tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78528578574544774352024-03-18T23:48:25.437-04:00i thought i was new heregregory lawlessUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger59125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852857857454477435.post-17670410255732866672016-01-16T12:07:00.001-05:002016-01-16T12:07:57.875-05:00New Interview about FAR AWAY is up at Heavy Feather Review<br />
<br />
Jack Christian interviewed me about my new book, FAR AWAY, over at <a href="http://heavyfeatherreview.com/2016/01/12/my-own-sad-little-kind-of-prayer-an-interview-with-gregory-lawless/">Heavy Feather Review</a>. Please check it out, and if you are interested in reading the book, you can order it <a href="http://www.spdbooks.org/Producte/9780990804703/far-away.aspx">here</a>, <a href="http://redmountainpress.us/order-books-here-2/">here</a>, and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Far-away-Gregory-Lawless/dp/0990804704">here</a>. And you can order Jack's great book, FAMILY SYSTEM, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Family-System-Colorado-Prize-Poetry/dp/1885635273">here</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852857857454477435.post-25931118309972484212015-10-12T17:00:00.000-04:002015-10-12T17:00:26.867-04:00New Interview about FAR AWAY<br />
Kristen Bulger was kind enough to interview me about FAR AWAY over at Barnstorm. Check <a href="http://barnstormjournal.org/blog/the-writers-hot-seat-gregory-lawless/">it</a> out, and you can order the book <a href="http://redmountainpress.us/order-books-here-2/">here</a> and <a href="http://www.spdbooks.org/Producte/9780990804703/far-away.aspx">here</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852857857454477435.post-22469156507279713732015-09-19T09:26:00.000-04:002015-09-19T09:26:08.760-04:00Factoryville Eclogue<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"<a href="https://english.wisc.edu/devilslake/issues/spring2012/Lawless.html">Parabolic birds</a>. The color of stories."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 17.5636px;">The first poem in my new book, <a href="http://www.spdbooks.org/Producte/9780990804703/far-away.aspx">FAR</a> <a href="http://redmountainpress.us/order-books-here-2/">AWAY</a> (</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 17.5636px;">winner of the 2014 Red Mountain Poetry Award)</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 17.5636px;">, available now from </span><span style="color: #3b5998;"><span style="background-color: white; cursor: pointer; line-height: 17.5636px;"><a href="http://redmountainpress.us/">Red Mountain Press</a></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 17.5636px;">.</span></span><br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852857857454477435.post-2437880447852847722015-09-02T07:29:00.001-04:002015-09-02T12:39:59.777-04:00Order FAR AWAY, Winner of the 2014 Red Mountain Poetry Prize<br />
"The <a href="http://redmountainpress.us/order-books-here-2/">world flower</a> has eaten thee."<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYpD6V9n6iOn4U0nJ4QfAibTot-IQP0yan3oyDJzTxbx17fRIPUSsAmgqHegqxxP2dY5Fozi4szP4v-ckJ8-HIWoKr7YLujAnaW3q3JhO7LCdC7BzeX6_jWTTHLXbvMTBRp4O-EXCJ2TCN/s1600/Lawless.FAR-AWAY-FRONT-COVER.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYpD6V9n6iOn4U0nJ4QfAibTot-IQP0yan3oyDJzTxbx17fRIPUSsAmgqHegqxxP2dY5Fozi4szP4v-ckJ8-HIWoKr7YLujAnaW3q3JhO7LCdC7BzeX6_jWTTHLXbvMTBRp4O-EXCJ2TCN/s320/Lawless.FAR-AWAY-FRONT-COVER.jpg" width="195" /></a></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852857857454477435.post-42959109070906794482015-06-14T07:59:00.003-04:002015-06-14T08:02:11.867-04:00Far AwayHere's the link to book purchases with Red Mountain Press, including my book, <i>Far Away</i>, which will be out on October 1st and which appears at the top of the list <a href="http://redmountainpress.us/order-books-here-2/">here</a>. The book description is below.<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">The poems in </span><em style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Far Away </em><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">explore the gothic landscapes and depleted economies of a semi-fictional state on the margins of empire. The beleaguered voice at the center of this collection wanders through foreclosed houses and shattered relationships, caught between vision and memory, forgetting and curiosity . . . . Human loss and state neglect overlap in </span><em style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Far Away</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> to reveal a republic of isolation.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852857857454477435.post-55939987751705207732014-07-08T20:32:00.000-04:002014-07-08T20:33:34.301-04:00Book AnnouncementHere's the link to a little congratulatory note about the new book on the Dream Horse Press <a href="http://home.comcast.net/~jpdancingbear/dhp.html">website</a>!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852857857454477435.post-46143212464831506872014-06-26T21:41:00.000-04:002014-06-26T21:46:29.459-04:00Four New Poems by Andy Stallings<div class="MsoNormal" style="page-break-before: always;">
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<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="page-break-before: always;">
<b>To Nico Alvarado<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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It isn't like</div>
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you find your</div>
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way in rooms</div>
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your friends have</div>
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left still cresting</div>
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with their laughter</div>
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years ago it</div>
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isn't like in a</div>
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backyard filled</div>
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with mint &</div>
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children you </div>
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think you see </div>
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(someone has</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
died) what you</div>
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might still call</div>
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god or a ghost</div>
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or illusion but </div>
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it isn't</div>
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like you can </div>
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ever understand </div>
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what fills your</div>
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willing arms</div>
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outside of money</div>
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with no regret</div>
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& outside there's</div>
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rain so it isn't</div>
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like you see </div>
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through trees</div>
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dark & close the</div>
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girl's face</div>
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in the train</div>
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window passing</div>
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lit & looking</div>
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out it isn't like</div>
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that not now </div>
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but anyhow</div>
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again you flood</div>
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with longing</div>
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with love you</div>
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always will lifting</div>
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from the garden</div>
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a radish from its</div>
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coil the hose</div>
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from its mirror</div>
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the radiant</div>
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night & all</div>
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the melancholy</div>
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songs you sing</div>
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to your</div>
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children hush</div>
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Cecilia your son's</div>
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alright it isn't like</div>
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there's nothing</div>
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pure as death to</div>
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give repair & we</div>
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fall to sleep the</div>
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sound of rain &</div>
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radio decay grown</div>
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clear around</div>
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the edges of our</div>
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lives it's not</div>
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repair though </div>
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you know I </div>
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think it's there </div>
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we acquire</div>
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music</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">To Zoë Clements<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Last night <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">together with <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">you I <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">rode an open trolley<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">between the wharves &<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">worn-out strip malls of <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">some foreign distant<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">city<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">you described<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the golden rooms <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">& mint groves of<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Tennessee I heard<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">music in it &<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">anymore there isn't<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">a thing to mourn for<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">not an absent<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">hand not a name<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">withdrawn<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">everyone sees<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the sky sliced up<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">before us<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the more I am <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">distracted mid-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">sentence by this dream<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the more I drift<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">past storybook Eiffel<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Towers into the day<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the more I<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">meet you on this hopeless<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">tarmac in steady rain<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">& call where we stand death<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">& speak openly of<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the dead &<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">weep<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">today's the white<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">tunnel through a furled<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">flower's stem & outside<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the moon &<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">inside the moon<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">&<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">here's the brilliant<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">hairdo brilliantly<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">clean & <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">here's your<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">asking of the city<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">whatever it will not give <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">in this case<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">forever<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">there's a passenger<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">across the aisle as quickly<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">gone you<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">want them back<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">more than you want<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">your index finger <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">say – <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">hey<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Zoë the children<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">are sleeping still<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">& it's Christmas<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">morning generous<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">dust-lovely Budapest must<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">feel so fresh<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">today the decent<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">cafes occupied <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">by good-looking<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">middle-aged women<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">learning chess &<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I have named<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">this tarmac death &<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">somehow really do<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">believe in ghosts<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">& leave the doors<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">unlocked<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">& sing to<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">keep them near a<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">song though<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Zoë it can't <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">hold us all <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">home around me<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">sings an elegant<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">boundary & here<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">with the children I<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">take ordinary <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">walks full of <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">language <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">outside the wide<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">reflectivity</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">of night</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; page-break-before: always;">
<b><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">To Hunter Deely<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">What
consoles me<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">what
causes me<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">even
now <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">to
be hopeful<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">is
the image<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">of
Earth's final<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">enduring
silence:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the
reddening<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">planet<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">mostly
metallic<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">floes
in magma<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">quiet
& flush<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">with
speed as it is<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">absorbed
by<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the
chromosphere<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">first
ablation <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">of
the crust<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">then
the mantle<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">vaporized
then<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">a
last push<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">to
the heart <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">of
the world<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">&
all music<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">&
all weather<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">&
all love I<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">harbor
&<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">distribute
at last<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">will
have been<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">properly<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">without
meaning <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">at
most<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">a
brief expansion<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">of
light from<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">a
dying star<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">&
yet<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">among
all of<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">you<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">to
have been<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">without
meaning<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 5.0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="page-break-before: always;">
<b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">To Jay Thompson<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I've just set down<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The Astonished Man</span></i><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">& come inside<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">where I feel<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">less alive<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">& can write<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">my shadow<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">out there soared <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">over the lawn & <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the driveway<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">out to the sea<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the sea already <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">darkening in<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">late sun &<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">it will rain<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">tonight<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">my shadow soared<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">tremendously<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I had to give up<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">reading<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">things like that<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">always turn me<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">around<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">distortions<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">recognitions<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">gestures &<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">things once <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">meant<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">to be seen &<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">to know<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the story<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">as soon as I've<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">seen a tugboat<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">roll its engines &<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">speed ahead<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">of an oil tanker<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">on the river<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">while a sailor<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">walks like it's<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">nothing across<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the deck it's <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">enough <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">for me<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I don't need<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">to watch him<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">haul up the ropes<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">or shut the hatches<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">to know<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the shape of his work<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">sometimes <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">it's as though the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">dream of open<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">ocean is<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">more perfect than<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">open ocean<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">it's not<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">a story can<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">make it feel <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">that way<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">but even when<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">you come to<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The Astonished <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Man </span></i><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I'd rather <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">sit silently with <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Manolo Secco at<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">some desolate <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Brazilian filling <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">station than read <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">about it in prose<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I'd rather read<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">a diary than<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">a book of poems<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I'd rather take<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">a walk with you<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">than either<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">we won't have to<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">go far to feel<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the good air all<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">around us crashing<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">blossoms fooled by<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">false spring who<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">cares how<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">brief I'd give<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">anything to get<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">fooled for awhile<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">like that<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">to poke an anthill<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">with a branch the<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">last storm dropped<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">watch a kite<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">in the rain<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">& not to stand<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">for even a minute<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">in place<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">it is the character<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">of thought to share<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">when you find you are<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">stopped & looking out<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">at the sea it's time<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">to move on<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">to say hello I'm<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">walking here <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">to the distant<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">ships sliding ahead<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">to never look<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">aside or<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">behind because<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">what was<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">with you is<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">with you always<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">& requires no<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">amplification it<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">simply moves<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the danger is<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">thinking too<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">clearly or <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">too long<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Jennifer showed me<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">how to pronounce<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">profond aujourd'hui<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Abi explained <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">what it meant<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Melissa & I<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">stood in the kitchen<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">& I wanted only<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">to stand in <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the kitchen an <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">hour longer not <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">quite understanding<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">or able to say<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">knowing the<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">language just<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">keeps it from you<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">right?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">living is living <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">& no one <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">ever needs to<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">plot it out?<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">there's a story<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">about a man who<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">arrives by boat it's<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">not a small town <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">it's a city but <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">one impressed by<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">news of itself<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">so that anything<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">heard on one street <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">echoes everywhere<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">secretively but<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">fast the man<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">must be some<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">kind of marvel<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">a minor king of<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">business entirely<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">modern or maybe<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">he works in movies<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">it's said he'll<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">stay a week &<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">there are others<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">traveling behind<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">his trunks his <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">cameras his people<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">he walks into the city<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">carrying nothing<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">he's looking for<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">some secret some<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">essential truth<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">of the city the way<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">it regards itself <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">when men like him<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">aren't around with <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the promise of <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">movies reflecting<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">back a face as blank<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">as the one it gives<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">to strangers<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">but the city is not<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">so closed he discovers<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">though its smile as well<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">may be a kind of guard<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">when he gets that far<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the man sits down<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">for lunch<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">& for days the city<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">thinks only of<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">his lunches<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">at first he orders<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">only the local foods<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">anemones shellfish snails<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">hot broths & oyster<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">sauces alcohols<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">but soon he asks<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">for spitted wrens<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">roasted turtle different <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">African brush fowl<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the proprietor<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">orders each & each<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">is delivered by lunch<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">next day at exorbitant<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">expense but the man<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">pays for everything<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">in advance there's<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">nothing he will not<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">order nothing he<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">will not eat<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">it gets so <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the schoolboys <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">walk past<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the bistro as soon<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">as they're let out<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">each day <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">they lean across<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the low iron fence<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">to ask what he's<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">ordered & remain <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">nearby to learn<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">how he eats the thing<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the lawyers stroll past<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">twice a day leaving<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">for & returning<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">from siesta even<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the judges & council<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">members pass that<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">way & turn as they<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">pass to watch the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">man in movies<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">take his lunch<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">only the port workers<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">maintain their distance<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">either they know<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">there have been delays<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">or that there could<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">never have been<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">delays & that either<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">way the man will<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">stay on alone<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">what could they say<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">at this time<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">that would alter<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the story<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">is there more<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">anyhow<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">that I need<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">to tell of course<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">he meets an<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">important woman she's<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">married to the mayor<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">or runs a gambling <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">den she'll do<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">anything he asks &<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">he knows how to<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">handle that<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">no one knows<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">where they sleep<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">or if they sleep they<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">couldn't possibly sleep<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">just as the city<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">begins to lose itself<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">to enter once &<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">for all the script<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">writing itself<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">a woman arrives by<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">sea in the dead<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">of night few people<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">see her but it's<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">said she's an <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">African queen or the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">heiress to <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">an oil or tobacco<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">fortune in the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">States she<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">finds him in<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the bistro or on<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the outskirts it<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">doesn't matter which<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">maybe before <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“you do <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">what the moment <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">requires but<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the moment &<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">maybe one day<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">& the city that is<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Baskerville; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">nothing but motion <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieXIQgm2RVVNFzFJG5JThFeiQco4uv1tZM0MmDo2kW9CnVGmfIK_Z8bn5nnl2NbGRq4HTPgpstkWsYo-x6epls7F5YH9BYG_hXjtEAXjN_Z2UNkd7eXtLYpHEdex_gfHinqD6EbncciCeX/s1600/Andy+Pic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieXIQgm2RVVNFzFJG5JThFeiQco4uv1tZM0MmDo2kW9CnVGmfIK_Z8bn5nnl2NbGRq4HTPgpstkWsYo-x6epls7F5YH9BYG_hXjtEAXjN_Z2UNkd7eXtLYpHEdex_gfHinqD6EbncciCeX/s1600/Andy+Pic.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-hyphenate: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Andy
Stallings lives in New Orleans, but will soon move to Deerfield, MA. His first
book of poems,</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">To the Heart of the World</span></i><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">,
will come out with Rescue Press in the fall. These poems are from that book.</span><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; mso-fareast-language: HI; mso-font-kerning: .5pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; mso-fareast-language: HI; mso-font-kerning: .5pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; mso-fareast-language: HI; mso-font-kerning: .5pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; mso-fareast-language: HI; mso-font-kerning: .5pt;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852857857454477435.post-87720559231724496432014-04-21T08:50:00.003-04:002014-04-21T08:57:55.677-04:00Three New Poems by Matt Mauch<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What you won't see here is Orion, for it's neither winter nor night.</span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A Uruguayan you couldn't see the Southern Cross</span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">A phenomenon one can
shake off<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">like a fly on the hand<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">if considered in terms
of its thermodynamics, but if considered<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">in terms of an animal
nature<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">being present in one,
not the other,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">the fact that the
temperature of the air above the asphalt<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">is palpably warmer
than the temperature of the air<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">above the grass<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">if you feel it with
your vulnerable parts<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">feels like the asphalt
exhaling—think wide, wide, wide open mouth—<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">and can lead one to
scratch one’s calf absentmindedly<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">and in my case led to
dragging a fingernail across a burn still healing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">In the asphalt’s
mouth, I waited for a telegram<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">that said I would
henceforth be a snake<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">with a one-lunged,
transparent-eyelided way of seeing things.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">The me that was didn’t
slither but walked to the middle of a bridge<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">where the shadows of
the trees and the shadow of me<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">were like giants who
couldn’t shake hands.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">One kept trying. You
could see him leaning, reaching<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">out to the left, to
the right.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">The reacher had the
smallest shadow.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">The bridge was over a
river, not a road.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">The water was as black
as night in the country<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">and got blacker the
more that I stared.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">It took staring to see<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">that the river had a
removable heart.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">It took a rekindling
of my old</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman Bold"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">belief in the tone<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">that tells me when to
turn the page</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman Bold"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">to see that it had,
perhaps, two or three of them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">That it was agile
enough to swallow things you wouldn’t’ve bet it could<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">didn’t
stop me from making the constellation <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">man
with more arms and legs than most<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">reaching
both out and down. I was thinking<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman Italic"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I’m a net, and I can save you from your
death<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman Italic"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">if you’re falling here and now</span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--StartFragment-->
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11pt;"><br clear="ALL" style="page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A Winter Wind storm lead-pipes and cheap shots the wind chime,</span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">like wind isn't a thing but things acting in the fashion of a mob,</span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">a
gang that’s decided beautiful random notes in a minor key<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">are
something to be beaten up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I
hung the chime on a horizontal branch in spring. I looked for the tree’s ears.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The
tree conceived of as one end of a teeter-totter,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">it’s
the Boeing 727s and whatnot overhead<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">that
weigh the opposite end down.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I
was trying to make the contest fair.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">A
tree without discernible ears probably doesn’t contain the sensory capacity<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">to
miss the wind chime,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">and
a small old garage doing double duty as a shed<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">probably
will not be in awe of the wind chime’s potential<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">soundlessly
hanging inside it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Hoping
that each of them might do so<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">is
a disposition that in large part explains<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">why
my to-do list is so long.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">My
thumbs get cold fast. My gloves are torn at the opposable seams.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Replacing
them is on the list.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Moving
the chime isn’t, it’s me following my guts,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">trying
to get through many volumes of lists.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I
would never beat up anything making beautiful random notes in a minor key.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">One
night I went to the Howard Johnson’s bar<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">because
we all thought that watching the antics of the divorced<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">picking
up the divorced<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">would be a hoot.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The HoJo’s it isn’t there anymore.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I can’t go back to do proper restitution, hugging
the divorcees with my eyes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I
hug that way more I do with my hands.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11pt;"><br clear="ALL" style="page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The brain in the body in the house whose owner</span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">you curse, call a lazy piece of shit</span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It
reads some Proust while quieting the stomach<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">with
what billboards along the esophagus say is a cousin<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">of
the oatmeal Gallway eats alone, is lumpish and willing<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">to
disintegrate, is incantatory. The brain would prefer<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Proust’s
epidermis of light<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">to
its own, in-need-of-lotion skin,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">a
no-brainer of an upgrade that forces the mouth to flog<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">the
self with </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman Italic"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Who wouldn’t?</span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">, when out of the nowhere<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">that
the brain knows is really a somewhere unnamed<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">the
memory of a newspaper and a bloody mary and hashbrowns<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">from
when you could smoke in bars and read<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">about
the serial killer next door, about whom the best thing<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">any
of the neighbors say worth capturing<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">verbatim
is, </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman Italic"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I never saw it coming—who knew?,</span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">and
smartass that the brain is, it thinks, </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman Italic"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I bet his
victims did,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman Italic"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">albeit late in the game,</span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> and next the brain realizes<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">another
way for it to be late in game,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">if
the game is one’s engagement<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">with
the real, is renaming the black cat using a boot for a pillow<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman Italic"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Marcel</span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">, renaming the brown cat on the sill<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman Italic"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Kinnell,</span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> which is like dress-up, which prompts<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">the
groin to send up images<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">and
the wrists to hunker and steel<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">in
preparation for handcuffs<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">until
the brain in a Memo: To Everyone<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">says
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman Italic"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">chill</span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">, which feels like waking from a dream,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">and
this is still just a transcript of eating breakfast alone<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">slowly
as a way to avoid civic responsibility, delaying<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">the
clearing of last night’s snow from the walk<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">which
has to be done to avoid the fine<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">which
ultimately is why the brain stops thinking<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">about
the shovel and allows the arms to wield it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman Italic"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">After the snow’s cleared,</span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> is what the brain promises<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">the
stomach and its child’s attention span,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman Italic"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">you will have earned a sandwich made with
leftover turkey</span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">a
voice in the bowels says on record<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">needs
to be eaten today or thrown.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://www.mauchmauch.com/">Matt Mauch</a> is the author of </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman Italic"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><i>If You’re Lucky Is a Theory of
Mine</i></span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> (Trio
House Press), </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman Italic"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><i>Prayer Book</i></span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> (Lowbrow Press), and the chapbook </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman Italic"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><i>The
Brilliance of the Sparrow</i> </span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">(Mondo Bummer). His poems have appeared in numerous journals, including
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman Italic"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><i>Salt Hill</i></span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">, </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman Italic"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><i>H_NGM_N</i></span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">, </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman Italic"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><i>DIAGRAM</i></span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">, </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman Italic"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><i>Willow
Springs</i>, <i>The Los Angeles Review</i>, <i>Sonora Review</i>, <i>Water~Stone Review</i>, </span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">and on the </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman Italic"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><i>Poetry
Daily</i> </span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">and</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman Italic"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">
<i>Verse Daily</i> </span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">websites.
He hosts the annual Great Twin Cities Poetry Read, and also the Maeve’s
Sessions readings, and edits the anthology </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman Italic"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><i>Poetry City,
USA</i>, </span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">an annual
collection of poetry and prose on poetry. A Minnesota State Arts Board Artist
Initiative Grant recipient, Mauch teaches in the AFA program at Normandale
Community College, and lives in Minneapolis.</span><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852857857454477435.post-42032638404077371672014-03-16T18:02:00.000-04:002014-03-16T19:17:37.621-04:00Five New Poems by Matt McBride<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-family: Garamond;"><i> From ACROSS THE GRAND PIANO</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">bowing <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>briefly
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">measuring the mechanics
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">i remember you were there<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">for awhile<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">a white forest of candles<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">the movements of <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">a hundred powdered heads<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">fragments of<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">and delicate<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">ocean<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">at times great walls<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">a country <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">the soft charcoal of <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>shadows<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">glued on a compass<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">a half rose<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-nxYAIvXq0UMr-lcYCoU7m_efM1Goeh5zCEk47WQAQ4fa4PWBLvvSDFD8UHDAPGj3qni1uyfZzipgfEOok2qIz1UKbVrUuJJ6zuy4hFlgOr-WJCNOBKLQOe2o_xhgsFGajKXt9O_EkD_S/s1600/Matt+McB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-nxYAIvXq0UMr-lcYCoU7m_efM1Goeh5zCEk47WQAQ4fa4PWBLvvSDFD8UHDAPGj3qni1uyfZzipgfEOok2qIz1UKbVrUuJJ6zuy4hFlgOr-WJCNOBKLQOe2o_xhgsFGajKXt9O_EkD_S/s1600/Matt+McB.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="background: #F7F7F7; font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.5pt;">Matt McBride
teaches composition as a Senior Lecturer for Ohio State University. He has
poetry appearing in or forthcoming from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Another Chicago Magazine</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Columbia
Poetry Review</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cream City Review</i>,
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">FENCE</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Pinch</i>, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Smartish Pace</i>
amongst others. His latest chapbook, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cities
Lit by the Light Caught in Photographs</i>, was released in 2012 by H_NGM_N
Books. He works on staff at <a href="http://memorious.org/"><span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Memorious.org</span></a> and
Vouched Books. His blog is <a href="http://inventionsofthemonsters.blogspot.com/">http://inventionsofthemonsters.blogspot.com/</a>.</span><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852857857454477435.post-2830425816227304762014-02-17T17:40:00.000-05:002014-02-17T18:37:43.542-05:00SEVEN NEW POEMS from Lauren Haldeman<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">TEAM KEEP SLEEP</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> </b> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">This is my first draft and I join team
‘Keep Sleep.’</span><span style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My number is behind me on my uniform. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On occasion I feel the iron-on plastic’s
curve <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and it feels like a eight. I might be an
eight.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our jerseys are off-white; our symbol is
a pile <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">of fingernail clippings, slightly turned<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to the right. A lawsuit requires this. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If shown from above, the pile too closely
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">resembles the symbol for ‘breath.’ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our colors are tooth-white & brain- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">white and diamond. Our cheer goes <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">like gin down our followers throats. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tomorrow, we play the team ‘Recall of
Elephants.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They supposedly compete with their eyes
fully closed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On their uniforms they’ve scribbled <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the text of team movements in layers of
grey pencil <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">on light parchment gear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is said <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">they remember. It is said if shucked open<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">their brains are not ‘whiteness’ but
instead<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">slung with ink. For practice, we ambush <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">some trainers that scamper <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in an elephant costume all over the
field. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I do not understand this. I forget where
I am. If <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">my tackle is blank, I fill it in with a
blur.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is my first draft. It is game day,
and now past <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the populace a comment on my athletics <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">is flashed. I’m so dominant an extreme <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in my complex of living that each day
begins <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">backwards from each hit I divvy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So I join up team Keep Sleep. My back has
a digit. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In a minute, I’ll witness the wipe of my
tackle. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><b>11/23</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"> </span><span style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"> </span><span style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">I’m your mom. I step up. I attach a papier-mâché
wolf head to my head, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
I tie fur to my back; I am your mom now, <br />
<br />
a pine tree carved into a bantam, <br />
a strong wind holding up an animal. I am your mom. <br />
<br />
You don’t have to test your hold -- <br />
you can use the vines, you can pull yourself up by my teeth. I am your mom, <br />
<br />
a heliotrope & plasma pile, steady, weather passing me; <br />
this is my job, I’m your mom, I am <br />
<br />
astronaut, helmeted raven; I am neutrons, plum-pits, core-mantle metallurgy.
Baby, <br />
you can pull yourself up by my teeth. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<b style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<b style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<b style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<b style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">LES QUARTRE CENT FLYING BUTTRESS</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<b style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">First, an icy tundra where</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
our parents build a chandelier. A gallery<br />
portrait: one has bubble eyes.<br />
Mom says, see the trees<br />
through the crystal: it is<br />
like a festival. We are watching<br />
<br />
multiple headlocks and the myriad forms<br />
of evening, immersing<br />
slowly in our heirlooms. Here<br />
at the most perfect location<br />
for a pyramid --<br />
my wrist. You can peek through the<br />
<br />
upper spatial window: inside it,<br />
the spider and inside it: a hive.<br />
Know that the spider is mathematics<br />
alive. & Out from<br />
each of us runs a star-proof. In our flesh-shape,<br />
a wake of multiple rabbits<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">spiral through the tubular field. This is nice:<br />
a Zippo lights up<br />
in the ginkgo. A box of breeze unravels<br />
the window. Bubbles<br />
of voice and data bluster by<br />
in this ice cave where we’re made<br />
<br />
as small as we like. For instance,<br />
a curve could pass us in<br />
two directions. From our ambient manifold<br />
we gather ourselves. This cavernous air<br />
filled with geodesic loops.<br />
And those -- The friendly tubes!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-right: 204.0pt; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>CROATOAN</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-right: 204.0pt; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-right: 204.0pt; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p><span style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"> </span></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When the hypnotism lifted, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was unusually alone. Hungry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Knelling. Taciturn. Strange <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">smelling. Your plank boat on the bank <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">was replaced with dark leaves <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in the shape of a boat. Heavy fog, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">hickory. There was always some <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">consternation among the birds. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There was always a letter, blood-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">streaked, in a bottle. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But this time, it seems, it is very <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">real. I’ve called for the monitors, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">but hear only hissing. A new <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">word is written all over the trees. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve considered
the thicket, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">but only the dogs will go in it, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and they always come out <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">acting strange. Even Manteo. Very <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">slow. Leaning, as though<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to tell a secret. But nothing. He seems to <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">know nothing at all. And nothing <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">erases the way your face blanked <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">when they came up speaking<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">with flags. Nothing fogs<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">how you smiled and nodded as they <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">slowly coddled you down. When <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the hypnotism lifted, I lay prostrate <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">among catamounts, charcoal <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and fluttering shapes <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">on the stage of a new century. Kudzu <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">luggage filled the lark’s fort. Half of<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">us wandered the courtyard,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">whispering.</span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 204.0pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 228.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><b>FUNERAL INVITATION</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">Watch as my funeral becomes very calm.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It happens beneath the third lamp on the
street. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was a lamp once, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">inside this big life <o:p></o:p><span style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">--</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An epistolary record <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">that scattered the leaves. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now a shadow and a mailman pass the
procession, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">both of them mixing up each other’s
lines. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I pet the purring <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">gnat on my chest. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I bite the light-bulb <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">inside the gnat’s mind. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As always a motor sings in the distance. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Somewhere, a bike makes continual leaps. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Under the sky, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">flanked by cats on all sides, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I notice my skull <o:p></o:p><span style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">--</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">it devours the breeze. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This gravel is gorgeous. It’s so wild and
contained. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are enormous projections of
friendship today. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I put on this coat of<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">unavoidable feelings. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I walk to the fire-pit<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and take off my head.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">THE POSTBELLUM OFFICE</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Six huskies will be hitched along by dawn;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Embroidered on my coat, the village heads.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In perfect composition, one by one,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The townsmen knot their wishes to my
sled.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They have no right to place their trust
in me<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For I have been ignored until, now sick,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They come to me as to them came disease <o:p></o:p><span style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">--</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So in that waft, my un-picked hand they
pick.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ll say of course that I am coming back<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To harvest boon with any skull that’s
left;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But as I tie the Wolf’s Bane to my neck,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I take both traitor-breath, then
hero-breath.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Departing past their patron eyes, I
think:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I’m running through these woods,
choosing these things…” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">12/30</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While the smaller human sleeps, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">observe its forehead: </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">a glowing cord reaches to connect<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to the mom-skull. This is how the pair<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">will integrate sleep patterns.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can tell by the bright-green dashes flowing through <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">that a dream about mares<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in liquid-dark has been shared.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The infant world is, in fact, liquid-dark.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Infant arms push<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
electric outer-space water. Watch it through<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">these goggles of emerald night-vision: the child
bends,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">syncing, toward the loading mom-skull.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">People here call this<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the 'neon whisper.'</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "High Tower Text"; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "High Tower Text"; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "High Tower Text"; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGs_thqKb_ONCXQEVBGtKFk1HCXHNP21QwD3EBp41lTFaEy8d4ZpeC__8zq4dfBVMr2ALB20d7TRUmSUcvoYnc3BQPem0uuILeq2LTVY7L1FvsKhVHnzw3QnH0bX0IqVl_Kj5ocjHcDLiG/s1600/haldeman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: 'High Tower Text'; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGs_thqKb_ONCXQEVBGtKFk1HCXHNP21QwD3EBp41lTFaEy8d4ZpeC__8zq4dfBVMr2ALB20d7TRUmSUcvoYnc3BQPem0uuILeq2LTVY7L1FvsKhVHnzw3QnH0bX0IqVl_Kj5ocjHcDLiG/s1600/haldeman.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lauren Haldeman’s first poetry collection,</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: #F9F9F9; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"> Team Photograph</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">, is forthcoming from Rescue Press in Fall 2014. Also: she’s a
mom and makes paintings.</span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852857857454477435.post-74341315387814091922013-12-02T19:08:00.000-05:002013-12-02T20:13:05.415-05:00Three Poems by Matthew Lippman<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">LIFE DURING BLOGTIME</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">I’m tired
of blogs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">Taking off
my pants and sticking myself in there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">The ones
about truck drivers and the ones about contemporary poets named Melissa.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">It’s so
much goddamn work, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">so many
hours under the covers,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">the dim
light, the darkness, the words and words and words <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">that remind
me of ants at the ant hole, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">going in,
coming out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">I know
three bloggers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’re all
dancers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">One is an
intuitionalist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">She spends
hours studying mental hospitals and schools, museums and The Capital Bldg <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">right there
in the middle of chicken wing Washington.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">I said, “What’s
the point?” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She said, “The point is to get out the
kinks.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">I was hot
for her and that’s the only reason I asked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">Read my blog</span></i><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">, she said, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and you’ll get the picture</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">I didn’t
want to get the picture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">I wanted to
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">be</i> the picture.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">I wanted
her lips all over my chest and then a nice cold beer, a Schlitz, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">from the ‘70s<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">when even
telephones <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">were
something everyone had to get used to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">Now, I turn
on my computer and I’m spent, blog-whipped and wet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">I turn on
the TV<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to relax--<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">the Celtics,
The Lakers, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">those damn
Yankees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">But there’s
no TV on the TV<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">just blogs
about the blogosphere<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">zipping
across the pixels--<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">twelve
hundred postings on the second inning,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">the fourth
quarter, the missed layup at the buzzer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">I get
pissed,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">throw my
shoes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">They bust
open the screen<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">and there,
in the back of the broken Mitsubishi<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">are a bunch
of Polish people <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">dressed in
black <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">dancing The
Polka<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">like it was
Polka night<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">on the
Lower East Side <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">years
before the war.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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</span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">THE WORLD AT WORK IN ITS WEIRD HEART<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">(for Paul)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">You can
lose friends off of the backs of ships.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">You can
lose them off of pine trees and the sides of toilets <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">after hours
in front of the single malt scotch. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">Some of
them will make it to Iowa <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">and blow
their brains out on porter house steak.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">Others will
take their sweet time on the FDR <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">at three in
the morning <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">as the
Williamsburg Bridge turns lightly into a multicolored dinosaur. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">It’s a steel
nail in the gut <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">and you
move into the morning with your coffee <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">trying not
to think about them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">But you do,
there at the copy machine, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">in the
middle of the meeting on higher consciousness <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">between
business deals. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">Joey,
Bobby, Billy, Miranda, Chloe.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">Back home
the wife takes her toast and brings the children to school <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">while on
her way to work <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">texts back
the billions of ones and zeros <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">that make
up her sadness and joy<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">because she
has lost them too. We all have. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">It’s the
world at work in its weird heart.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">We lose them<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">off of
blazing pink gladiola petals <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">and in
front of empty t.v. screens. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">It’s a kind
of easy destitution no matter how scarce oil is now <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">and water
will be in three hundred years. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">Friends are
lost to the steam of three hundred silent grasshoppers<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">and to the
story you tell yourself every morning <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">about how
it was her fault and his indiscretion and their madness. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">But they
can come back, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">like a
busted guitar string, broken mid-song <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">as you flit
with the morning crow. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">You reach outside
with your voice <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">and call
out among the coils, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">the spins
of humdrum life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">You put on
your mankind <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">like an
over-sized cheap suit <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">and say, Hello,
I’m back. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">It was not
you who was lost, it was me, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">and I am
here now, with my suspect instrument <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">caught up
in the strings, one note at a time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">SENTIMENTALITY</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">I wept in
the barber’s chair. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">I wept in
the dining hall. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">I listened
to Van Morrison and I wept. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">I took out
all my sneakers and put them in the rain.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">The rain
went barefoot across my face. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">I wept in
my face and I wept at home plate. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">When I wept
in the box I was four for four. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">I struck
out twice. The game went hours <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">and when I
got home I iced my knees. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">The dog
wanted out and we wept under the tree.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">The tree
said, go, go home and we wept in Van Morrison. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">My dog said
<i>enough </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">so we put
on Sweet Baby James. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">Everyone
weeps on Sweet Baby James, gets him all wet, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">and if you
say you don’t <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">you have no
idea. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">It’s not a
matter of taste. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">It’s just
what it is, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">the aching
in your heart that you can’t hold back with words and books <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">and
theories and language. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">You put the
needle on the record and boom, you are inside out <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">with no
lingerie on. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">I’ve wept
in lingerie and I’ve wept under a bridge, homeless, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">with four
cents in my pocket. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">I’ve wept
so much in the bathroom I couldn’t stop <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">and when I
stopped <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">I didn’t
want to stop. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">I did it
some more. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">I don’t
care how many hours it took me to finish, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">I never
finished. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">I am
weeping right now, in the attic, on the roof, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">in front of
the TV. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">It is the
only way. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">It is the
most joyous of things, with a clear head, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">it makes
the head clear, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">an ocean in
Barbados, an ocean in your head. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">It is a
love song of songs, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">a weeping
song, whale song, woman song <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">weeping
inside her child. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">I weep for
her. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">Who weeps
for me? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">She weeps
for the sun. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">Today it
shines on the earth <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">and the
earth weeps because it is happy, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">even in its
terrible sadness <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">it always
has something to smile about. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGXWlyUPUpMFKBOtvsUBf2XVfO7Rc6eXfRNCix4szwjld_VfRhcbvUG4GxWJCXtOsUf-5hwATRFpxZGqlCXOERzhofuGQIjAyPHJ52nE2ZZvFlN-2gD1i-nyRq9bGFydXKSEaOyD745geY/s1600/1454238_10151974265948164_895796578_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGXWlyUPUpMFKBOtvsUBf2XVfO7Rc6eXfRNCix4szwjld_VfRhcbvUG4GxWJCXtOsUf-5hwATRFpxZGqlCXOERzhofuGQIjAyPHJ52nE2ZZvFlN-2gD1i-nyRq9bGFydXKSEaOyD745geY/s320/1454238_10151974265948164_895796578_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">Matthew
Lippman is the author of three poetry collections, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/American-Chew-Matthew-Lippman/dp/0989561100">AMERICAN CHEW</a>, winner of The
Burnside Review Book Prize (Burnside Review Book Press, 2013), MONKEY BARS
(Typecast Publishing, 2010), and THE NEW YEAR OF YELLOW, winner of the Kathryn
A. Morton Poetry Prize (Sarabande Books, 2007). He is the recipient of the 2010 Jerome J. Shestack Poetry
Prize from THE AMERICAN POETRY REVIEW.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852857857454477435.post-21362938327761072022013-11-02T09:57:00.001-04:002013-11-02T10:03:18.495-04:00Six Poems by Peter Richards<style>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">Lord I do
worship</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">another
lord he is always</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">saying
terrible</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">animals
will come</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">from the
sky and they come</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">to feed on
those who</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">ponder them</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">Mars those
who you call</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">dwelling
people pass through </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">prayers
just like you do</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">coiled if a
bell </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">might run
though the woods shouting</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">I’m coiled
flatly</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">they have
tall fears mars</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">they do not
lack happiness</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">they pray
to one god</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">and they
pray to some</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">mars for
many of them you</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">won’t be
one of them</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">you
crawling from one</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">shoulder to
another mars</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">what is it
you do</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">trepidation
sire</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">is that all
with an ax rubbed</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">blushing
companion</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">Mars a
white egret </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">not snow
white but white the times</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">earth fell
down upon</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">Unnamable
Lord this morning</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">telling me
not to worry rain has her</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">own endless
solitudes and discreet</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">joys and
not a rain occurs in a crypt</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">all is god
space borne rain intercept</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">Lord you
are the sound I have heard </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">all hopeful
summer a great gray owl</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">you are the
enormity in the universe</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">so many
loving pretenses blanket me</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">Lord you
are not falling down now </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">Lord my wet
leaves to look at Lord</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">and in all
this secondary rain work </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">Lord I hear
you more allowing me </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">to love you</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">Mars one of
the new horsemen my</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">god the
most black canister blue eyes </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">we call him
soul engraver wild blue eyes </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">he tells
the best early mars campaign </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">stories
mars your ice was a bat sipping </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">blue wine
mars he tells us all the meat</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">stories
mars your first campaign never </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">knew mars
you were such the sibyl licker</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">back then
thin inveterate death talking</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">slight
power without me to kiss yet</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">Bradley I
want you to lie down<br />
now in this bed of Christ water<br />
and hear the sounds of pheasant <br />
myrtle and to know there are many <br />
who by imagining this too intently <br />
<span class="textexposedshow">are put here too Bradley but that </span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">was me that I could hold you and tell </span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">you why so optimistic god is now </span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">all throughout this new affidavit</span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">silk worm vapory forced to grow </span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">on a loom they say is the consistency </span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">of the court and it has the court’s logic </span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">and that it proves by way of your own</span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">brave acts Bradley no constitution </span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">to their argument and those who oppose</span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">seeing you imprisoned for loving us</span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">Bradley some of them are said to ride </span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">out to live with you thickly now though </span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">we are unpresent and we have to leave </span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">early I want you to know those traitors</span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">who live in galleons so they could put </span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">you here Bradley are said to be captured </span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">in this new affidavit as white shiny tables</span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">and upon them walking and as though</span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">through tall white conveyor grasses ones</span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">walking dim witted in long agony white</span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">fireless mealy eye their own eye is what</span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">we serve them and yet still they walk </span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">with their one eye agape at the mind</span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">left evacuated by its own foul accoutrement</span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">and Bradley some of them go missing </span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">in the aftermath of their own skull colors</span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">they plead and plead until we give their</span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">skull colors back to them and they have</span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">white fins growing inside their mouths</span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">and in this one white glass passenger sack </span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">they are each being incubated into love’s </span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">fate absence</span></span></div>
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<span class="il"><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">Peter</span></span><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";"> Richards is the author of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oubliette </i>(Wave Books), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nude Siren</i> (Wave Books), and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Helsinki</i> (Action Books).</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwbQ4sUxQUEZ5hXJfRLp9JZfzq9WtHxSdKwc_IeFT9pBkAoXV78ndvOj3sCJKRKH_9Yy7lX-y4y6t5SIhyBco9TuEc16RW_83eQwm66JpWs1IMfVWJqf9rRYFhNhbx8sGi9O7h-RKpBvqI/s1600/author+photo-+09+2013+peter+richards.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwbQ4sUxQUEZ5hXJfRLp9JZfzq9WtHxSdKwc_IeFT9pBkAoXV78ndvOj3sCJKRKH_9Yy7lX-y4y6t5SIhyBco9TuEc16RW_83eQwm66JpWs1IMfVWJqf9rRYFhNhbx8sGi9O7h-RKpBvqI/s320/author+photo-+09+2013+peter+richards.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852857857454477435.post-91297832452802404842013-08-15T11:39:00.000-04:002013-08-15T11:39:46.294-04:00 Around Here They Use Words Like "Ghastly" & "Dreadful": New Fiction from Robb Todd<div class="MsoNormal">
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The old pop star rubbed my ankle with her toe under the
table. Her fame had faded before I was born. Her boyfriend was a professional
killer from another country. He was sitting next to her. He had a heavy accent.
He was her son's age, my age. Her son was a dear friend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
The toilets in her country home were unfucking real. They
did not have handles on the side. You had to pull a silver rod up from the top
of the tank. Immaculate flush. The toilet bowl was so clean and big you could
bathe a child in it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Two children were running around. They smashed the keys on
the grand piano. The old singer wrote some of her worst songs on that piano.
Those same songs bought this house and a few others. The children screamed.
Their mother said something about pharmaceuticals. The old pop star said,
"Oh, dear, please beat them before you resort to drugs."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A plastic tube connected the singer's even older brother to
a hissing oxygen tank. He told tales about formerly-famous people, all dead,
who only ever had careers in black and white.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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A little boy bounced against my chair. He cupped his hands
around my ear. He whispered, "Motherfucker, tittie-sucker, two-ball
bitch." He laughed. He ran away. My dear friend taught him that phrase to
torture his cousin's wife.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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His cousin's wife put the kids to bed. She came back to the
table. She told all of us about how much she hates fucking her husband. Her
husband was sitting next to me. He said something back. They smiled while they
ripped each other apart in front of family and strangers during the holiday. It
was amazing to watch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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There was still food on the plates but nobody was eating.
More drinks made it more ruthless. My dear friend changed the subject by stripping
down to his underwear to show off his new yoga body. He was ripped. He had been
fucking his yoga instructor for a few months. He cranked up the stereo. He
danced around, tugging his shirt back and forth between his legs, rapping the
song's lyrics: "The bridge is over! The bridge is over!" He
interrupted the performance to tell his cousin's wife that she is a
ball-breaking cunt. He actually said "cunt" and
"ball-breaking."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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The bridge is over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
The trained killer from another country spoke five languages
and said “nigger” in each of them. He also expressed dislike for homosexuals.
The old pop star's brother wheezing on the oxygen tank was gay. She told the
trained killer: "Shut the fuck up."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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My dear friend asked me to tell his family the story about
the threesome I witnessed between my father, my father's then-wife and a
hooker. I put my hands over my eyes. He insisted. I told the story and he
scolded me for skipping over what he said was the best part. He told it for me:
"His dad was fucking the hooker from behind while the hooker was eating
his dad's wife's pussy, and his wife was staring into his dad's eyes and kept
saying, 'Fuck her harder. Fuck her harder! Fuck! Her! Harder!’" My dear
friend shouted, "Yesss!" and pumped his fists and started dancing
again, still in his underwear. Everyone laughed. But the story was not true. My
father did not do that. My wife and I divorced not long afterward.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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The old pop star fingered the hummus. She was drunk, like
everyone else. She licked her finger clean, sloppily. She nodded off into a
small pile of mashed potatoes. The trained killer lifted her out of her chair.
He carried her beautiful old bones back to her room like a fireman in a house
that was not burning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Everyone talked shit about him when he left. My dear friend
mocked his accent. We all laughed. My dear friend's cousin said, "I don't
see anyone else taking care of her."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
The old pop star's gay brother took off his oxygen mask and
said the trained killer was a fucking dolt. I had never heard someone call
another human a "dolt" in real life, only in old movies. My dear
friend said the trained killer's cock is a fire hose. He said his mother goes
through a bottle of vodka‚ and a bottle of lube‚ every day. His cousin's wife
said, "Good for her and her ancient pussy!"<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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My dear friend told us that the motherfucker tittie-sucker
two-ball bitch with the even bigger estate down the road is an heir of the man
who invented felt. This cannot be true. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Everyone went to bed except my dear friend and me. He opened
the fridge and drank the last beer in one tilt of the bottle, and said,
"Let's get more."</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
It was dark and the roads twisted and we sped through a
covered one-lane bridge and around curves lined with bare trees and along cold
creeks, and a song I never really cared for came on the radio, and my dear
friend turned up the volume and sang every word and drummed the steering wheel
and closed his eyes as we cornered, and it is, yes, funny how the night moves.
