Nancy Price
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SELECTED PUBLISHED POETRY From TRIO FOR TWO VOICES AND A MOON, Poetry and illustrations by Nancy Price The Dowagers d'Oro Aging Venetian palaces take sun along the Grand Canal, old ladies faintly scandalous in gemmed ogival necklaces. Too wise to publish their memoirs, retired from ball and bacchanal, they bask in Adriatic wealth of merchants, doges, emperors, and try to guard their corridors from Neptune' s old, familiar stealth. Immortal, mumbling to himself, all night he tries their crumbling doors. Hackberry Bark sags in folds from the crotches down to where the roots begin, secret1y, deliberately, to suck water out from under the lawn. Children know how the knotholes seem to shift sometimes. (Do gnarled sockets darken when we walk between it and the young pear?) Our living room is dark. We wish the tree weren't there. It's alive with ants; brisk birds creep upside down on its hide all day, grooming. Twenty feet up, squirrels, grubs, beetles hang with thick shade over us, a ceiling, (tiny breaths, droppings). One dead limb creaks just over our bench. Wasps dive sizzling from it. Green leaves fall near us. It's alive. It never seems to sleep; we hear how it tests its tether out there, restlessly. All night long it rubs against the roof. We think it remembers old years before we were born. It' s killing the grass. We talk in bed about chain saws, ropes, danger. We take care not to be heard: it's awake. Cornered Eye By sidewise light in the eye's crook something shimmered like thin ice. A flicked lash showed her a forked look like a precipice. She nearly saw how it waits in him. She barely sensed how the danger lies coiled somewhere on the narrow rim of his half-met eyes. Though she is frozen too cold to cry, too charmed for battle, too fond for flight, she mounts her guard in a cornered eye in a sidewise light. Out of Love: The Break Cool at last, she has no fever to make trees waver over her as if she were a fire; no gardens wilt into her arms. Once she felt sun lie hot on her skin, and a whole clover field crowd in, fresh and common as desire. Now every tree is still as a church spire. Gardens are only flowers. Ripe clover flushes pink and white, sways over to nothing but the wind passing. Sun, touching her, does not feel like anyone. A Do-it-yourself Poem In Colorado once, Iowans, farm-hungry, scooped up that western dirt in their callused hands. It was crumbling and richly black. They staked claim, out-waited the winter, waited out the summer, and almost starved. They had the seed; they had the plows and the prayers and the babies coming, yes, and the strong arms and the willing backs. What were they waiting for? Rain. That was all. And it never came, and never would. Now, you go on, like they did: say, "That's life." Make your own metaphor. How Do You Tell An Arrowhead From A Stone? By the way rock takes on meaning. Not much. Enough to bind a shaft to. Arrowheads are stone, most1y, but a glint of light, an edge always runs to a point along the grain until you feel as much as see a wedge of flint like a poem, rough-cut to go straight. In the Water World In the water world when a fish swims not quite plumb his gold friends are first to notice the way he is listing. They tail him to give him some friendly nips, follow him around and around. Someday you may miss him, then notice that he has come sidewise or bottom-up to the brim of bis water world, turning a slow gray and watching you with little black spots that swim under glass like puzzle-games children play. Until the game is up, friends stay away. But when he drifts