P 0 S T M 9 D S SHI I mm Jr% P O E T R Y A N O R T O N A N T H O L O G Y

Second Edition

E D I T E D B Y

PAUL HOOVER San Francisco State University

w. W . N O R T O N & C O M P A N Y N e w Y o r k • L o n d o n

Contents

Preface xxvii Introduction xxix

Charles Olson (1910-1970) In Cold Hell, in Thicket 4 I, Maximus of Gloucester, to You 9 Letter 3 13 Maxiumus, to himself 16

John Cage(1912-1992) 25 Mesostics Re and Not Re Mark Tobey 18 Writing through the Cantos 22

Robert Duncan (1919-1988) Often I Am Permitted to Return to a Meadow Poetry, a Natural Thing 30 Bending the Bow 31 The Torso Passages 18 Songs of an Other 35 Close 36

Lawrence Ferlinghetti (b. 1919) [In Goya's greatest scenes we seem to see] 39 [In Golden Gate Park that day] 40 [Constantly risking absurdity] 41 A Dark Portrait 42

Barbara Guest (1920-2006) Red Lilies 44

v i • C o n t e n t s

River Road Studio 44 Prairie Houses 45 Wild Gardens Overlooked by Night Lights 46 An Emphasis Falls on Reality 48 Valorous Vine 49 Freed Color 50

Jackson Mac Low (1922-2004) 52 FROM The Pronouns 5 3

1st Dance—Making Things New—6 February 1964 53 6th Dance—Doing Things with Pencils—17-18 February 1964 53

Trope Market 54 59th Light Poem: for La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela—

6 November 1982 55 Antic Quatrains 56 Twenties 26 57 Twenties 27 58

Philip Whalen (1923-2002) 60 Sourdough Mountain Lookout 61 The Chariot 66

Denise Levertov (1923-1997) 67 Overland to the Islands 68 Illustrious Ancestors 68 The Ache of Marriage 69 The Wings 69 Stepping Westward 70 Williams: An Essay 72 Where Is the Angel? 7 3

James Schuyler (1923-1991) A Man in Blue 76 The Crystal Lithium 7 7 Letter to a Friend: Who Is Nancy Daum? 81 Korean Mums 86

75

Kenneth Koch(1925-2002) To You 89

88

Variations on a Theme by William Carlos Williams 89 Alive for an Instant 90

Aesthetics of a Small Theatre 91 Aesthetics of Creating Something 91 Aesthetics of Lorca 91 Aesthetics of Feeling Fine 91 Aesthetics of Being a Mouse 92 Aesthetics of Poetry and Prose 92 Aesthetics of Comedy Asleep 92 Aesthetics of Silence 92 Aesthetics of the Aesthetician 92

Jack Spicer (1925-1965) Song for Bird and Myself 94 FROM The Holy Grail 9 7

The Book of Gawain 9 7 The Book of Percival 100

Frank O'Hara (1926-1966) Poem (The eager note on my door . Meditations in an Emergency 104 Ode to Joy 106 The Day Lady Died 107 Personal Poem 108 A Step away from Them 109 Ave Maria 110 Steps 111 Poem (Lana Turner has collapsed!) Why I Am Not a Painter 113

Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) FROM Howl (Part I) 116 A Supermarket in California 121 To Aunt Rose 122 First Party at Ken Keseys with Hell's Angels 123 On Neal's Ashes 124

Robert Creeley (1926-2005) After Lorca 126 A Form of Women 126 The Rain 127 For Love 128 The Language 130

. .) 104

113

v i i i • C o n t e n t s

The Window 131 The World 132 Self-Portrait 133 Bressons Movies 134 When I think 135

Paul Blackburn (1926-1971) Brooklyn Narcissus 137 El Camino Verde 139 Park Poem 140

John Ashbery(b. 1927) The Picture of Little J. A. in a Prospect of Flowers 143 "How Much Longer Will I Be Able to Inhabit

the Divine Sepulcher ..." 145 FROM The Skaters 147 Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape 154 The One Thing That Can Save America 156 The Other Tradition 157 Paradoxes and Oxymorons 158 Life Is a Dream 159 Involuntary Description 159 Feverfew 160 Opposition to a Memorial 161 Litanies 162 The Ecstasy 163

