The Poets of New Jersey
~ From Colonial to Contemporary ~

Edited by Emanuel di Pasquale, Frank Finale, and Sander Zulauf

Contents

FOREWORD ix

by Stephen Dunn

INTRODUCTION xi

by X. J. Kennedy

EDITORIAL NOTE xv

by Emanuel di Pasquale, Frank Finale, and Sander Zulauf

PHILIP FRENEAU 1

The Indian Burying Ground 1

The Wild Honey Suckle 3

WALT WHITMAN 4

from Song of Myself

1, 6, 31, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52 4

Roaming in Thought 13

A Farm Picture 13

A Child's Amaze 13

The Runner 13

Beautiful Women 14

Mother and Babe 14

Thought 14

Visor'd 14

Thought 15

A Noiseless Patient Spider 15

from Fancies at Navesink:

Had I the Choice 16

Locusts and Katydids 17

STEPHEN CRANE 18

from The Black Riders

III 18

from Intrigue

X 19

from War Is Kind

XXI 19

from The Black Riders

XXIV 20

WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS 21

To Waken an Old Lady 21

Spring and All 22

The Dance 23

Danse Russe 24

ELINOR WYLIE 25

The Puritan's Ballad 25

JOYCE KILMER 28

Trees 28

MARIANNE MOORE 29

The Fish 29

Poetry 31

DOROTHY PARKER 33

Resume 33

News Item 33

LOUIS GINSBERG 34

Song 34

KENNETH BURKE 35

Poems of Abandonment 35

The Wrens 37

JOHN CIARDI 38

The Catalpa 38

THEODORE WEISS 39

The Fire at Alexandria 39

RICHARD WILBUR 41

Jorge Guillen: The Horses 41

Advice to a Prophet 42

Love Calls Us to the Things of This World 44

DENISE LEVERTOV 46

The Ache of Marriage 46

O Taste and See 47

Mad Song 48

GERALDINE CLINTON LITTLE 49

Creek Rites 49

GERALD STERN 51

The Dancing 51

Lucky Life 52

On the Island 54

MAXINE KUMIN 56

How It Goes On 56

A. R. AMMONS 58

Gravelly Run 58

Motion Which Disestablishes Organizes Everything 60

ALLEN GINSBERG 63

A Supermarket in California 63

To Aunt Rose 65

W. S. MERWIN 67

Leviathan 67

The Drunk in the Furnace 69

Fog-horn 70

JEAN HOLLANDER 71

End of Memory 71

X. J. KENNEDY 72

In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus One Day 72

Five-and-Dime, Late Thirties 74

For Allen Ginsberg 76

GLORIA ROVDER HEALY 77

The Power and the Glory 77

AMIRI BARAKA 79

Monk's World 79

Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note 81

MADELINE TIGER 82

Learning to Read Sky 82

Bird Song 84

ROBERT BENSE 86

Halflife of the Finite 86

BOB McKENTY 88

First Fruit 88

The Lamb 88

The Lion 89

Mystery 89

Uneasy Lies the Tooth That Needs a Crown 89

D. E. STEWARD 90

Octubre 90

C. K. WILLIAMS 95

Invisible Mending 95

Night 97

GRACE CAVALIERI 100

The Perfect Day 100

Blue-Green Spirit 102

A Classic Epic Begins 103

ALICIA OSTRIKER 104

The Nature of Beauty 104

Middle-Aged Woman at a Pond 106

LAURA BOSS 107

Airborne: Listening to the Reports of JFK Jr.'s Plane Missing After Leaving Caldwell Airport 107

JOYCE CAROL OATES 110

Sparrow Hawk above a New Jersey Cornfield 110

Night Driving 112

WILLIAM J. HIGGINSON 113

One Maple Leaf 113

Crescent Moon 113

Moonlight Glitters 113

Father Dead 113

STEPHEN DUNN 114

Achilles in Love 114

A Postmortem Guide 116

The Metaphysicians of South Jersey 118

ROBERT PINSKY 119

The Figured Wheel 119

Jersey Rain 122

MARIA MAZZIOTTI GILLAN 123

Mrs. Sinnegan's Dogwood 123

THOMAS REITER 126

Rainbarrel 126

Going into the Barrens 128

Dragonfly 129

PENNY HARTER 130

Lizard Light 130

JIM HABA 131

Yes 131

DANIELA GIOSEFFI 132

Beyond the East Gate 132

TOI DERRICOTTE 134

In Knowledge of Young Boys 134

STEPHEN DOBYNS 136

The Gardener 136

LOIS MARIE HARROD 139

Horseshoe Crabs 139

The Mist 142

FRANK FINALE 143

City Girls at Seaside Heights 143

The Pond 144

Ruffed Grouse 145

EMANUEL di PASQUALE 146

Extended Memory (Sicily) 146

Always Finish with a Poem 148

Turkey Duck 149

DANIEL ZIMMERMAN 150

Last Breath 150

SANDER ZULAUF 151

Where Time Goes 151

Jersey Lightning 153

Elegy for Wally 154

CHARLES H. JOHNSON 156

A Tragedy 156

The Old West 157

YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA 158

Venus's-flytraps 158

Ambush 161

Facing It 162

JOE SALERNO 163

In the Dark 163

Moose Love 164

DAVID SHAPIRO 165

The Seasons 165

ROCHELLE RATNER 172

Person with a Mask On 172

The First Day on Feverfew 177

RENEE ASHLEY 178

Entertaining the Angel 178

For Brigit in Illinois 180

The Revisionist's Dream (I) 183

AUGUST KLEINZAHLER 184

Storm Over Hackensack 184

The Strange Hours Travelers Keep 185

JAMES RICHARDSON 186

Another End of the World 186

Anyway 187

PETER MURPHY 188

The Painters 188

The Truth 190

PAUL MULDOON 192

Why Brownlee Left 192

Hedgehog 193

Anseo 194

The Loaf 196

CATHERINE DOTY 197

“For May Is the Month of Our Mother” 197

Momentum 199

GRETNA WILKINSON 200

The Amen Corner 200

JOE WEIL 202

Bay Way, Elizabeth, Six A.M., EST 202

Morning at the Elizabeth Arch 204

RICH YOUMANS 205

Ice Storm 205

TIMOTHY LIU 207

Walking Alone at Ocean's Edge 207

Next Day 208

MATTHEW SPANO 209

March 209

Scenic 209

Unruly 209

Tropical 210

Through 210

BJ WARD 211

Roy Orbison's Last Three Notes 211

The Star-Ledger 213

Copyrights, Permissions, & Acknowledgments 215

Index 220