12. 6. 71 You having turned from me / I dreamed we were / beside a pond between two mountains / It was night / The moon throbbed in its socket / Where the spruces thinned / three english
a fable Two women with / the same claim / came to the feet of / the wise king. Two women, / but only one baby. / The king knew / someone was lying. / What he said was / Let the chi english
a fantasy I’ll tell you something: every day / people are dying. And that’s just the beginning. / Every day, in funeral homes, new widows are born, / new orphans. They sit english
a novel No one could write a novel about this family: / too many similar characters. Besides, they’re all women; / there was only one hero. / Now the hero’s dead. Like ec english
a parable It was an epoch of heroes. / So this young boy, this nobody, / making his way from one plain to another, / picks up a small stone among the cold, unspecified / rock english
a precedent In the same way as she’d prepare for the others, / my mother planned for the child that died. / Bureaus of soft clothes. / Little jackets neatly folded. / Each one english
a village life The death and uncertainty that await me / as they await all men, the shadows evaluating me / because it can take time to destroy a human being, / the element of s english
a warm day Today the sun was shining / so my neighbor washed her nightdresses in the river— / she comes home with everything folded in a basket, / beaming, as though her lif english
abishag 1. / At God’s word David’s kinsmen cast / through Canaan: / It was understood / the king was dying / as they said / outright / so that my father turned to me saying / How m english
abundance A cool wind blows on summer evenings, stirring the wheat. / The wheat bends, the leaves of the peach trees / rustle in the night ahead. / In the dark, a boy’s cro english
adult grief Because you were foolish enough to love one place, / now you are homeless, an orphan / in a succession of shelters. / You did not prepare yourself sufficiently. / B english
all hallows Even now this landscape is assembling. / The hills darken. The oxen / sleep in their blue yoke, / the fields having been / picked clean, the sheaves / bound evenly an english
amazons End of summer: the spruces put out a few green shoots. / Everything else is gold—that’s how you know the end of the growing season. / A kind of symmetry between english
animals My sister and I reached / the same conclusion: / the best way / to love us was to not / spend time with us. / It seemed that / we appealed / chiefly to strangers. / We had english
aphrodite A woman exposed as rock / has this advantage: / she controls the harbor. / Ultimately, men appear, / weary of the open. / So terminates, they feel, / a story. In the be english
appearances When we were children, my parents had our portraits painted, / then hung them side by side, over the mantel, / where we couldn’t fight. / I’m the dark one, the ol english
april No one’s despair is like my despair— / You have no place in this garden / thinking such things, producing / the tiresome outward signs; the man / pointedly weeding english
archipelago The tenth year we came upon immense sunlight, a relief / of islands locked into the water. These became our course. / Eleven months we drifted, toward the twelf english
aubade Today above the gull’s call / I heard you waking me again / to see that bird, flying / so strangely over the city, / not wanting / to stop, wanting / the blue waste of english
autumnal Public sorrow, the acquired / gold of the leaf, the falling off, / the prefigured burning of the yield: / which is accomplished. At the lake’s edge, / the metal pai english
baskets 1. / It is a good thing, / in the marketplace / the old woman trying to decide / among the lettuces, / impartial, weighing the heads, / examining / the outer leaves, even english
bats Concerning death, one might observe / that those with authority to speak remain silent: / others force their way to the pulpit or / center stage—experience / being english
birthday Every year, on her birthday, my mother got twelve roses / from an old admirer. Even after he died, the roses kept coming: / the way some people leave paintings english
brennende liebe —1904 / Dearest love: The roses are in bloom again, / cream and rose, to either side of the brick walk. / I pass among them with my white umbrella / as the sun beat english
bridal piece Our honeymoon / He planted us by / Water. It was March. The moon / Lurched like searchlights, like / His murmurings across my brain— / He had to have his way. As down english
brooding likeness I was born in the month of the bull, / the month of heaviness, / or of the lowered, the destructive head, / or of purposeful blindness. So I know, beyond the shad english
brown circle My mother wants to know / why, if I hate / family so much, / I went ahead and / had one. I don’t / answer my mother. / What I hated / was being a child, / having no choice english
burning leaves The dead leaves catch fire quickly. / And they burn quickly; in no time at all, / they change from something to nothing. / Midday. The sky is cold, blue; / under th english
