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Keyword: john haines
Matches Found: 340

ADMISSION, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Know it then, my girl
Last Line: The busy singing of crickets in the grass outside


AFTER TAO YUAN-MING, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It will not be the first time
Last Line: Or touch, a thousand years %without speaking


AFTER THE FIRESTORM, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: They are all gone, and
Last Line: The soul rises whimpering %on sooty wings


AGE OF BRONZE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Say good-bye to the arm
Last Line: When the age of bronze is over, %the day of smoke begins


ALIVE IN THE WORLD, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Stand still in the middle of the world
Last Line: Going blindly into our houses


AMERICAN DREAM, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It would have to be something dark
Last Line: And somewhere here, mislaid, almost %forgotten, the meaning of our play, %its theme and blunted purp


ANCESTOR OF THE HUNTING HEART; AFTER BREUGEL, by JOHN HAINES            Poet Analysis            
First Line: There is a distance in the heart
Subject(s): Environment; Nature; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation


ANCESTOR OF THE HUNTING HEART; AFTER BREUGEL, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There is a distance in the heart
Last Line: The rest are camped indoors, %their damped fires smoking %inthe early dusk
Subject(s): Environment; Nature


AND NOW, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Upon the frost
Last Line: You say farewell


AND WHEN THE GREEN MAN COMES, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The man is clothed %in birchbark
Last Line: Redolent of roses, %exalted in %the streaming rain


ARLINGTON, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The pallor of so many %small white stones
Last Line: Fueled with blood, %if blood would burn


AT SLIM'S RIVER, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Past burwash and the white river delta
Last Line: She had found a rock to keep, %and I went down


AT THE END OF THIS SUMMER, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I wonder if I frightened you
Last Line: The starting of a fire in the stove


AUTUMN, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It is time, the great hunger
Last Line: Forest and clearing, %river, and greater sky


AUTUMN OF MONEY, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Now the show shrinking of coins
Last Line: Then nothing, nothing at all


BECOMING A CROW, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The beak will grow
Last Line: Black tatters in a world of sticks


BEYOND, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Beyond this earth %I know a kingdom
Last Line: Indolent and dull, %go in by that gate


BILLBOARDS IN EXILE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The truth was finally written
Last Line: Of the paradise defaulted %and the vision tamed


BLOOD, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Tell me if you see it now,
Subject(s): Blood


BLOOD LAKE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Hiking the miller creek trail
Last Line: Smell of turpentine and %ice in the wind


BOOK, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A shadow grew up around me
Last Line: From a book that I loved


BOOK OF THE JUNGLE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The animal, rising at dusk
Last Line: The snort of a rutting bull


BRAND, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I have followed you as far as I can
Last Line: By which I will see my way


BROKEN MIRRORS, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: If what you saw of the majestic
Last Line: On the one bright image composed


BURGHERS OF CALAIS, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Now if ever it is winter in the heart
Last Line: Bronze field, to death or pardon


BY THE OCEAN, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: We are here by the ocean
Last Line: Ash from a driftwood fire %falls on your page


CALENDAR, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Let this book as it ends
Last Line: Something about starlight and sleep


CAULIFLOWER, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I wanted to be a cauliflower
Last Line: That is hardening within them


CHANGES, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: You are not that daphne
Last Line: A cane for the blind and the halt


CHASE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Once man chased his woman through
Last Line: In that darkness made equally o fnight %and themselves


CHILD IN THE RUG, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Better a bug in the dust underfoot
Last Line: Threads of the flowerprints %coming loose from her sky of wool


CHOOSING A STONE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It grows cold in the forest
Last Line: And of how one chooses a stone


CHRISTMAS, 1962, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A soft wind blows
Last Line: The strange, unshackled %gift of himself


CICADA, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I sank past bitten leaves
Last Line: Clear across %loud acres of sun


CITY OF ORPHANS, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: How strange to think of those streets
Subject(s): War


CLOUDS AT 30,000 FEET, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Voiceless and masterless, %the sheep of this pasture
Last Line: Flocks of the driven faithful


COLOR, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It was simply a dark, %laboring mass
Last Line: Expanding misery of color


CRANES, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: That vast wheel turning
Last Line: And the laboring ship %plunges on


CURE FOR GLOBAL WARMING, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Let's move mother earth from the sun
Last Line: And our experts are all on the run!


