Category: Poetry

“Texas,” a poem by David Berman

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“Texas”

by

David Berman

first published in Caliban #8, 1990

Along the inner stream I found a hive split open.
I was deep in the country, where they said
I would find swollen dogs and trees covered in dust.
I found a house with windows and a door.

Once a man stumbled into the barn with a fresh axe wound.
I let him clean it out with vodka, then he pulled out
a red gun and told me he was gonna put me in the ground.
The sound made a hundred crows rise out of the field.

I remember sleeping by the pond,
waking up to see crumbled bees on the lips of a brown dog
standing over me.
I just lay there
trying to measure the diameter of its eyes.

I used to think I went there for the everchanging scenery,
or for the way the days just pass away.
They had told me Texas sat on the land,
harvests and oil, ten dimes to the dollar,
one star,

but those aren’t the things I saw.
I couldn’t walk an unbroken line there.
The window sill was a frame,
the state was a house,
and the doormat was on fire.

“A Parkersburg Vocabulary” — David Berman

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“A Parkersburg Vocabulary”

by

David Berman

Sad Fingers (sad-fin-gurs) n. Nostalgia for an old area code. Ex: “He has sad fingers.”

Hoxter (hock-stur) n. A fellow who lacks the energy to live up to his own sociopathic heritage.

Roycambellside (roy-cam-bul-zid) adv. or adj. To be in the vicinity of Roy Campbell.

Blue Emberton (blu-embr-tun) n. A wealthy man who subsidizes his own murder, often through the employment of an idle hoxter.

Dratchell (dratch-II) n. A piano tuned to the shadows cast on a vacant lot.

Cloud’s Index (klowdz-in-dex) n. Spiral-bound notebook listing the names of people who have never returned Fred J. Cloud’s phone calls.

Pollygosters (poli-gos-turz) n. Tiny candy construction hats tossed out to children from the Persevering Light Pencil Company’s float during the Clown Baking Days Parade.

Dorchester Reproach (dorch-est-ur reap-roach) n.: Dismay at the enthusiasms of poor people.

Multipulchomy (mul-tee-pulko-mee) n. The performance of plastic surgery on a crowd; first tested at Parkersburg Civic Center in July of 2006.

Disinfecting the Toy (dis-sen-fect-in thu toy) v. The nightly pond-side ejaculation of subdivision security guard Jimmy Food Hill onto the head or back of a swan.

Quadriplegic Beekeeper (kwad-ruh-puh-lee-gic beak-eaper) n. Door County slang for an ineffective person; a poor employee.

Galsworthy Rideout (gals-wurthy rye-dout) n. A locally-built electronic circuit that allows pinball machines to speak in contractions.

Acroplarf (akro-plarl) n. 1. German aspirin manufacturer’s waltz, usually played on an upright dratchell. 2. Suicide pact written by teenagers on parchment paper with goose quills.

Emberdome (embur-dom) n. An arena built on the Techwood Industries campus for the purpose of crushing employee suggestions.

Door County Hum (dork-ownty hum) n. A sensation often experienced by area men while wearing bathrobes; that they have suddenly been transformed into little terrycloth churchbells, inside of which their balls jingle jangle when they walk.

Tohapaxno’s Bias (toe-ha-pax-noze bi-us) n. The bothersome late-night invocation of Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, by Mixed Emotions bartender, Jim Tohapaxno.

Hobbledehoys (hobbul-dee-hoiz) n. Crowd-control tacos distributed by Parks and Rec. Department vans during the state butterfly census.

Polish Infinity (poal-ish in-fin-uh-ti) n. 1. Cologne imprinted on an empty elevator. 2. The nowhere vibe of a new megastore. 3. The EKG of a boulder or large stone.

“The Disappointment” — Aphra Behn

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“The Disappointment”

by

Aphra Behn

1
One Day the Amarous Lisander,
By an impatient Passion sway’d,
Surpris’d fair Cloris, that lov’d Maid,
Who cou’d defend her self no longer ;
All things did with his Love conspire,
The gilded Planet of the Day,
In his gay Chariot, drawn by Fire,
Was now descending to the Sea,
And left no Light to guide the World,
But what from Cloris brighter Eyes was hurl’d.

2
In alone Thicket, made for Love,
Silent as yielding Maids Consent,
She with a charming Languishment
Permits his force, yet gently strove ?
Her Hands his Bosom softly meet,
But not to put him back design’d,
Rather to draw him on inclin’d,
Whilst he lay trembling at her feet;
Resistance ’tis to late to shew,
She wants the pow’r to say — Ah!what do you do?

