Sunday, February 15, 2015

Either Alzheimer's or the Lightning Bolt



Whizzdizzyingly
cruising The Moment,
arrowing past all awareness:
highway,enginewhiine,steeringwheeltrafficWorldsmudginnnnngg past
while we, preoccupied, reprise Creation,
absorb Eternity and Logos, Eden/Gethsemane, Genesis-Apocalypse
and the Night the Night,
the private bleeding into the general,
and Ouruniverse proxying for ego.
Glorious cosmic fusion in an infinite minute.

             (or so it briefly eternally seems in our infinitiny microverse)

The ends of love
are but two

:your V8 plunges from the surface
and, crucified like a butterfly in time,
helpless consciousness heightened,
you hover in slowmotion witness
to the juggernaut earth’s decay
just as your metal-again grille
begins to embrace solidity

or: doomed foresight eludes
as you rearend that lightless
semi-

 --Duane Vorhees

Contents






                                      GOD RUNS THROUGH ALL THESE ROOMS





                                                BOOK A: THE ENDS OF LOVE





    PROLOGUE

Either Alzheimer's or the Lightning Blast





    BETH



Another Spring Night in Farmersville, Ohio * Ah! Nights * Francis Drake * My Fingers * Without You Beth / My Life



    JENNY



Jennifer in Two Voices * "Mushrooming" * sAVAnnA * Atoll * Montana Motel * Queen of Denial * For Love * The Beast * Her Name is Jenny and Many a Morn has Worn her Face



   YEOBO



Still Strangers (Prologue) * volcano * Solstices * this is how . it all begins * A Poem with a Title Near the End * Yes, But Where Are the Wheels? * Don't Get Me Wrong * Take Me In * A Poem and After 70 Years a Reply * Contretemps * Busses and Crosses * Leap Frog * Evidence for the Mutational Codependence of Time * What Wanton * Dowser * Once, Once * Trad * WORD * That Y in Miser Is Me: A Melodrama * Peace Meal * Eros in Erosion (Epilogue)



   &u&



Hawked and Doves * Conquering Love * Loves I Bear to You * High Coup * (And) Purple: Prose * In Solitary * In Your Way * And, Do You Still Go by Beatrice? * Lillian the Ocean and the Isle of Palms * Confessions * Van/ity * Just Stupid, I Guess -- or Blind -- or Inattentive -- or... * Mary * Lepidoptourists * The Engagement * By Invitation Only * Don't Interrupt * Ley Line * First Night in Thailand * Liquid *A Feminophile's Plea * My Life in Tornado Alley * O Former-Lovers * Her Barbwire Lips: :Her Waterfall Eyes * Flight of Fantasy * Inanimate Enamorata * Antikarmic * Ergonomics * French Kiss, 1789 * In Order to Form A More Perfect Union * Gloved * Simple Math



   GRACE 



Soul's Advice * Gracelessly Waiting * Dirty Blues * Reporting for Duty * Dear Departure * She came draped in birdsong * Regrets



   O, DARK LADY



Reverse Metamorphosis * Enlightenment * In an On-One (self-portrait, unfinished for now) * Nyun * La Srever S’efil * The Dance: Nancy



   SALLY



In My Defense  * And Just When I Thought the Earth was Turning Cold * Nocturne (a duet) * Sally * Apple Blues * We Within the Wheels: Dalit * Whispers



   AND SIRINYA, AT LAST 



No Crosswise Stripes * Between Two Suns * Doubt and Reassurance * Cake's Consumed, Candles Extinguished, Balloons Popped or Deflated 



 EPILOGUE



There Are Two Sorts of Zebras in This World





                                         INTERLUDE:  My Life Was Mapped Out for Me


  

                                                         BOOK B: BROKEN CHINA



Three by Li Bai * Passion for Life (after Wang Guozhen) * Paintings (after Wan Wei) * Homesickness (after Yu Guangzhong) * Qingyuan, Lantern Festival (after Xin Qiji) * Inlaid Harp (after Li Shangyin) * Flowering Tree (after Xi Murong) *  Yearning (after Wang Guozhen) * Cambridge, Goodbye Again (after Yu Guangzhang) *River Snow (after Liu Zongyuan) * Passing Anren by Road (after Yang Wanli)





                                                                 BOOK C: GIFT



Gift * The History of Our Art, Illustrated: From Madonna and Child to Mud on a Windshield *



“in the 7th day”



Kingston: 8 Days! 7 Nights! * Escher's Sharks * Newman * The Attic Language * Around 5800 South on Ellis



“flaming sword slicing up the sky”

 

Bush Babies: I. Responsible Parties * II. 49th Isonzo * III. Iraq/Katrina Collidoscope * IV. Locks & Boxes * V. I Ask Us * VI. Swastikas? Where? Which Ones? * VII. Rootedness * Choice



“humankind was witness”



Eye Job. Nose Jobs. And Red Crosses * Buckeye Boys * Status Caste * Slumber, O Slum! * In Munster * Deign Not to Name * On Reading Lawrence O'Donnell in the Age of Trump * Airy Poppings * Declaration Manifesto Palimpsest



"skeptical descendants”

 

Another Noel * Damascus * zer0moon * Headlines, and What Happened to Our Myths



“bereft, banished”

 

Plicae * A Second Day in Thailand: Cha Am * Ko Samui *Yes, I have Been to India



“peremptory angels”

                                                 

The Don Comes after the Knight. And Juanita? She Stays in Bed * In 1988 in Seoul, the Head of the IOC Played High-Stakes Go-Stop with the Anglican Archbishop of South Africa and a Georgia Senator * One Almost Had It All * The Collared Man Ponders His Fate



“embrace without cease”



Marital Bliss * The Woman at the Gestalt Well * My Torquemada, Alas  * Poontang Jubilee: The Object of Our Intercourse * Unique (Haiku) * Mistress Mine



“splendid snakely gifts”


Grace Means "Gifts Received at Christ's Expense" * Experience *

                                                        INTERLUDE:  Tattoo You


                                                              BOOK D: HEAVEN



Poems by Yun Dongju



[12 December 1934] One Candle * Life and Death * No Tomorrow

[18 January 1935] On the Street

[1935] A Daydream * Southern Sky

[20 October 1935] Blue Sky

[December 1935] Clamshell

[6 January 1936] Home * Chicks

[early 1936] The Map of the Bed Wetter *  Rooftile Couple

[10 February 1936] Doves

[20 March 1936] Parting * Meal Ticket

[24 March 1936] At Peony Peak

[25 March 1936] Twilight * Heart

[March 1936] Skylark

[early spring] Aeroplane

[spring] Hens

[May 1936] Ballpark Postmeridian * On the Mountaintop

[10 June 1936] Days Like These

[26 June 1936] The Forest * Sunnyside

[24 July 1936] Heart

[27 July 1936] Broken Dreams

[summer 1936] In the Valley

[9 September] Sunshower * Broomstick

[23 October 1936] Autumn Night

[October 1936] Spring *  What Do They Live On? *
 snowy eyes, apple


[autumn 1936] chimney

[December 1936] snow, sock making pattern, letter, dog, sparrows, chicken

[winter 1936] winter, morning, pocket

[1936] the wash