lines from Row With Your Hair by James Tate (and Mel Fowler) that oh, i like very much...
Like a harp
burning on an island
nobody knows about.
p. 31
her blood is a noise
and makes the window tremble.
p. 33
...Or I could even
get your name
tattooed gingerly across my wrist at dawn
p. 32
Tell the doctor it doesn't hurt
except when he kisses it.
p. 33
What you invent each night
is the mystery of life
You tell the wrong man
and he hangs you
with your own hands
You can't die though
the world needs you
out of the hunger
and chaos a tired voice
calls for a donkey
and you know he means you.
p. 35
Sunder the buttons! Expire the cradle!
p. 71
An anonymous though urgent love capable
of disassembling the rest of us
like a pure white puzzle or an essay
fraught with hyphens...
p. 71
...
our gladness
flares like a pheasant in an empty field.
p. 71
...
Man is
a puny thing, divorced,
whether he knows it or not, and
pays his monthly alimony,
his child support. Year after year
you strolled down to this exceptionally
violent shore and chose your boulder;
the arms grew as the house grew
as the mind grew to exist outside
of time, beyond the dalliance
of your fellows.
p. 25
p. 47
p. 57, "for the first time..."
p. 65?
p. 67!
p. 21, "the Day lost"
p. 79, "he is the medium"
roethke--that 12th grade stuff
p. 27 ("O once in a while/I roll over and dictate a poem:")
p. 40, pt. vi
p. 41
p. 42-43
/
Shadowboxing
p. 18
Sometimes you almost get a punch in.
Then you may go for days without even seeing him,
or his presence may become a comfort
for a while.
He says: I saw you scrambling last night
on your knees and hands.
He says: How come you always want to be
something else, how come you never take your life
seriously?
And you say: Shut up! Isn't it enough
I say I love you, I give you everything!
He moves across the room with his hand
on his chin, and says: How great you are!
Come here, let me touch you, you say.
He comes closer. Come closer, you say.
He comes closer. Then. Whack! And
you start again, moving around and around
the room, the room which grows larger
and larger, darker and darker. The black moon.
Like a harp
burning on an island
nobody knows about.
p. 31
her blood is a noise
and makes the window tremble.
p. 33
...Or I could even
get your name
tattooed gingerly across my wrist at dawn
p. 32
Tell the doctor it doesn't hurt
except when he kisses it.
p. 33
What you invent each night
is the mystery of life
You tell the wrong man
and he hangs you
with your own hands
You can't die though
the world needs you
out of the hunger
and chaos a tired voice
calls for a donkey
and you know he means you.
p. 35
Sunder the buttons! Expire the cradle!
p. 71
An anonymous though urgent love capable
of disassembling the rest of us
like a pure white puzzle or an essay
fraught with hyphens...
p. 71
...
our gladness
flares like a pheasant in an empty field.
p. 71
...
Man is
a puny thing, divorced,
whether he knows it or not, and
pays his monthly alimony,
his child support. Year after year
you strolled down to this exceptionally
violent shore and chose your boulder;
the arms grew as the house grew
as the mind grew to exist outside
of time, beyond the dalliance
of your fellows.
p. 25
p. 47
p. 57, "for the first time..."
p. 65?
p. 67!
p. 21, "the Day lost"
p. 79, "he is the medium"
roethke--that 12th grade stuff
p. 27 ("O once in a while/I roll over and dictate a poem:")
p. 40, pt. vi
p. 41
p. 42-43
/
Shadowboxing
p. 18
Sometimes you almost get a punch in.
Then you may go for days without even seeing him,
or his presence may become a comfort
for a while.
He says: I saw you scrambling last night
on your knees and hands.
He says: How come you always want to be
something else, how come you never take your life
seriously?
And you say: Shut up! Isn't it enough
I say I love you, I give you everything!
He moves across the room with his hand
on his chin, and says: How great you are!
Come here, let me touch you, you say.
He comes closer. Come closer, you say.
He comes closer. Then. Whack! And
you start again, moving around and around
the room, the room which grows larger
and larger, darker and darker. The black moon.