THE RABBI’S DAUGHTER & THE GHOST OF # 612
136 wrens made their nest in my final Father’s Day gift
While he sat 59 days until his last On day 49 they began
to gather & chirp the blues The lady on the balcony above
(probably a Mario Lanza fan) swept the nest away
I imagine that on fine spring days the Rabbi’s daughter
who scooped the place sways to the birdland blues
While a blue-eyed ghost laughs hypnotically
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Spring 2013 For Daddybird
DENY DENY DENY
I kept both knowing & forgetting
that he was dead At one point
determined to say good-bye then
remembering no need to he’s been
gone such a long time
A new book speculates that some early
humans elephants dolphins & apes
may have become so depressed by the
idea of their own death that they walked
into the woods and hid (and died)
Whereas we the only surviving human
species were able to deny death and
carry on as though immortal By products
of this breakthrough are thought to be
some uniquely human activities Such as:
teaching romantic infatuation torture
Producing both Mother Teresas and Hitlers
Hard to know which it is better to be Orangutans
can recognize themselves in the mirror while
Hitler in his 56th yr. descended into a concrete
bunker married his long time mistress and between bouts of rage killed himself
It is also true that Humans are made of the stuff
of exploded stars oxygen iron iodine and calcium –
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I tried each thing, only some were immortal and free. John Ashbery 1975
Spring 2013
TAKE ME OUT TO THE GRIFFINS
Egoistic bombast says a woman on the stair
Best dressed Best hair No starving artists
in this lair Governor General wears the same
spangly shoes as last year No Transit of Venus
this year Lots of oh so beautiful men who spout
beautiful words for a living & masses of imperious
women One wears a cameo ring but won’t make
eye contact I want a list of hairdressers
Spring 2013 Ode to: The Griffin Trust Poetry Awards
SMELLS LIKE ROCK BOTTOM
People always talk about hitting bottom:
That was my bottom I haven’t hit bottom yet
I have hit bottom You have to hit bottom before
Could it be that those who have in fact hit bottom
are no longer here to make the long
climb back up ?
Or perhaps when we toss hit bottom
around we are building a massive scaffold of denial
We must deny the oncoming fast and furious rushing toward us bottom
Be skeptical Be vigilant and if you hear
yourself uttering the words I have hit bottom
know that you are in the wrong heaven –
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Spring 2013
NO ONE SUSPECTS THE DAYS TO BE GODS*
There are 3 bright red tents in the park today
Looks like that caravan pre-hurricane where
the sham-wizard lived seducing pretty runaways
I read in the paper today that an artist will take you
into the red yurts at midnight You will don a lab coat
and have a 2 hr. experience (like no other) You will
never be the same All for 25 bucks
I have a suggestion: Leave your house You do not
need to erase your tracks You will never find this
self again It will never be the same (oh & keep your bucks)
This is a simple exercise I did not invent it You may
even find God And if you do not listen to the Count’s
April in Paris and wait –
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* Ralph Waldo Emerson
Spring 2013
CHILDHOOD’S END
Victor & Rolf of Amsterdam made 20
beastly dolls Human hair & porcelain
skin Walking mini-zombies
The tiny blonde & blue-eyed girl stomps
upon my foot Her mother buys her candy Open my lolly now !
I know she is alive doll eyes all aglow
On CNN last night they asked: Do you
think the photos of the Sandyhook 20
splayed out on their gymnasium floor
will further gun control legislation ?
Somehow there is a connection between
the macabre taxidermic trolls and the
bullet-ridden children Others will have
a more benevolent take no doubt –
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And I have made an image of the monster here
The noise of war in its head a babe laugh in its belly
Allen Ginsberg Lysergic Acid 1959
Spring 2013 Victor&Rolf Dolls Luminato Festival ROM
ASK ANYTHING OF ME EXCEPT
If you are searching for meaning turn back
Your mind will rail against this poem There is
a biological imperative to know the difference
between a jaguar and the wind moving through
the bush beside you Why not take a wild & carnal
pleasure in the taste of these words ? And if they
are tasteless spit them out immediately
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Spring 2013
I DO AND I DON’T
Do you think happiness is easy ?
Is there any such thing as a happymarriage ?
Isn’t life itself like that new pair
of shoes one faded right from
the start the other slowly
catching up and now faded too ?
Do we really need more night more shadow
or is it silence and more rain ? I can
tell you that the passage of 9 yrs. feels
like 3 The abyss eats time and no matter
how sweet (sweet) Jane was she just turned 45
I ask you what did Lou mean when he said: life is just to die
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Spring 20103 Songanddancegirl Lou Reed
AUTUMN WINDS
Melancholy has installed
herself in the park today
Fresh cut grass mingles
with street Girl with salmon
hair & salmon jeans sits
like a young Persephone
In 4 months time she will
descend into the crevice over
there Hair now pomegranate
red while Hades waits hot to trot
upon his unmade bed
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Spring 2013
CHEAP FASHION FIX BLUES
It’s crazy blue deep river blue
without clouds goes on forever in every direction
Hovers over Bangladesh where
1,003 crushed beneath floors added haphazardly
Globalization was supposed to be
the great equalizer Don’t abandon them now
the papers read Can it be that a
3 yr. old child knows 100 brands
but cannot call a plant by name
While freegans bodydive in dumpsters
& share communal meals Scavenging
is benighted Consuming is for the blighted
And in the West everyone lies to their therapist
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“Skies are blue inside of you The weather’s always fine
Everybody’s happy now Yes everybody’s happy now”
Aldous Huxley Brave New World 1932
Spring 2013
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