cana What can I tell you that you don’t know / that will make you tremble again? / Forsythia / by the roadside, by / wet rocks, on the embankments / underplanted with hyac english
celestial music I have a friend who still believes in heaven. / Not a stupid person, yet with all she knows, she literally talks to god, / she thinks someone listens in heaven. english
ceremony I stopped liking artichokes when I stopped eating / butter. Fennel / I never liked. / One thing I’ve always hated / about you: I hate that you refuse / to have people english
child crying out You’re asleep now, / your eyelids quiver. / What son of mine / could be expected / to rest quietly, to live / even one moment / free of wariness? / The night’s cold; / you’ english
children coming home from school 1. / If you live in a city, it’s different: someone has to meet / the child at the bus stop. There’s a reason. A child all alone / can disappear, get lost, maybe english
clear morning I’ve watched you long enough, / I can speak to you any way I like— / I’ve submitted to your preferences, observing patiently / the things you love, speaking / throu english
clover What is dispersed / among us, which you call / the sign of blessedness / although it is, like us, / a weed, a thing / to be rooted out— / by what logic / do you hoard / a s english
confession To say I’m without fear— / it wouldn’t be true. / I’m afraid of sickness, humiliation. / Like anyone, I have my dreams. / But I’ve learned to hide them, / to protect english
cottonmouth country Fish bones walked the waves off Hatteras. / And there were other signs / That Death wooed us, by water, wooed us / By land: among the pines / An uncurled cottonmout english
cousins My son’s very graceful; he has perfect balance. / He’s not competitive, like my sister’s daughter. / Day and night, she’s always practicing. / Today, it’s hitting english
crossroads My body, now that we will not be traveling together much longer / I begin to feel a new tenderness toward you, very raw and unfamiliar, / like what I remember o english
daisies Go ahead: say what you’re thinking. The garden / is not the real world. Machines / are the real world. Say frankly what any fool / could read in your face: it mak english
day without night The angel of god pushed the child’s hand / away from the jewels, toward the burning coal. / 1. / The image / of truth is fire: it mounts / the fortress of heaven. / Hav english
dedication to hunger 1. From the Suburbs / They cross the yard / and at the back door / the mother sees with pleasure / how alike they are, father and daughter— / I know something of that english
departure My father is standing on a railroad platform. / Tears pool in his eyes, as though the face / glimmering in the window were the face of someone / he was once. But english
descending figure 1. The Wanderer / At twilight I went into the street. / The sun hung low in the iron sky, / ringed with cold plumage. / If I could write to you / about this emptiness english
early darkness How can you say / earth should give me joy? Each thing / born is my burden; I cannot succeed / with all of you. / And you would like to dictate to me, / you would lik english
early december in croton-on-hudson Spiked sun. The Hudson’s / Whittled down by ice. / I hear the bone dice / Of blown gravel clicking. Bone- / pale, the recent snow / Fastens like fur to the river. / Sta english
easter season There is almost no sound … only the redundant stir / Of shrubs as perfumed temperatures embalm / Our coast. I saw the spreading gush of people with their palms. english
elms All day I tried to distinguish / need from desire. Now, in the dark, / I feel only bitter sadness for us, / the builders, the planers of wood, / because I have been english
end of august End of August. Heat / like a tent over / John’s garden. And some things / have the nerve to be getting started, / clusters of tomatoes, stands / of late lilies—optimi english
end of summer After all things occurred to me, / the void occurred to me. / There is a limit / to the pleasure I had in form— / I am not like you in this, / I have no release in an english
end of winter Over the still world, a bird calls / waking solitary among black boughs. / You wanted to be born; I let you be born. / When has my grief ever gotten / in the way of english
epithalamium There were others; their bodies / were a preparation. / I have come to see it as that. / As a stream of cries. / So much pain in the world—the formless / grief of the english
even as you appeared to moses Even as you appeared to Moses, because / I need you, you appear to me, not / often, however. I live essentially / in darkness. You are perhaps training me to be / r english
exile He did not pretend / to be one of them. They did not require / a poet, a spokesman. He saw / the dog’s heart, the working / lips of the parasite— / He himself preferr english
field flowers What are you saying? That you want / eternal life? Are your thoughts really / as compelling as all that? Certainly / you don’t look at us, don’t listen to us, / on english
first memory Long ago, I was wounded. I lived / to revenge myself / against my father, not / for what he was— / for what I was: from the beginning of time, / in childhood, I thoug english
