Tag Archives: poetry

A DAMN

A DAMN

always
in a rush to
publish

sometimes I leave typos
all over the page

sometimea my
typos
themselves
have typos

sometimes I wonder
when I write

where the Hell
is the poetry
where
is that thing
the poem

not in the world
and apparently
not
on the page

maybe
I should go look
for it

maybe we
should all go
look for it

try to figure out
what the Hell
has happened to it

go
find Dante
he
   being the
expert in
such matters

hear it
from  hia own mouth
hear it from
all those
voices

the blessed
and the damned

how
   small poetry has got
allowed
itself
to get

barred from Heaven
closed off
from Hell
lost
all its real estate
kicked
off its land

nothing big left
to talk about
nobody listening
no
imagination
inspiration

so just shovel that shit put
it
out there
have to
put it there regardless

put it out there
fast and
furious
      wrap, drench
the world in it
before it dies
entirely

no time
to worry about
this and that
the dream
of certainty
delusions
of perfection

the time
for care
and concern
has all but
vanished
is long-
time gone

no worry about typos
lack of rhyth, rhyme
missed meaning
what
does not
scan

no one
gives a fig

no one gives a damn

THIRTEEN

THIRTEEN

woke up
in the middle
of the night
to watch Alan
Dershowitz
debate Glenn
Greenwald

over the absolute
necessity of surgical strike
bombing
the shit out
of Iran

which Dershowitz won
hands-down handsomely by
ultra cogent argument
and
persistent
interruption

and being
a Harvard Man

this being the University
that refused thirteen
students
their degrees

woke up
to watch
Alan
Dershowitz

in an alternate
universe where
they had removed
all the universities

Dershowitz
talking the same old
safe-talk
     shibboleth

the clock
somehow gone wrong
gone
hopelessly
intertextual

telling me it is
no time
for peace
for lying secure
in bed
thinking
poetry

already
on the verge
of striking thirteen

CLEAR

CLEAR

on the farm
there are no rivers
there
is no sea

just a fence
that cows from
the next farm
sometimes
trample
down completely

and do
I scour the fields
looking for paper

need to draft a sign
of warning
to prohibit entry

write a letter
to someone
to

separate the sheep
from the goats
the sea
from the land

the real
from
the surreal

keep
boundaries clear

OF THE FITTEST


OF THE FITTEST

I like the way
you shot this scene

but what
does it mean
what does
it mean?

why this blocking, these
camera angles, this framing?

what does your cinematography
do for, what is it
doing to my poem?

so much you have to
surrender to reach
a wider audience

sacrifice gleefully, even
ecstatically,
for
  your art
to
survive