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Katy Bohinc reads from Scorpio

Katy Bohinc came over to my place after Lee Ann Brown had suggested that I record her reading some of her poems. “You’ll really like her poetry,” Lee Ann said. Katy had stayed with Lee Ann for awhile and now she was staying near by in the East Village so we made a date and she came over. Time flies! That was almost two years ago. I can’t believe it has taken me this long to sit down and edit what Katy read—Life got in the way, I’m afraid—but I must say that I’ve been enjoying remembering and discovering Katy’s precise immediate poetry as I’m editing it.

When we were recording, Katy didn’t know what the title of the book was going to be for the poems she was reading. Well, now we do. The book is called Scorpio; it’s published by Miami University Press, and as it turns out, this blog post remains timely; when a poem is good it doesn’t matter when you hear it. Ladies and gentlemen, Katy Bohinc. Enjoy.

I’ve typed out several poems from Scorpio that Katy doesn’t read on the Vimeo just for a little more to enjoy.


TO BE

When I think in stereotypes
When I meet someone I’ve been before
I know I think in stereotypes
And I am nothing more

I am nothing more than a caged mind
in a caged persona
Mimicking what I pity,
What I despise, where and when

Therein locked in a rhythm
Pretold and predisposed. Worth
Nothing but comfort and shade

The answer is non-thought
All words are lies
All words are cries of judgement
Marking lines in the sand
Of what does and does not
Belong

I swore non-violence and
Did not think
I described
Violently


iPOEM

How do you defend You with the word I?
Missiles swell our hopscotch square so blind broad
We leans lonely out there
Could we get much higher?
Could I love without
I? No, really,
Eros
Could I?


FLASHBACK

The more I live
The more I relish contentedly
Superficial simplicity
Let it be nothing more
Than beautiful surface
Warhol resonance
Reflect a little in my eyes
Just a little
Just a gentle behind
For as long as it’s good
I know there’s something inside
Shadow on a wall
But spare us gray pointillist reality
Lay off complexity
Lay with me contentedly
If only for a little while


MANHATTAN SIDEWALK

Something in trying
Tastes like sawdust
In my mouth
But you are a tender
Afternoon nap
Sweet rhyme of morning
Unbidden
The way mourning can be
The sweetest alto
Be it forbidden in the city.
Like the cotton of well-chosen
Honesty
But softer


Scorpio is published by Miami University Press. You can check them out here:

http://www.orgs.miamioh.edu/mupress/


You can check out Katy Bohinc and see what she’s up to at her website here:

http://www.katybohinc.com/


Laughing with Lee Ann Brown

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