Sunday, October 31, 2004

1498

POEMS TO YOUR BOYFRIENDS

Why not write poems to your boyfriends.
And yet, they seldom
Speak of their need for an exalted attention
Spiked with silly comments
To demonstrate and affirm a private bond,
Perhaps we're fine without,
Maybe the embarrassment saying what you feel
Brings, and with it the fear
Of indifference... maybe it's better not
To risk speaking directly.
And yet the cheapest metaphor around for love's
A baby shooting an arrow.

1497

BILLY GRAHAM'S BIRTHDAY

Right. John Cleese's first communion.
Salma Hayek's middle-school graduation.
John Dean's deflowering. Ed Norton's
Potty training. Carl Yazstremski's
Sabbatical. Adam Sandler's bar mitzvah.
Robert Christgau's report card. Susan
Sarandon's first Bette Davis movie,
The first novel Nicole Holofcener read,
Latifah's first nickname. Billy Graham's
Birthday. Oral Roberts'. Tammy Faye's.
Kofi Annan's first rebuke. Flora Nwapa's
Trip to Port Harcourt. Kasimir Malevich's
Ferberizing. Francesca Woodman's
First polaroid. Gerard Depardieu's first
Audition, Harry S Truman's ride on a train,
Christa Wolf's first flight to the west.
Edwidge Danticat's first day on campus,
Dave Eggers' last day at Might. Ron
Padgett's ride as the Tulsa Kid. Gidon
Kremer arrives to study with Oistrakh.
Russell meets Wittgenstein. Lyn Hejinian
Barrett Watten. Mario Cuomo's first debate
Club. Dylan hears Guthrie. Ginsberg sees Blake.
Bernadette Mayer enrolls at the New School.
Kenneth Koch sends poems to Poetry. Hayao
Miyazaki picks up a pen. Guillaume
Apollinaire peeps through a keyhole.
Paul Klee spills a glass. Nancy Pelosi
Gets in and out of a fight. John Kerry
Looks in the mirror. Jim Carrey writes
Himself a million dollar check.

1496

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR ADDICTS

Losing the first two hundred pounds,
Making the first ten million,
Understanding the first ten times
What's actually you and what's
The distortion anybody likes the sound of
Better than the melody that goes
With the familiar lies; climbing
To an altitude where even cynicism
Can't find a good hold, god,
Even breathing sometimes is tricky.
But where does it come from, the feeling
Of helplessness? You are returning
It isn't too much to say inexorably
To that source, in very different
Shape than when it hit you like
Alt control delete. Keep is yours
And always was. I know you. You do too.

Saturday, October 30, 2004

1494

POEM ABOUT BEING PLAYED

The next time I take a job with the promise
Of access, visibility, and opportunities,
I will do my Cuba Gooding Jr. impression
(Mentally) until I have what I need to get by.
In the meantime I'm getting good at Texas Hold 'Em.

1493

BOMBED JOURNAL

From now on country will be referred to as village.
The cascading seas of paper mean I prefer to think
About incoming magazines over my purported dreams,

A list of the countries affected by the attacks
Goes on much longer than anticipated o bicameral
Consciousness. The political signs aren't uniform

Neighborhood by neighborhood. I labor to provide
A roll of paper towels when the pilsner spills,
And go to work for hand-me-down train videos.

Keeping consistent from dream to dream is my cold
Morning stimulant. The sack in the hall is stuffed
With anthologies, just try and carry it uptown.

The difference between nice and lovable. Leave
Your pizzazz on the stack of coats, cold and cloudy
Perp walk afternoon. Singing along is free, alas.

Friday, October 29, 2004

1492

THE CANDIDATE ON ALGEBRA AIRPLANES

Regrets? I've 'ad a few, says the singer,
Sings the sayer. The thing about singing
On an airplane is, it's like sleeping
With the guide who helps you climb the mountain.
I don't know how it's like it, actually.