firstborn The weeks go by. I shelve them, / They are all the same, like peeled soup cans … / Beans sour in their pot. I watch the lone onion / Floating like Ophelia, caked english
flowering plum In spring from the black branches of the flowering plum tree / the woodthrush issues its routine / message of survival. Where does such happiness come from / as t english
for jane myers Sap rises from the sodden ditch / and glues two green ears to the dead / birch twig. Perilous beauty— / and already Jane is digging out / her colored tennis shoes, / english
for my mother It was better when we were / together in one body. / Thirty years. Screened / through the green glass / of your eye, moonlight / filtered into my bones / as we lay / in t english
forgive me if i say i love you: the powerful Forgive me if I say I love you: the powerful / are always lied to since the weak are always / driven by panic. I cannot love / what I can’t conceive, and you disc english
from the japanese 1. / A cat stirs in the material world. / And suddenly sunlight pours into the room / as though somewhere a blind had been opened. / And on the floor, the white bar english
gemini There is a soul in me / It is asking / to be given its body / It is asking / to be given blue eyes / a skull matted / with black hair / that shape / already formed & detach english
grandmother in the garden The grass below the willow / Of my daughter’s wash is curled / With earthworms, and the world / Is measured into row on row / Of unspiced houses, painted to seem re english
gratitude Do not think I am not grateful for your small / kindness to me. / I like small kindnesses. / In fact I actually prefer them to the more / substantial kindness, that english
gretel in darkness This is the world we wanted. / All who would have seen us dead / are dead. I hear the witch’s cry / break in the moonlight through a sheet / of sugar: God rewards. / english
happiness A man and woman lie on a white bed. / It is morning. I think / Soon they will waken. / On the bedside table is a vase / of lilies; sunlight / pools in their throats. / english
harvest It grieves me to think of you in the past— / Look at you, blindly clinging to earth / as though it were the vineyards of heaven / while the fields go up in flames english
hawk’s shadow Embracing in the road / for some reason I no longer remember / and then drawing apart, seeing / that shape ahead—how close was it? / We looked up to where the hawk / english
heaven and earth Where one finishes, the other begins. / On top, a band of blue; underneath, / a band of green and gold, green and deep rose. / John stands at the horizon: he want english
here are my black clothes I think now it is better to love no one / than to love you. Here are my black clothes, / the tired nightgowns and robes fraying / in many places. Why should they english
hesitate to call Lived to see you throwing / Me aside. That fought / Like netted fish inside me. Saw you throbbing / In my syrups. Saw you sleep. And lived to see / That all that al english
horse What does the horse give you / that I cannot give you? / I watch you when you are alone, / when you ride into the field behind the dairy, / your hands buried in the english
how can i help you when you all want How can I help you when you all want / different things—sunlight and shadow, / moist darkness, dry heat— / Listen to yourselves, vying with one another— / And you w english
hyacinth 1. / Is that an attitude for a flower, to stand / like a club at the walk; poor slain boy, / is that a way to show / gratitude to the gods? White / with colored heart english
i couldn’t do it again I couldn’t do it again, / I can hardly bear to look at it— / in the garden, in light rain / the young couple planting / a row of peas, as though / no one has ever don english
i don’t wonder where you are anymore I don’t wonder where you are anymore. / You’re in the garden; you’re where John is, / in the dirt, abstracted, holding his green trowel. / This is how he gardens: english
i see it is with you as with the birches I see it is with you as with the birches: / I am not to speak to you / in the personal way. Much / has passed between us. Or / was it always only / on the one side? I english
illuminations 1. / My son squats in the snow in his blue snowsuit. / All around him stubble, the brown / degraded bushes. In the morning air / they seem to stiffen into words. / An english
in your extended absence, you permit me In your extended absence, you permit me / use of earth, anticipating / some return on investment. I must report / failure in my assignment, principally / regarding english
ipomoea What was my crime in another life, / as in this life my crime / is sorrow, that I am not to be / permitted to ascend ever again, / never in any sense / permitted to r english
japonica The trees are flowering / on the hill. / They are bearing / large solitary blossoms, / japonica, / as when you came to me / mistakenly / carrying such flowers / having snap english
jeanne d’arc It was in the fields. The trees grew still, / a light passed through the leaves speaking / of Christ’s great grace: I heard. / My body hardened into armor. / Since english
la force Made me what I am. / Gray, glued to her dream / Kitchen, among bones, among these / Dripping willows squatted to imbed / A bulb: I tend her plot. Her pride / And joy english
