Collected Poems

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Collected Poems Page 37

by Robert Bly


  Nor why I keep saying blessings on their heads.

  It’s all right if I forget my own brother,

  And pretend I was born before my father,

  And erase so many lines I wrote yesterday.

  I don’t know why I love to sleep under a sheepskin,

  Nor why my blanket seems my oldest friend.

  And why I am afraid to sleep on the open ground.

  Don’t ask why the elephants wear such large shoes,

  And why the kangaroos are reborn kidnappers,

  And why the sailing birds are all Romantics.

  We know the salmon follow each other upstream,

  And the legislators hire their own nephews,

  And the priests pay to get their sons into heaven.

  ABOUT MY FATHER

  The salty stars experience the ruin of the world.

  My father was a nomad on the Mongol plains.

  Each day he fed a thousand Astrakhan lambs.

  He knew when the dangerous winter would come.

  He knew a lot about calving in January,

  And how to keep the new lambs from dying.

  I couldn’t tell you about the calves lost at birth,

  Nor the lambs who stood around on wobbly legs,

  Nor the ewes who went on eating anyway.

  He knew how to put small pins into those farm wagons

  In danger of falling apart. He had the gift

  Of trying to hold the world together.

  I knew how often he had saved other farmers

  When times were bad, and kept them from ruin.

  He kept a hundred sorrows alive in him.

  It’s hard to know what to say about Jacob.

  I know that he was always fair to Esau.

  If you see Jacob, tell him I am his son.

  SMOKE-STAINED FINGERS

  There is still time for the old days when the musician

  Stayed inside his bubble of joy, and the old men

  Threw cards down with their smoke-stained fingers.

  Let’s hope Brooklyn Bridge will remain standing,

  That Jacob marries either Rachel or Leah,

  And the Appalachians don’t wear all the way down.

  No one minds if we are scruffy and badly dressed.

  The old man who is checking names at the door

  Speaks only Hungarian, and is blind as well.

  There’s no telling how many hours are left to us.

  The plateaus in New Mexico lift a little each year.

  It’s like hearing a dog barking from far away.

  Some birdcalls come straight through the walls.

  I don’t know why we bother to listen to them

  When we’ve never heard our own cries.

  Don’t give up, friends. Somewhere inside us,

  Jacob is tending sheep on our old farm.

  The angels are still sending messages to Joseph.

  WHAT THE OLD POETS FAILED TO SAY

  The sunlight on wheat-heads in August holds me firmly,

  For I am in love with the wheat soon to be cut.

  Let’s thank whoever it was who kept sorrow alive.

  Tell me who brought Hafez out of the grave.

  Who brings us news of the Thirtieth Kingdom?

  I can’t stop clapping my hands over this question.

  Even though we know God lays our head

  On the block, we thank him for it all, and we

  Remember the loving we have enjoyed at night.

  Tell me why the suffering of the violin string

  Goes on for years, why the coyote calls at night,

  And why the bird never settles down on one branch.

  Tell me why my titles are often so sad,

  And why cattle keep on going every day

  To the slaughterhouse, and why wars go on so long.

  Night after night goes by in the old man’s head.

  We try to ask new questions. But whatever

  The old poets failed to say will never be said.

  INDEX OF TITLES AND FIRST LINES

  Page numbers listed correspond to the print edition of this book. You can use your device’s search function to locate particular terms in the text.

