Posted by matt on 12 March 2011
INAUGURATION DAY
Today, despite what is dead
staring out across America I see since
Lincoln gunmen
nursing fantasies of purity betrayed,
dreaming to restore
the glories of their blood and state
despite what is dead but lodged within us, hope
under the lustrous flooding moon
the White House is still
Whitman’s White House, its
gorgeous front
full of reality, full of illusion
hope made wise by dread begins again
–Frank Bidart in Slate, 20 January 2009
Frank Bidart reading, links here.
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Posted by matt on 18 January 2010
when those who decree decree the immemorial
mere habits of the tribe
law established since the foundations of the world
when the brutalities released by
belief engender in you disgust for God
hear the answering baritone sweetness of Mahler’s “Urlicht”
I am from God and shall return
to God for this disfiguring
flesh is not light and
from light I am light
when I had eyes what did I do with sight
Image: SNUFFED OUT by sarahnoo
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Posted by matt on 5 May 2008
don’t worry I know you’re dead
but tonight
turn your face again
toward me
when I hear your voice there is now
no direction in which to turn
I sleep and wake and sleep and wake and sleep and wake and
but tonight
turn your face again
toward me
see upon my shoulders is the yoke
that is not a yoke
don’t worry I know you’re dead
but tonight
turn your face again
Photo credit: one by pipocanancy
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Posted by matt on 5 December 2007
As if the names we use to name the uses of buildings
x-ray our souls, war without end:
Palace. Prison. Temple. School.
Market. Theatre. Brothel. Bank.
War without end. Because to name is to possess
the dreams of strangers, the temple
is offended by, demands the abolition of brothel, now theatre, now
school, the school despises temple, palace, market, bank; the bank by
refusing to name depositors welcomes all, though in rage prisoners
each night gnaw to dust another stone piling under the palace.
War without end. Therefore time past time.
Rip through the fabric. Nail it. Not
to the wall. Rip through
the wall. Outside
time. Nail it.
Photo credit: The Carina Nebula–Star Birth in the Extreme by NASA/Hubble
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