back, shimmering and dim, They come around, solicitous, and eat him. Landmark A water tower to stand for monumental thirst straddles our graveyard, bears the town's name and brims with iron-red hard water, a toast held up to common things we die without. Across the flat land we see that landmark first when we turn homeward, come to lie down under that lifted cup. Harbor I catch myself drifting toward love yet. When I am tired, hours seem to be lifting me into an old harbor. I forget the tide is out now, foam breaking on reefs. On black water, the hissing shelf of the last wave shoreward, waking, I catch myself.  From TRIO FOR TWO VOICES AND A MOON, Poetry and illustrations by Nancy Price Safety Pins Gross-skulled, they grip their papers tight, sent from the factory in rows without expression. Safety is their name, but holes are their trade, and holding. They will hold forever, if necessary, while tears widen around them, until metal glints from some obscure corner, and there they lie in their rust: empty helmets safely pinning ruin together. Trick or Treat The ghost is a torn sheet, the skeleton' s suit came from a rack in a store, the witch is flameproof, but who knows what dark streets they have taken here? Brother Death, here is a candy bar. For the lady wearing the hat from Salem: gum. And a penny for each eye, Lost Soul. They fade away with their heavy sacks. Thanks! I yell just in time, Thanks for another year! Stained Glass From the day side you are pot-metal, no more than crosshatch and stipple of dull planes propped by iron bars to the downpour punishment of the rains. You are old wounds, bits of bubble and streak, scabbed crust of lichen and heat grooves, cobwebs, soldering, leads that leak-- but turn your face to me and the sun moves by grace of your red scars; your blues lock the sky in place, a shelter. I forget in such light how the mullions crack and pock, how north wind buckles the leads yet, how your iron bleeds down the rock. Getting the Picture Holding her naked child, she squats beyond words. Columns of newsprint break ranks at her, go around. She is young as old madonnas, foreign like them, but her skin is bone-tight, her bare feet wrung tight to the tramped-down dirt she seems to be trying to get into. She cries something we can’t hear; her eyes glitter and her baby dangles until her howl, life-size, is a black hole eating outward like napalm, until too close, she draws past, blows up. Words are huge on the page, but machines have arranged ink dots in a cloud where a woman was. The Aerialists High-wire clowns catch us in cunning laughter. X marks the spotlit aerie where they stare down, teetering, crawling on all fours after, bicycling backward along the air. Such bliss is painted upon their faces. Like children pratfalling overhead, they make nursery floors of high places. Almost, almost we lose our dread… stripped of disguise, sleek on a glittering thread, their grace bows, riding our stunned applause, and there’s no net below. There never was. To An Historian By sea light picture a skin diver flippering the ooze of an ocean floor, the prodigal returned, a sole survivor thought drowned millenniums before. He swims back out of the certain death of unplumbed air, dazzle and thunder; strapped at his back he wears his chambered breath; the fraíl shell of his skull crawls with a wonder. Queer fish--see how he stands cold to the lure of the maternal, circling sea, for he's found two Greek amphorae from some old beautiful world of his. Triumphantly, he dives airward, leaving the sea behind to grope for him at the shore's edge. Man is blind to any past but the past he wants to