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Neil Astley 17 Introduction 1 Being Human Doris Kareva 22 from Shape of Time Anna Kamienska 23 Funny Kerry Hardie 23 Humankind Rumi 24 The Guest House Micheal O'Siadhail 25 Human Adrian Mitchell 25 Human Beings Julie O'Callaghan 27 The Sounds of Earth Raymond Queneau 28 The Human Species Vernon Scannell 29 Here and Human Ruth Stone 30 Being Human Stephen Edgar 30 Another Country Anna Swir 31 Happiness John Montague 32 To Cease Elizabeth Alexander 33 Ars Poetica #100: I Believe T.S. Eliot 34 The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Dennis O'Driscoll 38 The Vigil 2 The stuff of life Michael Blumenthal 40 What I Believe Selima Hill 41 What Do I Really Believe? Sujata Bhatt 42 What Is Worth Knowing John Burnside 43 Anniversary Bei Dao 44 The Answer Julius Chingono 45 As I Go Thomas A. Clark 46 In Praise of Walking Ruth Stone 49 Train Ride Galway Kinnell 50 The Road Between Here and There Rosemary Tonks 51 The Sofas, Fogs and Cinemas Adam Zagajewski 52 To Go to Lvov Jack Gilbert 54 A Brief for the Defense Jane Hirsh?eld 55 Burlap Sack Edip Cansever 56 Table Oktay Rifat 56 Table Laid Pablo Neruda 57 The great tablecloth David Scott 58 A Long Way from Bread Brendan Kennelly 60 Bread E.A. Markham 61 Don't Talk to Me about Bread Nikki Giovanni 62 Quilts Ruth Stone 63 Second-Hand Coat Kerry Hardie 64 Helplessness Olav H. Hauge 64 Don't Give Me the Whole Truth Izumi Shikibu 64 'Although the wind' Didem Madak 65 Sir, I Want to Write Poems with Flowers Charles Brasch 66 Winter Anemones Tracy K. Smith 67 Duende Derek Mahon 69 Thunder Shower Derek Mahon 70 Kinsale Jen Had?eld 71 Daed-traa Raymond Carver 72 Where Water Comes Together with Other Water Vona Groarke 73 The Local Accent Greta Stoddart 74 Counting Bei Dao 74 Midnight Singer Frances Leviston 74 Moon Nâzim Hikmet 76 Things I Didn't Know I Loved Linda Pastan 79 Things I Didn't Know I Loved Louis MacNeice 81 Sunlight on the Garden Peter Didsbury 81 Pastoral (after Ralf Andtbacka) John F. Deane 82 The Colours Lavinia Greenlaw 83 Blue Field Anne Stevenson 84 On Harlech Beach Rainer Maria Rilke 85 Archaic Torso of Apollo Mark Doty 85 A Green Crab's Shell Coral Bracho 87 Wasp on Water Tua Forsström 87 Amber Jane Hirsh?eld 88 The Weighing Stanley Kunitz 89 The Layers William Stafford 90 The Way It Is Fernando Pessoa 90 'To be great, be whole...' Toon Tellegen 91 I drew a line Robert Frost 91 The Armful Gregory Corso 92 The Whole Mess... Almost James Fenton 93 The Skip 3 Life history Agha Shahid Ali 96 A Lost Memory of Delhi Sharon Olds 97 I Go Back to May 1937 Anna Swir 98 Woman Unborn Thomas Lux 99 Upon Seeing an Ultrasound Photo of an Unborn Child Kate Clanchy 100 Infant Kevin Young 100 Crowning Maura Dooley 104 The Weighing of the Heart Helen Dunmore 105 All the Things You Are Not Yet Louise Glück 106 Lullaby María Negroni 107 The Baby Thomas Lux 107 A Little Tooth Kevin Grif?th 108 Spinning Naomi Shihab Nye 108 Shoulders Dan Chiasson 109 Man and Derailment Evan Jones 109 Generations Langston Hughes 110 Mother to Son Terrance Hayes 111 Mother to Son Lorna Goodison 112 I Am Becoming My Mother A.K. Ramanujan 112 Self-portrait Samuel Menashe 113 Autobiography Rebecca Edwards 113 The Mothers Catherine Smith 114 The Fathers Rita Ann Higgins 115 Grandchildren Penelope Shuttle 116 Delicious Babies Anna T. Szabó 117 She Leaves Me Linda Pastan 118 To a Daughter Leaving Home Norman MacCaig 119 Small boy Paul Farley 119 Monopoly Natasha Trethewey 