Mark Doty Poems

They lie in parallel rows,
on ice, head to tail,
each a foot of luminosity
barred with black bands,
...

You weren't well or really ill yet either;
just a little tired, your handsomeness
tinged by grief or anticipation, which brought
to your face a thoughtful, deepening grace.
...

Today the Masons are auctioning
their discarded pomp: a trunk of turbans,
gemmed and ostrich-plumed, and operetta costumes
labeled inside the collar "Potentate"
...

1. FAITH

“I’ve been having these
awful dreams, each a little different,
...

The intact facade's now almost black
in the rain; all day they've torn at the back
of the building, "the oldest concrete structure
in New England," the newspaper said. By afternoon,
...

Because the road to our house
is a back road, meadowlands punctuated
by gravel quarry and lumberyard,
there are unexpected travelers
...

Long Pont's apparitional
this warm spring morning,
the strand a blur of sandy light,
...

Glassmakers,
at century's end,
compounded metallic lusters
...

This salt-stain spot
marks the place where men
lay down their heads,
back to the bench,
...

Not, exactly, green:
closer to bronze
preserved in kind brine,
...