84:
i have discovered i am i have been attached somebody attached strings to me and often wrenches violently upon them,
Breton has strings too, and sometimes
he likes to twitch.  

85:
dead space.
              i ca
                      n  ’t, i can't think,
everything is a mirror,
                             ym deah sdeen ot ehteabr,                
                            my head needs to breathe,                              
                        ­     ehtaebr ot sdeen daeh ym,  
im going  to make holes  with breton to   breathe so i can think,
i only need a nail
                           or some thorns and wire. Breton is probably hiding some wire. I am good at finding things.  

86:
when my kneecaps turn blue,
i know my health’s shot to ****.

Breton ran into Old Mathers              
in the basement              
and Mathers says Breton’s not coming up (for [quite!] a long time).  

Kat told me **** little Breton for his marrow,
never enough marrow,
Mathers says.            
I listen to Kat, always go by Kat,              
always by Kat, always:

*Death came too close to me,
  Almost seeing the eternal light.  
  Harder to feel when you’ve almost died,  
  Hopes and dreams never almost tried.
  In His eyes,  your time to go:  
  Having this purpose for me in life,
  Having this purpose for now,
  I do not know.

They sleep well here,
These fisher-folk who passed their anxious days
In fierce Atlantic ways;
And found not there,
Beneath the long curled wave,
So quiet a grave.

And they sleep well,
These peasant-folk, who told their lives away,
From day to market-day,
As one should tell,
With patient industry,
Some sad old rosary.

And now night falls,
Me, tempest-tost, and driven from pillar to post,
A poor worn ghost,
This quiet pasture calls;
And dear dead people with pale hands
Beckon me to their lands.

Seven stars in the still water,
And seven in the sky;
Seven sins on the King’s daughter,
Deep in her soul to lie.

Red roses are at her feet,
(Roses are red in her red-gold hair)
And O where her ***** and girdle meet
Red roses are hidden there.

Fair is the knight who lieth slain
Amid the rush and reed,
See the lean fishes that are fain
Upon dead men to feed.

Sweet is the page that lieth there,
(Cloth of gold is goodly prey,)
See the black ravens in the air,
Black, O black as the night are they.

What do they there so stark and dead?
(There is blood upon her hand)
Why are the lilies flecked with red?
(There is blood on the river sand.)

There are two that ride from the south and east,
And two from the north and west,
For the black raven a goodly feast,
For the King’s daughter rest.

There is one man who loves her true,
(Red, O red, is the stain of gore!)
He hath duggen a grave by the darksome yew,
(One grave will do for four.)

No moon in the still heaven,
In the black water none,
The sins on her soul are seven,
The sin upon his is one.

I feel the cold bites, mittened children yell
they’re sewing sky flowers as they run with yellow or red kites
ocean makes that great space with tides that linger over the rocks
we fashion nothing like the clouds and feel small

As storms build up I walk a coastal trail
where ashes of an old beach fire left roasted pinecones littered
an Osprey flies up above the shore’s edge  
and as I read your book, I feel the restless melody in your poems

Tides flap and slop against sand the color of worn concrete
ocean’s spoiled lives permeate everything, my skin tastes sea salt gargle
gulls and passersby all watch the waves moving towards us

I’m lingering here for too long and return to my car
clicking heels behind me in the parking lot
the castanets of other lives with their importance
arouse such unpleasant thoughts, I walk back down to the beach
hurrying until I no longer hear their rhythm

But now the fog rolls in and the ground is covered with wings
all the doors are locked when the sky drops down like this
thunder knocks in the distance saying ‘“celebrate!”
its echoes wake the clouds, rain gives an answer with applause

on the threshold of storm I turn away from the ocean and look east
a forested mountainside crowded with fading painted houses abandoned
a single car on the road with headlights, we have hundreds of days of rain here

in other words, most people forget anything but rainy weather
the chill from Alaska reaches down only in gusts but snow is distant

This Sunday when Netarts bay is full of kayaks and fishing boats
Oceanside’s patch of beach is strewn with sea grass, people with their dogs
walk amongst shed crab shells, a lone restaurant opens selling coffee and pies
none of the people in rain slickers and hoodies move off as the rain falls

His soft neck.
Put wires
all the way around it
and           pull.

2.
I see glass in the road next to trash,
take a piece
and
make it hot over a running engine,
look for the sky in André's
stomach,
wear gloves
and hold the glass
and dig.

3.
André has
so many bones
under his skin,
make all of them come outside.

4.
See how much water he can breathe and don't stop.

5.
Put him on a sidewalk in the Pearl District,
paint him black or ******* or crack-addict
and leave him there,
watch the crowds watch him
away.

Summer plays witness
to our salty footprints
the towers we crashed into
leaving only fragile things
to be collected or consumed
all the lives we created
exist shimmering
far below our reach

Here's a few legitimate refugees:
political, poverty, drought, war, and religious.
They're right in the top drawer zone,
But who gives a flying Whoopi
That Miley will claim assylum in Bali Bali;
Or Rosie will fly over camps on her way to Switzerland.
I hope Cher,
Doesn't apply for residence on Cape Breton Island:
We don't want you, Babe.
These are the celebrity refugees,
Bailing out on the touted
Greatest Democracy on the planet.
****, if you don't like what you elect,
Look to history,
Stove pipe hats,
And the wonders to be achieved
Before the end of this decade.
They got enough cash for space,
For Mars!