120 Mythmaker Eavan Boland 121 The Pomegranate Imtiaz Dharker 123 How to Cut a Pomegranate Susan Wicks 123 Persephone Robert Wrigley 124 Moonlight: Chickens on the Road Simon Armitage 126 'My father thought it bloody queer' Anthony Lawrence 127 The Drive Robyn Rowland 128 Ausculta Molly Peacock 129 Say You Love Me Pascale Petit 131 Self Portrait with Fire Ants Carol Ann Duffy 132 We Remember Your Childhood Well A.D. Hope 132 Crossing the Frontier Nii Ayikwei Parkes 134 The Makings of You Kathleen Jamie 135 Crossing the Loch Lynda Hull 136 At Thirty Adrian Blevins 136 Life History Lucille Clifton 138 'the thirty-eighth year...' Mary Stanley 140 The Wife Speaks Donald Justice 141 Men at Forty David Campbell 141 Mothers and Daughters Patricia Beer 142 Middle Age Bernard O'Donoghue 143 Nel Mezzo del Cammin Arvind Krishna Mehrotra 143 Approaching Fifty Marie Howe 144 The World Randall Jarrell 144 The Woman at the Washington Zoo Franz Wright 145 Untitled Francesc Parcerisas 146 Shave Kwame Dawes 147 Fat Man Sharon Olds 148 Self-portrait, Rear View Elaine Feinstein 149 Getting Older Arun Kolatkar 149 An Old Woman Dom Moraes 151 from After the Operation Paul Durcan 153 Golden Mothers Driving West Elizabeth Jennings 154 Rembrandt's Late Portraits Mark Strand 155 Old Man Leaves Party W.S. Merwin 156 Still Morning Samuel Menashe 156 Salt and Pepper Jorge Luis Borges 157 In Praise of Darkness Derek Mahon 158 Ignorance (after Philippe Jaccottet) Yehuda Amichai 159 A Quiet Joy Samuel Menashe 159 Voyage Samuel Menashe 160 The Niche Salvatore Quasimodo 160 And Suddenly It's Evening Lars Gustafsson 160 The Girl 4 About time Samuel Menashe 162 The Shrine Who Shape I Am Fleur Adcock 162 Water C.D. Wright 163 Our Dust Luljeta Lleshanaku 165 Vertical Realities Elizabeth Bishop 166 In the Waiting Room Moya Cannon 168 The Train Dan Pagis 169 Ein Leben Patricia Hampl 170 This Is How Memory Works Seamus Heaney 171 A Sofa in the Forties Julia Copus 173 Raymond, at 60 Luljeta Lleshanaku 174 from Monday in Seven Days Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin 174 The Bend in the Road Luljeta Lleshanaku 175 Memory Ruth Stone 176 Memory Keith Althaus 177 Ladder of Hours Stuart Henson 177 The Price Michael Hartnett 178 The Killing of Dreams Langston Hughes 179 Harlem [2] Rodney Jones 179 Salvation Blues Jorge Luis Borges 180 Matthew XXV: 30 Francis Harvey 181 News of the World George Seferis 181 from Mythistorema Jaan Kaplinski 182 'The washing never gets done...' Yehuda Amichai 183 A Man in His Life Stewart Conn 184 Carpe Diem Emma Lew 185 Riot Eve Carole Satyamurti 185 Sathyaji Rita Dove 187 Dawn Revisited Adam Zagajewski 187 Lava Wislawa Szymborska 188 Could Have Yusef Komunyakaa 189 Thanks Philip Gross 190 Caught Iain Crichton Smith 191 Listen Louis MacNeice 192 Meeting Point Rosemary Dobson 193 The Three Fates Philip Hodgins 194 Leaving Alan Gillis 195 Progress Alice Oswald 196 The mud-spattered recollections of a woman who lived her life backwards Sheenagh Pugh 198 Pause: Rewind Vasko Popa 199 The Little Box Yehuda Amichai 199 Inside the Apple Jean Follain 200 Life Dana Gioia 201 Nothing Is Lost Toeti Heraty 201 A Woman's Portrait 1938 Thom Gunn 202 In Santa Maria del Populo Matthew Sweeney 203 Black Moon Roberto Juarroz 204 'Life draws a tree' John Glenday 205 Etching a Line of Trees Sarah Holland-Batt 206 The Art of Disappearing Rainer Maria Rilke 207 Childhood Peter Handke 208 Song of Childhood Peter Handke 210 Angels talking in Wings of Desire George