Anne Sexton Poems

Just once I knew what life was for.
In Boston, quite suddenly, I understood;
walked there along the Charles River,
...

Concerning your letter in which you ask
me to call a priest and in which you ask
me to wear The Cross that you enclose;
...

Take away your knowledge, Doktor.
It doesn't butter me up.
...

I am torn in two
but I will conquer myself.
I will dig up the pride.
I will take scissors
...

I am in a crate, the crate that was ours,
full of white shirts and salad greens,
the icebox knocking at our delectable knocks,
...

A prayer

O Mary, fragile mother,
hear me, hear me now
although I do not know your words.
...

I was wrapped in black
fur and white fur and
you undid me and then
you placed me in gold light
...

Not that it was beautiful,
but that, in the end, there was
a certain sense of order there;
...

You, Doctor Martin, walk
from breakfast to madness. Late August,
I speed through the antiseptic tunnel
...

Everything here is yellow and green.
Listen to its throat, its earthskin,
the bone dry voices of the peepers
...