HEAVEN LAKE ( 34 ) ~

For Ian Hamilton Finlay

______________________________________________________

Hear

oriole by

itself made

the yard

                                            

                         Boy

                                               an airport —

                         on the kitchen table

In

the rain

the geese

                                             Simple

                                                 the canoe

                            does no-

                            thing on

                                          land

___________________

Bob Arnold

Heaven Lake

Longhouse 2018

WARHOL GIANT SIZE SHRUNK ~

Originally published ten years ago

and now returning in its shrunk size

 at 15 pounds and 624 pages ~

All here but in size

KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN ~

ARCHIVE : DEBORAH LOVE ~

R E A D       M E

Random House

1970

THE RETURN OF SAPPHO ~

STANDING BY MY BED



In gold sandals

Dawn that very

moment awoke me









AT NOONTIME



When the earth is

bright with flaming

heat falling straight down



the cricket sets

up a high-pitched

singing in his wings









CYPRIAN, IN MY DREAM



The folds of a purple

kerchief shadowed

your cheeks — the one



Timas one time sent,

a timid gift, all

the way from Phocaea









AWED BY HER SPLENDOR



Stars near the lovely

moon cover their own

bright faces

                       when she

is roundest and lights

earth with her silver









I HAVE HAD NOT ONE WORD FROM HER



Frankly I wish I were dead.

When she left, she wept



a great deal; she said to

me, "This parting must be

endured, Sappho, I go unwillingly."



I said, "Go, and be happy

but remember (you know

well) whom you leave shackled by love



"If you forget me, think

of our gifts to Aphrodite

and all the loveliness that we shared



"all the violet tiaras,

braided rosebuds, dill and

crocus twined around your young neck



"myrrh poured on your head

and on soft mats girls with

all that they most wished for beside them



"while no voices chanted

choruses without ours,

no woodlot bloomed in spring without song. . ."









THANK YOU, M DEAR



You came, and you did

well to come: I needed

you. You have made



love blaze up in

my breast — bless you!

Bless you as often



as the hours have

been endless to me

while you were gone









YOU MAY FORGET BUT



Let me tell you

this: someone in

some future time

will think of us









PAIN PENETRATES



Me drop

by drop









I HEAR THAT ANDROMEDA —



That hayseed in her hay-

seed finery — has put

a torch to your heart



and she without even

the art of lifting her

skirt over her ankles









YOU REMIND ME



Of a very gentle

little girl I once

watched picking flowers









_________________

Sappho
a new translation by
Mary Barnard
Wesleyan 2019

SKINNY PUPPY ~

ELECTRONIC SONATA FOR SOULS LOVED BY NATURE ~

JACK MICHELINE ~

hiding places | november 19, 1976 san francisco

There are hiding places in my room
where beautiful poems are hidden
Poems hidden away in boxes
on sheets of brown paper
Poems of spirit and magic
workers hands hidden in boxes
beautiful thighs
there are blue skies hidden in my room
dolphins and seagulls
the heaving of breasts and oceans
there are skies in my room
there are flies in my room
there are streets in my room
there are a thousand nights hidden in boxes
there are drunks in my poems
there are a million stars on the roof of my room
all hidden away in boxes
there are steps down side streets
there is a crazed eye of a poet in my room
there are old Arabs exploring the desert near Escalon
there are sparrows and bluebirds and wildcats in my room
there are elephants and tigers
there are skinny Italian girls in my room
there are letters from Peru and England
and Germany and Russia in my room
There are the steps of Odessa in my room
the Volga river in my room
there are dreams in the night of my room
there are flowers
there is the dance of affirmation in my room
the steps of young poets carrying knapsacks full of poems
there are the Pictures of an Exhibition in my room
Moussorgsky and Shostakovich
and Charlie Mingus in my room
Composers and painters all singing in my room
all hidden away in boxes
one night when the moon is full
they will come out and do a dance

______________

Jack Micheline

FMSBW /San Francisco, CA. 94110

23 SKIDOO ~

CLARICE LISPECTOR ~

R E A D      M E

New Directions

2019

translated from the Portuguese by

Johnny Lorenz