Self-naming and the third line of Notley’s “Poem”

St. Mark’s Place caught at night in hot summer,
Lonely from the beginning of time until now.
Tompkins Square Park would be midnight green but only hot.
I look through the screens from my 3rd floor apartment
As if I could see something.
Or as if the bricks and concrete were enough themselves
To be seen and found beautiful.
And who will know the desolation of St. Mark’s Place
With Alice Notley’s name forgotten and
This night never having been?

*

Poets.org

*

Not as distant as Guadalajara nor as threatening as Vesuvius. Not noisy like the former nor certain like the latter.

As urgent as? As focused as? 

The Ghazal-type signature pines, and I return a moment to Corman. Differences truly between Corman and Notley, but I can’t place these as surely as I can a distinction between two of my children forced to a morning goodbye.

On “jobs” in an Eigner poem

Headlights
                      in the  sky

                tail spot
                         on a cloud

                   there are
                           invisible beams

     somebodies'  jobs

                steady   wherever

*

Al Filreis shared this with his ModPo students. The caption read “Larry Eigner wrote this poem in late April 1972 in Swampscott, Mass.”

*

No need of the sources to partake of the wonder. As in the myth of Lamed Wufniks, maybe apprehension of a whole endangers its multiplicity. What if the poem is neither “we only have this much”? Where getting (or even getting to) any more (from “somebodies” “wherever”) dims everything.

LIKAS—TIKIS

Edipo

Garden remedies for father-in-law’s swollen foot:

     a) kataka-taka leaves with hot compress

     b) ginger ale

Orions

Kesa saluhin ang bitaw ni H.D. (“I know no light in the woods”) at sa halip na rebyuhin ang munting aklat ni Cledera. May bigat kasi ang kaliitan na sana na-gets. Na kailangan ng isa pa—at kalahati pa yata—para tapatan ang ruler. Bakit kasi hindi kalas-kalasin at ibudbod sa ibabaw ng ano mang nanghihingi ng sukat? Sabay tagos ng iyong titig. Hindi ka ba nasisiyaha’t nakatatagos ang titig? Wala pa tayo nito sa tinitingnan at pinagtatagusan. At wala man ding nakikipagtitigan. Ni wala pa sa mga ito, mga nagbabalat-sibuyas. Aba’y, wala ka pala.

B— and K—

—

Good morning! Thank you for inviting me. This will be my fourth run, if ever, and I’m looking forward to the task. May I ask a few questions? Around how many people will attend my stretch? Are they expected to write during the hour and a half? O may naisulat na sila?

What sort of set-up will we get? Classroom? The stairs? Anong kagamitan kaya ang meron?

Also, yes, a copy of the concept paper and program please. Medyo matanong ako pagdating sa mga ganito, sana okay lang.

—

Got it, thanks! Will message you if I need anything. Have a pleasant weekend.

—

Oh. That’s kind of... While I’m sure you did everything you could, it’s just that, there are all sorts of samples I prepared for the... We know this is moot, so let me just wish you well.

Salamat sa update. Good luck!

—

Rakh

Dim as the 5 sky from this day on. Blue as slate archangels on stretches of sofa, or the pin cushion. All we false ever took from pain’s we’re right. Okay with roulette, you say, closing your eyes and pointing to your good ear: so long as we hear some spin. Aaaction. Faces halved by jalousie panes—that look—beside the door clicking shut. A lukewarm figure forming on the drapery until the spot of two lights, then the creases evaporate, some to memory, some to meaning. Not one of you gets to come home to both. Mass is collecting. Repeating yourself as if to lose count.