… I’d rather watch fireflies than fireworks pressing against the dark. “They’re vicious beasts,” Dad says: “All they do is have sex and eat their prey by the light they make. There’s the first one now!” I look watching it … Continue reading
Category Archives: My Poetry
Fucking
… for Janis A bedroom. North Philadelphia. 1972 Ouvrez-moi cette porte où je frappe en pleurant. Open this door where I knock weeping. … I I WILL COME TO YOU WITH A CANDLE BURNING light a stick of incense comb … Continue reading
Home
… on walking through a caterpillar plague They come down the threads they make crawl in a straight line. There is the sound, soft rainlike fall of leaves chewed off. One’s crawling on my arm. Shaken to the ground my … Continue reading
Revenge of the Rejected Ones
… By way of explanation before you read: Revenge of the Rejected Ones is part of Fucking, a poem I wrote for performance in the 1970s that I pretty much finished in 1976 and continued to perform in both Philadelphia … Continue reading
The Watersnake
… In the South Mountain along a road that goes from an ocean to a great lake not far from my parents’ home I walked up to a water snake whose lower end a car had crushed revealing in blood … Continue reading
Uncle, part of Fucking and Sonnet 149
… On Saturday at Freddy’s Bar, which is a very nice bar by the way, I participated in a poetry reading that was a celebration for a new book of poems by Kryssa Schemmerling, Iris In. The other guest poet … Continue reading
38
… The last two swallows swoop down over all going toward the barn flying from sight. In ripples of wind out of the west light dies in many clouds and in darkness falls on the pond. Shadows in leaves, the … Continue reading
from Fucking, Part 5
… V for Janis I’ve smoked a thousand cigarettes and watched you sleep. Your Raphael angel curls Your bee stung lips Dare I touch you where the sun hasn’t? Dare I say wake? There is the smell of pepper in … Continue reading
Sleep Vanishes
… … Apparent rari nantes in gurgite vasto. A few swimmers appear in a huge whirlpool. —Vergil … When sleep vanishes then you swim. Awake is no island merely swift stroke and breath. The moon is not the sun’s skull … Continue reading
56
… Love comes when least expected and love comes like the rain blowing naked over us making us all wet. Love never makes a fuss. As I grow old, love stays forever young returning like the sun or moon, the … Continue reading
Uncle
… I’ve an uncle who builds houses and he tells me I don’t write poems that what I write is vile and useless not good for anyone. There was a time I believed him his words allowed crippling all mine … Continue reading
Fireflies
… … … … Fireflies Like the tips of smoldering sticks or coals they glow in the grass. The light over all begins to go. Night like a swooping bat or bats comes down from clouds and the white pines … Continue reading