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Discover our poem explanations - click here!Searching... Author: STONE, RUTH Matches Found: 333 Stone, Ruth Poet's Biography 333 poems available by this author 1941 Poem Text First Line: I wore a large brim hat Subject(s): Clothing & Dress; Memory; Relationships 1941 First Line: I wore a large brim hat Last Line: In the arms of my total happiness Subject(s): Clothing And Dress; Memory; Relationships A GOOD QUESTION Poem Text First Line: Look at these disparate shapes Last Line: How can I live like this? Subject(s): Cold A PAIR Poem Text First Line: The black and white cat / means to get off Last Line: Stroke his electric body. Subject(s): Widows & Widowers A WOODCHUCK LESSON Poem Text First Line: To reach the university, / you park your car on rapist hill Last Line: Who huddle near the fence, near the loading ramp. Subject(s): Environment; Teaching & Teachers; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation ABSENCE PROVES NOTHING Poem Text Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships; Fear; Conduct Of Life; Male-female Relations ACADEMIC LIFE First Line: The philosopher's red-haired voice ACCEPTING Poem Text First Line: Half-blind, it is al;ways twilight Last Line: Given or what to make of them Subject(s): Conduct Of Life ACCEPTING First Line: Half-blind, it is always twilight Last Line: Given or what to make of them ADVICE Poem Text First Line: My hazard wouldn't be yours, not ever Subject(s): Mothers & Daughters; Women ADVICE First Line: My hazard wouldn't be yours, not ever Last Line: Don't confuse hunger with greed; %and don't wait until you are dead Subject(s): Mothers And Daughters; Women AGAIN I FIND YOU Poem Text First Line: A compulsive flasher, / the limp kelp rises up Last Line: Only the bird. Subject(s): Drowning; Imagination; Memory; Thought; Fancy; Thinking AGAIN-NOW Poem Text First Line: This vague surreal cityscape, / not get-at-able; neither clear Last Line: Even dreaded and unwanted quick. Subject(s): Breath; Summer AIR Poem Text First Line: Through the open window, a confusion Last Line: Is deeply inhaling, exhaling its doppelgänger breath. Subject(s): Air; Environment; Gasoline; Pollution; Sickness; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation; Illness ALBANY BUS STATION Poem Text First Line: The same fat man with the fluorescent vest Last Line: Pulls in to take me home to brandon. Subject(s): Bus Terminals; Travel; Vermont; Journeys; Trips ALL IN TIME First Line: Behind the glass door of the waiting room Last Line: You pull apart like velcro ALWAYS ON THE TRAIN Poem Text First Line: Writing poems about writing poems Last Line: And the black high flung patterns of flocking birds. Subject(s): Poetry & Poets; Writing & Writers ALWAYS YOUR SHADOW Poem Text First Line: When I remember the cold mornings Last Line: As the metamorphosis of breath. Subject(s): Chopin, Frederic Francois (1810-1849); Memory; Thought; Thinking AMERICAN MILK First Line: Then the butter we put on our white bread Last Line: We gradually learned about our country AN EDUCATION IN THE EIGHTIES Poem Text Subject(s): Women - Old Age; Social Classes; Caste AN IMPRINT OF THE ROARING TWENTIES Poem Text First Line: I have a weakness for grubbing at the salvation army's discard tables Last Line: And the cardtable-sized embroidered tablecloths Subject(s): Divorce; Childhood Memories; Tablecloths; Alcohol & Alcoholics; Women AND YET First Line: Today feels like forever, and yet ANOTHER DAY Poem Text First Line: The fleeting high that lifts you Last Line: Ball of twine, fractal of lost feathers Subject(s): Time; Conduct Of Life ANOTHER FEELING Poem Text First Line: Once you saw a drove of young pigs Subject(s): Pigs; Diability; Regret; Boars; Hogs AS IT IS Poem Text First Line: In this squat body, / the most delicate things Last Line: Down like snow. Oh world, I said. Subject(s): Criticism & Critics; Old Age AS REAL AS LIFE Poem Text First Line: Say to the mild melancholy of regret Subject(s): Time; Grief; Sorrow; Sadness AT EIGHTY-THREE SHE LIVES ALONE Poem Text First Line: Enclosure, steam-heated; a trial casket Last Line: Oh, paper bird with folded wings. Subject(s): Old Age; Solitude; Loneliness AT THE CENTER First Line: The center is simple, they say AT THE MUSEUM, 1938 First Line: In the native bird exhibit, the whip-poor-will, stuffed with sawdust Last Line: Canopies; the continuous singing of birds among their breathing branches Subject(s): Birds; Museums AT THE READY Poem Text First Line: Under the aerial squadron, / wheat fields are ready Last Line: Repeating instructions to the already dead. Subject(s): Aviation & Aviators; Military; Missions & Missionaries; War BAZOOK First Line: My aunt from st. Louis BE SERIOUS First Line: Perhaps it will snow %oh do be serious Last Line: How the poor die in the streets Subject(s): Politics; War BECOMING VEGETARIAN Poem Text First Line: Slowly I am pulling my teeth Last Line: I push my cart of rags crying, “no carrion” Subject(s): Vegetarians BEFORE THE BLIGHT Poem