CURZIO MALAPARTE ~

R E A D      M E

VIRGINIA WOOLF ~

Notting Hill Editions

2014

AWE ~

After the Apocalypse There is Only the Apocalypse



The sun came streaming in

Melting the things in the room

The papers crumbled into a black heap

The furniture crawled and then disappeared



The fire in the sun is a person

He and I once ate lunch

On the moon we sat with a blanket and a picnic basket

He said the world before us is nothing compared



To the fire in his heart and the fire in God

That makes the whole world

Thump in a beating music, heartbeats and mountains

That makes the bluebird in the tree



Swoop down to a small river

And wet his silky blue body

A red worm in his mouth

And the sun a yellow light on his back.




————————
AWE
Dorothea Lasky
Wave Books 2007

THE TRAVELING FEAST ~

I'm reading this book in June and will be in no hurry to post

a short notice — sort of a feckless book, 

yet a generous subject by the author to pay

tribute to his "heroes" (writers) by visiting

them at their homes and preparing a meal,

if they so desire. Some decline. Bass admits he

would decline such an offer! . .and away we go.

I personally am attracted to many of the

writers Bass visits so I read the book,

cringing here and there.

[ BA ]

Little, Brown

2018

HEAVEN LAKE (3) ~

A Hurricane & Its People

It happened just like this —

we had a hurricane

and then a flood

and both were termed

“100 year events”

which means no one

around now had ever

seen anything like this before —

not the road workers who would

have to rebuild all the roads

not the town officials who had to walk

in the muck and seem like they were officiating

none of the people standing there destitute

none of the woods where we lived had any idea either

it just parted with the waves, trees went away, and

the day and the night time roared

our bodies still went to sleep

our bodies still got up

the sun shone again

the river slowly but surely subsided

some houses were gone forever

hundreds of thousands of trees vanished

roads to get us places were gone

bicycles came out

you could walk but our woods neighbors

insisted on driving, and one time we came

home on our bicycles and caught a straight course

on what was once the road but it now was a river

bed of dry rock and rubble and mistreatment

and it seemed like every neighbor

at the same time was trying

to drive on this old road memory as

a river bed, with the flooded river receded

and it was the largest traffic jam we’d ever seen

and will probably ever see out here in the woods

since percentages say it won’t happen again until 100 years

naturally

it will take that long to get this image

out of my memory

II.

And another time after that hurricane and flood

we were hiking along the river on our land

to have a look around, to see what was out of place

and we found a campsite tucked away

as if trying to hide

built there by neighborhood boys

old enough to build something nice out of stone

and old enough to ask permission to build it on our land

except they didn’t

they just took the land over

made their campsite

had their friends over

built a big fire and drank with

their friends and enjoyed themselves

when we found the campsite it looked

like something out of a King Arthur time

well placed stones in a ring and some built into

chairs like thrones — someone had put a great deal

of thought into the sacred site — it would take

savvy to move them off and put the stones away

this had to happen, we don’t want fires on our land

or drinking

or partying

we want the land as land

beautifully devoid of man

growing leaves, lichen, and solitude

but for the time being we knew the young men

needed a place for counsel, a place to prove themselves

as victors and survivors after the hurricane, and a party

now and then is good for this

so we let time pass, through winter

until spring, and then we spoke to

the young men’s mother, almost a knot

in shape, walk and disposition

she wanted nothing to do with our ideas

for our own land, she saw nothing wrong

with her children out of her house and freely

distributed to our land and their campsite while

regaining her own place in her own house

so things became unfortunate

we broke apart the campsite ourselves

dealt with the young men and all that ugly

further worse with the mother, never mind

the majority who live on our road, siding

against us and believing people should be

able to do as they wish

except of course when you wish to do it to them

overnight the world had become rotten

or to be kinder — confused

and still it snowed

apple trees blossomed

gardens grew

birds sang

we’re lucky   

—————————

Bob Arnold

Heaven Lake

Longhouse 2018

photograph ~

Flooded Green River at the

Eunice Williams Covered Bridge

Greenfield, MA.

2011

PIERRE MICHON ~

P I E R R E      M I C H O N

Yale University Press

2013

PANOPTICON ~

Seagull Books

2018

MAID AS MUSE ~

M O R E !

DON'T HIDE THE MADNESS ~

R E A D      M E

Three Rooms Press

2018

NEW FROM LONGHOUSE ~ DOC DACHTLER ~~

Doc Dachtler ~ Why Am I Telling You This?

poems & stories

selected by Bob Arnold

Longhouse, 2019

96 pages

Softcover, 6 x 10

$35.00

$5 shipping for US address, international orders please inquire

Now out of print

We accept a check or please use Paypal with our email — poetry@sover.net

We'd be happy to Paypal invoice you upon request




L O N G H O U S E
P.O. Box 2454
West Brattleboro
Vermont
05303

MAX FRISCH ~

R E A D      M E

MY AFTERLIFE ~

a kitchen garden my afterlife

a tendril

inquires — I just

stand here

I cage my

tomatoes

and return

to this desk

tomatoes in one hand

weeds in the other

he stands up

by-pass pruner

cape-cod weeder and pocket knife

I don't pack a lunch

your bobbing flight

goldfinch ends with

a sunflower's nodding

empty

garden swing

swinging at dawn

you don't have

to see her

——————————

John Martone

My Afterlife

Tufo, 2018

HEAVEN LAKE (2) ~

Fair Is Fair

After breaking in

The snowshoe trail

The deer use it

Old

is when

everything

feels oddly

too new

Business

A short cut down an alley

May give you the long view

Of life

Mirror

rain

on

leaf

—————————

Bob Arnold

Heaven Lake

Longhouse 2018

ARTFUL ~

L I S T E N

R E A D      M E