3
Her bright Eyes sweat, and yet Severe,
Where Love and Shame confus’dly strive,
Fresh Vigor to Lisander give :
And whispring softly in his Ear,
She Cry’d — Cease — cease — your vain desire,
Or I’ll call out — What wou’d you do ?
My dearer Honour, ev’n to you,
I cannot — must not give — retire,
Or take that Life whose chiefest part
I gave you with the Conquest of my Heart Continue reading ““The Disappointment” — Aphra Behn” →

“Poem” — Langston Hughes

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“Poem”

by

Langston Hughes

I loved my friend.
He went away from me. 
There’s nothing more to say. 
The poem ends, 
Soft as it began,—
I loved my friend. 

“0,” a poem by David Berman

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“0”

by

David Berman

first published in Caliban #8, 1990

On the very first day Jah gave light,
and on the second he made the sun and the stars.
It wasn’t long before things were jumping out of the river.

Later there were some wars, mostly soft and bloodless,
with snow falling on the sleeping tanks
and pieces of field glued to their wheels.

No longer all right to eat our young,
we made the Empire State Building and threw things off it,
then drank sidecars and Harvey Wallbangers until 1961.

People were heard to say that the world doesn’t care,
that the walls don’t listen, and the stars only shine on us
because we’re in the way of their light,

but the world continued to spin on its sturdy axis,
and underneath the Christmas trees the trains still ran on time,
while people united in sexual congress let pride feed.

Fatal cause | Emily Dickinson

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Declaiming Waters none may dread –
But Waters that are still
Are so for that most fatal cause
In Nature – they are full –

“California,” a poem by David Berman

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“California”

by

David Berman

first published in Caliban #8, 1990

It’s a movie based on a true story,
it’s a fat boy on a train with a dollar,
it’s got no cavities
and God on its shoulder.

Red meat, white people and blue skies,
it’s 50 states stuck together with barbecue sauce.
If you’re poor, someone will cry for you.
A cup of water is free
and the slave population here is zero.

From Arizona’s desert drug factories
to the hot sidewalks of Little Rock
to Florida’s Jewish beaches
people feel good about themselves
and their bodies.

Of course it’s hard to forget the kids outside Pittsburgh
who are into sorcery and stuff,
and the crooked men and women of Nevada dreaming of crime
in their blackened houses.

But on Sunday, when balloons float above the stadium,
and the highways stretch like cats under the hot sun,
we drive to the pool knowing the wheels could fall off,

and even California loves its future ocean grave.

“Barricades of Welcome” — Pete Winslow

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“Barricades of Welcome”

by

Pete Winslow

Welcome from the Kiwanis and Rotary
Said the sign by the road block
Welcome said the mayor
Locking all doors with the key to the city
Each motel had a sign that said welcome
But the wind whistled through the rooms
And there was no furniture
The Chamber of Commerce gave you a map
Showing the way out of town
An angry mob carrying welcome signs
Chased you across the city limits
You could hear it for miles as you ran down the highway
An insane cry of welcome welcome welcome
You were well on your way to learning the language of
the place.

“James A. Garfield and All the Shot People,” a poem by David Berman

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“James A. Garfield and All the Shot People”

by

David Berman

Insects are a manifestation of negative will.
—Anon.

I thought I saw an angel below the engine
but it was just vibrating air.

People used to see things
in the woods and the air and the closet:
spirits, dragons, and headless things,
lost and angry floats
conspiring to make every stomach pulse
like an almost accident
and every body’s head come unwound.

Our vision is not so fuzzy now.
We stare into eyes and see their parts,
have cameras, sidewalks, pills,
and other futuristic devices.
Some of our race have counted up into the highest numbers,
the high clear numbers.

Now we know the speed of light,
and that we never see anything just when it happens,
but a part of a second afterwards.
People are getting lost in their own houses,
wandering down hallways and through rooms for years.
We stumble downstairs full of water,
and when I wake up it all pours out of me.

From Caliban #8, 1990.

The issue also contains a few illustrations by Berman, including this one:

“News,” a poem by Grace Paley

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“News”

by

Grace Paley

although we would prefer to talk
and talk it into psychological the-
ory the prevalence of small genocides
or the recent disease floating
toward us from another continent we
must not     while she speaks her eyes
frighten us     she is only one person
she tells us the terrible news     we
want to leave the room we may not
we must listen     in this wrong world this
is what     we must do     we must bear it

“A Wish for Unconsciousness” — Thomas Hardy

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“A Wish for Unconsciousness”

by

Thomas Hardy

If I could but abide
As a tablet on a wall,
Or a hillock daisy-pied,
Or a picture in a hall,
And as nothing else at all,
I should feel no doleful achings,
I should hear no judgment-call,
Have no evil dreams or wakings,
No uncouth or grisly care;
In a word, no cross to bear.

“After a Journey” — Thomas Hardy

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“After a Journey”

by

Thomas Hardy

Hereto I come to view a voiceless ghost;
Whither, O whither will its whim now draw me?
Up the cliff, down, till I’m lonely, lost,
And the unseen waters’ ejaculations awe me.
Where you will next be there’s no knowing,
Facing round about me everywhere,
With your nut-coloured hair,
And gray eyes, and rose-flush coming and going.

