She Walks in Beauty: A Woman's Journey Through Poems (20 page)

AMY LOWELL

This afternoon was the color of water falling through sunlight;

The trees glittered with the tumbling of leaves;

The sidewalks shone like alleys of dropped maple leaves,

And the houses ran along them laughing out of square, open windows.

Under a tree in the park,

Two little boys, lying flat on their faces,

Were carefully gathering red berries

To put in a pasteboard box.

Some day there will be no war,

Then I shall take out this afternoon

And turn it in my fingers,

And remark the sweet taste of it upon my palate,

And note the crisp variety of its flights of leaves.

To-day I can only gather it

And put it into my lunch-box,

For I have time for nothing

But the endeavor to balance myself

Upon a broken world.

DICK DAVIS

As soon as you wake they come blundering in

Like puppies or importunate children;

What was a landscape emerging from mist

Becomes at once a disordered garden.

And the mess they trail with them! Embarrassments,

Anger, lust, fear—in fact the whole pig-pen;

And who'll clean it up? No hope for sleep now—

Just heave yourself out, make the tea, and give in.

ROBERT FROST

I have wished a bird would fly away,

And not sing by my house all day;

Have clapped my hands at him from the door

When it seemed as if I could bear no more.

The fault must partly have been in me.

The bird was not to blame for his key.

And of course there must be something wrong

In wanting to silence any song.

ST. TERESA OF AVILA

May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.

May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.

May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that

has been given to you. . . .

May you be content knowing you are a child of God. . . .

Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to

sing, dance, praise and love.

It is there for each and every one of us.

EURIPIDES

CHORUS

When shall I dance once more

with bare feet the all-night dances,

tossing my head for joy

in the damp air, in the dew,

as a running fawn might frisk

for the green joy of the wide fields,

free from fear of the hunt,

free from the circling beaters

and the nets of woven mesh

and the hunters hallooing on

their yelping packs? And then, hard pressed,

she sprints with the quickness of wind,

bounding over the marsh, leaping

to frisk, leaping for joy,

gay with the green of the leaves,

to dance for joy in the forest,

to dance where the darkness is deepest, where no man is.

What is wisdom? What gift of the gods

is held in honor like this:

to hold your hand victorious

over the heads of those you hate?

Honor is precious forever.

Slow but unmistakable

the might of the gods moves on.

It punishes that man,

infatuate of soul

and hardened in his pride,

who disregards the gods.

The gods are crafty:

they lie in ambush

a long step of time

to hunt the unholy.

Beyond the old beliefs,

no thought, no act shall go.

Small, small is the cost

to believe in this:

whatever is god is strong:

whatever long time has sanctioned,

that is a law forever;

the law tradition makes

is the law of nature.

What is wisdom? What gift of the gods

is held in honor like this:

to hold your hand victorious

over the heads of those you hate?

Honor is precious forever.

Blessèd is he who escapes a storm at sea,

who comes home to his harbor.

Blessèd is he who emerges from under affliction.

In various ways one man outraces another in the race for wealth and power.

Ten thousand men possess ten thousand hopes.

A few bear fruit in happiness; the others go awry.

But he who garners day by day the good of life, he is happiest.

Blessèd is he.

W. B. YEATS

I would be ignorant as the dawn

That has looked down

On that old queen measuring a town

With the pin of a brooch,

Or on the withered men that saw

From their pedantic Babylon

The careless planets in their courses,

The stars fade out where the moon comes,

And took their tablets and did sums;

I would be ignorant as the dawn

That merely stood, rocking the glittering coach

Above the cloudy shoulders of the horses;

I would be—for no knowledge is worth a straw—

Ignorant and wanton as the dawn.

UNKNOWN

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,

When the road you're trudging seems all up hill,

When the funds are low and the debts are high,

And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit,

Rest, if you must—but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,

As everyone of us sometimes learns,

And many a failure turns about

When he might have won had he stuck it out;

Don't give up, though the pace seems slow—

You might succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than

It seems to a faint and faltering man,

Often the struggler has given up

When he might have captured the victor's cup.

And he learned too late, when the night slipped down,

How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out—

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt—

And you never can tell how close you are,

It may be near when it seems afar;

So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit—

It's when things seem worst that you mustn't quit.