THE PRECIOUS terror is realizing
most adults are dead children
or like a day that folds itself into

a basket of reborn night.  That long-
necked geese and stiff necks are
either pretending giraffes or self

consumed souls; ignoring the mirror's
reflecting thoughts introspection
devours it's own mouth.  

  Surrealism is hickey upon my heart
that bests freezer burn sunlight any
now.  Kiss me you brilliant stupid
fool.

:: 08-30-2018 ::

In your mother's apple-orchard,
Just a year ago, last spring:
Do you remember, Yvonne!
The dear trees lavishing
Rain of their starry blossoms
To make you a coronet?
Do you ever remember, Yvonne,
As I remember yet?

In your mother's apple-orchard,
When the world was left behind:
You were shy, so shy, Yvonne!
But your eyes were calm and kind.
We spoke of the apple harvest,
When the cider press is set,
And such-like trifles, Yvonne,
That doubtless you forget.

In the still, soft Breton twilight,
We were silent; words were few,
Till your mother came out chiding,
For the grass was bright with dew:
But I know your heart was beating,
Like a fluttered, frightened dove.
Do you ever remember, Yvonne,
That first faint flush of love?

In the fulness of midsummer,
When the apple-bloom was shed,
Oh, brave was your surrender,
Though shy the words you said.
I was glad, so glad, Yvonne!
To have led you home at last;
Do you ever remember, Yvonne,
How swiftly the days passed?

In your mother's apple-orchard
It is grown too dark to stray,
There is none to chide you, Yvonne!
You are over far away.
There is dew on your grave grass, Yvonne!
But your feet it shall not wet:
No, you never remember, Yvonne!
And I shall soon forget.

Caminas adentro de ti mismo y el tenue reflejo serpeante que te conduce
    no es la última mirada de tus ojos al cerrarse ni es el sol tímido golpeando tus párpados:
    es un arroyo secreto, no de agua sino de latidos: llamadas, respuestas, llamadas,
    hilo de claridades entre las altas yerbas y las bestias agazapadas de la conciencia a obscuras.
    Sigues el rumor de tu sangre por el país desconocido que inventan tus ojos
    y subes por una escalera de vidrio y agua hasta una terraza.
    Hecha de la misma materia impalpable de los ecos y los tintineos,
    la terraza, suspendida en el aire, es un cuadrilátero de luz, un ring magnético
    que se enrolla en sí mismo, se levanta, anda y se planta en el circo del ojo,
    géiser lunar, tallo de vapor, follaje de chispas, gran árbol que se enciende y apaga y enciende:
    estás en el interior de los reflejos, estás en la casa de la mirada,
    has cerrado los ojos y entras y sales de ti mismo a ti mismo por un puente de latidos:
                                  EL CORAZÓN ES UN OJO.

    Estás en la casa de la mirada, los espejos han escondido todos sus espectros,
    no hay nadie ni hay nada que ver, las cosas han abandonado sus cuerpos,
    no son cosas, no son ideas: son disparos verdes, rojos, amarillos, azules,
    enjambres que giran y giran, espirales de legiones desencarnadas,
    torbellino de las formas que todavía no alcanzan su forma,
    tu mirada es la hélice que impulsa y revuelve las muchedumbres incorpóreas,
    tu mirada es la idea fija que taladra el tiempo, la estatua inmóvil en la plaza del insomnio,
    tu mirada teje y desteje los hilos de la trama del espacio,
    tu mirada frota una idea contra otra y enciende una lámpara en la iglesia de tu cráneo,
    pasaje de la enunciación a la anunciación, de la concepción a la asunción,
    el ojo es una mano, la mano tiene cinco ojos, la mirada tiene dos manos,
    estamos en la casa de la mirada y no hay nada que ver, hay que poblar otra vez la casa del ojo,
    hay que poblar el mundo con ojos, hay que ser fieles a la vista, hay que
                  CREAR PARA VER.

    La idea fija taladra cada minuto, el pensamiento teje y desteje la trama,
    vas y vienes entre el infinito de afuera y tu propio infinito,
    eres un hilo de la trama y un latido del minuto, el ojo que taladra y el ojo tejedor,
    al entrar en ti mismo no sales del mundo, hay
ríos y volcanes en tu cuerpo, planetas y hormigas,
    en tu sangre navegan imperios, turbinas, bibliotecas, jardines,
    también hay animales, plantas, seres de otros mundos, las galaxias circulan en tus neuronas,
    al entrar en ti mismo entras en este mundo y en los otros mundos,
    entras en lo que vio el astrónomo en su telescopio, el matemático en sus ecuaciones:
    el desorden y la simetría, el accidente y las rimas, las duplicaciones y las mutaciones,
    el mal de San Vito del átomo y sus partículas, las células reincidentes, las inscripciones estelares.

    Afuera es adentro, caminamos por donde nunca hemos estado,
    el lugar del encuentro entre esto y aquello está aquí mismo y ahora,
    somos la intersección, la X, el aspa maravillosa que nos multiplica y nos interroga,
    el aspa que al girar dibuja el cero, ideograma del mundo y de cada uno de nosotros.
    Como el cuerpo astral de Bruno y Cornelio Agripa, como las granes transparentes de André Breton,
    vehículos de materia sutil, cables entre éste y aquel lado,
    los hombres somos la bisagra entre el aquí el allá, el signo doble y uno, V y ^ ,
    pirámides superpuestas unidas en un ángulo para formar la X de la Cruz,
    cielo y tierra, aire y agua, llanura y monte, lago y volcán, hombre y mujer,
    el mapa del cielo se refleja en el espejo de la música,
    donde el ojo se anula nacen mundos:

    LA PINTURA TIENE UN PIE EN LA ARQUITECTURA Y OTRO EN EL SUEÑO.


