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