What are the airplanes. They are
The newest fleet, complete with a masseuse.
Her name is X. When I vote
And I'm voting all the time
The feeling of anybody's destiny

Grins amiably, suppressing a bitter
Tiger, one nevertheless amusing
And loveable in a dangerous way.
The poet mentions walking across the street
With two small children (her own). Is it

Too easy to be included in a poem?
Try walking across the street
With two small children. Try voting
And maybe even keeping score.
If I speak my mind will I lose it?

1491

THE REASON TO KICK A BALL

Starred papers indicate a prayer is empty.
This emptiness can be acknowledged as a goal
Or reviled. The waste land exists a few miles
To the southeast. Children get caught in hail.

How we charmed a disappearing magnet soda.

I went running towards the soft sound
But clicks came from the aqua screen,

And anything you do once
Is anything you do twice
Until you learn to drop it
Like a sleeping bag in a stream.

1490

FIREMAN SISTER

Sitting out on your house
Watching the trucks arrive silently
(Earplugs) it's light as night
When the eclipse flips the switch
And the Halloween costumes
Come out of escrow

Every machine has a beak

You want to spray but it's not your role
You want to plead with the animation

But the tar burbles uneventfully
Three thousand miles away
And in this context you take the job
The way other kids take their parents' religion

You can say with absolute certainty
That you're on the take
And a hero at the same time
A heroine on the first day of herons

It's snow emitting that particle noise



1489

I NEED TO SEE SOME POEMS

If we're going to continue this conversation
I need to see some poems.

1488

HAWAIIAN SAYINGS

Friends of mine
Moved to Hawaii
And wrote poems.

"Fuck you,
Aloha,
I love you,"
One of them went.

And "Dear Dad,
I'm sending you
Into space now,"
Not a direct quote.

Here in New York
We have a saying:
"Can I help you?"
And another:
"Have a great day."

We also like to say
"Have a good one"
And "Hang in there."

Half of my friends
Who moved to Hawaii
Moved back
To California
All at once.

1487

TODDLER CHRISTMAS

What's this all about? This tree
Ginger perfume and sugar smell,
The lights, the icy drawing pad
Windows, and boxes they say don't
Touch but look at them! better
Than mama's milk, shiny, tied up,
And their only mood is "soon."
Why the needle threading popcorn,
What for the constant singing.
I like it. I like it much better
With its giant dwarves in the road
By the rows and rows of trees.
I don't get why we don't do this
All the time. I can't sleep.

Sunday, October 24, 2004

1486

THE HELL YOU TALKING

Some of their moves star
A midget. Their movies. They
Prefer the term little
Parson. Smoke comes from
The toy tractor, but the boss
Is behind the adding machine.
Trout tip back to look up.
That aisle I'm not taking
Is where they keep the ice.
I'm not talking to you
For a great racket of bees,
I'm sowing sparks in fuzz
Nicks. When you braid, braid
So a drizzle won't matter
And the fog will spoon. Some
Of the moving stares at midges.

1485

SICK MONKEY

Add a cap of bath salts.

1484

NANNIES

The prog rock coming from the upper room
Is probably not being played by nannies.

Boyfriends of nannies are lifer squeals.
They deem sequins a plangent misnomer
For follow-the-lead. It styles them.

What is governed is mild vacuum clicks,
Eh, Miss Bippie? Shown the reasons,

We opt for the less sweet sauce. The wild
Vista inevitably includes three or four,
Ambivalence for hire. Convection.

1483

POETICS OF TRAUMA

The fast expense of the middle evening
Yields a quiet that we stride into, feeling
Only the pound for pound dockside restlessness
A full heart expresses when we feel alive.

In this quiet or one like it, sleep
Turns the pages of the collected comics
Until one so backlit with anguish contorts
Us, just by graphics! and we, or rather I

Jump up. The situation, unmentionable,
Is fucking with me. And it's precisely when
I most need to be proactive that I long
To clean house, file papers, bake bread

Or simply collect my energies unconscious.
No, as they say, dice. Singular: die.
Eventually, next to you I return to rest
And get back up, staring and ready.