Text First Line: The elms stretched themselves in indolent joy Last Line: Rocked in the sinewy arms of summer. Subject(s): Childhood Memories; Happiness; Joy; Delight BEHIND THE FASCADE First Line: My mother stayed in her small room BEING A WOMAN First Line: You can talk to yourself all you want to BEING HUMAN First Line: Though all the force to hold the parts together BETWEEN THE LINES First Line: Dear daughter: well, it's november so it begins to rain BIRDS Poem Text First Line: In peabody museum where phoebe lagged and marcia hid Last Line: Trying to answer, here, here, I am here Subject(s): Bird-watching; Museums BITS OF INFORMATION Poem Text First Line: While her minuscule fledglings, each slightly Last Line: Will cross the gulf of mexico, living on stored up fat. Subject(s): Single Parents; Parents Without Partners BODY AMONG TREES First Line: Attaches to trunks, mimicking shadows BOOM First Line: And the rock and rollers on the beach Last Line: Ate it like manna in the wilderness BREAD Poem Text First Line: If you make a connection between this table and that table Subject(s): Bread; Grandparents; Memory; Grandmothers; Grandfathers; Great Grandfathers; Great Grandmothers BREAD First Line: If you make a connection between this table and that table Last Line: For the rest of your life these cast-out bodies of lepers Subject(s): Bread; Grandparents; Memory BREATHING Poem Text First Line: By day the brook is subsumed Last Line: Sucked down in its liquid mouth. Subject(s): Children; Collective Behavior; Noises; Childhood; Mobs; Crowds BURNED BRIDGE First Line: Sister was wedged beside the wicker basket Subject(s): Streetcars CHEAP First Line: Not knowing I wasn't free COCKS AND MARES Poem Text First Line: Every man wants to be a stud Subject(s): Men COCKS AND MARES First Line: Every man wants to be a stud Subject(s): Men CODICIL First Line: I am still bitter about the last place we stayed COFFEE AND SWEET ROLLS First Line: When I remember the dingy hotels Last Line: As you pull down the dark window shade COLUMBUS, OHIO First Line: Practicing some silent under-water drift Last Line: As if nothing is impossible, %as if it is an ordinary day COMMENTS OF THE MILD First Line: The cabinet squats trembling on its carved legs COMMUNION First Line: Birds circle above the hay barn CONFESSION Poem Text First Line: Exquisite sir, what blame rests in the wrinkles Subject(s): Aging COUSIN FRANCIS SPEAKS OUT Poem Text First Line: Buddy's uncle hiram felt bad about his sister, mable Last Line: Is to pull the teeth. Subject(s): Nursing Homes; Old Age; Old Age Homes; Assisted Living CURRENTS First Line: Something about a flock of birds toward evening Last Line: That gathers itself into the one, %summer after summer CURTAINS Poem Text First Line: Putting up new curtains, Subject(s): Landlord & Tenants; Death; Grief; Dead, The; Sorrow; Sadness CURTAINS First Line: Putting up new curtains Last Line: See what you miss by being dead? DARK CONCLUSIONS First Line: Like cutting the dry rot out of a potato Last Line: And a little milky juice. How awful to slice it open %and find the center fustating, malevolent DENOUEMENT First Line: You intimidated me. I was thrown into hell without a trial DISAPPEARED CHILD First Line: If only I could wrest you out of nothing DON'T MISS IT Poem Text First Line: If you're looking for a heron on one leg Last Line: Battered bodies, the good old boys left behind. Subject(s): Heroism; Heroes; Heroines DREAM OF LIGHT IN THE SHADE Poem Text First Line: Now that I am married I spend Subject(s): Marriage; Weddings; Husbands; Wives DREAM OF LIGHT IN THE SHADE First Line: Now that I am married I spend DREAM OF WILD BIRDS First Line: Sweat curls off the lake the color of ochre DROUGHT IN THE LOWER FIELDS First Line: Steers are dumb like angels Last Line: Blue stars of chicory EARTHQUAKE Poem Text First Line: The moon rises as shizu rises from her couch Subject(s): Disasters; Earthquakes EARTHQUAKE First Line: The moon rises as shizu rises from her couch Last Line: A fan opening and closing Subject(s): Disasters; Earthquakes ECLAT First Line: Mrs. Tory shaves her boarders' whiskers EDEN, THEN AND NOW Poem Text First Line: In '29 before the dust storms Last Line: In fact, the same eden. Subject(s): Corporate Downsizing; Depressions, Economic; Hunger; Recessions EMILY First Line: Emily playing on the deck, poplar bending along the rail END OF SUMMER ... 