS OF CHINA First Line: After the many courses, hot bowls of rice Last Line: And li chi: %'when I close my eyes, because my eyes hurt me,%then it is west lake that I see.' PICTURES OF PHILIPPA First Line: Here she comes %the queen of moons! Last Line: Take care of not getting your hair wet PLUVIA Poem Text First Line: In the nation of rainy days Last Line: Over the nation of rainy days Subject(s): Nature; Rain PLUVIA First Line: In the nation of rainy days Last Line: Like a lost airplane still circling %over the nation of rainy days Subject(s): Nature POEM First Line: It discovers by night Last Line: Who knows %what it is thinking? POEM BEGINING WITH A LINE OF WITTGENSTEIN Poem Text First Line: The world is everything that is the case POEM WITH ONE FACT Poem Text First Line: At pet stores in detroit, you can buy Subject(s): Pets; Detroit, Michigan POEM WITH ONE FACT First Line: At pet stores in detroit, you can buy frozen rats Last Line: To amino acids, which enter %the cold bloodstream POET AT TWENTY First Line: Images leap with him from branch to branch. His eyes PORCELAIN COUPLE First Line: When jane felt well enough for me to leave her Last Line: Bluebeard was, their cat who died long ago Subject(s): China (porcelain); Home POSTCARD: JANUARY 22ND First Line: I grew heavy through summer and autumn Last Line: She is the darling of her mother's old age Variant Title(s): After Nine Month PRACTICES First Line: Jane spent a morning Last Line: Checks, according to another practice PRAISE FOR DEATH First Line: Let us praise death that turns pink cheeks to ashes Last Line: To utnapishtim %who alone of all men after the flood lives without dying PRESIDENT AND POET First Line: Granted that what we summon is absurd Last Line: Chose to belaurel robinson instead %of famous men like richard watson gilder PRESIDENTIAD First Line: Abraham lincoln was giggling uncontrollably Last Line: Which he used in a system of rotation PROFESSION First Line: An imcompetent boy scout Last Line: It is my profession,' he said PROFESSOR GRATT First Line: And why does gratt teach english? Why, because Last Line: Face stuffed and sneering, 'gratt has what it takes' PROPHECY First Line: I will strike down wooden houses; I will burn aluminum Last Line: While babylon's managers burn in the rage of the lamb PROSPERO'S TUNE First Line: We hayed three loads Last Line: Wind that touched me, loading the hayrack PROVERBS: 1. PHILOSOPHICAL PROVERBS First Line: Theory is the continuation of war by other means Last Line: Most poets are bad poets; most critics are bad philosophers PROVERBS: 2. PROSTESTANT PROVERBS First Line: Unnameable god speaks the word jesus Last Line: The word speaks out of silence toward repose: 'before adam was, I %am.' PROVERBS: 3. PRACTICAL PROVERBS First Line: Universal knowledge extends so far: umbrellas discourage rainfall Last Line: Never assume anything except the contrary; but doubt the contrary PROVERBS: 4. PROFESSIONAL PROVERBS First Line: Whatever we think we write, with luck we write something else Last Line: When it arrives in the mail, never open the treasury of failure and %despair PROVERBS: 5. PAIRED PROVERBS First Line: You hunker by the salt marsh watching the ocean; under the hill, I Last Line: You were thin but fatten with age; I am pre-socratic QUESTIONS [1] First Line: Why do you love her? QUESTIONS [2] First Line: How is it now QUESTIONS [3] First Line: Why did it happen QUESTIONS [4] First Line: Who is asking these questions RADIO KEEPS TALKING RAISIN First Line: I drank cool water from the fountain Last Line: This morning I looked into the pale %raisin of harry's face REASONABLE NAP First Line: In nineteen ninety-three Last Line: With sarcasm, 'go write a poem about it.' RECLINING FIGURE' (FROM HENRY MOORE'S SCULPTURE) First Line: Then the knee of the wave Last Line: And saw planks %building the cart again RECURRENT DREAM First Line: I am sitting alone waiting for a woman RED BRANCH First Line: Even the dignity of christ Last Line: So far one branch is red on this green tree RED, ORANGE, YELLOW First Line: For five years of my life, or ten REGRET First Line: Just before I entered Last Line: Gosh. I never