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New and Selected Poems

Page 22

by Charles Simic

Ever So Tragic, [>]

  “Everybody knows the story . . . , [>]

  Everything about you, [>]

  Everything you didn’t understand, [>]

  Every worm is a martyr, [>]

  Explaining a Few Things, [>]

  Extraordinary efforts are being made, [>]

  Eyes Fastened with Pins, [>]

  Factory, [>]

  Father-confessor, [>]

  Father studied theology through the mail, [>]

  Fear, [>]

  Fear passes from man to man, [>]

  February, [>]

  Figure or figures unknown, [>]

  Filthy Landscape, [>]

  First Frost, [>]

  First Thing in the Morning, [>]

  Five, six chairs piled up in the yard, [>]

  Folk Songs, [>]

  For imaginary visitors, I had a chair, [>]

  Fork, [>]

  For surely, there’s no difficulty in understanding, [>]

  For the Sake of Amelia, [>]

  For the Very Soul of Me, [>]

  For those troubled in mind, [>]

  Four of them holding hands like a family, [>]

  Friends of the small hours of the night:, [>]

  Frightening Toys, [>]

  From the closed, block-long post office, [>]

  From the heel, [>]

  Furniture Mover, [>]

  Gallows Etiquette, [>]

  Ghosts, [>]

  Ghost stories written as algebraic . . . , [>]

  Give me a long dark night and no sleep, [>]

  God’s refuted but the devil’s not, [>]

  Go inside a stone, [>]

  Grandma laughing on her deathbed, [>]

  Grandmothers who wring the necks, [>]

  Grandpa’s Spells, [>]

  Grayheaded Schoolchildren, [>]

  Gray sewage bubbling up out of street sewers, [>]

  Great are the Hittites, [>]

  Green Buddhas, [>]

  Grocery, [>]

  Hangs by a thread—, [>]

  Haunted Mind, [>]

  Have You Met Miss Jones?, [>]

  Head of a Doll, [>]

  Heart—as in Latin pop songs, [>]

  Heavy mirror carried, [>]

  He gives excellent advice by example, [>]

  He held the beast of the Apocalypse . . . , [>]

  He is thinking of us, [>]

  He let the whole world know, [>]

  Help me to find what I’ve lost, [>]

  Help Wanted, [>]

  Here’s a woman’s black glove, [>]

  He took a flea, [>]

  He was kneeling down to tie his shoes, which she mistook for a proposal of marriage, [>]

  He was writing the History of Optimism, [>]

  History, [>]

  History practicing its scissor-clips, [>]

  Hotel Insomnia, [>]

  Hotel Starry Sky, [>]

  House of Cards, [>]

  How much death works, [>]

  Hurricane Season, [>]

  I accused History of gluttony;, [>]

  I am the last Napoleonic . . . , [>]

  I believe in the soul; so far, [>]

  Icarus’s Dog, [>]

  I could’ve been that kid, [>]

  I didn’t notice, [>]

  I failed miserably at imagining nothing, [>]

  I found a key, [>]

  If you didn’t see the six-legged dog, [>]

  I grew up bent over, [>]

  I had a small, nonspeaking part, [>]

  I hate to hear birds sing, [>]

  I have. At the funeral, [>]

  I have my excuse, Mr. Death, [>]

  I left parts of myself everywhere, [>]

  I liked my little hole, [>]

  I like it when, [>]

  I’ll go to the island of Cythera, [>]

  I love breasts, hard, [>]

  I love to stay in bed, [>]

  I’m Charles, [>]

  I’m going over to see what those weeds, [>]

  I miss you winter evenings, [>]

  I’m just a storefront dentist, [>]

  Imported Novelties, [>]

  I’m still living at all the old addresses, [>]

  I’m telling you, this was the real thing, the same one they kicked out of Aesthetics, told her she didn’t exist!, [>]

  I’m the furtive inspector of dimly lit corridors, [>]

  In a Dark House, [>]

  In a neighborhood once called Hell’s Kitchen, [>]

  I never gave them a thought. Years had gone by, [>]

  I never run into anyone from the old days, [>]

  In his fear of solitude, he made us, [>]

  In India I was greatly taken up, [>]