labor day Requiring something lovely on his arm / Took me to Stamford, Connecticut, a quasi-farm, / His family’s; later picking up the mammoth / Girlfriend of Charlie, mean english
lament Suddenly, after you die, those friends / who never agreed about anything / agree about your character. / They’re like a houseful of singers rehearsing / the same sc english
lamentations 1. The Logos / They were both still, / the woman mournful, the man / branching into her body. / But god was watching. / They felt his gold eye / projecting flowers on t english
lamium This is how you live when you have a cold heart. / As I do: in shadows, trailing over cool rock, / under the great maple trees. / The sun hardly touches me. / Somet english
late snow Seven years I watched the next-door / Lady stroll her empty mate. One May he turned his head to see / A chrysalis give forth its kleenex creature: / He’d forgotte english
legend My father’s father came / to New York from Dhlua: / one misfortune followed another. / In Hungary, a scholar, a man of property. / Then failure: an immigrant / rollin english
letter from our man in blossomtime Often an easterly churns / Emerald feathered ferns / Calling to mind Aunt Rae’s decrepit / Framed fan as it / Must have flickered in its heyday. / Black-eyed Susans r english
letter from provence Beside the bridge’s photogen- / ic lapse into air you’ll / Find more interesting material. / In July the sun / Flatters your Popes’ delicate / City as always, turning english
liberation My mind is clouded, / I cannot hunt anymore. / I lay my gun over the tracks of the rabbit. / It was as though I became that creature / who could not decide / whether english
lost love My sister spent a whole life in the earth. / She was born, she died. / In between, / not one alert look, not one sentence. / She did what babies do, / she cried. But english
love in moonlight Sometimes a man or woman forces his despair / on another person, which is called / baring the heart, alternatively, baring the soul— / meaning for this moment the english
love poem There is always something to be made of pain. / Your mother knits. / She turns out scarves in every shade of red. / They were for Christmas, and they kept you war english
lover of flowers In our family, everyone loves flowers. / That’s why the graves are so odd: / no flowers, just padlocks of grass, / and in the center, plaques of granite, / the insc english
lullaby My mother’s an expert in one thing: / sending people she loves into the other world. / The little ones, the babies—these / she rocks, whispering or singing quietl english
marathon 1. Last Letter / Weeping, standing still—then going out again into the garden. / In the field, white heads of dandelions making rows of saints, / now bending, now english
matins The sun shines; by the mailbox, leaves / of the divided birch tree folded, pleated like fins. / Underneath, hollow stems of the white daffodils, Ice Wings, Cant english
memo from the cave O love, you airtight bird, / My mouse-brown / Alibis hang upside-down / Above the pegboard / With its dangled pots / I don’t have chickens for; / My lies are crawling o english
meridian Long Island Sound’s / Asleep: no wind / Rustles down the inlet / In the sagging light / As, stalled at / Vanishing, two Sunday sailboats / Wait it out, / Paralysis, or pe english
messengers You have only to wait, they will find you. / The geese flying low over the marsh, / glittering in black water. / They find you. / And the deer— / how beautiful they a english
metamorphosis 1. Night / The angel of death flies / low over my father’s bed. / Only my mother sees. She and my father / are alone in the room. / She bends over him to touch / his ha english
midsummer On nights like this we used to swim in the quarry, / the boys making up games requiring them to tear off the girls’ clothes / and the girls cooperating, because english
mirror image Tonight I saw myself in the dark window as / the image of my father, whose life / was spent like this, / thinking of death, to the exclusion / of other sensual matt english
mock orange It is not the moon, I tell you. / It is these flowers / lighting the yard. / I hate them. / I hate them as I hate sex, / the man’s mouth / sealing my mouth, the man’s / p english
more than you love me, very possibly More than you love me, very possibly / you love the beasts of the field, even, / possibly, the field itself, in August dotted / with wild chicory and aster: / I kno english
morning The virtuous girl wakes in the arms of her husband, / the same arms in which, all summer, she moved / restlessly, under the pear trees: / it is pleasant to wake l english
mount ararat Nothing’s sadder than my sister’s grave / unless it’s the grave of my cousin, next to her. / To this day, I can’t bring myself to watch / my aunt and my mother, / t english
my cousin in april Under cerulean, amid her backyard’s knobby rhubarb squats / My cousin to giggle with her baby, pat / His bald top. From a window I can catch them mull basil, / Gl english
my life before dawn Sometimes at night I think of how we did / It, me nailed in her like steel, her / Over-eager on the striped contour / Sheet (I later burned it) and it makes me gl english