I sang with him. We sang the entire way, even after the song ended.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqAMj3lZAZs4ki5NRuJ6h52L_tLunk0osIQ2NkVP07Dn2d5MnZcM_rX2D_DsSlWxp4khehEgpMpAi4Zfw6_tqzBE8n6E7H_np8GlqH6t30D-Iucvuo6w-VVmCgushIW0qQ1WlPwkVPBMah/s1600/2012-12-21+22.53.25+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqAMj3lZAZs4ki5NRuJ6h52L_tLunk0osIQ2NkVP07Dn2d5MnZcM_rX2D_DsSlWxp4khehEgpMpAi4Zfw6_tqzBE8n6E7H_np8GlqH6t30D-Iucvuo6w-VVmCgushIW0qQ1WlPwkVPBMah/s320/2012-12-21+22.53.25+copy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">Robb Todd, author of the collection <i><a href="http://www.tinyhardcorepress.com/books/current-titles/steal-me-for-your-stories/">Steal Me for YourStories</a></i>, has worked as journalist, columnist and editor, and his
photography has been exhibited internationally. But all he really wants you to
know is that he has never seen a pigeon walk backwards. Visit him at </span><a href="http://robbtodd.com/"><span style="color: #1155cc; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">robbtodd.com</span></a><span style="background: white; color: #222222; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852857857454477435.post-78286618631137203622013-04-30T09:20:00.000-04:002013-04-30T09:20:39.766-04:00Two New Poems from Ryan Collins
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 16.0pt;">Dear Madison— <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Cakes
& stacks counted, our tinsel steerage <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;"> stretched
to the seam-splitting. The undoing
of mass & <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;"> matter
reveals a particle god at the stone-sharpened edge<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;"> of
light speed. <i>Do-on’t stop/believing</i>, o undetoxed brother! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Our
leathers toughen despite retreating glaciers, despite <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;"> lower
case wind chills. So what
everything isn’t frozen—<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;"> do
we ever fully thaw? It’s hard to
lament bike racks & <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;">scraped elm braches & parking meters not appearing as
<br />
giant novelty ice cubes twelve weeks out of the year. Of <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;">course there are accounts to be paid. The storms of this <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;"> century
have fuckall to do with weather.
More the climate. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;"> We
shake & chandelier w/out putting boots on the ceiling, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;"> closer
to boots on the moon, boot to the Kool, the steel-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;">toed kick in the face blasting you awake, your short term
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;">memory clouded & hacked. We are corrupted files. We <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;">corrupt the clouds as we accelerate through an infinity
of <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;"> blind
left turns & prayer w/ each breath to be obliterated <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;">& fully incorporated into the light of our thin-aired
maker. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 16.0pt;">from<i> The Challenger Deep<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;">Giant
waves rise plates fold <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;">The sea
floor roars back in<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;">To deep
sea microphones <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;">Capture the sound being <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;">Destroyed pulsing through <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;">Bodies collapsing every gap <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;">Every
space air hides into <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;">Shatter bolt-like graves litter <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
ocean’s floor fifty tons<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;">Of
gasoline absorbed no fire <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;">No heat
to float to the surface <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;">Waves
seven miles down rise <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;">Consume
the surface warmth <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
deep’s pressure summoned </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDpGc3GypA-O1aOW7bOqhuqspcZ5YHRDtbK1bgNJthvhY2V8OeSR2c6cEbAgOm4M-mun8dF0TiHSHEDLraj1HUaKvdwVMCj1SdDetKe9Y1kBDNRmg5jI-3OSz9kVxnFLGozRqZ8l_qgdsh/s1600/07_RyanCollins.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDpGc3GypA-O1aOW7bOqhuqspcZ5YHRDtbK1bgNJthvhY2V8OeSR2c6cEbAgOm4M-mun8dF0TiHSHEDLraj1HUaKvdwVMCj1SdDetKe9Y1kBDNRmg5jI-3OSz9kVxnFLGozRqZ8l_qgdsh/s320/07_RyanCollins.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;">Ryan
Collins is the author of three chapbooks, most recently </span><i style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;">Dear Twin Falls</i><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;"> (H_NGM_N, forthcoming 2013).</span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;">His poems can be, or will be, found in </span><i style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;">American Letters & Commentary</i><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;">; </span><i style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.thediagram.com/12_2/collins.html">DIAGRAM</a></i><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;">; </span><i style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;">Forklift, Ohio</i><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;">; </span><em style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;">Handsome</em><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;">; </span><i style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.h-ngm-n.com/h_ngm_n13/ryan-collins.html">H_NGM_N</a></i><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;">; </span><i style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;">Ilk</i><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;">; </span><i style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://iopoetry.org/archives/1593">iO</a>: A Journal of New American Poetry</i><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;">; </span><i style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;">Scud</i><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;">; </span><i style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://smokinggluegun.com/2012/06/27/ryan-collins/">Smoking Glue Gun</a></i><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;">; </span><em style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://sporkpress.com/poetry/?p=346">Spork</a></em><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;">; </span><i style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.transomjournal.com/issue4/Ryan_Collins/Ryan_Collins_1.html">Transom</a></i><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;">; the Hell Yes Press cassette anthology </span><em style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;">21 Love Poems</em><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;">;
and many other places. </span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;">He is the
executive director of the Midwest Writing Center and an English instructor at
St. Ambrose University.</span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;">He plays
drums in The Multiple Cat and lives in Rock Island, IL.</span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852857857454477435.post-60115441287735687992013-04-15T09:24:00.001-04:002013-04-15T14:19:28.825-04:00Gregory Lawless: Next Big Thing Interview for Foreclosure <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;">What is
your working title of your book?</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;">Foreclosure</span></i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
<b><span style="background: white;">Where did
the idea come from for the book?</span></b><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;">The book’s origins were formal. <i>Foreclosure</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>consists
largely of spatially-constricted (short-margined) prose poems, which I started
writing as a solution to poetic exhaustion. I had just finished a
manuscript and felt trapped in certain ways of speaking and seeing. So, I
sought out prose as a cure to my stasis and poemsadness, which worked, in no
small part, because I<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>felt</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>like
I could say things in prose that I couldn’t say in lines. I also loved
how the poems travelled quickly<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>down</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>the
page, since vertical descent, in poetry, more or less equals moving forward in
time—and that illusion of progress helped trick me into a new idiom.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;">Topically/thematically: I wanted to work with a kind of
fictionalized visual journal, a mode as kinetic, inclusive, and inherently
generative as the form described above; what the poems “documented”—visions of
withered landscapes, psychological extremis, the spoiled economies on
Northeastern, PA—took shape gradually as the project matured. I started
by describing images of abandonment, empty houses, etc., which were then on my
mind (this was in late 2011). Eventually it became clear that I was
describing, in addition to derelict properties, the retreat of capital—which,
incidentally, the descent of natural gas mining corporations on Northeastern,
PA has done little to redress. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;">What genre
does your book fall under?</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;">Pastoral prose poems. Post-nature paralytics.
Ecopoetical ravings. Regional hallucinations. Great Recession elegies.
“Country Surrealism.” Some or most of the above.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
<b><span style="background: white;">Which
actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?</span></b><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;">Nervous, repressed watchers, a bad wife, a bad father, and a
handful of fitful bit players appear in this collection. So maybe a young
Dustin Hoffman from the first half of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Straw Dogs</i>, ineffectual, always fixing
his glasses; Laura Linney qua wife; Brad Sullivan qua father; and a smattering
of extras from<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Wiseblood</i>.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
<b><span style="background: white;">What is
the one-sentence synopsis of your book?</span></b><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;">I’m sure I’ve written it by now. But if I haven’t:
Voyeuristic pastoralist suffers ecopoetical ravings in Ambivalence, PA.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
<b><span style="background: white;">Will your
book be self-published or represented by an agency?</span></b><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;">Published through Back Pages Publishers, an exemplary operation,
run out of Waltham, MA.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
<b><span style="background: white;">How long
did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?</span></b><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;">My first draft was an insult to the word<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>draft</i>,
but I’d say 1½ months.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
<b><span style="background: white;">What
other books would you compare this story to within your genre?</span></b><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;">I’ll talk about influence instead of comparison first: those books
by Richard Hugo and James Wright that deal with American towns and cities in
demise. Plus, a number of works of non-fiction: Alan Wiesman’s<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>The
World Without Us</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>was very
important to me, as was James Galvin’s<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>The Meadow</i>, Edward Abbey’s<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Desert
Solitaire</i>, Bill McKibben’s<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>The End of Nature</i>, Thoreau, Barry Lopez,
John McPhee, and many others…all of which, in different ways, helped me<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>describe
into critique</i>, if that makes sense—to interweave drama, context, and
argument in one work.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;">And<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Foreclosure</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>compares to any book of poetry that
hovers nervously in the vicinity of the fraught pastoral, simultaneously wary
of and lured by it. Many contemporary pastoral poems regard themselves as
anti-pastorals, or post-pastorals—they imagine that the pastoral is<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>impossible</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>because it’s terminally problematic,
and, thus, they fret in the wake of that “fact.” The poems in<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Foreclosure</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>fret differently, I guess—not by
abandoning convention or reference altogether, but by manifesting what I call<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>critical
ambivalence</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>toward them—at
times embracing, and at times rejecting these things, as the poems demand.
But ultimately this is a book born of familiarity with a place. I have
looked at certain things, looked at them to death—things extant and crumbling—and
write as though that is the case. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
<b><span style="background: white;">Who or
what inspired you to write this book?</span></b><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;">Partially explained above; the poems evolved from a handful of
ill-assorted prose pieces about abandoned houses into an attempt to confront
both the long- and short-term economic/cultural circumstances that affected
what I—a partial outsider, a soft-exile from the region—was seeing in
Northeastern, PA, specifically on the border between its
post-Anthracite/post-industrial and rural communities. I am a stranger to
this place now, but a conflicted, proprietary stranger, someone without an
immediate political connection to its political disorder, though it’s where I
keep all my imagery.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
<b><span style="background: white;">What else
about your book might pique the reader's interest?</span></b></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;">It’s a book that exposes the reader to contradiction, observation,
befuddlement. It’s a book of problems. It details grief and
grievance in the face of political impossibilities. It’s the flea market
of late capitalism. You’re welcome there anytime. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9EteEPpGflRAlxZVLtHz93Flx2pvQM7vfVtZId1aTqN64v02DBugnAmxuUzB75HIi7t9wMhDygchA-7d-6qN-zJ-GgkcKcp3_RqqKRN757516ttnQQQfObKyZUtSgo4aB-Md1FmT4xHP8/s1600/Photo+on+2013-02-10+at+11.52+%232.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9EteEPpGflRAlxZVLtHz93Flx2pvQM7vfVtZId1aTqN64v02DBugnAmxuUzB75HIi7t9wMhDygchA-7d-6qN-zJ-GgkcKcp3_RqqKRN757516ttnQQQfObKyZUtSgo4aB-Md1FmT4xHP8/s320/Photo+on+2013-02-10+at+11.52+%232.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Gregory Lawless is a graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop and the author of <i><a href="http://www.blazevox.org/index.php/Shop/Poetry/i-thought-i-was-new-here-by-gregory-lawless-92/">I Thought I Was New Here</a></i> (2009) and <i><a href="http://www.backpagesbooks.com/product/foreclosure-gregory-lawless">Foreclosure</a> </i>(2013). You can find his poems in such places as <i>Pleiades</i>, <i>The Journal</i>, <i>Salamander</i>, <i>The National Poetry Review</i>, <i>Sonora Review</i>, <i>The Cincinnati Review</i>, <i>Paper Darts</i>, <i>Ilk</i>, <i>Transom</i>, <i>H_NGM_N</i>, and many others. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852857857454477435.post-55146749851319348432013-03-21T09:09:00.001-04:002013-03-21T09:41:40.693-04:00FORECLOSURE BY GREGORY LAWLESS<h2 style="background-color: white; color: #494949; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19.09090805053711px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 24.545454025268555px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
</h2>
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<div class="node product" id="productforeclosure-gregory-lawless" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(236, 236, 236); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; margin: -1.5em -26px 1.5em; padding: 1.5em 26px;">
<div class="content" style="margin: 0.6em 0px;">
<div class="product-body">
<img align="right" height="158" hspace="2" src="http://www.backpagesbooks.com/files/backpages/LawlessCover.jpg" style="border: none;" vspace="2" width="100" /><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0.6em; padding: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0.6em; padding: 0px;">
<strong><em>PRAISE FOR <a href="http://www.backpagesbooks.com/product/foreclosure-gregory-lawless">FORECLOSURE</a></em></strong></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0.6em; padding: 0px;">
<strong><br /></strong></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0.6em; padding: 0px;">
<em>"The poems of Gregory Lawless are austere, spare, and sharply observed, brief, skeptical, implicated, as they sort through the rubble, and lively with movement. It's a bleak and terrified country in his Foreclosure prose poems, and he meets it with the counterweight of this inventive work that is firmly in the tradition of concrete and musical language which uses all of the tools of poetry." - David Blair</em></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<em style="background-color: white; color: #494949; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.818181991577148px; line-height: 20px;">"Lawless teaches that while pure fixity may be foreclosed to us, knowledge & beauty are still resident - dazzingly so - in the wrecked, the missing & the restless." - Kiki Petrosino</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #494949; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.818181991577148px; line-height: 20px;"> </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #494949; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.818181991577148px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span>
<em style="background-color: white; color: #494949; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.818181991577148px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></em>
<em style="background-color: white; color: #494949; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.818181991577148px; line-height: 20px;">"Beautifully tuned elegies..." - </em><span style="background-color: white; color: #494949; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.818181991577148px; line-height: 20px;">David Rivard</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852857857454477435.post-13560884390287273162012-08-31T11:26:00.001-04:002012-08-31T13:29:51.106-04:00Three Poems by Thibault Raoult <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<i><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 14.0pt; font-variant: small-caps;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 14.0pt; font-variant: small-caps;">Assume
The Open-door Policy<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 13pt;">Doesn't apply to moss, which,
in the right</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 13pt;">Hands, abstracts your everyday
river.</span><br />
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I'm embarrassed, geographically,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">To <i>be</i> the stuffed animal ritual. Shaking<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Off panorama, intend to smell
like fruit<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">You left way behind at your
birth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 14.0pt; font-variant: small-caps;">Disposable