Yes: I have re-entered your olden haunts at last;
Through the years, through the dead scenes I have tracked you;
What have you now found to say of our past—
Scanned across the dark space wherein I have lacked you?
Summer gave us sweets, but autumn wrought division?
Things were not lastly as firstly well
With us twain, you tell?
But all’s closed now, despite Time’s derision.

I see what you are doing: you are leading me on
To the spots we knew when we haunted here together,
The waterfall, above which the mist-bow shone
At the then fair hour in the then fair weather,
And the cave just under, with a voice still so hollow
That it seems to call out to me from forty years ago,
When you were all aglow,
And not the thin ghost that I now frailly follow!

Ignorant of what there is flitting here to see,
The waked birds preen and the seals flop lazily;
Soon you will have, Dear, to vanish from me,
For the stars close their shutters and the dawn whitens hazily.
Trust me, I mind not, though Life lours,
The bringing me here; nay, bring me here again!
I am just the same as when
Our days were a joy, and our paths through flowers.

Pentargan Bay.

“Cretaceous bird, your giant claw no lime” — Edna St. Vincent Millay

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“Cretaceous bird, your giant claw no lime”

by

Edna St. Vincent Millay

from Epitaph for the Race of Man

Cretaceous bird, your giant claw no lime
From bark of holly bruised or mistletoe
Could have arrested, could have held you so
Through fifty million years of jostling time;
Yet cradled with you in the catholic slime
Of the young ocean’s tepid lapse and flow
Slumbered an agent, weak in embryo,
Should grip you straitly, in its sinewy prime.
What bright collision in the zodiac brews,
What mischief dimples at the planet’s core
For shark, for python, for the dove that coos
Under the leaves?—what frosty fate’s in store
For the warm blood of man,—man, out of ooze
But lately crawled, and climbing up the shore?

Gerhard Rühm’s The Folded Clock (Book acquired, drifted through, last week or the week before, end of 2025)

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I dug/was perplexed by Gerhard Rühm’s Cake and Prostheses a few years ago, so when I got my soft pink hands on The Folded Clock, (translated like C & P by Alexander Booth), I was intrigued. Publisher Twisted Spoon describes The Folded Clock as a collection of “number poems, comprising typewriter ideograms, typed concrete poetry, collages of everyday paper ephemera and scraps, and a wide variety of literary forms where the visual pattern created on the page underpins the thematic meaning.”

Rühm seems to identify Kurt Schwitters as his artistic precursor, or an artistic precursor. Like Cake and Prostheses, the pieces in The Folded Clock defy easy categorization — Is it a script or a poem or art? is probably the wrong question.

Passing eyes over the text is probably not the way to go; Rühm’s asking you to engage. As Joseph Schreiber puts it in his review at Rough Ghosts, you might follow Rühm’s directions and “allow yourself to read aloud and, there are you are, from the very beginning, not simply reading but actively engaging with the poem.”

I don’t really like numbers that much, at least not in a mob, a gang, a swarm. I tried and didn’t work out. Not just with this book but in general. I can’t count sheep, I guess.

I had a better time with Rühm’s forays into music and letters and collages; I enjoyed whatever psychotic version of minesweeper or Sudoku this piece is:

“Identification Tags” — Tom Clark

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“Identification Tags”

by

Tom Clark

Ghosts do wear sheets but not for sleeping.

Sometimes people die while still alive
and then come back to life
but only partially. You can read the signs
around the eyes, which get
a dusty look like burned out hundred watt bulbs.

When they pass one another on the streets
there is a soft noise, as of muslin touching.

reserved for those who have been mutilated in the war

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“October”

by

Tom Clark

The rain falls like dirty string
on the tomb
of the human race

The girl with the red scarf
and the sassy face throws
her flowers on the wet leaves

Her name is Marie
I met her last Tuesday
on the Métro

You know how it is in the springtime
A man just can’t say no
especially when he is sitting in the seat

reserved for those who have been mutilated in the war

A previously unpublished Dream Song by John Berryman

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“The applause of the world comes to an empty heart”

by

John Berryman

The applause of the world comes to an empty heart,
sure the man is thinking now of something else,
something else, a fearless end
‘I have lost, of course, the fear of death’, BUT.
Messages enchant me, as from Ireland
I am an old middle-aged man about to do his best

I love old men
The bartender did just call me ‘my friend’
I say the wonder is these busy caves
explored by men, & then by men, & then
by cold & dismal
engineers, are so costless

Deep in the angels let the good coat come
& I will wheedle home, who misséd you,
I can’t fix him. He’ll go down there apart,
that would be the wicked part of him that falls.
Henry has in Ireland no friend.
Alone, in the half-dark

Read five more previously-unpublished Dream Songs at Conjunctions. The poems are collected in the forthcoming volume Only Sing: 152 Uncollected Dream Songs, edited by Shane McCrae.