Larry Eigner (1927-1996) [trees green the quiet sun] 165 W h o l e s 1 6 5 [a temporary language] 166 [the sun solid] 167 [Out of the wind and leaves] 167 June 19-September 9 90 168

Kenward Elmslie (b. 1929) Shirley Temple Surrounded by Lions 169 Feathered Dancers 170 Japanese City 172

Ed Dorn (1929-1999) The Rick of Green Wood 174

C o n t e n t s • i x

Geranium 175 From Gloucester Out 176 On the Debt My Mother Owed to Sears Roebuck 181

Gregory Corso (1930-2001) 183 Italian Extravaganza 184 The Mad Yak 184 Last Night I Drove a Car 184 Dream of a Baseball Star 185 I Held a Shelley Manuscript 186 Marriage 186

Gary Snyder (b. 1930) 190 Hay for the Horses 191 Riprap 191 The Bath 192 Avocado 195 As for Poets 195 Axe Handles 196 Right in the Trail 197 No Shadow 199

Keith Waldrop (b. 1932) 200 A Shipwreck in Haven (I) 201 Plurality of Worlds 205 Competing Depth 207

Michael McClure (b. 1932) 209 Gray Fox at Solstice 209 Mexico Seen from the Moving Car 210 The Butterfly 211 The Cheetah 212 Thoreau's Eyes 213

Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) (b. 1934) 214 Duncan Spoke of a Process 215 Political Poem 217 The New World 217 Leadbelly Gives an Autograph 218 Ka'Ba 220 Leroy 221

X • C o n t e n t s

The Rare Birds 221 J. said, "Our whole universe is generated by a rhythm" 222

Ted Berrigan (1934-1983) 224 FROM The Sonnets 225

II (Dear Margie, hello. It is 5:15 a.m.) 225 XV.(In Joe Brainard's collage its white arrow) 225 XXXVI (Its 8:54 in Brooklyn it's the 28th of July and) 225 LXXXVIII (How strange to be gone in a minute!) 226

Words for Love 227 Bean Spasms 228 A Certain Slant of Sunlight 23A My Autobiography 2 3 A In Your Fuclang Utopias 235

Diane di Prima (b. 1934) 236 The Practice of Magical Evocation 237 On Sitting Down to Write, I Decide Instead to Go to

Fred Herko's Concert 237 For H.D. 239 Backyard 241 The Loba Addresses the Goddess / or The Poet as Priestess Addresses the

Loba-Goddess 242

Clayton Eshleman (b. 1935) 243 The Lich Gate 244 Iraqi Morgue 245 In Memory of George Butterick 246 Combarelles 247 Eternity at Domme 248

Ronald Johnson (1935-1998) 249 FROM Ark: The Foundations 250

Beam 6, The Musics 250 Beam 8 251 Beam 33 251

FROM RADI OS 252

GustafSobin (1935-2005) What the Music Wants 258 Eleven Rock Poems 259

257

C o n t e n t s • x i

Genesis 261 Under the Bright Orchards 262

Rosmarie Waldrop (b. 1935) 264 FROM Pre & Con or Positions and Junctions 1-5 265 Conversation 1: On the Horizontal 268 Conversation 2: On the Vertical 269 Conversation 3: On Vertigo 270 Object Relations 271 We Will Always Ask, What Happened? 271

Kathleen Fraser (b. 1937) 273 re : searches (fragments, after Anakreon, for Emily Dickinson) 274 your back to me inside the black suit 277 notebook 5: "in spite of gradual deficits" 278

Susan Howe (b. 1937) 280 FROM Taking the Forest 281 FROM Bedhangings: To the Compiler of Memories 286

Caroline Knox (b. 1938) 291 Freudian Shoes 291 Movement Along the Frieze 292 Sleepers Wake 293 Famous Bigshots 294 Quaker Guns 295 Dreyken 296 Bathrobes 296

Bill Berkson (b. 1939) 297 Merit 297 Goods and Services 298 In Costume 298 After the Medusa 299 Song for Connie 299

Clark Coolidge (b. 1939) 301 Brill 302 Styro 303 On Induction of the Hand 303 Noon Point 304 FROM This Time We Are Both 305

x i i • C o n t e n t s

Ed Roberson (b. 1939) 308 Sit in What City We're In 309 Urban Nature 312 Open / Back Up (breadth of field) 313 Monk's Bird Book 313 A Sampler 314 Psalm 315 The Counsel of Birds 316

