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Great American Prose Poems: From Poe to the Present

Page 30

by Unknown


  “Meditations in an Emergency,” Frank O’Hara, 90

  “Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland,” John Ashbery, 99

  “Middle Men,” Rae Armantrout, 188

  “Montparnasse,” Ernest Hemingway, 53

  “Monument,” Mary Ruefle, 236

  “The Most Beautiful Word,” Linh Dinh, 281

  “A Nap on the Afternoon of My 39th Birthday,” Denise Duhamel, 276

  “Nepenthe,” Sarah Manguso, 309

  “The New Father,” Russell Edson, 122

  “News,” Ruth Krauss, 54

  “A Nice Presentation,” John Ashbery, 96

  “No Sorry,” Catherine Bowman, 266

  “Notes on the Orgasm,” Nin Andrews, 270

  “Not Something for Nothing,” John Hollander, 107

  “Nude Interrogation,” Yusef Komunyakaa, 197

  “Ode,” Lisa Jarnot, 295

  “Of Flesh and Spirit,” Wang Ping, 268

  “One Day at a Florida Key,” Robert Bly, 85

  “On Orchids,” Anne Carson, 215

  “Our Jailer,” W. S. Merwin, 102

  “The Page Torn Out,” Anselm Berrigan, 304

  “A Performance at Hog Theater,” Russell Edson, 117

  “The Person,” Kit Robinson, 210

  “The Pilot,” Russell Edson, 118

  “Power,” Andrei Codrescu, 186

  “Predella,” John Yau, 223

  “Pretty Happy!,” Peter Johnson, 226

  “The Prose Poem,” Louis Jenkins, 153

  “The Prose Poem,” Campbell McGrath, 279

  “Rapture,” James Tate, 163

  “The Rat’s Tight Schedule,” Russell Edson, 120

  “Red Slippers,” Amy Lowell, 33

  “Requiem,” Richard Deming, 302

  “Return to Harmony 3,” Agha Shahid Ali, 206

  “A Rusty Tin Can,” Robert Bly, 84

  “Same Tits,” James Tate, 160

  “Schoenberg,” Frank O’Hara, 92

  “The Second Greatest Story Ever Told,” James Tate, 159

  “Secret Training,” Andrei Codrescu, 185

  “Sentences,” Thornton Wilder, 50

  “Seurat,” Ira Sadoff, 176

  “Shadow—A Parable,” Edgar Allan Poe, 28

  “On Shelter,” Anne Carson, 216

  “Shoot the Horse,” Terence Winch, 180

  “Sleeping with the Dictionary,” Harryette Mullen, 256

  “So Let’s Look At It Another Way,” John Godfrey, 170

  “State,” Michael Friedman, 274

  “Stereo,” Anne Waldman, 178

  “Still Life,” Lisa Jarnot, 294

  “A Story About the Body,” Robert Hass, 143

  “The Story of Progress,” David Ignatow, 72

  “Strophe,” H. D. (Hilda Doolittle), 43

  “Success Story,” Mark Strand, 112

  “A Summer Night in Hanoi,” Yusef Komunyakaa, 199

  “Summer Rental,” John Yau, 224

  “A Supermarket in California (1956),” Allen Ginsberg, 86

  “Tall Windows,” Robert Hass, 145

  “The Taxi,” Russell Edson, 119

  “Tex-Mex,” Peter Johnson, 226

  “That They Were at the Beach,” Leslie Scalapino, 202

  “The Thirteenth Woman,” Lydia Davis, 191

  Three Entries from 20 Lines a Day, Harry Mathews, 108

  Three Improvisations from Kora in Hell, William Carlos Williams, 39

  Three Poems from “Prose of Departure,” James Merrill, 87

  Three Poems from The World Doesn’t End, Charles Simic, 125

  Three Sections from My Life, Lyn Hejinian, 146

  “Toy Car,” Maureen Seaton, 200

  “Triptych,” Paul Violi, 165

  “Twelve Epistles from Letters to Wendy’s,” Joe Wenderoth, 291

  “12 O’Clock News,” Elizabeth Bishop, 60

  22 “Objects” from Tender Buttons, Gertrude Stein, 34

  “Two Meditations,” James Schuyler, 74

  Two Poems from “Blasted Fields of Clover Bring Harrowing and Regretful Sighs,” Mark Bibbins, 298