  A black iron fence closes the graves in, its ovals delicate as wine, 209

  A blind horse stands among cherry trees, 65

  About four, a few flakes, 71

  About My Father, 503

  Accountants hover over the earth like helicopters, 38

  A cold night; the sidewalk we walk on icy; the dark surrounds, 153

  Adam agreed the ocean would be the home of salt, 456

  Adam’s Understanding, 456

  “A drowsy numbness pains my sense.” Keats heard, 375

  Advice from the Geese, 428

  A friend of mine says that every war, 482

  After A Day of Work, 186

  After a drifting day, visiting the bridge near Louisburg, 15

  After A Friend’s Death, 352

  After a long walk I come down to the shore, 192

  After a long walk in the woods clear cut for lumber, 227

  After a month and a half without rain, at last, in late August, 151

  After Drinking All Night with a Friend, We Go Out in a Boat at Dawn to See Who Can Write the Best Poem, 27

  After Long Busyness, 112

  After many strange thoughts, 24

  Afternoon Sleep, 21

  After so many years, I come walking to you, 260

  After the Industrial Revolution, All Things Happen at Once, 48

  After three days of talk, I long for silence and come here, 216

  After walking about all afternoon, 116

  After we had loved each other intently, 259

  After Working, 24

  A hundred boats are still looking for shore, 472

  A light seen suddenly in the storm, snow, 55

  A little snow. Coffee. The bowled-over branches, 340

  All day I loved you in a fever, holding on to the tail of the horse, 244

  All day wind had called me, 174

  All right. I know that each of us will die alone, 465

  All These Stories, 319

  Alone a Few Hours, 250

  A lonely man once sat on a large flat stone, 327

  Alone on the jagged rock at the south end of McClure’s Beach, 137

  Already autumn begins here in the mossy rocks, 107

  A man and a woman sit, 257

  A man and a woman sit near each other, and they do not long, 240

  A man bends over the gunwales, 303

  A man I knew could never say who he was, 331

  A man told me once that all the bad people, 314

  Andrei Voznesensky has a curious look like a wood animal, one, 130

  Andrew Jackson’s Speech, 46

  Anger against Children, 293

  Another Doing Nothing Poem, 114

  An owl on the dark waters, 64

  Ant Heaps by the Path, 184

  Approaching Winter, 8

  A private, misty day, 183

  Aramage for the Mountain, 489

  A ranger is lifting fingerling trout from a pickup with his scoop, 123

  Artist, The, 184

  Artist at Fifty, The, 252

  A sadness comes when we think back, 334

  A Saturday night. The area is cold, deserted. In a water tank set, 132

  Asian Peace Offers Rejected without Publication, 49

  As I drive my parents home through the snow, 185

  A silence hovers over the earth, 20

  A sort of roll develops out of the bay, and lays itself all down this, 141

  “As soon as the master is untied, the bird soars,” 488

  As the Asian War Begins, 51

  A stone barn. The ground around is green, springy, rolling over, 128

  A strange unrest hovers over the nation, 11

  As we walk out at dawn we can still see the remains of the path, 149

  At a F
ish Hatchery in Story, Wyoming, 123

  At a March against the Vietnam War, 51

  At Midocean, 244

  At night desire and longing enter, and we feel water, 260

  At the Funeral of Great-Aunt Mary, 16

  At the start of the dream, 285

  Augustine on His Ship, 405

  August Rain, 151

  Autumn rain and sudden winds, 113

  Awakening, 12

  A word I love comes—snow; then fencepost, 363

  Baal Shem and Francis Bacon, The, 399

  Bach’s B Minor Mass, 422

  Bad People, 314

  Barn at Elabuga, The, 316

  Battle at Ypres, 1915, The, 395

  Bear and the Man, The, 325

  Bear’s Tail, The, 217

  Because it is the first Sunday of pheasant season, men gather, 7

  Behind the Church in the Isleta Pueblo, here is a courtyard, 133

  Being born amounts to peering out from a cliff, 449

  Being Happy All Night, 341

  Big-Nostrilled Moose, The, 486

  Bird’s Nest Made of White Reed Fiber, A, 121

  Black Crab Demon, The, 135

  Black Figure below the Boat, The, 332

  Black trunks, black branches, and white snow, 360

  Blessings now on all, 492

  Blinding of Samson, The, 429

  Blind Old Man, The, 469

  Blind Tobit, The, 423

  Bored Elephants in the Circus Stable, 132

  Bouquet of Ten Roses, A, 208

  Box of Chocolates, The, 482

  Brahms, 435

  Bridegroom, The, 454

  Buff-Chested Grouse, The, 458

  Busy Man Speaks, The, 36

  Cabbages of Chekhov, The, 400

  Calderón, 384

  Call and Answer, 427

  Calling to the Badger, 79

  Calling Your Father, 330

  Calm Morning at Drake’s Bay, 141

  Camels, The, 490

  Cardinal’s Cry, The, 403

  Caterpillar, A, 150

  Childhood is like a kitchen. It is dangerous, 313

  Chinese Peaks, The, 270

  Chinese Tomb Guardians, 72

  Christmas Eve Service at Midnight at St. Michael’s, 153

  Christmas is a place, like Jackson Hole. We all agree, 362

  Christmas Poem, A, 362

  Chrysanthemums, 111

  Chrysanthemums crying out on the borders of death, 38

  Clear Air of October, The, 24

  Climbing Up Mount Vision with My Little Boy, 139

  Clothespins, 350

  Come, let us write of Niagara and the Huron squaws, 79

  Come with Me (Come with me into those things that have felt this despair for so long—), 40

