Contents
A Note on the Text v
How It Was: Maxine Kumin on Anne Sexton xix
To Bedlam and Part Way Back (i960) 1
You, Doctor Martin 3 Kind Sir: These Woods 4 Torn Down from Glory Daily 5 Music Swims Back to Me 6 The Bells 7 Elizabeth Gone 8 Some Foreign Letters 9 The Kite 11
Said the Poet to the Analyst 12 Venus and the Ark 13 Her Kind 15 The Exorcists 16
Where I Live in This Honorable House of the Laurel Tree
Portrait of an Old Woman on the College Tavern Wall 18
The Farmer's Wife 19
Funnel 20
The Expatriates 21
For Johnny Pole on the Forgotten Beach 22
Unknown Girl in the Maternity Ward 24
What's That 25
The Moss of His Skin 26
Hutch 27
Noon Walk on the Asylum Lawn 27 Ringing the Bells 28 Lullaby 29
The Lost Ingredient 30 The Road Back 30 The Waiting Head 31 Elegy in the Classroom 32
A Story for Rose on the Midnight Flight to Boston 32 11
For John, Who Begs Me Not to Enquire Further 34 The Double Image 35 The Division of Parts 42
All My Pretty Ones (1962)
The Truth the Dead Know 49 All My Pretty Ones 49 Young 51 Lament 52
To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Triumph 53 The Starry Night 53 Old Dwarf Heart 54 I Remember 55 The Operation 56
A Curse Against Elegies 60 The Abortion 61 With Mercy for the Greedy 62 For God While Sleeping 63 In the Deep Museum 64 Ghosts 65
The Fortress 66
Old 69
The Hangman 69 Woman with Girdle 70 The House 71 Water 75 Wallflower 76 Housewife 77 Doors, Doors, Doors 78
Letter Written on a Ferry While Crossing Long Island Sound From the Garden 84 Love Song for K. Owyne 85 Flight 86
For Eleanor Boylan Talking with God 87 The Black Art 88
Letter Written During a January Northeaster 89
Live or Die (1966)
Author's Note 94
And One for My Dame 95
The Sun 96
Flee on Your Donkey 97
Three Green Windows 105
Somewhere in Africa 106
Mother and Jack and the Rain 109
The Legend of the One-eyed Man 112
Love Song 115
Man and Wife 116
Two Sons 121
To Lose the Earth 123
Sylvia's Death 126
Protestant Easter 128
For the Year of the Insane 131
Crossing the Atlantic 133
Walking in Paris 135
Menstruation at Forty 137
Christmas Eve 139
KE 6-8018 140
Wanting to Die 142
The Wedding Night 144
Little Girl, My String Bean, My Lovely Woman
A Little Uncomplicated Hymn 148
Your Face on the Dog's Neck 152
Self in 1958 155
Suicide Note 156
In the Beach House 159
Cripples and Other Stories 160
Pain for a Daughter 163
The Addict 165
Live 167
Love Poems (1969)
The Touch 173 The Kiss 174 The Breast 175
The Interrogation of the Man of Many Hearts 1 That Day 180
In Celebration of My Uterus 181
The Nude Swim 183
Song for a Red Nightgown 184
Loving the Killer 185
For My Lover, Returning to His Wife 188
The Break 190
It Is a Spring Afternoon 193
Just Once 194
Again and Again and Again 195
You All Know the Story of the Other Woman 1
Moon Song, Woman Song 196 The Ballad of the Lonely Masturbator Barefoot 199
The Papa and Mama Dance 200
Now 201
Us 202
Mr. Mine 204
Song for a Lady 204
Knee Song 205
Eighteen Days Without You 205
Transformations (1971)
The Gold Key 223
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 2
The White Snake 229
Rumpelstiltskin 233
The Little Peasant 237
Godfather Death 242
Rapunzel 244
Iron Hans 249
Cinderella 255
One-Eye, Two-Eyes, Three-Eyes 258 The Wonderful Musician 264 Red Riding Hood 267 The Maiden Without Hands 273 The Twelve Dancing Princesses 276 The Frog Prince 281 Hansel and Gretel 286 Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty) 290
The Book of Folly (1972)
i. thirty poems
The Ambition Bird 299 The Doctor of the Heart 301 Oh 302 Sweeney 304
Mother and Daughter 305
The Wifebeater 307
The Firebombers 308
The One-Legged Man 308
The Assassin 310
Going Gone 311
Anna Who Was Mad 312
The Hex 313
Dreaming the Breasts 314
The Red Shoes 315
The Other 317
The Silence 318
The Hoarder 319
Killing the Spring 320
The Death of the Fathers 322
1. Oysters 322
2. How We Danced 323
3. The Boat 324
4. Santa 325
5. Friends 327
6. Begat 329
Angels of the Love Affair 332
1. Angel of Fire and Genitals 332
2. Angel of Clean Sheets 333
3. Angel of Flight and Sleigh Bells 333
4. Angel of Hope and Calendars 334
5. Angel of Blizzards and Blackouts 335
6. Angel of Beach Houses and Picnics 335
ii. the jesus papers
Jesus Suckles 337
Jesus Awake 338
Jesus Asleep 3 38
Jesus Raises Up the Harlot 339
Jesus Cooks 340
Jesus Summons Forth 341
Jesus Dies 342
Jesus Unborn 343
The Author of the Jesus Papers Speaks 344 xii
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