JOHN MALCOLM BRINNIN
(l916- 1998)
academic yet
in a free lease
of nature
you taught my uncle
and I well
Eliot , Larkin, Auden
became higher than flesh
than merely modern
played by a lyre
their weight above
a human search
for the spiritual awe
and desire to love
sought by the physical
with a metaphysical conceit
leading our English
classroom into grace
of a Spenser and Milton
as a young tutor
with a new trace
in his thesis and dissertation
wishing for an Odysseus
to discover Bloom
from his metamorphosis
who became a Beat
Monday, June 30, 2014
Dear readers,
Thank you for making the World of BZ Niditch an internationally recognized blog.
Feel free to make comments here or to me at bzniditch@gmail.com. I appreciate you. Enjoy my poetry which tries to sum up my age as I live and imagine it.I also
include my plays, maxims and fiction at times.
BZ Niditch
Thank you for making the World of BZ Niditch an internationally recognized blog.
Feel free to make comments here or to me at bzniditch@gmail.com. I appreciate you. Enjoy my poetry which tries to sum up my age as I live and imagine it.I also
include my plays, maxims and fiction at times.
BZ Niditch
Sunday, June 29, 2014
CHRISTIAN MORGENSTERN
A Nonsense poet
with his own esoteric
suspension of an old language
for the ease and essence
of his new hieroglyphic
in a dexterity
of a solely mystical invention
he bared his own age
for the few,
reaching for boundaries
beyond convention
in poetry' s outer spaces
and inner time zones
for our own utility.
A Nonsense poet
with his own esoteric
suspension of an old language
for the ease and essence
of his new hieroglyphic
in a dexterity
of a solely mystical invention
he bared his own age
for the few,
reaching for boundaries
beyond convention
in poetry' s outer spaces
and inner time zones
for our own utility.
Saturday, June 28, 2014
JORGE GUILLEN
You know a poem
by its sound
appealing like bells
in contemplative peace
as pure creation
as a first act of love
reacts as incarnation
sending out a fleece
for an inner destiny
and jells as plenitude
as more than intimation,
or mere imitation
of an attitude
no subtle intimidation
as smells of disorder
his lines rest in harmony
on the ground at our border
at the garden's repose
only the rose may pardon,
he reaches each succeeding
generation in an attainable
pledge of his love affair
with musical words
he will emerge like airy birds
from death to teach us
with critical knowledge
as the lyrical heir
in our poetic breath.
You know a poem
by its sound
appealing like bells
in contemplative peace
as pure creation
as a first act of love
reacts as incarnation
sending out a fleece
for an inner destiny
and jells as plenitude
as more than intimation,
or mere imitation
of an attitude
no subtle intimidation
as smells of disorder
his lines rest in harmony
on the ground at our border
at the garden's repose
only the rose may pardon,
he reaches each succeeding
generation in an attainable
pledge of his love affair
with musical words
he will emerge like airy birds
from death to teach us
with critical knowledge
as the lyrical heir
in our poetic breath.
CORBIERE
Unknown
but with great
influence
yet for his dog
finding a supper's bone
macabre,deluded
yet agonized in perception
and surprised refrain
as a painter in conception
to sustain images
what words of languages
self realized again
from the inception
of your childhood
you were disguised
in your own neighborhood
as a yellow rose colored
marker in your book
for the outcasts
thrown out to the sea
orphans by land
or in your native Brittany
no one can match
your misery
in fiddling
inside your poverty rooms
or playing hurdy gurdy
for unconsummated grooms
an exile like a Jewish bride
or Catholic in a pew to hide
from his own sin
wanting a rhapsody
for any of the oppressed
the few who hear
your surreal voice within
are blessed.
Unknown
but with great
influence
yet for his dog
finding a supper's bone
macabre,deluded
yet agonized in perception
and surprised refrain
as a painter in conception
to sustain images
what words of languages
self realized again
from the inception
of your childhood
you were disguised
in your own neighborhood
as a yellow rose colored
marker in your book
for the outcasts
thrown out to the sea
orphans by land
or in your native Brittany
no one can match
your misery
in fiddling
inside your poverty rooms
or playing hurdy gurdy
for unconsummated grooms
an exile like a Jewish bride
or Catholic in a pew to hide
from his own sin
wanting a rhapsody
for any of the oppressed
the few who hear
your surreal voice within
are blessed.
BOBROWSKI
Another fate
full of despair
of his post-war calling
yet even as a conscript
to remember his days
of sleepless atonement
to lament the tragedy
of Jewish memory
in his own German language
of life in death spirits
by hunters of hawks
on polluted rivers of fish
from a time
of silent whispers.
Another fate
full of despair
of his post-war calling
yet even as a conscript
to remember his days
of sleepless atonement
to lament the tragedy
of Jewish memory
in his own German language
of life in death spirits
by hunters of hawks
on polluted rivers of fish
from a time
of silent whispers.
HOFMANNSTHAL
Schnapps
for the theater guy
as mythologies
make you curious
with such Sophoclean
end up days
in a sickly dawn
trying not to accept
your own stuck up way
left this poet denuded
and feeling deluded
being with a door keeper
who unfastens your past
discovering more than
a street wise Berlin junkie
who wants another beer
despite your nobility
you share yourself
with him
by anonymous shoulders
of a double destiny
in your imbroglio of a life,
now at your writing desk
with a new play.
Schnapps
for the theater guy
as mythologies
make you curious
with such Sophoclean
end up days
in a sickly dawn
trying not to accept
your own stuck up way
left this poet denuded
and feeling deluded
being with a door keeper
who unfastens your past
discovering more than
a street wise Berlin junkie
who wants another beer
despite your nobility
you share yourself
with him
by anonymous shoulders
of a double destiny
in your imbroglio of a life,
now at your writing desk
with a new play.
ANHAVA
Picking
up leaves
outside Helsinki
wanting to journey
to the Aland Islands
to find shells and stones
even a philosopher's one
poetry in motion
makes us rational near
a body of water
and language raises
waves rushing by
when even nature's tone
can create mischief
on the summer's first day,
watching a boatload
of Swedish tourists
carrying yellow kayaks
plunging into the ocean
thy're open mouthed
in heroism and enthusiasm
with outspread breath
under the solstice sun
in the raucous anonymity
of the elbowing breeze
Picking
up leaves
outside Helsinki
wanting to journey
to the Aland Islands
to find shells and stones
even a philosopher's one
poetry in motion
makes us rational near
a body of water
and language raises
waves rushing by
when even nature's tone
can create mischief
on the summer's first day,
watching a boatload
of Swedish tourists
carrying yellow kayaks
plunging into the ocean
thy're open mouthed
in heroism and enthusiasm
with outspread breath
under the solstice sun
in the raucous anonymity
of the elbowing breeze
LUCIO PICCOLO
Like me
you played the baroque
from your violin
listened to Wagner's
Tristan and Isolde,
loved the mystics
like Juan de la Cruz
and St. Teresa,
and the philosophy
in an existential mad swirl
of influential Husserl,
studied the classics
read Latin and Greek
corresponded with
your cousin Lampedusa
whom you inspired
who wrote The Leopard
which we admired
and found posthumously
by Giorgio Bassani
and conspired
with great poets
like the Irish bard Yeats
you had your own force
in the occultic source
of middle aged sorcery
in an energy of tangibility
which took you on high
unlike St. Teresa
whom God levitated
you relied on Lucifer
to follow her
and your own shadow
weighing you down below
and dying like Proserpina
in the underworld and rising
on your favorite balcony
in beautiful Messina.
Like me
you played the baroque
from your violin
listened to Wagner's
Tristan and Isolde,
loved the mystics
like Juan de la Cruz
and St. Teresa,
and the philosophy
in an existential mad swirl
of influential Husserl,
studied the classics
read Latin and Greek
corresponded with
your cousin Lampedusa
whom you inspired
who wrote The Leopard
which we admired
and found posthumously
by Giorgio Bassani
and conspired
with great poets
like the Irish bard Yeats
you had your own force
in the occultic source
of middle aged sorcery
in an energy of tangibility
which took you on high
unlike St. Teresa
whom God levitated
you relied on Lucifer
to follow her
and your own shadow
weighing you down below
and dying like Proserpina
in the underworld and rising
on your favorite balcony
in beautiful Messina.
BAUDELAIRE
The days fall behind
as the dusk weighs
on my ebony shadows
from Jeanne Duval
transfixed by my body
into melody anguish
and melancholy speech
in the language of attraction
as an almost sculpted sun
upsets us over Paris
for no reason
yet our lower intestine burns
us out of mutual starvation
except from dead ends
of perpetual second guessing
where to get a cheap meal
in the Latin Quarter
with no satisfaction
into the perpetual loneliness
of the black cat
from the window sill
full of dying flowers
and lost hours of distraction.
The days fall behind
as the dusk weighs
on my ebony shadows
from Jeanne Duval
transfixed by my body
into melody anguish
and melancholy speech
in the language of attraction
as an almost sculpted sun
upsets us over Paris
for no reason
yet our lower intestine burns
us out of mutual starvation
except from dead ends
of perpetual second guessing
where to get a cheap meal
in the Latin Quarter
with no satisfaction
into the perpetual loneliness
of the black cat
from the window sill
full of dying flowers
and lost hours of distraction.
Friday, June 27, 2014
OSCAR WILDE
A wit and satirist
for a critic not uptight
who goes way beyond
what a play write
could express,
to have such insight
when you had in comedy
a great stage success
even as new art
forms in your age
may expect a part
from such a witness
yet you are indicted
merely for forbidden love
for being on another side
of the bed
with the same gender
hidden in your plays
which challenge reality
as mind benders of chance
against society's banality,
for your sex ventures
were for a constituency
only embraced as romance
by a keen minority
of the culture,
others had a conspiracy
of manners against you
solely as a theater queen
in such gay romances
of what could have been,
for to take Wilde's part
calls for persecution
more than pleasure
you were so fond of,
three acts once directed
in leisure
in your great comedies,
now without immunity
a genius is sent to gaol
because of nameless sex,
shame on such a community
put on the index
for a blameless position
of censorship and inquisition.
A wit and satirist
for a critic not uptight
who goes way beyond
what a play write
could express,
to have such insight
when you had in comedy
a great stage success
even as new art
forms in your age
may expect a part
from such a witness
yet you are indicted
merely for forbidden love
for being on another side
of the bed
with the same gender
hidden in your plays
which challenge reality
as mind benders of chance
against society's banality,
for your sex ventures
were for a constituency
only embraced as romance
by a keen minority
of the culture,
others had a conspiracy
of manners against you
solely as a theater queen
in such gay romances
of what could have been,
for to take Wilde's part
calls for persecution
more than pleasure
you were so fond of,
three acts once directed
in leisure
in your great comedies,
now without immunity
a genius is sent to gaol
because of nameless sex,
shame on such a community
put on the index
for a blameless position
of censorship and inquisition.
THEY CALLED ME SHAKESPEARE
Since the fourth grade
in the Garrison School
they called me
Shakespeare,
I would sit under
my Aunt Kate's
apple tree
and write plays,
my characters
were Phillip Sonata
and Phyllis Concerto,
the other kids
told me "Come play
in the playground
on Brookledge St.
of the Garrison school"
in Boston
next door to Aunt Kate
but I wrote my plays
with all knowledge
of my skill
until I founded
the Original theater
to sum up my age
as it be your Will.
Since the fourth grade
in the Garrison School
they called me
Shakespeare,
I would sit under
my Aunt Kate's
apple tree
and write plays,
my characters
were Phillip Sonata
and Phyllis Concerto,
the other kids
told me "Come play
in the playground
on Brookledge St.
of the Garrison school"
in Boston
next door to Aunt Kate
but I wrote my plays
with all knowledge
of my skill
until I founded
the Original theater
to sum up my age
as it be your Will.
THE ICE CREAM MAN
Bells sound
on the truck
bicycles park
and a large poodle
named Bogart
becomes excited
as the kids
on Sandy Beach
run to get
a hot fudge sundae
with marshmallows,
the town dentist
is late for his appointment
with Ada, a fortune teller
but just makes it
for his orange popsickle
in a sugar cone.
Bells sound
on the truck
bicycles park
and a large poodle
named Bogart
becomes excited
as the kids
on Sandy Beach
run to get
a hot fudge sundae
with marshmallows,
the town dentist
is late for his appointment
with Ada, a fortune teller
but just makes it
for his orange popsickle
in a sugar cone.
Thursday, June 26, 2014
PSYCHIATRIST
He analyzes you
as you analyze him
for it is a two way
know it all session
a no name intended ego
you hide your unconscious
to find out what makes
your curiosity take notice
challenge your shared
power and authority
from childhood trauma
a first sexual encounter
mothering life in feelings
fathering death as a figure
portending and pretending
what past,present and future
rationale makes yourself sick
in your expression,
repression, confession
and your current depression.
He analyzes you
as you analyze him
for it is a two way
know it all session
a no name intended ego
you hide your unconscious
to find out what makes
your curiosity take notice
challenge your shared
power and authority
from childhood trauma
a first sexual encounter
mothering life in feelings
fathering death as a figure
portending and pretending
what past,present and future
rationale makes yourself sick
in your expression,
repression, confession
and your current depression.
LAUNDRY
After the laundry
empties the two gossips
out of the basement
for another week,
kisses rise from an aging
politically incorrect
musician from Rhode Island
named "Rickie"
from the rock group "Bolt"
who returned on Monday
with a walking stick
and mountain bike
after falling over
the dance floor
at his Vermont honeymoon,
the kiss lands on the wind
way over the grey 'stache
of a cool yet hot Roman
Vinnie,the skipper
of the boat
in the home harbor,
as Lana the Broadway star
and former lap dancer
who teaches us Esperanto
receives the friendly kiss
of a lifetime
we all have lunch
of afrodisiac asparagus
in the perilous sun
on deck of the ocean.
After the laundry
empties the two gossips
out of the basement
for another week,
kisses rise from an aging
politically incorrect
musician from Rhode Island
named "Rickie"
from the rock group "Bolt"
who returned on Monday
with a walking stick
and mountain bike
after falling over
the dance floor
at his Vermont honeymoon,
the kiss lands on the wind
way over the grey 'stache
of a cool yet hot Roman
Vinnie,the skipper
of the boat
in the home harbor,
as Lana the Broadway star
and former lap dancer
who teaches us Esperanto
receives the friendly kiss
of a lifetime
we all have lunch
of afrodisiac asparagus
in the perilous sun
on deck of the ocean.
BULLETINS
Kite festival
outside my window
to the sea
orange, green and red
balloon colors rising
toward the ominous sky
lands on the evergreen
over toward a Japanese yew
and the local news junkie
whom I call St. Mathew 24
this good neighbor becoming
manic and obsessive
with war
and rumors of war and peace
telling him to read Tolstoy.
Kite festival
outside my window
to the sea
orange, green and red
balloon colors rising
toward the ominous sky
lands on the evergreen
over toward a Japanese yew
and the local news junkie
whom I call St. Mathew 24
this good neighbor becoming
manic and obsessive
with war
and rumors of war and peace
telling him to read Tolstoy.
MOVING OUT
After you married
and your word
traveled only so far
and the harbor child
will not stop crying
you escape
to the green mountains
with your warm sweater,
poetry demands to be
on flex hours
yet to feel that you notice
the fauna, the rocks,trees
less these city days
you badly need a break
in the grey clouds
to transform yourself
out of time
and plant yourself
somewhere out of place
before your existence
is frozen on your watch
among familiar landscapes
or you will become
a couch potato
with foreign films
going non stop
in the living room.
After you married
and your word
traveled only so far
and the harbor child
will not stop crying
you escape
to the green mountains
with your warm sweater,
poetry demands to be
on flex hours
yet to feel that you notice
the fauna, the rocks,trees
less these city days
you badly need a break
in the grey clouds
to transform yourself
out of time
and plant yourself
somewhere out of place
before your existence
is frozen on your watch
among familiar landscapes
or you will become
a couch potato
with foreign films
going non stop
in the living room.
JAPANESE TOURISTS
Leaflets
and posters speak
about my play
a weary priest
walks by
on the lower east side
offers a pater noster
and says he will
by faith, be there
at the theater,
six Japanese tourists
eager not to kill time
in Times Square
promise me to be early
after I give away
a couple of complimentary
tickets for first night
raising my expectation
about this new play
on displaced persons
after the war
which gets a good review.
Leaflets
and posters speak
about my play
a weary priest
walks by
on the lower east side
offers a pater noster
and says he will
by faith, be there
at the theater,
six Japanese tourists
eager not to kill time
in Times Square
promise me to be early
after I give away
a couple of complimentary
tickets for first night
raising my expectation
about this new play
on displaced persons
after the war
which gets a good review.
MISSING THE TRAIN
In a miasma
knowing my play
will be on tonight
in its premier production
off off Broadway
hiding from myself
and hoping the critics
die before the flowers
are given out
knowing the chairs
of the empty theater
are in their place
after a long applause
in my imagination,
approaching the metro
with a stationary smile.
In a miasma
knowing my play
will be on tonight
in its premier production
off off Broadway
hiding from myself
and hoping the critics
die before the flowers
are given out
knowing the chairs
of the empty theater
are in their place
after a long applause
in my imagination,
approaching the metro
with a stationary smile.
BULLYING
the kid
with the Chinatown
scarf on
in the corner
hounded
by a bulldog
of a bully
every school day
though anticeptic rooms
of the nurses aid
where the sun comes in
saying you are
handsome and nice
and offers a hug,
until the gym instructor
gives you weights
and gives you a male
gesture of hope,
the bully seeks you out
sneaks up on you
attempts to steal
your sneakers,
finally after watching
Taxi driver in film class
you confront him
and he without explanation
bows to you.
the kid
with the Chinatown
scarf on
in the corner
hounded
by a bulldog
of a bully
every school day
though anticeptic rooms
of the nurses aid
where the sun comes in
saying you are
handsome and nice
and offers a hug,
until the gym instructor
gives you weights
and gives you a male
gesture of hope,
the bully seeks you out
sneaks up on you
attempts to steal
your sneakers,
finally after watching
Taxi driver in film class
you confront him
and he without explanation
bows to you.
STRAD
In the cab
or on the subway
exhausted from searching
like a gnome
it's eleven o' clock
your life is going to pieces
weary on winding streets
you trace your steps
to your last violin lesson
emotions tremble
and you have a recital
tonight,
the Strad, a survivor
of fascism
with the newspaper headline
of the Times
making you shiver
remembering the day
when the Strad in case
with foreign markings
was delivered
to your basement trap- door
it was from cousin Michael
believed to be an angel
who was tortured
and has no hand
to speak of
in returning memory
from an instrument of love
never leaving your sight
now with twenty questions
between two worlds
of your interrogation
in the cold police station
when word arrives
by telephone
that in a coat check room
of a tiny restaurant
in the west side
serving goulash
where you played
Brahms Hungarian dances
the missing object
has been found
and the reward offered.
In the cab
or on the subway
exhausted from searching
like a gnome
it's eleven o' clock
your life is going to pieces
weary on winding streets
you trace your steps
to your last violin lesson
emotions tremble
and you have a recital
tonight,
the Strad, a survivor
of fascism
with the newspaper headline
of the Times
making you shiver
remembering the day
when the Strad in case
with foreign markings
was delivered
to your basement trap- door
it was from cousin Michael
believed to be an angel
who was tortured
and has no hand
to speak of
in returning memory
from an instrument of love
never leaving your sight
now with twenty questions
between two worlds
of your interrogation
in the cold police station
when word arrives
by telephone
that in a coat check room
of a tiny restaurant
in the west side
serving goulash
where you played
Brahms Hungarian dances
the missing object
has been found
and the reward offered.
WORLD CUP
To fix even your boxers
with rituals
of your two balls
in perfect arrangement
from bottom to top
I hear continuous prayers
by that rosary gal in Brazil
she says she is a target
of an ancient mother
lode of being made fun
of by the Devil,
after all,her son John
has prepped to behave
himself for this world cup
prepared for this event
by running and eating well,
even leaving the favela
you call home
to practice every day
in a sweat by the alleys
feeling like Spartacus
if you knew of him
on shore as a galley slave.
To fix even your boxers
with rituals
of your two balls
in perfect arrangement
from bottom to top
I hear continuous prayers
by that rosary gal in Brazil
she says she is a target
of an ancient mother
lode of being made fun
of by the Devil,
after all,her son John
has prepped to behave
himself for this world cup
prepared for this event
by running and eating well,
even leaving the favela
you call home
to practice every day
in a sweat by the alleys
feeling like Spartacus
if you knew of him
on shore as a galley slave.
