Edward Steinhardt Poems

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;
...

What is this thing of considerable size
That lies within our chest:
The heart,
That goes on beating, beating,
...

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
...

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

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
...

At times, it is the childhood scenario:
Losing the parents in the store or mall,
The puzzlement, the quickening panic,
...

We miss you already, Diana.
You came to us in the magic hour,
A blushing bride at St. Paul's.
We were there in the carriage
...

That's how it must have been
In the Old Days- the Train,
Like a roaring beast
Come to rock the babes in their dreams
...