Allen Grossman Poems

When the corpse revived at the funeral,
The outraged mourners killed it; and the soul
Of the revenant passed into the body
...

A great light is the man who knows the woman he loves
A great light is the woman who knows the man she loves
...

Toward evening, the natural light becomes
Intelligent and answers, without demur:
"Be assured! You are not alone. . . ."
...

It happened at midnight.
- What I possessed and lost
or what I never possessed
and have nonetheless lost,
or what in any case I
was not born possessing
but received from another's mouth:
...

Semper dum vivam tui meminero - Erasmus

This is a poem for my old nurse Pat -
Who had something wrong with her heart.
...

I dreamed I sailed alone
In a long boat, a white bone;
Like a strong thought, or a right name
The sail had no seam.
...

Place a man in the center, and he becomes
The man who has prepared for a lifetime
To answer, and now is ready.
...

Upstairs, one floor below the Opera House
on top of the building, was the Caedmon room -
a library of sorts. The Caedmon room
...

O kid! I didn't understand. But now I get it.
Forget their words! Look around for yourself.

At a great distance, we heard something. First
you said, "Do you hear that?" And I DID hear it.
...

The chroniclers ceased, they ceased . . . until I arose -
Out of the infinite unborn, one of the born who lived,
And out of the number of all who have lived and died,
One of those yet alive,
...