FAITH HEALED
it didn't take God long
for figuring out
your story
as you longed to be healed
what was revealed
was your story
in the context of impassioned
love from a proxy doctor
greater than
any medicine man
in any prayer line
filled with the psychosomatic
sickness of your time
despair,wanting no glory
but your condition being real
with the issue of blood
in a foreign body
you were faith healed
no matter what anyone said
about knowledge
of your former husbands
you were ready
on your bed
to tell your story
on a clean slate and sheet
prepared even to rise
from the dead.
it didn't take God long
for figuring out
your story
as you longed to be healed
what was revealed
was your story
in the context of impassioned
love from a proxy doctor
greater than
any medicine man
in any prayer line
filled with the psychosomatic
sickness of your time
despair,wanting no glory
but your condition being real
with the issue of blood
in a foreign body
you were faith healed
no matter what anyone said
about knowledge
of your former husbands
you were ready
on your bed
to tell your story
on a clean slate and sheet
prepared even to rise
from the dead.
DRIVE INS
a sanguine phenomenon
of the post war era
is the drive- in
with a worship
of cars and girls ritual
waiting to greet
the grade b film noir
taking a statin or serotonin
given the stimuli status
of today's physical culture
on a a muscled tattoo arm
of desire on a quick date
not far from home
with appropriate prophylaxis
in the glove dept.
to keep love from
getting out of hand.
a sanguine phenomenon
of the post war era
is the drive- in
with a worship
of cars and girls ritual
waiting to greet
the grade b film noir
taking a statin or serotonin
given the stimuli status
of today's physical culture
on a a muscled tattoo arm
of desire on a quick date
not far from home
with appropriate prophylaxis
in the glove dept.
to keep love from
getting out of hand.
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
THEME PARKS
They go up, for miles
of what the human eye sees
with these huge tents
over greensward
sink holes
an engineer is cleared
of all wrong doing
in his sexy field glasses
satisfying the masses
eager for games in the ring
and rigorous sport
in chit chat rigmarole
of physical chance to begin
and show off their bodies
taking off their shoes
to show off an armed wrestled
series of post war tattoos
and afterwards their toddies,
as accidents happen
without repentence.
They go up, for miles
of what the human eye sees
with these huge tents
over greensward
sink holes
an engineer is cleared
of all wrong doing
in his sexy field glasses
satisfying the masses
eager for games in the ring
and rigorous sport
in chit chat rigmarole
of physical chance to begin
and show off their bodies
taking off their shoes
to show off an armed wrestled
series of post war tattoos
and afterwards their toddies,
as accidents happen
without repentence.
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
TED ESLIN
In a seeing eye
from ballads of journey poets
who sing for a living
like a troubador
wanted for treason
on the back roads
seeking knowledge
more than priviledge
making you a contemporary
of knights and gentle ladies
when the beats meet
dante in purgatory
saved by Donne's bell
from endless hades and hell
In a seeing eye
from ballads of journey poets
who sing for a living
like a troubador
wanted for treason
on the back roads
seeking knowledge
more than priviledge
making you a contemporary
of knights and gentle ladies
when the beats meet
dante in purgatory
saved by Donne's bell
from endless hades and hell
WALTER LOWENFELS
For you, social justice
came first
fascism the worst
you tried to understand
gays and others you admit
they have feelings too
though you do try
to understand
life is profiled in history
and DNA
a personal view
of who are outed
by McCarthy
in the Fifties
take the fifth
like the hollywood ten,
Walter, Stalin betrayed you
with his gulag pen and crimes
and you not hiding the Daily Worker
in the NY Times
where no language poems
ever existed for such a bard
all are searching too
in the avant garde
For you, social justice
came first
fascism the worst
you tried to understand
gays and others you admit
they have feelings too
though you do try
to understand
life is profiled in history
and DNA
a personal view
of who are outed
by McCarthy
in the Fifties
take the fifth
like the hollywood ten,
Walter, Stalin betrayed you
with his gulag pen and crimes
and you not hiding the Daily Worker
in the NY Times
where no language poems
ever existed for such a bard
all are searching too
in the avant garde
FRANK O'HARA
Under the Cedar Bar code
of nonconfomity
poets and expressionists,
Frank being inter racial
drinks
with a black guy
a sanguine waiter
at Sardi's,
he met on the elevator
Frank suddenly praises Pasternak
in conversation
to his unfamiliar new friend
he does not know your Russian love
brings the guy home
after a drink
for a one night stand
some around the bar think,
but frankly do not understand.
Under the Cedar Bar code
of nonconfomity
poets and expressionists,
Frank being inter racial
drinks
with a black guy
a sanguine waiter
at Sardi's,
he met on the elevator
Frank suddenly praises Pasternak
in conversation
to his unfamiliar new friend
he does not know your Russian love
brings the guy home
after a drink
for a one night stand
some around the bar think,
but frankly do not understand.
Monday, June 23, 2014
OLSON
Fisher kings are discussed
off an Cape Ann retreat
in an afternoon of mythology
at a July poetry seminar
before a literary luncheon
when in the second watch
I catch a salmon
from my orange kayak
with a camera
we spy a white whale
on the high waves
though not wanting to lift
my violin fingers
after I played a Bach concert
solo this grey afternoon
then reading Heraclitus
on the hammock
after a bullet ridden T.V. film
by John Ford followed,
have a filet of sole dinner
with a visiting editor
from Greater Boston
who interviews me
for the Left Lit Review
and compares
my prolific responses
to Herman Melville's. DAVID WAGONER
Flouting convention
floating over
the sea and woodland
of pilot's far shore lights
in dream worlds
as burnt waves
of revelation.
Fisher kings are discussed
off an Cape Ann retreat
in an afternoon of mythology
at a July poetry seminar
before a literary luncheon
when in the second watch
I catch a salmon
from my orange kayak
with a camera
we spy a white whale
on the high waves
though not wanting to lift
my violin fingers
after I played a Bach concert
solo this grey afternoon
then reading Heraclitus
on the hammock
after a bullet ridden T.V. film
by John Ford followed,
have a filet of sole dinner
with a visiting editor
from Greater Boston
who interviews me
for the Left Lit Review
and compares
my prolific responses
to Herman Melville's. DAVID WAGONER
Flouting convention
floating over
the sea and woodland
of pilot's far shore lights
in dream worlds
as burnt waves
of revelation.
ROBIN ROBERTSON
Scotland has given us gift
in you, Robin Robertson
to make everyone homesick
for an ex camera moment
your lines are visibly quick
and transparent
to my resonant ear
and red eye
with fairly generous rhythm
I'm reading you
while playing solo jazz riffs
outside my family home
as a songbird lifts herself
on a fir branch
up to the blue hills
your words are intimate
here under the sky sun
in a horizon so ubiquitous.
Scotland has given us gift
in you, Robin Robertson
to make everyone homesick
for an ex camera moment
your lines are visibly quick
and transparent
to my resonant ear
and red eye
with fairly generous rhythm
I'm reading you
while playing solo jazz riffs
outside my family home
as a songbird lifts herself
on a fir branch
up to the blue hills
your words are intimate
here under the sky sun
in a horizon so ubiquitous.
STANLEY PLUMLY
This solstice hour
speaks for us all
among petals that dream
as June's pink tulips caress
the flowering Judas,
music from a picnic
rolls through heavy metal
and rocking Metallica
on the B.B.C.
on your walk in the country,
the compass says
time is short
solstice life today impresses
in soccer sports
June arrives to settle
when we are out of sorts,
in need of sunny weather
as you picture
on the tall grass the art
of Whistler.
