The RetroLounge Daily Poem Thread (Sun 3/12/06)

[RetroLounge]

The Horse Leech's Daughter

The Horse Leech’s Daughter is a closed system. - Samuel Beckett

From a coffin hinge you've made yourself
a wedding ring, and I hear you can't get to sleep these days

without perfuming your bathroom mirror
on the spot where the reflection of your white neck

rises each morning, like an intestine,
as if even your glassed-up jugular could pump

the required lavender heat to send the stable hands
running to you with your daddy's leather

satchel, packed with the good daughter's cure.
Don't you think I saw the pair of coveralls

in your closet, above the fingerprint kit,
below the formaldehyde jar, beside your ether-

soaked rags, the day I left? And here, I am king
of all I survey-a teapot, the ocean down the street,

and one hundred oblong egg-casings spacing
the beach: the water's insectile come-ons, bereft of hope and slime.

This is my first chapter on home forensics,
and this is my new girlfriend, Sea-Bass.

Look at her dress, so rough and slippery.
And look, my time has come, my name on the next superfetatory convulsion

of the earth, on into a fresh, libertine nexus,
a crease in one of god's little footprints,

but there are so many names mouldering
in the bone-yard, without bodies to inhabit.

Like the peg-legged dog of an old crypt-raider
I will fetch you a new name like a bone

from the dirt, when your time comes,
and I will fetch you your slippers and your pipe, when the time comes.

Some days I watch the ocean down the street,
and it's like with a tongue that the water cuts

the sand into ribbed shelves, and it's like with love
that the tongue drools on the taut, brown stomach

of the beach, and it's like the tide that I invent
a thing to love, then cover it with water.

Joshua Bell

********************

http://www.zoopress.org/poetry/bell.html

Josh Bell was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, and received his B.A. from Indiana State University, his M.A. from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, and his M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where he was a Teaching-Writing Fellow and Paul Engle Fellow. He is currently the Diane Middlebrook Fellow at the University of Wisconsin, and in the Fall of 2004 will be a Ph.D candidate at the University of Cincinnati. His poems have appeared in such magazines as Boston Review, The Colorado Review, Fence, Hotel Amerika, Verse, and Volt.

********************

RL

Checkout the Daily Poem Archive at:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph ...

and if you want to see some of my poetry, see the blog at:
http://www.myspace.com/retropaul

[miss_american_pie]

1. I need more coffee for this one

Good morning :hi:

[RetroLounge]

3. Yes, I agree...

But he is well worth it. I bought his debut book yesterday and have been reading it ever since. Amazing stuff, and his words are like music, and you have to read him outloud too. He's coming to Milwaukee to do a reading, and I will have to be there...

Mountain Dew works too.
and two hostess cupcakes.
And a cigarette or two.
At 3:30 in the morning.
In pajamas bottoms and a T-shirt with bare feet.
In a dark apartment on the East Side.

At least that's what I did...

:hi:

RL

[miss_american_pie]

5. I had to stop reading temporarily

I can't read when I'm trying to write. And I never get enough free time to do both, anyway.

I'm sure some shrink would have a field day with that. :hi:

[RetroLounge]

6. What are you writing?

RL

[miss_american_pie]

8. Take your pick

Exercises for a writing group, poetry, short stories, the novel that never gets finished...

(Bit of an attention-span problem)

[RetroLounge]

10. oooh, very cute and a writer too...

you are becoming more and more interesting every day...

Ever post your poetry?

RL

[miss_american_pie]

12. Maybe a haiku

I'd have to check my blog archives.

I'm more self-conscious about the poetry than anything else.

[RetroLounge]

14. Got a link to your blog?

Haiku are fun...

RL

[miss_american_pie]

15. You must really be bored

Check your pm

[RetroLounge]

16. Not bored, just interested...

:hi:

RL

[yvr girl]

2. Morning

The poet isn't all that positive, is he?

[RetroLounge]

4. Neither is life or reality at times..

:hi:

Good Morning...

RL

[yvr girl]

7. Don't tell me such things

I'm drunk with sunshine today. It's one of those perfect days in Vancouver - nothing can go wrong.

[RetroLounge]

9. A poem!

Vancouver Morning

---- for Sandra

I'm drunk with sunshine today.
It's one of those perfect days
in Vancouver - nothing can go wrong.
The birds are on the wire
outside my apartment window
singing to only me. My pillow
has cradled my head all night
like a gentle lover and has
whispered softly to me in my
dreams, the ones before and
after the dreams I have of you,
that tonight will be restful
and the day will be bright
and incandescant and the sun
will smile upon me and hold
me in its luminous arms as I walk
in the park. You should be here
with me, sharing in the solar hug
and holding my hand as we walk
to the beach and watch the soaring
seagulls sing their hungry tunes
and dive onto the soft sand
like arrows from the clouds
feeding, feeding until they are
satisfied, like spent lovers
on a bright Sunday morning.

RL

[yvr girl]

11. Wow. A poem for me. I'm so honoured.

The wire outside my window is currently unoccupied, but you were spot on for the rest. I'm even planning a trip to the beach. It would be much more fun with your company...

[RetroLounge]

13. It was totally improvised off the top of my head

turned out pretty well, I think. Now I need a title...

I think I'll post it on my MySpace site...

RL

[yvr girl]

17. Did my 'drunk with sunshine' remark

inspire you?

If you spent any amount of time in Vancouver (hint, hint) you'd understand the phenomenon. Almost everyone I met yesterday was giddy. It was quite noticeable, because we'd had snow the day before.

[RetroLounge]

18. Not sure, but I was inspired...

:hug:

RL

[wildhorses]

19. these 2 lines are the story of my life:

but there are so many names mouldering
in the bone-yard, without bodies to inhabit.




as if he is killing me softly with his words




seems like with every poem you post there is always a line or two that seem to shout at me and the screaming in my head makes me want to fly far far away where all is peaceful,gentle, and oh so quiet.

[RetroLounge]

22. ...

:hug:

RL

[xchrom]

20. there seems to be a little seamus heaney

in this poet.

this is the first poem i've read of his -- but the rythm -- the ocean imagery, metaphors,
the small images from every day life -- the way he locks them together has that heaney feel.

interesting retro, very interesting.

[RetroLounge]

21. Yes, I can see the comparison

I've been reading more of his book today. Truly inspiring stuff...

:hi:

RL