1482

HOLES IN THE WALL

Crash the double decker bus
Into the biplane. A toy ball
The shape of a bacterium.

When you wake up a sick monkey
Will be done punching holes
In the wall. Bad monkey! Big holes.

Cold air. Bright light. New day.
Time to crash the double decker bus
Into the rock light.

1481

HAPPY BIRTHDAY QUOTATION

Sent the coast guard a post card.
Paid rent to Bucky Dent.
Mailed the bills to Beverly Sills.
Wrote a note from the boat.
Received a package from the estate of Stan Brakhage.
Sent my absentee ballot by registered mallet.

1480

COLLOIDS

When it's cold I'd
Say a lid's cool, I'd
Disco lala all dolled
For silk suds and coiled
Dill on the lock.

Light won't pass.
Time's allied
With this nonporous
Probable obnox. May
You side with laundry.

Picking up the Piaget,
It's a sleepy Africa
I'm decked out in. I'd
Say a cold side's
Slid loco, o Schooly D.

Friday, October 22, 2004

1479

SICK LISTS

The code says I bell a tape. It reads off
The medicines available for this pick.
There is a dime by the desk's leg, face up.
Many of them come in a gelcap.

The sun will make you feel likely.
You'll ratchet up the pace by night
Only to pass on the gift. A quick look
Into the distance shows you winning.

Monday, October 11, 2004

1478

MEAN SOCCER POEM

When
The
Task
Remains
Focused
On
You

Long
After
Play
Has
Ceased

The
Light
That
Grows

Looks
Into
Its
Caftan
For
A
Midget

Stabilize
The
Cooing
Fright
Network

And
I'll
Covet
A
Civet

Someone
Plays
Piano
In
The
Department
Store
For
Money

A
Troupe
Of
Children
Performs
There
For
Free

Later
They
Will
Kick
Each
Other
On
The
Blurry
Green

For
No
Good
Reason
At
All


Sunday, October 10, 2004

1477

SOCCER POETRY

The active form
Of pinball poetry.

Every item
Describes how
You bring life
To any room.

Meaning is
A team effort,
And yet the star
Has one name,

The team two.


1476

SOCCER POEM FOR HARVEY PEKAR HOUSESITTING FOR DANNY ELFMAN

What is all this crap? Electronic music. Great.

The problem with in-jokes is
The problem with me. I never
Saw the point in followin'
Jerry Garcia around either.

Sometimes the clicking sound.
Is a kicking sound. Monks
Sit around during recess
Because it's fall. The Simpsons.
I hate these words piling up everywhere.


1475

SOCCER POEM FOR HENRY KISSINGER

Henry, why didn't you think of the war on terror?
Or did you?


1474

SOCCER POEM FOR A WHINER

Kick the ball
With the side
Of your foot,

Hit it with your head.

Keep it in the air
For an hour or two,

Send
Me
A
Note
When
You
Quit
Complaining.



1473

SOCCER POEM FOR A HALFBACK

The sound of the highway
Outside Nashville. Airplanes.

Now try it without a soundtrack.

Just the endless motion,
Tracking the benchmarks
If you will. Cardiac
Playmaker, the night time's
The right time for
Staring at the horizon.

Watching it from the satellite
I'm a tennis ball where they're
Doing the lottery, I'm a plastic sack
In a toxic canyon. Forward
And back. Forward and back.

At the heart of every play,
And at the end of play,
Empty as a heart.


1472

SOCCER POEM FOR A FULLBACK

Time is mostly empty space. Money
Considers your love of music
And the placement in your house
Of the commode. Empty space
Is mostly the way the knife goes through
The stationary cow. The butterfly
Is told to recognize its tidal wave.
The father is told to cover his nuts
During the penalty kick. When you attack,
You are like a bee; persistent
As a martingale. And yet there is
The one in goal. He is counting on you.
He is counting the kicks, the blades
Left in his razor at home. Anything
To keep sharp for when you spring out.


