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99 Poems

Dana Gioia
Chapters (115)
  1. Cover
  2. 99 POEMS
  3. ALSO BY DANA GIOIA
  4. 99 POEMS
  5. Copyright
  6. Dedication
  7. 99 POEMS
  8. • I •
  9. THE BURNING LADDER
  10. INSOMNIA
  11. THE STARS NOW REARRANGE THEMSELVES
  12. NOTHING IS LOST
  13. DO NOT EXPECT
  14. BEWARE OF THINGS IN DUPLICATE
  15. ALL SOULS’
  16. ON APPROACHING FORTY
  17. MAZE WITHOUT A MINOTAUR
  18. WORDS
  19. INTERROGATIONS AT NOON
  20. ENTRANCE
  21. NEW YEAR’S
  22. THE ANGEL WITH THE BROKEN WING
  23. PROPHECY
  24. THE ROAD
  25. PRAYER AT WINTER SOLSTICE
  26. MONSTER
  27. HOMAGE TO SOREN KIERKEGAARD
  28. • II •
  29. CALIFORNIA HILLS IN AUGUST
  30. CRUISING WITH THE BEACH BOYS
  31. IN CHANDLER COUNTRY
  32. IN CHEEVER COUNTRY
  33. THE GARDEN ON THE CAMPAGNA
  34. MOST JOURNEYS COME TO THIS
  35. WAITING IN THE AIRPORT
  36. MEN AFTER WORK
  37. ROUGH COUNTRY
  38. BECOMING A REDWOOD
  39. A CALIFORNIA REQUIEM
  40. THE END OF THE WORLD
  41. SHOPPING
  42. SEA PEBBLES: AN ELEGY
  43. VULTURES MATING
  44. PROGRESS REPORT
  45. • III •
  46. PRAYER
  47. NIGHT WATCH
  48. VETERANS’ CEMETERY
  49. THE SONG
  50. THE GODS OF WINTER
  51. PLANTING A SEQUOIA
  52. METAMORPHOSIS
  53. PENTECOST
  54. THE LITANY
  55. UNSAID
  56. FINDING A BOX OF FAMILY LETTERS
  57. SPECIAL TREATMENTS WARD
  58. MAJORITY
  59. MY HANDSOME COUSIN
  60. • IV •
  61. ELEGY FOR VLADIMIR DE PACHMANN
  62. LIVES OF THE GREAT COMPOSERS
  63. GOD ONLY KNOWS
  64. A CURSE ON GEOGRAPHERS
  65. A SHORT HISTORY OF TOBACCO
  66. GUIDE TO THE OTHER GALLERY
  67. MY CONFESSIONAL SESTINA
  68. THE SILENCE OF THE POETS
  69. MONEY
  70. THE NEXT POEM
  71. ELEGY WITH SURREALIST PROVERBS AS REFRAIN
  72. AUTUMN INAUGURAL
  73. THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS
  74. DEAL WITH THE DEVIL
  75. MEDITATION ON A LINE FROM NOVALIS
  76. TITLE INDEX TO MY NEXT BOOK OF POEMS
  77. • V •
  78. THE ROOM UPSTAIRS
  79. COUNTING THE CHILDREN
  80. HOMECOMING
  81. HAUNTED
  82. STYLE
  83. • VI •
  84. THE COUNTRY WIFE
  85. SONG FOR THE END OF TIME
  86. THE ARCHBISHOP
  87. NOSFERATU’S SERENADE
  88. MAD SONG
  89. ALLEY CAT LOVE SONG
  90. MARKETING DEPARTMENT TRIO
  91. PITY THE BEAUTIFUL
  92. REUNION
  93. THE HEART OF THE MATTER
  94. COLD SAN FRANCISCO
  95. HOUSEHOLD GODS
  96. FILM NOIR
  97. • VII •
  98. THANKS FOR REMEMBERING US
  99. THE SUNDAY NEWS
  100. SPEECH FROM A NOVELLA
  101. SPEAKING OF LOVE
  102. EQUATIONS OF THE LIGHT
  103. THE VOYEUR
  104. SPIDER IN THE CORNER
  105. SUMMER STORM
  106. THE LOST GARDEN
  107. BEING HAPPY
  108. THE PRESENT
  109. THE LUNATIC, THE LOVER, AND THE POET
  110. THE APPLE ORCHARD
  111. COME BACK
  112. AN OLD STORY
  113. MARRIAGE OF MANY YEARS
  114. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  115. NOTE ON THE TEXTS

Cover

Note to the Reader on Text Size

Wrapping in your roots a lock of hair, a piece of an infant’s birth cord,

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99 POEMS

ALSO BY DANA GIOIA

POETRY

Daily Horoscope

The Gods of Winter

Interrogations at Noon

Pity the Beautiful

CRITICAL COLLECTIONS

Can Poetry Matter?: Essays on Poetry and American Culture

The Barrier of a Common Language: Essays on

Contemporary British Poetry

Disappearing Ink: Poetry at the End of Print Culture

TRANSLATIONS

Mottetti: Poems of Love by Eugenio Montale

The Madness of Hercules by Seneca

OPERA LIBRETTI

Nosferatu

Tony Caruso’s Final Broadcast

The Three Feathers

99 POEMS

New & Selected

BY

Dana Gioia

Graywolf Press

Copyright

Copyright © 2016 by Dana Gioia

The author and Graywolf Press have provided this e-book to you for your personal use only. You may not make this e-book publicly available in any way. Copyright infringement is against the law. If you believe the copy of this e-book you are reading infringes on the author’s copyright, please notify Graywolf Press at: us.macmillanusa.com/piracy.

This publication is made possible, in part, by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund, and through a grant from the Wells Fargo Foundation Minnesota. Significant support has also been provided by Target, the McKnight Foundation, Amazon.com, and other generous contributions from foundations, corporations, and individuals. To these organizations and individuals we offer our heartfelt thanks.

Published by Graywolf Press

250 Third Avenue North, Suite 600

Minneapolis, Minnesota 55401

Published in the United States of America

ISBN 978-1-55597-732-0

Ebook ISBN 978-1-55597-925-6

2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1

First Graywolf Printing, 2016

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015953592

Cover design: Kyle G. Hunter

Dedication

For My Sons

MIKE AND TED

Beloved Sons and Fellow Writers

99 POEMS

• I •

MYSTERY

THE BURNING LADDER

Jacob

never climbed the ladder

burning in his dream. Sleep

pressed him like a stone

in the dust,

and when

he should have risen

like a flame to join

that choir, he was sick

of traveling,

and closed

his eyes to the Seraphim

ascending, unconscious

of the impossible distances

between their steps,

missed

them mount the brilliant

ladder, slowly disappearing

into the scattered light

between the stars,

slept

through it all, a stone

upon a stone pillow,

shivering. Gravity

always greater than desire.

INSOMNIA

Now you hear what the house has to say.

Pipes clanking, water running in the dark,

the mortgaged walls shifting in discomfort,

and voices mounting in an endless drone

of small complaints like the sounds of a family