DANCE; FOR GEORGE HITCHCOCK, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The red armchair is empty
Last Line: And birds' heads %of a threatening blue


DAPHNE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Of yourself and your beginnings
Last Line: Born from the bark of your tree


DAYS OF EDWARD HOPPER, by JOHN HAINES            Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: These are the houses that stand
Subject(s): Hopper, Edward (1882-1967)


DAYS OF EDWARD HOPPER, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: These are the houses that stand
Last Line: And trampled -- small peace %and unforgiven crime
Subject(s): Hopper, Edward (1882-1967)


DEAD HORSE GULCH, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Nothing so beautiful as a man
Last Line: The souls of horses pass on %into the sun


DEATH AND THE MISER, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: God surely sees us, %for he sends his messengers
Last Line: He never gives anything back


DENALI ROAD, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: By the denali road, facing
Last Line: With a vague smile, %his rifle rusting in his arms


DEPARTURE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: They will go far on their long journeys
Last Line: Holding the future, terrible and strange


DEPARTURE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The road darkens toward the west
Last Line: To see the drifting heartbreak %of the smoky hills


DESERTED CABIN, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Here in the yellowing %aspen grove
Last Line: Had just passed there, %bound home %in the early darkness


DIMINISHING CREDO, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Eugene delacroix, in your black hours
Last Line: The time of ascending balloons
Subject(s): Delacroix, Eugene (1798-1863)


DIOGENES IN WASHINGTON, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My lamp has dimmed, I do not walk
Last Line: That honest man. There are none here


DIVIDED, THE MAN IS DREAMING, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: One half %lives in sunlight; he is
Last Line: Dark mice feed %from his hand


DOORS THAT OPEN, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Whre did that road lead
Last Line: Cold, still water of stars


DREAM OF FEBRUARY, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In the moonlight %in the heavy snow
Last Line: And froze into mist that %enveloped the world


DREAM OF LOVE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: That day we bridged the inevitable gulf
Last Line: And not together - no, alone


DREAM OF THE CARDBOARD LOVER, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: She fell away from her earthly husband
Last Line: In the dreamlight, %growing dimmer and dimmer


DREAM OF THE LYNX, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Beside a narrow trail in the blue
Subject(s): Lynx


DREAM OF THE LYNX, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Beside a narrow trail in the blue
Last Line: Of the unseen, feeding host
Subject(s): Lynx


DREAM OF THE POLICE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: About the hour the december moon
Last Line: In the snow of my sleep


DURER'S VISION, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The country is not named
Last Line: Growing from the sky %into the earth


DUSK OF THE REVOLUTIONARIES, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Now we shall learn to live in the dark
Last Line: As the great cloud-utopias %burn out in the west


END OF THE STREET, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It would be at the end
Last Line: Someone has gone to look. %your evening is here


END OF THE SUMMER, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Let the inhuman, drab machines
Last Line: Like the breath from a grave


EVEN WITH YOUR GOING AND ALMOST THE SORROW, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Even with your going and almost the sorrow
Last Line: To think and something else to nurture


FAIRBANKS UNDER THE SOLSTICE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Slowly, without sun, the day sinks
Last Line: Word of the resurrection of silence.
Subject(s): Death, Return From; December; Frost; Winter


FATES, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: North is east, south is west
Last Line: We spit, the spell we throw


FIELD OF THE CARIBOU, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Moving in a restless exhaustion
Last Line: Some tired bodies %were falling from a cliff


FIVE WINTER STANZAS, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Good morning!' we cried
Last Line: And we knew he would never come


FLIGHT, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It may happen again -- this much
Last Line: Overturned in the road, %a wheel slowly spinning


FOR A YOUNG GIRL, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: We leaned on a railing %at the small boat harbor
Last Line: Held to the ear %of a child growing deaf


FOR ANNE, AT A LITTLE DISTANCE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Thinking of you, of your letters
Last Line: That almost carried you away


FOR DAPHNE AT LONE LANE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: From the window of your sister's house
Last Line: Over this cold lake at evening


FOR JOHN HAINES, by DANIEL CORRIE    Poem Source                    
First Line: Harsh incantation of alaskan wind
Last Line: A lonely cabin holds the book of sleep


FOR THE HOMESTEAD FRIENDS, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Our bottle of malt is nearly drained
Last Line: One poem appropriate to the night


FOREBODING, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Something immense and lonely
Last Line: Journey, across nine bridges %wrecked one by one


FOSSIL, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: All spine and knotted fin-rays
Last Line: The great shark feeds there still


FOURTH OF JULY AT SANTA YNEZ, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Under the makeshift arbor of leaves
Subject(s): Old Age


FOURTH OF JULY AT SANTA YNEZ, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Under the makeshift arbor of leaves
Last Line: And walked away into the sunlit crowd


FROM ADJACENT FIELDS, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Last Line: Before the harvest


GARDENER, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: His hoe makes a hush
Last Line: Dark, inscrutable angel %whose step passes be


GHOST HUNTER, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Far back, in the time of ice
Last Line: With a hollow bone in my hand


GHOST TOWN, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Sun gone from the evening sky
Last Line: Morning, where the rider goes
Subject(s): Ghost Towns


GHOST TOWNS, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The north is strewn with cities
Last Line: One space, one frame for all
Subject(s): Ghost Towns; Nature


GIRL WHO BURIED SNAKES IN A JAR, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: She came to see the bones
Last Line: Only a little green water standing, %some dust, or a smell


GLUTTON, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Another drumstick, dear wife
Last Line: Crying: %feed me! Feed me