Szirtes 213 Cerulean Blue: Footnote on Wim Wenders Robert Hass 214 Privilege of Being Harry Clifton 216 God in France Czeslaw Milosz 217 A Confession Adam Zagajewski 218 Fruit Wislawa Szymborska 218 A Note Christine Evans 219 Callers Nissim Ezekiel 220 Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher Henri Thomas 221 Audides Pablo Neruda 221 Keeping quiet Rumi 223 Quietness Lynne Wycherley 223 Apple Tree in Blossom Robert Frost 224 The Oven Bird Frances Horovitz 224 Flowers Denise Levertov 225 The Life Around Us Leslie Norris 226 Burning the Bracken Eeva-Liisa Manner 227 'The trees are bare...' Elizabeth Jennings 227 Song at the Beginning of Autumn Stanley Kunitz 228 The Snakes of September John Burnside 229 September Evening: Deer at Big Basin W.B. Yeats 230 The Wild Swans at Coole Samuel Menashe 231 Autumn Tess Gallagher 231 Blue Grapes Robert Frost 231 Nothing Gold Can Stay Eamon Grennan 232 A Few Facts Edwin Morgan 232 Trio John F. Deane 233 Canticle Margaret Avison 234 New Year's Poem Norman MacCaig 235 February - not everywhere Tomas Tranströmer 235 April and Silence Paula Meehan 236 Seed Esther Morgan 236 This Morning Louise Glück 237 Matins Eamon Grennan 237 What It Is Kerry Hardie 238 May Katha Pollitt 239 The Old Neighbors Derek Walcott 240 Midsummer, Tobago Norman MacCaig 240 So many summers Mark Wunderlich 241 Amaryllis (after Rilke) Louise Glück 242 Screened Porch Faustin Charles 243 Landscape Jaan Kaplinski 244 'Every dying man...' 5 Fight to the death Jane Kenyon 246 Having It Out with Melancholy Jane Kenyon 249 Back Susana Thénon 250 Nuptial Song Ravi Shankar 251 Plumbing the Deepening Grove Lucia Perillo 252 Shrike Tree Miller Williams 253 Thinking About Bill, Dead of AIDS Mark Doty 254 Faith Joan Margarit 257 Dark Night in Balmes Street Joan Margarit 258 The eyes in the rear-view mirror Joan Margarit 259 Young partridge Bill Manhire 259 Kevin Raymond Carver 260 What the Doctor Said Philip Hodgins 260 Death Who Anna Swir 262 Tomorrow They Will Carve Me Jo Shapcott 263 Procedure Nissim Ezekiel 263 Process Janet Frame 264 The Suicides Sylvia Plath 265 Fever 103° Ted Hughes 266 Fever Sylvia Plath 268 The Rabbit Catcher Ted Hughes 269 Life after Death Stanley Kunitz 271 The Portrait Ruth Stone 272 Turn Your Eyes Away Grace Paley 273 This Life Kenneth Patchen 274 I Feel Drunk All the Time Robert Wrigley 274 Heart Attack Roger McGough 275 Defying Gravity Sharon Olds 276 The Race Lawrence Sail 278 At the Bedside John Burnside 279 Marginal jottings on the prospect of dying Rebecca Elson 280 Antidote to the Fear of Death Richard Blessing 281 Directions for Dying Andrew Motion 281 The Cinder Path Marin Sorescu 282 Pure Pain Marin Sorescu 282 'What hurts the most' Marin Sorescu 283 Balance Sheet Marin Sorescu 283 A Ladder to the Sky Marin Sorescu 284 'So this is it' Patricia Pogson 284 Breath Lauris Edmond 285 The pace of change Larry Levis 285 The Morning After My Death William Matthews 286 My Father's Body Tony Harrison 288 Timer Tony Harrison 288 Marked with D. U.A. Fanthorpe 289 Only a Small Death David Constantine 290 Common and Particular Julia Kasdorf 291 What I Learned from My Mother Amjad Nasser 292 The House After Her Death Douglas Dunn 293 Dining Christopher Reid 294 from The Unfinished Norman MacCaig 297 Memorial R.S. Thomas 298 Comparisons Herman de Coninck 299 Ann Mary Jo Bang 300 Landscape with the Fall of Icarus Mary Jo Bang 301 You Were You Are Elegy Mary Jo Bang 302 Ode to History R.S. Thomas 302 No Time Ken Smith 