Selected ​Poems 2 csillagozás

The most unusual thing I ever stole? A snowman.

Stealing

I sing with true love for the land;
dawn chant, the song of sunset, starlight psalm.

47. oldal, Selling Manhattan (Penguin Books, 1994)

All I know is this:
he went out for his walk a man
and came home female.

From Mrs Tiresias

Nothing's the same as anything else. Away and see
for yourself. Walk. Fly. Take a boat till land reappears,
altered for ever, ringing its bells, alive. Go on. G'on.
Gon.
Away and see.

Away and See

The Virgin Punishing the Infant
after the painting by Max Ernst

He spoke early. Not the goo goo goo of infancy,
but I am God. Joseph kept away, carving himself
a silent Pinocchio out in the workshed. He said
he was a simple man and hadn't dreamed of this.

She grew anxious in that second year, would stare
at stars saying Gabriel? Gabriel? Your guess.
The village gossiped in the sun. The child was solitary,
his wide and solemn eyes could fill your head.

After he walked, our normal children crawled. Our wives
were first resentful, then superior. Mary's child
would bring her sorrow… better far to have a son
who gurgled nonsense at your breast. Googoo. Googoo.

But I am God. We heard him through the window,
heard the smacks which made us peep. What we saw
was commonplace enough. But afterwards, we wondered
why the infant did not cry. And why the Mother did.

From Selling Manhattan (1987)

Lizzie, Six

What are you doing?
I'm watching the moon.
I'll give you the moon
when I get up there.

Where are you going?
To play in the fields.
I'll give you fields,
bend over that chair.

What are you thinking?
I'm thinking of love.
I'll give you love
when I've climbed this stair.

Where are you hiding?
Deep in the wood.
I'll give you wood
when your bottom's bare.

Why are you crying?
I'm afraid of the dark.
I'll give you the dark
and I do not care.

From Standing Female Nude (1985)