1969 First Line: Dear phoebe, wherever you are ENTERING THE STUDENT'S POEM Poem Text First Line: The most beautiful videos / come from reading poetry Last Line: The blood rushing to her forehead. Subject(s): Exchange Students; Language Poetry; Poetry Readings; Foreign Exchange Programs EVE, ALSO Poem Text First Line: Holding in my left hand an apple; Subject(s): Apples EXCUSE First Line: Do they write poems when they have something to say EXPERIENCE Poem Text First Line: Satan, I come across the iris bed FADING First Line: As though approaching a mirror FAMILY First Line: We left, repeating, 'love ... Care' FATHER'S DAY First Line: When I was eight you put me Last Line: At any moment I can breathe in the burned powder of %your body, %the bitter taste, the residue FINDING MYSELF First Line: Thursday, the 20th of july, %came to me and said Last Line: Letting itself down %on a string of spittle FOR A POSTCARD OF MY MOTHER AT THE BEACH Poem Text First Line: My oyster weeps the pearls of denouement Subject(s): Seashore; Women - Old Age; Beach; Coast; Shore FOR SEVEN WOMEN First Line: Gender loyalty, alien to the pits and ducts of ouselves Last Line: I am a stranger crossing the bone bridge to meet the other. %our skulls shine like calligraphy in a FORECAST Poem Text First Line: Isabel, I could vainly map a happy vale Subject(s): Children; Childhood FROM THE ARBORETUM First Line: The bunya-bunya is a great louse that sucks Last Line: To them it is only an old armchair, a brothel, the front porch FROM THE OTHER SIDE First Line: Maurice, had I known about salvation in art FULL MOON Poem Text First Line: My problem is not enough Last Line: To another nightjar Subject(s): Sleep; Moon GENESIS Poem Text First Line: Cylinder sacks of water filling the oceans, / endless bullets of water Last Line: It was one drop of salt water against another. Subject(s): Memory GETTING TO KNOW YOU Poem Text First Line: We slept into one another Last Line: We were relative strangers. Subject(s): Marriage; Retrospection; Widows & Widowers; Weddings; Husbands; Wives GOOD ADVICE Poem Text First Line: Here is not exactly here Subject(s): Advice GOOD ADVICE First Line: Here is not exactly here Last Line: Here', says the devil, %'eat. It's paradise.' Subject(s): Advice GREEN APPLES Poem Text First Line: In august we carried the old horsehair mattress Subject(s): Apples; Summer; Family Life; Relatives GREEN APPLES First Line: In august we carried the old horsehair mattress Last Line: Saying, this is the moment, %here, now GUS First Line: It would usually happen at dinner Subject(s): Child Molesting; Child Abuse GUS First Line: It would usually happen at dinner Last Line: Wet like the cum of a father Subject(s): Child Molesting HABIT First Line: Every day I dig you up HABITAT First Line: The wolverine, whose numbers remain somewhat constant HAPPINESS First Line: We were married near the base Last Line: Its tiny skeleton, its skull %that searched ahead of you like radar HAYING First Line: Mr. Wanzer is cutting his silage HOME MOVIE Poem Text First Line: At the other end of a telescope, a long way Subject(s): Motion Pictures; Family Life; Movies; Cinema; Relatives HOW AUNT MAUD TOOK TO BEING A WOMAN Poem Text Subject(s): Women; Conduct Of Life HOW AUNT MAUD TOOK TO BEING A WOMAN First Line: A long hill sloped down to aunt maud's brick house HOW THEY GOT HER TO QUIET DOWN Poem Text Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships; Conduct Of Life; Male-female Relations HOW THEY GOT HER TO QUIET DOWN First Line: When the ceiling plaster fell in aunt mable's kitchen Last Line: Under a pieced quilt. 'quiet as a little bird,' he said HOW TO CATCH AUNT HARRIETTE Poem Text First Line: Mary cassatt has her in a striped dress with a Subject(s): Cassatt, Mary (1844-1926); Paintings And Painters HOW TO CATCH AUNT HARRIETTE First Line: Mary cassatt has her in a striped dress with a Last Line: Yet so bizarre, so beyond me, %that I planned my entire life from its indications Subject(s): Cassatt, Mary (1844-1926); Paintings And Painters HUNGER First Line: I have been up and down the town I HAVE THREE DAUGHTERS Last Line: And lordy, give us our share ICONS FROM INDIANAPOLIS First Line: The fountain around the soldiers' and sailors' monument ILLINOIS First Line: Close up, shaved hay fields IN AN IRIDESCENT TIME Poem Text First Line: My mother, when young, scrubbed laundry in a tub Subject(s): Laundry & Laundering; Women IN AN IRIDESCENT TIME First Line: My mother, when young, scrubbed laundry in a tub Last Line: Between the lilac bushes and the yew: %brown gingham, pink, and skirts of alice blue Subject(s): Laundry And Laundering; Women IN THE MADNESS OF AGE Poem Text First Line: In the drapery of shadow I forgive Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships; Male-female Relations IN THE NEXT GALAXY Poem Text First Line: Things will be different Last Line: Blue skies and drinking water. Subject(s): Future Life; Retribution; Eternity; After Life INCARNATION Poem Text First Line: Every day a woman stands in her kitchen Last Line: For the house to fall down. Subject(s): Grief; Memory; Sorrow; Sadness INCREDIBLE BUYS IN First Line: Houston, fourth largest city in the country Last Line: Deep in the soft ooze of my cortex INFANT First Line: The sky is a fat belly IT First Line: Oh the pretty tinsel of it IT FOLLOWS Poem Text First Line: If you had a lot of money Subject(s): Money; Surgery, Plastic; Life Choices; Cosmetic Sugery; Face Lifts IT FOLLOWS First Line: If you had a lot of money Last Line: That they've taken from the dead babies' gums %and frozen for this sort of thing. %you could still d JUVENILES Poem Text First Line: The dragons, the