Thursday, June 29, 2017

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

BIRD SHADOW ~








a new chapbook is now in hand by Ronald Baatz 
and typically for me with Ronald Baatz 
I can't help but begin to type up a handful of poems
 from an exquisite letterpress collection to share with you

_____________________________





Covered with road dust

peonies blind and beautiful

and remembering thunder






Returning alone from the dance

thinking about what

I'm going to tell the dog






I hire a fool to write my poems

but discover I can do the job

better myself






As a newborn I was brought home

from the hospital in a black car

followed by other black cars






In the morning

the hatless

squirrel






Listen!

you can tell that cricket is on its

last leg






This whole infuriating life

not overwhelming

old pajamas






Thoughts~

they come like birds

I have no seeds for



__________________

Ronald Baatz
BIRD SHADOW
Bottle of Smoke Press
PO BOX 12589
Wallkill, NY 12589
www.bospress.net








Monday, June 26, 2017

PORTER ~








“Porter”






Little kid

comes up to

my knees

short blond

mohawk haircut

while passing

me head down

bloodhound

asks like a pro

Excuse me

sir, have you

seen any

money any

money on the

ground?




I said, no,

I haven’t




he’s been

taught to be

a scavenger

and he’s cute




a few moments

later I heard

his mother

(camouflage pants)

call his

name









She Always Works With Me
In The Woods Elegant &
Gallant And Sometimes The
Trees Strike Back Which 
Doesn't Look Good For Me








black

eye




still

there —




they

do




that






Spring Storm








On the ground


under the tree


all its blossoms




—————————————

Bob Arnold
BEAUTIFUL   DAYS
Longhouse















Thursday, June 22, 2017

MARY GAITSKILL ~












(actually, the finest essay 
in the book
 is about the loss of a
little one-eyed cat)





Wednesday, June 21, 2017

THE BEAR ~








One more terrific tale in the Applewood Books series of
attractively designed and sized hardbound books
that you can fit into the back pocket of a pair
of jeans and hike all day and read
a tale such as The Bear around
the campfire at night.
People still do that, right?
I do.




Applewood Books
PO Box 27
Carlisle, MA.
01741




Tuesday, June 20, 2017

THOREAU ~ THE ESSAYS ~







NORTH POINT 2002




A glorious collection in softcover that I once discovered, used,
but after holding the book in my hand, with a healthy crease down
the cover and throughout the text, much as I wanted the book, hated to leave it
behind, I waited and hunted up another copy in short time. For $1 less!
Ideal condition, never read, and guided by the gifted hand
of Lewis Hyde.
If you are looking for a treat companion volume of Thoreau's essays,
this one would be my choice.







Monday, June 19, 2017

PERFECT BIRTHDAYS ~








Irene




All

that




rain

is




now

in




all

that





river






Quite A Cat





At night

when everything in the house

grows quiet the later it becomes

even the refrigerator almost

stops humming and I am done

with writing and crumble my

last piece of paper into a ball

thinking to toss it into the fire

the cat comes to me at the sound

of the paper crumbling and

knows there is a paper ball

in my hand to crouch down

on the kitchen floor planks

with him to play catch —

yes, I toss and he fetches

like a dog, so he isn't

quite a cat






Perfect Birthdays




she gave to 

me a book I

already have

a pair of bib-

overall rain

gear I already

have and for

my lover a pair

of blue earrings

she’ll always have






What She Brings
From Town





A fat clear bag


of dried cranberries


ready to burst



————————————
Bob Arnold
BEAUTIFUL   DAYS
Longhouse









Saturday, June 17, 2017

SHAKE IT UP ~







———————————
The Library of America
(2017)


One more excellent collection from the
stellar Library staff. It could have
been a cooler cover design but
the editors come to the rescue
with a rockin' line-up of authors —
Luc Sante's essay on Dylan will
stop you in your tracks if you want to rush to the back 
of the book (I didn't, I like savoring)
in the meantime there is Hentoff on early Dylan
Amiri Baraka on R & B
Lester Bangs bangs in (we'd miss him)
Christgau on Prince, Ellen Willis on Janis
of course Tosches on Jerry Lee Lewis
Nelson George swims with Marvin Gaye
Babitz beds Morrison
Robert Palmer shows us Sam Cooke
Klosterman clangs with heavy metal
John Jeremiah Sullivan wastes time with Axl Rose
Wald knows top to bottom The Beatles
Hilton Als gives forth Michael Jackson
Kelefa Sanneh hits on Jay Z
Greil Marcus must end the tome
but one simply shouldn't omit
Paul Nelson squarely with The
New York Dolls
then:
Lillian Roxon
Richard Meltzer
Paul Williams
Evelyn McDonnell
David Hajdu
my goodness
Peter Guralnick!
and I'm still leaving good people out
and so did the editors
not meaning to
but dig
yourself
to 
China







Wednesday, June 14, 2017

THE GIRL WHO MARRIED THE REINDEER ~








The Girl Who Married the Reindeer



1


When she came to the finger-post
She turned right and walked as far as the mountains.


Patches of snow lay under the thorny bush
That was blue with sloes. She filled her pockets.
The sloes piled into the hollows of her skirt.
The sunset wind blew cold against her belly
And light shrank between the branches
While her feet shifted, bare,
While her hands raked in the hard fruit.


The reindeer halted before her and claimed the sloes.
She rode home on his back without speaking,
Holding her rolled-up skirt,
Her free hand grasping the wide antlers
To keep her steady on the long ride.



2



Thirteen months after she left home
She travelled hunched on the deck of a trader
Southwards to her sister's wedding.


Her eyes reflected acres of snow,
Her breasts were large from suckling,
There was salt in her hair.


They met her staggering on the quay;
They put her in a scented bath,
Found a silk dress, combed her hair out.


How could they let her go back to stay
In that cold house with that strange beast?
So the old queen said, the bridegroom's mother.


They slipped a powder in her drink,
So she forgot her child, her friend,
The snow and the sloe gin.



3



The reindeer died when his child was ten years old.
Naked in death his body was a man's,
Young, with an old man's face and scored with grief.

When the old woman felt his curse she sickened,
She lay in her tower bedroom and could not speak.
The young woman who had nursed her grandchildren nursed her.


In her witch time she could not loose her spells
Or the spells of time, though she groaned for power.
The nurse went downstairs to sit in the sun. She slept.
The child from the north was heard at the gate.



4



Led by the migrating swallows
The boy from the north stood in the archway
That looked into the courtyard where water fell,
His arm around the neck of his companion —
A wild reindeer staggered by sunlight.
His hair was leached, his skin blistered.
He saw the woman in wide silk trousers
Come out of the door at the foot of the stair,
Sit on a cushion, and stretch her right hand for a hammer.
She hammered the dried broad beans one by one,
While the swallows timed her, swinging side to side:
The hard skin fell away, and the left hand
Tossed the bean into the big brass pot.
It would surely take her all day to do them all.
Her face did not change though she saw the child watching.


A light wind fled over them
As the witch died in the high tower.
She knew her child in that moment:
His body poured into her vision
Like a snake pouring over the ground,
Like a double-mouthed fountain of two nymphs,
The light groove scored on his chest
Like the meeting of two tidal roads, two oceans.




————————————

Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin
Selected Poems
Wake Forest University Press