Poem #4

Poem #4

I did this before

 

 

 

 

 

I might write something perky

I might write something poignant

I might go for unexpected figures

within and without, in the concept

of the line or the totality of the poem

 

 

 

 

I will leave out mention of darkies

they can be invisible in the margins

they can act out conceptual

noise-making in white space

 

 

 

 

I might rip it up

I may reel slack syntax, pack the diction, enjamb

whatever

I might could

line break

like this

anyway, fetishizing

or not, allusive

violence or pop,

be sure it will be

cute.

 

 

 

Gee, poets bathe in the Blood of the Lamb to come out cute.

 

 

 

 

Thank you to the following journals in which poems and lines like this have appeared, often in earlier forms: Fence, Guile, American Poetry Review, Poetry, Poetry Today, Conceptual Poetry Manana, Telemarketer’s Index, Frosty Make-up, the Iowa Review, Shortly, Definitely, the Georgia Review, the Kenyon Review, the Chicago Review, the Nation, the Onion, Orion, Tricycle, Huitlacoche, Curly Fillip, the Multicultural Review, Portent. 

Thank you to family, friends, teachers, students, Birdie and Koda, who supported and believed in me all these years.

Thanks to people I see at the AWP for writing the blurbs and for special favors, this poem would never have existed without you.

Special thanks to Rina Torta, Phil Nagasaki, Homer Toribio, and Helen Vendler.

Special thanks to Chappie Fungo, Bortai Chromolophagus, Nod Bleating for the 6-pack, and Dottie Rush, your review of this manuscript on-line at the Human Pyramid of Poetry Conference was abundant and pungent as the Chevron station by the sea.