Maxine Kumin

1
Maxine Kumin
By Danielle B.
2

• Philadelphia in 1925 she was born
• She lives in New Hampshire
• Maxine is 78 years old
• She had many accomplishments throughout her
  life.
• Her work is mostly about nature

3
Poems

• After Love
•  
• Afterwards, the compromise.Bodies resume their
  boundaries.
• These legs, for instance, mine.Your arms take
  you back in.
• Spoons of our fingers, lipsadmit their
  ownership.
• The bedding yawns, a door blows aimlessly ajar
• and overhead, a planesingsongs coming down.
• Nothing is changed, except there was a moment
  when
• the wolf, the mongering wolfwho stands outside
  the self
• lay lightly down, and slept.

• Nightmare
•  
• This dwelt in me who does not know me now,
• where in her labyrinth I cannot follow,
• advance to be recognized, displace her terror
• I hold my heartbeat on my lap and cannot comfort
  her.
• Tonight she is condemned to cry out wolf
• or werewolf, and it echoes in the gulf
• and no one comes to cradle cold Narcissus
• the first cell that divided separates us.

4
Poems

• CONTINUUM A LOVE POEMgoing for grapes
  withladder and pail inthe first slashing
  rainof September    rainsteeping the dustin a
  joyous squelch   the skystanding up like
  steamfrom a kettle of grapesat the boil    wild
  fox grapeswickedly high    tangled in mustof
  cobweb and bug spitgoing for grapes   
  yearafter year    we two withladder and pail
  stainedwith the rain of grapesour private
  language                            Published in
  1980

• GRACE
• Hens have their gravel gravel sticksThe way it
  should stick, in the craw.And stone on stone is
  toothFor grinding raw.And grinding raw, I learn
  from thisTo fill my crop the way I should.I put
  down pudding stoneAnd find it good.I find it
  good to line my gutWith tidy octagons of
  grit.No loophole and no chinkMake vents in
  it.And in it vents no slime or sludgeNo losses
  sluice, no terrors slough.God, give me
  appetitefor stone enough.                    
              Published in 1961

5
Books Published

• Inside The Halo And Beyond The Anatomy Of A
  RecoveryMay 2000
• Looking For Luck Poems received the Poets'
  Prize
• February 1993
• Selected Poems 1960-1990December 1998
• Connecting The Dots Poems January 1998
• Quit Monks Or Die!The Long Marriage Poems2001
• The Microscope
• Women, Animals, Vegetables Essays
  StoriesApril 1996

6
Cont. Books

• Ploughshares Spring 1988 Stories And Poems
• All That Divides Us Poems 1901
• Always Beginning Essays On A Life In Poetry 2000
• The Abduction
• Our Ground Time Here Will Be Brief
• The Wizard's Tears
• Nurture Poems (penguin Poets)
• The Long Approach
• Spring Things
• Looking For Luck

7
Cont. Books

• Mittens In May
• The Designated Heir
• House, Bridge, Fountain, Gate
• Winter Friend
• Why Can't We Live Together Like Civilized Human
  Beings?
• In Deep Country Essays
• Nurture
• Passions Of Uxport
• Closing The Ring Bucknell University Fine
  Edition March 1984

8
Cont. Books

• House, Bridge, Fountain, Gate (1975)
• Up Country Poems of New England (1972), she
  received the Pulitzer Prize.

9
Awards

• Aiken Taylor Award for Modern Poetry
• American Academy of Arts and Letters award
• Sarah Joseph Hale Award,
• Levinson Prize and a National Endowment for the
  Arts grant
• Eunice Tietjens Memorial Prize from Poetry
• Fellowships from The Academy of American Poets
• National Council on the Arts

10
Work Cited

• www.poets.org
• www.poetry.about.com
• www.ask.com