CONTENTS
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In the Old Neighborhood
THE YELLOW HOUSE ON THE CORNER (1980)
I
This Life
The Bird Frau
Robert Schumann, Or: Musical Genius Begins with Affliction
Happenstance
Small Town
The Snow King
Sightseeing
Upon Meeting Don L. Lee, In a Dream
“Teach Us to Number Our Days”
Nigger Song: An Odyssey
II
Five Elephants
Geometry
Champagne
Night Watch
The Secret Garden
A Suite for Augustus
1963
D.C.
Planning the Perfect Evening
Augustus Observes the Sunset
Wake
Back
III
Belinda’s Petition
The House Slave
David Walker (1785–1830)
The Abduction
The Transport of Slaves from Maryland to Mississippi
Pamela
Someone’s Blood
Cholera
The Slave’s Critique of Practical Reason
Kentucky, 1833
IV
Adolescence—I
Adolescence—II
Adolescence—III
The Boast
The Kadava Kumbis Devise a Way to Marry for Love
Spy
First Kiss
Then Came Flowers
Pearls
Nexus
V
Notes from a Tunisian Journal
The Sahara Bus Trip
For Kazuko
Beauty and the Beast
His Shirt
Great Uncle Beefheart
The Son
Corduroy Road
Ö
MUSEUM (1983)
I. THE HILL HAS SOMETHING TO SAY
The Fish in the Stone
The Ants of Argos
Pithos
Nestor’s Bathtub
The Hill Has Something to Say
The Copper Beech
Tou Wan Speaks to Her Husband, Liu Sheng
Catherine of Alexandria
Catherine of Siena
Receiving the Stigmata
Boccaccio: The Plague Years
Fiammetta Breaks Her Peace
II. IN THE BULRUSH
November for Beginners
Reading Hölderlin on the Patio with the Aid of a Dictionary
Shakespeare Say
Three Days of Forest, a River, Free
Banneker
In the Bulrush
Delft
Ike
Agosta the Winged Man and Rasha the Black Dove
At the German Writers Conference in Munich
III. MY FATHER’S TELESCOPE
Grape Sherbet
Roses
Sunday Night at Grandfather’s
Centipede
My Father’s Telescope
Song. Summer
Anti-Father
To Bed
A Father out Walking on the Lawn
IV. PRIMER FOR THE NUCLEAR AGE
The Sailor in Africa
Early Morning on the Tel Aviv–Haifa Freeway
Why I Turned Vegetarian
Eastern European Eclogues
Flirtation
Exeunt the Viols
The Left-Handed Cellist
Lines Muttered in Sleep
Primer for the Nuclear Age
Parsley
THOMAS AND BEULAH (1986)
I. MANDOLIN
The Event
Variation on Pain
Jiving
Straw Hat
Courtship
Refrain
Variation on Guilt
Nothing Down
The Zeppelin Factory
Under the Viaduct, 1932
Lightnin’ Blues
Compendium
Definition in the Face of Unnamed Fury
Aircraft
Aurora Borealis
Variation on Gaining a Son
One Volume Missing
The Charm
Gospel
Roast Possum
The Stroke
The Satisfaction Coal Company
Thomas at the Wheel
II. CANARY IN BLOOM
Taking in Wash
Magic
Courtship, Diligence
Promises
Dusting
A Hill of Beans
Weathering Out
Motherhood
Anniversary
The House on Bishop Street
Daystar
Obedience
The Great Palaces of Versailles
Pomade
Headdress
Sunday Greens
Recovery
Nightmare
Wingfoot Lake
Company
The Oriental Ballerina
Chronology
GRACE NOTES (1989)
Summit Beach, 1921
I
Silos
Fifth Grade Autobiography
The Buckeye
Quaker Oats
Flash Cards
Crab-Boil
Hully Gully
Fantasy and Science Fiction
Sisters
Uncle Millet
Poem in Which I Refuse Contemplation
II
Mississippi
After Storm
Watching Last Year at Marienbad at Roger Haggerty’s House in Auburn, Alabama
Dog Days, Jerusalem
Ozone
Turning Thirty, I Contemplate Students Bicycling Home
Particulars
Your Death
The Wake
III
The Other Side of the House
Pastoral
Horse and Tree
The Breathing, The Endless News
After Reading Mickey in the Night Kitchen for the Third Time Before Bed
Genetic Expedition
Backyard, 6 a.m.