1471

Two thousand pieces of butter
Stacked on their cardboard
Under the buffet cart. Art
Is a consolation, and gambling
Is an art. We wait in the lobby
As the busboys go through
Their notes. The Germans
Are rising to meet the day.
Seaplanes come in inaudibly
A hundred yards away.


1470

Two thousand pieces of paper
Fit in my knapsack, but barely.

Telling a story, expecting
To be interrupted. What, though

Is an interruption. You make it
Sound like it's necessarily

Tactical. What if it, sometimes,
Indicates a need. A need

For clarification, confirmation,
Or other frightening latinates.

No thank you. I would rather
Pass the days in a fast car.


1469

NEED SOME WOOD?

There's one now.

The trees fell down
By myself.


Sunday, October 03, 2004

1468

IF YOU FEEL LONELY

Keep going. Eventually
Everyone you ever met
Will be singing along.


1467

THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF THE STACKED

Unknown except to the puerile
Is the encouragement of the stacked.
Their existence, a matter of dressing
Neutral for the dentist, back pain,
And developing a laserlike glare,
Nevertheless gives the male sex drive
Two boundary-reinforcing reasons
To smile, albeit mainly in private.


1466

BASKETBALL ON THE BEACH

Soccer, maybe. Frisbee. Kitesurfing.

Some sand packs hard enough, say,
Cape Canaveral.

The beach itself
Is basically unuseable.

The head of an enemy Aztec --
Make a baby voice at it,

Have a dream
Of a nuclear explosion.

Everything costs money,
Including fire.

We stand around and admire
Our incomprehension.

We're out of time outs,
And the waves could win an Oscar.

I love the sun,
That's who.


1465

BITTERSWEET LITTERBUG

I can hear the critics -- they're me.
They say,
This is better known as
Robert Pinsky on the Simpsons.

This is a plastic bag
Aloft in the street,
Stolen from a thief
Who swiped it from a thug.

Do you know Bubble Duck
And Bugs Bunny? All the trash
Has germs
The tundra devil sends

To Germany movies. That's what
Bubble tundra is. Bittersweet
As lingerie
By the side of the road,

How do you like your hearts,
Mister Jinx Card.
Price lists, candy wrappers.
The messiest object

Contains multitudes. I can hear
The signs by the side of the road
Say "Bette Midler." Inside a joke
It's too dark to read.

1464

POEMS FOR CATTLEMEN

America -- we stand around
And make sure something
Doesn't get away. At the end of the day

We collect a check, or,
In most cases, some chits
To use at the px. Pecos Bill

Understood this. June Carter
Says that even if you were a miller
She would persist in her wish

To be impregnated by you;
What you do is not who you are
And where you live

Is a matter of luck.
Feel lucky. It may be the cows
Do too, even if

They're on the wrong continent
To be revered, Texas always
Looks like India to me,

And Indonesia the Caribbean.
When you go McDonalds,
The burger you order has come

From forty different countries.
In investing, they call that
Diversification; McIndex Fund.

Anyway, everybody from France
I ever met, the first thing they want
When they get here is a burger.

It's a shame about the BSE over there.
It couldn't happen here, and I know
Because they made Oprah say it couldn't.

Now if you'll excuse me,
I've got to go work out how
To collect and convert methane

Into useable fuel.
Adios, pardner.
Happy sunset to you.

1463

PHOTOREALIST CAR WATER REFLECTION

Art, you mirror, you gorgeous
Hubcap chrome of a sad afternoon
Spent on the hostile hospital grounds.