    La tierra es un hombre, dijiste, pero el hombre no es la tierra,
    el hombre no es este mundo ni los otros mundos que hay en este mundo y en los otros,
    el hombre es la boca que empaña el espejo de las semejanzas y dice sí,
    el equilibrista vendado que baila sobre la cuerda floja de una sonrisa,
    el espejo universal que refleja otro mundo al repetir a éste, el que transfigura lo que copia,
    el hombre no es el que es, célula o dios, sino el que está sienpre más allá.
    Nuestras pasiones no son los ayuntamientos de las substancias ciegas pero los combate y los abrazos de los elementos riman con nuestros deseos y apetitos,
    pintar es buscar la rima secreta, dibujar al eco, pintar el eslabón:
    El Vértigo de Eros es el vahído de la rosa al mecerse sobre el osario,
    la aparición de la aleta del pez al caer la noche en el mar es el centelleo de la idea,
    tú has pintado al amor tras una cortina de agua llameante

    PARA CUBRIR LA TIERRA CON UN NUEVO ROCÍO.


    En el espejo de la música las constelaciones se miran antes de disiparse,
    el espejo se abisma en sí mismo anegado de claridad hasta anularse en un reflejo,
    los espacios fluyen y se despeñan bajo la mirada del tiempo petrificado,
    las presencias son llamas, las llamas son tigres, los tigres se han vuelto olas,
    cascada de transfiguraciones, cascada de repeticiones, trampas del tiempo:
    hay que darle su ración de lumbre a la naturaleza hambrienta,
    hay que agitar la sonaja de las rimas para engañar al tiempo y despertar al alma,
    hay que plantar ojos en la plaza, hay que regar los parques con risa solar y lunar,
    hay que aprender la tonada de Adán, el solo de la flauta del fémur,
    hay que construir sobre este espacio inestable la casa de la mirada,
    la casa de aire y de agua donde la música duerme, el fuego vela y pinta el poeta.

Always remember;

Those who dwell

In stone houses

Should not throw glass.

It'll cut your feet,

You'll bleed on the cheese.

But again, Blood Cheese

Is a delicacy among us normal ones.

-

Now I have somethin'

A little somethin'

A cynic feelin'

And quite revealin'

About me stance,

And about me dance,

And skippin' the days' rope,

With the entrails of a dope,

Perhaps not that last,

That's far too passed,

Casual conversin'

And time's birds be chirppin'

So you'll sit and wonder,

Of things and blunder.

-

Ya think you're free but lemme

Speak of that bein' ill advised;

Ya sit there shocked

At a world provoked,

Well this is my world, revised.

-

They tried to match an army equivalent to mine,

They tried, they tried,

Admirable and amiable,

I hate when masses gather against me.

Their intestines and other assorted guts

Adorned my dining table and sweetroll plates.

-

The Greymarch couldn't have happened at an odder time,

Inconvenience is madness rhyme,

Therefore I purchased a hero of suspicious sanity,

Unfortunately though, he turned to depravity.

Me servant stood and told him what,

To do and there and when and such,

Sheoth has seen some better days,

Although it hasn't yet seen worsened days...

-

Brilliance of Pelagius himself,

That awful Breton ****** himself,.

Although the conversin' was enthrallin'

To say the least,

To rise up once and flay the beast,

Me Wabbajack corrected all the physicality.

-

Doin' the best on behalf of a master,

But not doin' the most he could endeavor,

It don't befront what he could affront,

The contradictions

Of his existence

Were at the very least concernin'.

-

Correct me if I'm wrong,

But I wouldn't advise it.

A hero could always do better,

Always,

Unless he couldn't,

Unless he dies. then another

To replace em'

These things tend to happen when

The entanglements come along.

-

Whether it be better to

Affront under certain weather,

Has nether to be seen on this endeavor,

But forever will be never unseen,

And clever.

-

Forgive them with revenge, for

It has yet to be determined in

Their extermination for the wrath of

Passed sensation, pray blocks their

Affiliation to Jyggalag and affirmation

Of recreation in Order, and abomination.

-

Hear me with your mortal deaf ears,

Pray tell, how have you got lizards and not gizzards?

It seems undauntin' that you may have hauntin'

Dreams of His return but not of the others?

-

You must wait on your own cheese,

For cheese be earned not given,

Unless given after earned,

But earned is the important part.

-

You're livin' in a glorious world of hellish rules,

The damnable expectation of sanity come freedom,

Though, I am the freest bein' who I be,

Demented Mania be the only way to go,

The only road,

Unless there be another in the way,

For if you know where you're goin',

There's no point in goin'.