scale-tailed dragons have gone away Subject(s): Children; Childhood LAGUNA BEACH First Line: The shingle roofs burgeon moss, green as tender acacia LAST CLOUD First Line: Under the ozone the remnant swims LATEST HOTEL GUEST WALKS OVER PARTICLES THAT REVOLVE First Line: It is an old established hotel Last Line: Counting from ten to zero Subject(s): Hotels LEAP FROM A FOOTNOTE Poem Text First Line: Miss rae huffman of the american mission Last Line: The leopard men in cattle camps, accepting their drug-coated cheese Subject(s): Anthropology LEAVING MY ROOMMATES IN NEW YORK Poem Text First Line: Snow falls upon snow fastening its delicate hooks Last Line: To the subliminal sounds of ermines living in the lath. Subject(s): Homeless; New York City; Manhattan; New York, New York; The Big Apple LEAVING NEW YORK WITH HARRY First Line: He's in another seat of the bus Last Line: As if we lay inside one another %as in a klein bottle, %the stamp of extermination on our foreheads LIBERATION First Line: We ladies sense it is the cuckoo builds no nest; Last Line: Morning after morning slips %the spider with her web across our lips LIESBESLIED First Line: The landlord's child LIGHT Poem Text First Line: The house across the way / facing east, light clips it Last Line: And the body stirs and remembers. Subject(s): Widows & Widowers LIGHT CONCLUSIONS First Line: Seven light bulbs burned for seven hours Last Line: It's marine world for me' grandma says LIMBO First Line: Since landing in hell, I sleep Last Line: A vapor, a breath of what was, %always nowhere LINEAR ILLUSIONS First Line: Some days seem significant Last Line: Relentlessly horizontal. Subject(s): Imagination; Fancy LINES Poem Text First Line: Voice, perhaps you are the universe Last Line: In a spasm of loneliness. Subject(s): Solitude; Loneliness LOOK TO THE FUTURE Poem Text First Line: To you born into violence Subject(s): War; Future; Conduct Of Life LOOK TO THE FUTURE First Line: To you born into violence Last Line: When the sun dies we will become one LOOKING AT YOUR HAND Poem Text First Line: This shadow passing over your hand Last Line: For a moment it can shape itself into a cup of water. Subject(s): Hands; Mankind; Shadows; Human Race LOSS First Line: I hid sometimes in the closet among my own clothes LOST WORLD First Line: The plastic is waiting in rolls Last Line: The hardware department coils in snakes of garden hoses, %and indispensable rubber washers wink at t LOVE Poem Text First Line: This part of myself devoted to you Last Line: The glass hearts, the transparent bodies. Subject(s): Hearts; Love LOVE'S RELATIVE First Line: The couple who remain bed MADISON IN THE MID-SIXTIES Poem Text First Line: Names, can you talk without their mirage? Subject(s): Automobiles; Driving; Social Classes; Cars; Caste MADISON IN THE MID-SIXTIES First Line: Names, can you talk without their mirage Last Line: That fails in language after language MAGNET First Line: I loved my lord, my black-haired lord, my young love MALE GORILLAS Poem Text First Line: At the doughnut shop / twenty-three silverbacks Subject(s): Masculinity (psychology) MALE GORILLAS First Line: At the doughnut shop %twenty-three silverbacks Last Line: Confused library, the female mind Subject(s): Masculinity (psychology) MANTRA Poem Text First Line: When I am sad / I sing, remembering Last Line: When I forget. Subject(s): Forgetfulness; Grief; Sorrow; Sadness MARCH 15, 1998 Poem Text First Line: Let me forget / when the hanged man Last Line: A fractal glitch, a gift from zero. Subject(s): Students, Foreign MEDIUM FOR STASIS First Line: She is in the center of the picture Last Line: Stops at the moment of what will happen MEMORY OF KNOWLEDGE AND DEATH AT THE MOTHER OF SCHOLARS First Line: Why do we meet at the backs, you and I MESSAGE FROM YOUR TOES First Line: Even in the absence of light MESSAGES First Line: Instead of grazing cattle, / this range is heavy with tires Subject(s): Space & Space Travel; Outer Space; Fourth Dimension MESSAGES First Line: Space flattens to a photograph Last Line: A painting by a man named whistler Subject(s): Space And Space Travel METAMOPHOSIS Poem Text First Line: Now I am old, all I want to do is try; Subject(s): Old Age METAMORPHOSIS First Line: Now I am old, all I want to do is try METAMORPHOSIS First Line: One day you wake up and you have a new face Last Line: It was never good enough METAPHORS OF THE TREE Poem Text First Line: The play yard with its automobile tire Last Line: Where the wind does not pause. Subject(s): Leaves; Parks; Trees MINE First Line: Sick at heart MIRACLE First Line: Come to the window aunt bess said MOLD First Line: As you swing the door your passage through air MOTHER LOOKS AT HER CHILD First Line: Why are you beautiful MOTHER'S PICTURE First Line: From a photograph on the bedroon wall MOTHERS First Line: Working out of mind, the wind says Last Line: I am the mother of sorrow MOVING RIGHT ALONG (1) First Line: Advanced systems Last Line: The sludge of hypothesis, %the word become flesh Subject(s): Time MOVING