Fanny Howe (b. 1940) 317 FROM Veteran (I don't believe in ashes; some of the others do.) 318 FROM The Quietist 319

[Mad God, mad thought] 319 [Two waters—squared] 319 [My bedclothes were stuffed with ashes] 320

FROM O'clock 320 [Go on out but come back in] 320 [Hive-sized creams are on the chestnut tree] 321 [I feel like the end / of a long day] 321 [Wild garlic flowers] 322 [He was a cold-hearted Saxon] 322

FROM Forty Days 322 18 [Because my secret wedding] 322 23 [Hey, afraid] 323

Lyn Hejinian (b. 1941) 324 FROM Writing Is an Aid to Memory (I) 325 FROM My Life 325

[A pause, a rose, something on paper] 325 [As for we who "love to be astonished"] 327 [Like plump birds along the shore] 328

FROM Slowly 329 FROM The Beginner 332

Joan Retallack (b. 1941) 336 Curiosity and the Claim to Happiness 337

Present Tense 337 Present Tense: Choice 340 Present Tense: Still 341

Ron Padgett (b. 1942) Wonderful Things 343

343

C o n t e n t s • x i i i

Nothing in That Drawer 345 Falling in Love in Spain or Mexico 345 Who and Each 346 Irish Song by an English Man 347 I'll Get Back to You 348

Ann Lauterbach (b. 1942) 349 Platonic Subject 350 Clamor 350 New Brooms 351 Instruction 353 Constellation in Chalk 354

Michael Palmer (b. 1943) 356 Notes for Echo Lake (3) 357 The Project of Linear Inquiry 359 Voice and Address 361 I Do Not 362 Autobiography 2 (hellogoodby) 364 Of 366 The Phantom of Liberty 367

Leslie Scalapino (1944-2010) 369 FROM Zither 370

Marjorie Welish (b. 1944) 380 Respected, Feared, and Somehow Loved 380 Within This Book, Called Marguerite 381 Twenty-three Modern Stories 382 The World Map 383 Possible Fires 383

Norma Cole (b. 1945) 385 At the Port 385 In Memory of My Future 386 Remaining in Light 386 The Laws 387 The Stationmaster 388

Bernadette Mayer (b. 1945) 389 FROM Midwinter Day 390 On Sleep 394

x i v • C o n t e n t s

Alice Notley(b. 1945) 398 Poem (You hear that heroic big land music?) 399 Jack Would Speak through the Imperfect Medium of Alice 399 A California Girlhood 401 FROM Beginning with a Stain 403 April Not an Inventory but a Blizzard 404 I Must Have Called and So He Comes 405

Anne Waldman (b. 1945) 407 Makeup on Empty Space 408 FROM The Asian Notebook 411

Admonitions of the Boudoir 411 In the Room of Never Grieve 412 One Inch of Love Is an Inch of Ashes 413

Wanda Coleman (b. 1946) 414 the ISM 414 Brute Strength 415 E s s ay on Language 416

Close 430 Empty 431 Yonder 432 Later 433 Prayers 434 Autobiography: Urn Burial 435

Mei-mei Berssenbrugge (b. 1947) 437 Alakanak Break-Up 438 Texas 443 Concordance 443

Nathaniel Mackey (b. 1947) 446 Andoumboulouous Brush ("mu" fifteenth part) 447 Spectral Escort ("mu" seventeenth part) 452

Ron Silliman (b. 1946) FROM The Chinese Notebook 420 FROM Tjanting 422 FROM Paradise (A SENTENCE in the evening) 426 (G)hosts final passage 427

419

Rae Armantrout (b. 1947) 429

C o n t e n t s • X V

Steve McCaffery (b. 1947) 455 Apologia Pro Vita Sua 456 Suggestion but No Insult 457 The Dangers of Poetiy 457 The Poem as a Thing to See 458 Correlata for a Cryptogram 459 Digital Poetics 459

Bob Perelman (b. 1947] 461 Chronic Meanings 462 Confession 465 Current Poetics 467 The Remote 468