JOHN FULLER
Poet of unspaced reality
that knew by faith
there is not a single
sparrow that falls
to the ground
that is not known
or comforted
as every hair on our head
or dog bone fed
there is no wrong
that cannot be created right
from this morning or night,
no one is lost
if we are risen from the dead,
that there is no song
without Godly sorrow
when joy returns
on the tree of life
for tomorrow
you are not without a prayer
in affirmation on your back
and the weight of mourning
in a stony heart of stone
of its own conceit
which minds its own heart
and refuses to wash
your neighbor's feet,
we realize that every painting
is divinely designed
across canvas and cross
in many scattered colors
as art and the Word in kind
remember to atone your loss.
Poet of unspaced reality
that knew by faith
there is not a single
sparrow that falls
to the ground
that is not known
or comforted
as every hair on our head
or dog bone fed
there is no wrong
that cannot be created right
from this morning or night,
no one is lost
if we are risen from the dead,
that there is no song
without Godly sorrow
when joy returns
on the tree of life
for tomorrow
you are not without a prayer
in affirmation on your back
and the weight of mourning
in a stony heart of stone
of its own conceit
which minds its own heart
and refuses to wash
your neighbor's feet,
we realize that every painting
is divinely designed
across canvas and cross
in many scattered colors
as art and the Word in kind
remember to atone your loss.
RIKA LESSER
Your reflected live poems
in a lovely body of work
stored as ancient concubines
greater than your last words
now dominated by the prince
of the air waves
in a naked power grab
by those hip hopped and high
with the crippled gift of gab
or those going to a poetry slam
not even thanking you,
sir or ma'am
sponsored by the Soaps
and red eye valley
of the dolls and girls
in a new age as confessor
without any sense of language
on graffiti walls connecting
the past to history
but you Rika Lesser
with an old world sensibility
translate Ekelof and Sonavi
to the delight of BZ.
Your reflected live poems
in a lovely body of work
stored as ancient concubines
greater than your last words
now dominated by the prince
of the air waves
in a naked power grab
by those hip hopped and high
with the crippled gift of gab
or those going to a poetry slam
not even thanking you,
sir or ma'am
sponsored by the Soaps
and red eye valley
of the dolls and girls
in a new age as confessor
without any sense of language
on graffiti walls connecting
the past to history
but you Rika Lesser
with an old world sensibility
translate Ekelof and Sonavi
to the delight of BZ.
DONALD HALL
Private company
on public archives
what politically correct
files on their lives
where non compliant verse
was once set on
only bedroom wives,
verse was in correspondences
to incense the Karma of Shiva
or from false gods of Baudelaire
now complaints do not
air in Parvarti tea rooms,
only a handful of poets
will challenge the foothold
once thoughtful critics
of the Sun ,Globe and Times
now accosted because
the liberty lobby
is closed indefinitely
for repair
yet now and forever
with the clever sign 1984
on the iron steel door
with an eternal prosecutor
waiting to be next governor
and a charges d'affaire officer
with Nixonian political crimes
delivering blue laws
in carbon copy
for our own days.
Private company
on public archives
what politically correct
files on their lives
where non compliant verse
was once set on
only bedroom wives,
verse was in correspondences
to incense the Karma of Shiva
or from false gods of Baudelaire
now complaints do not
air in Parvarti tea rooms,
only a handful of poets
will challenge the foothold
once thoughtful critics
of the Sun ,Globe and Times
now accosted because
the liberty lobby
is closed indefinitely
for repair
yet now and forever
with the clever sign 1984
on the iron steel door
with an eternal prosecutor
waiting to be next governor
and a charges d'affaire officer
with Nixonian political crimes
delivering blue laws
in carbon copy
for our own days.
Sunday, June 22, 2014
ELIZABETH BISHOP
Lost in departures
of a companion sun
from Cambridge Common
yet leaving for the daylight
for an affable Brazil
as any four seasoned exile
searching for signs
which pull in the spirit
sprinkled by love sightings
at ease in vulnerable visions
following dawn's bird song
wherever the rain recalls you.
Lost in departures
of a companion sun
from Cambridge Common
yet leaving for the daylight
for an affable Brazil
as any four seasoned exile
searching for signs
which pull in the spirit
sprinkled by love sightings
at ease in vulnerable visions
following dawn's bird song
wherever the rain recalls you.
KARL SHAPIRO
Down streets
mouthing Browning
averse to the collages
in your mind's red eye
feeling in your tweed suit
secure as any
bourgeois George
not lost to vocation
but like your ancestors
of poets, priests and kings
a sense of achievement
yet not lost to history
after the last war
expecting a day of peace
yet there is a commotion
in the public park,
a dachshund is lost
the gardener is watering
a lonely geranium
some busy politician
takes the flower
for his button hole
now securing votes
from his constituency
in the darkness
by a child's swing.
Down streets
mouthing Browning
averse to the collages
in your mind's red eye
feeling in your tweed suit
secure as any
bourgeois George
not lost to vocation
but like your ancestors
of poets, priests and kings
a sense of achievement
yet not lost to history
after the last war
expecting a day of peace
yet there is a commotion
in the public park,
a dachshund is lost
the gardener is watering
a lonely geranium
some busy politician
takes the flower
for his button hole
now securing votes
from his constituency
in the darkness
by a child's swing.
ALLEN GINSBERG
You take Moloch
seriously like Blake
with a guru's vision
visiting in a vision
an alcoholic Irish wake
like Joyce in Gaelic
you hear the words
of Kaddish
and drink up for a Kiddish
with a Sabbath blessing
in your Jungian past
dressing in your nehru jacket
within a magical world
of Wichita Vortex Sutra
yet you cannot hack it,
with a sickly grandma
who speaks in a socialist
sectarian Yiddish
as your proletarian mother
has brought you up
and down with a utopian wish
straight from the asylum
tries to assuage Allen
her son, to be calm
yet they both eat from
a psychedelic dish
then your mama
makes you eat Gefilte fish,
as you head for Naropa
to visit your master Trungpa
turning to Buddha
away from Judaism
and Christian Europa
there is always Moloch
along the hallways
as you bring your sitar
and sing chants
with the Beats,
I once asked you
if you want to be messiah
and kiss David Cassidy's feet
whom Sal Mineo had a crush on
but could not score,
but life is as a sweet cheat
gone into a whoring madness
that is defiantly fowl,
your sensitive father
had a poet's daring originality
above all with a rabbis's soul
and your mother is political
is sadly with gall,
mostly out of it,
you weep for Aunt Rose too
caught in the Red Scare
as you compose "Howl."
