…
I had the pleasure of filming a performance of “Ballroom” by Eileen Myles at the New School. It was performed by Professor Jennifer Firestone’s class. The first Vimeo is the performance of “Ballroom.” And the second is of Eileen’s reading. You can read all of the text to “Ballroom” below following the photos. Enjoy. Enjoy. Enjoy.
Ballroom by Eileen Myles performed by students at the New School under the direction of Jennifer Firestone
This is “Ballroom by Eileen Myles performed by students at the New School under the direction of Jennifer Firestone” by Don Yorty on Vimeo, the home for…
Eileen Myles reads at the New School
This is “Eileen Myles reads at the New School” by Don Yorty on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.
Ballroom
by Eileen Myles
I’m amazed
to be the head
of some brown
creature whose butt is spewing
a pink ribbon
or flame of
their own
intestine. I don’t
know
the creature’s
gender &
you don’t
know mine
There’s no
information
here
only what
it greets
me w
your old car
This blue day
okay
warmer now
across
from Uncles
solid bark
real dog &
the shadow
until the dog &
the man in
the shorts
is way past
Marfa Palestina
I need to know
more
I want a photo
graph of
the US
Mexico border
I want a lot
of photographs
of the surface
of the river
thousands
of ripples
I want sur
veillance
the trust
with which I
put the treat
in her mouth
her dog lip
my fingertips moist
one large vertical
stem of the tree
in front of me
is white
and I can hear
the sweet crackle
of the leaves
falling & the
soft breath
of distant traffic
& the whoosh of
close
approaching the pond
blue and the
reflected brown
trees are bars
in todays
bright matter of
fact
color
dangle it in different
spray each day
I led Peggy
she’s quite
young in the morning
by the pond
the stripes forward
and the crown
of the tree
a green triangle
that holds me
and I saw it
dragging in
your shadow
by myself
as I write
perfect day
she has so many
cameras on her phone
look @ them
three
the dog wants me
Nicole Kidman’s
real hair color
is fake
I’ll call you
later. I’m
good & lonely
often
Cody laughed
at good &
drunk.
good is so
strong
return the
phone
in the pock
et is my
recording devices
notebooks &
a phone
notebook
slowly
gone phone
Soon we’ll need
to piggy
back on the
wide gaze
of what there
already is &
find a way
to send it
around
cause the photo
can’t log
attention not
the objects
in the
shot but the
way this
is saying
spray of
feathers course
something was
killed on
this mountainous
beach
each adorable
pile of bricks
how can I
explain it
the world
when I get
home
I’ll tell you about
the deceptions
the 20 dead
here the specific
loss of their
living and
our gigantic
owing
owing to this robust
economy this
system of
injustice
the profitable
war machine
sunny day
tourist or
purist
the leaves on the
trees growing
ruddy
in sprints
a day so warm
& open
a leaf
falling close to
my face
is erotic
coming up
you looked so
blue
now blades
of light
sweeping – past
like the night
sky itself
if I don’t
use the app
I want water
rippling like
plastic like
rubber like
cunty lips
I want it to
swarm from
there w eyes
w bubbles
I want it
to grow knots
furrows ascendant
ideas spoken
in bubbles
I want grinch
& groan
a fountain
I want the key
pieces to be bulbous
and smart
I want lesbianism
everywhere
this wet
frottage
I want an
axing to the
tight face
jammed in
sheets old
man in the
mountain
I want curve
excess pink
brown grey
I want a hole
of you
a beehive
I want the
emptiness inside
and folding
all around
I want around
rustle &
thick
thick spiral
I want santa
claus faces
a smiling
porpoise
I want deep cut
darkness inside
I want waters
waters spelling
letters
give it to
what’s the
answer the
message
speak
water
speak
I want your
long arm
relaxing
I want to
tumult down
there
a tiny hole of
foam
a crest
of foam
an opening
a pungent
tight knot
a wrinkly
water beams
teeth
I want the wide
open mouth of
the river the
smooth parts
a dish of
you there
a vegetable course
pushed
aside &
by a kid
a kid voraciously
for water
and life
what’s that
ding
did somebody
not turn
off their
phone
in the end
of alpha
numeric
in the end
of history
of course
I want a river
cutting the rough
two dirty banks
an icy looking
river
a muddy walking
path by its side
bushes look like
eyelashes
batting the day
I want a
dumb phallic
monument
boundary of
the united states
I want four
trucks & kids
in water
I want the shadows
on the mountains
and the land
I am the boy
dashing into the
dirty waters
of the us
mexico border
dad with his
hand on his
head
Those are not
family pictures
trunk open
the building up
there on the
hill surveillance
colonization
whose?