my neighbor in the mirror M. le professeur in prominent senility / Across the hall tidies his collected prose / And poems. Returning from a shopping spree / Not long ago, I caught him paus english
mythic fragment When the stern god / approached me with his gift / my fear enchanted him / so that he ran more quickly / through the wet grass, as he insisted, / to praise me. I saw english
nativity poem It is the evening / of the birth of god. / Singing & / with gold instruments / the angels bear down / upon the barn, their wings / neither white / wax nor marble. So / they english
new world As I saw it, / all my mother’s life, my father / held her down, like / lead strapped to her ankles. / She was / buoyant by nature; / she wanted to travel, / go to theater english
night piece He knows he will be hurt. / The warnings come to him in bed / because repose threatens him: in the camouflaging / light of the nightlight, he pretends to guard / th english
northwood path For my part / we are as we were / on the path / that afternoon: / it is / October, I can see / the sun sink / drawing out / our parallel / shadows. And you, / for example what / english
not the sun merely but the earth Not the sun merely but the earth / itself shines, white fire / leaping from the showy mountains / and the flat road / shimmering in early morning: is this / for us on english
nurse’s song As though I’m fooled. That lacy body managed to forget / That I have eyes, ears; dares to spring her boyfriends on the child. / This afternoon she told me, “Dre english
palais des arts Love long dormant showing itself: / the large expected gods / caged really, the columns / sitting on the lawn, as though perfection / were not timeless but stationa english
paradise I grew up in a village: now / it’s almost a city. / People came from the city, wanting / something simple, something / better for the children. / Clean air; nearby / a english
parodos Long ago, I was wounded. / I learned / to exist, in reaction, / out of touch / with the world: I’ll tell you / what I meant to be— / a device that listened. / Not inert: english
penelope’s song Little soul, little perpetually undressed one, / do now as I bid you, climb / the shelf-like branches of the spruce tree; / wait at the top, attentive, like / a sen english
phenomenal survivals of death in nantucket I / Here in Nantucket does the tiny soul / Confront the water. Yet this element is not foreign soil; / I see the water as extension of my mind, / The troubled part, english
pictures of the people in the war Later I’ll pull down the shade / And let this fluid draw life out of the paper. / Telling how. Except instead / Of showing you equipment I would first off share / M english
pietà Under the strained / fabric of her skin, his heart / stirred. She listened, / because he had no father. / So she knew / he wanted to stay / in her body, apart / from the english
poem In the early evening, as now, a man is bending / over his writing table. / Slowly he lifts his head; a woman / appears, carrying roses. / Her face floats to the sur english
pomegranate First he gave me / his heart. It was / red fruit containing / many seeds, the skin / leathery, unlikely. / I preferred / to starve, bearing / out my training. / Then he sai english
porcelain bowl It rules out use: / in a lawn chair, the analogous / body of a woman is arranged, / and in this light / I cannot see what time has done to her. / A few leaves fall. A english
portland, 1968 You stand as rocks stand / to which the sea reaches / in transparent waves of longing; / they are marred, finally; / everything fixed is marred. / And the sea triumph english
portrait A child draws the outline of a body. / She draws what she can, but it is white all through, / she cannot fill in what she knows is there. / Within the unsupported english
portrait of the queen in tears As my father, the late star, once told me, / Son, he told me, son, and all the while / That emerald fortune mewing on his pinky, / Satin wallowing about his shoul english
presque isle In every life, there’s a moment or two. / In every life, a room somewhere, by the sea or in the mountains. / On the table, a dish of apricots. Pits in a white a english
quiet evening You take my hand; then we’re alone / in the life-threatening forest. Almost immediately / we’re in a house; Noah’s / grown and moved away; the clematis after ten english
retreating light You were like very young children, / always waiting for a story. / And I’d been through it all too many times; / I was tired of telling stories. / So I gave you the english
retreating wind When I made you, I loved you. / Now I pity you. / I gave you all you needed: / bed of earth, blanket of blue air— / As I get further away from you / I see you more cl english
returning a lost child Nothing moves. In its cage, the broken / Blossom of a fan sways / Limply, trickling its wire, as her thin / Arms, hung like flypaper, twist about the boy … / Later, english
rosy When you walked in with your suitcase, leaving / the door open so the night showed / in a black square behind you, with its little stars / like nailheads, I wante english