Bin Ramke (b. 1947) 469 The Ruined World 470

Aaron Shurin (b. 1947) 478 FROM Involuntary Lyrics 479

VIII (I come to cafe, I sit, I bear) 479 XVIII (Those guys with Christmas tree untrimmed) 479 XXXVII (It's a country road forty years ago) 480 LXVI (Disabled / by seeing them touch) 480 CII (if you would come for days) 481 CXLI (Claudio, Steffano, Salo, Jesus) 481 CXLII (friends walk; bones begin to creak) 482

Will Alexander (b. 1948) 483 A Nexus of Phantoms 484 Thought as Philosophical Torment 485 FROM The Sri Lankan Loxodrome 486

Bruce Andrews (b. 1948) 489 Earth 5 489 Earth 6 491 Earth 9 492 Somehow That's Just the Way It Is and I Just Don't Really Care 493 Devo Habit 494 FROM Factura (ca ja a th an ne sh th wa pe) 495

Stephen Ratdiffe (b. 1948) FROM REAL: 10.31 to 11.5 497

496

X v i • C o n t e n t s

Eileen Myles (b. 1949) 503 December 9th 504 The Sadness of Leaving 504 Bleeding Hearts 507 Immanence 508 Each Defeat 509 The Frames 510

C. D. Wright (b. 1949) 512 FROM One Big Self 513

Charles Bernstein (b. 1950) 517 The Klupzy Girl 518 Dysraphism 521 Whose Language 525 Virtual Reality 526 A Defence of Poetry 528 This Line 530 Castor Oil 531

Cecil S. Giscombe (b. 1950) 532 All (Facts, Stories, Chance): 1-3 533 Far 538 Day Song 539 Prairie Style 539

John Yau (b. 1950) 540 Unpromising Poem 541 Screen Name 541 Ing Grish 543

Maxine Chernoff (b. 1952) 546 What It Contains 547 Scenes from Ordinary Life 549 The Commons 552

Carla Harryman (b. 1952) 555 Noise for Adorno 556 Transparent 557 Orgasms 557

Laura Moriarty (b. 1952) FROM Spectrum's Rhetoric 562

561

C o n t e n t s • x v i i

Elaine Equi (b. 1953) 568 A Date with Robbe-Grillet 568 Asking for a Raise 569 A Quiet Poem 570 Locket without a Face 571 The Collected 573

Harryette Mullen (b. 1953) 575 FROM Muse {? Drudge 576 Denigration 580 Dim Lady 580 Elliptical 581 Variation on a Theme Park 581 Xenophobic Nightmare in a Foreign Language 581

Donald Revell (b. 1954) 583 The Secessions on Loan 584 Why and Why Now 585 Ridiculous Winter Flower 586 New Colors 587 Deluge 588

Gillian Conoley (b. 1955) 589 Native 590 This Land Is My Land 592 [My name is the girl with one glass eye said bitterly] 594

Andrew Joron (b. 1955) 597 First Drift 598 Le Nombre des Ombres 598 Dolphy at Delphi 599 Skymap under Skin 600 The Person 601 Illocutionary Reels 601

Cole Swensen (b. 1955) 603 Trine (Cove, Dove, Woven) 604 The Girl Who Never Rained 606 Five Landscapes 607 A Garden as Between 608 If a Garden of Numbers 609 Labyrinths and Mazes 610

x v i i i • C o n t e n t s

Susan Wheeler (b. 1955) 611

The Belle 612 Bankruptcy & Exile 612 The Privilege ofFeet 613 He or She That's Got the Limb, That Holds Me Out on It 613 Possessive Case 614 Anthem 615

Forrest Gander (b. 1956) 616 To Eurydice 617 To Virginia 619 FROM Late Summer Entry: The Landscapes of Sally Mann 620

River and Trees 620 Ghost Sonata 620 Ivy Brick Wall 621 Late Summer Entry 621

Rusty Morrison (b. 1956) 623 please advise stop (I was dragging a ladder) 623 please advise stop (only gray rocks with drifting) 624 please advise stop (basin of hills polished) 624 please advise stop (the chainlink fence holds) 625 please advise stop (like water-spiders on a pond) 625 please advise stop (any object inclines away) 625