  In Midsummer Quiet, [>]

  In my great-grandmother’s time, [>]

  In my long late-night talks with the jailers, [>]

  In Praise of Worms, [>]

  In pursuit of happiness, you may yet, [>]

  In Rome, on the street of that name, [>]

  In San Francisco, that winter, [>]

  In summer’s idle time, [>]

  In That Big House, [>]

  In the Afternoon, [>]

  In the Egyptian Wing of the Museum, [>]

  In the fine print of her face, [>]

  In the frying pan, [>]

  In the Junk Store, [>]

  In the Library, [>]

  In the Planetarium, [>]

  In the Street, [>]

  In the woods one fair Sunday, [>]

  Invention of Nothing, [>]

  I only have a measly ant, [>]

  I only have faith in you, Mr. Worm, [>]

  I preferred the fleeting, [>]

  I saw a high window struck blind, [>]

  I say to the lead, [>]

  Is that foolish youth still sawing, [>]

  It hangs from heaven to earth, [>]

  It isn’t the body, [>]

  It likes empty churches, [>]

  It’ll be a while before my friends, [>]

  It looks so dark the end of the world may be near, [>]

  It makes my heart glad to hear one of these, [>]

  It must have a reason for concealing, [>]

  It never had a name, [>]

  It occurs to me now, [>]

  It seemed the kind of life we wanted, [>]

  It’s just a boarded-up shack with a steeple, [>]

  It’s like fishing in the dark, [>]

  It’s Mr. Brown looking much better, [>]

  It snows, [>]

  It was always here, [>]

  It was early one Sunday morning, [>]

  It was the epoch of the masters . . . , [>]

  “I was lucky to have a Bible with me, [>]

  I was stolen by the gypsies . . . , [>]

  I, who am only an incomprehensible, [>]

  Jackstraws, [>]

  Juggler of hats and live hand grenades, [>]

  Just as the world was ending, [>]

  Just so that each stark, [>]

  Knife, [>]

  Labor and Capital, [>]

  Late Arrival, [>]

  Late Call, [>]

  Late September, [>]

  Late Train, [>]

  Lay the knife and fork by your plate, [>]

  Leaves, [>]

  Lewis and Clark, [>]

  Like those who were eyewitnesses, [>]

  Lingering Ghosts, [>]

  Listen, [>]

  Little candy in death’s candy shop, [>]

  Little Unwritten Book, [>]

  Lost Glove, [>]

  Lots of people around here . . . , [>]

  Love Flea, [>]

  Lover of endless disappointments . . . , [>]

  Lovers hold hands in never-opened novels, [>]

  Lovers who take pleasure, [>]

  Madame Gabrielle, were you really French?, [>]

  Madame Thebes, [>]

  Madmen Are Running the World, [>]

  Madonnas Touched Up with Goatees, [>]

  Margaret
was copying a recipe . . . , [>]

  Marina’s Epic, [>]

  Master of Disguises, [>]

  Memories of the Future, [>]

  Midpoint, [>]

  Millions of empty rooms with TV sets turned on, [>]

  Millions were dead; everybody was innocent, [>]

  Minds Roaming, [>]

  Minister of our coming doom, preaching, [>]

  Miracle Glass Co., [>]

  Mirrors at 4 A.M., [>]

  Missing Child, [>]

  Monk at the Five Spot, [>]

  Monumental, millennial decrepitude, [>]

  Most ancient Metaphysics (poor Metaphysics!), [>]

  Mother Tongue, [>]

  Mummy’s Curse, [>]

  Munching on pages edged in gold, [>]

  My Beloved, [>]

  My beloved, you who spend your nights, [>]

  My chicken soup thickened with pounded young almonds, [>]

  My dear trees, I no longer recognize you, [>]

  My Father Attributed Immortality to Waiters, [>]

  My father loved the strange books . . . , [>]

  My grandmother prophesied the end, [>]

  My guardian angel is afraid . . . , [>]

  My insignificance is a sign of my greatness, [>]

  My mother was a braid of black smoke, [>]

  My mother works here, [>]

  My neighbor was telling me, [>]

  My Noiseless Entourage, [>]

  My Quarrel with the Infinite, [>]