did get %to know don, the way I wanted to.' RELIGIOUS ARTICLES First Line: By the road to church, shaker village Last Line: You must not belileve in anything; %you who feel cheated are crooning REPEATED SHAPES First Line: I have visited men's rooms Last Line: And doze in the morning RESIGNATIONS First Line: At sixty-five I feel well Last Line: To engage the bliss of ardor REVOLUTION First Line: In the great hall where lady ann by firelight after dining alone Last Line: Drank up the cellar, emigrated without notice, copulated, conceived, and begot us REWARD First Line: Curled on the sofa Last Line: How admirable I found myself RIC'S PROGRESS First Line: They met in a bar - would you believe it? - at the edge Last Line: The decaying body's music which is their measure ROCKER First Line: He played jacks with me Last Line: When a mouse skitters over the linoleum SAFE SEX Poem Text First Line: If he and she do not know each other, and feel confident Subject(s): Desire SAVIN ROCK First Line: Bored in the backseat, eleven Last Line: And it's something that costs money.' SCENIC VIEW First Line: Every year the mountains Last Line: Rears with unseeable peaks %fatal to airplanes SCREAM First Line: Observe. Ridged, raised, tactile, the horror Last Line: The repose of art that has distance Variant Title(s): Munch's Screa Subject(s): Art And Artists; Munch, Edvard (1863-1944); Paintings And Painters SEA First Line: I remember watching %from the porch of a cottage Last Line: No one will understand them SECOND STANZA First Line: I put my hat upon my head Last Line: His head was in his hat Subject(s): Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784) SELF-PORTRAIT AS A BEAR Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Here is a fat animal, a bear Subject(s): Bears SELF-PORTRAIT, AS A BEAR First Line: Here is a fat animal, a bear Last Line: Lifts through a haze every morning %of the summer in the stomach SEPTEMBER ODE First Line: And now september burns the careful tree Last Line: And when we die are full of memory SESTINA First Line: Hang it all, ezra pound, there is only the one sestina Last Line: About which, conversation is not dull SET OF SEASONS First Line: He suspects that the seasons Last Line: Scored in the head as grass, %seasonal, unsuspected SEW First Line: She kneels on the floor, snip snip Last Line: On the bolt in the dark warehouse, %dreaming my shapes SHAME First Line: If I lived in peckwater Last Line: Where he stayed, trembling, rattling saucers SHIP OF STATE, HIGH TIDE... First Line: Ship of state, high tide rising Last Line: In the always- %ruinous sea? SHIP POUNDING First Line: Each morning I made my way Last Line: On the cross still twisted under the sun Subject(s): Ships And Shipping; Sickness SHRUBS BURNED AWAY First Line: Once a little boy and his sister - my mother lay SHUDDER Poem Text First Line: The foot of death has printed on my chest Subject(s): Death; Dead, The SHUDDER First Line: The foot of death has printed on my chest Last Line: If we walk, we walk on graves Subject(s): Death SISTER BY THE POND First Line: An old life photograph Last Line: Or into weeds that waver in water SISTER ON THE TRACKS First Line: Between pond and sheepbarn, by maples and watery birches Last Line: A double scent of heaven and cut hay Subject(s): Railroads SIX NAPS IN ONE DAY First Line: In the nap there are numerous doors, boudoirs, a talking hall Last Line: Skulks hiding in salt grass - while the halt gibbon howls SIX POETS IN SEATCH OF A LAWYER Poem Text First Line: Finesse be first, whose elegance deplores Subject(s): Law & Lawyers; Poetry & Poets; Attorneys SIX POETS IN SEATCH OF A LAWYER First Line: Finesse be first, whose elegance deplores Last Line: Scoundrel be last, be deaf, be dumb, be blind, %who writes satiric verses on his kind Subject(s): Law And Lawyers; Poetry And Poets SLEEPING First Line: The avenue rises towards a city of white marble Last Line: Awake, it is still sleeping SLEEPING GIANT; A HILL IN CONNECTICUT First Line: The whole day long, under the walking sun Last Line: And winter pulled a sheet over his head Subject(s): Children; Connecticut; Giants; Mountains; Poetry And