Edward Steinhardt Poems

Lord, how can I pray
When my heart is hard as rock?
Lord, how can I pray
When I'm mute and cannot talk?
...

'Woman places corpse of husband in closet.
Linah B-,64, said her husband died
In October 31 in either 1977 or 1978 and she
Put him in a closet because she
...

When I was a child
And my father pressed my small hand
Into his large one,
I did all I could do
...

If it weren't enough
That the farms have gone for broke,
The two-child family awakens one morning
To find the farm machinery gone;
...

I came upon a brook the other day,
My step intrepid and sensing still
I stood,
Awash in wonder at its current soul
...

Forgive us Lord for the graven image.
We had them before Baal,
Ashtoreth, the golden calf.
Thy agonizing likeness
...

for Ryan

The Southern Belle Supper Club.
A pianist, an ear-ring
...

We are shadows thrown upon the wall.
We are images, what others see;
How we see ourselves, true-
Or what we think we perceive
...

for Ryan

You sat on the edge of my tub
As I ran the clippers
...

for Ryan

We are folded into one another
As only lovers can be.
...