Grace Paley Poems

Here I am in the garden laughing
an old woman with heavy breasts
and a nicely mapped face
...

My friend tells me
a man in my house jumped off the roof
the roof is the eighth floor of this building
the roof door was locked how did he manage?
...

One day I decided to not grow any older
lots of luck I said to myself
(my joking self) then I looked up at the sky
which is wide its bluenessits whiteness
...

I was going to write a poem
I made a pie instead it took
about the same amount of time
of course the pie was a final
...

What is sometimes called a
tongue of flame
or an arm extended burning
is only the long
...

she said
you were a wonderful boy this evening
at a dinner among friends so attentive so
grown up the boy's heart oh his ribs
...

That's when I saw the old maple
a couple of its thick arms cracked
one arm reclining half rotted
into earth black with the delicious
...

I did not want to be dependent on autumn
I wanted to miss it for once dropp into
another latitude where it wasn't so
well knownI wanted to show that beauty
...

this morning
the hills rolled over
in mist the hot
watermaking sun
...

In my family
people who were eighty-two were very different
from people who were ninety-two

The eighty-two-year-old people grew up
...