Poets SLEEPING TOGETHER SMALL FIG TREE First Line: I am dead, to be sure Last Line: I will the devil kiss Subject(s): Bible; Curses; Religion SNAIL First Line: Soft liquid feet SNOW First Line: Snow is in the oak Last Line: And the snow keeps falling, %and something will always be falling SNOWBANKS NORTH OF THE HOUSE Poem Text Recitation First Line: Those great sweeps of snow that stop suddenly six feet from the house... Subject(s): Death - Children; Family Life; Death - Babies; Relatives SOME AMERICANS IN PARIS Poem Text First Line: Here, in the right cafe, convened by fate Subject(s): Paris, France SOME ODDITIES First Line: The hugy spider stooping through the door Last Line: I'm through with oddities of nature SONG FOR LUCY First Line: She died quickly at ninety Last Line: They kissed and jane %whispered, timor mortis conturbat me SOUTHWEST OF BUFFALO First Line: The long lakes, flanked Last Line: Of flowers, on %the hills of new york SPACE SPIDERS First Line: All autumn and winter they attacked the mother SPEECHES First Line: Two old men %meet at the lunch Last Line: Froggie, nuke us %some beans SPIDER HEAD First Line: The spider glints Last Line: Humming in a cement hole %electric glass Variant Title(s): The Assassi Subject(s): Assassination; Kennedy, John Fitzgerald (1917-1963) SPRING GLEN GRAMMAR SCHOOL Poem Text First Line: I remember the moment because I planned, at six in the first grade Subject(s): Education; Schools; Students SPRING GLEN GRAMMAR SCHOOL First Line: I remember the moment because I planned, at six in the first grade Last Line: The box is humid; it continues to continue: nothing escapes Subject(s): Education; Schools STANDING OUT FROM THE BODY First Line: The first snow every Last Line: On the clothesline using wooden clothespins STONE WALLS First Line: Stone walls emerge from leafy ground Last Line: Past noons of birch and sugarbush, past cellarholes, %many miles to the village of nightfall STONES First Line: Now it is gone, all of it Last Line: Lived in a stone house here %whole lives STOREFRONT First Line: When newberry's closed Last Line: But drew with a well-groomed hand %a line through 'franklin, new hampshire.' STORIES First Line: I look at the rock and the house Last Line: Fire at night %in the squares of winter STORY First Line: My old connecticut friend Last Line: Me a story, how it used to be STUMP Poem Text First Line: Today they cut down the oak. Subject(s): Oak Trees STUMP First Line: Today they cut down the oak Last Line: And white blossoms that last into october SUDDEN THINGS First Line: A storm was coming, and that was why it was dark. The SUGGESTION First Line: It didn't matter that Last Line: In bloomsbury: 'have fun while you can' SUMMER KITCHEN Poem Text Recitation First Line: In june's high light she stood at the sink Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives SUMS Poem Text First Line: From that daye thee hart strokys SUMS (FROM THE DAYE-BOKE OF ADAM RAISON, 1515-1560) First Line: From that daye thee hart strokys Last Line: Axemann gruntyd, glintt of bryght %blade. Blodde-russhe SUN First Line: Both of them felt it: that day was an island Last Line: Their privacy completed the cafes of strangers SUN First Line: He waited in the sadness of the sun's intention Last Line: His own darkness. In the sun he knew he was followed SUNDAYS First Line: However we started our sunday Last Line: Sample the butterscotch this sunday SURFACE First Line: The surveyor climbs a stonewall into woods Last Line: Sun and study slogans of dirt: 'never consider %a surface except as the extension of a volume.' Subject(s): Environment; Nature SWAN First Line: December, nightfall at three thirty Last Line: And sleek as a swan SWANS Poem Text First Line: December, nightfall at three-thirty Subject(s): Mills & Millers T.R. Poem Text First Line: Granted that what we summon is absurd Subject(s): Roosevelt, Theodore (1858-1919) TABLE First Line: Walking back to the farm form the depot Last Line: And grasshoppers %haying the fields of the air TASTE COLD TENNIS BALL Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: I parked by the grave in september, under oaks and birvhes