Begin Again Collected Poems

A longtime teacher, activist, feminist, and masterful writer of short fiction and essays, Paley is also an accomplished poet. Combining her two previous collections with unpublished work, Begin Again traces the career of a direct, attentive, and always unpredictable poet. Whether describing the vicissitudes of life in New York City or the hard beauty of rural Vermont, whether celebrating the blessings of friendship or protesting against social injustice, her poems brim with compassion and tough good humor.

Grace Paley is a writer and a teacher, a feminist and an activist. Her most recent book, Just as I Thought, is a collection of her personal and political essays and articles. In 1994, her Collected Stories was a finalist for the National Book Award. She lives in New York City and Vermont.

I

A woman invented fire

3

(1)

Stanzas: Old Age and the Conventions of Retirement Have Driven My Friends from the Work They Love

4

(2)

One day when I was a child

6

(1)

Drowning (I)

7

(1)

Drowning (II)

8

(1)

Life

9

(1)

Right Now

10

(1)

A Poem about Storytelling

11

(2)

A Warning

13

(1)

Alive

14

(1)

At the Battery

15

(1)

An Arboreal Mystery

16

(1)

20th Street Spring

17

(1)

Note to grandparents

18

(1)

psalm

19

(1)

Mulberry Street

20

(1)

War

21

(1)

For Danny

22

(1)

The Nature of This City

23

(1)

On the Fourth Floor

24

(1)

Winter Afternoon

25

(1)

Middle-Age Poem

26

(1)

Bob Visits Friends

27

(1)

On Mother's Day

28

(2)

Housing

30

(1)

Having Arrived by Bike at Battery Park

31

(4)

II

Whistlers

35

(1)

For George (I)

36

(1)

For George (II)

37

(1)

Certain Days

38

(1)

One Day

39

(1)

The Five-Day Week

40

(1)

Some Days

41

(1)

Vengeance

42

(1)

Family

43

(1)

Letter

44

(1)

My Mother: 33 Years Later

45

(2)

On the Bank Street Pier

47

(1)

Gift

48

(1)

No Love

49

(1)

Words

50

(1)

Quarrel

51

(1)

Question

52

(1)

Old Age Porch

53

(1)

Fund Appeal

54

(1)

For My Friend Who Planted a Tree for His Daughter Jane

55

(1)

Responsibility

56

(3)

III / Thetford Poems

Fear

59

(1)

Families

60

(1)

Goldenrod

61

(1)

What is this whiteness on the field?

62

(1)

When the wild strawberry leaves turn

63

(1)

Then

64

(1)

In Deepest Summer

65

(1)

Saint-John's-wort!

66

(1)

A bee!

67

(1)

An ant!

68

(1)

False strawberry is

69

(1)

September

70

(1)

The Choir Singing

71

(1)

Leaves Apples

72

(1)

Connections: Vermont Vietnam (I)

73

(1)

Connections: Vermont Vietnam (II)

74

(5)

IV

Song Stanzas of Private Luck

79

(3)

Some Nearly Songs

82

(3)

The Old Dog's Song

82

(1)

34th Street Song

83

(1)

The Sad Children's Song

84

(1)

Traveler

85

(1)

Speaker and Speaker

86

(1)

Quarrel

87

(1)

Autumn

88

(2)

South Window

90

(1)

My Father at 85

91

(1)

My Father at 89

92

(1)

One Day I Decided

93

(1)

In Aix

94

(1)

On the Ramblas A Tree A Girl

95

(1)

Oh

96

(1)

In France

97

(1)

I Gave Away That Kid

98

(2)

Subway Station

100

(1)

Bridges

101

(1)

In Hanoi 1969

102

(1)

Two Villages

103

(1)

That Country

104

(1)

Street Corner Dialogue

105

(1)

Illegal Aliens

106

(1)

In San Salvador (I)

107

(1)

In San Salvador (II)

108

(1)

For Mike and Jeannie: Resisters Fifteen Years Later

109

(1)

Learning from Barbara Deming

110

(1)

Happiness

111

(1)

Definition

112

(1)

Age

113

(1)

Love

114

(1)

Time

115

(1)

The Women's Prison: El Salvador The Ballad of Visiting Day

116

(4)

The Dance in Jinotega

120

(3)

People in My Family

123

(1)

In the Bus

124

(3)

V

House: Some Instructions

127

(6)

VI / Begin Again

The Immigrant Story

133

(1)

Translation

134

(1)

Signs

135

(1)

The Woman Says

136

(1)

Faces

137

(1)

It's True

138

(1)

Tenth Grade

139

(1)

The Boy His Mother

140

(1)

Suppertime

141

(1)

How to Tell a Story (My Method) (Most of the Time)

142

(1)

The Word Thrum

143

(1)

My Father Said

144

(1)

He Wanders

145

(1)

Four Short Pieces

146

(1)

The Poet's Occasional Alternative

147

(1)

One of the Softer Sorrows of Age

148

(1)

When this old body

149

(1)

When I Was Asked How I Could Leave Vermont in the Middle of October

150

(1)

Weather

151

(1)

In Montpelier, Vermont

152

(1)

Beef

153

(1)

NOW

154

(2)

Is There a Difference Between Men and Women

156

(2)

Reading the Newspapers at the Village Store

158

(2)

The Desert Wasn't Loved Enough said Reich

160

(1)

What If (This Week)

161

(1)

This Life

162

(1)

Sometimes

163

(3)

Leaflet

166

(1)

I See My Friend Everywhere

167

(1)

A Letter

168

(1)

For Jan

169

(2)

Luck

171

(1)

On the Deck

172

(1)

For My Daughter

173

(1)

Therefore

174

(1)

In This Dream

175

(1)

Hand-Me-Downs

176

(1)

Here

177

(1)

Walking in the Woods

178

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Begin Again Collected Poems

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials