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Author: SANTOS, SHEROD
Matches Found: 125


Santos, Sherod    Poet's Biography
125 poems available by this author


A FEELING AND, A FEELING OR    Poem Text    
First Line: The window in mid-summer raised, and where


A PLACE IN MAINE    Poem Text    
Subject(s): Mothers & Sons; Disappointment; Time; Family Life; Absence; Relatives; Separation; Isolation


A WOMAN NAMED THUCYDIDES    Poem Text    
First Line: Having slept in a turnout in the backseat


ABANDONED RAILWAY STATION       
First Line: The agent's office like an abbey chancel


AFTER A LONG ILLNESS    Poem Text    
First Line: Now beneath the aspen trees moonlight blends
Subject(s): Home; Death; Dead, The


AFTER THE ISLAND FIGHTING       
First Line: Our grandfather's hat stand's


AGE OF REASON       
First Line: Car lights like lanterns in the pre-dawn dark
Last Line: Forbearance she had long ago been widowed to
Subject(s): Reason


AIR BASE AT CHATEAUROUX, FRANCE       
First Line: In the american schoolyard
Last Line: Uneasy gods, a little drunk %on our shame, our power


ALL SOULS    Poem Text    
First Line: Forgive me, mother, it's october again
Subject(s): Autumn; Time; Fa,ily Life; Life, Modern; Fall


ALL SOULS       
First Line: Forgive me, mother, it's october again


AN UNKNOWN MAN BEGINS WRITING HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY    Poem Text    
First Line: It occurs to me that I too could possess
Subject(s): Self; Relationships


ANGELUS       
First Line: The neighbors are burning


ART OF FICTION       
First Line: It's the way each evening unfolds the same


ARTEMON AND THE FATES       
First Line: It wasn't all that long ago he skulked about
Last Line: Himself with a dowager's ivory parasol?
Subject(s): Curiosities And Wonders; Life Change Events


AT THE ALL CLEAR       
First Line: That early in the morning


AUGURY       
First Line: Your pinkling, winter-white shoulders bent
Last Line: By my own deliberate confusions: bare- %shouldered, burning,imperilled in the yard
Subject(s): Nature


BEGIN, DISTANCE    Poem Text    
First Line: The morning stars are a torment
Subject(s): Landscape


BETRAYAL       
First Line: There were two of you in the dream, you


BIRTH OF CHRIST       
First Line: To find heaven in a cattle stall
Last Line: By an infant in a feeding trough


BOOK OF BLESSINGS       
First Line: The reserved and slightly weary-eyed doctor in the er who
Last Line: And in the book of silence, and in the book of forgetting


BOOK OF HOURS       
First Line: Late august, and once again the frail moon's launched
Last Line: The other's hand, and the poem is brought to an end


BORAGE       
First Line: We're cleaning up after the guests have gone
Last Line: Uncomplicated blue of borage, or deep water


BREAKDOWN       
First Line: The sun scanned the river with its lidless


CAFE SOCIETY       
First Line: Scarfed in a thin umbrellaed shade more rose
Last Line: As the past now passes out of memory


CALYPSO       
First Line: Although once I blunderingly boasted as much--and no matter
Last Line: One cannot tell, while the awninged ministers yawned and ate


CAROUSEL       
First Line: He'd just switched off the overhead light and stretched out
Last Line: Wound-down notes of the deserted boardwalk carousel


CHILDREN OF PARADISE       
First Line: At summer's end, a girl and I once


CONVERSATION       
First Line: It's odd because, beyond that day, there's not
Last Line: To the purblind terror that's come over him


CORPSE       
First Line: Tell me, how can we possibly call this mess
Last Line: To see the sun rise from its bloodshot grave


COUNTRY LANDSCAPE    Poem Text    
First Line: This involves more than just the water standing
Subject(s): Country Life


COUNTRY LANDSCAPE       
First Line: This involves more than just the water standing
Last Line: It's like this: dead insects blow across the floor. %they have never forgotten