Saturday, October 02, 2004

1462

A POEM ON FIRE

Alive and racing
Through -- excess
That cannot be

Released faster
Than it comes to be,
A cousin of rust,

Analogous to orgasm
And expiration date.
Fuel, heat, and

Oxygen. The flame
Is much more like
A light bulb's thread

Than I knew, too --
Soot so hot it shines.
Smoke is water,

By the way, old
Breath, and ash. It
Is not necessary;

A clean flame
Produces no visible
Exhaust. If being alive

Means a metabolism
Is chugging along,
Fire isn't alive.

The head of communications
Pops her head in my office
And asks if I've got fire;

She isn't suddenly taking
Up smoking -- a birthday party
Is about to commence.

I smoked four cigarettes
At a party, and on the fourth,
My boss lit my hair.

Caroling one Christmas eve
The same thing happened
To the girl standing next to me,

One I was sure about. Joan
Of Arc is admired for getting
The attention of all France

But she is remembered best
For her wedding ceremony;
The fuel is what we will forget

And will kill to acquire.
Gathered below the lighthouse
We watch the sky for fireworks;

John Cassavetes said
He never saw anyone die
In an exploding helicopter;

Most go from a slow process
Invisible except how it affects
Others. The best part of

Williams's Paterson is
The fire in the library;
Alexandria a hill of ash

And Sappho recovered
From sarcophagi. A small child
Asks about sarcophagi

The forest fire crosses
The eight lane highway.
One plane issues blue smoke

Another streams red
And now and again one
Plummets into the trees. Which

Kerouac book is it that starts
With Ti Jean running down the hill
After a season working as a spotter?

Excess, wrote Bataille, no
I'll let you look that one up.
That the sun keeps going

Is perfectly understandable
To physicists, therefore
We go to poetry readings

And have few sacrificial rites.
We're able to release that energy
Before it consumes us.

1461

COMEDY CANDY WITH A K

The older child stands a good foot
And a half taller than the toddler,
Who, baffled by the candy-colored
Apparatus on the white disply cube
Not at all, harbors dreams of rolling
His controlling elder down the chute
To land in a frog's palm by the machine
Vending candy in the frog supermarket.

1460

COMEDY CANDY

When she wears my candy ring
Then like bluebirds I will sing
Ring around the bending rosie,
Col., 2001, feat. Parker Posey.

1459

BAG KNIFE MIND EYES TAKE AFTER DAY

The bag knife-mind eyes take after day
Floats on its back on the current
Above the yellowing landscape. The flash
Is coming from a hill in the park.
Who goes there? No one, since the slaying
Back at tulip-tree time. It's morning,
And someone ought to mention; when it's hot
They call it humid, and cold equals damp.

1458

TK PENDING LEGAL DISCUSSION

Friday, October 01, 2004

1457

TURTLES GENERATE POEMS

No wonder they move so slowly --
Somebody in there is
Trying to write.

1456

RIDICULE

Sensible to have it under lock and key,
Or baby-latch at least.

In botany, known as pollarding.

Yes, very clever.

Its polarity
Can reverse suddenly.

Scribble scribble scribble,
Eh, Mr. Gibbon?

In fact, Jesus like Marlowe
Was capable of insult.

Remind me again
Why I care?

1455

From above but also from the side
The hurricane is more of a peony
Than a marigold. A marigold is football
After sunset, and turtles
Generate poems.

1454

I ADMIRE YOU FOR LISTENING TO ALL MY PROBLEMS

A wide range of terms may be substituted
For the second word in that sentence:
Hate, pay, get back at, tease, will perform
Acts,
etc etc. There is an economy

In which unbridled confession
Is rewarding for everyone. The link between
Poetry and religion -- discuss. You identify
My feelings, and that's no scheme

Of sleepy luncheon meats. Listening
Turns the young man into a tree. You hear
Everything I'm saying and somehow manage
Not to try to control me...

Sometimes I remember that when I say
What can I do I'm doing it. Some positive
Comments unbind the rubber band from
Inside the back of the ace.