IV
Dedication
Ars Poetica
Arrow
Stitches
In the Museum
And Counting
Dialectical Romance
Medusa
In a Neutral City
V
Saints
Genie’s Prayer under the Kitchen Sink
The Gorge
Canary
The Island Women of Paris
À l’Opéra
Obbligato
Lint
The Royal Workshops
On the Road to Damascus
Old Folk’s Home, Jerusalem
MOTHER LOVE (1995)
An Intact World
I
Heroes
II
Primer
Party Dress for a First Born
Persephone, Falling
The Search
Protection
The Narcissus Flower
Persephone Abducted
Statistic: The Witness
Grief: The Council
Mother Love
Breakfast of Champions
Golden Oldie
III
Persephone in Hell
IV
Hades’ Pitch
Wiederkehr
Wiring Home
The Bistro Styx
V
Blue Days
Nature’s Itinerary
Sonnet in Primary Colors
Demeter Mourning
Exit
Afield
Lost Brilliance
VI
Political
Demeter, Waiting
Lamentations
Teotihuacán
History
Used
Rusks
Missing
Demeter’s Prayer to Hades
VII
Her Island
ON THE BUS WITH ROSA PARKS (1999)
CAMEOS
July 1925—Night—Birth—Lake Erie Skyline, 1930—Depression Years—Homework—Graduation, Grammar School—Painting the Town—Easter Sunday, 1940—Nightwatch. The Son.
FREEDOM: BIRD’S-EYE VIEW
Singsong
I Cut My Finger Once on Purpose
Parlor
The First Book
Maple Valley Branch Library, 1967
Freedom: Bird’s-Eye View
Testimonial
Dawn Revisited
BLACK ON A SATURDAY NIGHT
My Mother Enters the Work Force
Black on a Saturday Night
The Musician Talks About “Process”
Sunday
The Camel Comes to Us from the Barbarians
The Venus of Willendorf
Incarnation in Phoenix
REVENANT
Best Western Motor Lodge, AAA Approved
Revenant
On Veronica
There Came a Soul
The Peach Orchard
Against Repose
Against Self-Pity
Götterdämmerung
Ghost Walk
Lady Freedom Among Us
For Sophie, Who’ll Be in First Grade in the Year 2000
ON THE BUS WITH ROSA PARKS
Sit Back, Relax
“The situation is intolerable”
Freedom Ride
Climbing In
Claudette Colvin Goes to Work
The Enactment
Rosa
QE2. Transatlantic Crossing. Third Day.
In the Lobby of the Warner Theatre, Washington, D.C.
The Pond, Porch-View: Six p.m., Early Spring
AMERICAN SMOOTH (2004)
FOX TROT FRIDAYS
All Souls’
“I have been a stranger in a strange land”
Fox Trot Fridays
Ta Ta Cha Cha
Quick
Brown
Fox
Heart to Heart
Cozy Apología
Soprano
Two for the Montrose Drive-In
Meditation at Fifty Yards, Moving Target
American Smooth
NOT WELCOME HERE
The Castle Walk
The Passage
Noble Sissle’s Horn
Alfonzo Prepares to Go Over the Top
La Chapelle. 92nd Division. Ted.
Variation on Reclamation
The Return of Lieutenant James Reese Europe
Ripont
TWELVE CHAIRS
BLUES IN HALF-TONES, 3/4 TIME
Chocolate
Bolero
Hattie McDaniel Arrives at the Coconut Grove
Samba Summer
Blues in Half-Tones, 3/4 Time
Describe Yourself in Three Words or Less
The Seven Veils of Salomé
From Your Valentine
Rhumba
The Sisters: Swansong.
EVENING PRIMROSE
Evening Primrose
Reverie in Open Air
Sic Itur Ad Astra
Count to Ten and We’ll Be There
Eliza, Age 10, Harlem
Lullaby
Driving Through
Desert Backyard
Desk Dreams
Now
Against Flight
Looking Up from the Page, I Am Reminded of This Mortal Coil
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index of Titles and First Lines