Intimate Chains
Rimbaud's gunfire tears
sent Verlaine
sent Verlaine
unwanted valentines.
"I Iove you"
was written on the sidewalk
in blood.
Between love and death
lies the lesson.
"I Iove you"
was written on the sidewalk
in blood.
Between love and death
lies the lesson.
"Here is where I teach
you to leave."
Two Pink Snakes for Anne
Could easily
be mistaken for
Zorro's blade
painting a swan
while considering its
mirrored reflection
or
the haunting view
of a hoofed animal
preparing for birth
and now captured
in Pepto papier mache
violin f-holes
Another Bang-Bang Day
Unwanted as he feels he is,
an appropriate
BLACKNESSBLACKNESSBLACKNESS
BLACK framing empty space NESS
BLACKNESSBLACKNESSBLACKNESS
11.16.94
DEAR WILLIAM
S. WILSON,
NO, NO, NO
NO, NO, NO,
NO.
I KNOW
WHAT. I'M
TALKING. ABOUT
RAY JOHNSON
American Museum of Natural History (fig 371)
There are several rooms
in the American Museum
of Natural History that display
no exhibits contain
no laboratory equipment
have no collections,
but represent nonetheless
some of the most important space
in the museum's 23 acres.
The referenced spaces
are likely the hallways
atriums and vestibules:
the transitional zones
transverse en route,
neither here
nor
For there - - the interstitial spaces
of commute and communication
inhabited by nothing.
Indeed, the Johnsonian nothing
unfolds between acts:
between the opening
and the closing,
between presence and absence,
departure and arrival.
Nothing shall come of nothing.
You Rang?
Chop artist flops
cannibalizes pop
with scissors
axes, and fine grit
sandapaper.
Here today
gore tomorrow.
Special Deliverance
The fugitive elegance
of the
everyday is
a pas de deux
between sender
and receiver
whose return
address is a
bureaucratic red
herring
swiming its way
to Bill Wilson
who invisibly cares
for a predetermined
legacy.
Oversized Moticos
Have you seen one lately?
Perhaps you have.
They are everywhere.
A scrap. A clipping. Fresh paint.
A void rejects
your eternal truth.
A currency of exchange
between art and
outer world
is a celebration of
chance operations
cut from context
with a little imagination.
A starched shirt
cardboard becomes
a premonition of
things to come.
Restless loco-moticos
Train car graffiti, a
message in motion
Did you catch the
horizontal gossip
column after column.
A tongue. A hand. A heartbeat.
Untitled
poem corresponding to
its surroundings.
Catch and let it go.
Archives of the New York Correspondence School
A confidential report
from Carolee
in 1961.
The most unusual event
was a eclipse under the table
above curled fries.
Ray Johnson mailed her
messages, images, poems, amd terrors
along with an oversized glove;
together in a boat
they road
and road
and road.
Ad Libitum
Karl admits he does not know
what Ad Libitum means
but knows howling
wolf sings songs
for the small people
and the big
people can eat
tomatoes.