LAO-TZU

All things pass

A sunrise does not last all morning

All things pass

A cloudburst does not last all day

All things pass

Nor a sunset all night

All things pass

What always changes?

Earth . . . sky . . . thunder . . .

mountain . . . water . . .

wind . . . fire . . . lake . . .

These change

And if these do not last

Do man's visions last?

Do man's illusions?

Take things as they come

All things pass

ANONYMOUS (SHAKER HYMN)

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,

'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gain'd,

To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,

To turn, turn will be our delight

'Till by turning, turning we come round right.

NAZIM HIKMET

The best sea: has yet to be crossed.

The best child: has yet to be born.

The best days: have yet to be lived;

and the best word that I wanted to say to you

is the word that I have not yet said.

MARY OLIVER

One day you finally knew

what you had to do, and began,

though the voices around you

kept shouting

their bad advice—

though the whole house

began to tremble

and you felt the old tug

at your ankles.

“Mend my life!”

each voice cried.

But you didn't stop.

You knew what you had to do,

though the wind pried

with its stiff fingers

at the very foundations—

though their melancholy

was terrible.

It was already late

enough, and a wild night,

and the road full of fallen

branches and stones.

But little by little,

as you left their voices behind,

the stars began to burn

through the sheets of clouds,

and there was a new voice,

which you slowly

recognized as your own,

that kept you company

as you strode deeper and deeper

into the world,

determined to do

the only thing you could do—

determined to save

the only life that you could save.

CONSTANTINE P. CAVAFY

As you set out for Ithaka

hope the voyage is a long one,

full of adventure, full of discovery.

Laistrygonians and Cyclops,

angry Poseidon—don't be afraid of them:

you'll never find things like that on your way

as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,

as long as a rare excitement

stirs your spirit and your body.

Laistrygonians and Cyclops,

wild Poseidon—you won't encounter them

unless you bring them along inside your soul,

unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope the voyage is a long one.

May there be many a summer morning when,

with what pleasure, what joy,

you come into harbors seen for the first time;

may you stop at Phoenician trading stations

to buy fine things,

mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,

sensual perfume of every kind—

as many sensual perfumes as you can;

and may you visit many Egyptian cities

to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.

Arriving there is what you are destined for.

But do not hurry the journey at all.

Better if it lasts for years,

so you are old by the time you reach the island,

wealthy with all you have gained on the way,

not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.

Without her you would not have set out.

She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.

Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,

you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

ELIZABETH BISHOP

We must admire her perfect aim,

this huntress of the winter air

whose level weapon needs no sight,

if it were not that everywhere

her game is sure, her shot is right.

The least of us could do the same.

The chalky birds or boats stand still,

reducing her conditions of chance;

air's gallery marks identically

the narrow gallery of her glance.

The target-center in her eye

is equally her aim and will.

Time's in her pocket, ticking loud

on one stalled second. She'll consult

not time nor circumstance. She calls

on atmosphere for her result.

(It is this clock that later falls

in wheels and chimes of leaf and cloud.)

I WOULD ESPECIALLY LIKE TO THANK
Carrie Bell, Jordan Tamagni, and Bob Hughes for sending me the poems that started this book. All the other poems could not have been found without the help of the amazing Lauren Lipani. I am also grateful to my devoted friend and agent, Esther Newberg, and my editor, Gretchen Young, who makes each project more rewarding than the one before.

This book would not have come into being without the many other people at Hyperion who worked to make it so beautiful—Shubhani Sarkar for the glorious design, David Lott and Claire McKean, who make production miracles happen on a consistent basis, Laura Klynstra for the cover design, Deirdre Smerillo for tracking down runaway poems, and Elizabeth Sabo Morick for help in countless ways. Marie Coolman and Sally McCartin have made a huge difference, and I am grateful for their commitment.

Most of all, I would like to thank my friends and family, who make me happy to get up every morning knowing I might talk to them that day.

Kim Addonizio, “What Do Women Want?” from
Tell Me.
Copyright © 2000 by Kim Addonizio. Reprinted with the permission of BOA Editions, Ltd., www.boaeditions.org.