Subject(s): Graves; Love - Erotic; Tombs; Tombstones THE BASEBALL PLAYERS Poem Text First Line: Against the bright Subject(s): Baseball; Sports THE BEAU OF THE DEAD Poem Text First Line: John fleming walked in the house his cousin left him Subject(s): Past THE BLACK FACED SHEEP Poem Text First Line: Ruminant pillows! Gregarious soft boulders! Subject(s): Farm Life; Mortality; Shepherds & Shepherdesses; Agriculture; Farmers THE BLUE WING Poem Text First Line: She was all around me Subject(s): Aircraft Wrecks THE CLOWN Poem Text First Line: Practically all you newspaper people Subject(s): Clowns THE COALITION Poem Text First Line: If among earth's kings lord gilgamesh should remain unreasonable Last Line: Of pharoah death, imperator death, shogun death, president death Subject(s): Gulf War (1991) THE COFFEE CUP Poem Text Recitation First Line: The newspaper, the coffee cup, the dog's Subject(s): Death; City & Town Life; Dead, The THE DAY I WAS OLDER Recitation THE DAYS Poem Text First Line: Ten years ago this minute, he possibly sat Subject(s): Past THE EIGHTH INNING Poem Text First Line: Kurt, terror is merely the thesis Subject(s): Sports THE FARM Poem Text Recitation First Line: Standing on top of the hay Subject(s): Farm Life; Agriculture; Farmers THE FIFTH INNING Poem Text First Line: Kurt, last night dwight evans put it all Subject(s): Sports THE FOOTSTEPS Poem Text First Line: In the kitchen of the old house, late Subject(s): Fathers; Past; Family Life; Relatives THE FOUNDATIONS OF AMERICAN INDUSTRY Poem Text First Line: In the ford plant Subject(s): Industry; Labor & Laborers; Work; Workers THE GRAVE, THE MINE Poem Text First Line: Taking off from the city Subject(s): City & Town Life THE HENYARD ROUND Poem Text First Line: From the dark yard by the sheep barn the cock crowed Subject(s): Poetry & Poets THE HUNKERING Poem Text Recitation First Line: In october the red leaves going brown heap and Subject(s): Autumn; Fall THE IMPOSSIBLE MARRIAGE Poem Text First Line: The bride disappears. After twenty minutes of searching Subject(s): Dickinson, Emily (1830-1886) THE JEALOUS LOVERS Poem Text First Line: When he lies in the night away from her Subject(s): Jealousy THE KISS Poem Text First Line: The back twists with the kiss Subject(s): Kisses THE LONE RANGER Poem Text First Line: Anarchic badlands spread without a road Subject(s): Fictional Characters THE MAN IN THE DEAD MACHINE Poem Text First Line: High on a slope in new guinea Subject(s): World War Ii; Second World War THE MORNING PORCHES Poem Text First Line: Even the morning is formal. A coughing dog Subject(s): Porches THE OLD PILOT Poem Text Recitation First Line: He discovers himself on an old airfield. Subject(s): Aviation & Aviators; Airplanes; Air Pilots THE ONE DAY Poem Text Recitation First Line: There are ways to get rich: find an old corporation, Subject(s): Wealth; Riches; Fortunes THE PAINTED BED Poem Text First Line: Even when I danced erect THE PORCELAIN COUPLE First Line: When jane felt well enough for me to leave her Subject(s): China (porcelain); Home THE RAISIN Poem Text Recitation First Line: I drank cool water from the fountain Subject(s): Old Age THE ROUTINE Recitation by Author Subject(s): Marital Love; Mortality THE SCREAM Poem Text First Line: Observe. Ridged, raised, tactile, the horror Variant Title(s): Munch's Scream Subject(s): Art & Artists; Munch, Edvard (1863-1944); Paintings & Painters THE SHIP POUNDING Poem Text First Line: Each morning I made my way Subject(s): Ships & Shipping; Sickness; Illness THE SLEEPING GIANT; A HILL IN CONNECTICUT Poem Text First Line: The whole day long, under the walking sun Subject(s): Children; Connecticut; Giants; Mountains; Poetry & Poets; Childhood; Hills; Downs (great Britain) THE SNOW Recitation First Line: Snow is in the oak Subject(s): Snow THE SUN Poem Text First Line: He waited in the sadness of the sun's intention Subject(s): Sun THE TABLE Poem Text First Line: Walking back to the farm from the depot Subject(s): Farm Life; Grandparents; Childhood Memories; Agriculture; Farmers; Grandmothers; Grandfathers; Great Grandfathers; Great Grandmothers THE THINGS Poem Text Recitation First