GOOD-BYE TO THE FLOWERCLOCK, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The hour belonged to hemlock
Last Line: Swung hollow and broken %like a blade of straw


GOSHAWK, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I will not walk on that road again
Last Line: The goshawk feeds on your timid heart


GREAT SOCIETY, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Having been whipped through paradise
Last Line: And a skin to cover his head
Variant Title(s): The Way We Liv


GREEN PIANO, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Her hands on the green piano
Last Line: In a waste of echoing rock


GUEVARA, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Somewhere inside me, %perhaps under my left shoulder
Last Line: On the red slope of my heart


GUIDE TO THE ASIAN MUSEUMS, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Footbound beneath the owl kings
Last Line: With its forests and acres of stones


HARVEST, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There will be much to remember
Last Line: To strike a match, kindling %the cold, untraveled sun


HAUNTED VACANCIES: CITY OF ORPHANS, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: How strange to think of those streets
Last Line: The murmur of convening statesmen


HAUNTED VACANCIES: POLITICS AND THE DEAD, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Who calls from the paper columns?
Last Line: To your own renumbered house. No one


HEAD OF SORROW, HEAD OF THOUGHT, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: You would think that no one
Last Line: Made equally of granite and cloud


HERMITAGE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In the forest below the stairs
Last Line: I felt quite close %the beating of a human heart


HOMAGE TO DAVID SMITH, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: We are made of angle iron and crossbrace
Last Line: Five fixed and glowing figures %who are not men


HOMESTEAD, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It is nearly thirty years
Last Line: In flight with the rustling of wings


HORNS, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I went to the edge of the wood
Last Line: As though a god had spoken


HOUSE OF THE INJURED, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I found a house in the forest
Last Line: A man shown the face of god


HUNGER, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I was born to this crowded waste
Last Line: A terrified creature %gnawing at roots


I AM A TREE, VERY QUIET AND MY LEAVES, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I am a tree, very quiet are my leaves
Last Line: I shall never stop growing


I WILL TELL YOU HOW IT WAS IN MY COUNTRY, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In those days %forming that known world
Last Line: Honorably buried, %very long ago


ICE CHILD, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Cold for so long, unable to speak,
Subject(s): Death - Children; Death - Babies


IF THE OWL CALLS AGAIN, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis            
First Line: At dusk / from the island
Last Line: Cold world awakens.
Subject(s): Animals; Birds; Environment; Owls; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation


IMAGES OF THE FROST KING, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Once he stood at the door
Last Line: By the flight of nocturnal thrushes


IN FIVE YEARS' TIME, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In five years' time %our faces may be a map
Last Line: This story of things %that never happened


IN NATURE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Here too are life's victims
Last Line: Evenings at the broken wall, %black armies in flight


IN THE FOREST WITHOUT LEAVES, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: This earth written over with words
Last Line: "one tree, one leaf,
Subject(s): Environment; Nature; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation


IN THE FOREST WITHOUT LEAVES: 1, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In the forest without leaves
Last Line: Not the shadows of leaves, %but shadows where the leaves might be


IN THE FOREST WITHOUT LEAVES: 10, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Life was not a clock
Last Line: The key that winds the clock %turns a lock %in the prison of days


IN THE FOREST WITHOUT LEAVES: 11, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: How the sun came to the forest
Last Line: Where snow would come, %and silence, and night


IN THE FOREST WITHOUT LEAVES: 12, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In all the forest, chilled
Last Line: Nothing stains like blood, %nothing whitens like snow


IN THE FOREST WITHOUT LEAVES: 13, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: What will be said of you
Last Line: The ages parted to let you fall, %and a tall star blazed


IN THE FOREST WITHOUT LEAVES: 14, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A coolness will come to their children
Last Line: And someone has gone with a lantern %to search the roads


IN THE FOREST WITHOUT LEAVES: 15, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In the forest without leaves
Last Line: One tree, one leaf, %gives us plenty of light


IN THE FOREST WITHOUT LEAVES: 2, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: What sounds can be heard
Last Line: Da-deet, da-deet


IN THE FOREST WITHOUT LEAVES: 3, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: This earth written over with words
Last Line: And silence for the clearing %where no house stands
Subject(s): Environment; Nature


IN THE FOREST WITHOUT LEAVES: 4, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: One rock on another
Last Line: The people of dust %will harvest


IN THE FOREST WITHOUT LEAVES: 5, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Earth speech: %the furrow sighing
Last Line: From the cliffs above, %rolling past


IN THE FOREST WITHOUT LEAVES: 6, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: And sometimes through the air
Last Line: And sometimes through the air %a thing of dust


IN THE FOREST WITHOUT LEAVES: 7, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Say after me
Last Line: Of partitions, %and the space they enclose


IN THE FOREST WITHOUT LEAVES: 8, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Building with matches
Last Line: Fitting the pieces, %pulling at strings


IN THE FOREST WITHOUT LEAVES: 9, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Those who write sorrow on the earth
Last Line: Hidden in their signatures- %who are they?