Elizabeth Alexander, “The Dream I Told My Mother-in-Law,” “The End,” and “Ode,” first appeared in
American Sublime
, © 2005, Graywolf Press, and subsequently in
Crave Radiance, New and Selected Poems, 1990-2010
, published by Graywolf Press, and are used here with the permission of Elizabeth Alexander through the Faith Childs Literary Agency, Inc.

Ariwara No Narihara, “That is a road” from
Anthology of Japanese Literature
, compiled and edited by Donald Keene. Copyright © 1955 by Grove Press, Inc. Used by permission of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

Walter Arndt, “Going Blind” in
The Best of the Rilke.
© University Press of New England, Lebanon, NH. Reprinted with permission.

Margaret Atwood, “Variation on the Word
Sleep
” and “You Begin” used by permission of the Author. Available in the following collections: In the United States,
Selected Poems II
,
1976-1986
, published by Houghton Mifflin, © Margaret Atwood 1987; in Canada,
Selected Poems
,
1966-1984
, published by Oxford University Press, © Margaret Atwood 1990; in the UK,
Eating Fire
, published by Virago Books, © Margaret Atwood 1998. All rights reserved.

W. H. Auden, “Leap Before You Look.” Copyright 1945 by W. H. Auden, from
Collected Poems of W. H. Auden
by W. H. Auden. Used by permission of Random House Inc. and The Wylie Agency (UK) Ltd.

Ingeborg Bachmann, “A Type of Loss,” translated by Peter Filkins, from
Darkness Spoken: The Collected Poems of Ingeborg Bachmann.
Copyright © 1978, 2000 by Piper Verlag Gmbh, München, Translation copyright © 2006 by Peter Filkins. Reprinted with the permission of Zephyr Press, www.zephyrpress.org.

Hilaire Belloc, “Fatigue” from
Sonnets and Verses
(© Hilaire Belloc 1923) is reproduced by permission of PFD (www.pfd.co.uk) on behalf of The Estate of Hilaire Belloc
.

Nguyen Ngoc Bich, “A Farmer's Calendar,” a Vietnamese folk poem from
A Thousand Years of Vietnamese Poetry
(Nguyen Ngoc Bich, ed.). © The Asia Society. Reprinted with permission.

Elizabeth Bishop, “Letter to N.Y.” and “The Colder the Air” from
The Complete Poems 1927-1979
. Copyright © 1979, 1983 by Alice Helen Methfessel. Reprinted with the permission of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, LLC.

Elizabeth Bishop, “It is marvellous to wake up together . . .” from
Edgar Allan Poe & The Juke-Box
, edited and annotated by Alice Quinn. Copyright © 2006 by Alice Helen Methfessel. Introduction copyright © 2006 by Alice Quinn. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC and Carcanet Press Limited.

Gwendolyn Brooks, “when you have forgotten sunday: the love story” and “weaponed woman.” Reprinted with consent of Brooks Permissions.

Raymond Carver, “Late Fragment,” originally published in
A New Path to the Waterfall
, currently collected in
A New Path to the Waterfall
and
All of Us: The Collected Poems
. Copyright © 1989 by Raymond Carver. Reprinted by permission of Grove/Atlantic, used in audiobooks and in ebooks in the UK with permission of The Wylie Agency LLC and in ebooks in the US with permission of Random house, Inc. Published by Harvill in the UK and reprinted by permission of The Random House Group Ltd.

Rosemary Catacalos, “Crocheted Bag.” Used by permission of Rosemary Catacalos.

C. P. Cavafy, “As Much As You Can” and “Ithaka” from
C. P. Cavafy
, © 1975 by Edmund Keeley and Phili Sherrard. Reprinted by permission from Princeton University Press.

Amy Clampitt, “The Smaller Orchid” from
The Collected Poems of Amy Clampitt
. Copyright © 1997 by the Estate of Amy Clampitt. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.

Lucille Clifton, “lumpectomy eve” from
The Terrible Stories.
Copyright © 1996 by Lucille Clifton. Reprinted with the permission of BOA Editions, Ltd., www.boaeditions.org and Curtis Brown Ltd.

Lucille Clifton, “blessing the boats” and “to my last period” from
Quilting: Poems 1987-1990.
Copyright © 1991 by Lucille Clifton. Reprinted with the permission of BOA Editions, Ltd., www.boaeditions.org.

Wendy Cope, “From June to December” from
Two Cures for Love
. Reprinted by permission of United Artists on behalf of Wendy Cope and Faber & Faber Ltd.

