Nobody in the rain

Joseph Semenovich, “self-pity deserves an elegy”

2026-08-03T19:30:54.174-04:00

A poem by Joseph Semenovich (March 18, 1935 to 1998) from the back cover of Brass City no. 3 (May/June 1996). More by and about Joe appeared at Issa’s Untidy Hut.

self-pity deserves an elegy

let me die
with my eyes wide awake
a friend, even if it be a stranger
to shut them for good
the two pennies in my pocket
put them on my lids
carfare enough
to pay charon, the ferryman
to row me across the styx
tell him, for me, thank you
and be you friend or stranger
or just the wind or the silence
of my apartment: thank you

Bob Kaufman’s Abomunist Manifesto

2026-07-01T13:45:32.361-04:00

A couple of places read, seventy years later, as problematic, but overall the work holds up surprisingly well and remains sadly relevant.

Some links of potential interest:

• The scan of the first City Lights edition

• A PDF of a reset edition (with at least one typo).

• The Academy of American Poets’ page for the opening statement/poem.

• ModPo discussion (Al Filreis with Ken Taylor and Sophia DuRose).

[Leaves landing on]

2024-10-05T20:19:00.000-04:00

by Kato Gyodai

Leaves landing on
leaves in a pile,
rain falling on rain.

__________________________

This translation of a haiku by Kato Gyodai (1732-1792) originally appeared on my old blog MORE: Short Poems on Parade on October 8, 2007.

List: A Personal History in National Elections

2020-08-07T07:50:00.004-04:00

The candidates I voted for in national elections. Those who actually won are in bold.

1992 Democratic Primary (CT): Jerry Brown

1992 Presidential Election: Andre Marrou (Libertarian)

1996 Presidential Election: Ralph Nader (Green)

2000 Democratic Primary (CT): Bill Bradley

2000 Presidential Election: Ralph Nader (Green)

2004 Democratic Primary (CT): Dennis Kucinich

2004 Presidential Election: John Kerry (Democrat)

2008 Democratic Primary (CT): Dennis Kucinich

2008 Presidential Election: Barack Obama (Democrat)

2012 Presidential Election: Barack Obama (Democrat)

2016 Democratic Primary (CT): Bernie Sanders

2016 Presidential Election: Hillary Clinton (Democrat)

2020 Democratic Primary (CT): Bernie Sanders*

2020 Presidential Election: Joe Biden (Democrat)

2024 Presidential Election: Kamala Harris (Democrat)

* Intended to vote for Elizabeth Warren but she was no longer on the ballot. The US primary system is entirely unfair and so frustrating that it has prompted me to resurrect a dead blog to post this list mostly for the purpose of leaving this note to make my feeling known to more or less no one.

UPDATE 2024-11-6, 6:37 a.m.: “America is this correct?”

The Most Mysterious Arrival of a Most Unusual Letter

2012-10-06T21:45:00.001-04:00

after Mark Strand

I woke at 3:37 a.m. with an envelope slipped between my lips. I was in my bed in my apartment alone as I often was. I pulled the envelope from my mouth and got up to look around. No lights were on. The doors were both still locked. All was quiet on Highland Ave. I sat at my desk in the living room, switched on the lamp, and opened the envelope. “Dear Cicada,” it read, “Your receipt.”

The Even More Mysterious Arrival of an Even More Unusual Letter

2012-10-03T07:28:00.000-04:00

after Mark Strand

It was a long drive home, up 6, down 25, through the summer Friday traffic. When I pulled onto Elm Drive I could finally breathe easy. I pushed the black button on the Craftsman opener clipped to my sun visor and the garage door lurched and lifted, but the overhead light didn’t go on as it usually did. Where was my wife’s car? Where was the recyclable bin? I picked up an unaddressed white envelope from the garage floor and pulled the lone sheet of paper out. The words were in crayon, in a child’s hand, but we didn’t have children or friends with children. “Dear Kimosabe” was all it said.

Chris Toll - I’m Nostalgic for the Future

2012-10-02T17:50:00.002-04:00

A melancholy refrigerator
knits a movie theatre.
Fame is blind
and fortune is lame.
The irrefutable irreducible pond
appeals to winter
for a new pair of shopping malls.
The stars kneel down,
the sky leaps mournful,
and the rivers stand up.
A liquor cabinet
meanders toward a wolf pack.

—Chris Toll
from I’ll Be the Invisible Girl Till the Day I Die!

Five poems in BlazeVOX12

2012-09-25T08:03:00.002-04:00

Five poems in the giant new issue of BlazeVOX.

Paul Violi - On Longing

2012-09-21T07:34:00.000-04:00

Where won’t you be
when I’m alone . . .

the leaf-shaped spaces between the leaves

Paul Violi

Malinda Markham - To Understand Flight

2012-09-19T19:14:00.004-04:00

Wet hands work quickly, cartilage shines into light.
No need to repeat what you’ve seen

Of me, but yes I would anchor this house
To the ground if I could. One day,

The grass said to the rain, Do not leave.
Outside this house of memory and bricks, I plucked

A wing to see the mechanics of flight. How could
Anyone have moved with skin

Exposed like that and waiting? Don’t think that the pull
Didn’t hurt or the sound. I feared the sky

Ready to answer in rain. To loosen feathers,
First close the eyes to spare them.

That day, gray light spilled into crevices,
Covered my hands in down. I was warm.