I do believe all poets must not only read a lot of poetry but read a lot about poetry. Of my 50 favorite poets, there is not one who has not written about poetry, the philosophy of their work and of the craft. That in itself is fascinating- and difficult, like the depth you find in NY Review of Books. I do about 2/3 (poems) to 1/3 (being books about poetry) From the most philosophic works of archetypes by Northrop Frye to the most public and basic questions of Zupruders good seller "Why Poetry?" .
That last book opened up a new reality for me, to I ask myself all the time who am I writing for, in context to all this reading...I realized I was really trying to communicate the poetic truths of living, of my own small life in the world so full of beauty, horror, paradox and death. I realized to do this I had to make compromises, to not try to impress or amuse myself with poems that could only be understood by me. The craft and presentation became as important as the message. That is currently my direction, I'm writing "collections" of poems with themes so a reader could enjoy a concrete theme. (The last book I just read, a signed collection by Ferlinghetti ( nice and cheap in a used bookstore) was just that- the theme of light in "How to Paint Sunlight." Accessible and very full of several poems about light)
So you are stating two different issues:
I don't like being not understood, Having people throw up there hands perplexed, I'd rather be popular.... Its lonely
But I cant write for others because than it would be feeling like a commercial venture My motivation would be destroyed.
Id rather be desolated and write for those few who get the twinge...
Well, first of all, we poets are possibly lucky because we ain't making beans for our poems. Forgetaboutit. Even our most lauded poets end up teaching to get the health care and severance. I suppose there may be 3 poets in Amerika that make a living on just writing poetry....if that many. Who's buying? I didn't see much word "poetry" once in this weeks NY Times review of books. Only some letters crashing last weeks review of Leonard Cohen, who the critic called a wonderful lyricist and performer, but an awful poet. These dialogues are important to me, but really, quite a small audience. Either way, lyrics and song paid the rent, not Cohen's books of just poetry.
I'm sure there is no immediate cure for your paradox. If you want to be popular you have to make compromises. If you don't want to alter your vision, you can get the joy of a smaller readership and forget the rest. You have to manage expectations is a world that hardly notices our craft.
It's hard to be both, I suppose you should stay true to your motivation. And if readers like me don't get it, **** em. Let it suffice we acknowledge the craft, and that we will get closer to some poems more than others be enough. For me, accessibility, the ability to engage a reader into whatever poetic truth I am feeling, is more important than in any way hiding the meaning in the poem in which I alone can understand it.
I want people who never read poetry, which is most people, pick up a poem by me and feel the poetry power without feeling intimidation which is what most people feel when they read most poems published today. For me its that fine line between letting the imagination do the work, and the poem setting up the narrative to allow it by inviting a reader into it. I get great joy reading my poems to non poets who are scared by even the idea of it, and get them to feel something new, that wonderful way Aristotle put it- that poetry provides an ultimate truth that is found beyond the boundary of philosophy.
Best Mark
…………………...

Admittedly I have gone off the rails focusing on the meta or man as dreamer. Are we not dreamers first before descending into the material, deadening the faculty of imagination or as the I Ching says "a darkening of the light"
I want to bring the reader up and when I read I want to have the sensation of ascending I try to give what I like to receive which is to be brought into greater fluency and light
Have we abandoned our inner life to such an extent that when confronted with it we find our selves strangers to it; reinforcing and amplifying a kind of cognitive dissidence?
Are we in a sense a stranger to our selves having lost the lucidity of our magical youth
Do we see the world as vacant utilitarian stuff and other humans predictable lusterless cogs in a wheel like cued robots?
Witches Seers, Voodoons , Hermeticists, Kabbalists and Occultists of very stripe know and use objects as essential to their operations and craft because they have hidden meaning and power.
Has the life of fantastical creative cognition been sacrificed to inveterate congenital pragmatism?
"Beloved imagination, what I most like in you is your unsparing quality".
Andre Breton
To transgress is to process ones madness as opposed to the customary botched behaviors of repressive modalities we hide behind . It seems to me that poetry is a great ground for that exploration.
Perhaps Its a good thing for a reader to think about what the writer means, albeit a difficult pleasure as opposed to the instantaneous and facile modes of naming and claiming Reading towards the abstract can be a mystical experience Most people who read are shallow readers Shall I than aspire to be a shallow writer?
What surrealism (Detailed descriptive language unmoored from linear rationality) affords the writer like pure abstraction to the visual artist is a great opportunity to explore the musicality of language ie the musicality of form i.e. the energetic configurations of architypes.
Part of our craft that makes things crackle as you know well remains sound play ie the strategy of syllables ... Long vowels / short vowels...the length of words and sound of words in relationship to one another
As you know Mark to analyze the subtle abstraction of sounds i.e. words to the ear is just like music and like music although not wholly translatable has an undertow of non verbal meaning especially if exploited out side the linguistic necessity of linear prose like poems i.e. a device that most never use consciously and strategically or certainly to its fullest potential.
So when we say a poem is beautiful do we impart mean its those amazing tintinnabulating sounds that ****** with their musicality? Poems that do that well stand out to me.
Further I think we are in error when we confuse the realistic with the materialistic. It seems to me realism has magnitudinal underlying meta elements that need to be felt in poetry and to think other wise in my opinion would be a dull conceit
A good example is thought itself
When we speak our ideas thoughts impulses we have no real sense of where they emerge from The processes are so meta their incomprehensible even to neuro science and scientists have little if any understanding of consciousness or its meaning as far as I know
So perhaps the surrealist has a place of worth too; and that is to remind people of their inner life out side the cage of end product think and commodification. After all what is a life and what is a poem?
Best Z

This brown buff speckled throstle of a bird sits in the higher most branches of a yet to be leafed poplar tree . . . and sings. Such a song in the April morning air it greets the day, celebrates the rising sun. Above a suburban street the bird’s song catches the reverberation of a double row of houses, their windows bouncing sonic reflections of unaccompanied melismata.
 
