Tag Archives: poetry

NOT TALKING

NOT TALKING

sadly poem

and film of the poem
are no longer
talking
to each other

film
of the poem
is still in embryo
stuck
in the concept stage

the scriptwriter
is trying to hook
a producer’s interest
presenting
a synopsis

everyone is wondering
how much of poem
should be
dropped, how
much embellished
in order to
produce an adaptation
that does not just
do justice but
extends, re-
interprets (without
going full
Charlie Kaufman)

metaphor
synechdoche

we can open with a tracking shot
to outdo Orson Welles or
Robert Altman

lingering seemingly forever
of each of
the seventeen syllables
all
of the three

shimmering lines

SHUFFLE

Shuffle through selves
as though through cards

Tarot cards
really ancient, origin
God knows where

that reek of dark
and translucent magic

and here
is the Empress, all
Aphrodite
she I was most faithful to
in the face of
steep disregard

her beauty, as you see here,
leaving me floundering
leaving me speechless

reading in the arcanas
the failures of my journey
as I cling to
this mask trying to
keep it secure as
it slides down
my face

the tragi-comic smirk
moulded there
mocking my feeble
attempts and onrushing failure
as I grope in
this swallowing darkness
for some
kind of illumination
some
kind of source perhaps there a

complete reading, a divination,
the wisdom
that I need

if there is wisdom
you always telling me
we can
find the wisdom
(so Empress-like
in everything
you
do).

SOLDIER


poem is
special
forces

is soldier in the war
against being
dumbed down

will
teach you
how to fight
feed you ammunition

one, two, three
programs on TV
crafted supremely and carefully
to dumb
us all down

enough there for more than 
the odd pot shot
need some serious serious
poetry
great poetic guns
with heavy
metaphoric artillery
                     your intellectual life
here
    in my hands

GO FIGURE!

GO FIGURE!

was in Heaven enjoying the brand name
slurping bubbling carbonated cola
through a golden straw

thinking of all
the people in my life
whose names I no longer remember
(don’t feel bad, or alone:
I no longer remember my own)

did they make the cut?
hey who the hell knows?
it’s all
immaterial

but life
lounging by the soda fountain
is not so cool — albeit eternal
when
stripped of all its chemicals
devoid of its additives

seems whoever is in
charge of censorship here

is letting me
express some alternative ideas

a bit of a blow to those
it must be
sacrificed themselves
for
Holy conformity, divine
regimentation

go

figure!