Desire Lines : New and Selected Poems

by Haskins, Lola

• ISBN13: 9781586540081
• ISBN10: 1586540084
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-02-01
• Publisher: Consortium Book Sales & Dist
• More Book Details
• Purchase Benefits

Summary

The poems in Desire Lines, both new and selected, give shape to the desires we must nourish if we are to retain our compassion. The poems collaborate as a series of variations on the theme of desire, much like the way a motif weaves through a piece of music or a thread through a tapestry. Haskins presents autobiographical poems and poems that give voice to other women, both historical and imagined. Lola Haskins has published six full-length poetry collections. A musician and dancer, Haskins shared the title role in "Mata Hari," a full-length ballet, whose libretto she wrote for Dance Alive!, a touring dance company. She has read her poetry on National Public Radio and BBC radio.

Table of Contents

Nursery rhyme : numbers	p. 13
Grandmother speaks of the old country	p. 14
Aquarium	p. 15
Children, stop us	p. 16
In each of my fingers	p. 19
If you stroke my back	p. 20
Speaking with Lucy (d. 1736) : her answers	p. 21
A study in time	p. 22
Thoughts while teaching grammar	p. 23
Imagined family photograph : double exposure	p. 24
The phonograph arrives, 1904	p. 25
The white curtains blow	p. 26
Nightly he pumps at my dry well	p. 27
Teaching the Miccosukkee : later	p. 28
On their opposition to education	p. 29
Dedication : Lola to Jane	p. 30
I may not yet write	p. 31
Surely there must be others	p. 32
My fingers are mending	p. 33
Becky's in the sweet corn running	p. 34
Robbie coughs blood roses	p. 35
Winston, you were wrong	p. 36
I have grown plump and settled these months	p. 37
My dear, today we sold the last pig	p. 38
Mama said it was thundering	p. 39
Patsy sees a ghost	p. 40
Patsy speaks of the master	p. 41
Patsy jumps over the broom	p. 42
Supper	p. 44
He is beginning to complain	p. 45
Cleaning cotton at night	p. 46
Breaking master's leg	p. 47
Pasty is over	p. 48
Things	p. 51
The old cat	p. 52
Loving a son	p. 53
A confluence	p. 54
To play pianissimo	p. 57
Staccato	p. 58
Octave	p. 59
Accidentals	p. 60
Grace notes	p. 61
True legato	p. 62
The prodigy	p. 63
Why performers wear black	p. 64
Fortissimo	p. 65
Adagio	p. 66
Ritardando	p. 67
Technique	p. 68
Sight-reading	p. 69
The uses of the metronome	p. 70
The power of the right foot	p. 71
Some members of the chord family
The major	p. 72
Minor, his wife	p. 73
Diminished, their daughter	p. 74
Modulation	p. 75
Fermata	p. 77
Playing Hiroshima	p. 78
The pianist's next day	p. 79
The pianist who keeps a loaded gun on her piano when she practices	p. 80
The cow	p. 83
Farm wife	p. 84
Elegy	p. 85
At eighty	p. 86
The dresser	p. 87
The laws of women	p. 88
Flood	p. 89
On passing forty	p. 90
For someone considering death	p. 91
Six cairns for Mary
Mary attends a ball (1830)	p. 92
Mary in love (1832)	p. 93
Mary, waking (1833)	p. 94
His breakfast plate : the litter of Mr. Peake (1835)	p. 95
Mary's duties (1836)	p. 96
The very Reverend Charles Easton (1836)	p. 97
The first dinner party - the puzzles of the meal	p. 98
Sweet pea embroidery in rose and heliotrope	p. 99
How to cut and dry : study of marriage	p. 100
Cookery : to truss small birds	p. 101
Secrets of the fur trade	p. 102
Fashion : how to wear the veil	p. 103
Room 1 (Mexico, oils 1969-71) : avenida	p. 104
Room 1 (Mexico, oils 1969-71) : fabrica	p. 105
Room 2 (Mexico, watercolours 1972-73) : view of Dzbilchaltun	p. 106
Room 3 (London, various media 1974-79) : night cove (watercolour)	p. 108
Room 3 (London, various media 1974-79) : nude (pencil)	p. 109
1712 : he comes to the house	p. 110
1715 : they have held the assize of bread	p. 111
1716 : the maids have carried off the mutton	p. 112
1720 : Elizabeth Danby I am	p. 113
1723 : the comfort is damp to the skin	p. 114
1724 : Jennet stirs in so frail sleep	p. 115
New poems
Sleep positions	p. 119
Grass	p. 120
Eight short pieces
Epitaph for a poet	p. 121
The teacher	p. 121
Youth	p. 121
Crying	p. 122
Love	p. 122
Love and cancer	p. 122
Longing	p. 123
Lillian	p. 123
You're dreaming	p. 124
Love story	p. 125
Pastoral	p. 127
The dream penitentiary	p. 128
The composer interviews her piece	p. 129
Appoggiatura and fermata	p. 130
Composition	p. 131
Daddy's writing	p. 132
Dogwood, December	p. 133
For mother, after the vision fire	p. 134
The .38	p. 135
Anger : five plays	p. 137
Night waking	p. 139
Times	p. 140
Dearborn North Apartments	p. 141
Words	p. 142
How do you reconcile teaching computer science with being a poet?	p. 143
The maker of lines
How I became an engineer	p. 144
The seed road	p. 144
The engineers hear from the public	p. 145
Highways	p. 145
She drives	p. 146
Interstate dreams	p. 147
Desire lines	p. 149
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