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Discover our poem explanations - click here!Searching... Author: MARIANI, PAUL Matches Found: 136 Mariani, Paul Poet's Biography 136 poems available by this author & P NIGHTSHIFT: JANUARY 1959 First Line: The johns hopkins university A TOAST FOR LITTLE IRON MIKE Poem Text First Line: Having come in out of the unrelenting Subject(s): Amniotic Fluid Embolism; Babies; Family Life; Infants; Relatives AFTER FORTY YEARS THE SON TAKES A GIANT STEP FORWARD First Line: Whose is this face and Last Line: Gagging like the cholic %infant whom you nursed AND THIS THY HARBOR First Line: He said, this water flows east down...To the sea; and Last Line: By these waters rising from the waters with him ANTIPHON First Line: But no. Death cannot be the only end of it Last Line: The morning sun come up to greet them ASSASSINS First Line: We have come now to expect it at anytime BAD JOKE First Line: Because they had to cut deep BAUDELAIRE AT GAMMA LEVEL First Line: At that depth the face disengages Last Line: And yours, my brother, we will call the season %out of time.Enough. And ceased. And faded back, was BETTY First Line: And the fumbling. Oh blessed lord the fumbling Subject(s): Love - Erotic; Music, Rock; Rock & Roll BETTY First Line: And the fumbling. Oh blessed lord the fumbling Last Line: & kissed her lips & dear god tasted woman once again Subject(s): Erotic Love; Music, Rock BOMBINGS First Line: It's not the kids, he chokes into the phone Last Line: Phosphor white & unforgiving, burns away the dark BOX First Line: I sift through the battered shoebox BREAK IN THE WEATHER First Line: Done in and travelling west yesterday BROTHERHOOD First Line: Week one we went from sixteen Last Line: Our hearts out to the empty hunter moon BROWN STUDY: 1. First Line: One of those early morning dreams Last Line: I am saying to myself, knowing %I will never get her back BROWN STUDY: 2. First Line: Her one-room apartment, filled Last Line: Splashing gaily all about you, when you wore it %cut straight across your forehead CASUALTY REPORT Poem Text First Line: The car coming on, then crossing the divide Subject(s): Automobile Accidents; Guilt; Memory CATALPA First Line: In the patchbright shadow of the flowering catalpa CISTERN First Line: In the limestone cistern Last Line: The one companion left me CLEANING OUT THE CELLAR First Line: Time once more to clean the cellar out CODA: REVISING HISTORY First Line: You know it's all bullshit Last Line: For chrissake give %yr. Head a rest. Dig it? Here. %here! Take a toke of this CONNING TOWERS OF MY FATHER'S WAR First Line: These the exposed, low-lying inlets Last Line: Requiescat in pace, the sick pitch %of a metal coffin lowered. Nothing changes CROSSING COCYTUS First Line: Arc of fire across the black of heaven: a father's fist Last Line: To call him good %at last and watch him, slowly breaking, embrace the chastened son DUET First Line: Noon: the jones beach causeway Last Line: Then after that to nothing DUET First Line: Noon: the causeway shimmering Last Line: In the muffled dust about us EARLY AUTUMN SONG First Line: Brilliance of the first fallen leaf Last Line: Our drinks turn to gold before us as we mused %how the four of us could have gone on like this forev EASTERN POINT MEDITATIONS First Line: It was during this time that a serious disturbance broke EASTERN POINT MEDITATIONS, SELS. First Line: It was during this time that a serious disturbance broke Last Line: The world I'd lifted high to smash against the rocks ENCIRCLEMENT OF HORSES First Line: And now the hot press of horses' flanks Last Line: To catch %the unblinking stare before the final, the obliterating charge ENTRANCE SONG First Line: Begin there: with the watery light Last Line: Behind it all, the lashed lines converging, pain visible %behind her eyes, still saying yes, yes, an FALLING ASLEEP First Line: Somewhere far from this room Last Line: Right and that now they can sleep FERRY CROSSING Poem Text First Line: Beyond the granite breakers, a world of roiling Subject(s): Fathers; Old