IN THE HOUSE OF WAX, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Far-sighted into yesterday
Subject(s): Waxworks


IN THE HOUSE OF WAX, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Far-sighted into yesterday
Last Line: And all too soon awaken, %clamped in his ecstasy


IN THE MIDDLE OF AMERICA, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In oberlin the university park
Last Line: I listened and understood


IN THE MUSEUM GARDEN, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Always dying into ourselves
Last Line: Our own footsteps leaving the garden


IN THE MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: They stand on a hillside, feeding
Last Line: Clouds stand against the evening


IN THE SLEEP OF REASON, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: And so I closed that book,
Subject(s): Books & Reading; Conduct Of Life


IN THE SLEEP OF REASON, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: And so I closed that book
Last Line: In which I walked %and would make my way


INCURABLE HOME, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Then I came to the house of wood
Last Line: Talking in the far country of sleep


INSECTS, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Maggots, wrinkled white men %building a temple of slime
Last Line: In a darkness called egypt


INSTRUCTIONS TO A SENTRY, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: You will be standing alone
Last Line: Stood guard %in her thicket of fire


INTERVIEW, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My people: %I am no specialist in matter
Last Line: Bones form at the terminals of time?


INTO THE GLACIER, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: With the green lamp of the spirit
Last Line: And we, naked and alone, %awakening forever


INVADERS, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It was the country I loved
Last Line: Pumping fear into the night


INVASION, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In the far north the sea %is beginning to freeze
Last Line: They speak and blows %away toward the south


IT COULD HAPPEN AGAIN, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: We met in provincetown two years ago
Subject(s): Morley, Hilda (1916-1998); Friendship; War


IT MUST ALL BE DONE OVER ...', by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Everywhere I look the houses are coming down
Last Line: Learn to build with air, water, and smoke


IT MUST ALL BE DONE OVER..., by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The houses begin to come down
Last Line: Learn to build with air, %water, and smoke


JANE'S DREAM, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: All in a waking fever
Last Line: All lying still in the darkness


JOHN HAINES, by WILLIAM WITHERUP    Poem Source                    
First Line: Opens and shuts doors in stone
Last Line: Songs made of basalt %and owls' blood
Subject(s): Prophets And Prophecy


JONNA, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The depth of the evening
Last Line: Gone dark and silent in a wink


JOURNEY ON WATER: A PRELUDE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: When the noise of their paddles had ceased
Last Line: Faintly smiling in the clear, untroubled light


KENT STATE, MAY 1970, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Premonitory, her outstretched arms
Subject(s): Universities & Colleges


KENT STATE, MAY 1970, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Premonitory, her outstretched arms
Last Line: A street, a house no longer there?
Subject(s): Universities & Colleges


LAKE IN THE SKY, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Once more evening on the earth
Last Line: From the ring on your finger


LANDSCAPES, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There is a land known to but a little sun
Last Line: Dips down beneath the storm, and then %there is the night


LARKSPUR, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The blue giant is passing
Last Line: Stands alone in his blueness


LAST WORDS ON THE POET, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: He owed his enemies a debt of gratitude
Last Line: Disclosed the road he was to travel


LEAVES AND ASHES, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Standing where the city and the forest
Last Line: Slowly unbuilding around her


LEGEND OF PAPER PLATES, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: They trace their ancestry %back to the forest
Last Line: They are made to be thrown away


LEGEND', by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I understand the story of gilgamesh
Last Line: Sleep follows like a lasting shadow


LEMMINGS, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: No one is pleased with himself
Last Line: The hated colony disintegrates


LI YU AT TWILIGHT, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Fragrance falls from the rose
Last Line: Light of all things, %you fade


LIKE A WAVE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I looked at her face until
Last Line: And sea, like a wave %or a running whisper


LINEAGE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The sun of many autumns flames in my blood
Last Line: Knowing that resurrection


LISTENING IN LATE AUGUST, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Leaves of the summer %falling, and rain
Last Line: Work-roughened hands %these hungry birds


LITTLE COSMIC DUST POEM, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Out of the debris of dying stars
Subject(s): Environment; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation


LITTLE COSMIC DUST POEM, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Out of the debris of dying stars
Last Line: This arm, this hand, %my voice, your face, this love
Subject(s): Environment


LIVE IN AN ASHTRAY, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In our thin white paper skins
Last Line: The young ones beginning to burn


LONG RAIN, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Rain falls %in the quiet woods
Last Line: The olive thrush %is singing


MAGIC, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Like a walk in the jungle of that dark country
Last Line: And the cypress standing on no ground %like a spell


MAN WHO SKINS ANIMALS, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: He comes down from the hill
Last Line: And well fed, sleeps %on a deep, calm water


MAN WITH A SECRET LIFE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I am not the one talking to you
Last Line: The country from which you came


MARIGOLD, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: This is the plaza of paradise
Last Line: Like pardoned sinners


MEDITATION ON A SKULL CARVED IN CRYSTAL: 1, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: To think that the world
Last Line: Of light, are all


