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 -- 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 -- Teotlhuacán -- History -- Used -- Rusks -- Missing -- Demeter's prayer to Hades -- VII. Her island -- On the bus with Rosa Parks (1999) : Cameos -- uly 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 : birds' 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 -- Reverie in open air -- Sic itur ad astra -- Count to ten and we'll be there -- Eliza, age 10, Har!alem --
Looking up from the page, I am reminded of this mortal coil.