  Come with Me (We walk together in willows, among willows), 244

  Come with me into those things that have felt this despair for so long—, 40

  Coming in for Supper, 163

  Coming nearer and nearer the resonating chamber, 116

  Condition of the Working Classes: 1970, 77

  Conditions, The, 253

  Conversation, 256

  Conversation, A, 75

  Conversation brings us so close! Opening, 61

  Conversation with a Holy Woman Not Seen for Many Years, 260

  Conversation with a Monster, 331

  Conversation with a Mouse, A, 367

  Conversation with the Soul, 312

  Convict and His Radio, The, 202

  Cornpicker Poem, 177

  Counting Small-Boned Bodies, 50

  Country Roads, The, 390

  Courting Forgetfulness, 464

  Crazy Carlson cleared this meadow alone, 229

  Crazy Carlson’s Meadow, 229

  Creek by the Luan House, The, 113

  Creeley sits on a chair, pulling up his knees to laugh, like a boy, 124

  Crow’s Head, The, 190

  Cry Going Out over Pastures, The, 169

  Current Administration, The, 45

  Dark Autumn Nights, The, 417

  Dark Egg, The, 303

  Darkness is falling through darkness, 63

  Dawn, 412

  Dawn in Threshing Time, 175

  Day Alone, A, 157

  Day in Late June, A, 472

  Day the Dock Comes In, The, 483

  Dead of Shiloh, The, 375

  Dead Seal near McClure’s Beach, The, 143

  Dealing with Parents, 473

  Dear old Thoreau abandoned his scandalous life, 486

  Death throws a shadow on us, as if it were a tree, 112

  December’s foolishness, embers fall, tempters, 487

  Dentists continue to water their lawns even in the rain, 43

  Depression, 18

  Difficult Word, The, 407

  Digging Worms, 179

  Dingy Playing Cards, The, 450

  Dog’s Ears, The, 340

  Doing Nothing Poem, A, 116

  Don’t be afraid, 491

  Don’t tell me that nothing can be done, 343

  Don’t you see them? They are coming to blind Samson!, 429

  Do you laugh or cry when you hear the poet sing?, 376

  Do you remember the night Abraham first saw, 371

  Dream of an Afternoon with a Woman I Did Not Know, 193

  Dream of Myself at Twelve, 285

  Dream of Retarded Children, A, 191

  Dream of Suffocation, A, 38

  Dream of the Blacksmith’s Room, A, 290

  Dream of What Is Missing, A, 160

  Dream on the Night of First Snow, A, 181

  Dried Sturgeon, The, 208

  Driving My Parents Home at Christmas, 185

  Driving through Minnesota During the Hanoi Bombings, 53

  Driving through Ohio, 16

  Driving to Town Late to Mail a Letter, 19

  Driving toward the Lac Qui Parle River, 9

  Drops of rain fall into black fields, 242

  Each day I live, each day the sea of light, 13

  Each fall it rains a lot in the northern woods, 356

  Each mole and shoat is a shadow thrown by the sun, 384

  Each time the soprano and the tenor, 477

  Each time we lower a violin near the Nile River, 405

  Early in the morning the hermit wakes, hearing, 495

  Early Morning in Your Room, 309

  Eating Blackberry Jam, 457

  Eel in the Cave, The, 401

  Eight hundred feet up, there is water pouring out of the sky! It, 132

  Eleven O’clock at Night, 205

  Empty Place, An, 187