RIGHT ALONG (2) First Line: At the molecular level MUSIC First Line: Even here on the upthrust rocks Last Line: Erased across the parking lot NAMES Poem Text First Line: My grandmother's name was nora swan Subject(s): Ancestry & Ancestors; Grandparents; Grandmothers; Grandfathers; Great Grandfathers; Great Grandmothers NAMES First Line: My grandmother's name was nora swan Last Line: Bedstraw, toadflax - from whom I did descend in perpetuity Subject(s): Ancestors And Ancestry; Grandparents NAPPING ON THE GREYHOUND Poem Text First Line: It's christmas eve in texas Last Line: "from planet zizz. ""very tasteful antennae." Subject(s): Buses; Greyhounds; Texas; Travel; Journeys; Trips NEVER First Line: Don't forget that henry james Last Line: The immortal flesh NEWS First Line: What have you to say to that Last Line: That single body casting itself into the future Subject(s): News NOSE First Line: Everyone complains about the nose NOT EXPECTING AN ANSWER Poem Text First Line: This tedious letter to you Last Line: Calligraphy, feathery asparagus. Subject(s): Letters OF HEROES Poem Text First Line: Hero, fast in your dark monument Subject(s): Heroism; Heroes; Heroines OLD SONG First Line: When I was young I knew that I would die ON THE MOUNTAIN First Line: Still in october, the woodchuck Last Line: And I search among the signs %for the flare, polestar, pulley toward the edge ON THE OUTER BANKS First Line: Dark over the sound Last Line: Upward lifted, %still downward smashed ON THE SLOW TRAIN PASSING THROUGH Poem Text First Line: Here's moody furniture and the town of moody. Also the display Last Line: The conductor hitched up the trolley and they went on with their regular day. Subject(s): Disasters; Fire; Railroads; Travel; Railways; Trains; Journeys; Trips ON THE STREET First Line: Each day you pass this woman Last Line: To all you have hidden from yourself Subject(s): Streets; Women ONCE MORE First Line: O my crows, %when you return in april Last Line: To rocks smash downstream %in the snowmelt ORANGE POEM PRAISING BROWN First Line: The quick brown poem jumped over the lazy woman ORCHARD Poem Text First Line: The mare roamed soft about the slope Subject(s): Horses ORCHARD First Line: The mare roamed soft about the slope OTHERWISE First Line: Under other conditions, the dinner napkin Last Line: And we understand that it is our %collective desire to understand OUT OF LOS ANGELES First Line: Coming into st. Louis, our heads still garbled OVERLAPPING EDGES First Line: Starlings flock to roost across rubble of shocked corn OVERNIGHT GUEST Poem Text First Line: Waiting for your ride in front of the house Last Line: From poetry Subject(s): Guests; Visiting PATIENCE First Line: You hacked the firewood out of the stiffened snow Last Line: Always comes with a little touch of death PERHAPS First Line: This woman sits in the kitchen Last Line: That lies on the old bones like a silk mask, %like a skein of ice PERIPHERIES Poem Text First Line: This circle holding the afternoon sky is a lake Subject(s): Mythology PERIPHERY First Line: You are not wanted Last Line: It listened to all the jokes and it laughed PINE CONES First Line: Flat against the sky PLAN First Line: I said to myself, do you have a plan? Last Line: And it came to me, the blind will be leading the blind POEMS Poem Text First Line: When you come back to me / it will be crow time Last Line: The madness of my tongue. Subject(s): Language; Poetry & Poets; Words; Vocabulary POETRY First Line: I sit with my cup POINTS OF VISION Poem Text First Line: In february the hills of niguel flush green Last Line: Shizu prepares her watercolors. Subject(s): Colors; Paintings And Painters POKEBERRIES First Line: I started out in the virginia mountains Last Line: Or my aunt maud; or my mama, who didn't just bite an apple %with he big white teeth. She split it in POLES First Line: In the summer under the light ease of laundry fluttering PRINCIPLE OF MIRRORS First Line: The wind turns a windmill in australia PRIVATE PANTOMIME Poem Text First Line: I will reach into the grab-bag of unconscious things Subject(s): Birds PROCEDURE First Line: Here is old bessie laid out on a metal slab READING Poem Text First Line: It is spring when the storks return Subject(s): Books; Reading READING First Line: It is spring when the storks return Last Line: Are stamping their heavy boots %along the pages READING THE RUSSIANS First Line: Of course they are gloomy; / they drink a lot of vodka Last Line: Chernobyl, and gogol's nose. Subject(s): Books; Russia; Translating & Interpreting; Reading; Soviet Union; Russians REALITY Poem Text First Line: As a fish, gutted for trade Last Line: So beautiful; come to this. Subject(s): Reality RELATIVES Poem Text First Line: Grandma lives in this town; Subject(s): Grandparents; Grandmothers; Grandfathers; Great Grandfathers; Great Grandmothers REPETITION First Line: It's unbearable and yet, every day Last Line: Holding her red flag %at the end of the line Subject(s): Decay REPETITION OF WORDS AND WEATHER Poem Text First Line: A