Clik here to view.
PLEASE READ THIS
Oh please read this. I know You’re curious. And, I also know, To you, I am underground, And this poem is pathetic, a sound To comfort myself—where you are not found. Just to know that you see This,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
I AM PART OF THIS WORLD, AREN’T I?
I am part of this world, aren’t I? The overheard conversations, the wine, The announcements on the screen, Someone likes you. What does it mean? Everything is connected to something Unlike itself....
View ArticleClik here to view.
POETRY CLIMBING INTO LOVE
The details don’t matter Is what they say. The band was crazy and just started doing things that way. And people followed. Pitifully, because they followed. The details don’t matter. Think of everyone...
View ArticleClik here to view.
HEROIC VULGARITY
The Raven was replaced by pigeons In the picture above the entrance of the museum, When it was decided in January of 1923, From the moment we first read Wallace Stevens, When modernism alerted us to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
THE LOVE SONG OF THE CEO ENVIRONMENTALIST
To make oil more valuable, the oil men Pretended oil supplies were doomed. So business and scarcity together, Like honored, chaste love, in the 20th century, bloomed. Oil, as plentiful as water, was...
View ArticleClik here to view.
WHITE
That “ginger” episode of South Park was hilarious. Oh hello there. Welcome to my poem on the white race. I knew a blonde guy with freckles, a boyish handsome face, Who wanted to be Italian. He thought...
View ArticleClik here to view.
YOU’RE ONLY HAPPY IF THAT SAD DAY
You’re only happy if that sad day Which made more sadness has gone away. Because it’s gone, and because it was truly sad, The happiness is, today seems glad. Yesterday was sadder than today— You, by...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A RHYME THAT’S RARE
Crying the long tear Because in my lung, a tear. You should have been here. There were three triangles on stage. The show was for one precisely your age. Up into the half light, I could see The...
View ArticleClik here to view.
THE CUTE, NOT THE DOG
The poem, not the man. Can the word do more than the elephant can? The picture, not the woman. Do I want to look, or hear a sermon? The beauty, not the person. Your body loathes the person Who thinks...
View ArticleClik here to view.
SLEEP, WHICH I REJOICE IN
Sleep, which I rejoice in, Is, I realize, not my friend. Having slept when you walked by— I’m now awake. And cry. I miss you—so much. What is sleep’s, compared to your touch? What is sleep’s gigantic...
View ArticleClik here to view.
THE GREATEST HATE
Too much love—then we merely like. Too much hate—then we dismiss— The greatest love and the greatest hate Are when these two have equal weight— Then we die. Suffer. Kiss. The greatest hate is mixed...
View ArticleClik here to view.
WHEN, IN SLEEP, THE UNLUCKY FEW
When, in sleep, the unlucky few, share everything, Nothing is theirs. Their waking is like poetry. Too late for them to say what they really mean. They shared their agony in pleasurable dreams, Saying...
View ArticleClik here to view.
I DON’T KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN NOW
I believe, because I see The mirror, and in it, my beauty, I need to act a certain way, And that’s because of what the mirror shows me every day. Sometimes I excuse myself and go To seek a good...
View ArticleClik here to view.
MOTHERHOOD
Motherhood would not be possible If a woman always and only loved her man. She doesn’t love you. Find another. Do what you can. Sacred motherhood, when the quiet, placid woman Is filled with the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
SHOULD POETRY BE INSPIRED BY POETRY THAT DIES
Should poetry be inspired by poetry that dies? By a black burden on a page, just because it cries? In a trivial moment I became permanent To you. All art is the art of surprise. The composer sought...
View ArticleClik here to view.
CINEMA AND POETRY: A REVIEW OF THE UNCOLLECTED DELMORE SCHWARTZ, BEN MAZER,...
I began to think about a whole lot of things as I was finishing Ben Mazer’s introduction to The Uncollected Delmore Schwartz, just published by Arrowsmith Press. How does a poet exist in an...
View ArticleClik here to view.
DANGER
Man’s best friend viciously attacks the stranger. What you felt was love. Or was it danger? Stand up for yourself until this ends. The truth doesn’t matter. As long as you have friends. The isolated...
View ArticleClik here to view.
OREGON
So you’re going to Oregon! Rosalinda! Why is the one Remaining—who says goodbye— Always full of tears, And the one who leaves for Oregon The one who hasn’t cried in years? Go to Oregon. I don’t care....
View ArticleClik here to view.
WHEN YOU SEE SOMEONE WHO LOOKS HAPPY
When you see someone who looks happy It is no proof they are happy. You and I have been around long enough to know that. Happiness is inarticulate and solemn as a cat. Someone who makes a great deal...
View ArticleClik here to view.
THE ATTEMPT TO OWN
The attempt to own the things we see Is impossible. It was easier to own me. All you had to do was fall in love—and be Everything that I might call my poetry. Now I register everything you do, Even...
View Article