Myung Mi Kim [b. 1957) 626 Into Such Assembly 627 FROM Penury 629

Wang Ping (b. 1957) 634 Syntax 634 Of Flesh & Spirit 635 Female Marriage 636

Tan Lin (b. 1957) 641 FROM "A Dictionary of Systems Theory" 642

Preface (1978) 642 Second Preface (1986) 643 Third Preface (1998) 645 Fourth Preface 2000 646 Fourth Preface Revised 2000 647 Pur 648

C o n t e n t s • x i x

Laura Mullen (b. 1958] 649 Autumn 650 After I Was Dead 651 In the Space between Words Begin 652 I Wandered Networks like a Cloud 653 Code 654 The White Box of Mirror Dissolved Is Not Singular 655

Robert Fitterman (b. 1959) 656 FROM A Hemingway Reader: The Sun Also Also Rises, Book I 656 LIT 659

Peter Gizzi (b. 1959) 665 Creeley Madrigal 666 Revival 667 In Defense of Nothing 671 A Panic That Can Still Come upon Me 671 , Hypostasis & New Year 673 Basement Song 675

Claudia Keelan (b. 1959] 676 Something to Keep 677 Spring 678 Critical Essay 678 Sun Going Down 679 Pity Boat 681

Joseph Lease (b. 1960) 683 "Broken World" (For James Assatly) 684 Send My Roots Rain 687

Mark McMorris (b. 1960) 690 (a poem) (When the combat finally stops, then I will come to you) 691 FROM Letters to Michael 692

Dear Michael (2) 692 Dear Michael (8) 692 Dear Michael (12) 693

Inescapable Country 694

Sharon Mesmer (b. 1960) 696 I Wanna Make Love to You on Mission Accomplished Day 696 I Don't Wanna Lose Yer Wholesome Lovefest Forever 697

X X • C o n t e n t s

I Never Knew an Orgy Could Be So Much Work 697 When the Platypus Kicks Back 698

Kenneth Goldsmith (b. 1961) 700 FROM Day 701 FROM Seven American Deaths and Disasters 705

Part 4: (Death of John Lennon reported on Monday Night Football) 705

Elizabeth Robinson (b. 1961) 707 Apollo 708 Experience 708 Doorway 709 Stained Syllogism 710 Mary and No Savior 711 Having Words 712 A Stitch in the Side 713

Elizabeth Willis (b. 1961) 714 Autographeme 715 A Woman's Face 716 Clash by Night 717 A Species Is an Idea (2) 717 The Witch 718

Stacy Doris (1962-2012) 721 Synopsis of KILDARE 722 Love Letter (Lament) 723 As SEQUEL: Second Slogan Poem: A Song for Twins 724 FROM Knot 725

[Are collisions entrances?] 725 [Into some distance, everything empties] 725 [Is there a dalliance that stops] 726 [Detail, a sip of tea] 726

K. Silem Mohammad (b. 1962) 727 Spooked 728 Cosmic Deer Head Freakout 729 FROM Sonnagrams 730

H.D., H.D., Tetchy H.D.! Why Punch "Punchy," BBW Spy? 730 Vac-U-Cash Devo Vogue 731

C o n t e n t s • x x i

The the the the the the the the the the Death (Hey Hey) 731 Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, Flit Flit Flit, Fold Fold Fold,

My Violent DDT Doll™ 732

Linh Dinh (b. 1963) 733 Continuous Bullets Over Flattened Earth 73A Fifteen Rounds with a Nobody 73A The Death of English 735 Vocab Lab 735 Body Eats 735

Claudia Rankine (b. 1963) FROM PLOT 740

Coherence in Consequence 740 Proximity of Inner to In Her -- 740 Intermission in Four Acts 741

The thing in play (Act I) 741 Still in play (Act II) 742 Musical interlude (Act III) 742 In mortal theater (Act IV) 743

739

Nada Gordon (b. 1964) and Gary Sullivan (b. 1962) 744 FROM Swoon 745

Gary Sullivan: Among the Living (Date: November 2) 745 Nada Gordon: Moonscape with Earthlings (Date: December 18) 749

Jennifer Moxley (b. 1964) 754 Wreath of a Similar Year 755 The Price of Silence 756