basket of dirty clothes Subject(s): Words; Weather; Washerwomen; Poetry & Poets REPETITION OF WORDS AND WEATHER First Line: A basket of dirty clothes Last Line: And I think, what's done is done. %it won't be changed with words RESONANCE First Line: The universe is sad Last Line: A sad trick of the neural pathways, resonating flesh %and my old body remembers the way you touched RISING Poem Text First Line: In the government offices the rules and regulations Last Line: That the house is going out with the tide. Subject(s): Birds; Erosion; Gulls; Seashore; Waves; Seagulls; Beach; Coast; Shore ROMANCE Poem Text First Line: I went back, as to my relatives. Subject(s): Homecoming; Love - Complaints ROMANCE First Line: I went back, as to my relatives Last Line: Of my desperate and embittered life ROOM First Line: Someone in the next apartment Last Line: And I listen %with my ear against the plaster ROOM First Line: The room is the belly of the house SALT First Line: In the bell toll of a clang SCARS First Line: Sometimes I am on a train SEASON First Line: I know what calls the devil from the pits SEAT BELT FASTENED First Line: Old bill pheasant won't trim his beard SECOND-HAND COAT Poem Text First Line: I feel / in her pockets; she wore nice cotton gloves, Subject(s): Identity SECOND-HAND COAT First Line: I feel Last Line: Get your purse, have you got your keys? Subject(s): Identity SEED Poem Text First Line: Corn is universal, / so like a roman senator Last Line: Oh my daughters. Subject(s): Children; Corn; Indian Summer; Parents; Childhood; Parenthood SEPARATE First Line: I want to tell you something with my hands SETTING TYPE Poem Text First Line: From a long way, the semicolon begins to wave Last Line: I think they ought to get edited and settle down Subject(s): Language SHADOWS First Line: I receive a card that says you have a walled garden SHAPES Poem Text First Line: In the longer view it doesn't matter Last Line: At the farthest edge; accepting that blur. Subject(s): Grief; Homeless; Loss; Sympathy; Sorrow; Sadness; Empathy SHOTGUN WEDDING First Line: The bride is not yet married to the groom SIESTA Poem Text First Line: In an aftermath of lying, lying Subject(s): Balloons SNOW First Line: Plentiful snow deepens the path to the woods Last Line: In the well of the wind, and feathers fly from the rip Subject(s): Snow SNOW TRIVIA First Line: In secret molecules SO BE IT First Line: Look, this string of words Last Line: Leaping from level to level SO WHAT Poem Text First Line: For me the great truths are laced with hysteria. SO WHAT First Line: For me the great truths are laced with hysteria Last Line: Last lines to poems I will write immediately SO WHAT'S WRONG? Poem Text First Line: Here it is, a green world, / and all of these millions Subject(s): Animals; Dogs; Life SO WHAT'S WRONG? First Line: Here it is, a green world, %and all of these millions Last Line: The strange reflected light %of a dead moon Subject(s): Animals; Dogs; Life SOME THINGS YOU'LL NEED TO KNOW BEFORE YOU JOIN THE UNION First Line: At the poetry factory Last Line: Become an alcoholic, %consider suicide.' SOMETHING First Line: In a room upstairs, under the hot roof SOMETHING DEEPER First Line: I am still at the same subject SONG OF ABSINTHE GRANNY First Line: Among some hills there dwelt in parody Last Line: And with what's lefy I'm chary SORROW Poem Text First Line: Living alone the feet turn voluptuous Last Line: But the other foot. Subject(s): Solitude; Loneliness SORROW AND NO SORROW Poem Text First Line: We eat through tubes of time Last Line: On its indifferent tongue. Subject(s): Grief; Hunger; Sorrow; Sadness SORTING IT OUT First Line: Falsely soft, infinitely far Last Line: The turrets with guns in position SPECULATION Poem Text First Line: A girl we didn't actually know Subject(s): Death; Depressions, Economic; Girls; Sisters; Dead, The; Recessions SPECULATION First Line: A girl we didn't actually know Last Line: Always made her feel glamorous Subject(s): Death; Depressions, Economic; Girls; Sisters SPERM AND THE EGG First Line: The sperm hate the egg Last Line: To be or not to be!' Subject(s): Masculinity (psychology) SPLINTER First Line: I had a little silver manikin SPRING BEAUTIES Poem Text First Line: The abandoned campus, / empty brick buildings and early june Last Line: By some unknown impressionist. Subject(s): Typewriters; Universities & Colleges; Writing & Writers STORY OF THE CHURN First Line: I am so rich and poor, cried the widow STRANDS Poem Text First Line: This uprooted grass from the edge of the marsh-lake Subject(s): Aging SUBMISSION First Line: The poem was hanging around in the locker room Last Line: E is for effort,' %he said SUNDAY First Line: The masons spent sundays visiting the hospital SURVIVING IN EARLYSVILLE WITH A BROKEN WINDOW First Line: Mr. Garvey tells me old window glass is frail SYSTEM First Line: As shade preserves, for a moment Last Line: With bristly hairs, %thousands of lenses, %suction cups of intractable feet, %as they labor in the b TALKING FISH First Line: