Carl Miller poems
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I arranged these poems chronologically, not by when I began or finished writing them, but by when the events described occurred. This makes the poem sequence a quantum autobiography, a series of memorable experiences with the boring continuities left out. The poems about historical figures are dated by when I experienced the source material, if known, or else, when I started writing the poem.
1. Three Pictures of a Cormorant, Garden of the Gods, Museum in Pittsburgh, Tornado Damage, Rocky River Gorge, Accidental Goddess, The Dream.
2. Porch Alignment, Star Games, Ant Comics, Tarzan and Gorgo, Journey to a Subterranean World, The Truth is Rude and Crude, A Bike Ride to Heaven.
3. Trailing a Whitetail Doe, The Bay of Fundy, Susie, High School History, Basketball Bus.
4. Getting Closer, For Barbara, Cave Mountain, Mutant Fruit Flies, Not Much To Say, Rachel.
5. The River Cuyahoga.
6. Mary’s Room, Being Human, Moonlit Snow, Forest, For Mary, Cuyahoga River Nocturne, Projection, Wildflowers, Too Many Worries, Identity or Something Like That, Reality, Ohio River Vignette, Life.
7. Child of the City, Mary’s Whispers, Disillusionment, Waiting For a Lecture, Ants, Strike, Celebration, Conceptual Art and the Student Strike, First Time.
8. Medicine Bow Peak, Drops of Cuyahoga, Lungfish, Visions of the Wind, At a Vertebrate Morphology Class, Tom Hardwine.
9. Act One, Mary and I Sat on the Bench, Ashtabula County, Teacher, The Willow Tree, Redwinged Blackbird, The Young Willow, Raccoon, Mentor Marsh.
10. Draft Exemption, Draft Exam, Monarchs, Like a Martian Machine, Willow Sun, Willow Wind.
11. For Janet, Reason. Halloween Candy, After Graduating, In a Pennsylvania Gorge, Erie, Pennsylvania, Seascape, Shadowy Room.
12. I Want to Know You, The Night You Wrote the Poem, Collecting Samples, After the Nurse Left, Two Poems About a Sunset, Doug, A Painting of Mill Creek, Stuck in the Snow, Portrait of a Snowy Owl, Laura Plays Piano, Answer, North Chagrin Park.
13. The Turning Point, Rush Hour War Protest, Hessler Road Vignette, Loss, Aptitude Test, Crossing the Country, Mississippi River Trilogy.
14. Home Sweet Car, Letter From a Rock, In the Office of a Nonprofit Art School, What the Water Said, Beads and Tiedyed Curtains.
15. Ladybug, Lizards, Three Places to Linger on a Spring Walk, Phoenix Lake, Mary and I, Samuel P. Taylor State Park, Cuddle and Caress, On Your Way to Work, Dragons For Sale.
16. Wedding Reception, Hibbing, Float Creek, Drinking the Trout Stream, Dead Man's Creek, Frog, San Rafael, At the Fairfax Quick-Clean, Dimetrodon, The Eye, Three Dozen Voices.
17. The Day There Was No Sky, Up and Down the Coast, Bits of Beauty, Bull Elk, Bear Tooth Pass, Little Bear Lake, Green Mountain Meadows, A Pond at the Donner Pass Rest Stop, Water Striders, No Contact.
18. Bolinas Lagoon, Evening, Great Blue Heron, Bolinas Lagoon, Morning, Stinson Beach, Where We Are One, Humboldt Redwoods, The McCloud River Falls, The Black-Tailed Deer, Triangle.
19. Red-Bellied Newt, Somewhere to Live, Dragonfly, Two Damselflies, The Brown Pelican, Warm Like a River, This House, The Embrace, For Laura, The Stare.
20. Redwood Creek, Carbondale, The Blackwing Damselfly, Exekias, Claude Monet.
21. Thoughts Pass Through, The Dead Tree Near Needle Rock, The Waiting Room, Pie in the Sky, The Leather Man, Flowers in the Rain, Fire in the Rain.
22. Yon and the Deer, Charles Darwin Facing Innocence, The Katydid After the Poetry Reading, The Dragon Reconsidered As an Angel, Vincent Van Gogh Painting Stars by Candlelight, From Elk Ridge in Early Summer, Lost Love.
