To begin ...

As the twentieth century fades out
the nineteenth begins
.......................................again
it is as if nothing happened
though those who lived it thought
that everything was happening
enough to name a world for & a time
to hold it in your hand
unlimited.......the last delusion
like the perfect mask of death

Wednesday, September 4, 2019

A Poem of Fears, in Seven Installments, for David Antin



[In going recently through old files, both paper & digital, I came across the following, which goes back to early years of friendship with David Antin and has an obvious relation to his great poem “Delusions of the Insane: What They Are Afraid Of.”  I never published mine, as far as I can remember, but now that publication comes so easily, through Jacket 2 & elsewhere, I’m posting it here, unembellished, as a kind of tribute to my dearest and oldest friend & co-worker in poetry. (J.R.)]

1
some had a fear of men
some had a fear of women
some had a fear of girls
some had a fear of children
some had a fear of tyrants
some had a fear of priests
some had a fear of popes
some had a fear of people
some had a fear of crowds
some had a fear of mobs
some had a fear of robbers
some had a fear of foreigners
some had a fear of Englishmen
some had a fear of French
some had a fear of Germans
some had a fear of Japanese
some had a fear of Jews
some had a fear of Negroes
some had a fear of Russians
some had a fear of Chinese
some had a fear of God
some had a fear of Satan
some had a fear of demons
some had a fear of ghosts
some had a fear of spirits

2
some had a fear of cats
some had a fear of dogs
some had a fear of horses
some had a fear of mice
some had a fear of bulls
some had a fear of animals
some had a fear of reptiles
some had a fear of snakes
some had a fear of birds
some had a fear of fish
some had a fear of worms
some had a fear of mites
some had a fear of bees
some had a fear of spiders
some had a fear of insects
some had a fear of lice
some had a fear of microbes
some had a fear of bacteria
some had a fear of germs
some had a fear of monsters

3
some had a fear of flowers
some had a fear of flutes
some had a fear of bullets
some had a fear of needles
some had a fear of crystals
some had a fear of mirrors
some had a fear of pins
some had a fear of dust
some had a fear of strings
some had a fear of dirt
some had a fear of corpses
some had a fear of water
some had a fear of metal
some had a fear of gold
some had a fear of money
some had a fear of machinery
some had a fear of vehicles
some had a fear of telephones
some had a fear of hair
some had a fear of skin
some had a fear of fur
some had a fear of teeth
some had a fear of eyes
some had a fear of beards
some had a fear of feathers
some had a fear of rectums
some had a fear of slime
some had a fear of feces
some had a fear of blood
some had a fear of urine
some had a fear of food
some had a fear of drink
some had a fear of drugs
some had a fear of poison
some had a fear of small things
some had a fear of new things
some had a fear of one thing
some had a fear of everything


4
some had a fear of comets
some had a fear of sun
some had a fear of stars
some had a fear of gravity
some had a fear of lightning
some had a fear of thunder
some had a fear of wind
some had a fear of drafts
some had a fear of fog
some had a fear of clouds
some had a fear of snow
some had a fear of floods
some had a fear of waves
some had a fear of cold
some had a fear of heat
some had a fear of fire
some had a fear of light
some had a fear of dawn
some had a fear of darkness
some had a fear of shadows
some had a fear of night
some had a fear of body odor
some had a fear of ice & frost

5
some had a fear of closed places
some had a fear of heights
some had a fear of precipices
some had a fear of rivers
some had a fear of the sea
some had a fear of churches
some had a fear of home
some had a fear of heaven
some had a fear of hell

6
some had a fear of crossing a street
some had a fear of crossing a bridge
some had a fear of passing high buildings
some had a fear of going to bed
some had a fear of coitus
some had a fear of work
some had a fear of writing
some had a fear of sleep
some had a fear of stealing
some had a fear of speech
some had a fear of swallowing
some had a fear of soiling
some had a fear of standing
some had a fear of being idle
some had a fear of taste
some had a fear of touch
some had a fear of smell
some had a fear of thinking
some had a fear of trembling
some had a fear of ridicule
some had a fear of a beating
some had a fear of smothering
some had a fear of inoculation
some had a fear of childbirth
some had a fear of death
some had a fear of music
some had a fear of sin

7
some had a fear of sourness
some had a fear of sharpness
some had a fear of narrowness
some had a fear of weakness
some had a fear of dampness
some had a fear of pain
some had a fear of justice
some had a fear of freedom
some had a fear of pleasure
some had a fear of fatigue
some had a fear of poverty
some had a fear of fear
some had a fear of punishment
some had a fear of color
some had a fear of duration
some had a fear of motion
some had a fear of symmetry
some had a fear of speed
some had a fear of loneliness
some had a fear of ruin
some had a fear of imperfection
some had a fear of responsibility
some had a fear of failure
some had a fear of sex
some had a fear of marriage
some had a fear of heredity
some had a fear of nudity
some had a fear of ideas
some had a fear of words
some had a fear of names
some had a fear of philosophy
some had a fear of magic
some had a fear of infinity
some had a fear of the void

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