Gregory Corso, “Marriage,” from
The Happy Birthday of Death
, copyright © 1960 by New Directions Publishing Corp. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

E. E. Cummings, “may I feel said he.” Copyright 1935, © 1963, 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust. Copyright © 1978 by George James Firmage, “i carry your heart with me(i carry it in.” Copyright 1952, © 1980, 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust, “if there are any heavens my mother will(all by herself)have.” Copyright 1931, © 1959, 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust. Copyright © 1979 by George James Firmage, from
Complete Poems: 1904-1962
by E. E. Cummings, edited by George J. Firmage. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.

Dick Davis, “6 A.M. Thoughts” from
Devices and Desires: New and Selected Poems 1967–1987
, Published by Anvil Press Poetry in 1989.

Emily Dickinson, “My life closed twice before its close,” “Wild Nights—Wild Nights!”, “I stepped from plank to plank,” and “The Bustle in a House,” reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of Amherst College from
The Poems of Emily Dickinson, Variorum Edition
, edited by Ralph W. Franklin, Cambridge, Mass. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1998 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Copyright © 1951, 1955, 1979, 1983 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Hilda Doolittle (HD), “Never More Will the Wind” from
Collected Poems
. (Carcanet Press, 1984.) Copyright 1925 Hilda Doolittle. Reprinted by permission of Carcanet Press Limited.

Rita Dove, “Chocolate,” from
American Smooth
. Copyright © 2004 by Rita Dove. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Euripides, “The Bacchae Chorus” from
Euripides, Complete Greek Tragedies Euripides V
, translated by William Arrowsmith. Copyright © 1959 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission from University of Chicago Press.

Gavin Ewart, “To Margo.” Reprinted with permission of Margo Ewart.

Robert Frost, “A Minor Bird,” from
The Poetry of Robert Frost
, edited by Edward Connery Lathem. Copyright 1928, 1969 by Henry Holt and Company. Copyright 1956 by Robert Frost. Reprinted by permission of Henry Holt and Company, LLC.

Deborah Garrison, “Worked Late on a Tuesday Night.” Copyright © 1998 by Deborah Garrison, from
A Working Girl Can't Win and Other Poems
by Deborah Garrison. Used by permission of Random House, Inc.

Nikki Giovanni, “A Poem of Friendship” from
Love Poems
. Copyright © 1968-1997 by Nikki Giovanni. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Louise Glück, “August” and “Summer at the Beach” from
The Seven Ages
. Copyright © 2001 by Louise Glück. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Used in audiobooks and the UK with permission of The Wylie Agency LLC.

Oliver St. John Gogarty, “To Death” Reprinted by permission of Colin Smythe Ltd, on behalf of V. J. O'Mara.

Thomas Gunn, “Jamesian” from
Collected Poems
. Copyright © 1994 by Thomas Gunn. Reprinted by permission of Farrar Straus & Giroux, LLC. and Faber & Faber Ltd.

Ellen Hagan, “PS Education” and “Puberty—With Capital Letters.” Reprinted with the permission of the author.

Seamus Heaney, “When all the others were away at Mass . . .” from “Clearances” from
Opened Ground: Selected Poems, 1966-1996
. Copyright © 1998 by Seamus Heaney. Reprinted with the permission of Farrar Straus & Giroux, LLC. and Faber & Faber Ltd.

Joy Harjo, “Eagle Poem” from
In Mad Love and War
© 1990 by Joy Harjo. Reprinted with permission of Wesleyan University Press.

Nazim Hikmet, “24th September 1945” from
Nazim Hikmet: Beyond the Walls, Selected Poems
, translated by Ruth Christie, Richard McKane, and Talat Sait Halman. Published by Anvil Press Poetry in 2002.

Nazim Hikmet, “Letter From My Wife” from
Poems of Nazim Hikmet
, translated by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk. Translation copyright © 1994, 2002 by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk. Reprinted by permission of Persea Books, Inc., New York.

Linda Hull, “Night Waitress” from
Collected Poems.
Copyright © 1986 by Lynda Hull. Reprinted with the permission of Graywolf Press. Minneapolis, Minnesota, www.graywolfpress.org.