Olivier Messiaen loved this bird for its répétition égale. Walking the mountain woods around his summer home he would wonder that the grive musicienne could make so exactly repetition after repetition of a complex phrase. A proto-minimalist perhaps? The male mistle thrush appears in several ***** works but most prominently in Saint Francois d'Assis singing luminously on the clarinet.
 
Although this is the ungregarious male singing away on this spring morning his name carries a female designation Turdus Philomelos. Poor Philomel, whose name means one who loved song, she was a princess of Athens lusted after by King Tereus who took her to a cottage in distant woods and ***** her. Then, he cut out her tongue.
 
Vengeful Philomel alone in the woods, but a most resourceful and artistic young woman, she set about weaving a tapestry that told all.
 
‘She set up a Tracian loom
And wove on a white fabric scarlet symbols
That told in detail what had happened to her.’
 
She sent the finished piece to Tereus who promptly ordered Philomel's death and that of her sisters (one of whom he was married to). As the girls were about to be slain they were changed magically into three birds . .
 
Joanna Laurens play The Three Birds takes the only fragment we have of Sophocles telling of this strange tale. Laurens is both musician and linguist and the text is a marvel of strange sounds and rhythms as the sisters communicate with each other in their personal private language akin, it is said, to Jersiese, an ancient Breton dialect.
 
So thank you dear song thrush for this morning's wonder: a song *sans pariel.

I wish to go to Nova Scotia
And long to play in Breton fields,
Faraway and over the oceans,
For ever a bonnie soul shall lead.

I wish to row for Nova Scotia
And glide above the seas trembling,
Far beyond my earthly devotions,
Where ever a bonnie soul shall lead.

    I see long oars in every tree,
    In ocean swells, a boat for me,
    A lull of melodies in seabirds call,
    Beyond the wave is music and song.

I will follow a star to Nova Scotia
And suffer on seas of forgetfulness,
To play a fiddle with joyful Scotians,
For ever a bonnie soul has needs.