DAIRY COWS AT CRAWFORD FARM    Poem Text    
First Line: Still road-weary but quite warmly stowed
Subject(s): Cows


DAIRY COWS OF MARIA CRISTINA CORTES       
First Line: Although they may be
Last Line: With mud, and filled with an ancient cow- %sorrow and-wonder
Subject(s): Nature


DALAI LAMA    Poem Text    
First Line: From between the pages
Subject(s): Survival


DALAI LAMA       
First Line: From between the pages
Last Line: Blessed with the common sense %to survive himself


DEATH       
First Line: Although great in passing, although suddenly enlarged


DOG STAR       
First Line: Why not wet our lungs with wine, sirius
Last Line: Scalded by the light of the midday sun


DRIFTWOOD       
First Line: Tumbled from the backwash of a fishing boat
Last Line: Is the end-all meaning of our journeying


DRIVING OUT OF THE KEYS       
First Line: White heat, and heat waves riffling the asphalt's


EASTER MANIFESTATIONS       
First Line: A woman who'd been watching


ELEGY FOR MY SISTER    Poem Text    
First Line: She was born sarah gossett ballenger
Subject(s): Death; Brothers & Sisters


ELEGY FOR MY SISTER (1)       
First Line: Warm toast. Night fires. Aesop and grimm
Last Line: The palace of nowhere. L'hotel de dream


ELEGY FOR MY SISTER (2)       
First Line: She was born sarah gossett ballenger
Last Line: Beneath the sill: a girl's hushed voice exhorting itself in %whispers
Subject(s): Sisters


EMPIRE       
First Line: And yet how quietly it all begins


ENORMOUS AQUARIUM       
First Line: All morning long from inside the lobby
Last Line: Like some ancient and magnificent tribe
Subject(s): Aquariums; Hotels


EROS: AN ATTESTATION       
First Line: Hail-wrack and thunder, cataracts of rain, shake out
Last Line: The cell of a doomed king's daughter


EURYDICE    Poem Text    
First Line: Waiting beside the window while you were brushing
Subject(s): Eurydice (nymph)


EVENING REFRAIN    Poem Text    
First Line: Small bundles of rotting vines smoke beside
Subject(s): Evenng


FARMLAND BESIDE THE LOIRE       
First Line: The cold spring


FERMANAGH CAVE    Poem Text    
Subject(s): Legends


GENETICS       
First Line: Earlier today, wandering around in the once


GHOST SONNET       
First Line: The offshoure rains had come early to the headlands, the pools
Last Line: Which I now know can neither be found nor forgotten


GOODBYE       
First Line: The great sun has changed itself


GYPSY CARNIVAL       
First Line: The long wooden benches were packed with men from


HOMAGE TO THE IMPRESSIONIST PAINTERS       
First Line: Two small boys crouched beside


HOMECOMING       
First Line: Waiting beside the window while I was brushing back
Last Line: After him, as if my harbored longings drove him out of reach


HYSTERIA       
First Line: All through lunch something's worried her


IN THE HOUSE ON NORTH GATE HEIGHTS       
First Line: In the converted study of this sunny two-story, ramshackle house


IN THE RAINY SEASON       
First Line: The first signs of cloudbreak


INSPIRATION    Poem Text    
First Line: Say what we will, at times it seems the rarest
Subject(s): Napoleon I (1769-1821)


INSPIRATION       
First Line: Say what we will, at times it seems the rarest
Last Line: Tattooed and senseless, trembling on the stair


INVITATION TO OBLIVION       
First Line: Why was I born? Where did I come from?
Last Line: For only in oblivion is oblivion braved


ISLAND       
First Line: Like the two-storey clapboard farmhouse
Last Line: Would never again be lost on me


JEFFERS COUNTRY       
First Line: The town, the wealthy


LATRINE IN THE SUBURBS OF SMYRNA       
First Line: How quickly the pricey kickshaws of the rich
Last Line: Gets siphoned underground in rivers of filth


LOST HOUR       
First Line: Recalling now, as from the underside


LUST       
First Line: These young turks with their oily hair and half-
Last Line: Birds but beyond the reach of old men like me


MARRIED LOVE       
First Line: As they sat and talked beneath the boundary trees
Last Line: Were they less like themselves that what they are.