You take Moloch
seriously like Blake
with a guru's vision
visiting in a vision
an alcoholic Irish wake
like Joyce in Gaelic
you hear the words
of Kaddish
and drink up for a Kiddish
with a Sabbath blessing
in your Jungian past
dressing in your nehru jacket
within a magical world
of Wichita Vortex Sutra
yet you cannot hack it,
with a sickly grandma
who speaks in a socialist
sectarian Yiddish
as your proletarian mother
has brought you up
and down with a utopian wish
straight from the asylum
tries to assuage Allen
her son, to be calm
yet they both eat from
a psychedelic dish
then your mama
makes you eat Gefilte fish,
as you head for Naropa
to visit your master Trungpa
turning to Buddha
away from Judaism
and Christian Europa
there is always Moloch
along the hallways
as you bring your sitar
and sing chants
with the Beats,
I once asked you
if you want to be messiah
and kiss David Cassidy's feet
whom Sal Mineo had a crush on
but could not score,
but life is as a sweet cheat
gone into a whoring madness
that is defiantly fowl,
your sensitive father
had a poet's daring originality
above all with a rabbis's soul
and your mother is political
is sadly with gall,
mostly out of it,
you weep for Aunt Rose too
caught in the Red Scare
as you compose "Howl."
ROBERT LOWELL
Your graven funeral
on my hands
at the Church
of the Advent
on Beacon Hill,
Boston, 1977
was an event
for your wives, fans
and friend of friends
well known critics
your biographers,
official ones
and non official,
those from the Big Apple
South End and the Fens
were there in the rain,
this poet in the back pew
wishing to hear again
the lectures and readings
my mind starts to review,
as we were with you
among the Arlington dead
marching to the Pentagon
for an end to war
with a feeling of Armageddon,
here not believing
you are gone
and still translated.
of Armageddon
at Boston U.
shaking off the sweat
from your high brow,
here were unrecorded
new poets alive now,
knowing Lowell is dead,
but not his confessional
historical verse
which gives meaning
to our universe,
as you are translated.
Your graven funeral
on my hands
at the Church
of the Advent
on Beacon Hill,
Boston, 1977
was an event
for your wives, fans
and friend of friends
well known critics
your biographers,
official ones
and non official,
those from the Big Apple
South End and the Fens
were there in the rain,
this poet in the back pew
wishing to hear again
the lectures and readings
my mind starts to review,
as we were with you
among the Arlington dead
marching to the Pentagon
for an end to war
with a feeling of Armageddon,
here not believing
you are gone
and still translated.
of Armageddon
at Boston U.
shaking off the sweat
from your high brow,
here were unrecorded
new poets alive now,
knowing Lowell is dead,
but not his confessional
historical verse
which gives meaning
to our universe,
as you are translated.
Saturday, June 21, 2014
EDWARD BRATHWAITE
Opening your first
acceptance letter
in the spring rain
as a flood is reported
on the BBC,
this missive
sent from a fine arts
and dance magazine
on the West End,
soon you will run out
of secret ideas
under a yellow umbrella
the streets are flooded
you try on a perfect boot
like Cinderella.
Opening your first
acceptance letter
in the spring rain
as a flood is reported
on the BBC,
this missive
sent from a fine arts
and dance magazine
on the West End,
soon you will run out
of secret ideas
under a yellow umbrella
the streets are flooded
you try on a perfect boot
like Cinderella.
MICHAEL LONGLEY
I got a free ticket
to sit in the orchestra pit
to hear the Passion
I met a priest from Brazil
named Adrian
of the Carmelites
who was writing a bio
on Juan de la Cruz
told me he was Jewish
he sent the bio to me
read and reviewed it
as a mystic Sephardic
I could feel his prayers
in a Cabbalistic way
from tongues
down in Recife.
I got a free ticket
to sit in the orchestra pit
to hear the Passion
I met a priest from Brazil
named Adrian
of the Carmelites
who was writing a bio
on Juan de la Cruz
told me he was Jewish
he sent the bio to me
read and reviewed it
as a mystic Sephardic
I could feel his prayers
in a Cabbalistic way
from tongues
down in Recife.
TOM PAULIN
Enjoyed your Minotaur
after my violin recital
in a summer arts series
life can be orphaned
and feeling wiped out
reading you
gave me courage
on the stage to on
as my teachers
my uncle and his wife
hand me a Cabernet
as I have to play
in all my positions
in Thais by Massenet
who quickly takes away
all my prohibitions.
Enjoyed your Minotaur
after my violin recital
in a summer arts series
life can be orphaned
and feeling wiped out
reading you
gave me courage
on the stage to on
as my teachers
my uncle and his wife
hand me a Cabernet
as I have to play
in all my positions
in Thais by Massenet
who quickly takes away
all my prohibitions.
W.N. HERBERT
A large concert pianist
with a larger hat
sat down to play Bartok,
there was silence
hardly a move
from watch or clock
with sanguine hands
a choleric face
in a melancholy disposition
with a phlegmatic glance
yet with humorous grace
the sonata went well,
even the Gaelic critics
waited for their drinks
to write their surprised review,
for them mesmerized
by a new unrecognized genius
at the midnight bell.
A large concert pianist
with a larger hat
sat down to play Bartok,
there was silence
hardly a move
from watch or clock
with sanguine hands
a choleric face
in a melancholy disposition
with a phlegmatic glance
yet with humorous grace
the sonata went well,
even the Gaelic critics
waited for their drinks
to write their surprised review,
for them mesmerized
by a new unrecognized genius
at the midnight bell.
RICHARD HUG0
1923-1982)
(in memory)
On the Pacific Northwest
I'm the dock
of the sea port
he/she the local doctor
you, our Richard Hugo
are the poster poet
for preserving our wilderness
a protector of animals
and fauna
a world without boundaries
for meeting a natural world
in the name of language
embracing landscapes
of sad poor failed towns
everyone wanted to escape
impoverished of spirit,
with its cry of loneliness
boredom and rage
a poet emerges for our age.
1923-1982)
(in memory)
On the Pacific Northwest
I'm the dock
of the sea port
he/she the local doctor
you, our Richard Hugo
are the poster poet
for preserving our wilderness
a protector of animals
and fauna
a world without boundaries
for meeting a natural world
in the name of language
embracing landscapes
of sad poor failed towns
everyone wanted to escape
impoverished of spirit,
with its cry of loneliness
boredom and rage
a poet emerges for our age.
Friday, June 20, 2014
ROCKWELL KENT
The appeasers hated you
and your star
painting
for your Russian-American
friendship
against fascism,
you were too much a gent
so the Un Americans
called you a Soviet agent
for a foreign government
like Brecht and so many others
you were smeared for peace
and for your naivete
now a rearmed Germany
with deranged neo Nazis,
out of their bunker,
has the Junker mentality
of revanchist reality changed?
The appeasers hated you
and your star
painting
for your Russian-American
friendship
against fascism,
you were too much a gent
so the Un Americans
called you a Soviet agent
for a foreign government
like Brecht and so many others
you were smeared for peace
and for your naivete
now a rearmed Germany
with deranged neo Nazis,
out of their bunker,
has the Junker mentality
of revanchist reality changed?
GLYN MAXWELL
Coats of my colors
take over
as an English muffin
is thrown on the fiery
grill like the three
Hebrew boys
mishach,shadrach
and abendigo,
they try to throw
you a soccer ball
out of reach
of your goal
in your free society
into the wellspring
of towering Babel
in baby babylon,
Glyn, preserve
the language
above all,
the heritage
of a poet's Byronic freedom
for the speechless
and the ironic theater
in company with Wilde
Shakespeare ,Jonson,Dryden
for those who like the classics
and the good audiences
of Royal fans.