23. The Cat and the Shower Curtain, Claude Monet and the Colors of Death, Briceland Pond, China Creek Outlaws, I’m Trying to Concentrate, Paul Gauguin in Tahiti, Vincent Van Gogh and his Brother’s Family, Between the Lines.
24. Molilakwa, A Hitchhiker’s Drawings, Peter and the Parthenon, Platonic Dialogue, From a Log, The Streamlet Over the Rock, The Otter, No Fog This Morning, Walter Alves Pereira.
25. At Short Lake, Indigo Springs, Photographs of a Waterfall, Dugout Lake, Boulder Flat.
26. Short Lake, A Toad Sketched in Ballpoint, Touching the Octopus, Heceta Head Lighthouse, Clearwater Falls.
27. A Concert in the Unfinished School, Cutting Glass, The Improvisational Theater Workshop.
28. Blackberry Shadows, Kwaku Dadey, Home Site, Scolopenders, The Moment, Full Moon Kittens, A Cabin in the Woods, Not a Dead Mouse Poem, A Nineteenth Century Art Dealer.
29. The Lighthouse Keepers: Ida Lewis, Fred Permenter, Abigail Burgess, Jim Gibbs, The Foundling.
30. Geology of the Moon, The Crescent Sun, The Twisty Little Passages, A Fence Lizard in March, No Trails, Generation, In the Yolla-Bolly Wilderness, Dragonfly’s Perch.
31. Finding a Lover, Near the Beginning, Over the Edge, Down the Coast, Shiftless White, Drawing Before and After.
32. Snail Watching, Briceland Sunrise, Surf Fishing Sunset, Sunset Moonrise, Unfinished Roof.
33. Opening the Coconut, Twilight in the Bamboo Grove, In the Middle of a Cove, The Awela, A Green Measuring Worm, Keanae, Maggan, After Midnight Near Kailua, Island Volcanos, Spencer Beach.
34. Crater Rim Trail, The Ex-President’s Smile, The Wailua River, The Upstream Pool, Two Men, High Wind at Red Sand Beach.
35. How Often Our Eyes Meet, The Woman Who Said She’d Visit, Dawn Comes Too Early, Moving In, Summer Morning, Sea Sketches.
36. Mad Laughter, Shelter Cove, The New Adventures of Columbus, Angry, Bear Butte.
37.The Santa Cruz Wharf, Details, Nailing Plywood, Living With Six Cats, The Vibes, The Second First Night, The Red Moon, Shayla’s Father.
38. Lake Pillsbury, Clear Lake, Space, Salt Point, Rock and Waves, Sonoma Beach, Bedtime.
39. The Mouth of the Russian River, By the Lights of Guerneville Bridge, Bursts of Typing, Cottonwood Springs, My House is not Empty, From Galileo’s Notebooks, Green, Pink Muslin, I’m Fine.
40. Sunnyside, Alaska, Fishing Camp at Soapstone Cove, Salmon Fishing in Alaska, Phonograph Creek, Stag Bay, North of Westport.
41. Wondering, Whale Gulch Drum Cult, A Honeybee on Dandelions, Music Inside, Heartwood Massage Students, Ellen Plays Piano, California Rainbow festival, Creature of Twilight, Hunter’s Moon, Winter Rewrite.
42. Winter Nights and Mornings, Spring Green Maple, This Morning, Many Birds, On a Dandelion, North Rim, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Arches National Park, Island in the Sky, Climbing Medicine Bow Peak, Hungry Water Striders.
43. Moonlit Mountain, Before Returning to Buffalo, On My Way to Buffalo, Kansas, Sharon Township, Ohio, Donna’s House, Dance of Love, Whispers, Niagara Falls, The Choice, Like Crystal Beads, Flood Rain.
44. Laundromat, My Vision May Not Be Yours, Something Like Love, In This Time of Loss, Cats and the Wood Stove, It’s March, and Already, On Reading the Writer’s Market.
45. Shayla In My Room, Can You Fix My Pelton Wheel?, Indigo Creek, White Lace Dress, Mother and Daughter, Daylight Window Sky.
