17 Passages

17 Passages for 17 Poets

 

Language as form

flips flounders flaps

 

the fire is time  )1

 

God’s death

was not suicide.

 

It was the result

of a moral position

incompatible with life. (2

 

Deception:

a kerosene lamp

in the heart of darkness. )3

 

Your lips

purple the world. (4

 

Language

                burns

                blasts

                burnishes.

 

Music

                blooms. ) 5

 

When she extends

an invitation,

read her hips. (6

 

Colorblind candy,

you so dandy.

 

You so randy,

you so raunchy,

you can’t amos

or do the andy. )7

 

Refuse to hope

unless uncertainty

invents a virus

to murder hate. (8

 

                                                                                                17 Passages for 17 Poets, page 2.

 

 

Darkness of darkness

So logical it shines

 

Water enters before a man enters water,

Rides an ark of bones in a space which never heard of time  )9

 

Native son

did the right thing

In Fort Greene Park

by the soul of a prison ship

martyrs monument.

 

He wrote the book.(10

 

After hanging,

Through razoring rain,

Searing sun,

Whipping wind,

Scouring snow

                You shall be

                Lean, beautifully angeled,

                Superbly fit

                To wear designer clothes. ) 11

 

Your voice

Made the air

Bleed. (12

 

Shakespeare,

Paragon of plagiarists,

When imagination fails,

Old felon, fly down

From heavenly hell,

Bringing a mercy

Of rain dry as dust,

A cold awakening

For a brain’s slumber.  (13

 

 

A crane posed on the lawn for a photograph.

A lion growled at the door for milk.

I shall be surprised to not be at home. )14

 

 

 

17 Passages for 17 Poets, page 3

 

 

I need a sign

That you were there

The morning I walked

Out of your life

Into your soul. )15

 

 

 

 

You know what it means to be New Orleans/ when the trumpet takes a bath in Afro-Sheen (16

 

 

Then you pick up your life

After celebrating, barely recollecting

Where you left it, stuff it in

Whatever garments  come to hand, and violently

Hit the streets.  It’s your resurrection after all. )17