That this venue is not for that which I'd like to post, which is poetry. It's impossible to cut it and paste in a format. So, if you've enjoyed my work, please go to my stand-along blog at www.refugeefromreason.com.
"No typewriters – ha! ha! – no typewriters – Alas! For I have much to open, I know immense Troubles & wonders to their secret curse." & so he wrote in Op. Posth. no. 6, "Dream Songs" & all that Until he opened the secret curse & leapt from a bridge in Minneapolis, His coat tails flying, A pair of glasses Bulging somewhere in his pockets, Knowing He did not need to see the Mississippi River. 2. On Xmas '71, he wrote me: "Thank you very much for your booklet which I've read with interest and admiration esp. for the tel. poem & 'Edges'. May I wish you the good luck we all need and His blessing. Yrs John Berryman Yrs, mine, his nobody's (Like Henry He thought God was on the edge of things – From Op. Posth. No. 5 "Jehovah. Period. Yahweh. Period. God."
Period.
3.
It was "Edges" that interested him,
A poem that ends
"My cells are in a boil for death.
Death, like a circle, is self-defined."
But now his death
Is self-defined,
Another alcoholic
Who couldn't make love work,
Wandering to the brink
(Bridges are such marvelous inventions)
Memories of his father's suicide
Welling behind him
Until the flood-gates burst
& the water shimmied
With coat-tails
Flaming behind him,
His beard like Jehovah's
His Pulitzer-Prized body
Wobbling
In 100 feet of air,
No minstrel-face
No playing on tambourines,
No polite applause of the moruners,
(How he loved that phrase – End-men)
& now he was his own end-man.
Put on a little soft-shoe,
Do a little black-face, boys,
Harmonize the tributes,
The minstrel show's begun:
Twang it on your banjos,
Bang it on your knees
(His own final instructions
Were quite clear:
"Bury me in a hole, and give a cheer").
4.
Bidding Mr. Bones Farewell:
A few seconds in the air,
Arms outstretched
In a panicked crucifix,
His face gone white,
The tie loosened,
Eyes hurting with the pressure
Of the fall.
Until the shyster water close,
History loomed
Upon the buckling of a bone,
He fell: Like that humpbacked king,
Touseled Richard,
Amid a battleground
Of unbridled horses
He cries, "My life, my life,
My Kingdom for my life."
Medusa's head was not so grand,
The ivy did not stare, sand
Went about its business, the land
Refused to foam under the wand
Of her permanent wave. Medusa's hand
Clawed the air, & her teeth spanned
Europe, yet she did not understand
Why her love was stone. She had planned
To lie in bed, her snakes fanned
About her ears, awaiting her tanned
Ordinary lovers with their fiery brand
Of kisses, but her mortal eye unmanned
them all. Night after night, she scanned
The dark for lovers & trying to command
Their affection, she'd undo the strand
Of silk about her waist, the narrow band
That held her heart, but when her demand
For love remained unanswered & the land
Brimmed quiet, she drew her wicked hand
Over herself. The curse that banned
All human touch was more than she could stand,
But the ivy did not stare, & the sand
went about its business.
Today is going to be a great day (my expectations for even "good" days are relatively low and I only classify as "bad," "good" and "great").
My new deskchair is scheduled for delivery today. It was only $60, delivered from a chain office store:
A new chair may not seem to be a notion for celebration or glee, but since I moved into the apartment two months ago, I've been using a folding chair:
I am so looking forward to delivery, as is my back. Now, my new chair isn't all that great, at that price, but it's apparently serveable and relatively comfortable, according to the reviews on the site, though there were couple that noted that the seat is a bit hard. A pillow solves that...and the price, all important these days, was certainly okay (it included tax).
Interestly, I checked Craig's List first and made two inquiries to which I received no responses. I've put things up for sale there a number of time and always responded. I found it a bit odd that my queries weren't answered, but perhaps those items were sold and the seller never took down the ad.
I wear two pair of bifocals. My eyes are neither good nor bad enough to get trifocals. One pair is exclusively for the computer; the other everything else. Now, because I go back and forth from the computer, I wear both pairs on lanyards or whatever one calls those strings. Does anything see anything wrong with that?
Apparently she thinks it makes me look "old." Hell, I am old. More importantly, it keeps me from hunting down a pair of glasses, or at least the ones I need to wear.
All is well though, as she continues to sleep in the guest room.
[The above was written yesterday]
Tomorrow will be a good day. She will be out almost all day…and I've got a couple of Marx Brothers movies to watch.
An beat intellectual from New York City
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