46. A Forest Meditation, Coquina Beach, Yearning, Landscapes, Listen, Cracking Ice, Bodega Inn, Harmonic Convergence, After the Pancakes.
47. Meeting Nancy, Nancy’s Trailer, She Speaks With Other People’s Words, The Wild Man, News and Reaction, Inside a Smile, A Pregnant Ex-Lover, You Can’t Deny Love.
48. Davis Lake, At Davis Lake, Impending Birth, Rusty, One Month Old, What To Think.
49. The Meaning of Life, At a Science Fiction Convention, Blind Date, Baby Rusty, Marriage Mirage, Shadow Relationship, Coldest Morning Yet.
50. Anna Maria, Painting on Public Television, Down Home Country Stress, Dreams of Thunder, Sparks Lake, Rusty Returns, Spirit Parent, Ball, Raccoon Commando.
51. Humbug Mountain, Seal Court Beach, The Wrong Musician, Ravens on the Beach, At the Magic Maple.
52. Leaning Toward the House, Character Flaws, Family Lawyer, Let It Rain More, Collecting a Family.
53. Tired of Words, Growing Up Fast, Great Grandma Hippie-Hippie, Gelatin Landscape, The Big Fir Tree, Tomorrow, Meeting Vashti.
54. Have a Good Night, Bed Quest, Playground Race Car, Maybe She’s Close, Bicycles, Writer in the Sun, Labor Day Weekend.
55. Vashti’s Watercolor, Anna Maria Tube Slide, Calling Alligators, Slipping Away, The Tower, Miscarriage, Much Ado About Nothing.
56. New Year’s, Goodbye, Norma Miller, Forget-Me-Nots, Hysterectomy, The White Rug.
57. At the Allosaur Mud Hole, Earth Sciences, Canyonlands, Carlsbad Caverns, Austin, Field Museum.
58. Visiting Dad, Smithsonian, Reptile Park, Shasta Daisies, Trying Again, Photographs of Christmas.
59. Nancy in Florida, Alabaster Agony, Babe in Black Velour, Coming Home Late, Enigmatic Image, Forget-Me-Not, Forget-Me, Sunset Lightning, Twilight in the Desert, Eclipse of the Moon.
60. Bridge Slumped, Hale Bopp, Alligator Lizard Love, Corduroy Iguana, Upward Bound.
61. Going North, Touching the Alligator, Extreme Frugality, Mary Campbell’s Cave, A Pine Grove at Dawn, Rain on the Road.
62. Here We Are Again, Mental Hospital, Ina’s Troubles, This Time It’s Different, My Own Little World, Biography Shows, The Fire Opal Ring.
63. Morning Rain, Doomed, Night in my room, Off the Edge, Science Project, Halfway Through My Life, Huckleberry Bushes.
64. Trinidad, Late Summer Sounds, Locked in the Lab, Time to Move the Sprinkler, Snow on Chemise Mountain.
65. Moving Swordferns, Morning With Family and Cats, Otis and White Paws, For Nancy, Kamakaze Deer, Lake MacBride, Gold Watches, Black Raspberries, The Red Lighthouse of Manistique, Beware of the Rustigator.
66. Au Train Bay, Au Train Lake, Western Wyoming College, The Biology of Plurps, Waiting for Nancy, Life After Firewood, We Believe In Our Bonfire.
67. The Council Madrone, Which Dream I Want, Nancy at the Creek, Decomposed Noodle Necklace.
68. The Nashville Parthenon, He Wanted Us to Visit, Baseball in the Dark, Museum Highway Blues, De Smets, My Pronghorn Video.
69. Trout Death, Neanderthal Jewelry, Edge of the Garden, Fresh Perspective, A Farmboy Who Became a Sailor, Two Thousand, Ghost Story.
70. Sauropod Heads, Computer Music, Kathy Epling, Rain Like the Poems, Burning Brush, Three Year Old Sandals, Pieces of Their Lives, Sophia Bowes Museum, Wedding Certificate, Things Left Behind, Easy Ryder Truck.