Coats of my colors
take over
as an English muffin
is thrown on the fiery
grill like the three
Hebrew boys
mishach,shadrach
and abendigo,
they try to throw
you a soccer ball
out of reach
of your goal
in your free society
into the wellspring
of towering Babel
in baby babylon,
Glyn, preserve
the language
above all,
the heritage
of a poet's Byronic freedom
for the speechless
and the ironic theater
in company with Wilde
Shakespeare ,Jonson,Dryden
for those who like the classics
and the good audiences
of Royal fans.
STEPHAN HERMLIN
Each hour at Buchenwald
with mortar and bricks
building pyramids
for the German Pharaohs
a Gestapo of lies
which history hid
in the reeds
of their so called
miracle recovery
yet the old armament
industrial makers
are back
so is the army,
when the Allies vowed
the opposite
it happened, we can tell
with an UnAmerican committee's
hatred for anything Soviet,
as Stalin and Hitler in Hell
are still laughing at it.
Each hour at Buchenwald
with mortar and bricks
building pyramids
for the German Pharaohs
a Gestapo of lies
which history hid
in the reeds
of their so called
miracle recovery
yet the old armament
industrial makers
are back
so is the army,
when the Allies vowed
the opposite
it happened, we can tell
with an UnAmerican committee's
hatred for anything Soviet,
as Stalin and Hitler in Hell
are still laughing at it.
BERNARDO ATXAGA
Bernardo, brother poet
accept me
like Joseph
as a long lost brother.
My mother's family
named Mendes expelled
from Toledo
by burning flames
of the Inquisition
now citizenship
has been offered to us
after all these years,
they were physicians
poets and musicians
there is hardly
a Spaniard without
Jewish blood
in every position
whether Juan de la Cruz
or St. Teresa of Avila
even Franco knew it,
now we are again
successful in all we do
even out of persecution
God even as Jesus Himself
who as a Jew blesses the Jew.
Bernardo, brother poet
accept me
like Joseph
as a long lost brother.
My mother's family
named Mendes expelled
from Toledo
by burning flames
of the Inquisition
now citizenship
has been offered to us
after all these years,
they were physicians
poets and musicians
there is hardly
a Spaniard without
Jewish blood
in every position
whether Juan de la Cruz
or St. Teresa of Avila
even Franco knew it,
now we are again
successful in all we do
even out of persecution
God even as Jesus Himself
who as a Jew blesses the Jew.
Thursday, June 19, 2014
ZALI GUREVITCH
My grandmother
Gurevitch
came to America
in 1908
after a pogrom
devastated a village
in her heart
she learnt English
from the first day
yet read Yiddish as well
she left her sister
in the Russian pale
sent Care packages
to her until 1952
until Stalin stopped them
I tried in to find her in Israel
or any remnant of her family
did they survive Hitler
or the Gulag
for instance,
but there were so many
Gureviches listed
in so many files
I adopted you, Zaki
the poet who spoke to me
in the Jerusalem night
as an angora cat walks by me
on Ben Yehuda Street
wanting like any of our people
only to be loved.
My grandmother
Gurevitch
came to America
in 1908
after a pogrom
devastated a village
in her heart
she learnt English
from the first day
yet read Yiddish as well
she left her sister
in the Russian pale
sent Care packages
to her until 1952
until Stalin stopped them
I tried in to find her in Israel
or any remnant of her family
did they survive Hitler
or the Gulag
for instance,
but there were so many
Gureviches listed
in so many files
I adopted you, Zaki
the poet who spoke to me
in the Jerusalem night
as an angora cat walks by me
on Ben Yehuda Street
wanting like any of our people
only to be loved.
ZELDA
Sleepless on a boat
as an outcast on the sea
wanting to to be careless
yet to be free like a butterfly
up to a point
of dodging all responsibility
preparing this Sabbath day
to be utterly changed
without cleaning or laundry
as we caress the large book
containing love's wisdom
psalms, poetry
and our history for study,
the sun never fails us
nor life begrudge or judge us
even when wishing
for an unlettered purity
when embracing a vacation day
here in Safed's art colony
being leeward rowing along
in a pleasure cruise
as we wake up alone
along Lake Galilee
to have a bite of St.Peter's fish
at one's noon hour of leisure.
Sleepless on a boat
as an outcast on the sea
wanting to to be careless
yet to be free like a butterfly
up to a point
of dodging all responsibility
preparing this Sabbath day
to be utterly changed
without cleaning or laundry
as we caress the large book
containing love's wisdom
psalms, poetry
and our history for study,
the sun never fails us
nor life begrudge or judge us
even when wishing
for an unlettered purity
when embracing a vacation day
here in Safed's art colony
being leeward rowing along
in a pleasure cruise
as we wake up alone
along Lake Galilee
to have a bite of St.Peter's fish
at one's noon hour of leisure.
JACKIE KAY
A student now poet BZ
refuses to take
exams and is
cross -examined
in its place,
tell me, briefly,BZ
the vegetative imagery
in Milton 's Paradise Lost,
and from Shakespeare
name every character in King Lear
first lines from Keats ode
Yeats,Blake and Larkin, Kay
as I complied and knew
each answer by heart
"How do you account for
your knowledge before college"
the professor asked me,
and I answered with affection,
"My Uncle Alfred tutored me
in all the English classics,"
the professor said,
"No further exams,for you,BZ
and you will student teach
from this day".
A student now poet BZ
refuses to take
exams and is
cross -examined
in its place,
tell me, briefly,BZ
the vegetative imagery
in Milton 's Paradise Lost,
and from Shakespeare
name every character in King Lear
first lines from Keats ode
Yeats,Blake and Larkin, Kay
as I complied and knew
each answer by heart
"How do you account for
your knowledge before college"
the professor asked me,
and I answered with affection,
"My Uncle Alfred tutored me
in all the English classics,"
the professor said,
"No further exams,for you,BZ
and you will student teach
from this day".
VOLKER BRAUN
we hoped the GDR
with Brecht back
from the Un Americans,
its theater reopens
under currents
of social justice
in spite of the wall
the stasi,
at Checkpoint Charlie
or when you walk down
karl marx stadt
or out him here
thinking is this the socialism
he had in mind for mankind
yet being German and content
regimental and sentimental
there are reasons for being down
when the wall came down.
we hoped the GDR
with Brecht back
from the Un Americans,
its theater reopens
under currents
of social justice
in spite of the wall
the stasi,
at Checkpoint Charlie
or when you walk down
karl marx stadt
or out him here
thinking is this the socialism
he had in mind for mankind
yet being German and content
regimental and sentimental
there are reasons for being down
when the wall came down.
