Thanks for your kind words, Anny and dave.
> it seems very
> different from anything else of his I've ever read, it doesn't seem to be
in
> his volume, unless I've gone partially blind, and when the swine wakes up
> from +my+ sleep I'd like to hear about its provenance.
It comes from the (never-published) collection that came immediately after
_The Lost Jockey_, called _Pacts and Conjurations_. It was written in the
early eighties, and published in _Poetry_(Chicago) when Fred Nims was still
editor. Like the American millionairess, I didn't have much luck in getting
Joe Parisi to accept my stuff after he took over.
Specifically, it takes off from the Tenth Duino Elegy, and was provoked by
attending a performance of Carmen.
There is a link to _The Lost Jockey_ in that the protagonist of the poem is
the same semi-demonic figure described in "The Alexis Poems" there. (She
was sitting a couple of rows in front of me at Carmen, and somehow this
fired me into writing the poem. One of a whole set of poems about Ms.
Kiff.)
Hope this helps.
Robin
(If anyone fancies publishing _Pacts and Conjurations_, I'm open to offers.
It seems just a little too ego-trippy to publish it myself via Phantom
Rooster.
R2.)
<yawn>
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