    I see long oars in every tree,
    In ocean swells, a boat for me,
    A lull of melodies in seabirds call,
    Beyond the wave is music and song.

~~~~~~~~~~
Unblemished sand of a far away land

Unearthing bubbles of weary clams

Sky grows tired as Flame burns low

The simple serenity of the afterglow
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Air breton. -

Adieu, patrie !
L'onde est en furie.
Adieu, patrie !
Azur !

Adieu, maison, treille au fruit mûr,
Adieu, les fleurs d'or du vieux mur !

Adieu, patrie !
Ciel, forêt, prairie !
Adieu, patrie,
Azur !

Adieu, patrie !
L'onde est en furie.
Adieu, patrie,
Azur !

Adieu, fiancée au front pur,
Le ciel est noir, le vent est dur.

Adieu, patrie !
Lise, Anna, Marie !
Adieu, patrie,
Azur !

Adieu, patrie !
L'onde est cri furie.
Adieu, patrie,
Azur !

Notre œil, que voile un deuil futur,
Va du flot sombre au sort obscur !

Adieu, patrie !
Pour toi mon cœur prie.
Adieu, patrie,
Azur !



Jersey, le 31 juillet 1853.

Chance Operations are methods of generating poetry independent of the author’s will. A chance operation can be almost anything from throwing darts and rolling dice, to the ancient Chinese divination method, I-Ching, and even sophisticated computer programs. Most poems created by chance operations use some original text as their source, be it the newspaper, an encyclopedia, or a famous work of literature. The purpose of such a practice is to play against the poet’s intentions and ego, while creating unusual syntax and images. The resulting poems allow the reader to take part in producing meaning from the work.

The roots of using chance operations to generate poetry are generally traced to the Dada movement in Western Europe in the early and mid-twentieth-century, involving writers such as André Breton, Louis Aragon, Tristan Tzara, Philippe Soupault, and Paul Éluard. The Dadaists were deeply interested in the subconscious, and they believed that the mind would create associations and meaning from any text, including those generated through random selections. In one section of Tzara’s “Dada Manifesto on Feeble & Bitter Love," he offers the following instructions to make a Dadaist poem, here translated from the original French by Barbara Wright:

“Take a newspaper.
Take some scissors.
Choose from this paper an article the length you want to make your poem.
Cut out the article.
Next carefully cut out each of the words that make up this article and put them all in a bag.
Shake gently.
Next take out each cutting one after the other.
Copy conscientiously in the order in which they left the bag.
The poem will resemble you.
And there you are--an infinitely original author of charming sensibility, even though unappreciated by the ****** herd.”

The use of chance operations in contemporary poetry has been used most famously by the international avant-garde group Fluxus, poet Jackson Mac Low, and the poet and composer John Cage. A good example of a poem that was written using chance operations is Jackson Mac Low’s “Stein 100: A Feather Likeness of the Justice Chair," which also includes Mac Low’s explanation of the methods he used to compose the poem.

The spirited light; the solar-like wind;
breath with its passion; the sun’s copious
****** venom.

I speak of everything and all things
without caution: this noise inside my head;
layers of high pitched harmonics;

the compressed hours between
birth and death; the heart’s heat
ascending and descending;

the end always beginning and again
your Gothic eyes. I have been here
and there, a prodigal hawk

with the flavor of blood-kisses hovering
like steam or mist or a weapon stirring
the body’s carbonic magnetic motion;

never the sky always the silence disclosing
the stillness in death’s fantasy—life and death;
love and loss; a fatalistic dream-reel

as if two mirrors facing each other reflecting
the same vacant image. I remember the faint
trail of finger prints; my impatient pulse

raced into yours. Deserted passions
like roses each one dies the same way
—our emotions mumbled

through love and into the glazed elixir
of a French kiss: In my arms you had fallen asleep
not knowing I had left.

——————————————————————————
From my second book: 'The Second Coming'
©dah / Stillpoint Books 2012  
all rights reserved

"never the sky always the silence"—from Andre' Breton

Search Amazon: "the second coming/dah" and "in forbidden language/dah"

after one last summer of cottages, palm-beers floating on the lake,
faceplanting into the waves while trying to kneeboard,
badly-planned but perfectly-timed trips to toronto for shows
(getting kurt viled)
the family casa (host of
many ragers and teenage kicks) was sold and georgian bay was no longer home.
my parents bought a new truck and moved what was
once 15 quesnelle drive
down to cape breton island, three quarter million in pocket
and i,
i had a resurgence of old feelings towards a girl i won't name
brought on by our rekindled friendship after the death
of my best friend, (nothin' helped me get thru those months
quite like that smile)
and after an embarrassing night spent having various altercations
(fisticuffs)
with a young birch tree behind my pal's place
i hopped in my '03 volvo and sped west like that old man once told
dean to do.
dust flying thru the open windows and my split knuckles
smilin' at the fat old sun.

that summer the bookstore,
where i bought so many weathered novels, died and
the man who was its overseer, with whom i spent so many evenings philosophizing over cups of joe in the closed-up shop ,
sort of faded away; i'd see him thursdays at the study sipping whatever he drank there in the corner and always felt too bad
about the closing of cottage books, ashamed in a word, to
