Listerines:
I am forwarding the post below on behalf of the undersigned, whose
working-for-The-Man prevents them from participation in ListServs (even
small ones from nice tropical islands.)
*****************************************
Dear Poets Critics & Fellahin,
WE, Douglas Rothschild, & Tony Dohr, being of unsound judgment, come
now, after many hours spent in vigorous debate, requesting your
participation in a new THOUGHT project.
There has recently been a small controversy about negativism in critical
reviews, we have come to believe that the critic MUST express his or her
dissatisfaction with EVERY poem without fear of either sensor, damaged
feelings, or hurt friendships. In light of this revelation, we offer these
poems up for critical comment. Feel free to critique them, ignore them,
savage them or, to our enduring embarrassment, praise them. But please
remember that we firmly believe that the most sincere & useful response
to work is invariably: Glib, Critical, & Acerbic.
{The Poems} --typography is not always translatible across formats so the
poems are available in sep. file upon request.
________________________
Textual Queries:
HARD AT WORK
[S]"he told me /Top'/ik/, [emminent danger] I heard, [Impending disaster]"
--Jean Luc Nancy
I shifted back & forth
all day. I had thought it out.
The reality of disaster, over
took the concept of danger
& became tantamount in
my mind. I was parallized
& reacted suddenly & with-
out warning.
_______________________________________________
4 / 10 / 1747
Straights of Gibralter, aboard H.S.S. Providence
'Perhaps all this soul searching is the path to the final draft . . . .
'Once a friend answering a fellow's question said
of me, "First he writes EVERYTHING down, & then
he cross it all out." (I think this, the path this voyage
is now taking.)
[Final Draft....is that what it's called
as you sit in a cold office on a cold day while the air con-
ditioner blows on you & your tuberian co-worker comes
over & breathes tuberculin microbes onto the back of
your exposed neck?]
'Maybe all this soul searching is
the path to the final draft . . . . & yet again, I keep hearing
[the words shining {path}, heaven, & gate in that phrase,]
though when I look for them, they are not there.'
--Boswell, A Spanish Journal
______________________________________________
POEM 3
April 8th & there
is enough breeze to
consider March a viable
alternative.
______________________________________________
Outside the brightness startles
the senses as if long beetled up.
Long since twisted completely
around. Never the less, desire,
the plan. Part of the image &
what it creates. Imposes upon
it, the still exists. & revile it. But
even the weather remains. Male-
volent plans the imaginary. Nature
neutral is interferes, repells, light
in haze, regardless of control. The
sounds apart, the seems exist so
much as to be both. Unrecognizable
& indistinguishable from the world
we've made.
______________________________________________
EMMINANT DANGER :
ARMALARMALARMALARMALARMALARMALARMALARMALARMALARM
ALARM
ARMALARMALARMALARMALARMALARMALARMALARMALARMALARM
ALARM
ARMALARMALARMALARMALARMALARMALARMALARMALARMALARM
ALARM
--Jackson Mac Low
it seemed so simple :
cross it out that which
is not in part equal to
a sense of what is left.
records of various &
disastorous acount
abilibies. Among the
negotiation of others
space & not. Look at
the skill of line breaks.
{a dream of stability}
Continue hope. Remember
brush. Remember the whole
of history. Artfully pressed
lips while thinking it out?
______________________________________________
RIVER
among the wreackage, twisted
cables, cement & retaining bouys
which mark the ruined pier
______________________________________________
LOBSTER
Devoured by ants, the way people grow
restless aimlessly. Collide their better halves
& forget the names. i too have no idea how
it happens. Yet, have been there to see the result
it's ugly, really. A question of stamina & informs
salvation. Works, into words into actions like a
forlorn calvinist. Ever presant, dulling the edge.
ARSENIC
or having already been trapped away from the event.
The spirit of a phantom. of the shadow of it's former
self. A shell of a man, a hulk. The mind is reticent &
retaliates with an announcement of its own salvation.
For a moment time has collapsed in, & we are our thoughts
a relevation that would only shorten time, stuffing an edge-
wise into the preponderance of a precedence of space.
______________________________________________
FOLLOWING MELVILLE
GREAT PRIMORDIAL STRUGGLE
Between Elements of Air & Water
Conducted by Two Mallards & Gull
Now the water logged carcass
of a bagel forever out of reach
bobbing on the water. The other
hovering, held aloft by air.
______________________________________________
....topic sentences from THE WORK IN PROGRESS:
His world has been Detroit.
Few people know fish.
That incessant humm rattling around.
The Brain, The Shadow of an Idea.
Lint
______________________________________________
GRISTLY SAUSAGE
i'm in Prauge in the late 80's
& am getting my Havel's
confused. Examine the window,
is it open to the intricanteness of
a provincial capital? Check it again,
i remain dubious.
______________________________________________
CALL TO PRAYER
"If there is a plan, perhaps this too
is part of the plan, as when the subway
turns on a switch, the wheels screeching
against the rails, & the lights go out;
but are on again in a moment."
--Charles Resnikoff
If there is a plan. If there is not a plan.
It has worked out just as well at least
this is what you've expected to believe.
Lick
your waxy lips, adjust your hat, & try
to remember your name enough to put
it out of your head. Give you something
other to do than merely persue a course
of results & the movement itself Byzan-
tine.
An elaborate, intricate mosque is beyond.
Only you instead insist on stepping back,
viewing the minnarette, & remembering
the compation of the mussa's call to prayer.
An image of nothing than better signifiers
confusing or absolute.
______________________________________________
give up drinking
take up drinking
& it's dangerous
enough to change.
__________________________________________
NEW POEM
& the rocks reappear
lighter than ducks
lighter even than paper
cups & the entrance
to the canal holds
me. For a moment
as i consider whether
it has tumbled down.
______________________________________________
ARE ALL THAT REMAIN
Will it list the breeze?
Who might take care
or of themselves, outlast?
& the cure for the counter
in counter culture has now
become the fashion of us all.
______________________________________________
& a Free Trip to Arlington.
"SHOUTING OUT A WARING" --Peter Seger
Believe all danger has past
either you or they or name
& the body
in the right place or they do the best
you can hope for anonominity
______________________________________________
"...to think that all of it exists only because
some of it is possible is simple minded." -Wittgenstein
Is an outside which eliminates space
my side of the train with the other
side of the train; at the same time both
sides of the outside from the inside
of the train. At night there is an ouside
which denies nature with it's glittery ad
lights making the darknenss light &
the lightness darkness impenitrable.
************************
Please respond to List, or back-channel:
Douglas Rothschild <<[log in to unmask]>>
Tony Dorhr <<[log in to unmask]>>
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|