My love's eyes are red as the sargasso TELL ME First Line: Tell me ruth, how is your vision?' Last Line: Oom, ah, swept away' TENACITY First Line: Can it be over so soon TENDRILS Poem Text First Line: While leaves are popping bullets of air Last Line: Of violent / untranslatable language Subject(s): Love; Language THAT DAY First Line: Since then we've gone around the sun fifty times THAT OTHER WAR Poem Text First Line: A bird sings in the tree you planted Last Line: Handing out coupons and samples. Subject(s): Death; Heroism; War; Dead, The; Heroes; Heroines THAT WINTER First Line: In chicago, near the lake, on the north shore Last Line: Isn't much to live for %except to spite hitler-- %the war is so lurid %that everything else is dull THE ALIEN Poem Text First Line: Like myself, the body gets in bed Last Line: It does not care what is hanging in my head Subject(s): Self THE BURNED BRIDGE Poem Text First Line: Sister was wedged beside the wicker basket Subject(s): Streetcars THE CABBAGE Poem Text First Line: You have rented an apartment Last Line: You can live with this. Subject(s): Children; Paintings And Painters; Parents; Childhood; Parenthood THE ELECTRIC FAN AND THE DEAD MAN ... Poem Text First Line: She remembers his covert sleeves, / the sadness of his quiet Last Line: Ready for, at least mechanically, fin de siècle, à rebours. Subject(s): Memory; Widows & Widowers THE FIG TREE Poem Text First Line: Old as the world, Subject(s): Fig Trees THE FLEET Poem Text First Line: Each night upon the bed's dry sea Subject(s): Love - Erotic; Boats THE ILLUSION Poem Text First Line: I am not the genes and the genes are not me Last Line: I am the simple sieve that drinks the universe. Subject(s): Self-criticism; Twins THE LATEST HOTEL GUEST WALKS OVER PARTICLES THAT REVOLVE First Line: It is an old established hotel Subject(s): Hotels; Inns; Innskeepers; Motels; Boarding Houses THE MAGNET Poem Text First Line: I loved my lord, my black-haired lord, my young love Subject(s): Hunting; Love; Hunters THE MOTHER Poem Text First Line: Here where the rooms are dryly still Subject(s): Mothers; Death; Dead, The THE NEWS Poem Text First Line: What have you to say to that Subject(s): News THE OLD STORY Poem Text First Line: Although he didn't / love me, I loved him Last Line: She wept for him Subject(s): Love – Unrequited; Family Life THE PEAR Poem Text First Line: There hangs this bellied pear, let no rake doubt, Subject(s): Pears THE QUESTION Poem Text First Line: While needles of the evergreen Subject(s): Love - Nature Of; Trees THE REAL TRAVELERS Poem Text First Line: It was supposed to snow, but it rained Last Line: The real travelers etting out for mars Subject(s): Space & Space Travel; Neighbors; Journeys; Trips THE SPERM AND THE EGG Poem Text First Line: The sperm hate the egg Subject(s): Masculinity (psychology) THE TRADE-OFF Poem Text First Line: Words make the thoughts. Subject(s): Language; Knowledge; Words; Vocabulary THE WAYS OF DAUGHTERS Poem Text First Line: My daughters are getting on. Subject(s): Daughters; Coming Of Age THE WIND FIRE Poem Text First Line: Sadly I may suppose how motion wears, and to dust Subject(s): Tears THE WOUND Poem Text First Line: The shock comes slowly Subject(s): Love - Loss Of THEN First Line: That summer, from the back porch Last Line: Of the storm swelling up through the undergrowth, %pounding toward us THINGS I SAY TO MYSELF WHILE HANGING LAUNDRY Poem Text First Line: If an ant, crossing on the clothesline Subject(s): Einstein, Albert (1879-1955); Laundry & Laundering THINGS I SAY TO MYSELF WHILE HANGING LAUNDRY First Line: If an ant, crossing on the clothesline Last Line: Along an imaginary line from here to there Subject(s): Einstein, Albert (1879-1955); Laundry And Laundering THIS First Line: Shadow of too much knowing, days wasted in light Last Line: Dark photograph of the penumbra THIS SPACE First Line: Rushing past us Last Line: Within the irresistible vector %of the ocean's pull Subject(s): Earth; Sea; Waves THIS STRANGENESS IN MY LIFE Poem Text First Line: It is so hard to see where it is Last Line: As someone else, not ever remembered. Subject(s): Emptiness; Solitude; Loneliness THREE AM Poem Text First Line: You wake in the night. I know you do Last Line: The drawn blinds; the surface of indifference. Subject(s): Eyes; Insomnia; Light; Sleeplessness TO TRY AGAIN Poem Text First Line: Tremble,' says the sword-grass, leaning over the water Last Line: "look,"" says the void. ""what meaning? Be thou me." Subject(s): Children; Parents; Childhood; Parenthood TONGUES Poem Text First Line: To mortify the spirit I once attended Last Line: The stuttering leaves on the insensible pavement. Subject(s): Class Struggle; French Language; Tongues TOPOGRAPHY First Line: Do I dare to think that I alone am TRADE-OFF First Line: Words make the thoughts Last Line: Is locked out from the secret TRAIN RIDE Poem Text First Line: All things come to an end; / small calves in arkansas Last Line: No, they go on forever. Subject(s): Arkansas; Fate; Railroads; Travel; Destiny; Railways; Trains; Journeys; Trips