  Empty places are white and light-footed. “Taking the road” means, 187

  Eudalia and Plato, 380

  Evening When the Full Moon Rose as the Sun Set, An, 194

  Every breath taken in by the man, 252

  Every leaf in a storm points in the same direction, 444

  Evolution from the Fish, 65

  Excursion on Tomales Bay, An, 140

  Executive’s Death, The, 35

  Extra Joyful Chorus for Those Who Have Read This Far, 101

  Face in the Toyota, The, 350

  Fall, 7

  Family Photograph, Sunday Morning, A, 323

  Family Thing, A, 481

  Farm in Western Minnesota, A, 323

  Father and Son, 470

  Fat Old Couple Whirling Around, The, 451

  Fear for the Bridal Pair, 183

  Ferns, 247

  Fifty Men Sitting Together, 227

  Finally in the bear’s cabin I come to earth, 242

  Finding an Old Ant Mansion, 210

  Finding a Salamander on Inverness Ridge, 141

  Finding Sharks’ Teeth in a Rock, 241

  Finding the Father, 158

  Fire of Despair Has Been Our Saviour, The, 59

  Firmness, 256

  First snow yesterday, and now more falling, 185

  Fishing on a Lake at Night, 188


  Fish in the Window, The, 393

  Five Inns, The, 398

  Flamenco Singers in Granada, 432

  Floating in turtle blood, going backward and forward, 63

  For a Childhood Friend, Marie, 324

  Forgive the hours spent listening to radios, and the words of, 122

  Forgiving the Mailman, 385

  For My Brother, a Year after His Death, 182

  For My Son Noah, Ten Years Old, 200

  For Robert Motherwell, 441

  For Ruth, 367

  For the Old Gnostics, 488

  Four Ways of Knowledge, 224

  French Generals, The, 394

  Friend, this body is made of camphor and gopherwood. So for, 166

  Friends, it’s time to give up our hope for Rapture, 450

  Friends, there is only one joy and hundreds of sorrows, 382

  Frogs after Dark, The, 468

  Frost is glittery, excited, like so many things laid down silently, 129

  Frost on the Windowpane, 129

  Frost Still on the Ground, 190

  Furry demons come to the door offering separations, 373

  Furry shadows are bringing gifts to our door, 392

  Galloping Horses, 160

  Getting Up Early, 19

  Giordano Bruno and the Muddy Footprint, 373

  Glimpse of Something in the Oven, The, 313

  God crouches at night over a single pistachio, 439

  God does what she wants. She has very large, 335

  Going in a Helicopter from Riverside to the L.A. Airport, 146

  Going Out to Check the Ewes, 159

  Good Silence, The, 261

  Grackles, The, 487

  Grackles stroll about on the black floor of sorrow, 487

  Grandparent and the Granddaughter, The, 355

  Grass from Two Years, 152

  Grass high under apple trees, 182

  Gratitude to Old Teachers, 274

  Great Society, The, 43

  Greek Ships, The, 423

  Green Cook Stove, The, 327

  Grief of Men, The, 213

  Growing Wings, 426

  Hannibal and Robespierre, 381

  Hatred of Men with Black Hair, 52

  Have we forgotten the nest in which we were born?, 430

  Have you heard about the boy who walked by, 312

  Have you noticed the horses galloping past us?, 433

 

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