Epic<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">If they say there’s a mystery<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">And if ghost latches on<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">To your residual leapfrog,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Where does that leave me Alan?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I understand my father<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Ate mustard sandwiches.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Banks tune Wyoming.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 14.0pt; font-variant: small-caps;">The Only Ones Awake<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">There’s a mirror in gulf<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">And scraper for field.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Freeze: chimps<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Aren’t toxic!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Way to gang up, Jazmín.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Funny how we repeat<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Ourselves—tears<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">An equation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Thibault Raoult's writings
are forthcoming in <i>Boston Review</i>, <i>Denver Quarterly</i>, and <i>6x6</i>. Projective Industries will release
his chapbook, <i>Communist Couplets</i>,
after the New Year. Thi lives in Athens, Georgia, where he studies in the
English and Creative Writing PhD Program at UGA.</span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852857857454477435.post-16045347346373128182012-06-03T21:44:00.000-04:002012-06-03T21:44:26.348-04:00Three Poems by Cindy Carlson<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<b><span style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">If Emerald
Could Be a Color a Sky Could Be<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">She
peeled the wax back, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> from
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">made
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> a
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">lay
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> in
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">bears:
polar and grizzly, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> realizing
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> called
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">December,
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> herself
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">from
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> Cheer
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">are
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> are
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">turned
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> not
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">not
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> but
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">a
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> enough
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">and
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Garamond;">What to do with thousands of dead blackbirds; or that talk we had
last Sunday<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond;">I’ve been sheen feather <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond;">sky, waiting to fly me <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond;">when starting they fall—<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond;">not float or all softly<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond;">two pounds of black: hard <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond;">on December. Blink eye and gather, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond;">I pull bird to make body, in <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond;">wishness I teeter all edges then <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond;">over. Half light and hollow <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond;">like words I swing air, I swish <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Garamond;">and toe tip, I flap and I fall— <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond;">fully for moments then <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond;">land all cemently, gaining <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond;">what always, they’ve known <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond;">all along.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Museum poem<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Glass
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">transparent
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">we’re
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">held
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">(there
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">has
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">between
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">stutter
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">—the
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">and
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">there
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the
way the lake and wings are<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">fills
my lungs with heat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Cindy Carlson's poems have appeared in <i>The Madison Review</i>,
<i>Sentence Magazine</i>, <i>Shampoo</i>, and other places. She lives and teaches
in Madison, WI where she also enjoys thinking about apple trees.</span><span style="font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852857857454477435.post-4774916460423257132012-05-13T19:52:00.000-04:002012-05-13T19:52:31.161-04:00Two New Poems by and an Interview with Rob MacDonald<b><br /></b><br />
<b>BODY COMMODIFICATION</b><br />
<br />
At the yard sale, I saw that they were selling all my stuff. It was flattering to see so many people grabbing at my past, traffic blocked in both directions, strangers stopping and parking and leaving doors ajar. I was actually proud until I noticed how much haggling was going on: a quarter for my Mardi Gras beads, two bucks for my hunting permit, fifty cents for my whole hip-hop collection. <i>This is a joke</i>, I think I thought. All night, I sat in someone else’s yard, watching the slow erosion of my own existence. When a single mom bought my body, I objected, but my eyes, by that time, were cloudy marbles.<br />
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<b>MEGALOMANIA<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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To make up for their bad
behavior, <o:p></o:p></div>
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they bought me an Atari cartridge.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In Megalomania, you get to
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design your own
government—<o:p></o:p></div>
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purple for pseudodemocracy
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and violet for
totalitarianism.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The people flicker in
predictable patterns. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Give the music a minute to
sink in—<o:p></o:p></div>
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it has no beginning or
end. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I’m not winning. It’s a 1-player
game.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In the ad, it seemed so
much more <o:p></o:p></div>
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exciting, so much less
predestined.<o:p></o:p></div>
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They say I can stop playing <o:p></o:p></div>
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as soon as everyone is happy.<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br />
<b>GL:</b> Your terrific manuscript in progress, <i>Situation Normal</i>, features poems that often recount bizarre and disturbing events in a “normal” voice, that is, a kind of eerie deadpan that tries but fails to enforce normality (control, order, stability) through its tone. Thus the normal, in this sense, functions to keep strange phenomena from spiraling apart, but it also (often) signals an emotional disconnect between the speaker and the churning world at hand. He talks, in other words, like everything is fine, normal, etc., even when it’s not. This mode creates both disturbing and hilarious results, but I’m more curious about the disturbing in these poems. What, then, are some ideas or manifestations of “the normal” from the world/country/mediascape that inspire/scare you into writing these not-so-normal poems?<br />
<br />
<b>RB:</b> I feel like the real world is full of scary stuff that somehow becomes part of the backdrop of everyday life. We’ve got climate change and disease and egomaniacal dictators all lurking around the corner—I don’t think there’s any shortage of signs that things are seriously broken. Hollywood keeps making apocalyptic films, and zombies never seem to get old. It’s a strange dynamic, because we’re fascinated with fictional disasters, but in order to get through each day of showering and going to work and buying groceries, we’ve got to turn a blind eye to the real, looming disasters. And, of course, the corporate machine has plenty of incentive to condition us to either ignore impending doom or view it as entertainment. Romans and lions all over again, I guess.<br />
<br />
<b>GL:</b> The first poem in <i>SN</i>, “Bucket Sort,” is a wonderful ars poetica in which the speaker imagines being “buried under” the weight of his life/words; beneath that shattering but inevitable burden he finds “the darkness beautiful, / the view peculiar, / the weight of it awful.” Could you tell me why the simultaneous presence of these three things is so important to your poetry?<br />
<br />
<b>RB:</b> The relationships among those three elements make life interesting, right? We’ve got to accept mortality and find some way to enjoy the ride. Appreciate the little things while atrocities are being committed. Live as if we have all the answers, even though none of the big mysteries have been solved. Every single time I stop to think about it, I’m overwhelmed and terrified and grateful all at once. In terms of the poetry, I guess I’m constantly trying to make sense of things, and I hope that even when I admit to a reader that I’m feeling lost and small, we can take a deep breath together and enjoy some of the strange magic that’s way beyond our comprehension.<br />
<br />
<b>GL:</b> In the poem “Shame,” you write, “Privacy is exquisite / because none of us / wish our flaws public.” But your poem moves from this playfully cynical axiom to a more cryptic and creative reformulation of the problem of privacy in the final stanzas:<br />
<br />
We can’t bear to see<br />
ourselves upside-down<br />
in a soup spoon<br />
at a sidewalk café.<br />
<br />
This is why Halloween<br />
is sacred: none of us<br />
wish our privacy
<br />
confined to phantasm.<br />
<br />
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What is the risk of having “our privacy / confined to phantasm”? Do you see our privacy in the new century/millennium as becoming more and more phantasmal— spectral, unreal—because it is increasingly encroached upon? And does poetry help protect or generate a kind of privacy separate from the forces that want to destroy it?<br />
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<b>RB:</b> It’s mostly a call to honesty—let your monsters loose, turn yourself inside out and wear your ugliness. We’re all broken and in over our heads, but we’re supposed to fake it most of the time and act like we’ve got our shit together. It’s exhausting to hide all your flaws, though, so I love the idea of taking a day, as a society, to be collectively and brutally honest with one another. That’s not exactly what Halloween’s about, but it could be—a day to make sure that we don’t die without letting the world know who we really are.<br />
<br />
I’m not really looking at “privacy” in the wiretapping sense of the word. In the poem, I’m thinking more about the tension between how we feel and what we say. You’re not going to find a lot of poetry in prepared statements from politicians or post-game interviews with athletes. It’s awful to hear language used in those ways, right? That sort of contrived, stock-phrase bullshit shows up in poetry, too, unfortunately. The stuff that I enjoy reading is like the opposite of a press conference. It’s more like a conversation with someone who’s falling asleep at the wheel—all surprise, no filter.<br />
<br />
<b>GL:</b> Many of your poems are concerned in complex, ironic ways with authentic, or “real” experiences. Your speakers don’t always know what aspects of subjective experience they should count as truly belonging to them. For example, the speaker of “Where the Self Resides” says this in the final lines: “Tell me again / how nearly alive I really am.” What prevents this speaker, or the other voices in your MS, from realizing (in all senses) how alive they really are? What makes it so difficult for them to answer this question from themselves?<br />
<br />
<b>RB:</b> About a third of the poems in <i>Situation Normal</i> are about the process of searching for identity, and different poems deal with different parts of that process. Some of the characters are just opening their eyes, while others are confronting big doubts at the end of life. I’m not sure that there’s one answer to your question, but you’re right that I’m interested in the impossible task of understanding where each of us fits into a world that, ultimately, is a total mystery. In the particular poem you mention, it’s a matter of facing death and saying, “I know I wasn’t perfect, but how did I do?” I guess I worry that I won’t be able to answer that question for myself. And, despite my best efforts at anything resembling religious faith, I’m not convinced that anyone will be there to answer it for me.<br />
<br />
<b>GL:</b> You are editor of Sixth Finch, which has quickly become an essential presence in the poetry world. How have the goals, reach, and content of SF changed since you smashed a champagne bottle against its hull just a few years ago?<br />
<br />
<b>RB:</b> (Your question makes me think of the scene in <i>Caddyshack</i> where Mrs. Smails christens The Flying Wasp, but I’ll try to get beyond that and give you a real answer.)<br />
<br />
I hope that the goals for <i>Sixth Finch</i> haven’t changed—I still want to bring great work to a new audience, and I still want to build stronger connections between poets and artists. The reach, thanks to lots of amazing people, has definitely changed. Our readership has grown exponentially, and it’s nearly all due to word-of-mouth. In terms of the content, I’m sure that the aesthetic is constantly shifting—people are sending us a lot of work that takes risks, and the submissions that get me most excited are often the ones that remind me of nothing I’ve ever seen before. I’d love to keep publishing brave work that really stands out.<br />
<br />
<b>GL:</b> So what’s new with Rob MacDonald these days? What are you writing, reading and thinking about? What new projects are in the offing?<br />
<br />
<b>RB:</b> Recently, I’ve been reading stuff from Heather Christle, Jordan Stempleman, Matt Hart, Emily Pettit, Zach Schomburg, Timothy Donnelly, Leigh Stein, Dan Magers…too many to list. I read a ton of different journals, too, and I’m always excited to discover poets—Chelsea Whitton and Meghan Privitello are just a couple of new favorites.
I’m good at reading, writing and thinking, but probably not as good at projects. (Dottie Lasky’s great essay, “Poetry Is Not a Project,” helps me feel slightly less inadequate about that.) My approach to the business of poetry has been ridiculously passive. When an editor of a journal asks for some poems, I send some over. When someone asks me to be part of their reading series, I give a reading. I have this crazy idea that if I just keep writing good poems, I’ll eventually get an email from one of my favorite presses saying, “Hey, can we put out your book?” Writing is so much more interesting than submitting, but I’m working toward a healthy balance. And while I’m finding a home for <i>Situation Normal</i>, I’m happy to just keep writing new poems.<br />
<br />
Rob MacDonald lives in Boston and is the editor of <i><a href="http://sixthfinch.com/">Sixth Finch</a><a href="http://sixthfinch.com/"></a></i>. His poems can be found in <i><a href="http://www.octopusmagazine.com/Issue11/macdonald.htm">Octopus</a></i>, <i><a href="http://www.notnostrums.com/MacDonald.html">notnostrums</a></i>, <i><a href="http://sinkreview.org/sink-9/the-red-elephant/">Sink Review</a></i>, <i><a href="http://www.esquemag.org/2012/02/04/rob-macdonald/">esque</a></i>, <i><a href="http://www.h-ngm-n.com/h_ngm_n12/rob-macdonald.html">H_NGM_N</a></i> and other journals.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852857857454477435.post-7826727184252871132012-03-29T08:04:00.005-04:002012-03-29T13:13:09.612-04:00Four Poems by Leslie Anne McilroyDismember<br /><br />It’s not the blood, it’s the separation, the part <br />of a whole left to crawl across the floor <br />looking for its body. It’s the foot <br />used as a doorstop, the arm holding up <br />a lampshade, the head in bed with the small man<br />who strokes its fine hair and whispers <br />love notes in its shriveling ear. It’s the storing <br />of limbs in the freezer, the old woman <br />rocking, humming and chewing a hand.<br /><br />It’s the cries of men — no morphine, no arm. <br />the empty pant leg blowing in the wind, <br />the basket of parts. It’s the phantom tingling <br />below the joint and the rub of the stump <br />and its round, raw skin. It’s the grainy <br />video scream as the hooded captor saws <br />at the neck "Allah Akbar!” god is great. <br />It’s the 12-year-olds with machetes<br />crossing the Sudan, hacking. It’s the look <br />of shock on the decapitated face. <br />It’s the twitching.<br /> <br />It’s the girl losing some piece of herself right now<br />in an explosion, a rape, a gangrenous disease.<br />It’s the boy burying what’s left. It’s your cousin <br />being fitted for a plastic prosthetic,<br />picturing his lover caressing the stub.<br />It’s the author writing a best-selling thriller<br />about a killer who collects clits in a butterfly box,<br />the butcher who grinds fresh meat, the nanny <br />who pays good money for a soup bone.<br /> <br /><br /><br />Big Guns<br /><br />They leap from hands, hot and jumpy, <br />looking for something with fur and big eyes, <br />something that can’t talk, or won’t —<br />the thrust of a child into oncoming traffic <br />to play chicken with the school bus. <br />Smitten with danger, we lick the drippings <br />of a Molotov cocktail, the wet smell <br />of burn, gas and rag of it. Smoke.<br /><br />Set fire. Set fire to this dress of soiled peach.<br />Red is what we want. Freedom red. <br />Fight for freedom. It’s worth dying for, <br />especially if you win. And everyone<br />will say so as they salute and shoot <br />again, aiming at the sun, the fire <br />nuzzling up to the center like a bright pink whore, <br />brilliant in the shine of blister and skin.<br />Two shades shy of a venereal crisis,<br />lips swollen with the bruise of malevolence, <br />our wingspan is wide and the meltdown<br />gracious, as we near what will later be called<br />our big waxed death.<br /><br />Still, there’s something small about it, hate.<br />How it lingers on the skin, sours the eggs, <br />makes us mouth words to ourselves alone<br />in our cars, slogans of god and country, <br />human/civil/animal rights, the small <br />lump in our throats as we tell the story, <br />the things we do with triggers <br />that make us big.<br /><br /><br /> <br />The Song She Knows<br /><br />Wild, wild quiet. Trees and slim deer fondling grass, <br />lakes and soft dirt roads. Words like “dappling” <br /><br />and “glimmer” seem rich, even useable. My laptop, <br />dim blue, looking for a leafy metaphor for broken, <br /><br />a way to say I can’t forgive you that is lovely and wet.<br />The fish are swimming. The birds, nesting. Our daughter,<br /><br />lifting leaves with a stick, chasing spiders, wonders<br />at the suspicious green as I close in on myself.<br /><br />Grease and gravity. Glass heart eye. Cinder block sky.<br />I hate this — nature, the song — snapping twig/winged rise/ <br /><br />wooded rain/earthen birth. In the city — rust-belted, <br />bottomless — things die and god willing, stay dead.<br /><br /><br /> <br />How I Came To Love The Apocalypse<br />         For Karen Tozzi-Colberg<br /><br />Her house still smelled like ham<br />and her heart felt like sandpaper.