MEDITATION ON A SKULL CARVED IN CRYSTAL: 10, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: As if the pain of thought
Last Line: With floating shadows, %voices waking as before
Variant Title(s): Meditation Number


MEDITATION ON A SKULL CARVED IN CRYSTAL: 11, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Of the dissolution
Last Line: Lights, globed fires %giving way to night
Variant Title(s): Meditation Number


MEDITATION ON A SKULL CARVED IN CRYSTAL: 12, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Intelligence is what we find
Last Line: Blackness, lighted %by a sun, distant within
Variant Title(s): Meditation Number


MEDITATION ON A SKULL CARVED IN CRYSTAL: 2, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Out of a brilliant trouble in the stars
Last Line: Like a bright and thinking lantern


MEDITATION ON A SKULL CARVED IN CRYSTAL: 3, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Within the artifact
Last Line: But a small, green hollow %holding rain
Variant Title(s): Meditation Number


MEDITATION ON A SKULL CARVED IN CRYSTAL: 4, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Where there is nothing
Last Line: Drop by drop, the fate %of water sealed in a jar
Variant Title(s): Meditation Number


MEDITATION ON A SKULL CARVED IN CRYSTAL: 5, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: No one the color of darkness
Last Line: The cry of a god trapped inside a star
Variant Title(s): Meditation Number


MEDITATION ON A SKULL CARVED IN CRYSTAL: 6, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Blood into ice, and fur
Last Line: In their glitter, %a smile of ferocious peace
Variant Title(s): Meditation Number


MEDITATION ON A SKULL CARVED IN CRYSTAL: 7, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Burn sacrifice, for all
Last Line: A drop of blood inside the sun
Variant Title(s): Meditation Number


MEN AGAINST THE SKY, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Across the oregon plateau
Last Line: Its broken arms %clattering in the darkness


MIDDLE AGES, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Always on the point of falling asleep
Last Line: The reins still taut in that armored fist


MIRROR, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: From the bed where I lay
Last Line: To the foot of a snowy mountain


MISSOULA IN A DUSTY LIGHT, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation     Poet's Biography
First Line: Walking home through the tall
Last Line: Along the street.
Subject(s): Montana


MOLE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Sometimes I envy those
Last Line: As the rising sun slowly dries %his strange, unruly wings


MOONS, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There are moons like continents
Last Line: The warfare of planets %silently drips and festers


MOOSE CALLING, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Who are you, %calling me in the dusk
Last Line: At twilight %in the yellow frost %I wait for you


MOOSEHEAD, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Stripped of its horns and skin
Last Line: And a faint glowing of phosphorus


MOTHBALL FLEET: BENICA, CALIFORNIA, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: These massed gray shadows
Last Line: They hold within them cries, %cold, echoing spaces


MUSHROOM FABLE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I knew them all in that age of saliva
Last Line: Where slime mold calms the dead %with hemlock and nightshade


MUSHROOM GROVE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Here the forest people %died of a sexual longing
Last Line: Their headstones are umbrellas, %black and weeping


NAMES ON THE ROAD, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Shade hollow, I know your name
Last Line: No waking promise; nothing but night


NEWS FROM THE GLACIER, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: That mid-fall morning, driving north
Last Line: Little fists of plastic bags %beating the stony ground


NIGHT, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Do not wake me, for I am not ready
Last Line: Mute in the transformation %and do not wake me
Subject(s): Environment


NIGHT FALLS ONCE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Sometimes I think the night is like a wandering
Last Line: A million dawns were stacked against the brain


NIGHT THAT RYDER KNEW, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Night is coming to the islands
Last Line: Where death is riding, %and all the trees are white


NIGHTHAWKS, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It is 3 a.M. In the brightly lit
Last Line: Bright and cold, %in the empty street outside


NONE COMING AFTER, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Last Line: Whom none will follow


NOTES ON THE CAPITALIST PERSUASION, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: So runs the executive saw,


NOTES ON THE CAPITALIST PERSUASION, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Everything is connected to everything
Last Line: My triumph your despair


NOVEMBER YOU, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Why is it and how, wherever I go
Last Line: So swiftly? I am so cold


OF MICHELANGELO, HIS QUESTION, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Sybil and prophet have spoken
Last Line: Prayers from a guidebook- %to see, to question, and depart


ON A CERTAIN FIELD IN AUVERS, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: On the road to hallucination
Last Line: And the great light of the sun
Subject(s): Alienation (social Psychology); Dissenters; Exiles; Marginality, Social; Estrangement; Outcasts


ON A CERTAIN FIELD IN AUVERS, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: On the road to hallucination
Last Line: And the great light of the sun
Subject(s): Alienation (social Psychology); Dissenters; Exiles; Marginality, Social


ON A POINT OF DEPARTURE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I had thought it would be different
Last Line: And were afraid, and then they crept away


ON BANNER DOME, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Ten miles from home %I climbed through the clear
Last Line: Stones and devours the dead


