Monday, July 22, 2013

Lost and ____

I do not want to be1
a female impersonator:2
the part is sick of representing the whole.3
“Who are you anyway?”4
took a little tabula rasa with her caffeine—5
me, as ever, gone6
to be beautiful…enough for someone to want.7

Can you make a double negative of8
our physicality…?9
It is important not to be fooled10
[by] a heretic’s mirror for the true story11
no matter how many pages you eat,12
but it’s also true that you can’t really know until it’s13
one of many dull aches.14

The process wobbles wildly and accelerates.15
there is no need for this—16
[a] body of flaws17
disguises the18
shapes the shapelessness was taking back.19
a world of bone seen through to!20
continue: we’ll discover where you sweat.21

We sleep together in the dark—22
(default position,23
trying to become one creature)24
it disguises the kissing and makes us less sad—25
but confuse26
equal opportunity27
with love.28
does it follow that the sleep of monsters produces reason?29
a boy just like you took me out to see them30
and he wanders among strangers all he wants31
marking a stillness we can’t keep,32
finding all of the stops.33
There are moments in our lives which, threaded, give us heaven34
Unbodied!35
because we never existed inside time,36
its pale and inconclusive utterances—37
Are you still there for me in that dark?38

Empty rooms love the dark,39
made you glad for beauty like that, casual and intense—40
the more-than-you-bargained-for surprise of it41
most delicate of manias,42
until the sound of the cataracts grows.43

The key to tranquility is44
—rule of the mad—45
(to yell is the rule here)46
Any simple problem can be made insoluble;47
water seeks its own level.48
Attention wanes,49
even in a fish tank.50



1 Carson, “Stanzas, Sections, Seductions”
2 Carson, “Stanzas, Sections, Seductions”
3 Armantrout, “Own”
4 Armantrout, “Wannabe”
5 CD Wright, “One with Others”
6 Carson, “Despite Her Pain, Another Day”
7 Armantrout, “Later”
8 Carson, “Totality: the Colour of Eclipse”
9 Carson, “Decreation”
10 Carson, “Decreation”
11 Carson, “Decreation”
12 Carson, “Decreation”
13 Armantrout, “On Your Way”
14 Armantrout, “Minimum Sum”
15 Hass, “Misery and Splendor”
16 Hass, “Late Spring”
17 Graham, “Two Paintings by Gustav Klimt”
18 Carson, “The Day Antonioni Came to the Asylum”
19 Graham, “What the End is For”
20 Graham, “San Sepolcro”
21 Carson, “Aria of Last Cherries”
22 Armantrout, “The Light”
23 Armantrout, “Just”
24 Hass, “Misery and Splendor”
25 Carson, “The Day Antonioni Came to the Asylum”
26 Armantrout, “The Light”
27 CD Wright, “One with Others”
28 Armantrout, “The Light”
29 CD Wright, “One with Others”
30 Graham, “What the End is For”
31 Hass, “The Apple Trees at Olema”
32 Graham, “Over and Over Stitch”
33 Graham, “San Sepolchro”
34 Graham, “Over and Over Stitch”
35 Graham, “What the End is For”
36 Hass, “Then Time”
37 Graham, “Over and Over Stitch”
38 Graham, “What the End is For”
39 CD Wright, “One with Others”
40 Hass, “Spring Rain”
41 Hass, “On Squaw Peak”
42 Graham, “Over and Over Stitch”
43 Graham, “What the End is For”
44 CD Wright, “One with Others”
45 Carson, “The Day Antonioni Came to the Asylum”
46 Carson, “The Day Antonioni Came to the Asylum”
47 CD Wright, “One with Others”
48 CD Wright, “One with Others”
49 Armantrout, “Poem”
50 CD Wright, “One with Others”

No comments:

Post a Comment