Wallace Stevens (1879-1955)

Anecdote Of The Jar

I placed a jar in Tennessee,
And round it was, upon a hill.
It made the slovenly wilderness
Surround that hill.

The wilderness rose up to it,
And sprawled around, no longer wild.
The jar was round upon the ground
And tall and of a port in air.

It took dominion everywhere.
The jar was gray and bare.
It did not give of bird or bush,
Like nothing else in Tennessee.

 

Wallace Stevens :

Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)

Jabberwocky

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

'Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!'

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood a while in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One two! One two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

'And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
Oh frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Lewis Carroll :

William S. Burroughs (1914-1997)

Cold Lost Marbles

A Poem by William S. Burroughs

my ice skates on a wall
lustre of stumps washes his lavander horizon
he’s got a handsome face of a lousy kid
rooming-houses dirty fingers
whistled in the shadow
“Wait for me at the detour.”
river… snow… some one vague faded in a mirror
filigree of trade winds
clouds white as lace circling the pepper trees
the film is finished
memory died when their photos weather-worn points of
polluted water under the trees in the mist shadow of
boys by the daybreak in the peony fields cold lost
marbles in the room carnations three ampoules of
morphine little blue-eyes-twilight grins between his
legs yellow fingers blue stars erect boys of sleep
have frozen dreams for I am a teenager pass it on
flesh and bones withheld too long yes sir oui oui
Crapps’ last map… lake… a canoe… rose tornado in
the harvest brass echo tropical jeers from Panama
City night fences dead fingers you are in your own body
around and maybe a boy skin spreads to something
else on Long Island the dogs are quiet.

William Burroughs (1914-1997)

Dead Whistle Stop Already End

Tags: Cut-Up, Texts by Burroughs, William Burroughs

A Poem by William S. Burroughs

    Ahab to his companion      falling over there in any         out from the dawn
      skin              staring          stirring unbelief                               he strode towards a long
drink and looked into the            the actors ourselves become
      muzzle of Spain and 42 St.                    old banner illustrating
I was standing by the wax           before                       dead whistle stop already
cross the red moon                       terminal time scarred                     end.
        scanning patterns           on my face                 me in your back, pal”
dawn words falling      will say it all         consists in irradiating
this dead whistle stop                 in the language before creation
         he strode towards           the actors in the      city                 “Here he is now”
       obsidian morning      sniffing quivering need              masturbating afternoons
spitting blood               dead rainbow flesh          he moved as sharp as
    on the iron streets            fish smell and    dead eyes         water reeds
    scarred metal faces                  running into the mines             liquid typewriter
flickered on field            where flesh circulates                 red fish talk falling
     he strode towards             pant smell                language like muttering
     Spain and 42 st.              running in the gutter             where is he now?
  the actors dead             dawn word falling                  he was caught in the zoo
         whistle stop already              scanning patterns              jissom webs drifting
  slow ferris wheel      running rainbow flesh             over the White Subway 

 

. William S. Burroughs

Dorothy Parker (1843-1967)

On Cheating The Fiddler

"Then we will have tonight!" we said.
"Tomorrow- may we not be dead?"
The morrow touched our eyes, and found
Us walking firm above the ground,
Our pulses quick, our blood alight.
Tomorrow's gone- we'll have tonight!

 

Dorothy Parker :

Gary Snyder (b.1930)

For a Stone Girl at Sanchi
half asleep on the cold grass
       night rain flicking the maples
under a black bowl upside-down
on a flat land
       on a wobbling speck
smaller than stars,
                space,
the size of a seed,
       hollow as bird skulls.
light flies across it
              –never is seen.

a big rock weathered funny,
old tree trunks turned stone,
       split rocks and find clams.
                all that time
loving;
two flesh persons changing,
       clung to, doorframes
       notions, spear-hafts
in a rubble of years.
                touching,
this dream pops. it was real:
       and it lasted forever.


                         Gary Snyder

Pablo Neruda (1904-1973)

The Old Women Of The Ocean

To the solemn sea the old women come
With their shawls knotted around their necks
With their fragile feet cracking.

They sit down alone on the shore
Without moving their eyes or their hands
Without changing the clouds or the silence.

The obscene sea breaks and claws
Rushes downhill trumpeting
Shakes its bull's beard.

The gentle old ladies seated
As if in a transparent boat
They look at the terrorist waves.

Where will they go and where have they been?
They come from every corner
They come from our own lives.

Now they have the ocean
The cold and burning emptiness
The solitude full of flames.

They come from all the pasts
From houses which were fragrant
From burnt-up evenings.

They look, or don't look, at the sea
With their walking sticks they draw signs in the sand
And the sea erases their calligraphy.

The old women get up and go away
With their fragile bird feet
While the waves flood in
Traveling naked in the wind.

 

Pablo Neruda :