Poetry
To DorothyYou are not beautiful, exactly. You are beautiful, inexactly. You let a weed grow by the mulberry And a mulberry grow by the house. So close, in the personal quiet Of a windy night, it brushes the wall And sweeps …
Conversation in the Cathedralwhere are you?dublinwhere?the baroh, so you’re somewhere with friendsno friendsare you with friends?i’m nowhere with no friendsdo you need anything from me?i’ll be fineare you lying to me?noare you lying to me?i’m …
LostStand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here, And you must treat it as a powerful stranger, Must ask permission to know it and be known. The forest breathes. …
Old IronsidesAy, tear her tattered ensign down! Long has it waved on high, And many an eye has danced to see That banner in the sky; Beneath it rung the battle shout, And burst the cannon’s roar;— The meteor of the …
Holy ThursdayThey’re kindly here, to let us linger so late, Long after the shutters are up. A waiter glides from the kitchen with a plate Of stew, or some thick soup, And settles himself at the next table but …
Moonchildwhatever slid into my mother’s room that late june night, tapping her great belly, summoned me out roundheaded and unsmiling. is this the moon, my father used to grin. cradling me? it was the moon but nobody knew it then. the …
The Woman in the OrdinaryThe woman in the ordinary pudgy downcast girl is crouching with eyes and muscles clenched. Round and pebble smooth she effaces herself under ripples of conversation and debate. The woman in the block of ivory …
1There the tree rises. Oh pure surpassing!Oh Orpheus sings! Oh great tree of sound!And all is silent, And from this silence ariseNew beginnings, intimations, changings.From the stillness animals throng, out of the clearSnapping forest of …
Prairie SpringEvening and the flat land,Rich and sombre and always silent;The miles of fresh-plowed soil,Heavy and black, full of strength and harshness;The growing wheat, the growing weeds,The toiling horses, the tired men;The long empty roads,Sullen …
Where did these enormous children come from, More ladylike than we have ever been? Some of ours look older than we feel. How did they appear in their long dresses More ladylike than we have …
The property line melts into forest, its late winter browns speakAn unknown beast’s pelt; felled oaks hunch over like sleeping bears While beech and birch extend into ugly candid possum hair,And elms and maples muster into …
Heat of the blanket,cool of the pillow...long sunLow sun...the fact of flieson fernsTwo thumbsto the weave of the sock...cold sunCap and gown,she boards the bus...by the bumsBirdsong...squawk anxiousat the fire engineIn twilightI become...the crow’s caw“Flag …
JanuaryThe fox drags its wounded bellyOver the snow, the crimson seedsOf blood burst with a mild explosion,Soft as excrement, bold as roses. Over the snow that feels no pity,Whose white hands can give no healing,The fox …
Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o’ the puddin-race! Aboon them a’ ye tak your place, Painch, tripe, or thairm: Weel are ye wordy of a grace As lang’s my arm. The groaning trencher there ye fill, Your hurdies like …
From “In Memoriam” (CVI)Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,The flying cloud, the frosty light:The year is dying in the night;Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.Ring out the old, ring in the …
little tree little silent Christmas treeyou are so littleyou are more like a flowerwho found you in the green forestand were you very sorry to come away?see i will comfort youbecause you smell so sweetlyi will …