303 Years go by Adrian Mitchell 304 Death Is Smaller Than I Thought Jackie Kay 305 Darling Susan Mitchell 305 The Dead Billy Collins 306 No Time Susan Wicks 306 Branches 6 War and survival Heather McHugh 308 What He Thought Czeslaw Milosz 310 Campo Dei Fiori W.H. Auden 312 The Fall of Rome Anthony Hecht 313 'More Light! More Light! Irena Klepfisz 314 Dedications to Bashert Paul Celan 316 Deathfugue C.K. Williams 317 Jew on Bridge Carolyn Forché 321 The Visitor Robert Hass 321 I Am Your Waiter Tonight and My Name Is Dimitri Laurie Lee 324 The Long War Miklós Radnóti 324 Letter to My Wife Paul Celan 326 Aspen Tree Ho Thien 326 The Green Beret Doug Anderson 328 Night Ambush Keith Douglas 328 How to Kill Brian Turner 329 Here, Bullet Dunya Mikhail 330 The War Works Hard Yehuda Amichai 331 The Place Where We Are Right Tatjana Lukic 332 nothing else Sarah Maguire 333 The Pomegranates of Kandahar Mourid Barghouti 334 A Night Unlike Others Brian Turner 336 16 Iraqi Policeman Mourid Barghouti 336 Silence Aharon Shabtai 337 War Ronny Someck 337 A Poem of Bliss Taha Muhammad Ali 338 Abd el-Hadi Fights a Superpower Paul Muldoon 339 Truce Alan Gould 339 A U-Boat Morning, 1914 Gillian Clarke 341 The Field-Mouse Robert Adamson 342 The Goldfinches of Baghdad Lam Thi My Da 343 Garden Fragrance Michael Coady 343 Though There Are Torturers Michael Longley 344 The Ice-Cream Man Andrew Motion 344 To Whom It May Concern Michael Longley 345 Wreaths X.J. Kennedy 346 September Twelfth, 2001 Deborah Garrison 347 I Saw You Walking Alan Smith 348 Kidding Myself in Kuta, Bali: A Pantoum Gyula Illyés 349 While the Record Plays Charles Simic 350 Fear Heberto Padilla 351 In trying times Nâzim Hikmet 352 On Living Tony Curtis 354 Soup Irina Ratushinskaya 355 I will live and survive Jack Mapanje 356 Skipping Without Ropes Priscila Uppal 357 Sorry I Forgot To Clean Up After Myself Nâzim Hikmet 358 It's This Way Else Lasker-Schüler 358 My Blue Piano David Constantine 359 Soldiering On Ernesto Cardenal 360 'For Those Dead, Our Dead...' Martín Espada 361 Sleeping on the Bus Sargon Boulus 362 News About No One Chenjerai Hove 363 You Will Forget 7 Living in hope John Hewitt 366 from Freehold Patrick Kavanagh 368 Epic Patrick Kavanagh 369 Shancoduff Liam Ó Muirthile 369 The Parlour Ikkyu 370 My real dwelling Adélia Prado 371 Denouement James Merrill 372 The Broken Home Ko Un 375 Back Home Ko Un 375 Hometown Richard Hugo 376 Degrees of Gray in Philipsburg Paul Batchelor 377 Conurbation Olav H. Hauge 378 Leaf-Huts and Snow-Houses George Oppen 379 Street Louis Simpson 379 An American Classic Jimmy Santiago Baca 380 from Poem VI Dennis O'Driscoll 382 Them and You John Ormond 383 Cathedral Builders Geoff Page 384 Grit Ali Cobby Eckermann 385 Intervention Pay Day Harry Martinson 389 Cable-ship Martín Espada 389 Imagine the Angels of Bread Nick Makoha 391 Beatitude Dunya Mikhail 392 I Was in a Hurry Nadia Anjuman 393 The Silenced Nora Nadjarian 393 Mother Tongue Partaw Naderi 394 My Voice Partaw Naderi 394 The Mirror Anne Stevenson 395 It looks so simple from a distance... Henrik Norbrandt 395 Local Stanislav Baranczak 396 A Second Nature Carol Ann Duffy 397 Foreign Farzaneh Khojandi 397 Must Escape Mohja Kahf 398 Hijab Scene #7 Karen Press 399 Application for Naturalisation Imtiaz Dharker 400 Front door James Berry 401 Englan Voice Jean 'Binta' Breeze 402 from The arrival of Brighteye Grace Nichols 404 Wherever I Hang Daljit Nagra 405 Look We Have Coming to Dover! John Agard 406 Half-caste