ON THE DIVIDE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I am haunted by %the deaths of animals
Last Line: Red mantle of dawn %sweeps over our bodies


ON THE MOUNTAIN, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: We climbed out of timber
Last Line: In the rain and stormlit darkness


ON THE ROAD, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It is not good to be poor
Last Line: And there are no coins in the wind


OREGON COAST, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: This half-ruined porch of giants
Last Line: Magnificence not yet destroyed
Subject(s): Environment


ORPHEUS, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: She has gone back down the way of blood
Last Line: The unrehearsed, deliberate artifice, %older, deeper, and more lasting


OWL IN THE MASK OF THE DREAMER, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Nothing bestial or human remains
Last Line: No matter how far they walk %they will never be closer
Variant Title(s): From The Workshop Of Brancusi And Giacomett


PANORAMA, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The games of beasts and children
Last Line: At sundown, now to be a hunter, %not a king on the shelf


PAOLO AND FRANCESCA, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Only they who have found in love
Last Line: Wakefulness, refusal of sleep, %vigil and consummation


PASSAGE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Between night and day a door
Last Line: Where sand lifts and the wind blows


PAUL KLEE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The hot mice feeding in red
Last Line: No one is drowning


PAWNEE DUST, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Goodbye, I see the horsemen mounting
Last Line: Nothing more to say. Good hunting west


PETER'S START, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: See the house %with the christmas tree
Last Line: By itself when the storm %blew the house away


PICKERS, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: All day we were bent over,
Subject(s): Farm Life; Agriculture; Farmers


PICKERS, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: All day we were bent over
Last Line: Of the field, the light, and the cold


PICTURE FOR A BREAKFAST ROOM, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Lean upon the table, rest
Last Line: The humming warmth outside: %morning for a day


PICTURES AND PARABLES, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Beginning with autumn in another
Last Line: Above a worshiping city


PITCHER OF MILK, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Today is the peace of this mist
Last Line: In a cloud of white blood


POEM, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The immense sadness %of approaching winter
Last Line: From the top %of that tree


POEM, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Not for this time nor that alone
Last Line: But for the other arms that lie asleep


POEM ABOUT BIRCH TREES, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: From the life held back in secret
Last Line: And that hollow life breaks down


POEM FOR A COLD JOURNEY, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: On the road of the self-%contained traveler I stood
Last Line: That was coming, the sound %of a loud, cold trumpet


POEM FOR A DROWNED CHILD, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Beyond these %fairy fields and the still flashing through fog
Last Line: Chambers of the drowned


POEM FOR THE END OF THE CENTURY, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: I am the dreamer who remains
Subject(s): Time; Optimism


POEM OF THE FORGOTTEN, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I came to this place
Last Line: In the first snow of autumn, %filled with silence


POEM OF THE WINTRY FISHERMAN, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: At the foot of october %where the current narrows
Last Line: The hungry, shuddering night


POEM WITHOUT MEANING, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: We have been building it for
Last Line: The porm becoming night


POLITICS AND THE DEAD, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Who calls from the paper columns?
Subject(s): Politics & Government


PRAYER TO THE SNOWY OWL, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Descend, silent spirit; %you whose golden eyes
Last Line: Who gnaw in the dark -- %preserver of whiteness


PRESENCE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Out of her sleeping body
Last Line: Until the gray light grew %and I awoke


PROCESSION, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Long, wavering files of ghostly children
Last Line: Swings, and overhead a bell begins to toll


PROPHECY, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: How to live, when the only life
Last Line: And the grinding rut of pride


RAIN, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: We found some truth in the wet wood
Last Line: And our house is a raft of shingles %sunk under leaves and vines


RAIN COUNTRY, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The woods are sodden,
Subject(s): Rain


RAIN COUNTRY, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The woods are sodden, %and the last leaves
Last Line: I look through, the steep %rain turning to snow


RAIN FOREST, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A green ape, drinker of clouds
Last Line: To a tongue growing green
Subject(s): Environment


RAIN GLASS, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A winter morning, and the sea
Last Line: With gray walls and distant pictures


RED ATLANTIS, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The sodden bumping of caisson wheels
Last Line: Sinks like a bursting diver ...


RED TREES IN THE WIND, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: This burning flight of summer
Last Line: And there is no one to hear or believe


RELUCTANT MUSIC, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: That time now and what I feel of compelling essence
Last Line: And sit for a long while, running my hands over a book


RETURN OF THE SUN, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: All the dead mouths %have stopped singing
Last Line: Like a golden cord %around their secret life


RIDERS, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: This is the forest - marta, are you there?
Last Line: And we: the dreaded awakening


ROADWAYS, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: These images and their hidden voices
Last Line: Through the squalor %of awakening eastern streets


RODIN: THE GATES OF HELL, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In all the rotting tombwork, paint
Last Line: The metal and stone, %that each inhabits alone


ROLLING BACK, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: For a long time now
Last Line: Gathering speed in the dark %on the mountain grade