  Two Poems from Masquerade, Andrew Sawacki, 303

  “Untitled,” Alice Notley, 174

  “Vanity, Wisconsin,” Maxine Chernoff, 228

  “Variation on a Theme Park,” Harryette Mullen, 254

  “Vectors: Thirty-six Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays,” James Richardson, 218

  “Vespers,” W. H. Auden, 57

  “Visions or Desolation,” Bernadette Mayer, 171

  “On Waterproofing,” Anne Carson, 215

  “The Way We Walk Now,” John Hollander, 106

  “Whatever It Is, Wherever You Are” John Ashbery, 93

  “What We Miss,” Sarah Manguso, 310

  “When Kiss Spells Contradiction,” Karen Volkman, 297

  “Why I Hate the Prose Poem,” Tom Whalen, 205

  “The Wish to Be Pregnant,” Kenneth Koch, 79

  “Women’s Novels,” Margaret Atwood, 128

  “Wonderful World,” James Schuyler, 75

  “Woods, A Prose Sonnet,” Ralph Waldo Emerson, 27

  “The Wreck of the Platonic,” B.J. Atwood-Fukuda, 183

  INDEX OF POETS

  Ali, Agha Shahid (1949–2001)

  “Return to Harmony 3,” 206

  Andrews, Nin (1958–)

  “Notes on the Orgasm,” 270

  “Always Have a Joyful Mind,” 272

  Armantrout, Rae (1947–)

  “Bases,” 186

  “Middle Men,” 188

  “Imaginary Places,” 189

  Ashbery, John (1927–)

  “Whatever It Is, Wherever You Are,” 93

  “Haibun 6,” 95

  “A Nice Presentation,” 96

  “Disagreeable Glimpses,” 97

  “Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland,” 99

  Atwood, Margaret (1939–)

  “Women’s Novels,” 128

  “In Love with Raymond Chandler,” 131

  Atwood-Fukuda, B.J. (1946–)

  “The Wreck of the Platonic,” 183

  Auden, W. H. (1907–1973)

  “Vespers,” 57

  Benedikt, Michael (1935–)

  “The Doorway of Perception,” 116

  Bernard, April (1956–)

  “Exegesis,” 259

  Bernstein, Charles (1950–)

  “Comraderie turns to rivalry . . .,” 212

  Berrigan, Anselm (1972–)

  “The Page Torn Out,” 304

  Bibbins, Mark (1968–)

  Two Poems from “Blasted Fields of Clover Bring Harrowing and Regretful Sighs,” 298

  Bidart, Frank (1939–)

  “Borges and I,” 132

  Bishop, Elizabeth (1911–1979)

  “12 O’Clock News,” 60

  Blanco, Richard (1968–)

  “Mango, Number 61,” 300

  Bly, Robert (1926–)

  “The Hockey Poem,” 80

  “Warning to the Reader,” 83

  “A Rusty Tin Can,” 84

  “One Day at a Florida Key,” 85

  Boully, Jenny (1976–)

  “He appeared then . . .,” 308

  Bowman, Catherine (1957–)

  “No Sorry,” 266

  Brainard, Joe (1942–1994)

  “Freud,” 151

  “History,” 151

  Brown, Stephanie (1961–)

  “Commencement Address,” 275

  Burkard, Michael (1947–)

  “A Conversation About Memory,” 190

  Carlen, Fran (1954–)

  “Anna Karenina,” 240

  “Anal Nap,” 244

  Carson, Anne (1950)

  “On Waterproofing,” 215

  “On Orchids,” 215

  “On Hedonism,” 216

  “On Shelter,” 216

  Chernoff, Maxine (1952–)

  “His Pastime,” 228

  “Vanity, Wisconsin,” 228

  “The In
ner Life,” 229

  Clark, Tom (1941–)

  “Death, Revenge and the Profit Motive,” 140

  Clary, Killarney (1953–)

  “Because the ones I work for . . .,” 238

  “Life is boundless . . .,” 238

  Codrescu, Andrei (1946–)

  “De Natura Rerum,” 185

  “Secret Training,” 185

  “Power,” 186

  Collins, Billy (1941–)

  “Five Fondly Remembered Passages from My Childhood Reading,” 141

  Crane, Hart (1899–1932)

  “Havana Rose,” 52

  cummings, e. e. (1894–1962)