71. Forest Garden Music, Mountain Lion, Claude Monet at Etretat, Heart Attack, Balloon Angioplasty, The Time of Truth.
72. Homework, Jury Duty, Raccoons on the Porch, Klamath River Smoke, Cow Lake, Schipper Rocks.
73. Iron Bog Rocks, Smiley Mountain, Bayhorse Lake, Sand Bar, Coquille River Lighthouse, Fire Season, Observed in a Moment of Emptiness.
74. John Young’s Bed, Vote Against My Opponent, The First Big Rain, Two Culverts.
75. The War of Good and Evil, Early Spring, After the Battle, Around the Corner, We Are All Heroes, Discussion at the Poetry Reading, Guard Duty, Mattole River at Honeydew, The Mouse and the Bathroom Floor.
76. Late July, August Creek, Turtle Quest, Thunderstorm, Strange White Clouds, Whitmore Grove Deer, Russian River Revisited, Last Sunday Evening, Can’t Deal With Nancy, Garberville Twilight, Negative Virtues of Hellenistic Philosophers, Doing This Again.
77. January Dawn, Physical Therapist Hercules, Casablanca Jury Assembly, Rewriting Poems, Maggie’s Kittens, Mount Shasta, Two Years After the Fire, Cottonwood Campground, Stunned, Clearwater River, Kelly Creek and Hoodoo Pass.
78. Murphy’s Lake, La Barge Meadows, Morning Cows, City of Rocks, Smiley Creek Mountain.
79. Tomki Road, In the Hallway, Redding, Grayed Out.
80. Winter Night, Running Out of Family, In My Room, Arcata Bay, Samoa Dunes, Sitting in Bed, Shayla's Obituary, Need Something, Headlights.
81. Song and Seizure, Mad River Beach, Summer of Staying Home, Between Me and What I Want to Be, Rare and Precious, Before Christmas.
82. Let Me Stop and Look At the Map, Slow Fadeout, Trinity River, Mount Whitney Trailhead, Tuttle Creek, Man Versus Fish, Mount Whitney, Painting Mount Shasta, Ambiguous, North Country Fair, Persuasion and Secrets.
83. GED Test Freeze, Stated Simply, Anime Love, You Want Me to Sing, The Right Reaction, Not An Affair, Unacceptable Truth.
84. No Mistake, Thunder Without Rain, Estranged, Two in the Morning, Big Deal, Summer of Discontent, Happy Face. Burning Red, Watch Your Step.
85. The Hanging, Old Town Moon, Paper Snow, The Process of Dying, Extended Mix, Sunset Distortion, Arcata Bay Sunset, The Biggest Tree I Ever Felled, Waiting for the Rain, Walk to the Stars.
86. Increasing Chance of Rain, Irises and Blackberries, Summer Mantra, Life After Bobby, A Simple Moment, Different?, Lap Dancer, Double Feature.
87. Poet Assassin, Near the End, Another Tuesday, Too Early This Year, On a Rainy Night, Kitchen Light, While the Pizza Cooks, Roads Closed, Kiss, Partial Eclipse of the Heart, Leaving Jacoby Plaza, Winterland Still Open.
88. Invasion, Mineral Lick, Cutting Firewood, Rain Smell, September Morning, Morning at Noon, December.
89. Imagine a New Year, Day and Night, Spring Storm, Stella.
90. Origin Myth.
91. A Vanishing Tragedy, The Republican, The Cat and the Fence, Fire and Water, I Can’t Say Very Much, Crows on a Freeway.
92. Burnt Potatoes, Who She Was, Armed Rebel, Perfectly Clear, Hollow, First Person Singular, Change My Life, Here Now, Driving Into Night, American Conservatives for Freedom and Prosperity.
93. Rain Chant, Rain is My Lover, Did they see each other?, Lord Dunsany on the Internet, The Good Life of Nebamun, Season of the Rain, Spiritual Quest, Inspired at a Poetry Reading, Midnight to Midnight.
94. Another Spring, Second Street, Arcata After Midnight, Learning How, Never Mind Why, Irony and Piety.
95. Disturbance of the Peace, On the Arcata Plaza, Black Noise, First Crickets, The Farmer is an Artist, September Fly, What You Can Find, Reflected, Cypress Moon.
96. Which Way To Go, Balinese Welcoming Dance, Characteristics of an Old Cat, That Was Then, Colors of Chili, New Year, New Day, Too Early.