<br />She painted something flowery and hot,<br />and hung it on her wall to remind her<br />of the lips she’d tasted, the drinks<br />she’d poured. She gave the painting<br />away because it spoke too loud<br />and then dreamed that John Cusack <br />stuck her vita on his refrigerator<br />because he wanted to know her.<br />She wanted to know him, too,<br />but the world was ending<br />and she needed to wash <br />her brushes, set the bugs free, <br />and introduce birth and death <br />so they’d recognize each other <br />when they met.<br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNCHkNL5xyFbAIsvOFwzxn2IiNmoIChs6sREjU8EJBQXAz5vQ-J5Btij1zJeK_45sFap8P-1Oj9uPqLvkfXroFftcjQi0t5L2yb4i4hOp0bK3qmWudJ-mS0sm5Kqogq8bRyFTrZ-OXXWgK/s1600/IMG_0369.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNCHkNL5xyFbAIsvOFwzxn2IiNmoIChs6sREjU8EJBQXAz5vQ-J5Btij1zJeK_45sFap8P-1Oj9uPqLvkfXroFftcjQi0t5L2yb4i4hOp0bK3qmWudJ-mS0sm5Kqogq8bRyFTrZ-OXXWgK/s320/IMG_0369.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5725289702085361346" /></a><br /><br /><br />Leslie Anne Mcilroy won the 2001 Word Press Poetry Prize for her full-length collection <i>Rare Space</i> and the 1997 Slipstream Poetry Chapbook Prize for her chapbook <i>Gravel</i>. She also took first place in the 1997 Chicago Literary Awards Competition judged by Gerald Stern. Her second full-length book, <i>Liquid Like This</i>, was published by Word Press in 2008. Leslie’s work appears in numerous publications including <i>American Poetry: The Next Generation, Dogwood, The Emily Dickinson Award Anthology, The Mississippi Review, Nimrod International Journal of Prose & Poetry</i> and <i>Pearl</i>. Leslie works as a copywriter in Pittsburgh, PA, where she lives with her daughter Silas, and writer/guitarist, Don Bertschman, with whom she performs her poetry.<br /><br />The four poems published above originally appeared in <i><a href="http://www.word-press.com/mcilroy-liquid.html">Liquid Like This</a></i>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852857857454477435.post-15113076646690952102012-01-15T15:33:00.007-05:002012-01-15T17:33:15.403-05:00Bones That Looked Like Me: an interview w/ Leslie Anne McilroyI dreamed last night<br />that your face pressed<br />against the skin of my belly<br />and I could see your eyes<br />wide open, bones<br />that looked like me.<br /><br /> (from “Surrender”)<br /><br /><b>GL:</b> Your second full-length collection of poems, <i>Liquid Like This</i>, begins with an epigraph from Carole Maso: “Of course she goes too far. / There’s nowhere else for her to go.” This notion of being forced by circumstance to go too far seems essential to your work. In what ways does your poetry respond to having “nowhere else to go” but “too far”? And to what extent do you think people and poets find or define themselves in moments of exaggeration, desperation, extremis?<br /><br /><b>LM:</b> I don’t think of going too far in terms of exaggeration/drama as much as a kind of learned internal truth — something that intrinsically works. It is what is known about the self and the struggle to be present in the world. I’m not saying it is smart or good or right — always. In fact, it can be sad, come from a place of desperation, as you note. On the other hand, for me it feels mostly bold and honest and uncompromising — risk taking. The speaker, to be true to herself, cannot go halfway or even just all the way. She has to give <i>everything</i> to feel alive and true — jump in with two feet. This is a way I try to write — and live. It’s not pretty and I am often disappointed when I find myself writing around something that I am maybe afraid or unable to say out loud. I know I have to go further. The poems I admire most take that step. <br /><br />It is not that I disdain modesty and decency and sound judgment. I like to think I have those, too, just that this tactic doesn’t often serve me well in my creative/relational life. I value it and would never intentionally hurt another in the name of pushing through, but I am also deaf to polite and pretty poems/people. They don’t enter in/make a mark.<br /><br />The poems/poets that stick with me aren’t extreme (in some cases I wish they were) as much as they are willing to say what needs to/can’t be said. I always go back to Lucille Clifton’s “Moonchild”: “jay johnson is teaching/me to french kiss, ella bragged, who/<br />is teaching you? how do you say; my father?” It kills me that she can say this so simply and beautifully and that the moon is the poem’s metaphor and it shines so pure and bright through all this ugly. It goes so very far. <br /><br />If you go too far, you can always come back (at least in a poem); if you don’t go out there, you’ll never know.<br /><br /><b>GL:</b> There’s a terrific and ghoulish poem, “Dismember,” near the beginning of the book that provides an eerie counterpoint for the way the body is often treated in <i>Liquid Like This</i>. Many poems in this collection portray the body as a kind of magnificent but doomed device that offers fleeting promises to satisfy desires while simultaneously altering or frustrating those desires. In “Dismember,” on the other hand, the speaker contemplates the way the body is severed, appropriated, and/or destroyed for perverse, malicious or tragic reasons. The poem features a litany of gothic scenarios, including images of amputees, a “hooded captor” beheading a hostage, a serial killer collecting trophies in a box, and other nightmarish but realistic predicaments. What I’d like to know is: Why is this dark and somewhat atypical poem of yours featured so prominently and close to the beginning of the book? And how does “Dismember” inform the book’s more erotically focused exploration of the body?<br /><br /><b>LM:</b> I love this poem: the images, the rawness, the ugliness. I think it is a good poem — my simple explanation for its prominent positioning in the book. I love it because it comes from my longtime, graphic fear of dismembered body parts, which began when I was a child and remains long after I discovered my erotic self. What I found as I wrote the images that haunt me (I slept with the light on for months during the Jeffrey Dahmer case) was that in a textbook psychology way, it has to do with a fear of not being whole or connected, an exploration of the many ways people are damaged by separation — how identities are formed in pieces that don’t talk to each other — how we can be so distant from ourselves. <br /><br />Or worse yet, how two parts of the self can be so contradictory and still exist in the same space. Identities are complex but we often reduce them to a simple character we can hold on to — and then they change. <br /><br />I feel like the graphic, “gothic,” violent images of tearing/cutting the body apart are significant in that they speak to the real atrocities/horrors that take place every day. People DO THIS to one another. There is the doing and the done to and they are equally terrifying. It surpasses everything I know, except what I might do if someone tried to hurt my daughter. That’s another poem.<br /><br />I have taken some crap for the last line, “the nanny who pays good money for a soup bone,” but I believe that if we thought about the daily massacre of animals — what it is we really do to a cow — if we looked in that beautiful animal’s eyes as we chopped off its head — we would be forced to see that every time we ate a piece of beef, and feel it. Yes, I am a vegetarian.<br /><br />Finally, I am very close to my body — it is central to the way I live. I don’t understand it sometimes, but I am uniquely focused on it because I am a Type 1 diabetic, which means I have been monitoring my health, diet, weight and blood sugars for 30 years now. I don’t get to escape my body and all the variables that affect it. I pay consequences for ignoring it. I struggle. The body is a beautiful and terrifying thing — the things it does, the things we do to it, the things we do to each other. Pleasure and pain walk together in much of what I know and express — very much so erotically. I don’t really know how else to explain that. <br /><br /><b>GL:</b> Your poem “Sexicon” investigates the words and expressions we use to build a language of love and lust. After first mentioning some conventional phrases for orgasms, like “the small death” and “angels flying,” the speaker searches “for something better to explain/the panic/calm, fierce/sweet, fire/ash of us,” a word that can not only call to mind, but even achieve sexual consummation, with its mere utterance. Why is this ambition, finding language sufficient to the task of representing or even reenacting sexuality, of such crucial importance to your work?<br /><br /><b>LM:</b> For me “Sexicon” is about a universal call to love explored through the power of unrestrained sex — it is hyperbolic, but need not be. It was informed, in part, by these back-and-forths I have with my daughter: “I love you,” “I love you more,” “I love you bigger than the world,” “I love you bigger than the sky,” and one day she countered, “I love you 140 universes.” It stayed. And for me (though one might not believe it) the best of our sexual beings is always brought forth by love — and trust, and vulnerability. How much would you give for your partner to look at you wide-eyed and say without abandon, “I love you 140 universes,” and mean it?<br /><br />Something Bigger than Love. This is a phrase from “Sexicon”, that my lover, Don Bertschman, and I have adopted as our code. It is a reaching, a calling, a truth that can only be found if you are open and honest and seeking and desirous and willing. I wear a ring with SBtL engraved on it, a tattoo on my back, and now, a necklace. It is something I believe in — that we can give one another a consciousness and break old patterns (love the Andrea Gibson poem, “Stay” about this), which have held us captive. We can choose one another without anyone telling us what form that needs to take, AND we can trust one another in a way that challenges our very core. Trust is hugely important. When you give yourself wholly to another person you need to know that you are safe in that giving. It comes back to the “too far.” You have to take risks, be present, be honest to love — physically, emotionally and spiritually — that big. If you, like I, want to experience love at that level, I believe you have to go that far. <br /><br /><b>GL:</b> Many poems in <i>Liquid Like This</i> use the second person or use the second person address at some point. Why do those moments happen in your poems (when you turn to a specific “you”) and which would you say is the greater motivation for you as a poet: to address others or yourself: Examples of this can be found in "Heart Time" (at the conclusion), "Best Fuck II," (great titles), "One Blue Second" (in the middle), "Headed South," "Winner Takes All," (the “you” who's kissed), "Surrender," "How Did it End," "I Don't Want to Write about You Anymore," "Gone Missing," "Keep Breathing" (at the end), "Nothing's free about Verse," "The Poem in You," "I Wasn't Surprised at All," and "Again."<br /><br /><b>LM:</b> The audience is always a big factor for me. I write for myself, yes, but the only reason to share this is that it might make another feel/see/engage/change. It’s a form of connecting that is hugely important to me. If I can’t talk to YOU, who am I talking to? When I write, it is almost embarrassingly autobiographical. I lack the leap of imagination to walk outside myself, which is central to a lot of poems I love. I try and almost always fail. <br /><br />Still, within the autobiographical, there is an energy that forces me to address the other, to acknowledge that I am not here alone in this and someone has brought me/come along with me to this experience or way of thinking, and because my “I” is very much MY “I,” I want them to hear me. I want them to LISTEN — even if they never read the poem. I feel the need to address/invite/engage the other as part of the narrative, to help inform the whole picture. Often the “you” is easily identifiable. In most cases, it a partner/lover, who can then be extrapolated to the universal “you” depending on the experience of the reader.<br /><br />I try to write from what I know and the “you” is always part of that. This might explain why I rarely write in the third person …<br /><br /><b>GL:</b> The last poem in the book, “Heart Time,” the speaker tells us she has been “hearing [her] heartbeat…[i]n [her] dreams, in the city wind, on the radio,” which prompts her to count everything, and then claim “…I can measure beauty this way, / by counting my presence in this final world.” These are fabulous lines, and I wonder if they provide us with an ars poetical account of your core aesthetics. How does your poetry attempt count your presence into this world?<br /><br /><b>LM:</b> It’s funny that you ask that. I perform “Heart Time” and in rehearsing, asked my musical collaborators if in hindsight, that line, “I can measure beauty this way, / by counting my presence in this final world,” sounded egotistical. I worried that I did not really think it through when I wrote it. What I meant was not that beauty is only measured by how much I count in this world, but that how much beauty I leave IS how much I count — it’s what I’ve given, what I’ve left after I go. I love that it is pretty, but if you really think it through, it’s semantically unclear. I have a wild need to leave something beautiful — to add to the beauty in this world, to be a part of it — I want to be that beautiful thing. <br /><br /><b>GL:</b> When I was an undergrad at Pitt, I was introduced to poetry by writers like Jeff Oaks and Jan Beatty, whose work displayed a fierce attachment to Pittsburgh. I came to think of them, and several other (otherwise rather diverse) writers, like Judith Vollmer, Terrance Hayes, Jim Daniels, and Sharon McDermott, as being a part of a regional literature. The tenets of this literature, I would argue, include: locating the reader in very specific places of interest, like the Cage, the Pegasus, on Forbes Avenue, waiting for the 61C bus, etc; using river and bridge imagery; both celebrating and mourning the city’s gothic, post-industrial architecture and atmosphere; bars; music, specifically blues and erotic rock lyrics; and exploring sexual and sensual imagery. To what extent you 1) believe there is such a Pittsburgh aesthetic? 2) locate yourself within that aesthetic or 3) try to complicate and/or write away from that aesthetic? (Sorry about all the aesthetics!!)<br /><br /><b>LM:</b> OOOOOOOH — I LOVE Pittsburgh. It is so rich to me, but I feel like I am faking it when I try to adopt the working-class, steel mill history, the industrial meat of it. I come from a middle-class family, though I am a third-generation immigrant, my grandfather (on my mother’s side) was a draftsman and my grandmother a writer. I have nothing but love for the work ethic of Pittsburgh, having been employed since I was 12 (at Fox’s Pizza Den, Burger Chef, some crazy Elaine Powers exercise place, selling magazines on the phone for a lunatic, babysitting — it seems fitting now that I bartended for 10 years with my three Carnegie Mellon degrees).<br /><br />I like the brutal determination of Pittsburgh, the skylines and the hills — the weather. I love the poetry of the landscape — the bridges and rivers. I love the parks (I run in Frick nearly every day with my dog), and the way, when people say we are pedestrian, I get to point to the exact same people you note as counterpoints: Jan Beatty, Terrance Hayes, Jeff Oaks and Jim Daniels, whom I studied under as an undergraduate at CMU. They are in my blood. They are a pulsing part of Pittsburgh. I am happy here. <br /><br />And yes, there is a Pittsburgh aesthetic and I hope I am a part of it. I don’t feel a need to distance it. I don’t care for the Steelers /Pirates/Penguins, I don’t eat pierogies or kielbasa. I don’t dine at the Dirty O or Pramanti’s, but it is in Pittsburgh where I have met the most beautiful, creative, artistic, energizing people in my life. I raise my daughter here in hopes that this energy finds her. And I know it will.<br /><br /><b>GL:</b> So what’s been new with you since <i>Liquid Like This</i> appeared two years ago? Are you writing away from those poems? Or has your work since been a continuation of the poems in that book? What are you reading, writing, thinking?<br /><br />What is new? Performance, I guess. I have begun memorizing my poems so that I can deliver them in a way that focuses on emotional connection rather than simply transference of ideas, words, images, feelings. If I KNOW a poem, I can emote, use my body (back to the body), think about timing and effect. I can fully realize what I am trying to say and share that. <br /><br /><b>LM:</b> I have been lucky enough to work with musicians (Don Bertschman, Danny Morrow) who add a new dimension to my work. It is so freeing to collaborate with artists who share an aesthetic and then raise the bar with musical influences that take the poem to another level. Sometimes I rework the poem for a performance — add things, repeat things, accentuate the melody of the words. Mostly I concentrate on making sure my poems work as hard on the stage as they do on the page. I still want them to stand up to academic scrutiny/poetic craft, but I want to deliver them the way you would to a friend over a glass of wine, from the heart — passionate and true.<br /><br />Last year I took on the challenge of writing a poem a day for National Poetry month in April. That exercise lead to a lot more writing (not all good), and a devotion to the process I was lacking. Since, I have been working on those poems and others (I am a big believer I revision) to compile a new book, sending out a lot more (getting a lot more rejections) and am writing grants to fund a larger project that has been in my mind for more than five years now: a performance piece dealing with diabetes, bulimia and motherhood. It has yet to get funded, but I know if it does, I can write/perform a piece that will be powerful in the way that Sekou Sundiata’s “Blessing the Boats” or Caroline Rothstein’s “Faith” promises to be.<br /><br />I speak from my heart and rarely from intellect (I suck at arguing politics, but swear to god I know what is right and wrong). I don’t read as much as I’d like, but in the last years have been given the gift of Jeannette Winterson and Carole Maso. I always return to Lucille Clifton, Terrance Hayes, Tim Seibles, Sekou Sundiata, Martín Espada, Linda McCarriston, Scott Fitzgerald and James Baldwin. Most recently, I have discovered Ada Limon, Erika Meitner and Cheryl Dumesnil. <br /><br />Each morning I read “Verse Daily” and “Poetry Daily,” giving me a poetic jumpstart to foil my retail, copywriting world. I have explored the slam scene and don’t do so well there — I think my material is not a good fit for the audience — but that, too, has greatly informed my presentation. I think a lot about what it is I want to achieve with my writing and what devotion/sacrifice it will take me to get there. <br /><br />Sometimes I regret not getting my MFA/Ph.D. and being an active part of the academic/poetry world. Other times I regret not being the soul artist that puts her art first. Then I remember that I have 3 books and a daughter and a home and a lover, my family and my beautiful friends. I remember I have made choices that came from my own truth, my own needs, my desires and limitations. I think a lot about mortality and take comfort in knowing that no matter what happens, I have lived as true and whole as I know how to be. I pray that it gets truer and wholer each day.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG2DRzp9lKTR7NvBvx4FALzSA7ZmWgoOWzmCCl6eC3q41LTE71Gg_rg88dsqFxba7s7riwcFIZOv_2USfWefd2QYEXC0Qw3t51NOmBlid8eZhWpbElpz458CxBpv65OKtxhxyS7DIn4RS5/s1600/-4.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG2DRzp9lKTR7NvBvx4FALzSA7ZmWgoOWzmCCl6eC3q41LTE71Gg_rg88dsqFxba7s7riwcFIZOv_2USfWefd2QYEXC0Qw3t51NOmBlid8eZhWpbElpz458CxBpv65OKtxhxyS7DIn4RS5/s320/-4.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5697961154335209042" /></a><br /><br />Leslie Anne Mcilroy won the 2001 Word Press Poetry Prize for her full-length collection <i>Rare Space</i> and the 1997 Slipstream Poetry Chapbook Prize for her chapbook <i>Gravel</i>. She also took first place in the 1997 Chicago Literary Awards Competition judged by Gerald Stern. Her second full-length book, <i>Liquid Like This</i>, was published by Word Press in 2008. Leslie’s work appears in numerous publications including <i>American Poetry: The Next Generation, Dogwood, The Emily Dickinson Award Anthology, The Mississippi Review, Nimrod International Journal of Prose & Poetry</i> and <i>Pearl</i>. Leslie works as a copywriter in Pittsburgh, PA, where she lives with her daughter Silas, and writer/guitarist, Don Bertschman, with whom she performs her poetry.