saints In our family, there were two saints, / my aunt and my grandmother. / But their lives were different. / My grandmother’s was tranquil, even at the end. / She was li english
saturnalia The year turns. The wolf takes back her tit / As war eats at the empire / Past this waxworks, the eternal city. / We have had our round. What / Lords rise are not o english
scilla Not I, you idiot, not self, but we, we—waves / of sky blue like / a critique of heaven: why / do you treasure your voice / when to be one thing / is to be next to not english
scraps We had codes / In our house. Like / Locks; they said / We never lock / Our door to you. / And never did. / Their bed / Stood, spotless as a tub … / I passed it every day / Fo english
seated figure It was as though you were a man in a wheelchair, / your legs cut off at the knee. / But I wanted you to walk. / I wanted us to walk like lovers, / arm in arm in the english
seconds Craved, having so long gone / Empty, what he had, hardness / That (my boy half-grown) / Still sucked me toward that ring, that bless- / ing. Though I knew how it is english
september twilight I gathered you together, / I can dispense with you— / I’m tired of you, chaos / of the living world— / I can only extend myself / for so long to a living thing. / I sum english
silverpoint My sister, by the chiming kinks / Of the Atlantic Ocean, takes in light. / Beyond her, wreathed in algae, links on links / Of breakers meet and disconnect, foam t english
snow Late December: my father and I / are going to New York, to the circus. / He holds me / on his shoulders in the bitter wind: / scraps of white paper / blow over the ra english
snowdrops Do you know what I was, how I lived? You know / what despair is; then / winter should have meaning for you. / I did not expect to survive, / earth suppressing me. I english
solstice June’s edge. The sun / Turns kind. Birds wallow in the sob of pure air, / Crated from the coast … Un- / real. Unreal. I see the cure / Dissolving on the screen. Out english
song Like a protected heart, / the blood-red / flower of the wild rose begins / to open on the lowest branch, / supported by the netted / mass of a large shrub: / it blooms english
spring snow Look at the night sky: / I have two selves, two kinds of power. / I am here with you, at the window, / watching you react. Yesterday / the moon rose over moist eart english
still life Father has his arm around Tereze. / She squints. My thumb / is in my mouth: my fifth autumn. / Near the copper beech / the spaniel dozes in shadows. / Not one of us d english
summer Remember the days of our first happiness, / how strong we were, how dazed by passion, / lying all day, then all night in the narrow bed, / sleeping there, eating english
sunrise This time of year, the window boxes smell of the hills, / the thyme and rosemary that grew there, / crammed into the narrow spaces between the rocks / and, lower english
sunset My great happiness / is the sound your voice makes / calling to me even in despair; my sorrow / that I cannot answer you / in speech you accept as mine. / You have no english
swans You were both quiet, looking out over the water. / It was not now; it was years ago, / before you were married. / The sky above the sea had turned / the odd pale pe english
tango 1. / On evenings like this / twenty years ago: / We sit under the table, / the adults’ hands / drum on our heads. Outside, / the street, / the contagious vernacular. / Reme english
terminal resemblance When I saw my father for the last time, we both did the same thing. / He was standing in the doorway to the living room, / waiting for me to get off the telepho english
thanksgiving In every room, encircled by a name- / less Southern boy from Yale, / There was my younger sister singing a Fellini theme / And making phone calls / While the rest o english
the apple trees Your son presses against me / his small intelligent body. / I stand beside his crib / as in another dream / you stood among trees hung / with bitten apples / holding ou english
the cell (Jeanne des Anges, Prioress of the Ursuline nuns, Loudun, France: 1635) / It’s always there. My back’s / Bulging through linen: God / Damaged me—made / Unfit to gui english
the chicago train Across from me the whole ride / Hardly stirred: just Mister with his barren / Skull across the arm-rest while the kid / Got his head between his mama’s legs and s english
the cripple in the subway For awhile I thought had gotten / Used to it (the leg) and hardly heard / That down-hard, down-hard / Upon wood, cement, etc. of the iron / Trappings and I’d tell m english
the doorway I wanted to stay as I was, / still as the world is never still, / not in midsummer but the moment before / the first flower forms, the moment / nothing is as yet pa english
the dream of mourning I sleep so you will be alive, / it is that simple. / The dreams themselves are nothing. / They are the sickness you control, / nothing more. / I rush toward you in th english
the drowned children You see, they have no judgment. / So it is natural that they should drown, / first the ice taking them in / and then, all winter, their wool scarves / floating behi english
