Editor's Note
Noir Cacadou, or The Fatal Music of War p. 1
A Doppelganger p. 3
Poem (Green things are flowers too) p. 5
Entombment p. 6
A Slow Poem p. 7
In Gratitude to Masters p. 8
Poem (Suppose that grey tree, so nude) p. 9
Poem (Poised and cheerful the) p. 10
Song (I'm going to New York!) p. 11
A Pathetic Note p. 12
Poem (Just as I leave the theatre) p. 13
Windows p. 14
A Byzantine Place p. 15
Lines Across the United States p. 18
An Epilogue: To the Players of Try! Try! p. 19
Poem (I can't wait for spring!) p. 21
Poem (This vessel I've chosen) p. 22
Voyage a Paris p. 23
A Party Full of Friends p. 24
A Curse p. 26
A Portrait p. 27
Mr. O'Hara's Sunday Morning Service p. 29
The Soldier p. 31
Parties p. 32
[In the street of children the sun is cold] p. 33
Form and Utterance p. 34
Round Objects p. 35
Sky Rhymes p. 36
The Air and Sex of Early Day p. 37
A Virtuoso p. 38
A Classical Last Act p. 39
The Ideal Bar p. 40
The Painter's Son p. 41
A Military Ball p. 42
Poem ("Green oboes!" the parrot cries,) p. 43
Serenade (Starlings are singing) p. 44
Vernissage Jane Freilicher p. 45
Shelter p. 46
Schoenberg p. 47
[It is a weak cold morning and I roll] p. 47
Poem (The tough newspaper boy will wear) p. 48
On a Friend's Being Insulted p. 49
To Dick p. 50
The Puritan p. 51
A Romantic Poet to His Muse p. 52
A Greek Girl at Riis Beach p. 53
Poets up in the Air p. 54
[I walk through the rain] p. 55
Chanty p. 56
Grace and George, An Eclogue p. 57
It's the Blue p. 61
Jacob Wrestling p. 64
Poem (Rat's nest, at home bungling, up) p. 65
A Darkened Palette p. 66
Poem ("It's only me knocking on the door") p. 67
The Beach in April p. 68
A Wind at Night p. 69
Prose for the Times p. 70
[Tent-digging on the vacant lakes we appled] p. 71
Maurice Ravel p. 72
"Red" p. 73
Serenade (This night this forest) p. 74
A Sunday Supplement p. 75
Kra Kra p. 77
A Protestant Saint p. 79
What Sledgehammer? or W. C. Williams's Been Attacked! p. 80
Latinus p. 81
The War p. 82
The Builders p. 83
[With the minute intentions of a boa heroic constrictor] p. 84
Changing Your Ways p. 85
Study of Women on the Beach 2 p. 85
Poem (The rich cubicle's enclosure) p. 86
August Afternoon, A Collage p. 87
[The azure waves grumble and languish] p. 88
[Fish smells in the hallway] p. 89
Poem About Jane p. 89
[Rooftops blocks away from me] p. 90
A Birthday p. 91
[Of all community of mind and heart] p. 92
A Wreath for John Wheelwright p. 93
[See the tents and the tanks and the trees of March!] p. 95
Intermezzo p. 96
[My country, leafy and blue with infinite breaths] p. 99
Clouds p. 100
Causerie de Gaspe Peninsula p. 101
St. Simeon p. 102
Light Cavalry p. 103
Addict-Love p. 105
[En route to the burial in Long Island] p. 107
Perfumes p. 108
[Lace at your breast] p. 109
Joseph p. 110
Spleen p. 111
Forest Divers p. 112
The Weekend p. 113
The Lights Over the Door p. 114
Bridlepath p. 117
Indian Diary p. 118
"Light Conversation" p. 119
Southern Villages, A Sestina p. 120
Green Words, A Sestina p. 122
Tschaikovskiana p. 124
Palisades p. 125
Bill's Body Shop p. 126
A Little on His Recentness p. 127
[There's such an I love you!] p. 128
Poem (Water flow strongly O clouds) p. 128
Dear Bobby p. 129
To Bobby p. 130
[So the spirit of music, the cascades!] p. 131
Sonnet (O at last the towers!) p. 131
[A face over a book] p. 132
[Into the valley they go] p. 133
[She hefted her leg onto the table and] p. 133
On a Back Issue of Accent p. 134
The Last Day of the Zoo p. 134
To the Meadow p. 137