Langston Hughes, “Madam and Her Madam” from
The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes
, edited by Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel, Associate Editor, copyright © 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes. Used by Permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. and Harold Ober Associates Incorporated.

Elizabeth Jennings, “Old Woman” from
Collected Poems
. Reprinted by permission of the author and Faber and Faber Publishing Co.

Parneshia Jones, “Bra Shopping.” Used by permission of the author.

Galway Kinnell, “After Making Love We Hear Footsteps” from
Mortal Acts, Mortal Words
. Copyright © 1980, and renewed 2008 by Galway Kinnell. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Galway Kinnell, “When One Has Lived a Long Time Alone” from
When One Has Lived A Long Time Alone
, copyright © 1990 by Galway Kinnell. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.

Patricia Kirkpatrick, “At the Café” from
Century's Road
. Copyright © 2004 by Patricia Kirkpatrick. Reprinted with the permission of Holy Cow! Press, www.holycowpress.org.

Steve Kowit, “When He Pressed His Lips” and “Cosmetics Do No Good.” Copyright © 2003 Steve Kowit. Reprinted by permission of the author.

Maxine Kumin, “Death, Etc.” from
Still to Mow
. Copyright © 2007 by Maxine Kumin. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. and The Anderson Literary Agency.

Lao Tzu, “All Things Pass” adapted by Timothy Leary from
Psychedelic Prayers and Other Meditations
by Timothy Leary. Copyright © 1966, by Timothy Leary, PhD., 1997 by Futique Trust. Reprinted by permission of Ronin Publishing, Berkeley, CA. www.ronipub.com.

David Lehman, “May 2.” Copyright © 2000 by David Lehman. Reprinted by permission from
The Daily Mirror
by David Lehman (Scribner, 2000).

Denise Levertov, “Living” from
Poems 1960-1967
, copyright © 1966 Denise Levertov. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

Li Po, “Zazen on Ching-t'ing Mountain,” translated by Sam Hamill, from
Crossing the Yellow River: Three Hundred Poems from the Chinese
(Rochester: BOA Editions, 2000). Copyright © 2000 by Sam Hamill. Reprinted with the permission of the translator.

Amy Lowell, “The Weather-Cock Points South,” “Patterns,” and “September, 1918” from
The Complete Political Works of Amy Lowell
. Copyright © 1955 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Copyright © renewed 1983 by Houghton Mifflin Company, Britton P. Roberts, and G. D'Andelot Belin, Esquire. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Robert Lowell, “
To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage
” from
Collected Poems
. Copyright © 2003 by by Harriett Lowell and Sheridan Lowell. Reprinted by permission of Farrar Straus & Giroux, LLC.

Antonio Machado, excerpt from “Proverbs and Song Verse” from Poem 40 and “Don't try to rush things” from Poem 41 from
Antonio Machado: Selected Poems
, translated by Alan S. Trueblood, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1982 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.

Osip Mandelstam, “Youth.” W. S. Merwin's English-language translation of “Youth” by Osip Mandelstam. Copyright © W. S. Merwin, used with permission of The Wylie Agency LLC.

Leo Marks, “Code Poem for the French Resistance” from
Between Silk And Cyanide: A Codemaker's War 1941-1945
. Copyright © 1998 by Leo Marks. Reprinted with the permission of Free Press, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. and The History Press. All rights reserved.

Bernadette Mayer, “On Gifts for Grace” from
Scarlet Tanager.
Copyright © 2005 by Bernadette Mayer. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

Jo McDougall, “Companion.” Reprinted by permission of 2Rivers (www.2rivers.org).

Roger McGOUGH, “Survivor” from
Holiday on Death Row
(© Roger McGOUGH 1979) is used with permission of United Agents (www.unitedagents.co.uk) on behalf of Roger McGOUGH.

Roger McGOUGH, extract from
Summer with Monika
(© Roger McGOUGH 1967) is used with permission of United Agents (www.unitedagents.co.uk) and PFD on behalf of Roger McGOUGH.

W. S. Merwin, “To Paula in Late Spring” from
The Shadow of Sirius
. Copyright © 2009 by W. S. Merwin. Reprinted with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, www.coppercanyonpress.org, and Bloodaxe Books. Used in audiobooks and ebooks outside the US with permission of The Wylie Agency LLC.