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Poetry State Forest, by Bernadette Mayer |
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“One of the most interesting, exciting, and open of late-20th century experimental poets.” Called “a consummate poet” by Robert Creeley, Bernadette Mayer was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1945. A most prolific poet, her first book was published at the age of twenty-three. Many texts later she continues to write progressive poetry from her home in East Nassau, New York. For many years Mayer lived and worked on the Lower East Side of Manhattan where she was the Director of St. Mark’s Poetry Project from 1980-1984. Bernadette Mayer has received grants and awards from PEN American Center, The Foundation for Contemporary Performance Art, the NEA, The Academy of American Poets, and The American Academy of Arts and Letters. “The richness of life & time as they happen to us in tiny explosions all the time are grasped and held up for us to view in [her] magnificent work.” —John Ashbery “Mayer's work is marked with Dorothy Parker's bite and bawdiness and Gertrude Stein's inventive discourse.” —The Antioch Review “All her work is full of brilliant observations, humorous and sometimes astounding conclusions, and amazing juxtapositions inspired by linguistic associations, patterns of movement, chance, mathematics, whim, and imagination.” Download "The Real Finch Sock Sonnet" from Poetry State Forest. |
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EXCERPT: "Solstice Anthem Against Fear," from Poetry State Forest If nothing happened A big ugly man with flowers on a skateboard Yet I do want your company Do you speak Bardo? This untaught being into another way of seeing That could be spent making love which is all I write on the line I tremble Your hovering over me your Inexact laying of the clothing in heaps on the
pain, you father Why do you ever request me to be on time Amounts
paid under this agreement will he reported to the Internal Revenue Service Say who you are, your name Artists Call against U.S. Intervention in Central
America They took out the roots of his beard & he
became a car My other is not here, it?s my fault Could you lend me. . . . maybe you could be
the one . . . We have to leave and enter the building, we
are forced to, this is not a prison Make sense-lacing, they were listening having
hearts Hills that were shoved bare, clearcutting the
Atlantic coast pine forests
Three times like eggs the Ode to Joy was
played I dislike the primary tradition of paradise We had made a deal when we were young to do
this adventuring I?d like to know about politics and also mourning Could you please send United Artists, I want
to see Ted?s recent work. Dear Parent, I am inviting the girls in the
class to my home for a cookie party I?ll wander the streets on my nights not here,
I have no conscience for my books Such impression of the straws of your leaves
& by your leave again I will not leave you yet not Little solstice be stripped of your clothing He, not you, but reading her, pretends to know
what love is, what?s words? If something happens to you, you were present
like a foostep, Mr. Dash Hand, late, in sonnet or utopia gives way, she
asks to steal money today To calm the limbs while love or eating smile
at fear or silence I write without lines I tremble like a circle The consultant named herein is an independent
contractor Sweet world of voice, no book and no logic Your name is Vincent Price, Stonehenge or
Artists Call, Darwish Mary I dream you have hotdog stands in your
apartment Another angel bends to touch your breast and
his mouth We all do that like the plum of Williams?
we?ve learned from Now who is openinq or closing the door? Do you speak Bardo? There might be tap water, I am being only No one has eaten enough of the tiring salads
of the breeze you wait for in this heat wave There is no nothing like in Brooklyn Could you lend me some money . . . your
apartment? You eat the food for me, I watch Make sense-lacking, hands held up to say wait
or no Hills that were stripped for newspapers, hard
criminals to assassinate The levelled flowers of your skirt, of your
sheet move quickly Slowly we?re exhausted by your hands held up
as if to say wait To leave, I doubt I am allowed a new tree or
blank of leaves, a quashed divided window ?The sun and I are on the level, Artists Call
against U.S. Intervention in Central America Why did you leave me so much like hiding by
being the tall boat or something By the end of the comparative alphabets come
the deaths to double you not again I will walk each girl home to her own house what insanity, port of saints, to fall or lie
down, never to sleep To stand, the state, the stanza, the room,
prostitute Description of consultant services rendered:
poetry reading A sun, a cool day, a new tree or blank of
leaves, Tom is busy trying Say who you are, your name in your voice Reliance, lilac, a surface, accidental war,
Marie The sound of the door dreams quietly like the
jazz mistress Do you speak Bardo? her mouth will be on yours therefore of sun in
the art of night Slowly we?re exhausted by your hands held up
as if to say wait or no! Yet I do want your company, you?re busy and in
the dream, of a person for another person, of course there?s food, there?s a
restaurant As a woman you are wrong or you are scared
sacred, you can say things Were you expected to kill the animals? There is no nothing like in Brooklyn Could you lend me torture . . . or your place?
with man, with woman? To have the violent you must be rich enough
for doors & help is unnatural to attention The times are changed as over they are anger,
you wake listening This non-royal fear is ancestral, a primary
tradition like paradise, poetry, a companion, cupbearer or guard I watch a brave man shave, he?s alone in the
dark Such impression of the straws of your leaves
& I will yet not leave you, stay with me, my home & speak In despair we are as prosperous as the state Leave & leave the harmed part alone like
fasting to calm the limbs like love the fear, to eat
to cure the silence, a stand, a stanza, how many are sleeping? Do you speak Bardo? Solstice be stripped of your clothing, another
angel bends to touch his mouth And you may sleep therefore of darkness in the
art of day Slowly we?re exhausted by beauty, hands held
up as if to say no Yet I do want your company If you have an appointment, let it fall
loosely this time like your clothes and your hair without any fear Without any fear Without any fear
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by New Directions Publishing Corp. |
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