from "Visiting"
Sparrows scream at the dawn one note:
how should they learn melody
in the street's noises?
- Charles Reznikoff
from "Heart and Clock"
I eat and am happy;
I am hungry - and sad;
that so little means so much
means that among the little
I am such.
- Charles Reznikoff
"A Classic Case"
The moon's a little arch
pasted on black cardboard
just outside his bedroom
window,
lovely Major Hoople.
I swear the room is warm,
the night is cold, the bedspread
turned down has a comfortable
feel,
lovely Major Hoople.
Tomorrow he'll get up, put on
his fez, and stand behind
his gut, the sagging furniture
his friends,
lovely Major Hoople.
Yow! That world
of yours is crumbling away,
the rotary lawn sprayers and The
Neighbors,
lovely Major Hoople,
when will the possess
your useless yard and send
you out to work, to
work!
lovely Major Hoople.
- Gilbert Sorrentino
"The Once-Over"
The tanned blond
in the green print sack
in the center of the subway car
standing
tho there are seats
has had it from
1 teen-age hood
1 lesbian
1 envious housewife
4 men over fifty
(& myself), in short
the contents of this half of the car
Our notations are:
long legs, long waist, high breasts (no bra) long
neck, the model slump
the handbag drape & how the skirt
cuts in under a very handsome
set of cheeks
'stirring dull roots with rain' sayeth the preacher
Only a stolid young man -
with a blue business suit and the New York Times
does not know he is being assaulted
So.
She has us and we her
all the way to downtown Brooklyn
Over the tunnel and through the bridge
to DeKalb Avenue we go
all very chummy
She stares at the number over the door
and gives no sign
Yet the sign is on her
- Paul Blackburn
"old song"
Take off your clothes, love
And come to me.
Soon will the sun be breaking
Over yon sea.
And all our hairs be white, love,
For aught we do
And all our nights be one, love,
For all we knew.
- Robert Creeley
"Where Galluccio Lived"
Get all of it, boys,
every brick,
so the next big storm blows out
any ghost left with the dust.
In that closet of air the river
wind gnaws at
was where the crucifix hung;
and over there
by the radio and nails,
that's where Galluccio kept
with his busted leg
in an old soft chair
watching TV and the cars
go past.
Whole floors,
broken up and carted off ...
Memory stinks
like good marinara sauce.
You never get that garlic smell
out of the walls.
- August Kleinzahler
"short order"
I took my girlfriend to your last poetry reading,
she said.
yes, yes? I asked.
She's young and pretty, she said.
and? I asked.
She hated your
guts.
then she stretched out on the couch
and pulled off her
boots.
I don't have very good legs,
she said.
all right, I thought, I don't have very good
poetry; she doesn't have very good
legs.
scramble two.
- Charles Bukowski
Finally - a comment on the value of poetry in modern society:
"What the Chairman Told Tom"
Poetry? It's a hobby.
I run model trains.
Mr. Shaw there breeds pigeons.
It's not work. You dont sweat.
Nobody pays for it.
You could advertise soap.
Art, that's opera; or repertory -
The Desert Song.
Nancy was in the chorus.
But to ask for twelve pounds a week -
married aren't you? -
you've got a nerve.
How could I look a bus conductor
in the face
if I paid you twelve pounds?
Who says it's poetry, anyhow?
My ten year old
can do it and rhyme.
I get three thousand and expenses,
a car, vouchers,
bit I'm an accountant.
They do what I tell them,
my company.
What do you do?
Nasty little words, nasty long words,
it's unhealthy.
I want to wash when I meet a poet.
They're Reds, addicts,
and delinquents.
What you write is rot.
Mr. Hines says so, and he's a schoolteacher,
he ought to know.
Go and find work.
- Basil Bunting
edit - as Larry Kart mentioned previously, the spacing in the poems is lost when they're posted.
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