MIDSUMMER       
First Line: Late in the day, the sun


MIDWEST DUSK       
First Line: From far away a dog's


MOMENT       
First Line: What I perceived is what I remember
Last Line: Without feeling or significance or form


MONUMENT       
First Line: Ten times tamerlane's storied wall of blood and severed limbs
Last Line: We'd have had to kill them anyway, we'd have had to kill them all


MUSEUM NATIONAL D'HISTOIRE NATURELLE, PARIS       
First Line: And yet nothing ever seems


NEAR THE DESERT TEST SITES       
First Line: Unlike almost everything


NEAR THE DESERT TEST SITES (PALM DESERT, CALIFORNIA)    Poem Text    
First Line: Unlike almost everything
Subject(s): Atomic Bomb - Testing


NEUROPHYSIOLOGY OF FEAR       
First Line: In the human brain


NINETEEN FIFTY-FIVE       
First Line: After all the late suppers of that faraway
Last Line: Would grow ludicrous before it grew dim


OEDIPUS IN EXILE       
First Line: When the sun went down, among other things
Last Line: Though between each sentence you closed your eyes %as if even they might give you away


OF HALOES & SAINTLY ASPECTS    Poem Text    
First Line: Out of a ripple in the sea grass
Variant Title(s): Of His Cynthia
Subject(s): Nature


OF HALOES & SAINTLY ASPECTS       
First Line: Out of a ripple in the sea grass
Last Line: Destiny undisturbed by acts %of forgiveness or contrition
Variant Title(s): Of His Cynthi
Subject(s): Nature


ON THE LAST DAY OF THE WORLD    Poem Text    
First Line: As usual, the guard who worked
Subject(s): Seashore; Beach; Coast; Shore


PETITION       
First Line: Like the numbering dead, all night I wind
Last Line: To be islanded in her alien arms


PHOTOGRAPH OF MY FATHER       
First Line: The sun's suspended like a drop of amber


PILOT STARS       
First Line: Open window; eucalyptus scent; the ever
Last Line: Was suddenly storyless, boundless, and blank


PORTRAIT OF A COUPLE AT CENTURY'S END       
First Line: Impatient for home, %the after-work traffic fanning out along
Last Line: By a beeswax candle pooling beside %their dinnerware
Subject(s): Loss; Moving And Movers; Refugees; U.s. - Immigration And Emigration


PORTRAIT OF TWO PARTINGS       
First Line: Face it!' this said with such urgency
Last Line: At the sound of car tires on the gravel drive


RED ADVANCING    Poem Text    
First Line: Out beyond the last grim hamlet's gaze,
Subject(s): Mondrian, Piet (1872-1944)


RETURN TO THE ISLANDS       
First Line: As the twin engines throttle up
Last Line: And re-entering the interior %where the sea-sounds live, and the mind %into darkness plunges its wei


RIMBAUD       
First Line: My dog-collared spirit delirium's damned
Last Line: Hunting the hound-spirit of some future god


RUMOR       
First Line: It's been said I no longer chase young boys
Last Line: And a herd of green deer in the plashy air


SIRENS IN BAD WEATHER       
First Line: Wet streets are undisturbed by that chronic


SOUND LIKE RAIN       
First Line: Twice tonight I awakened to the soughing sound
Last Line: Of water sluicing down the gutters and away


STILL LIFE WITH MINNOWS    Poem Text    
First Line: The river, while it
Subject(s): Nature


STILL LIFE WITH MINNOWS       
First Line: The river, while it
Last Line: And sees it just that way, the min- %nows still blindly bump- %ing at the glass
Subject(s): Nature


STORM SEASON       
First Line: I can't make sense of these offshore winds
Last Line: Leaches a guttering sunlight through