  “i was sitting in mcsorley’s,” 47

  Davis, Lydia (1947–)

  “The Thirteenth Woman,” 191

  “In the Garment District,” 191

  “Agreement,” 192

  Deming, Richard (1970–)

  “Requiem,” 302

  Denby, Edwin (1903–1983)

  “Aaron,” 56

  Dinh, Linh (1963–)

  “Fish Eyes,” 281

  “The Most Beautiful Word,” 281

  Doolittle, Hilda (H. D.) (1886–1961)

  “Strophe,” 43

  “Antistrophe,” 44

  “Epode,” 45

  Dove, Rita (1952–)

  “Kentucky, 1833,” 231

  Duhamel, Denise (1961–)

  “A Nap on the Afternoon of My 39th Birthday,” 276

  Dunham, Jamey (1973–)

  “An American Story,” 307

  Edgar, Christopher (1961–)

  “In C,” 278

  Edson, Russell (1935–)

  “A Performance at Hog Theater,” 117

  “The Pilot,” 118

  “The Taxi,” 119

  “The Rat’s Tight Schedule,” 120

  “The Canoeing Trip,” 121

  “The New Father,” 122

  Eliot, T. S. (1888–1965)

  “Hysteria,” 46

  Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803–1882)

  “Woods, A Prose Sonnet,” 27

  Fogel, Aaron (1947–)

  “The Chessboard Is on Fire,” 193

  Forché, Carolyn (1950–)

  “The Colonel,” 217

  Friedman, Michael (1960–)

  “Lecture,” 273

  “Death,” 273

  “State,” 274

  Gerstler, Amy (1956–)

  “Dear Boy George,” 260

  “Bitter Angel,” 261

  “The Bear-Boy of Lithuania,” 262

  Ginsberg, Allen (1926–1997)

  “A Supermarket in California (1956),” 86

  Godfrey, John (1945–)

  “So Let’s Look At It Another Way,” 170

  Gudding, Gabriel (1966–)

  “A Defense of Poetry,” 285

  Guest, Barbara (1920–)

  “Color,” 73

  Harryman, Carla (1952–)

  “Magic (or Rousseau),” 232

  “Matter,” 233

  Harvey, Matthea (1973–)

  “The Crowds Cheered as Gloom Galloped Away,” 308

  Hass, Robert (1941–)

  “A Story About the Body,” 143

  “In the Bahamas,” 144

  “Tall Windows,” 145

  Hejinian, Lyn (1941–)

  Three Sections from My Life, 146

  Hemingway, Ernest (1899–1961)

  “Montparnasse,” 53

  Hollander, John (1929–)

  “The Way We Walk Now,” 106

  “Crocus Solus,” 107

  “Not Something for Nothing,” 107

  Howe, Fanny (1940–)

  “Everything’s a Fake,” 135

  “Doubt,” 136

  Ignatow, David (1914–1997)

  “I sink back upon the ground . . .,” 71

  “The Story of Progress,” 72

  Jarman, Mark (1952–)

  “Epistle,” 234

  Jarnot, Lisa (1967–)

  “Still Life,” 294

  “Ode,” 295

  Jenkins, Louis (1942–)

  “Football,” 152

  “Appointed Rounds,” 152

  “The Prose Poem,” 153

  Johnson, Peter (1951–)

  “Pretty Happy!,” 226

  “Tex-Mex,” 226

  Knox, Jennifer L. (1968–)

  “Hot Ass Poem,” 301

  Koch, Kenneth (1925–2002)

  “On Happiness,” 77

  “The Allegory of Spring,” 78

  “The Wish to Be Pregnant,” 79

  Komunyakaa, Yusef (1947–)

  “Nude Interrogation,” 197

  “The Hanoi Market,” 198

  “A Summer Night in Hanoi,” 199

  Krauss, Ruth (1901–1993)

  “News,” 54

  Lazarus, Emma (1849–1887)

  “The Exodus (August 3, 1492),” 31

  Lederer, Katherine (1972–)

  “According to the Appetites,” 305

  Lowell, Amy (1874–1925)

  “Red Slippers,” 33

  McGrath, Campbell (1962–)

  “The Prose Poem,” 279

  Manguso, Sarah (1974–)

  “Nepenthe,” 309

  “What We Miss,” 310

  Martínez, Dionisio D. (1956–)

