Robert Rorabeck Poems

With everything there is a
Word:
On tree or branch or
Bird.
...

Now I am afraid of this scar,
And another picture: the other students are holding
Starfish in their upturned hands,
Asking how they can be so easily divided.
...

Lost in the deep symbols of the deep
Vermillion deep,
But diving again, diving forever wishing
For the jewelry chests of her
...

Globe with stars and caesuras
And very little else:
Very simple world:
Child world, bring tears to my eyes,
...

Animals of toys and cloth,
Or my mother’s hands brushing the rough
Skin of
Christmas trees. She is even saying to
...

Or a day of rowboats out on the lake,
Seen through the beaded curtain:
A new day, bright as seeds- there was a whole
Room for her,
...

Little squalls of luxury looking over the
Riverbanks,
New carless words birthed from the furrowed
Lips of the forest besides
...

I don’t remember how I started out
Almost drunken from the boat, diving to
Save that pearl,
The sun a parasol all through the school day/
...

The sound of your fellows sound very fine
On the wharf- they are holding their heads up as
They swim,
And looking across the entire pueblo- They are looking
...

Are you in love with him,
The man you sleep with, with your flag around:
There in the pools of what joy your family has given
To you, Alma- You called him down
...