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, May 27, 2020

Jerome Rothenberg: for a Second Book of Retrievals (in progress)

 ATHENS 2008                                                         “Urns & Sarcophagi” 
for Stavros Deligiorgis

The Mourning Women

they pull
their hair
& tears run down
like M’s

.


A Sorrowing Sailor

abandoned & alone

.


Heroes

like dibbiks
the untimely
dead

.


A Row of Men

a fish in
every hand

.


Mistress of the Animals (1)

2 wolves
1 bull
2 birds
a serpent
& a fish
between her legs

.


Mistress of the Animals (2)

a large bird
forward
a jack rabbit
at her back

.

Medusa Furens

tongue askew
& flashing eyes

.


White Vases

filled with
water
cleanse
the dead

.


A Small Man

girded round
by eyes

.


Psyche

my mind
a butterfly

.

a man without a face
holds up a cup

a man in a red sweater
sits here too


October/November 2008




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