SUNDAY VISIT TO KOALINGA'S       
First Line: Being, I suppose, too young


SUPPLICATION       
First Line: When I finally found her alone in her room
Last Line: To consign my wish to a never-never land


TABLEAU       
First Line: We'd been happy enought
Last Line: Was true, municipal, and at that hour %within out reaches


TAHOE NOCTURNE       
First Line: Do you have the poems of han-shan in your house
Last Line: Do you recognize me, air, where once I wandered


TALKING CURE       
First Line: Eyes shut. Lapsed time. The 2 a.M. Aquarium light
Last Line: Years ago wasn't actually love of a finer kind %than I've known since, or am ever likely to know aga


THE AGE OF REASON    Poem Text    
First Line: Car lights like lanterns in the pre-dawn dark
Subject(s): Reason; Intellect; Rationalism; Brain; Mind; Intellectuals


THE AIR BASE AT CHATEAUROUX    Poem Text    
First Line: In the american schoolyard
Subject(s): Youth


THE BREAKDOWN    Poem Text    
First Line: The sun scanned the river with its lidless
Subject(s): Homecoming


THE COMING OF FALL    Poem Text    
First Line: Like a wedge of cranes
Subject(s): Autumn; Fall


THE DREAM OF NOTHING    Poem Text    
First Line: All morning snow has heaped up
Subject(s): Nothingness; Nihilism; Voids


THE ENORMOUS AQUARIUM    Poem Text    
First Line: All morning long from inside the lobby
Subject(s): Aquariums; Hotels; Inns; Innskeepers; Motels; Boarding Houses


THE EVENING LIGHT ALONG THE SOUND    Poem Text    
First Line: As if the sky could no longer hold its color
Subject(s): Evening; Sunset; Twilight


THE HARVEST SEASON    Poem Text    
First Line: Last night I dreamt us back to our first home
Subject(s): Home; Relationships


THE UNSLEEPNG GENIUS OF MISFORTUNE    Poem Text    
First Line: If ever there was a story
Subject(s): Insomnia; Man-woman Relationships; Sleeplessness; Male-female Relations


THREE FRAGMENTS    Poem Text    
First Line: Orion is rising, and the air
Subject(s): Absence; Separation; Isolation


TO PRIAPUS       
First Line: It's to you, great god of gardens, that potamon
Last Line: The rocked-in sluice and irrigate the beds


TWO POEMS: 1       
First Line: Early morning, a woman sits up in bed
Last Line: Undisturbed, and so manages once more %to turn a loss into the semblance of a loss


TWO POEMS: 2       
First Line: Weeks, maybe months, have passed and just
Last Line: In the trees. Salt wetness and bright stars


UNSHELTERING GROUND       
First Line: First child, born out of breech
Last Line: As he closed and closed %his first around %that emptiness in which %we are abandoned and blessed


UNSLEEPING GENIUS OF MISFORTUNE       
First Line: If ever there was a story


VALLEY IN THE SHADOW OF NORTH HOLLYWOOD       
First Line: As if cued to the first peach prayer-call of sunrise
Last Line: And for one brief moment turns everything gold


VIEW FROM THE HOTEL LOBBY    Poem Text    
First Line: Bleary by noon, the whitewashed
Subject(s): City & Town Life; Landscape


WAITING FOR THE STORM    Poem Text    
First Line: The morning sun struck, like flint, the banked
Subject(s): Boats; Storms


WAITING TO BE RESTATIONED       
First Line: Small bundles of rotting vines smoked beside
Variant Title(s): Evening Refrai


WEDNESDAYS       
First Line: With a purely ordinary splendor one could
Last Line: And the battered, abandoned, still hopeful heart %is restored to its place in the suburbs


WHELK       
First Line: Turned up by our son's


WING DIKE AT LOW WATER       
First Line: The corps of engineers bulldozed it out


WOMAN AT THE HOTEL DE DREAM       
First Line: Like someone returning to a place she'd


WORK    Poem Text    
First Line: Pushing off on her back out
Subject(s): Marriage; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


WORK       
First Line: Pushing off on her back out