"Dandelion"

(Louis Zukofsky)

No blanch witloof handbound dry

heart to racks a comb

lion's-teeth thistlehead golden-hair earth nail

flower-clock up-by-pace dandle lion won't

dwarf lamb closes night season

its long year dumble-dor bumbles

cure wine blowball black fall's-berry

madding sun mixen seeded rebus

from "The Tennis Court Oath"

(John Ashbery)


....
to one in yon house
The doctor and Philip had come over the road
Turning in toward the corner of the wall his hat on
reading it carelessly as if to tell you your fears were justified
the blood shifted you know those walls
wind off the earth had made him shrink
undeniably an oboe now the young
were there there was candy
to decide the sharp edge of the garment
like a particular cry not intervening called the dog “he’s coming! he’s coming” with an emotion felt it sink into peace
there was no turning back but the end was in sight
he chose this moment to ask her in detail about her family and the others
The person. pleaded—“have more of these
not stripes on the tunic—or the porch chairs
will teach you about men—what it means”
to be one in a million pink stripe
and now could go away the three approached the doghouse
the reef. Your daughter’s
dream of my son understand prejudice
darkness in the hole
the patient finished
They could all go home now the hole was dark
lilacs blowing across his face glad he brought you

Sinning Skel Misclape

(Lisa Jarnot)

O sinning skel misclape thy lock

from frenzied felbred feefs

and longitudes of long tongue fuels

unpebble-dashed deceased.

Unpebble-dashed, unpebble-dashed,

Unpebble-dashed unrose,

up from the theme that random flaps

in news flash rancid hose.

A morning dress of morning field

redrenched upon the sun,

that reads the wobble of the

air, the weary cautious rung.

The red-black innards laid up bare

for all to see and spy,

tradition for the form of those

belingered, cheerful, nigh.

from Chameleon Series

(Leslie Scalapino, 1985)

Boys and men

in the

area where there

are shops

-- their life

coming

apart before

then time when

I'd die

-- and when

they would

The life led when

one's death

occurs

that life's coming

apart as well

that life

causes the other

lives

to come apart

as currently

lived by me

the others in the

vicinity

and by the

chameleon

he'd be

simply the flower

of the social

world

when that

occurs

the

motionless way of

life of

the men

by the housing

project

the women

leading

a motionless

way

of life

which is led

later on

in

the social

world

because

of

being motionless

comes apart

then

from "Litany"

(John Ashbery)

If all the retinues of all
The archdukes stretched away into a powdery

Infinity, and you stood

On the top step but one, waiting to advance

Your argument into the aura, and time suddenly

At that moment seemed to sag, and the staircase

Became a giant hammock littered with dead leaves

And ants, and the horizon of the universe

Raised it up into something bald and filled

With unexpressed and inexpressible menace,

No word of which would ever

Attest to the configuration of desires

That had gone into its construction, dark now,

Absent-minded flowers, reticent birds, and much

Else that is scarcely present, needing

No avenue, no way to be born,

What would greet you? Which might be

What you want to tell me: open the door.

...

How all beings into all being pass,

How the great Beasts eat the human Grass,

and the Faces of Men in the Word's Glass

Are faces of Apes, Birds, Diamonds

Worlds and insubstantial Shapes

Conjured out of the Dust--

...

(Robert Duncan, from "The Ballad of the Enamored Mage")