RYDER, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The moonlight has touched them all
Last Line: A pale horse of torment flying


SECOND TREE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: You have told us your story
Last Line: Of a listening child %comes an exhausted sigh


SEPTEMBER SONG, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Sweetened with rain, how often will
Last Line: And whispers, %come away, come away


SHADOW AND SUBSTANCE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I see two paths. Or none
Last Line: Who divide and disappear %and meet again in the mist


SHADOWS, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In the evening %near the end of summer
Last Line: The invisible %host of darkness


SHAVER, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The back door swung open
Last Line: In the wire %of its beak-chipped bars


SHEPHERD'S PURSE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Poverty weed or beggar tick
Last Line: Than one heart, %and you may survive


SHORT HISTORY OF THE REPUBLIC, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The great migration had passed
Last Line: With the ominous shadow of myth


SIMILITUDE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I think of a man flaying the earth
Last Line: Into the soft, wet flesh of the tree


SKAGWAY, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I dreamed that I married
Last Line: My seventy pages peeling


SLEEP, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Whether we fall asleep under the moon
Last Line: Waiting for our life to begin


SLEEPWALKERS, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: And the time that was given
Last Line: For the first king to wake


SMOKE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: An animal smelling %of ashes %crossed the hills
Last Line: Its breath %thick and choking


SNOWBOUND CITY, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I believe in this stalled magnificence
Last Line: Their faces glowing with disaster


SNOWY NIGHT, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: This is like a place %we used to know
Last Line: Like a ghost %in heavy chains


SONG, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I shall live to the candlelight of your eyes
Last Line: I say, though my grave is empty


SONG, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: As if my love were like the bending year
Last Line: And yet, fair girl, she dreams


SOUND OF ANIMALS IN THE NIGHT, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Dark wings that brush the foliage
Last Line: With huge, wounded hearts


SOUTH WIND, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I dreamed of horses in the night
Last Line: As the wild, invisible army %overran the north


SPILLED MILK, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: When I see milk spilled on the table
Last Line: Saying he never meant to do it


ST. LUKE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Ox and saint, %your eroded sepulcher
Last Line: From a book %that has turned to stone


STALLED COLOSSUS, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: So you stand to your waist
Last Line: No one can hope to climb


STAMPEDE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There are cold, bearded men
Last Line: And the white land of promise


STAR PHOTO, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: You are here, in this country
Last Line: And a comet for your watchdog


STONE BEAR, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: An old, root-crowded cemetery
Last Line: And freeze into living stone


STONE HARP (2), by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In delta junction %the only poet is the wind
Last Line: By a handful of leaves


STONES, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: They are dreaming existence
Last Line: For god to remember their names


STOPPING BY A BENCH ON A WINTER EVENING, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Whose goods these are I think I know
Last Line: Just one more bench before I sleep


SUDDEN SPRING, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The coyote had just spoken
Last Line: Between two weeping candles


SUN ON YOUR SHOULDER, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: We lie together in the grass
Last Line: Tall in the first green morning


SWEATER OF VLADIMIR USSACHEVSKY, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Facing the wind of the avenues
Last Line: In one of his remote provinces


TAR, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A tar baby was born among us
Last Line: A black hand wrinkles in the wind


TELLING, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There is one and only one...'
Last Line: And your finally stricken heart, %wondering and amazed


TENDERFOOT, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It is dusk back there, the road
Last Line: Of a lonely people toward the past


THAW, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: This wind is like water
Last Line: Against the silent %and relentless cold


THE AMERICAN DREAM, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It would have to be something dark,
Subject(s): Heroism; United States; Heroes; Heroines; America


THE BILLBOARDS IN EXILE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The truth was finally written,
Subject(s): Billboards; Popular Culture


THE DREAM OF FEBRUARY, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In the moonlight,
Subject(s): Hunting; Death - Animals; Foxes


THE EYE IN THE ROCK, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A high rock face above flathead lake
Last Line: Painted this eye that the rock might see.
Subject(s): Admiration; Mines & Miners; Mountains; Stones; Hills; Downs (great Britain); Granite; Rocks


THE GHOST TOWNS, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The north is strewn with cities
Subject(s): Ghost Towns; Nature


THE GIRL WHO BURIED SNAKES IN A JAR, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: She came to see the bones
Subject(s): Snakes; Death - Animals; Serpents; Vipers


THE HEAD ON THE TABLE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The enormous head of a bison
Last Line: Of swamp water and peat.
Subject(s): Explorers; Museums; Stones; Exploring; Discovery; Discoverers; Art Gallerys; Granite; Rocks


THE LAST ELECTION, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Suppose there are no returns,
Subject(s): Pol;itics


THE SNOWBOUND CITY, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I believe in this stalled magnificence
Subject(s): Snow


THE STONE HARP (1), by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis            
First Line: A road deepening in the north
Last Line: By a handful of leaves...
Subject(s): Poetry & Poets


THE SWEATER OF VLADIMIR USSACHEVSKY, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Facing the wind of the avenues