I hold the childs
hand there’s
so many
spires of connect
ivity
the past says
what’s that
the future says
what’s that
the looping wire
at the top of
the hurricane
fence
mountains
behind
dirt
I want it
gazing at the
crack
I’m not them
there’s
the border
wall
uniform
tall lamp
says it all
just to feel
the heft
we build the wall. us
proud
america
strong
I want it
I don’t want
it
this music’s
so great
I want to get
home early e-
nough to
masturbate
the guitar
playing falling
my cunt
bright & black
trees and three
at least
golfers
@ my back
the ball of
the sun is
blinding.
who was I last
night, mad ex-
hausted critical
of everyone
their individual
moods
If I turn
to the other
side it’s blue green
brown trees
wavering it’s a
fact.
flowers and flowers and
flowers and flowers
flowers flowers
vegetation to the
bridge a church
a distant little
white church
it looks like its there
to catch someone
a net
goal
is it working or broken
I think it’s a check
point
tires &
an empty road
waitin for ya
further up
blaring truck
beautiful gone
sign
his purpose
a horse
dog runs
fishing road
a whip
he’s in the water
now
he’s not behind
the plow
it’s a curve with
a stone and
a shadow
blasting wide
open the river
and the land
I’ve done this
forever up there
or little pinched
you can walk
over
riata means
rope lariat
barbed wire
riata
framed by it
enmeshed
ignoring its doodles
passage
passengers
car
wide stride
home to cook
LIMITE DE LOS
ESTADOS UNIDOS
MEXICANOS
beautiful reflection
of a trap
splayed
birds of power
esthetically the
helicopter is
a hungry
dragon fly
a darning needle
they will sew
up your lips
balls of light
or the horizon
& up close
big blurry
white balls
coterie of cars
at night
BUS
wide glowing
nada
perched force
aimed to capture
protecting what
from the sun
ferrying who
progress
I sit on my toilet
& I want that
jumbled kind
of tropical store
palm trees
surveillance lamps
sending u home
walls posters torn
stripped
was it a complaint
we love here
and here
mass produced pick
et fence
abuts the border
mesmerizing
animal yard
wet furrows
of light
rising dark birds
denser
blurred passion
speckled sky
odd lot
of trucks &
VANS
men being hustled
into van
steam from
engine
cockblocking
arrangements
looser now
after something
keen plein
air metal border
gap
pianos so
bright
The guy makes
faces
guitar player
wears a paisley
shirt & has no
affect
at all
an island where
They drop
bombs
US, that is
my killer
nation kills
thus
it seems we’re
in the bowels
of the watching
during the pan
demic
wearing masks
a bird
looking @ 2 orange
cones
twice a bird
everything funnels
in time
nobody knows
it we know
it
do we want it
to be processing
to be in
school
to be all the children
to be one
them crossing
the border
in class
the men and their
dogs do
we watch
them do we
want this
do we want
to be a dog
being educated
a guy in
all white
with a black
mask
so many of us
my big white belly
I’m relaxed
she tips her head
cop turns
different shuffle
she scratches
her ear
she whispers
a truth
her face is
@ peace
unmasked
do we want
it
sad moon
sifting through
the day
that’s what’s up
stand up
bass
player
chews gum
I wish I had gum
I wanna chew
it’s like the mike
pitches into the
bowl of the
sax
be straight forward
not fucked up
crimped
be brave
the piano player
reminds me of
the time I threw
myself off a chair
in a panel
to make a
questioner
shut up
and enraged
he would give
her answer
Schmuck!!
Language
escapes me
letters collapse
we’re done
solos seem
vain
though that is
how I’ve spent
my whole life
how was a piano
even developed
a piece of furniture
with keys
there’s a book
& I don’t want
to read it
yet the guitar
is angelic
all vowels
heroin
you will overdose
I was just
thinking
about that
leather shoes
I cld wear
that
corporate chummy
that’s a tone
like need to know
The greens
are unrelated
I just pulled
up the leg of
my jeans
and looked
@ my socks
remembering that
feeling of being
thirsty
I’m not in trouble
yet
she’s bowed
to the water
drinking
jutting forward
a stick
she keeps drinking
among the dead
leaves
take it easy
Beard
of tea
in the toilet
bowl
almost South
driving east.
the genocide’s
only happening
on my phone
it’s amazing
to be
back to this
tiny world
This is an amazing
pen.
The little girl
had blood
on her mouth
wipe it away
said her
mother
use your hand
and then the am
bulances
never came
his pink shirt
is great
as great as my
pen
I saw shots of
a rumpled
John Chamber-
lain ambulance
ripped &
crumpled
it was beautiful
how could
the little
girl be bleeding
in there
so hard
two men
discuss
whether its
really bad
is it evil
it’s a beautiful
shirt
I’m torn
pay attention
to the wrong
thing
I remember
ginger
people
cracked up
cars
were naked
on the
stairs
& this is
the american
war of
excess
us killing
ourselves
nice striped
coat
the little
girl is
dust
it’s hard
to look
its not
hard to
be dust
I see this
old stretched
skin
on my calves
and on my
arms
I enjoy
his sneakers
I want them
too
the weight lifter
went into
prison
and came back
a skinny old
man limping
people here
are not
dying they’re
happy today
They’re grateful
part of my money
every day
is killing
these people
killing her
the girl who
was ashamed
of the blood
she was
telling her
mother
use your hand
her mother
said nice light pass
on the woman’s
face
shapes windows
feet shoes
part of my money
makes blood
At The New School:
https://event.newschool.edu/eileenmyles
Explorations with Eileen Myles:
Eileen Myles reads from a “Working Life”
Pathetic Literature at Karma Books, a reading with Eileen Myles, 11/30/22