We were supposed to do a job in Italy
and, full of our feeling for
ourselves (our sense of being
Poets from America) we went
...
He came at night to each of us asleep
And trained us in the virtues we most lacked.
Me he admonished to return his stare
Correctly, without fear.Unless I could,
...
The literate are ill-prepared for this
snap in the line of life:
the day turns a trick
of twisted tongues and is
...
There, a little right
of Ursus Major, is
the Milky Way:
a man can point it out,
...
Too volatile, am I?too voluble?too much a word-person?
I blame the soup:I'm a primordially
stirred person.
...
The gh comes from rough, the o from women's,
and the ti from unmentionables--presto:
there's the perfect English instance of
unlovablility--complete
...
A brilliance takes up residence in flaws—
a brilliance all the unchipped faces of design
refuse. The wine collects its starlets
at a lip's fault, sunlight where the nicked
...
When Americans say a man
takes liberties, they mean
he's gone too far. In Philadelphia today I saw
a kid on a leash look mom-ward
and announce his fondest wish: one
bicentennial burger, hold
the relish. Hold is forget,
in American.
On the courts of Philadelphia
the rich prepare
to serve, to fault. The language is a game as well,
in which love can mean nothing,
doubletalk mean lie. I'm saying
doubletalk with me. I'm saying
go so far the customs are untold.
Make nothing without words,
and let me be
the one you never hold.
...
Everything obeyed our laws and
we just went on self-improving
till a window gave us pause and
there the outside world was, moving.
...