find. Sarah If grief existed, heaps of dirty clothes existed too. She wore grief smooth and thin and docile as old linen. Worry rose yeasty but useful, could be kneaded in to serve her. She knew how to keep her dread scoured to the bare board fact. Make do, make do her gnarled hands told us, but those glittering eyes she skewered life with--what was it they said? I knew her old, threatened with deadly new dangers oí rest and peace. Without surprise, she made good use of joy. When pleasure came, she called it by its spare and proper name. Seven A.M. We find our way back, one by one, to the coffee pot and the braided rug, one by one out of the dark to our kitchen light, a pitcher of milk, the bone-handled knife in the honey. No one screams, holding me. No one cries that the children are all here. The table is set again for us. 1 stand and stare at the cold water falling, as promised, out of this tap. |
BOOKS IN WHICH POEMS HAVE BEEN REPRINTED: MODERN POETS, BRITISH AND AMERICAN, Pflaum, 1966. THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK OF VERSE, Macmillan, 1970. THE DIAMOND ANTHOLOGY, Poetry Society of America, A.S. Barnes, 1971. ANTHOLOGY, Poetry Society of Georgia, 1972. BELIEVE AND MKE-BELIEVE, Sheldon Basic Reading Series, Allyn and Bacon, 1973. INTERPRETING LITERATURE, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, various editions 1965-1974. A CELEBRATION OF CATS, Paul S. Eriksson, 1974. OUT OF THIS WORLD, POEMS FROM THE HAWKEYE STATE, Iowa State University Press, 1975. I HEAR MY SISTERS SAYING, Crowell, 1976. PUBLISHED POEMS: "The Aerialists." THE REPORTER, March 28, 1963. "Ballad of Monkey Ward." SEVEN (U.N.I.), November 11, 1963. "The Bear." THE NEW YORK TIMES, July 6, 1965. "The Bell." LADIES' HOME JOURNAL, December 1966. "Books." THE HORN BOOK MAGAZINE, February 1966. "The Breakers." THE NEW YORK TIMES, July 29, 1970. "By the Docks, Nassau." THE REPORTER, March 9, 1967. "The Cardinals." AMERICA, February 19, 1966. "Cassandra and the Double-decked Doom." THE ATLANTIC, May 1963. "Centennial of Shiloh." MIDWEST, A LITERARY REVIEW, Spring 1964. "Chartres." MIDWEST, A LITERARY REVIEW, Fall, 1987. "Checkmate." THE NEW YORK TIMES, December 23, 1963. "Chicken." MIDWEST, A LITERARY REVIEW, Spring 1964. "Children On the Swings." THE NEW YORK TIMES, September 3, 1966. "Childbirth." THE BLUE GUITAR (Italy). "Childhood." THE BLUE GUITAR (Italy). "Christmas Letter To a Friend on Mars." THE REPORTER, December 15, 1966. "The Churchgoers." THE COMMONWEAL, February 21, 1964. "City Child." THE COLORADO QUARTERLY, Autumn 1964. "The Climber." THE NEW YORK TIMES, January 11, 1968. "The Common Emperor." THE COMMONWEAL, May 14, 1965. "Corn." AMERICA, July 20, 1968. "Cornered Eye." AUDIENCE, Spring 1963. "Corn Field." KANSAS QUARTERLY, Spring 1970. "The Cup." THE NATION, May 2, 1966. "Day Lily." THE COMMONWEAL, October 27, 1967. "Day1ily." TODAY, March 1967. "Diamond." QUARTERLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE, Winter 1970-71. "The Drinkers." THE NATION, October 23, 1967. "A Do-it-yourself Poem." POETRY NORTHWEST, Spring 1970. "The Dowagers D'Oro." HARPER'S BAZAAR, April 1964. "Duet." AMERICA, April 19, 1973. "Eclipse." KAYAK, January 1968. "Eclipse of the Sun." TODAY, March 1967. "Exercise." THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, March 28, 1963. "Exhibit." THE BLUE GUITAR (Italy). "Express From the North." AMERICA, October 29, 1966. "Flight." THE REPORTER, December 15, 1966. "For John." THE MIDWEST QUARTERLY, Fall 1957. "From the Catacombs." MIDWEST, A LITERARY REVIEW, Spring 1964. "Getting the Picture." THE NATION, November 11, 1968. "Girl On a