MARGARET ATWOOD SELECTED POEMS 1966-1984

Toronto OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1990 Contents

From THE CIRCLE GAME

This is a photograph of me 12 After the flood, we 13 Eventual Proteus 14 The circle game 15 Migration: C.P.R. 25 Journey to the interior 30 Pre-amphibian 31 Against still life 33 The explorers 36 The settlers 37

From THE ANIMALS IN THAT COUNTRY

The animals in that country 40 The landlady 41 '_ At the tourist centre in Boston 42 Roominghouse, winter 44 It is dangerous to read newspapers 46 Progressive insanities of a pioneer 47 Speeches for Dr Frankenstein 51 Backdrop addresses cowboy 56 I was reading a scientific article 58 More and more 59 The reincarnation of Captain Cook 60

THE JOURNALS OF SUSANNA MOODIE

JOURNAL I Disembarking at Quebec 62 Further arrivals 63 First neighbours 64 The planters 65 The wereman 66 Paths and thingscape 67 Contents

The two fires 68 Looking in a mirror 70 Departure from the bush 71

JOURNAL II Death of a young son by drowning 72 The immigrants 73 Dream 1: the bush garden 75 1837 war in retrospect 76 Dream 2: Brian the still-hunter 77 Charivari 78 Dream 3: night bear which frightened cattle 79 The deaths of the other children 80 The double voice 81 .

JOURNAL ni Later in Belleville: career 82 Daguerreotype taken in old age 83 Wish: metamorphosis to heraldic emblem 84 Visit to Toronto, with companions 85 Solipsism while dying 86 Thoughts from underground 87 Alternate thoughts from underground 88 Resurrection 89 A bus along St Clair: December 90

From PROCEDURES FOR UNDERGROUND

Game after supper 94 Girl and horse, 1928 95 The small cabin 96 Midwinter, presolstice 97 Procedures for underground 97 Dreams of the animals 99 Three desk objects 100 Projected slide of an unknown soldier 101 Comic books vs. history 102 A soul, geologically 103 Habitation 105 Woman skating 105 Contents

Younger sister, going swimming 107 Buffalo in compound: Alberta 108 Carrying food home in winter 110

From POWER POLITICS

You fit into me 111 You take my hand 112 She considers evading him 113 They eat out 114 After the agony. 115 My beautiful wooden leader 116 You want to go back 117 Their attitudes differ 118 After all .119 Yes at first 120 We are hard 120 At first I was given 122 You refuse to own 124 We hear nothing 125 You did it 126 This is a mistake 127 Beyond truth 127 They are hostile nations 128 Spring again 130 I am sitting 131 I see you 132 What is it 133 You are the sun 134 Hesitations outside the door 135 Lying here 139 Hookup 140 I can't tell you 141 They were all inaccurate 142

From YOU ARE HAPPY

Newsreel: man and firing squad 144 November 146 Tricks with mirrors 147 You are happy 151 Contents

SONGS OF THE TRANSFORMED Pig song 152 Bull song 153 Rat song 154 Crow song 155 Song of the worms 156 Owl song 158 Siren song 159 Song of the fox 160 Song of the hen's head 161 Corpse song 162

CIRCE/MUD POEMS 163 Is/not 186 Eating fire 188 Four auguries 191 Head against white 193 There is only one of everything 197 Late August 198

From TWO-HEADED POEMS

Burned space 200 Foretelling the future 201 A paper bag 202 The woman who could not live with her faulty heart 203 Five poems for dolls 204 Daybooks I 206 Five poems for grandmothers 211 Marrying the hangman 216 Four small elegies 219 Two-headed poems 222 Nasturtium 231 Solstice poem 232 The woman makes peace with her faulty heart 236 Marsh hawk 237 Daybooks II 238 A red shirt 243 Night poem 246 All bread 247 You begin 248 Contents

From TRUE STORIES

True stories 250 LandcrabI 251 Landcrabll 252 One more garden 253 Postcard 254 Nothing 255

NOTES TOWARDS A POEM THAT CAN NEVER BE WRITTEN A conversation 256 Flying inside your own body 256 The arrest of the stockbroker •• 257 Torture 258 French colonial 259 A woman's issue 260 Trainride, Vienna-Bonn 261 Notes towards a poem that can never be written 263

Vultures 266 Earth 267 Sunset I 268 Variations on the word love 269 Sunset II 270 Variation on the word sleep 271 Mushrooms 272 Out 273 Blue dwarfs 274 High summer 275 Last day 276

From INTERLUNAR

SNAKE POEMS Snake woman 278 Lesson on snakes 279 Lies about snakes 280 Bad mouth 280 Eating snake 282 Metempsychosis 283 The white snake 284 Contents

Psalm to snake 285 Quattrocento 286 After Heraclitus 287 The blue snake 288

INTERLUNAR I Doorway 290 Before 291 Bedside 292 The Saints 293 Nomads 294 Keep 295 Anchorage 296 A Sunday drive '298 n Orpheus (1) 300 Eurydice 302 The robber bridegroom 304 Letter from Persephone 304 No name 306 Orpheus (2) 307 HI The words continue their journey 308 Heart test with an echo chamber 310 The skeleton, not as an image of death 312 Sumacs 313 A boat 315 A blazed trail 316 Interlunar 319

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