Line: When I walk in my house I see pictures, Subject(s): Inanimate Objects THE TOY BONE Poem Text First Line: Looking through boxes Subject(s): Nostalgia THE WEDDING COUPLE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Fifteen years ago his heart Subject(s): Marital Love; Old Age THE WISH Recitation by Author Subject(s): Mourning; Bereavement THE WORDS Poem Text First Line: My mother said, of course Subject(s): Cancer, Lung; Death - Fathers THE WRECKAGE Poem Text First Line: At the edge of the city the pickerel Subject(s): Life THE YOUNG WATCH US Poem Text Recitation First Line: The young girls look up Variant Title(s): Lovers In Middle Age Subject(s): Youth; Marital Love THERE USED TO BE DAYS THESE FACES THIRTEENTH INNING First Line: John singer sargent's the daughters of edward d. Boit Last Line: You roll like a dog in the stinking carcass of your death THIS POEM First Line: This poem is why Last Line: Suppose all poems %contain this poem, %dreaming one knowledge %shaped by the measure %of the body's THIS ROOM Poem Text First Line: When I woke that morning Subject(s): Life THIS ROOM First Line: When I woke this morning THIS SADNESS THREE MONTHS THREE MOVEMENTS First Line: It is not in the books Last Line: It is %like himself, only visible TO A WATERFOWL Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Women with hats like the rear ends of pink ducks Subject(s): Waterfowl TO A WATERFOWL First Line: Women with hats like the rear ends of pink ducks Last Line: Not you, not you, not you, not you, not you, not you Subject(s): Waterfowl TO BUILD A HOUSE First Line: Gazing at may's blossoms, imagining bounty of mcintosh TO THE LOUD WIND First Line: Mime the loud wind in pain Last Line: Shouts the loud wind to fill %the worded intellect TOMORROW Poem Text First Line: Although the car radio warned that / 'war threatened' as 'europe mobilized' Subject(s): Americans; Kent State University - Riot, 1970; United States; America TOMORROW First Line: Although the car radio warned that %'war threatened' as 'europe mobilized' Last Line: At the red lights of intersections Subject(s): Americans; Kent State University - Riot, 1970; United States TOWN OF HILL First Line: Back of the dam, under Last Line: Door shuts %under dream water TOY BONE First Line: Looking through boxes Last Line: I was happy %in the room dark with the shades drawn Subject(s): Nostalgia TRAFFIC Poem Text First Line: Trucks and stationwagons, vws, old chevies, pintos Subject(s): City Traffic TRAFFIC First Line: Trucks and stationwagons, vws, old chevies, pintos Last Line: I wait %for the traffic to pause, shift, and enter the traffic Subject(s): City Traffic TRAIN First Line: Out of memory, a long shape TRANSCONTINENT Poem Text First Line: Where the cities end, the Last Line: They’re nearly there Subject(s): Americans; United States; America TRANSCONTINENT First Line: Where the cities end, the Last Line: See cars and shacks, they know %they're nearly there Subject(s): Americans; United States TREE AND THE CLOUD First Line: In the middle distance %a tree stands Last Line: To touch the cloud %hardens the touching TUBES Poem Text First Line: Up, down, good, bad, said Subject(s): Illness TUBES First Line: Up, down, good, bad,' said %the man with the tubes Last Line: And house of desire %is tubes up the nose TWELVE SEASONS First Line: Snow starts at twilight. All night the house Last Line: As we drowse waiting. Someone is at the door UMBRELLA First Line: It keeps out everything! It goes Last Line: You will not get me to come out VALENTINE Poem Text First Line: Chipmunks jump, and Subject(s): Love VALENTINE First Line: Chipmunks jump, and Last Line: Nothing else but %us can matter Subject(s): Love VALLEY OF MORNING First Line: Jack baker %rises when Last Line: For the reigns %of fifty %kings and queens VENETIAN NIGHTS First Line: There were joys, even Last Line: O green, red, and gold! %o watery chrysanthemums of fire! VILLAGE IN EAST ANGLIA First Line: He walks out of the village. The road Last Line: It hurtles together from all sides %at once WAITING ON THE CORNERS First Line: Glass, air, ice, light Last Line: Of glass, air, ice, light, %and winter