Eleni Sikelianos (b. 1965) 759 Campo santo 759 Of the True Human Fold 760 Essay: Delicately 761 Essay: Seven Aspects of Milking Time 761 Be Honeyed Bush 762 A Radiant Countess of What's It 763

Edwin Torres (b. 1965) Slipped Curve 765 Sorry, I Don't Talk Poetry 766

764

X X i i • C o n t e n t s

The Intermission Clown 767 Lunar Shift 768 Of Natural Disasters and Love 769

Christian Bok (b. 1966) 770 Vowels 771 FROM Chapter A (for Hans Arp) 771

[Awkward grammar appals a craftsman] 771 [Hassan Abd al-Hassad, an Agha Khan] 772

FROM Chapter E (for Rene Crevel) 772 [Enfettered, these sentences repress free speech] 772 [Relentless, the rebel peddles these theses] 773

FROM Chapter U (for Zhu Yu) 773 [Kultur spurns Ubu — thus Ubu pulls stunts] 773 [Ubu gulps up brunch] 773

Kalokagathia 774

Laynie Browne (b. 1966] 775 FROM Possession 775 C rown of Larks 777 Sentencing 778 The Girl of Wax 779

Julie Carr (b. 1966) Equivocal (If that bird in my hand and that bear in the trees) House/Boat 781 Of Sarah (Years having passed, the foliage is wet) 782 Of Sarah (Decay to the lemon) 782 FROM 100 Notes on Violence 783

83. Note on Vengeance 783 84 (But what was I up to?) 784

Lisa Jarnot (b. 1967) 785 They Loved the Sea 786 Gang Angles 786 Manx Kippers 787 Husband Sonnet One 788 Right Poem 788

789

792

780 781

Drew Gardner (b. 1968) Chicks Dig War 790 The Mayim Bialik-Kruschev Fig Rearrangement

C o n t e n t s • x x i i i

Superstar 793 Why Do I Hate Flarf So Much? 794

Vanessa Place (b. 1968) 795 FROM Dies: A Sentence 795

G. C. Waldrep (b. 1968) 800 Pharisees Lament 800 Goldbeaters Skin 801 Wunderkammern 802 On the Seventh Anniversary of the U.S. Invasion of Afghanistan 803 discrete series: Selinsgrove 804

Craig Dworkin (b. 1969) 806 Chapter One: Tectonic Grammar 807 FROM Legion 809 FROM Parse 812

Brian Kim Stefans (b. 1969) 815 Elementary Buddhism 816 Searchbot 816 Bishop Bedlams Entreaties 819

Catherine Wagner (b. 1969) 821 Fraction Anthem8 822 Fraction Anthem15 823 Exercise 34 (1/3/02 PM) 823 Exercise 38 (1/7/02 PM) 824 For the Boys 825 Song 826

Graham Foust (b. 1970) 828 1984 829 Of What Seems Like My Father 829 Interstate Eighty 830 Panama 831 FROM TO Anacreon in Heaven 831

[Like the docent who would suck] 831 [I could break into slavery] 832

NoelleKocot(b. 1970) Love Poem on the Anniversary of Nowhere 833

833

x x i v • C o n t e n t s

Abortion Elegy 83A For My Father the Poet 835 Passing Over Water 835 Over, Under, Through, With Lithium 837

Katie Degentesh (b. 1974) I Sometimes Tease Animals I Feel Uneasy Indoors 840 At Times I Have Fits of Laughing and Crying That I Cannot Control 841

Noah Eli Gordon (b. 1975) 843 The book of forgetting 844 The book of signs 844 An approximation of the actual letter 845 Dove song 845 FROM The Source 846

[The Source sits atop an alp as if it were a throne.] 846 [On what account are we not condemned to servitude?] 846

Joshua Marie Wilkinson (b. 1977) 848 Wolf Dust 849

Ben Lerner (b. 1979) 855 FROM The Lichtenberg Figures 856

[The dark collects our empties, empties our ashtrays] 856 [I had meant to apologize in advance] 856 [In my day, we knew how to drown plausibly] 857

FROM The Doppler Elegies 857 [I want to finish the book in time] 857 [I'm worried about a friend] 858 [The passengers are asked to clap] 859 [A flowering no one attends] 860 [They are passing quickly, those] 860 [Somewhere in this book I broke] 861

836

839 838