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852857857454477435.post-14867004490144733012011-09-25T14:48:00.003-04:002011-09-25T14:58:32.986-04:00The Angel in the Mirror: An Interview with Jenny BarberTrembling, unseen,<br />I stayed there in the air<br />like clear<br /> water in a glass,<br />transparent angel in a mirror.<br /><br />        From “Variations” after Emilio Prados<br /><br /><b>GL</b>: In her introduction to your first book, <i>Rigging the Wind</i>, Jane Miller credits your poetry with searching for and revealing “essences,” oftentimes in “landscapes haunted by suffering.” Do you think Miller’s characterization of your of poetry is correct? Does <i>Rigging the Wind</i> look for redemptive essences in places of pogrom and disapora? And if so, why does your poetry so frequently travel abroad to look for these essences?<br /><br /><b>JB</b>: I was very appreciative of Jane Miller’s introduction to <i>Rigging the Wind</i>. In the book, I wanted to inhabit certain landscapes, many of them in Spain, in order to penetrate moments of history, especially the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. I love Spain, where I lived for a spell back in 1987, and I felt a lot of sadness when it was time to leave. This, along with a growing interest in medieval Jewish history, got me interested in researching the stories of those forced to leave Spain by historical circumstances. I was also, as you suggest, looking for a redemptive aspect in places of pogrom and diaspora. The endurance that people show in living through such times is, for me, proof of the human capacity to begin again after disastrous loss.<br /><br /><b>GL</b>: You begin <i>Rigging the Wind</i> with a translation of Amrita Pritam’s “Conspiracy of Silence.” The poem tells us that “someone has broken / into a human ribcage” and stolen “our dreams.” No one can tell where this thief has gone to, except for “someone’s / poem [that], like a chained dog, barks” in warning. It is a complex and beautiful poem that, due to its reuse of the pronoun “someone,” makes the thief and the guardian of our dreams seem like the same thing, or person. Why did you choose to open your collection with Pritam’s poem? And why is the loss of dreams so pressing a concern for you and your work?<br /><br /><b>JB</b>: I had been translating poems from Punjabi with the Pakistani writer Irfan Malik, and Amrita Pritam’s poem was especially resonant for me. There are many forces, both external and internal, that array themselves against the artistic process, so the artist has to be adept at finding ways to break through the “conspiracy of silence.” The conspiracy is not only about the difficulty of making art, though; it is also about the tendency we all have to shut down, to live life in a routine way. The existence of a piece of music, a painting, a book of poems, or a novel, with the worlds that they provide, can help us avoid that fate. Zagajewski says that “Only in the beauty created/by others is there consolation/in the music of others and in others’ poems,” and I believe we’re in need of such consolation. And, as for dreams or aspirations in life, those are fragile for all of us, and have to be nurtured by whatever means possible. <br /><br /><b>GL</b>: The last poem in <i>Rigging the Wind</i> is the somber and understated “Notes.” In this piece, the speaker describes a lurching trolley and plastic sheeting “on the scaffolding / [blowing] into ripe sails” before she and another (“We”) “sit down on the steps / of the temple with its Moorish dome,” and listen to the “small dark notes / of night begin.” These notes, “like so many sparrows,” are compared to “a sparrow diaspora” that is “choosing this time to call their own.” It’s an ambitious metaphor with which to close the book. The notes of night (sensed, evaluated, but not described directly) turn into sparrows (that aren’t actually or at least necessarily there before the speaker) that disperse in diaspora (a human term for, in this case, either mere dispersal or migration); and the birds “choos[e]” to “call” (as in assign) this time as theirs. There are many levels that the speaker sees (she could even be said to see through or past immediate reality here), and yet the speaker herself is nearly anonymous, invisible, accompanied a nameless other (perhaps the reader). With so many personal acts of imaginative projection happening here, why did you choose to employ such an anonymous speaker about whom we know almost nothing? And why does the act of imagining diaspora (in the night sparrows) rather than an act describing the Spain-at-hand close out this collection?<br /><br /><b>JB</b>: Thank you for this perceptive reading of “Notes.” The sparrows in the poem, in addition to being themselves, are, as you point out, meant to represent human migration, and I also meant them to stand for the survival, and even the ability to thrive, that is possible after catastrophes such as exile. Your question about the poem’s speaker is an interesting one, and is relevant to the book as a whole. For <i>Rigging the Wind</i>, I wanted a speaker or speakers who were relatively effaced, so that they might better reflect the landscapes they were describing or the historical moments being explored. My hope is that the speaker of “Notes” provides the means by which the reader can occupy the center of the poem, be directly affected by its atmosphere. Incidentally, “Notes” describes a block on Beacon Street in Brookline, which is close to home for me; the poem was a way of returning from the geographic travel and time travel that occupy much of the book. <br /><br /><b>GL</b>: In your new manuscript-in-process, <i>Given Away</i>, you use an epigraph from Celan’s “Psalm” to welcome the reader into the world of your poems. Celan’s poem is a sublime prayer to a kind of post-war anti-deity, a presiding nothingness. According to this poem, there will be no resurrection: “No one moulds us again out of earth and clay.” And thus all human beauty “flower[s]” for the “sake” of “no one.” This is about as starkly an anti-essentialist, nominalist, nihilistic poem as you can find. So why did you choose this almost devoutly hopeless (or post-hope poem) to inaugurate your book?<br /><br /><b>JB</b>: Yes, I intended for the excerpt from Paul Celan’s poem “Psalm” to set the stage for the poems in <i>Given Away</i>, some of which struggle with spiritual questions that have no ready answers. I’m struck by the fact that you describe Celan’s poem as “nihilistic” because of its proposition that there will be no resurrection, and that no deity exists. I see it somewhat differently. The lines “Praised be your name, no one/For your sake we shall flower” (trans. Michael Hamburger) to my way of thinking express an extraordinary human stubbornness: even doubting the existence of a deity, even recognizing that we have no ultimate salvation, we still “flower,” we still <i>are</i>. So, although “Psalm” confronts nothingness, I don’t see it as conveying hopelessness; I see it as a modern psalm, an act of witnessing as well as the embodiment of great need, a need that in and of itself causes the urge to speak. <br /><br /><b>GL</b>: The first poem in <i>Given Away</i>, “Away,” the title of the book suggests, is something that the book gives to us (as readers) in several senses: it is the poem that welcomes us to the book, says hello, or makes appropriate warnings on our behalf; it iterates the book’s theme or preoccupation with departure; it prompts the reader to think about otherness and elsewhere not just as emotionally and/or intellectually burdensome absences but as things that can be given and received as a kind of (albeit dark) blessing. But it could also suggest that the speaker of this poem (and perhaps of the book as a whole) is almost gone from the beginning. The poem begins ominously with a countdown of sorts: “I count to twenty / and back” and ends with images both seasonal and apocalyptic: “Past the old blast furnace, / the wheel of August touches down.” In between, the speaker is often haunted by both what’s missing form the immediate scene (peace, sustaining quiet, a clear view of the world) and by what transcends it (blighted histories, “cities…destroyed”) as well. What I’d like to know is: to what extent is the speaker away, or spiritually or psychologically exiled from her experience of reality? And to what extent does she mourn what’s missing from her world, that is, what’s away from her?<br /><br /><b>JB</b>: I was thinking about several different things while working on that first poem. One was the devastation that Hurricane Katrina brought, the ease with which the hurricane and subsequent flooding destroyed the city. Another was Isaiah, who follows up prophecies of destruction with prophecies of restoration. Finally, some of my despair about human harm to the world’s environment—what Chase Twichell calls “negligent worldicide”—though largely unspoken in the poem, underlies it. In other words, I’m afraid for us, afraid for the world. I experience this fear as a kind of spiritual exile, in the sense that fear removes the speaker from a certain trust in the ongoing nature of the world. An apocalyptic attitude creeps in, not in the sense of a religious reckoning with predetermined end times but in the sense of an impending disaster of our own making. We will need the deepest kind of change in order to avert this disaster. I do want the poem’s speaker to be a kind of witness to events that are happening in the world rather than an entity that has withdrawn itself; I would like the reader to feel accompanied by the speaker’s thoughts, even when these thoughts are dark. <br /><br /><b>GL</b>: The poems in <i>Given Away</i> sometimes return, perhaps, even more bleakly than the poems of RTW, to Spain. “The Train to Malaga” is filled with passages that suggest ennui. Here, from the poem’s opening: “Nothing, / only olive trees / observing their slope,” and here from the second section of the poem: “Afternoon. / More afternoon.” There is a dialog later in the poem that enacts futility, or perhaps even biblical suffering: “<i>When we get there</i>—/ but we won’t, / not the place we thought.” These lines showcase a greater despair than any in RTW. So, does this poem record an evolving bleakness with regards to your view of Spain, or travel, or the world at large? Or does it simply it portray a momentary lapse in spirit? In other words, are the depressions here more circumstantial than representative of a larger shift in your perspective?<br /><br /><b>JB</b>: In the third section of <i>Given Away</i>, where “The Train to Malaga” appears, I am exploring Celan’s lines that say, “How much, O how much/world. How many/paths” (trans. Michael Hamburger). Thus the section includes travel, one way to follow the world, to follow other paths, and the richness and discovery those paths might provide. With that said, though, “The Train to Malaga” can be seen as a fairly bleak poem. The key to it is the four-month drought mentioned in the second section. The last time I was in Spain, there was a severe drought in the south, and the olive trees, responsible for a significant share of the economy, were at risk. As in “Away,” a fundamental aspect of our existence—the physical world that supports us—is in question.<br /><br />There are other poems in this section of the book, however, where I intend to counteract bleakness or despair by positing spiritual presence rather than absence. Among these poems are “<i>nefesh</i>” (the Hebrew word for “soul”); “Arriving When It Does”; and “Orchard,” which is about the way the biblical psalms still unfold for us in all their immediacy and beauty. In “God Doesn’t Speak in the Psalms,” toward the end of the book, I want to examine how sorrow and praise can exist side by side, how both are essential to the fabric of the psalms, and, of course, to our experience of our lives. Overall, <i>Given Away</i> is about wrestling with one’s angel, whether that angel is loss, despair, absence, or presence, or all of those elements at once.<br /><br /><b>GL</b>: So now that you’re nearly done with <i>Given Away</i>, what new projects, if any, are on the horizon? What are you reading and thinking about these days? Where does Jenny Barber’s poetry go from here?<br /><br /><b>JB</b>: In terms of new projects, I’ve written some poems toward a next book. It’s too early to say what the shape of the book will be, but I am continuing some of the themes in <i>Given Away</i> while also reaching into other areas. Overall, I’d say that the new poems exist in a space that is more “here” than “away,” more centered around local geography than places at a distance. While the poems in <i>Given Away</i> are very much about an individual in spiritual crisis, the more recent poems are closer to finding ways of resolving that sense of crisis, one moment at a time.<br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7ARPQs3PfCqZHbmqO9MDaxDO3Q12_GMtORdkMpBQxzGgXQunEQmvngpWxDHIIjHeFb_Ad4hYqmh-rxmQAR7eAv_gcu1tYA1yLwwPFyp939kKD_CzbyHiopzvbC35S0jMvVW6eqx-ibVvv/s1600/JenniferBarberPhoto.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 222px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7ARPQs3PfCqZHbmqO9MDaxDO3Q12_GMtORdkMpBQxzGgXQunEQmvngpWxDHIIjHeFb_Ad4hYqmh-rxmQAR7eAv_gcu1tYA1yLwwPFyp939kKD_CzbyHiopzvbC35S0jMvVW6eqx-ibVvv/s320/JenniferBarberPhoto.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5656371446720716562" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Jennifer Barber’s new collection of poems is <i>Given Away</i>, forthcoming from Kore Press in 2012. She is the author of <i>Rigging the Wind</i> (2003) and <i>Vendaval</i> (1998). Recent poems have appeared or are forthcoming in <i>Orion</i>, <i>Bellevue Literary Review</i>, <i>Zeek</i>, the <i>Jewish Forward</i>, <i>Upstreet</i>, the <i>Harvard Divinity Bulletin</i>, <i>Cerise Press</i> and the <i>New Yorker</i>. She is founding and current editor of the literary journal <i>Salamander</i> and teaches at Suffolk University in Boston.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852857857454477435.post-78982025796712475422011-09-01T09:35:00.011-04:002011-09-16T21:29:49.016-04:00Three Poems by Dan Rosenberg<div><br /></div>NO EXAMPLE BUT THE NAMING<br /><br />Here deep light. Here deep light rising<br />from a sack of rusted whistles.<br /><br />Rustles in the closet’s deep light.<br />A breath is a breach, cuts a lip<br />on deep light. Here bedpost tops<br />wicked in a rattle. Brassy<br />like an undergarment. Undone.<br />Such keeping tracks the eye.<br /><br />New holes make a shirt perfect<br />for this deformity. The box cries from its corners,<br />the mold-bearded box.<br />Here air ages. Manners tip gently<br />in the lone. Deep something<br />thumps down and startles.<br /><br />In the sleeping hour, the hour of disobedience.<br />The scavenge comes<br />unbidden. The tic, the squeak.<br /><br />Here deep light beats back.<br />It comes in slats. It comes:<br />The hamper of efforts drooling knee socks.<br />A blue vase collects itself.<br />Here blank walls for walls<br /><br />are not lit by deep light.<br />Not the bur on time tugged forth.<br />See a fray failing a shoelace.<br />Here deep light kept rolled like wrong carpet.<br /><br />Deep light without aim. Dying<br />pockets of air. Each pocket<br />sent mewing at deep light.<br /><br /><br /><div>ROOM<br /><br />the floor is a storeroom<br /><br />we keep each other<br />in the original packaging<br /><br />I bought you a t-shirt with many kinds of breasts<br />I was desperate<br /><br />something to say I care but not too much<br /><br />The sun taxes me heartily<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>                                          and my heart<br /><br />lost in our angular house<br />for a place to leave <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>      things and never remember<br /><br />I want to go to the movies I said<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>            I was joking       the hand on your knee<br />when we were alone was mine<br /><br />I slit the folded paper: a book! of dust-<br />collecting <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>    the air mattress’s sotto voce<br /><br />Am I using this bookshelf wrong?<br /><br />that child safety cap fails<br />because you’re a grown woman stumped<br /><br />to listen hard I ignore my own pulse<br />we all do<br />the delicate touch<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>      the stamen <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>    a stone<br />bookend shaped like a book<br /><br />laundered the sun in a pile of feeling<br />up oneself absentmindedly on the phone<br /><br />slouching over my weak core like protection<br />not a symptom<br /><br />when I forget to say “I” you remind<br /><br />the chickadee all puffed up <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>     the driveway<br /><br />how much of our favorite non-stick pan<br />can we safely eat?<br /><br />the tongue of the prayer book<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>       on the hardwood<br />a stack of change won’t do me <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>      ok then<br /><br />the plastic frame worked all its scuffs<br />would have happened to the picture if<br /><br />a stretch of the esophagus<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>             what’s bloodied by the camera<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>             what’s lost without a backup<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>             plan for fire: a tangled rope of knots<br /><br />and the anchor<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>      the doorknob’s inside doesn’t match<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>                      but fits<br /><br /><br />AT FLOWER, GRIPPING<br /><br />Epistle, a yellow footprint on the hardwood. Open the fist, a<br />palm. A shake. Nine walnuts in a Ziploc baggie chatter. I'm<br />holding. I'm shaking. My photograph slinks down. Its frame.<br />Frayed like shoelace. Her lips purse. Every edge threatens a<br />fall. Even hems, even lips, even beauty's tight edge. I'm<br />pressing against. The factory atop my neck. The spill. One<br />flash surprises, the next captures. I freeze wide open. It's a<br />countdown. If thunder comes. Chewing comes easily. Yellow<br />my finger in the lily. It doesn't keep to itself. As well as it<br />should. Woman in bra between dogwoods. Red spills on her<br />head. Just a magazine ad. A dangle. A docile puppy in a nook.<br />A shoulder. I've fallen. Not my nook. Limpid with springtime<br />my angles. Shake, a greater tremble. Tremble my ginger veins.<br />A color wheel of fingers. Pointing, a basement before dawn.<br />The chimney a finger. What she wants. My eyes, then the<br />frame. Then my chest. A descent. A cracked cocoon. No<br />moth. Bulbs in the basement open. It takes forever. Petals<br />fall, her feet. Recover the ants all together. Light, then hand,<br />then wall. Thumb becomes a mandible. Touch my crushing<br />organ. My outreach. A small apple falls. The worm inside.<br />What eats. What's eaten. Two flowers kiss, wilt. The cyclist<br />falls. The garbage is a nest.<br /><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTATU8yMvnVCrqcUWk6khGK4us34o6EPPeXBUbU_GARLeDi5OK7Um5oKFISwzsILQpbRQefjKUK7wyH9KEqlq8M_n3UPsnKNTiPyYDtmQ0LfDJ_n1N0peZVjnbBv_6cpG-56CdCK5Uwykc/s1600/dan.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><br /><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 217px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTATU8yMvnVCrqcUWk6khGK4us34o6EPPeXBUbU_GARLeDi5OK7Um5oKFISwzsILQpbRQefjKUK7wyH9KEqlq8M_n3UPsnKNTiPyYDtmQ0LfDJ_n1N0peZVjnbBv_6cpG-56CdCK5Uwykc/s320/dan.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648621610163989554"></a></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:2.5in;text-align:justify;line-height: 150%;mso-outline-level:1"><font class="Apple-style-span"> <o:p></o:p></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span"> </font></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span"> </font></o:p></p> <font class="Apple-style-span"><font style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Garamond; ">Dan Rosenberg's first book, <i>The Crushing Organ</i>, won the 2011 American Poetry Journal Book Prize and will be published in 2012. His poems have appeared recently or are forthcoming in several journals, including <i>Pleiades, American Letters & Commentary, Subtropics</i>, and <i>Gulf Coast</i>. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, he is a PhD student at UGA and co-editor of the poetry journal <i>Transom</i></font><font style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Garamond; ">.</font></font><!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852857857454477435.post-85334932194109432472011-08-15T07:36:00.005-04:002011-08-15T07:52:39.436-04:00Two Poems by Dereck Clemons
<br /><b>GAMES</b>
<br />
<br />Brooklyn starts to unravel as soon as the
<br />cameras roll. The wheels roll. The bus
<br />stops.