Moniza Alvi 407 Half-and-Half Gustavo Pérez Firmat 408 Bilingual Blues Linda Hogan 409 The Truth Is Katia Kapovich 410 Painting a Room Philip Levine 411 The Mercy Seamus Heaney 412 Miracle Hans Magnus Enzensberger 413 Optimistic Little Poem Ivan V. Lalic 413 The Spaces of Hope Lisel Mueller 414 Hope Edith Södergran 415 Hope Imtiaz Dharker 415 Living Space Ruth Bidgood 416 Little of Distinction Pablo Neruda 417 Emerging Brendan Kennelly 418 Yes Adrian Mitchell 419 Yes James Wright 419 Yes, But Langston Hughes 420 Dreams 8 Body and soul Henri Cole 422 Ape House, Berlin Zoo Stephen Dunn 423 With No Experience in Such Matters Lars Gustafsson 424 Elegy for a Dead Labrador Oktay Rifat 426 Looking at the Invisible Stephen Dunn 426 From Underneath Roderick Ford 428 Giuseppe Vicki Feaver 429 The Gun Chase Twichell 430 City Animals Robert Lowell 432 Skunk Hour Elizabeth Bishop 433 The Armadillo Brigit Pegeen Kelly 434 Song Philip Larkin 436 The Mower Judith Beveridge 437 The Caterpillars Ruth Stone 438 Another Feeling Larry Levis 438 The Oldest Living Thing in LA Thomas Lux 439 Tarantulas on the Lifebuoy Eugenio Montale 440 The Eel Les Murray 441 The Cows on Killing Day Gottfried Benn 443 Little Aster David Huerta 443 Poem by Gottfried Benn C.P. Cavafy 444 Body, Remember... Osip Mandelstam 444 'A body is given to me...' Eleanor Ross Taylor 445 Disappearing Act Padraic Fallon 446 Body A.K. Ramanujan 446 A Hindu to His Body Sarah Holland-Batt 447 Pocket Mirror John Updike 448 Mirror Sonnet L'Abbé 448 Theory My Natural Brown Ass Sarah Holland-Batt 449 The Idea of Mountain Brendan Kennelly 450 Proof Wislawa Szymborska 451 View with a Grain of Sand R.S. Thomas 452 The Bright Field Mark Strand 453 Keeping Things Whole Alex Skovron 453 Almost Alastair Reid 454 Oddments, inklings, omens, moments Pedro Serrano 455 Feet A.D. Hope 455 The Gateway William Stafford 456 The Gift Kerry Hardie 457 Flesh Julia Hartwig 457 Toward the End C.P. Cavafy 458 The God Abandons Antony Jane Hirsh?eld 459 Tree Harry Clifton 459 The Garden Olga Broumas 460 Sweeping the Garden John Burnside 461 from Of Gravity and light Michael Laskey 462 Nobody Kenji Miyazawa 462 Strong in the Rain Arundhathi Subramaniam 463 Prayer Dana Gioia 464 Prayer 9 More to love Kim Addonizio 466 You Don't Know What Love Is Kim Addonizio 466 Like That Jericho Brown 467 Track 1: Lush Life Edwin Morgan 468 Strawberries Arda Collins 469 Low Dorianne Laux 470 The Shipfitter's Wife W.R. Rodgers 470 The Net Thom Gunn 471 Tamer and Hawk Eliza Griswold 472 Tigers Tony Hoagland 473 Romantic Moment Faiz Ahmed Faiz 474 Before You Came Norman MacCaig 474 True Ways of Knowing E.E. Cummings 475 i carry your heart with me Dana Gioia 476 The Song (after Rilke) W.B. Yeats 476 He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven Langston Hughes 477 The Dream Keeper Michael Donaghy 477 The Present Sharon Olds 478 This Hour Garrison Keillor 479 Supper Sinéad Morrissey 479 & Forgive Us Our Trespasses Maram al-Massri 480 from A Red Cherry on a White-tiled Floor Norman MacCaig 482 Sounds of the day Pablo Neruda 483 'If I die...' Annabelle Despard 483 Should You Die First Grace Paley 484 Anti-Love Poem Eavan Boland 485 Love Herman de Coninck 485 For Each Other Lorraine Mariner 486 Say I forgot Alan Dugan 486 Love Song: I and Thou Michael Blumenthal 487 A Marriage Anna Swir 488 Thank You, My Fate 489 Acknowledgements 496 Index of writers 503 Index of titles and first lines

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