CLAUDE ROYET-JOURNOUD
in a diction direction
of new wave
novel and prose poem,
a film like Breathless
we watch over and over
in unmixed convention
from pieces of experimentation
photographs in memory
and voices of long suffering
we, like roses in vases
in falling mineral water
want to have our thirst
assuaged
for the new wave
and to have human insight
in tongues of dialogue
to relate to our consciences.
in a diction direction
of new wave
novel and prose poem,
a film like Breathless
we watch over and over
in unmixed convention
from pieces of experimentation
photographs in memory
and voices of long suffering
we, like roses in vases
in falling mineral water
want to have our thirst
assuaged
for the new wave
and to have human insight
in tongues of dialogue
to relate to our consciences.
YVAN GOLL
After De Gaulle
wounded from
the betrayal of the Left
so many contexts
of german appeasement
and raprochement
with the new neo nazis
and its armaments policies
poetry is in reaction,
you return to a new love
for Yvan Goll
who wrote in French
and German
to bring a touch of love
we both have for both peoples.
After De Gaulle
wounded from
the betrayal of the Left
so many contexts
of german appeasement
and raprochement
with the new neo nazis
and its armaments policies
poetry is in reaction,
you return to a new love
for Yvan Goll
who wrote in French
and German
to bring a touch of love
we both have for both peoples.
PEGUY
Peguy,where are you
Enough of hatred
in post war France
the encounters
of counter-revolution
and the final solution
clouds the smoky air vents
of a polluted Paris,
now its pre historical bunk
of the 19th century
all this lying Vichyite
Petain propaganda floods in
replete with politicians
by the statue of St. Joan
of father and daughter
who ignore the slaughter
in the death ovens
who wish openly
for even more.
Peguy,where are you
Enough of hatred
in post war France
the encounters
of counter-revolution
and the final solution
clouds the smoky air vents
of a polluted Paris,
now its pre historical bunk
of the 19th century
all this lying Vichyite
Petain propaganda floods in
replete with politicians
by the statue of St. Joan
of father and daughter
who ignore the slaughter
in the death ovens
who wish openly
for even more.
BOZIDAR TIMOTIJEVIC
Sheets of death rains down
in Belgrade at the end
of the twentieth century
the AC D.C. ruling class
taking on another
civilization
when they have none
but like kids in a playground
getting away from home
with new equipment
it says in fine print on
i e d's label "may be lethal"
and cause side effects
like borderline nausea or death,
but the new amerika
is after pleasing the neo nazis
laughing in their people cars
and mercedes all night,
in the prosperous "New Germany"
with Orwellian,half Albright
Clintonian charm school speeches
now about forgotten but within
now about forgotten but within
Bush's verboten new world order.
DANIEL FALB
Going on my bicycle
to a chamber music concert
at the Gardiner museum
after soccer and lemon sole
changing my mind
by jogging
along the Boston waterfront
to view the new home harbor's
seashore business development
and here by the Fine Arts
to enjoy the Jewish remnants
of the few last Rembrandts
of the Dutch ghetto left
and to enjoy
the only Vermeer around,
then it happens
in every civilization,
they're back
the vandals quickly take over
with the higher ups
of an inside job cooperation
just as in the Netherlands
during the occupation
the Gestapo enjoyed the most
searching for any art
they didn't appreciate
yet they would get a reward
as in Anne Frank's attic,
so they could boast
and toast to fascist pride,
these eternal thieves.
Going on my bicycle
to a chamber music concert
at the Gardiner museum
after soccer and lemon sole
changing my mind
by jogging
along the Boston waterfront
to view the new home harbor's
seashore business development
and here by the Fine Arts
to enjoy the Jewish remnants
of the few last Rembrandts
of the Dutch ghetto left
and to enjoy
the only Vermeer around,
then it happens
in every civilization,
they're back
the vandals quickly take over
with the higher ups
of an inside job cooperation
just as in the Netherlands
during the occupation
the Gestapo enjoyed the most
searching for any art
they didn't appreciate
yet they would get a reward
as in Anne Frank's attic,
so they could boast
and toast to fascist pride,
these eternal thieves.
ADILLA LOPES
At Boston university
sat in classes
of Anne Sextant
who mocked degrees
who was hired
to teach poetry
an impossible task
even for an oral freak
like Homer
much easier
than teaching my kid
how to do potty
an impossible task
insisting on the body
of work output
the put out guys
attempted after practice
would not amount
to a Boston hill of baked beans
and always after class
had her unique laughter
of poking fun
but no one
knew whom she was after,
even imitating Sylvia Plath
in the clumsy way
of her suburban suicidal death
from her own classy driveway
rather than the historical
German oven Sylvia
prepared mankind for,
not even giving a call to
Maxine Kumin up in Vermont
with a hint of school preparation
who would have an accident
on her equestrian horse ride
galloping for her own reputation,
Anne could not be an original
from any incident ,antecedent
or as a descendant like Lowell
nor yet a dependent addict
in the twelve step
bound for her own Hell.
At Boston university
sat in classes
of Anne Sextant
who mocked degrees
who was hired
to teach poetry
an impossible task
even for an oral freak
like Homer
much easier
than teaching my kid
how to do potty
an impossible task
insisting on the body
of work output
the put out guys
attempted after practice
would not amount
to a Boston hill of baked beans
and always after class
had her unique laughter
of poking fun
but no one
knew whom she was after,
even imitating Sylvia Plath
in the clumsy way
of her suburban suicidal death
from her own classy driveway
rather than the historical
German oven Sylvia
prepared mankind for,
not even giving a call to
Maxine Kumin up in Vermont
with a hint of school preparation
who would have an accident
on her equestrian horse ride
galloping for her own reputation,
Anne could not be an original
from any incident ,antecedent
or as a descendant like Lowell
nor yet a dependent addict
in the twelve step
bound for her own Hell.
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
ADAM WIEDEMANN
The country fiddler
like the crazed riddler
in Bavaria goes crazy
for only the poet
see the man on the horse
the hit man up close
gangsters in Chicago
in profile at the jail
the Hitler in one's heart
smashing the crystal glasses
of the synagogue
wanting a headline
and deadline
to kiss one cheek
of the lumpen proletariat
named Mr. Judas Iscariot.
The country fiddler
like the crazed riddler
in Bavaria goes crazy
for only the poet
see the man on the horse
the hit man up close
gangsters in Chicago
in profile at the jail
the Hitler in one's heart
smashing the crystal glasses
of the synagogue
wanting a headline
and deadline
to kiss one cheek
of the lumpen proletariat
named Mr. Judas Iscariot.
DRAGAN JOVANOVIC DANILOV
After you fought fascism
on the allies side
the so called allies
want to bomb you
for Nato and Germany
in the Nineties
to bring you to your knees
I stood with my friends
in the rain for peace
may the truth
about the Serbian nation
like the Jewish long suffering
be told for a new generation
for fascism wears a new coat
where even when we vote
it hardly does matter
we are not at ease
when the truth scatters
and poetry cannot sing.
After you fought fascism
on the allies side
the so called allies
want to bomb you
for Nato and Germany
in the Nineties
to bring you to your knees
I stood with my friends
in the rain for peace
may the truth
about the Serbian nation
like the Jewish long suffering
be told for a new generation
for fascism wears a new coat
where even when we vote
it hardly does matter
we are not at ease
when the truth scatters
and poetry cannot sing.
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