Age FIRE IN THE CHOIR LOFT First Line: I stand to one side in the old choir loft among Last Line: Children float so easy in: for air and more air, melody%and air, a clear consuming blaze...And not t FOLLOWING THE LIGHT First Line: In the midst of so much rich uncertain Last Line: As we listen to the sounds of words which are %not quite words drifting downward through our element GHOST Poem Text First Line: After so much time you think Subject(s): Dreams; Nightmares GHOST First Line: After so much time you think Last Line: Growing dimmer with each oarstroke Subject(s): Dreams GHOST First Line: Upland, behind the house itself, behind GIRL WHO LEARNED TO SING IN CROW First Line: Narcotic plash of water from the kitchen sink Last Line: We know it happens all the time. We know %just as they do it's the song birds make good eating GODS WHO COME AMONG US IN THE GUISE OF STRANGERS First Line: Late nights, with summer moths clinging Last Line: Of water and a little of your time GOODNIGHT IRENE Poem Text First Line: I am ten and a half and my father Subject(s): Memory GOODNIGHT IRENE First Line: I am ten and a half and my father Subject(s): Memory GREAT ASSEMBLY First Line: In immense golden spokes the broken light Last Line: Of the morning anthem breaking all around him GREAT WHEEL First Line: In the tuileries we came upon the great wheel Last Line: As now the evening air took mastery, it & the great wheel Subject(s): Religion; Tuileries Gardens, Paris HANG GLIDING ON THE UPPER SLOPES First Line: So it had come at last to this: the homemade makeshift Last Line: He felt as if he were floating free, even as he began %falling fast then faster towards the unforgiv HARRY First Line: The paisley kerchief blooming Last Line: Intent on getting where he had to go HORSES First Line: Late afternoon & late summer light, a scene Last Line: The sad brown eyes of the horses straining after HOUSE First Line: The table, son, is laid Last Line: To sleep with body and soul HUNT First Line: Pulling the shotgun from the Last Line: At ease there in the summer wood, %still waiting for her hunter to approach IN THE BOILER First Line: When my kid brother Last Line: The big bastard just %for being there for me IN THE SACRED WOOD First Line: Always son had followed son, it seemed Last Line: The swish of scythe she must be waisthigh swinging. %he knew then it was not his throat she meant to KEEPING UP First Line: What is it I wanted to say Last Line: Driving me irresistibly forward, %falter, begin to fall finally behind? Subject(s): Life LANDSCAPE WITH DOG Poem Text First Line: Often up the back steps he came Subject(s): Animals; Dogs; Nature LANDSCAPE WITH DOG First Line: Often up the back steps he came Last Line: Somewhere in the woods to die Subject(s): Animals; Dogs; Nature LESSON First Line: Silent, my jaws working, I knew Subject(s): Discipline LIEUTENANT OWEN First Line: This then was where it waited: in mist Last Line: He found waiting for him on that distant shore LIGHT STREAMING INTO THE HEAD First Line: When the light trickles through the cracked LINES I TOLD MYSELF I WOULDN'T WRITE Poem Text First Line: Nebuchadnezzar, von hoffman the great, then Subject(s): Animals; Dogs LINES I TOLD MYSELF I WOULDN'T WRITE First Line: Nebuchadnezzar, von hoffman the great, then Subject(s): Animals; Dogs LOSS OF LIFE First Line: A masterpiece of pathos,' one eyewitness put it LURE First Line: What is this strange translucent light MANHATTAN First Line: Thirty years, and the six-inch scar still there Subject(s): New York City; Religion; Manhattan; New York, New York; The Big Apple; Theology MANHATTAN First Line: Thirty years, and the six-inch scar still there Last Line: I come up with for questions 2 & 3 & 4 Subject(s): New York City; Religion MATADERO, RILEY & COMPANY First Line: A perfectly useless concentration MILLENARIANS First Line: The voiceover on the grainy film Last Line: & rooted to their crusts of precious earth MINNEAPOLIS: AT THE SUMMER SOLSTICE First Line: About this north midwest polis abrupt MOONRISE AS ABSTRACTION First Line: Last night, driving