Paul Violi

Paul Violi Poems

Paul Violi Biography

Paul Randolph Violi (July 20, 1944–April 2, 2011) was an American poet born in Brooklyn, New York. He is the author of eleven books of poetry, including Splurge, Fracas, The Curious Builder, Likewise, and most recently Overnight. Violi was managing editor of The Architectural Forum from 1972–1974, worked on free-lance projects at Universal Limited Art Editions and as chairman of the Associate Council Poetry Committee, he organized a series of readings at the Museum of Modern Art from 1974 to 1983. He also co-founded Swollen Magpie Press, which produced poetry chapbooks, anthologies, and a magazine called New York Times. His art book collaborations with Dale Devereux Barker, most recently Envoy; Life is Completely Interesting, have been acquired by major collections.The expanded text of their first collaboration, Selected Accidents, Pointless Anecdotes, a collection of non-fiction prose, was published by Hanging Loose Press in 2002. Awarded two poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Violi also received The John Ciardi Lifetime Achievement Award in Poetry, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Morton Dauwen Zabel Award, and grants from The Foundation for Contemporary Arts Poetry, The Fund for Poetry, The New York Foundation for the Arts, The Ingram Merrill Foundation, and New York Creative Artists Public Service Fund. Violi died in Cortlandt Manor, New York in 2011 from cancer. At the time of his death, he was teaching in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and in the graduate writing program at the New School University.)

The Best Poem Of Paul Violi

Counterman

What'll it be?
Roast beef on rye, with tomato and mayo.
Whudduhyuh want on it?
A swipe of mayo.
Pepper but no salt.

You got it. Roast beef on rye
. . . You want lettuce on that?
No. Just tomato and mayo.
Tomato and mayo. You got it.
. . . Salt and pepper?
No salt. Just a little pepper.

You got it. No salt.
You want tomato.
Yes. Tomato. No lettuce.
No lettuce. You got it.
. . . No salt, right?

Right. No salt.
You got it. — Pickle?
No, no pickle. Just tomato and mayo.
And pepper.
Pepper.

Yes, a little pepper.
Right. A little pepper.
No pickle.
Right. No pickle.
You got it.
Next.

Roast beef on whole wheat, please,
With lettuce, mayonnaise and a center slice
Of beefsteak tomato.
The lettuce splayed, if you will,
In a Beaux Arts derivative of classical acanthus,
And the roast beef, thinly sliced, folded
In a multi-foil arrangement
That eschews Bragdonian pretensions
Or any idea of divine geometric projection
For that matter, but simply provides
A setting for the tomato
To form a medallion with a dab
Of mayonnaise as a fleuron.
And — as eclectic as this may sound —
If the mayonnaise can also be applied
Along the crust in a Vitruvian scroll
And as a festoon below the medallion,
That would be swell.
You mean like in the Cathedral St. Pierre in Geneva?

Yes, but the swag more like the one below the rosette
At the Royal Palace in Amsterdam.
You got it.
Next.

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