My Vocabulary Did This to Me

Winner of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Award for Poetry (2009)Winner of the American Book Award (2009)

AcknowledgmentsIntroductionAbout This EditionBERKELEY RENAISSANCE (1945 ? 1950)Berkeley in Time of PlagueA Girl's SongHomosexualityA Portrait of the Artist as a Young LandscapeAn Apocalypse for Three VoicesOne Night StandAn Answer to Jaime de AnguloA Lecture in Practical AestheticsDialogue Between Intellect and PassionA Night in Four Parts (Second Version)Orpheus in HellOrpheus After EurydiceOrpheus' Song to ApolloTroy Poem"We find the body difficult to speak...""They are selling the midnight papers...""Any fool can get into an ocean..."The Scrollwork on the CasketThe Dancing ApeImaginary Elegies (I, II, III)Psychoanalysis: An ElegyMINNESOTA POEMS (1950 ? 1952)Minneapolis: Indian SummerWatching a TV Boxing Match in OctoberPortrait of an ArtistSonnet for the Beginning of WinterOn Reading Last Year's Love PoemsOrpheus in AthensTrain Song for GaryA Second Train Song for GaryBERKELEY / SAN FRANCISCO (1952 ? 1955)A Postscript to the Berkeley RenaissanceA Poem for Dada Day at The Place, April 1, 1955"The window is a sword..."Imaginary Elegies (IV)NEW YORK / BOSTON (1955 ? 1956)IInd Phase of the MoonIIIrd Phase of the MoonIVth Phase of the Moon •Some Notes on Whitman for Allen JoyceThe Day Five Thousand Fish Died Along the Charles RiverHibernation-After Morris GravesÉternuementSong for the Great Mother"The city of Boston..."Five Words for Joe Dunn on His Twenty-Second BirthdayBirdland, California"Imagine Lucifer..."The Song of the Bird in the LoinsBabel 3They Murdered You: An Elegy on the Death of Kenneth Rexroth 64A Poem to the Reader of the PoemSong for Bird and MyselfA Poem Without a Single Bird in ItThe Unvert Manifesto and Other Papers Found in the Rare Book Room of the Boston Public Library in the Handwriting of Oliver Charming. By S.SAN FRANCISCO (1956 ? 1965)Poetry as Magic Workshop QuestionnaireAFTER LORCAADMONITIONSA BOOK OF MUSICSocratesA Poem for Dada Day at The Place, April 1, 1958BILLY THE KIDFor Steve Jonas Who Is in Jail for Defrauding a Book ClubFIFTEEN FALSE PROPOSITIONS AGAINST GODLETTERS TO JAMES ALEXANDERAPOLLO SENDS SEVEN NURSERY RHYMES TO JAMES ALEXANDERA BIRTHDAY POEM FOR JIM (AND JAMES) ALEXANDERImaginary Elegies (V, VI)"Dignity is a part of a man..."HELEN: A REVISIONTHE HEADS OF THE TOWN UP TO THE AETHERLAMENT FOR THE MAKERSA RED WHEELBARROWThree Marxist EssaysTHE HOLY GRAILGOLEMMAP POEMSLANGUAGEBOOK OF MAGAZINE VERSEChronologyNotes to the PoemsBibliographyIndex of TitlesIndex of First Lines