TRANSLATIONS First Line: Forty-five years ago, alexander mehielovitch touritzen TREE First Line: I was a child when you married me TRINITY First Line: The mother listens to the dreams of the daughter Last Line: Rushing toward the dark love who is always beyond her Subject(s): Mothers And Daughters TURN YOUR EYES AWAY First Line: The gendarme came Last Line: We repeated everything %over and over and over TURNING First Line: The habit of you lying next to me U OF MY First Line: When my dog barks and we go for a walk UNCLE CAL ON FASHIONS First Line: Troy new york! Where they made celluloid collars Last Line: He's a turkey,' came from. Then some feller invented starch. %but 'twasn't the same UNION Poem Text First Line: Hirsute, his highness' beetle-browed defense Subject(s): Marriage; Weddings; Husbands; Wives UP THERE Poem Text First Line: Belshazzar saw this blue Subject(s): Landscape UP THERE First Line: Belshazzar saw this blue Last Line: Have looked up and seen within the cowl %this tenuous wavelength USUAL First Line: On the morning of the reading Last Line: Hung yourself in the closet. They will fumigate VEERY WHO SANG IN THE WOODS First Line: Oh then, the children were young Last Line: We will sleep in the breath %of new leaves VEGETABLES I First Line: In the vegetable department VEGETABLES II First Line: Saturated in the room VENTRILOQUIST First Line: This other woman in my body Last Line: Only yours, my poor %handful of dust Subject(s): Ventriloquists VERNAL EQUINOX Poem Text First Line: Daughters, in the wind's boisterous roughing Subject(s): Daughters; Spring VERNAL EQUINOX First Line: Daughters, in the wind's boisterous roughing VERY STRETCHED SENNET First Line: Some things like the fat policeman and the black prostitute Last Line: Now he's center front, rubbing his hands, smiling. Then she's %back inside %and he's chasing her aga VISIONS FROM MY OFFICE WINDOW First Line: Among the students between the buildings Last Line: Her eyes deep-set and dark as olives. Subject(s): Mothers & Daughters; Schools; Students WANTING Poem Text First Line: Wanting and dissatisfaction / are the main ingredients Last Line: To procreate is the essence of decay. Subject(s): Desire; Happiness; Joy; Delight WATCHER First Line: The dog who knew the winter felt no spleen Last Line: And snuffed the nighttime out around the bed WHAT CAN YOU DO First Line: Mrs. Dubosky pulls a handful WHAT THE TEACHER LEARNS Poem Text First Line: The student from taiwan, Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary WHAT THE TEACHER LEARNS First Line: The student from taiwan, %his father is a doctor in taipei Last Line: Moons, the bone sculpture, %the equivalent of conversation WHAT WE DON'T KNOW Poem Text First Line: It is wednesday. My day off Last Line: Of two soundless fighter jets. Subject(s): Books; Insomnia; Silence; Reading; Sleeplessness WHAT WE HAVE Poem Text First Line: On the mountain / the neighbor's dog, put out in the cold Last Line: That I think, when looking back, was happiness. Subject(s): Childhood Memories; Family Life; Happiness; Poverty; Retrospection; Relatives; Joy; Delight WHEN I WAS THIRTY-FIVE YOU TOOK MY PHOTOGRAPH Poem Text First Line: I am lying full length on the grass Last Line: By modigliani's nudes. Subject(s): Memory; Photography & Photographers; Youth WHEN THE FURNACE GOES ON IN A CALIFORNIAN TRACT HOUSE First Line: If the blower is on WHERE I CAME FROM First Line: My father put me in my mother Last Line: Collapsed and wrinkled, they floated %like huge used condoms WHITE ON WHITE Poem Text First Line: A white cobra lily, / oyster-white plaster walls, / a glass of chablis Last Line: White parasites, white peacocks, white amanitas. Subject(s): Old Age WHOSE SCENE? First Line: I crawl up the couch leg feeling Last Line: I go behind the baseboard to fornicate and spread %myself, ancient as the ovulum and sperm WHY KID YOURSELF First Line: Snow, that white anesthesia, evaporates WINTER First Line: The ten o'clock train to new york WOMEN LAUGHING First Line: Laughter from women gathers like reeds in the river WORD THOUGH AS A COUPLER First Line: Though is a thick syllable Last Line: On their flyways against the steel %lines of communication towers Subject(s): Grammar WORDS Poem Text First Line: Wallace stevens says Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships; Male-female Relations WORDS First Line: Wallace stevens says Last Line: As a woman looks at a man WORK Poem Text First Line: The voice of the laundry says, hang me Last Line: Eating, always eating, in order to waste away Subject(s): Laundry & Laundering; Activities; Shrews (animals) YEARS LATER MY EYES CLEAR UP Last Line: Plateaus of ice, their delicate mouse-like tread %printed in tracks of snow over my mind YES, THINK First Line: Mother, said a small tomato caterpillar to a wasp Last Line: In the great chain of being. Think how lucky it is to be born YOU MAY ASK First Line: It is spring on the coast |
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