  “Avant-Dernières Pensées,” 264

  Mathews, Harry (1930–)

  Three Entries from 20 Lines a Day, 108

  Mayer, Bernadette (1945–)

  “Visions or Desolation,” 171

  Merrill, James (1926–1995)

  Three Poems from “Prose of Departure,” 87

  Merwin, W. S. (1927–)

  “Humble Beginning,” 101

  “The Dachau Shoe,” 101

  “Our Jailer,” 102

  “The Lonely Child,” 103

  Milosz, Czeslaw (1911–)

  “Esse,” 62

  “Be Like Others,” 63

  Mullen, Harryette (?-)

  “Variation on a Theme Park,” 254

  “The Anthropic Principle,” 255

  “Sleeping with the Dictionary,” 256

  Moss, Thylias (1954–)

  “An Anointing,” 245

  Notley, Alice (1945–)

  “Untitled,” 174

  O’Hara, Frank (1926–1966)

  “Meditations in an Emergency,” 90

  “Schoenberg,” 92

  Padgett, Ron (1942–)

  “Light as Air,” 154

  “Album,” 157

  Palmer, Michael (1943–)

  “A word is coming up on the screen . . .,” 158

  Patchen, Kenneth (1911–1972)

  “In Order To,” 64

  “Delighted with Bluepink,” 65

  “The Famous Boating Party,” 66

  Ping, Wang (1957–)

  “Of Flesh and Spirit,” 268

  Poe, Edgar Allan (1809–1849)

  “Shadow—A Parable,” 28

  Rankine, Claudia (1963–)

  “Intermission in Four Acts,” 282

  Richardson, James (1950–)

  “Vectors: Thirty-six Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays,” 218

  Robinson, Kit (1949–)

  “The Person,” 210

  Ruefle, Mary (1952–)

  “Monument,” 236

  Sadoff, Ira (1945–)

  “Seurat,” 176

  Sawacki, Andrew (1972–)

  Two Poems from Masquerade, 303

  Scalapino, Leslie (1948–)

  “That They Were at the Beach,” 202

  Schuyler, James (1923–1991)

  “Two Meditations,” 74

  “Wonderful World,” 75

  “Footnote,” 76

  Schwartz, Delmore (1913–1966)

  “Justice,” 67

  Seaton, Maureen (1947–)

  “Toy Car,” 200

  “Lateral Time,” 200

  Simic, Charles (1938–)

  Three Poem
s from The World Doesn’t End, 125

  “The Magic Study of Happiness,” 126

  “Contributor’s Note,” 127

  Stein, Gertrude (1874–1946)

  22 “Objects” from Tender Buttons, 34

  Strand, Mark (1934–)

  “In the Privacy of the Home,” 111

  “Success Story,” 112

  “From a Lost Diary,” 113

  “Chekhov: A Sestina,” 114

  Tate, James (1943–)

  “The Second Greatest Story Ever Told,” 159

  “Same Tits,” 160

  “The List of Famous Hats,” 161

  “Distance from Loved Ones,” 162

  “Rapture,” 163

  “Bernie at the Pay Phone,” 164

  Toomer, Jean (1894–1967)

  “Calling Jesus,” 49

  Violi, Paul (1944–)

  “Triptych,” 165

  “Acknowledgments,” 169

  Volkman, Karen (1967–)

  “It Could Be a Bird,” 296

  “When Kiss Spells Contradiction,” 297

  Waldman, Anne (1945–)

  “Stereo,” 178

  Waldrop, Rosmarie (1935–)

  Five Poems from The Reproduction of Profiles, 123

  Wenderoth, Joe (1966–)

  Twelve Epistles from Letters to Wendy’s, 291

  Whalen, Tom (1948–)

  “Why I Hate the Prose Poem,” 205

  Wheeler, Susan (1955–)

  “Invective: You Should Know,” 257

  Wilder, Thornton (1897–1975)

  “Sentences,” 50

  Williams, Tyrone (1954–)

  “Cold Calls,” 247

  Williams, William Carlos (1883–1963)

  Three Improvisations from Kora in Hell, 39

  Winch, Terence (1945–)

  “Shoot the Horse,” 180

  Wright, James (1927–1980)

  “On Having My Pocket Picked in Rome,” 104

  “Honey,” 105

  Yau, John (1950–)

  “Predella,” 223

  “Summer Rental,” 224

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