ever go over and buy the guy a beer.
still don't know why.
guess i'm a bit of a *****.

that drive out west was good. made 10 mixes in addition to CDs
i already had and slept on the highway side and stopped
where ever the hell i wanted to stop. smoked cigars while blazing over the pavement with my life in the backseat at 120 km/h
not knowing how to feel,
but doing alright.

I was on a ship, a ship on the high seas;
With nobody on the deck,
Sailing through heavy, stormy waters.
Who's at the helm?

I don't know - swaying from side to side
the vessel tottered on, metal
oar-rests clanging to wheezing winds
and boisterous, surging waves.

I suddenly get a call on my mobile - how
on earth did I have network?
'I can see her', says the voice, 'an austere
lady leading the ship'. Is she
the same helmswoman who charters
universes before they come alive?

I walked downstairs, finding the parlour.
And decided I should paint,
to **** time: time, the enduring mystery.
Is this a dream? I consulted
Varo and dipped my brush in black
and splattered oil over canvas.

Dots, like sparkling stars, I see threes and
twos, and fives. Looking eerily
like loaded dice. Am I cruising through
skies? Is this my destiny loaded?

This is an allegory, says Martel. Agrees
Jung; Breton seems pleased.
Freud, though, says I'm just paranoid,
and this, my willful imagination.

I wake up, and find myself on a ship.
There's no one on the deck.
I have a mobile phone in my hand.
Miracle: there's network,

In the middle was Evelyn
Shyly peeping out
In front was James
And behind Rose.

She hang up her coat
On a red metal peg
Put her snoopy box
In the wire basket.

Then Breton cried
For her Mummy
And was comforted
By Miss Petershore.

All the children
Played outside
On the grassy slopes
It was fun.

Evelyn liked her day
Did a picture
Of her family
It was put on the wall.

At three-thirty
Parents collected
She pushed into daddy
With a big smile.


Love Grandma xxxx

I wish to go to Nova Scotia
And long to play in Breton fields,
Faraway and over the oceans,
For ever a bonnie soul shall lead.

I wish to row for Nova Scotia
And glide above the seas trembling,
Far beyond my earthly devotions,
Where ever a bonnie soul shall lead.

    I see long oars in every tree,
    In ocean swells, a boat for me,
    A lull of melodies in seabirds call,
    Beyond the wave is music and song.

I will follow a star to Nova Scotia
And suffer on seas of forgetfulness,
To play a fiddle with joyful Scotians,
For ever a bonnie soul has needs.

    I see long oars in every tree,
    In ocean swells, a boat for me,
    A lull of melodies in seabirds call,
    Beyond the wave is music and song.

of which
is humor
and of
which is
life
that our
dry mouths
gape
at the beauty
of death?  
old princesses
and young
hobgoblins
will
laugh at
our
naiveté
that imitates
picnic blankets
and checker boards.
"Many perished
precisely
because
they were young
and beautiful."

Andre Breton
laughs
with our age
and our age
laughs
at time
and time laughs
at half
played grand pianos
and full moons
and they laugh
at our fingers
which fumble
at life
and life
fumbles through
humor.

of which is humor
and of
which is life
we wonder
as water clogged
ears strain to
hear.
or listen?

Brighton is the closest
to Brexit than anywhere
in Britain so why not
Bring a Breton sample
and stop Brainwashing
to Brake the Brackets
that Braggarts Brag in
Brainless Bravado of
Bribery that is Brewing
by Bricking the tunnel
thus Bridling Brittle Brows,
with Brutal Brush-offs
Bruising Brotherly love.

ps.

EXIT via the backstop.

Data fata secutus.
DEVISE DES ST-JOHN.

Ce siècle avait deux ans ! Rome remplaçait Sparte,
Déjà Napoléon perçait sous Bonaparte,
Et du premier consul, déjà, par maint endroit,
Le front de l'empereur brisait le masque étroit.
Alors dans Besançon, vieille ville espagnole,
Jeté comme la graine au gré de l'air qui vole,
Naquit d'un sang breton et lorrain à la fois
Un enfant sans couleur, sans regard et sans voix ;
Si débile qu'il fut, ainsi qu'une chimère,
Abandonné de tous, excepté de sa mère,
Et que son cou ployé comme un frêle roseau
Fit faire en même temps sa bière et son berceau.
Cet enfant que la vie effaçait de son livre,
Et qui n'avait pas même un lendemain à vivre,
C'est moi. -

Je vous dirai peut-être quelque jour
Quel lait pur, que de soins, que de vœux, que d'amour,
Prodigués pour ma vie en naissant condamnée,
M'ont fait deux fois l'enfant de ma mère obstinée,
Ange qui sur trois fils attachés à ses pas
Épandait son amour et ne mesurait pas !

Ô l'amour d'une mère ! amour que nul n'oublie !
Pain merveilleux qu'un Dieu partage et multiplie !
Table toujours servie au paternel foyer !
Chacun en a sa part, et tous l'ont tout entier !

Je pourrai dire un jour, lorsque la nuit douteuse
Fera parler les soirs ma vieillesse conteuse,
Comment ce haut destin de gloire et de terreur
Qui remuait le monde aux pas de l'empereur,
Dans son souffle orageux m'emportant sans défense,
À tous les vents de l'air fit flotter mon enfance.
Car, lorsque l'aquilon bat ses flots palpitants,
L'océan convulsif tourmente en même temps
Le navire à trois ponts qui tonne avec l'orage,
Et la feuille échappée aux arbres du rivage !

Maintenant jeune encore et souvent éprouvé,
J'ai plus d'un souvenir profondément gravé,
Et l'on peut distinguer bien des choses passées
Dans ces plis de mon front que creusent mes pensées.
Certes, plus d'un vieillard sans flamme et sans cheveux,
Tombé de lassitude au bout de tous ses vœux,
Pâlirait s'il voyait, comme un gouffre dans l'onde,
Mon âme où ma pensée habite comme un monde,
Tout ce que j'ai souffert, tout ce que j'ai tenté,
Tout ce qui m'a menti comme un fruit avorté,