  My Secret Identity Is, [>]

  My shadow and your shadow on the wall, [>]

  My Shoes, [>]

  Mystic Life, [>]

  Mystics, [>]

  My Turn to Confess, [>]

  My Weariness of Epic Proportions, [>]

  My Wife Lifts a Finger to Her Lips, [>]

  Nancy Jane, [>]

  Never-yet-equaled, wide-screen blockbuster, [>]

  Night Clerk in a Roach Hotel, [>]

  Night fell without asking, [>]

  Night is coming, [>]

  Nineteen Thirty-eight, [>]

  Nobody reads it but the insomniacs, [>]

  No sooner had I left A, [>]

  Note, [>]

  Note, [>]

  Note Slipped Under a Door, [>]

  Nothing Else, [>]

  Obscurely Occupied, [>]

  October Arriving, [>]

  October Light, [>]

  O exegetes, somber hermeneuts, [>]

  Of the light in my room:, [>]

  Old Man, [>]

  Old men have bad dreams, [>]

  On a gray evening, [>]

  Once I knew, then I forgot . . . , [>]

  One-Man Circus, [>]

  One night, as I was dropping off to sleep, [>]

  One night I went to keep the clock company, [>]

  One night you and I were walking, [>]

  One saw signs of it in certain families, [>]

  Only brooms, [>]

  Only you understood, [>]

  On the counter among many, [>]

  On the Farm, [>]

  On the first page of my dreambook, [>]

  On the Meadow, [>]

  Our sainted great-great-, [>]

  Out of poverty, [>]

  Outside a Dirtroad Trailer, [>]

  Outside Biaggi’s Funeral Home, [>]

  O witches! O poverty! . . . , [>]

  Paper Dolls Cut Out of a Newspaper, [>]

  Paradise, [>]

  Paradise Motel, [>]

  Pascal’s Idea, [>]

  Past-Lives Therapy, [>]

  Pastoral Harpsichord, [>]

  Peaceful Trees, [>]

  People Eating Lunch, [>]

  Pigeons at Dawn, [>]

  Poem Without a Title, [>]

  Poet of the dead leaves driven like ghosts, [>]

  Popular Mechanics, [>]

  Postcard from S., [>]

  Preachers Warn, [>]

  Prison Guards Silhouetted Against the Sky, [>]

  Prodigy, [>]

  Progress Report, [>]

  Prophesy, [>]

  Psalm, [>]

  Punch Minus Judy, [>]

  Puppet Maker, [>]

  Reading History, [>]

  Relaxing in a Madhouse, [>]

  Rocky was a regular guy, a loyal friend, [>]

  Romantic Landscape, [>]

  Romantic Sonnet, [>]

  Sausage makers of History, [>]

  Savageries to come, [>]

  School for Visionaries, [>]

  Secret History, [>]

  Seems like a long time, [>]

  Self-Portrait in Bed, [>]

  Separate Truths, [>]

  Serving Time, [>]

  Shaving, [>]

  Shelley, [>]

  She’s pressing me gently . . . , [>]

  She was about to chop the head, [>]

  Shirt, [>]

  Shoes, secret face of my inner life:, [>]

  Sightseeing in the Capital, [>]

  Sky’s gravedigger, [>]

  Slaughterhouse Flies, [>]

  Snowy Morning Blues, [>]

  So far I’ve met here two Homers and one Virgil, [>]

  Softly, [>]

  So, hurry up!, [>]

  Solitude, [>]

  Solitude in Hotels, [>]

  So many crutches. Now even the daylight, [>]

  Someone shuffles by my door . . . , [>]

  Sometimes walking late at night, [>]

  so that’s what it’s like to be a wheel, [>]

  Spoon, [>]

  St. John of the Cross wore dark glasses, [>]

  Stone, [>]

  Strange Feast, [>]

  Strictly Bucolic, [>]

  St. Thomas Aquinas, [>]

  Stub of a Red Pencil, [>]

  Such skies came to worry men, [>]

  Summer Light, [>]

  Summer Morning, [>]

  Summer Storm, [>]

  Sunday Papers, [>]

  Sunlight, [>]

  Sunset’s Coloring Book, [>]