<br />
<br />Gorgeous in a tight black bodysuit, a
<br />regular shimmers across the stage. A
<br />man in the front row launches himself
<br />into a kinetic leveling of evidence to the
<br />contrary: he waves his feet, his arms.
<br />
<br />There are more, actually, says Mrs.
<br />Rubin, thumbing through a dozen
<br />laminated sheets. Mrs. Rubin begins
<br />dancing gleefully within minutes.
<br />
<br />What makes her to stick both hands into
<br />applause, which she calls a gas fire
<br />glowing in the fireplace.
<br />
<br />
<br /><b>IMPOSTERS</b>
<br />
<br />Lag in battle. Do the heavy lifting. The
<br />American military effort in the not-too-
<br />distant future wrestles into scenes of
<br />contest, observed over eight days by two
<br />New York Times journalists.
<br />
<br />Not long after, the two were seen being
<br />microwaved during a standoff on Feb.
<br />12. Their unpublished novel spreads
<br />throughout the world, causing pregnant
<br />women to miscarry.
<br />
<br />A simple warning that she could, she
<br />felt, her patterns, or fabrics clumped
<br />together into Karen Carpenter, who
<br />balances a cup in the hallway, in the
<br />night, on its saucer, heading back to the
<br />room.
<br />
<br />The effect forces the childish millions to
<br />remain out of work, out of savings, & to
<br />face the end of the comforts of middle-
<br />class life—who are now in their lives,
<br />potentially for years to come, selling
<br />beauty salon equipment.
<br />
<br />
<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg09vpRrcVRdlo4g3McqUjVstPNlml4mjPG41rg7NtFZ4VnX6n68gGHut8CgLYkAVW2jnEvvnk8D2c6RnOBRLRuw2Qqjc1X6uOJ-mezv9l0NahAqSOruaXBGF9Qi9Q0gC4td8zg6h2SWQC_/s1600/dereck+2011.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 307px; height: 318px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg09vpRrcVRdlo4g3McqUjVstPNlml4mjPG41rg7NtFZ4VnX6n68gGHut8CgLYkAVW2jnEvvnk8D2c6RnOBRLRuw2Qqjc1X6uOJ-mezv9l0NahAqSOruaXBGF9Qi9Q0gC4td8zg6h2SWQC_/s320/dereck+2011.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5641045895875356082" /></a>
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<br />
<br /><b>Dereck Clemons</b> is in San Francisco with Wendy Trevino & he writes poems using material from the newspaper in this 1 page:1 poem limit thing. That bulk of data (in each of these prose blocks of phantom collage sentences) becomes a board across which the continued work of expansion, abridgement, switching, & transferring occurs, or where performance occurs. To be sure, the poems telescope in & out or up/down a continuum of lyric & narrative & transparent subjects, more trope-related stuff, or equally w/r/t to scheme stuff, or word arrangement as such, so some end up going through cycles of repeated phrases, let's say, very opaque, while others enact more continuous-seeming narrative threads. They're all, though, employing very similar patterns, regardless. Similar behaviors. It seems like what I'm describing is an observation of rhetoric, of how those four operations I mentioned might do fantastic things w/ narrative & DO fantastic things to us, right now, all the time. Otherwise, the poems are concerned w/ audience & our entire lives as in-audience to countless stages or platforms that, while contrived by not-us, are still where we find ourselves dealing w/ ourselves & w/ each other. The Spectacle, which is truly entertaining, is able to subsume into Performance an audience ever more thoroughly at these key points, where reason is being pivoted around on itself--the aggressive, finite actions of the Spectacle--so the poems try to concentrate on that. So the first 10 pages of Guy Debord's <i>Society of the Spectacle</i>, basically.
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7852857857454477435.post-46103091620462273862011-08-06T12:14:00.007-04:002011-08-08T08:08:37.046-04:00What Passes For Meat In Heaven: An interview Kim Gek Lin Short<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZUKooJYKUW2j_c2JV-ojdVUT7r6rZbZxwnmCAG0zo4H-gQOClzygxhs29vQFx3T0gRZL3GnfMgxnbAbxB-RGSD66PCEOd64-6X6rrAWCkiwWSkRySQtk0tAy7LNLkWecrGqNH4FkTR9OR/s1600/kim_gek_lin_short.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 228px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZUKooJYKUW2j_c2JV-ojdVUT7r6rZbZxwnmCAG0zo4H-gQOClzygxhs29vQFx3T0gRZL3GnfMgxnbAbxB-RGSD66PCEOd64-6X6rrAWCkiwWSkRySQtk0tAy7LNLkWecrGqNH4FkTR9OR/s320/kim_gek_lin_short.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5638454882518048466" /></a>
<br /><b>GL:</b> The <i> The Bugging Watch and Other Exhibits (TBW&OE) </i> is, to a certain extent, a story of grief and recovery. Harlan, one of the paired heroes/intimates of your beautiful book, wants to use the artifacts of his post-traumatic present to recover the past with his beloved and "cure his broken Toland." Toland, however, "touched everything" before she fell apart and away and therefore cannot be adequately preserved. Dan Magers at Sink Review was keen to note your curatorial interests in this book. And it sometimes seems like Harlan wants to collect his Toland back to life. I wonder if you could explain or at least comment on the link between grief and curatorship, between suffering and the longing for preservation in Harlan’s character.
<br />
<br /><b>KGLS:</b> Hey Greg! Thanks for the interview. Stories are loopy things, and there are so many ways to tell them. Even not telling a story is a way of telling a story, stories are capable of such fishslippery. The story in <i>The Bugging Watch</i> is a sort of fishslippery, a curation, not linear, a collection, an exhibition. Yes, it is an idiosyncrasy of “denial” that links grief and curatorship, it is a way of denying the end of something (something linear), and a way of manufacturing a future. Preservation has that suspicious quality of broadcasting as much about the past as the future. Curating especially is tuned into this station. Have you ever been to a retrospective of an artist’s work in a museum or gallery and had the prescience that the effect was not as much to honor the truth of the past as to create a future for that work that person that (now) subject? So this is how Harlan takes Toland to Tuesday in his world where it is always Monday.
<br />
<br /><b>GL:</b> The second section of <i>TBW&OE</i>, “The Bugging Watch,” features footnotes that tend to complicate/enrich Harlan and Toland's narrative rather than clarifying it. This kind of approach seems, broadly speaking, to dramatize a kind epistemological notion: the more we pursue knowledge the more we are rewarded with and further enmeshed in our own mazelike pursuit of it. Harlan and Toland are dazzling poetic figures prone to Carrolian utterances and ingenious turns of phrase. They are dynamic & mysterious characters to begin with, but in <i>The Bugging Watch</i>, their stories become even more labyrinthine (and fun) through and because of the footnotes. What I'd like to know is: Does this corridor of poems in the middle of the book seek to entice by threatening (the reader, the poet with) a loss of control (not being able to make sense of a "larger narrative")? Does it, in other words, woo readers away from trying to make sense of the story behind these characters and try to encourage them to admire instead their many arrivals and departures?
<br />
<br /><b>KGLS:</b> This is a book about a departure, and the fantasy of an arrival. In a manner of speaking, Harlan is trying to find another way of looking at a door that is always used for leavetaking. It is another way of looking at leavetaking. The footnotes dramatize this “stage” full of doors, full of entrances and exits. Is there sense to be made of it? Yes. Is there also non-sense? Yes. Is the story that is bobbing under the surface of these poems a cocktease? It depends on the cock. This is not a purposeful comment on epistemology, although I am delighted if this text dramatizes an epistemology for a reader. Knowledge is not a sure thing. I hope it woos readers away from needing sense, but I’m also happy if it just woos them enough to be okay with all the halfsense. Would it clear things up if I said that I think questions are more important than answers in art? Didn’t Milan Kundera write that the brilliance of the novel comes from having a question for everything? I like that. I think it is true. I think it is also true of poetry. And prose poetry novellas! Narrative tends to breed a kneejerk assumption that its function is to clarify. But with poetry, readers don’t expect clarity or answers. Readers of poetry have bigger fish to fry. They want truth. They want the animal to awaken. That true animal inhabits all true comers—tall tales, teeny hunches, towering questions—that “yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window panes.”
<br />
<br /><b>GL:</b> So far in your brief but formidable poetry career, you've concentrated much of your efforts on exploring characters that have weathered considerable trauma. These figures are both sustained and potentially crippled by their fantasies that lead them away from their suffering. Delmore Schwartz wrote: "In the unpredictable and fearful future that awaits civilization, the poet must be prepared to be alienated and indestructible. He must dedicate himself to poetry, although no one else seems likely to read what he writers, and he must be indestructible as a poet until he is destroyed as a human being." Masculine gender bias aside, do you see any value in Schwartz's above proclamation and prescription for the poet? Must a poet be (at least temporarily) "alienated and indestructible" in order to dramatize suffering in her work? Or should the poet share in the suffering of her creative progeny in order to reveal it?
<br />
<br /><b>KGLS:</b> Ah, civilization and its discontents. The future is scary. People suck. Poets rule. Yes, poets should prepare themselves for a good dose of marginalization, Schwartz’s prescription has some truth. This sort of glorification of artistic alienation always put me in mind of The Residents’ Theory of Obscurity, the idea that the artist creates work in isolation for the art itself without consideration for audience, or “market.” In the case of The Residents the artist goes so far as to conceal her “real” identity, which doesn’t matter, only the art does. Artists like Fever Ray and even Lady Gaga do this to a limited extent. So this is like what Schwartz is saying about the indestructibility of the poet and the destruction of the human being. Although I don’t think Schwartz is prescribing concealment of identity, but rather that the poet and the art merge to transcend finite material existence. It is an exaltation of poetic identity, a superidentity. At its best, it has something to do with souls, or that part of ourselves that is eternal, the stuff we hope our art is made of.
<br />
<br />Great works of art can come from alienation or not, to answer your penultimate question. As for the final question—“should the poet share in the suffering of her progeny in order to reveal it”—yes. This is not to suggest that a character or a character’s circumstances in a book should be conflated with the author or the author’s life, they shouldn’t. But if there is suffering, or any measure of emotional depth in a work that exceeds the merely rhapsodic, that lives and has truth and guts, it is because the author has experienced that <i>emotion</i>.
<br />
<br /><b>GL:</b> The geographical backdrop of Harlan/Toland's fantastical story is Denver, Colorado, a very real place colored by powerful fantasies. Denver was one of late twentieth-century America's biggest boomtowns, gaining affluence, wealth, and both white-collar and progressive prestige steadily as the century closed. Its suburbs have been portrayed as both middle-class Edens and, at times, Cheeveresque nightmares. How and why did Denver, with all its signifying baggage and promise, present itself to you as the landscape for your twenty-first century Gothic tale?
<br />
<br /><b>KGLS:</b> I do think of <i>The Bugging Watch </i>as a period piece, and the period it inhabits is a sort of gloomy afterperiod. That sounds very precious and meta but Harlan’s world—the drippy architecture of his lost hours with Toland—is just that: a reminiscence constructed in a future. So why Denver? Harlan and Toland live in Denver because I lived in Denver when I first wrote about them. I lived in a tiny and buggy first floor w/ basement of a Cheesman Park duplex. The exact address was 1412 E 14th Ave, <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=1412+East+14th+Avenue,+Denver,+CO&hl=en&ll=39.737571,-104.968357&spn=0.009323,0.02002&sll=39.738412,-104.97016&sspn=0.009405,0.02002&z=16&iwloc=A&layer=c&cbll=39.738416,-104.970149&panoid=2m5-aX3sF9oNmqJlAaSrBw&cbp=12,245.17,,0,17.21">here</a> is a Google map.
<br />
<br />But Harlan and Toland do not inhabit this exact address, their address in <i>The Bugging Watch</i> is 1412 Humboldt Street. Humboldt is one of the cross-streets for the aforementioned address on 14th Ave. In real life, there is no 1412 Humboldt Street, and the fictional place where Toland and Harlan dwell is a pretty convincing facsimile of the buggy 1st floor w/ basement I lived in for a few years. So why did I bother to change the address from 14th Ave to Humboldt St? I liked the way Humboldt sounded. I liked the word. I chose the music over the truth, to borrow from Richard Hugo (“All truth must conform to the music”).
<br />
<br />Still, it wasn’t just that. It is never just that. Harlan and Toland do not live in the 1st floor w/ basement that I lived in. They live in a once-a-past-a-time-ago of it, in a place that is part real and part fantasy, so I put them inside walls invented near-real—a made-up address in a real town. And even though the exact address is not a place I have ever <i>seen</i> before, it is a place I have seen my whole life. Because, to keep borrowing from Hugo, “the poem is always in your hometown, but you have a better chance of finding it in another.”
<br />
<br /><b>GL:</b> You recently expressed some grief through correspondence over sending your forthcoming MS, <i>China Cowboy</i>, to the publishers. Why the sorrow of letting this book out into the world? And what comes next, or don't you know?
<br />
<br /><b>KGLS:</b> The characters in my book <i>China Cowboy</i> are characters I’ve had in my life for many years. Sometimes it feels like these characters are part of my family, as demented as that is considering how demented they are. But I talk about them with my family like they are real people. We have inside jokes on them, we imitate them, we make fun, and we Stevie Wonder their flaws. My daughter has a stuffed animal she calls La La, for instance. Is that twisted? Maybe. It is part of our dysfunction. I guess we can still do all these things even though I have put <i>China Cowboy</i> out of my house. But it isn’t the same.
<br />
<br />What’s next? I have a couple works-in-progress, a novel and a collaborative hybrid. I am not letting either of them out of my house yet.
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<br />Kim Gek Lin Short is the author of two full-length collections, <a href="http://www.spdbooks.org/Producte/9780982541616/the-bugging-watch--other-exhibits.aspx">The Bugging Watch & Other Exhibits</a> and the forthcoming China Cowboy, both from Tarpaulin Sky Press. Her chapbook <a href="http://rope-a-dope-press.blogspot.com/2010/04/run-by-kim-gek-lin-short.html">Run</a> was the 2010 Golden Gloves selection from Rope-a-Dope, and a previous chapbook, <a href="http://www.dancinggirlpress.com/">The Residents</a>, is available from Dancing Girl Press.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com