Subway." THE MIDWEST QUARTERLY, Fall 1957. "Go Rest You Merry Garbagemen." TODAY, January 1966. "Greenhouse." THE COMMONWEAL; August 19, 1966. "The Grinder." THE NEW YORK TIMES, January 10, 1966. "Guitar." QUARTERLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE, Winter 1970-71. "Hackberry." THE NATION, November 10, 1969. "Harbor." KANSAS QUARTERLY, Winter 1970-71. Reprinted in I HEAR MY SISTERS SAYING: POEMS BY TWENTIETH CENTURY WOMEN, New York, Crowell, 1976. "Hideouts." KAYAK, January 1968. "Home Movie." THE COLORADO QUARTERLY, Autumn 1964. "Home Place." IOWA ARTS COUNCIL NEWSLETTER, 1968. "Home Safe." KANSAS MAGAZINE, Winter 1967-68. "How Do You Tell An Arrowhead From A Stone?" KAYAK, January 1968. "In Cooling Love Like Air." LADIES' HOME JOURNAL, November 1965. "Intersection." THE REPORTER, April 7, 1966. "In the Water World." NEW YORK TIMES, June 4, 1966. "In This Same Country." AMERICA, December 24-31, 1966. "Jay." THE MIDWEST QUARTERLY (U.N.I.), Summer 1968. "Ju1iet." THE HUSK (Cornell College), October 1963. "Kensington Church Street, London." McCALL'S, August 1967. "The Knife Thrower." McCALL'S, September 1967, p. 139. "Look, See the Cat." THE NEW YORK TIMES, February 24, 1964. "Love." THE BLUE GUITAR (Italy). "Love Is Not A Sentiment Worthy of Respect." SHENANDOAH, Autumn 1969. "Man and Dog." KANSAS QUARTERLY, Winter 1968. "Maple Fools, Miser Oaks." THE ATLANTIC, October 1966, p. 78. "Marionette Show." MIDWEST, A LITERARY REVIEW, Spring 1964. "Midstream." THE COMMONWEAL, September 26, 1969. "Milk and Honey." BELOIT POETRY JOURNAL, Spring 1963. "Milkweed." THE COMMONWEAL, March 24, 1967. "Naming the Bones." THE REPORTER, May 20, 1965. "Nassau and Back. Casino, Grand Bahama." KANSAS QUARTERLY, Winter 1971-72. "A Needle." KAYAK, Spring 1970. "Night Train." THE MIDWEST QUARTERLY, Summer 1969. "Novice." SEVEN (U.N.I.), Fall 1964. "0ld House." THE QUARTERLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE, Winter 1970-71. "Oliver Wendell Holmes." THE NEW YORK TIMES, October 3, 1963. "Roman Arch At Orange." THE NEW YORK TIMES, August 3, 1964. "The Refugees." AMERICA, December 20, 1969. "Safetypins." KAYAK, Spring 1970. "Sandal." THE REPORTER, June 16, 1966. "Sarah." THE COMMONWEAL, December 4, 1964. "Scissors." KAYAK, January 1968. "Seven A.M." AMERICA, October 5, 1968. "Something." KAYAK, Number 18, 1969. "Soursop." SATURDAY REVIEW, May 7, 1966. "Sparklers.” TODAY, March 1967. "The Spinner." NORTHWEST REVIEW, Fall-Winter 1967-68. "Spiritual." MIDWEST, A LITERARY REVIEW, Spring 1964. "The Squirrel.” THE HORN BOOK MAGAZINE, October 1967. "Stained Glass." SATURDAY REVIEW, October 24, 1964. Also printed in STAINED GLASS, The Magazine of the Stained Glass Association of America, Winter 1966-67. "Street." THE REPORTER, March 9, 1967. "The Sum of Christmas." McCALL'S, December 1963. "The Ten-toed Signature." THE ATLANTIC, February 1965. "Tides." THE REPORTER, March 9, 1967. "Tintype" (renamed "Keepsake"). THE COMMONWEAL, January 8, 1971. "To An Eng1ish Professor." THE MIDWEST QUARTERLY, Spring 1959. "To An Historian.” THE NEW YORK TIMES, April 14, 1964. "Trick Or Treat." THE ATLANTIC, November 1967. "The Ug1y Kiteling." SEVEN, Fall 1965. "The Umbrella." THE COLORADO QUARTERLY, Autumn 1964. "Ventriloquist's Wife." SHENANDOAH, Summer 1967. "Villanelle." (“Along the beach's narrow, shifting floor"), THE NEW YORK TIMES, December 14, 1969. "What Is." KAYAK, Spring 1969. "What Spring Is For." CHILDREN OF THE MOON, Ragnarok Press, Valha11a 2, Sioux City, Iowa, Spring 1973. "Woman With Mango." KANSAS MAGAZINE, Winter 1967-68. "Word-eater." ETC., A REVIEW OF GENERAL SEMANTICS, December 1966. |