  Surely, he could make it easier, [>]

  Surely, he walks among us unrecognized:, [>]

  Swaying handcuffed, [>]

  Sweetest, [>]

  Take down its ears first, [>]

  Taken as a whole, it’s a mystery, [>]

  Talking to the Ceiling, [>]

  Talking to yourself on the front porch, [>]

  Talk Radio, [>]

  Tapestry, [>]

  Tattooed City, [>]

  Tending a cliff-hanging Grand Hotel, [>]

  That awful deceit of appearances, [>]

  That Little Something, [>]

  That same light by which I saw her last, [>]

  That’s the one the butcher, [>]

  That’s the only image, [>]

  That was the year the Nazis marched into Vienna, [>]

  The Absentee Landlord, [>]

  The Altar, [>]

  The Ballad of the Wheel, [>]

  The Bather, [>]

  The Betrothal, [>]

  The Big War, [>]

  The Bird, [>]

  The Black Queen raised high, [>]

  The blue trees are arguing with the red wind, [>]

  The brightly painted horse, [>]

  The butchery of the innocent, [>]

  The Chair, [>]

  The Chicken Without a Head, [>]

  The church is an iceberg, [>]

  The City, [>]

  The city had fallen. We came . . . , [>]

  The Clocks of the Dead, [>]

  The Cold, [>]

  The Common Insects of America, [>]

  The cows are to be slaughtered, [>]

  The Dead in Photographs, [>]

  The devil likes the chicken coop, [>]

  The Devils, [>]

  The ear threading, [>]

  The Emperor, [>]

  The Emperor must not be told night is coming, [>]

  The Empress, [>]

  The enormous engineering problems, [>]

  T
he epoch of a streetcar drawn by horses, [>]

  The Eskimos were ravaging Peru, [>]

  The fat sisters, [>]

  The Fly, [>]

  The Foundlings, [>]

  The Friends of Heraclitus, [>]

  The Future, [>]

  The great labor was always to efface oneself, [>]

  The hundred-year-old china . . . , [>]

  The hundred-year-old servants, [>]

  The Immortal, [>]

  The Improbable, [>]

  The Inanimate Object, [>]

  The Initiate, [>]

  The Inner Man, [>]

  The Invisible, [>]

  The last customer will stagger out of the door, [>]

  The Lesson, [>]

  The Lights Are On Everywhere, [>]

  The likelihood of ever finding it is small, [>]

  The Little Pins of Memory, [>]

  The Little Tear Gland That Says, [>]

  The Lives of the Alchemists, [>]

  The Lovers, [>]

  The machines were gone, and so were those who worked them, [>]

  The madwoman went marking X’s, [>]

  The mail truck goes down the coast, [>]

  The Massacre of the Innocents, [>]

  The Melon, [>]

  The moths rustle the pages of evening papers, [>]

  Then there’s aesthetic paradox, [>]

  Then there was Johann, [>]

  The obvious is difficult, [>]

  The old farmer in overalls . . . , [>]

  The Old World, [>]

  The One to Worry About, [>]

  The one who lights the wood stove, [>]

  The pages of all the books are blank, [>]

  The Partial Explanation, [>]

  The Pieces of the Clock Lie Scattered, [>]

  The pink-cheeked Jesus, [>]

  The Place, [>]

  The plastic statue of the Virgin, [>]

  The poets of the Late Tang Dynasty, [>]

  The president smiles to himself; he loves war, [>]

  The Prisoner, [>]

  The Prodigal, [>]

  There are one or two murderers in any crowd, [>]

  There may be words left, [>]

  There now, where the first crumb, [>]

  There’s a book called, [>]

  There’s a thing in the world, [>]

  There was a child’s Sunday suit, [>]

  There was a melon fresh from the garden, [>]

  There were three of them, always three, [>]

  The room is empty, [>]

  The Scarecrow, [>]

  The season of lurid wildflowers, [>]

  The Secret, [>]

  These grand old buildings, [>]

  These rows of tall palm trees, [>]

  The snail gives off stillness, [>]

  The softness of this motel bed, [>]

  The Soul Has Many Brides, [>]

  The Starry Sky, [>

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