Malinda Markham

Nick Waterhouse - I Can Only Give You Everything

2012-09-11T20:25:00.002-04:00

Nick Waterhouse - I Can Only Give You Everything
from TheOtherHand on Vimeo.

September*

2012-09-09T16:00:00.000-04:00

I will sleep
in my little cup.

*I like to get a head start. Cf. Padgett, Ron.

Guillaume Apollinaire - Hunting Horns

2012-09-09T08:52:00.000-04:00

Our story is noble and tragic
As the mask of a tyrant
No high-risk drama or magic
No unconsidered detail
To render our love pathetic

And Thomas de Quincey drinking
His opium sweet and chaste
Went to his poor Anne dreaming
Let’s go let’s go as everything goes
Often I am returning

Memories are hunting horns
Whose noises die in the wind

___________________________

And in the original:

Cors de chasse

Notre histoire est noble et tragique
Comme le masque d’un tyran
Nul drame hasardeux ou magique
Aucun détail indifférent
Ne rend notre amour pathétique

Et Thomas de Quincey buvant
L’opium poison doux et chaste
A sa pauvre Anne allait rêvant
Passons passons puisque tout passe
Je me retournerai souvent

Les souvenirs sont cors de chasse
Dont meurt le bruit parmi le vent

Trochees To God

2012-09-04T06:30:00.000-04:00

Variation on an old saw I first read in an interview with Jack Gilbert in the journal New Letters circa 1993 in which he was quoting Allen Ginsberg from many years earlier.

Poetry is lies,
painful truths and lies.

Happy truths, too. Mainly
when you close your eyes.

Concupiscent Fire in The Boiler

2012-09-04T06:15:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Sebastian for including Concupiscent Fire in the latest issue of The Boiler.

Rainer Maria Rilke “Autumn Day” / Ted Berrigan “Autumn’s Day”

2012-09-02T14:01:00.000-04:00

• Eight translations of Rilke’s “Autumn Day” including a couple of the more popular ones (Bly and Snow, or maybe the Snow is only popular in my mind because it was fresh at the time I started reading poetry) and the one-time standard (Norton).
• Stephen Mitchell’s translation, the most popular and for the past thirty to forty years the standard.
• Three more translations.
• Other relatively common ones: Flemming’s and MacIntyre’s.
• And ones readily turned up by Google: Felstiner, Foreman, Crego, Kinzie, Wilkins, and the worst, from 1916, Münsterberg

A Google Search for “Ted Berrigan” and “Autumn’s Day” turns up only nine results, yet it’s better than most of the above. The Norton and Mitchell are close. And I have a soft spot for the Snow.

Autumn’s Day

after Rilke

Lord, it is time. Summer was very great.
Now cast your shadow upon sundials.
Let winds remind meadows it is late.

Mellow now the last fruits on the vine.
Allow them only two more southern days.
Hasten them to fulness, and press
The last heavy sweetness through the wine.

Who has no home can not build now.
Who dwells alone must now remain alone;
Will waken, read, write long letters, and
Will wander restlessly when leaves are blowing.
—Ted Berrigan

Hoax

2012-08-30T21:13:00.000-04:00

Pussy Riot
it turns out

was Kent Johnson
all along—

he has Russian
friends you know—

it’s just three of
his twenty-

seven selves now
behind bars.
__________________________________

Rough draft???

Among Other Things

2012-08-29T06:22:00.002-04:00

He “had” a “thing” for “things” in “quotes.”

William Safire - In Event of Moon Disaster

2012-08-28T18:42:00.003-04:00

To: H. R. Haldeman
From: Bill Safire

July 18, 1969.
_________________________________________________

IN EVENT OF MOON DISASTER:

Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.

These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.

These two men are laying down their lives in mankind's most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.

They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by the nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.

In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.

In ancient days, men looked at the stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.

Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man's search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.

For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.
_________________________________________________

PRIOR TO THE PRESIDENT'S STATEMENT:

The President should telephone each of the widows-to-be.

AFTER THE PRESIDENT'S STATEMENT, AT THE POINT WHEN NASA ENDS COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE MEN:

A clergyman should adopt the same procedure as a burial at sea, commending their souls to "the deepest of the deep," concluding with the Lord's Prayer.

The Colbert Report - On Stars Earn Stripes

2012-08-17T08:06:00.002-04:00

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Dear NBC, Your entertainment show "Stars Earn Stripes" treats war as sport. This does us all a disservice. We ask that you air an in-depth segment showing the reality of civilian victims of recent U.S. wars, on any program, any time in the coming months.

Ab-Soul - Nibiru

2012-08-16T19:49:00.001-04:00

Modest Mouse - Whale Song

2012-08-15T08:42:00.003-04:00

"Whale Song" for Modest Mouse from Bent Image Lab on Vimeo.

Dorothea Lasky - I Like Weird Ass Hippies

2012-08-10T17:20:00.000-04:00

I Like Weird Ass Hippies from Dorothea Lasky on Vimeo.

Two in the Truck

2012-08-10T07:20:00.002-04:00

Thanks to Elizabeth Kate Switaj who was the guest editor over at Truck last month and included two works of mine: “It was going on five in the morning” (after André Breton) and Monster Gardens.

And to The New Verse News for posting a short one.

Stevie Smith - From the French

2012-08-06T05:22:00.001-04:00