Table of Contents
Introduction xv
"Surprised by joy-impatient as the Wind" (1815, 1820) 1
"This living hand" (1819) 5
"I am" (c. 1847) 8
In Memoriam, VII (c. 1848) 12
"Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend" (1889) 16
"The God Abandons Antony" (1910) 21
"The Voice" (1912) 25
"The Owl" (1915) 29
"The Pretty Redhead" (1918) 33
"What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why" (1920) 39
"Song for a Dark Girl" (1927) 44
"Rooms" (c. 1929) 49
"Black Stone Lying on a White Stone" (1930) 53
"I'm Going to Sleep" (1938) 58
"To Julia de Burgos" (1938) 62
"In Memory of M.B." (1940) 67
"The Fifth Eclogue" (1943) 71
"Café" (1944) 76
"Merciful God" (1945) 81
"Shemà" (1946) 86
"On Living" (1948) 91
"Aspects of Robinson" (1948) 97
"The rites for Cousin Vit" (1949) 102
"Not Waving but Drowning" (1953, 1957) 105
"In the Midst of Life" (1955) 109
"On the road at night there stands the man" (1959) 115
"Poem of the Gifts" (1960) 119
"In the Park" (1961) 124
"The Whipping" (1962) 128
"Night Sweat" (1963) 133
"Wanting to Die" (1964) 137
"My Nightingale" (1965) 142
"Next Day" (1965) 146
"Montana Fifty Years Ago" (1967) 151
"For the Anniversary of My Death" (1967) 155
"Poem" (1968) 158
"The Idea of Ancestry" (1968) 163
"Henry's Understanding" (1969) 169
"A Deathplace" (1969) 173
"They Feed They Lion" (1969) 178
"The Small Square" (1972) 185
"Under One Small Star" (1972) 189
"Degrees of Gray in Philipsburg" (1973) 193
"On This Side of the River" (1975) 199
"Aubade" (1977) 204
"Parents" (1978) 210
"Essay" (1978) 214
"Arches" (1978) 218
"Kindness" (1978, 1994) 222
"The Woman on the Bridge over the Chicago River" (1979) 228
"The Book of Yolek" (1981) 234
"Mr Cogito and the Imagination" (1983) 240
"From My Window" (1983) 247
"Night Song" (1983) 253
"The Race" (1983) 259
"In Memory of the Unknown Poet, Robert Boardman Vaughn" (1984) 264
"The Dancing" (1984) 269
"For Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, Whose Spirit Is Present Here and in the Dappled Stars (for we remember the story and must tell it again so we may all live)" (1985) 272
"Mendocino Rose" (1987) 279
"(Dedications)" (1990-91) 284
"The Gas-poker" (1991) 289
"What He Thought" (1991) 295
"It Allows a Portrait in Line-Scan at Fifteen" (1993) 301
"The People of the Other Village" (1993) 306
"For the Taking" (1993) 310
"Terminus" (1993) 316
"What the Living Do" (1994) 322
"The War Works Hard" (1994) 327
"Halley's Comet" (1995) 332
"Song" (1995) 336
"Simile" (1996) 341
"In Memory of Joe Brainard" (1997) 345
"jasper texas 1998" (1998) 350
"The Rapture" (2000) 354
"Elementary Principles at Seventy-Two" (2001) 359
"Quarantine" (2001) 363
"Woman Martyr" (2002) 369
"We Are Not Responsible" (2002) 373
"Shelley" (2004) 377
"Aphasia" (2004) 381
"On Wanting to Tell [ ] About a Girl Eating Fish Eyes" (2004) 385
"Lead" (2005) 389
"Persimmon" (2005) 393
"Ethel's Sestina" (2006) 398
"Woman, Mined" (2006) 403
"Graveyard Blues" (2006) 407
"Requiem" (2006) 412
"Aubade in Autumn" (2007) 417
"Barton Springs" (2007) 421
"Failure" (2007) 425
"An Individual History" (2007) 429
"The Second Slaughter" (2008) 434
"Old School" (2010) 439
"Infinite Riches in the Smallest Room" (2013) 442
"The African Burial Ground" (2014) 448
"The Addict's Mother: Birth Story" (2014-15) 454
"Spirit Boxing" (2015) 458
"Obit [The Blue Dress]" (2016) 463
"Pantoum for the Broken" (2017) 466
"Krishna, 3:29 a.m." (2018) 471
Acknowledgments 479
Credits 483