the edge Time and again, time and again I tie / My heart to that headboard / While my quilted cries / Harden against his hand. He’s bored— / I see it. Don’t I lick his bribe english
the egg I / Everything went in the car. / Slept in the car, slept / Like angels in the duned graveyards, / Being gone. A week’s meat / Spoiled, peas / Giggled in their pods: we english
the embrace She taught him the gods. Was it teaching? He went on / hating them, but in the long evenings of obsessive talk, / as he listened, they became real. Not that the english
the end of the world 1. Terra Nova / A place without associations— / Where, in the other country, there were mountains / so the mind was made to discover / words for containment, and so english
the fire Had you died when we were together / I would have wanted nothing of you. / Now I think of you as dead, it is better. / Often, in the cool early evenings of the sp english
the fortress There is nothing now. To learn / the lesson past disease / was easier. In God’s hotel I saw / my name and number stapled to a vein / as Marcy funneled its correctiv english
the game And yet I’ve lived like this for years. / All since he quit me—caught the moon as round as aspirin / While, across the hall, the heartfelt murmurs / Of the queers english
the garden 1. The Fear of Birth / One sound. Then the hiss and whir / of houses gliding into their places. / And the wind / leafs through the bodies of animals— / But my body th english
the gift Lord, You may not recognize me / speaking for someone else. / I have a son. He is / so little, so ignorant. / He likes to stand / at the screen door, calling / oggie, o english
the gold lily As I perceive / I am dying now and know / I will not speak again, will not / survive the earth, be summoned / out of it again, not / a flower yet, a spine only, raw d english
the hawthorn tree Side by side, not / hand in hand: I watch you / walking in the summer garden—things / that can’t move / learn to see; I do not need / to chase you through / the garden; english
the inlet Words fail me. The ocean traveling stone / Returns turquoise; small animals twinkle in a haze / Of weed as this or that sequence / Of pod rattles with complete de english
the islander Sugar I am CALLING you. Not / Journeyed all these years for this: / You stalking chicken in the subways, / Nights hunched in alleys all to get / That pinch … O hear english
the jacob’s ladder Trapped in the earth, / wouldn’t you too want to go / to heaven? I live / in a lady’s garden. Forgive me, lady; / longing has taken my grace. I am / not what you want english
the lady in the single Cloistered as the snail and conch / In Edgartown where the Atlantic / Rises to deposit junk / On plush, extensive sand and the pedantic / Meet for tea, amid brouhah english
the letters It is night for the last time. / For the last time your hands / gather on my body. / Tomorrow it will be autumn. / We will sit together on the balcony / watching the english
the magi Toward world’s end, through the bare / beginnings of winter, they are traveling again. / How many winters have we seen it happen, / watched the same sign come for english
the mirror Watching you in the mirror I wonder / what it is like to be so beautiful / and why you do not love / but cut yourself, shaving / like a blind man. I think you let m english
the mountain My students look at me expectantly. / I explain to them that the life of art is a life / of endless labor. Their expressions / hardly change; they need to know / a english
the murderess You call me sane, insane—I tell you men / were leering to themselves; she saw. / She was my daughter. She would pare / her skirt until her thighs grew / longer, til english
the pond Night covers the pond with its wing. / Under the ringed moon I can make out / your face swimming among minnows and the small / echoing stars. In the night air / the english
the racer’s widow The elements have merged into solicitude. / Spasms of violets rise above the mud / And weed and soon the birds and ancients / Will be starting to arrive, bereavin english
the red poppy The great thing / is not having / a mind. Feelings: / oh, I have those; they / govern me. I have / a lord in heaven / called the sun, and open / for him, showing him / the english
the reproach You have betrayed me, Eros. / You have sent me / my true love. / On a high hill you made / his clear gaze; / my heart was not / so hard as your arrow. / What is a poet / wi english
the return At first when you went away / I was frightened; then / a boy touched me on the street, / his eyes were level with mine, / clear and grieving: I / called him in; I spo english
the school children The children go forward with their little satchels. / And all morning the mothers have labored / to gather the late apples, red and gold, / like words of another english
the shad - blow tree 1. The Tree / It is all here, / luminous water, the imprinted sapling / matched, branch by branch, / to the lengthened / tree in the lens, as it was / against the green english
the silver lily The nights have grown cool again, like the nights / of early spring, and quiet again. Will / speech disturb you? We’re / alone now; we have no reason for silence. english