west along the parkway Subject(s): Nature MOONRISE AS ABSTRACTION First Line: Last night, driving west along the parkway Last Line: Now at last my friend might ease me on my way Subject(s): Nature MOUNTAIN VIEW WITH FIGURES Poem Text First Line: As if cezanne had rendered it: a palimpsest Subject(s): Nature MOUNTAIN VIEW WITH FIGURES First Line: As if cezanne had rendered it: a palimpsest Last Line: Climbed it now, he would find himself transfigured Subject(s): Nature MUSIC OF DESIRE First Line: Having done his best and lost her anyway Last Line: In danny rossi's family grocery store NEW ENGLAND WINTER First Line: To hell with john greenleaf whittier Last Line: Blinking out this frozen glass. At this NEW YORK: SUNDAY MORNING, MARCH 1944 First Line: I would walk after him into the deckle-edged NEWS THAT STAYS NEWS First Line: I don't know but it might have been NORTH / SOUTH First Line: In the long run for both of us NOTE First Line: To tell the truth, it happened OLD MEN ARE DYING First Line: After the three days' watch, after the flowers Last Line: Between them, they begin to drift out through the once %familiar channels for the last trip north ON THE AURIGA: LAKE WINNEPESAUKEE First Line: Pisarro's brownblack loons off starboard Last Line: Like a thousand islands unexplored and beckoning, as he proclaims %brash youth being what it is: I a ON THE EDGE OF THE ATLANTIC First Line: An old man walking on the beach alone ON THE SUBLIME First Line: When burke stared into the heart of the sublime ONE DARK NIGHT First Line: One dark night Last Line: Until among the lilies even they were soon forgotten PALIMPSEST First Line: When poe had crossed and then recrossed PASTORAL First Line: It was when he stopped Last Line: Of winter and ready now %to prove themselves again PENTECOST SUNDAY: HOWARD BEACH First Line: From four on in the pre-dawn summer light PILGRIM First Line: I think of jimmy pellegrino as always Last Line: He was being sent ahead to find PRELUDE First Line: In the graygreen firs of the high sierra madres Last Line: Of the promise she saw lighting evrywhere around her: %butterflies, butterflies, a million butterfli PRIME MOVER First Line: In this small painting of virgin and child PROMISES First Line: To keep from killing him, my friend had said Q / A First Line: Q. And what was it he felt, first QUID PRO QUO Poem Text First Line: Just after my wife's miscarriage (her second Subject(s): Miscarriage; God; Birth; Faith; Child Birth; Midwifery; Belief; Creed QUID PRO QUO First Line: Just after my wife's miscarriage (her second Last Line: The ante each time he answers one sign with another? REPLAYING THE OLD MORALITY PLAY First Line: Before the dull and torpid fire of his text Last Line: A woman's voice down under so that his noble thoughts %couldmarch once more in onanistic splendor do REPUBLIC First Line: Midnight. For the past three hours Last Line: Why socrates would want to drink it RESPITE First Line: So for once he sat there at his ease Last Line: Of tobacco smoked in peace, the rich %peculiar pitch of silence and of katydid RIGHT AND LEFT First Line: In winslow homer's final masterpiece RING First Line: Only after, wading waist deep SALVAGE OPERATIONS First Line: When my oldest boy calls home (collect Subject(s): Dreams; Nightmares SALVAGE OPERATIONS First Line: When my oldest boy calls home (collect Last Line: And cleaned, he figures he could still %get something for the plymouth Subject(s): Dreams SARCOPAGUS SARCOPHAGUS First Line: Anger so hot, so thick & clotted SAYING GOODBYE First Line: At a signal from the undertaker's Last Line: Now. Everything is going to be just fine SCAVENGERS First Line: Changing and unchanging they keep coming in Last Line: Me, me, they cry, shoving shells and bulbs %before me, before my drifting gaze, my half-vacant eyes SECRETS First Line: Bondswomen of the royal retinue Last Line: That I have brought them from a loving wife %to her dear lord, an offering from my mother? SEPARATE PEACE First Line: He stared out from the tangled Last Line: Except for the shattered faces SHADOW