Uncollected Poems (17): “From a Book of Divinations” and “A Birthday Habdala for Basil Bunting”

FROM A BOOK OF DIVINATIONS

on the shining stone
a face
the prince of oil
‘s in oil
(a child says) red
the light glows
like the shadow of
his face he saw
in moon light
knew he wouldn’t die
that year
& called him
prince of lights

1
Mondays
at five
The Sun
& Moon
2 Angels

2
A fast before rain
Dream-questions

3
Seven
Three

4
At this door
“Death
“Departs

5
Apples
Cakes
Eggs
on which the names had been written
with light

6
Demons
Latrines

7
Knots

8
Back to eight

9
As Judah’s face
was green
& queer

10
A mirror
A pan
2 dogs fucking

11
Large
Letters

12
Sixth day
Left nostril

13

Names
13 Names


A BIRTHDAY HABDALA FOR BASIL BUNTING

wine in our mouths
the friend asks
“do they drink to get drunk
“or for a blessing only

I answer in the voice of
some old rabbi
was screaming in his cups

messiah
holiday
hallah
o mine double-flamed
candle in wine
mine fat moustached women

examines his fingernails’
shadows
where the prince of thumbs waits

& knows no blessing without madness

[These poems from the early to middle 1970s were recovered, along with numerous others, for Retrievals, a volume of Uncollected & New Poems 1955-2005, to be published in January 2011 by Mark Weiss & Junction Press. Sixteen previous installments have appeared since 2008 on Poems & Poetics. Habdala, the Jewish ritual of separation, marks the end of the Sabbath, for which the ritual implements are wine, a lighted candle, & a container of sweet-smelling herbs. Bunting’s visit with us, if I remember correctly, coincided with his seventy-fifth birthday, & was followed by a reading (with wine) at the Whitney Museum of Art.]