cold WAKING THE NEXT MORNING First Line: His bladder signalled first WATERS First Line: A rock drops in a bucket Last Line: The life worth living WE BRING DEMOCRACY TO THE FISH Poem Text Recitation First Line: It is unacceptable that fish prey on each other. Subject(s): Fish Farming WE WALKED IN SMALL STREETS WEDDING PARTY First Line: The pock-marked player of the accordion Last Line: That only empties, fills, empties, fills WEEDS AND PEONIES Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Your peonies burst out, white as snow squalls Subject(s): Love WEEDS AND PEONIES First Line: Your peonies burst out, white as snow squalls Last Line: As if they might topple. Some topple Subject(s): Love WELL, I SAID, OF COURSE WELLS Poem Text First Line: I lived in a dry well Subject(s): Wells WELLS First Line: I lived in a dry well Last Line: I drink from the well of cattle WHEN I THINK OF YOU WHEN I WAS YOUNG First Line: When I was young and sexual Last Line: Zero notes), he must acknowledge %that the god is blind and a baby WHEN THE YOUNG HUSBAND Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: When the young husband picked up his friend's pretty wife Subject(s): Unfaithfulness; Infidelity; Adultery; Inconstancy WHEN YOU WOKE YOU TURNED WHIP-POOR-WILL First Line: As the last light %of june withdraws Last Line: To drowse all morning %in his grassy hut WHIP-POOR-WILL First Line: Every night about nine WHITE APPLES Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: When my father had been dead a week Subject(s): Death - Fathers WHITE APPLES First Line: When my father had been dead a week Last Line: If he called again %I would put on my coat and galoshes WIDOWS First Line: Up and down the small streets, in which Last Line: Many left like you, though no two %widows are exactly alike WINE TREE First Line: By the side of the huron WINTER'S ASPERITY MOLLIFIES... Poem Text First Line: Winter's asperity mollifies under the assault of april Last Line: And death, love and death: how do you tell them apart? Subject(s): Death; Love WINTER'S ASPERITY MOLLIFIES... First Line: Winter's asperity mollifies under the assault of april Last Line: Desire for each other's bodies. In response to death's deplorable %likelihood, we bed each other dow Subject(s): Nature WISH First Line: I keep her weary ghost inside me. %'oh, let me go,' I hear her crying Last Line: I hear her cry, as I reach to hold her, %'oh, let me go!' WITHOUT Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: We live in a small island stone nation Subject(s): Death; Dead, The WITHOUT First Line: We lived in a small island stone nation Last Line: Without monkey or lily without garlic WITNESSES' HOUSE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: From the scratchy sleep of old age, Subject(s): Old Age WIVES First Line: If I said, 'little wives.' Last Line: For a long time %on the sidewalks WOLF KNIFE (FROM THE JOURNALS OF C.F. HOYT, USN, 1826-89) First Line: In mid-august, in the second year' Last Line: From the thigh of the larger wolf, %which we ate %gratefully, blessing the creator, for we were hung WOOD SMOKE First Line: Sun on the sand WOOL SQUARES Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: I sort through left-behind WOOLWORTH'S First Line: My whole life has led me here Last Line: I followed this vision to boston WORDS First Line: My mother said, of course Last Line: If anything should happen to me...' WORDS FROM THE SARCOPHAGUS First Line: Even when I danced erect Last Line: Everyone dies of something WORDS OVER AMOS First Line: A young red male, long haired WRECKAGE First Line: At the edge of the city the pickerel Last Line: And across the field into the new pine YOU HATE ANIMALS YOU SEND ME A SMILE YOU TOLD ME ABOUT LAUTREAMONT TODAY YOUNG EDGAR First Line: When I was twelve I took Last Line: Smarter than poe--to script %the home movie of the chosen life YOUNG WATCH US First Line: The young girls look up Last Line: I look at you. You are smiling at the sidewalk, %dear wrinkled face Variant Title(s): Lovers In Middle Ag YOUR BODY CLENCHED ON MINE YOUR NOSE First Line: It is a snail YOUR TINY LEFT HAND YOUR VOICE ON THE TELEPHONE |
|