THE TURNING, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A bear loped before me
Subject(s): Bears


THE UNEMPLOYED, DISABLED, AND INSANE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: He stands alone at the city corner,
Subject(s): Unemployment


THE WHALE IN THE BLUE WASHING MACHINE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There are depths even in a household
Subject(s): Whales


THERE ARE NO SUCH TREES IN ALPINE, CALIFORNIA, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I wanted a house
Last Line: Through smoke and falling leaves


THIS DARK WATER, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Reading in another man's book
Subject(s): Alaska


TO A MAN GOIND BLIND, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: As you face the evenings
Last Line: The petrified rumble %from a world going blind


TO LIVE AMONG CHILDREN, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: To live among children, %to listen, an ear to their trouble
Last Line: What bird, what beast was that


TO MY FATHER, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Last evening I entered a pool
Last Line: Its widening circle in the dusk


TO REMEMBER ANOTHER TIME, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Helen, beyond all accustomed beauty I place you
Last Line: And you still bright, the remaining star in a darkened land


TO THE WALL, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: To the wall that holds up night
Last Line: On the forges of sunset, %stand before that wall


TO TURN BACK, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The grass people bow %their heads before the wind
Last Line: And friendly thoughts, %and not be afraid


TO VERA THOMPSON, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Woman whose face %is a blurred map of roots
Last Line: Under snow of these roses and stones


TOMORROW, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I see a city spreading on the plain
Last Line: Sighs for love, nor knows I lived


TONDO OF HELL, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Everything we can think of to name
Last Line: Of the slothful beaten hard %with a four-foot spoon


TOTEM, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: How dark you are, you wooden image
Last Line: You were better on that primal shore, and we in a dim cellar


TRAIN STOPS AT HEALY FORK, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: We pressed our faces %against the freezing glass
Last Line: In the starry gloom of the canyon


TRAVELER, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Among the quiet people of the frost
Last Line: Crunched in the darkness %and were gone


TREE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Tree of my life
Last Line: Like a secret still to be named


TREE THAT BECAME A HOUSE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: They came to live in me
Last Line: My dead cones drop in silence


TREES ARE PEOPLE AND THE PEOPLE ARE TREES, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: And there in the crowded commons
Last Line: And gently lifted their arms


TUNDRA, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The tundra is a living %body warm in the grassy
Last Line: Rolls over and sinks %in the darkness


TUNNEL, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Disappearance begins with you
Last Line: Your face a tunnel of lights %which I no longer see


TURNING, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A bear loped before me
Last Line: A charred companion %my shed life


TWINFLOWERS, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: You delicate mourners %tending the forest people
Last Line: Slowly cover these rotting trees


TWO HORSES, ONE BY THE ROADSIDE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A black horse standing
Last Line: And the horse led away %to a winter stall


VERSE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: But time and change are misconstrued
Last Line: With the cold, have long since fled


VICTIMS, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The knife that makes long scars
Last Line: His own dripping carcass


VICTORIA, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A girl, half, indian, seated
Last Line: Each one seeking the other


VISITOR, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The door is open
Last Line: Wrapped in a stillness made of %ice and starlit tears


WAITING, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I haven't said a word
Last Line: That has not yet spoken


WATCHING THE FIRE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Where are the red men
Last Line: And cries softly for flesh and blood


WATER OF NIGHT, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Before any match was struck
Last Line: Seething and rocking, %water of night


WAY WEST, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Maybe there'll come a time again
Last Line: Before the sun drinks west


WEAVER, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: By a window in the west
Last Line: Into one seamless, deepening cloth


WEIGHTLIFTING WITH JOHN HAINES, by JOHN E. SMELCER    Poem Source                    
First Line: The poet arrived %like news of a tragedy
Last Line: Pain in his ass %was me


WHALE IN THE BLUE WASHING MACHINE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There are depths in a household
Last Line: The steep fall of his wave


WHAT IS LIFE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There are no roads %but the paths we make
Last Line: The lost bystander %who thinks he sees


WHISTLE COLUMN, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: On a hill above the town
Last Line: A faraway sound began, %every horn, every bell


WINDSONG, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: How about the wind
Last Line: What does that mean?


WINTER LIGHT, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: We still go about our lives
Last Line: Filled caves with the color %of unforgettable beasts


WINTER NEWS, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: They say the wells %are freezing
Last Line: Calls the white- %haired children home


WOLVES, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Last night I heard wolves howling
Last Line: With the moon for an icy sail


WOMAN ON THE ROAD, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It was n north dakota, %and she walked the furrows
Last Line: A noise like a broken stick


WOUNDED LIFE, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: You, downcast, sitting on your bed
Last Line: Like a single unfastened button


YETI, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Our years are driven wild
Last Line: Gives back one burning %look, and goes


YOUNG MAN, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I seemed always standing
Subject(s): Youth; Death; Dead, The


ZINNIAS, by JOHN HAINES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: You will never find your places
Last Line: In the bleak soil of heaven