Benjamin Franklin, or Isadora Duncan p. 138
Augustus p. 139
Poem (The paralysis of power and ease) p. 139
The Mike Goldberg Variations p. 140
Room p. 141
[Dumb urns in syncamore temples] p. 142
Lexington Avenue, An Eclogue p. 143
[In the pearly green light] p. 146
Poem (Here we are again together) p. 147
[Pussywillows! Oh you're still here,] p. 148
Movie Cantata p. 149
[O resplendent green sea! I slowly pierce] p. 150
[Five sobs lined up on the doorstep] p. 151
Epigram for Joe p. 151
Ode (I don't eat wheat) p. 152
Jackie (After John Gower) p. 153
[The brittle moment comes] p. 158
[On the world's first evening] p. 158
F# p. 159
[Now It Seems Far Away and Gentle] p. 160
Corresponding Foreignly p. 161
Song (J'arrive au casserole at je casse une croute) p. 163
Bagatelle, or The Importance of Being Larry and Frank p. 164
Pitcher p. 165
Collected Proses, An Answer p. 166
Une Journee de Juillet p. 171
[Dusk. Dawn. The land. An albatross thinks of Spain.] p. 172
Attacca p. 172
Chopiniana p. 173
[She, has she bathed in sound] p. 174
[It is 1:55 in Cambridge, pale and spring cool,] p. 175
To John Ashbery on Szymanowski's Birthday p. 176
Poem (Flower! you are like synthetic feelings,) p. 177
Un Chant Contre Paroles p. 178
[And leaving in a great smoky fury] p. 179
[Three Parodies] p. 180
Episode p. 182
The Stars p. 185
Springtemps p. 187
To Ned p. 188
Platinum, Watching TV, Etc. p. 189
[There's nothing more beautiful] p. 190
[Have you ever wanted] p. 191
Fou-rire p. 192
Two Poems and a Half p. 192
Callas and a Photograph of Gregory Corso p. 193
To Violet Lang p. 194
Poem (I could die) p. 194
University Place p. 195
[It is 4:19 in Pennsylvania Station] p. 196
Maria Kurenko (Rachmaninoff Sings) p. 197
[Why is David Randolph such a jerk] p. 197
Kein Traum p. 198
[On the vast highway] p. 199
Poem ("We'll probably pay for it in August" the radio says) p. 200
Poem (You do not always seem to be able to decide) p. 200
Old Copies of Life Magazine p. 201
"Chez William Kramps" p. 202
Young Girl in Pursuit of Lorca p. 203
[How wonderful it is that the Park Avenue Viaduct is being rehabilitated] p. 204
A Trip to the Zoo p. 205
Dear Vincent p. 206
[The fondest dream of] p. 206
What Happened to "The Elephant Is at the Door" p. 207
After a Meeting of The 2nd Coming p. 208
Poem During Poulenc's Gloria p. 209
The Trout Quintet p. 210
F.Y.I. #371 (The Nun) p. 212
F.Y.I. #371a (Haiku Day for the Nuns) p. 213
F.Y.I. #371b (Parallel Forces Excerpted) p. 214
Le Domaine Musical p. 214
[Like a barbershop that's closed on Saturday, me heart] p. 216
Off the Kerb and After Emily Dickinson p. 216
Shooting the Shit Again p. 217
[How poecile and endearing is the Porch] p. 217
Conglomerations in the Snow of Christmas Eve 1961 p. 218
Un Homme Respectueux p. 219
Le Boeuf sur le Toit p. 220
My Day p. 221
[I will always remember] p. 222
Poem (Hoopla! yah yah yah) p. 223
Poem (It's faster if you late but may never occur) p. 223
To Lotte Lenya p. 224
Lawrence p. 225
Song (I ate out your heart) p. 226
Pedantry p. 227
Poem (In that red) p. 227
[What strange cataract the peculiar] p. 228
[The ancient ache, quick false move] p. 228
Poem (lost lost) p. 230
[I know that you try even harder than I] p. 231
[Not to confirm dolors with a wild laugh] p. 232
[Long as the street becomes] p. 233
[Just as I am not sure where everything is going] p. 234
[Why are there flies on the floor] p. 235
Notes on the Poems p. 237
Index of Titles and First Lines p. 245