Mon plus beau temps passé sans espoir qu'il renaisse,
Les amours, les travaux, les deuils de ma jeunesse,
Et quoiqu'encore à l'âge où l'avenir sourit,
Le livre de mon cœur à toute page écrit !

Si parfois de mon sein s'envolent mes pensées,
Mes chansons par le monde en lambeaux dispersées ;
S'il me plaît de cacher l'amour et la douleur
Dans le coin d'un roman ironique et railleur ;
Si j'ébranle la scène avec ma fantaisie ;
Si j'entre-choque aux yeux d'une foule choisie
D'autres hommes comme eux, vivant tous à la fois
De mon souffle et parlant au peuple avec ma voix ;
Si ma tête, fournaise où mon esprit s'allume,
Jette le vers d'airain qui bouillonne et qui fume
Dans le rythme profond, moule mystérieux
D'où sort la strophe ouvrant ses ailes dans les cieux ;
C'est que l'amour, la tombe, et la gloire, et la vie,
L'onde qui fuit, par l'onde incessamment suivie,
Tout souffle, tout rayon, ou propice ou fatal,
Fait reluire et vibrer mon âme de cristal,
Mon âme aux mille voix, que le Dieu que j'adore
Mit au centre de tout comme un écho sonore !

D'ailleurs j'ai purement passé les jours mauvais,
Et je sais d'où je viens, si j'ignore où je vais.
L'orage des partis avec son vent de flamme
Sans en altérer l'onde a remué mon âme ;
Rien d'immonde en mon cœur, pas de limon impur
Qui n'attendît qu'un vent pour en troubler l'azur !

Après avoir chanté, j'écoute et je contemple,
À l'empereur tombé dressant dans l'ombre un temple,
Aimant la liberté pour ses fruits, pour ses fleurs,
Le trône pour son droit, le roi pour ses malheurs ;
Fidèle enfin au sang qu'ont versé dans ma veine
Mon père, vieux soldat, ma mère, vendéenne !

Juin 1830.

Τετάρτη, 28 Σεπτεμβρίου 1966
  
Αγαπητέ Andre


Αναρωτιέμαι

Αναρωτιέμαι/η μυρωδιά της μασχάλης σου/

θαμπορούσε να  με ζήσει και μόνο..



Αν η ρωμαλέα  σκοτεινιά /που αντικρίζω  στα σκέλια σου/ τα μάτια μου να’βλεπαν και μόνο/



Αναρωτιέμαι  τι είναι αυτό που κατέχεις/ και  που εμένα μου λείπει /



Αναρωτιέμαι /αν τα δυο χέρια  και τα δυο  σου χείλη / μπορούν να κρατήσουν  ορθό / ένα σώμα/



Αναρωτιέμαι/ αν η τροφή σου είμαι εγώ  /και μπορώ   την πόρτα της καρδιάς  σου  /ανοιχτή να κρατώ/

τι θα μου’λεγες τις νύχτες του χειμώνα /





Αναρωτιέμαι γιατί σε κάθε σου λέξη /βρίσκω ένα   πούπουλο  σε χρώμαωχρό/

να γαργαλάει το  δέρμα μου  /έτοιμο  κι’ αυτό/ να σου δοθεί/

Αναρωτιέμαι/

γιατί  / αφού  σ’ αγγίζω/ μια βελόνα είσαι θανάτου/





Πράξεις

Θα μπορούσα να γευτώ  την σάρκα σου στα δόντια μου/ και το αίμα σου να ρέει  πάνω στο σώμα  μου/ δροσιά αιώνια /θα μπορούσα/



Τo ακούμπημα στο στήθος μου/  επάνω στην κοιλιά /ανάμεσα στα πόδια μου/ να  σε  κρατά  σφικτά/



Σ’ ένα κουτάκι ζωγραφισμένο με μελάνι / έβαλα  λίγο από τα υγρά σου / χθες/καθώς  άφηνες  ζεστό ένα σώμα  /   και με τον χρόνο/ κεχριμπάρι θα γίνει/ κόσμημα/ένα προσκύνημα/ στο λαιμό/ στο στέρνο  μου /σημάδι βαθύ/

Άφησε τον χρόνο να περάσει επάνω μας αγαπημένε μου /ν’ αφήσει μια γραμμή /ατέλειωτου πόθου/  να σε κρατά  από’τα  χέρια και από τα’ πόδια/ να σε κρατά απ’ τα σπλάχνα/ απ’ το μήλο του Αδάμ  /να σε κρατώ / και να μη μου φτάνει/



Προς τα πού  είναι η ανατολή και η δύση  πες μου /να στείλω  μηνύματα και ξόρκια / ν’ αφανίσω ότι αγάπησα/



Επίλογος



Je  suisune femme  amoureuse

une femme/ totalementheureuse/

ettotalementtsiste

Viens: de:

PRENDRE

ENTRE

COMPRENDRE

RE- JOINDRE

DEFENDRE

VENDRE

ATTENDRE,

PRETENDER



Andre
Ο ΈΡΩΤΑΣ  ΕΙΝΑΙ ΔΆΝΕΙΟ.  ΕΥΧΑΡΙΣΤΏ

Did you know
the average person
spends only five seconds at a piece of art?

A mere glimpse of Albright’s Dorian Gray
his phantasmal and grotesque visage
silently screaming horror

Only a look at Litchenstein’s pulp women
straw-yellow hair and ivory word bubbles abound
their comic book stories told within one panel

A sighting of Breton’s Lark
a dying sun sinking into the horizon behind her
her tired, shadowy eyes awaiting the next one’s arrival

All these fleeting moments betray art
for they do not deserve seconds
they have earned centuries

Réveillez-vous, assez de honte !
Bravez boulets et biscayens.
Il est temps qu'enfin le flot monte.
Assez de honte, citoyens !
Troussez les manches de la blouse.
Les hommes de quatre-vingt-douze
Affrontaient vingt rois combattants.
Brisez vos fers, forcez vos geôles !
Quoi ! vous avez peur de ces drôles !
Vos pères bravaient les titans !

Levez-vous ! foudroyez et la horde et le maître !
Vous avez Dieu pour vous et contre vous le prêtre
Dieu seul est souverain.
Devant lui nul n'est fort et tous sont périssables.
Il chasse comme un chien le grand tigre des sables
Et le dragon marin ;
Rien qu'en soufflant dessus, comme un oiseau d'un arbre,
Il peut faire envoler de leur temple de marbre
Les idoles d'airain.

Vous n'êtes pas armés ? qu'importe !
Prends ta fourche, prends ton marteau !
Arrache le gond de ta porte,
Emplis de pierres ton manteau !
Et poussez le cri d'espérance !
Redevenez la grande France !
Redevenez le grand Paris !
Délivrez, frémissants de rage,
Votre pays de l'esclavage,
Votre mémoire du mépris !

Quoi ! faut-il vous citer les royalistes même ?
On était grand aux jours de la lutte suprême.
Alors, que voyait-on ?
La bravoure, ajoutant à l'homme une coudée,
Etait dans les deux camps. N'est-il pas vrai, Vendée,
Ô dur pays breton ?
Pour vaincre un bastion, pour rompre une muraille,
Pour prendre cent canons vomissant la mitraille.
Il suffit d'un bâton !

Si dans ce cloaque ou demeure,
Si cela dure encore un jour,
Si cela dure encore une heure,
Je brise clairon et tambour,
Je flétris ces pusillanimes,
Ô vieux peuple des jours sublimes,
Géants à qui nous les mêlions,
Je les laisse trembler leurs fièvres,
Et je déclare que ces lièvres
Ne sont pas vos fils, ô lions !

Jersey, le 15 janvier 1853.