PORTRAIT First Line: In the lost portrait by siqueiros Subject(s): Nature SHADOW PORTRAIT First Line: In the lost portrait by siqueiros Last Line: Sheets of paper. He knows now that, wherever %he is going, there is no way he can make it Subject(s): Nature SIGN First Line: May the fates conspire to lift my clamant voice SILT Poem Text First Line: How it steals up on you, this mortality Subject(s): Mortality; Ransience SMOKE RINGS First Line: O most sacred muse: conspire, breathe Last Line: As if (again) by singing we could somehow %slow the thin incessant drift of things SMOOTH WHITE PEBBLE First Line: Pistolcracl! Thunder over my head, over Last Line: As here, now, worlds %condensed for once into one cool white translucent pebble SOME SORT OF ANSWER First Line: Three a.M. Again: the only light SONG First Line: Sing me a song, she said, once Last Line: A song to soothe a tired woman. Something %with love in it...And memories STARRY NIGHT First Line: Was it just that all our ordered order Last Line: The strictest kind of order, freely offered %whenever sky lets go STATUE First Line: A july evening, venti anni fa, the four of us Last Line: Shifting bronzeblack surface glinted back STEPS First Line: A cold wind rising on the creaking steps Last Line: And sigh of each lovely ghost son's footfall STUDY IN BLACK & WHITE Poem Text First Line: Seven days a week, six till ten, Subject(s): Automobiles - Service Stations; Fathers & Sons; Childhood Memories; Friendship; Gasoline Stations; Filling Stations; Automobile Repair Shops STUDY IN BLACK & WHITE First Line: Seven days a week, six till ten Last Line: The poor forked mortal trembling thing itself TEN THOUSAND PLASTIC TURTLE BOWLS First Line: And so it went: hour after Last Line: The dull-spangled stars that kept %putting out each night and all for nothing TERN'S EYE First Line: By slow degrees THE GODS WHO COME AMONG US IN THE GUISE OF STRANGERS Poem Text First Line: Late nights, with summer moths clinging Subject(s): Friendship; Death; Dead, The THE GREAT WHEEL Poem Text First Line: In the tuileries we came upon the great wheel Subject(s): Religion; Tuileries Gardens, Paris; Theology THE LESSON First Line: Silent, my jaws working, I knew Subject(s): Discipline THE REPUBLIC Poem Text First Line: Midnight. For the past three hours Subject(s): Police; Truth THEN Poem Text First Line: Glow of mahogany, glow of those pulsing Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships; Transience; Male-female Relations; Impermanence THEN First Line: Glow of mahogany, glow of those pulsing Last Line: The odds the very air around is turned to whiteness THEN SINGS MY SOUL First Line: Who can tell a man's real pain Last Line: Then to still sing to thee, how great thou art ULYSSES WEEPS First Line: It was the song the singer sang VARIATIONS ON A THEME First Line: Miami sunlight, as in a painting Subject(s): Nature VARIATIONS ON A THEME First Line: Miami sunlight, as in a painting Last Line: Three dots drifting slowly out to sea Subject(s): Nature VOYAGER Poem Text First Line: Beyond the moon, beyond planet blue Subject(s): Mothers; Death; Dead, The VOYAGER First Line: Beyond the moon, beyond planet blue Last Line: She did, to ward against the cold WALK IN EARLY MARCH First Line: Of the manner in which he moves Last Line: Bracing stream to be pored over, %delighted in, left mirac lously intact WHAT CAN WE EXPECT OF LANGUAGE!? First Line: In the valley of the shadows he lifted Last Line: Only the interrobangs hunkered in the sagging branches: %electric questions tense with so much longi WHAT THE WIND SAID First Line: Wind against cheekbone, against Last Line: Your dazed eyes fixed first on it, then me, %you stuttered, what, what do I do now, dad? WINTER MEDITATION First Line: And now it's snow again, snow WORDS First Line: Midwinter. A coalmining town Last Line: The broken words, now begins to do WORLD OF OUR FATHERS First Line: Your serpentine smile, lowell dubbed it back Last Line: Comic who comes at last to play the part he loves |
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