George Oppen Poems

consciousness

in itself
...

‘out of poverty
to begin

again' impoverished
...

In the small beauty of the forest
The wild deer bedding down—
That they are there!
...

‘Whether, as the intensity of seeing increases, one’s distance from Them, the people, does not also increase’
...

that smoke
would remain

the forever
...

1

Likely as not a ruined head gasket
Spitting at every power stroke, if not a crank shaft
...

I remember a square of New York’s Hudson River glinting between warehouses.
Difficult to approach the water below the pier
...

night—sky bird’s world
to know to know in my life to know
...

Town, a town,
But location
Over which the sun as it comes to it;
Which cools, houses and lamp-posts, ...
...

The sea and a crescent strip of beach
Show between the service station and a deserted shack
...