the slave ship Sir: Cruising for profit / Close to Portsmouth we have not / Done well. All winds / Quarrel with our course it seems and daily the crew whines / For fresh woman- / fl english
the swimmer You sat in the tub. / No sand stirred, the dead / waited in the ocean. / Then the tapwater / flooded over you, / sapphire and emerald. / The beach / is as you found it, / l english
the tree house The pail droops on chain, rotten, / Where the well’s been / Rinsed with bog, as round and round / The reed-weed rockets down Deer Island / Amid frosted spheres of a english
the triumph of achilles In the story of Patroclus / no one survives, not even Achilles / who was nearly a god. / Patroclus resembled him; they wore / the same armor. / Always in these friend english
the undertaking The darkness lifts, imagine, in your lifetime. / There you are—cased in clean bark you drift / through weaving rushes, fields flooded with cotton. / You are free. english
the untrustworthy speaker Don’t listen to me; my heart’s been broken. / I don’t see anything objectively. / I know myself; I’ve learned to hear like a psychiatrist. / When I speak passiona english
the white lilies As a man and woman make / a garden between them like / a bed of stars, here / they linger in the summer evening / and the evening turns / cold with their terror: it / c english
the white rose This is the earth? Then / I don’t belong here. / Who are you in the lighted window, / shadowed now by the flickering leaves / of the wayfarer tree? / Can you survive english
the wild iris At the end of my suffering / there was a door. / Hear me out: that which you call death / I remember. / Overhead, noises, branches of the pine shifting. / Then nothin english
the wound The air stiffens to a crust. / From bed I watch / Clots of flies, crickets / Frisk and titter. Now / The weather is such grease. / All day I smell the roasts / Like pre english
threshing The sky’s light behind the mountain / though the sun is gone—this light / is like the sun’s shadow, passing over the earth. / Before, when the sun was high, / you c english
time to rest now Time to rest now; you have had / enough excitement for the time being. / Twilight, then early evening. Fireflies / in the room, flickering here and there, here an english
to autumn Morning quivers in the thorns; above the budded snowdrops / caked with dew like little virgins, the azalea bush / ejects its first leaves, and it is spring agai english
to florida Southward floated over / The vicious little houses, down / The land. Past Carolina, where / The bloom began / Beneath their throbbing clouds, they fed us / Coldcuts, english
trillium When I woke up I was in a forest. The dark / seemed natural, the sky through the pine trees / thick with many lights. / I knew nothing; I could do nothing but see english
under taurus We were on the pier, you desiring / that I see the Pleiades. I could see / everything but what you wished. / Now I will follow. There is not a single cloud; the s english
vespers Once I believed in you; I planted a fig tree. / Here, in Vermont, country / of no summer. It was a test: if the tree lived, / it would mean you existed. / By this l english
vespers: parousia Love of my life, you / are lost and I am / young again. / A few years pass. / The air fills / with girlish music; / in the front yard / the apple tree is / studded with blo english
violets Because in our world / something is always hidden, / small and white, / small and what you call / pure, we do not grieve / as you grieve, dear / suffering master; you / a english
what is my heart to you What is my heart to you / that you must break it over and over / like a plantsman testing / his new species? Practice / on something else: how can I live / in colonie english
widows My mother’s playing cards with my aunt, / Spite and Malice, the family pastime, the game / my grandmother taught all her daughters. / Midsummer: too hot to go out english
winter morning 1. / Today, when I woke up, I asked myself / why did Christ die? Who knows / the meaning of such questions? / It was a winter morning, unbelievably cold. / So the tho english
witchgrass Something / comes into the world unwelcome / calling disorder, disorder— / If you hate me so much / don’t bother to give me / a name: do you need / one more slur / in you english
world breaking apart I look out over the sterile snow. / Under the white birch tree, a wheelbarrow. / The fence behind it mended. On the picnic table, / mounded snow, like the inverte english
yellow dahlia My sister’s like a sun, like a yellow dahlia. / Daggers of gold hair around the face. / Gray eyes, full of spirit. / I made an enemy of a flower: / now, I’m ashamed english
you thought we didn’t know You thought we didn’t know. But we knew once, / children know these things. Don’t turn away now—we inhabited / a lie to appease you. I remember / sunlight of earl english
you want to know how i spend my time You want to know how I spend my time? / I walk the front lawn, pretending / to be weeding. You ought to know / I’m never weeding, on my knees, pulling / clumps of c english
your voice is gone now; i hardly hear you Your voice is gone now; I hardly hear you. / Your starry voice all shadow now / and the earth dark again / with your great changes of heart. / And by day the grass english