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“At sunrise I arose . . .”
At sunrise I aroseTo the sound the machine animals makepassing by in the streets over headsWas it briefly interminable orinterminably brief or bothIt was the face ever undone by… More
The Clean Shirt of It: Selected Poems
Prior EveningDeath waits in the insignificance of a plum tart.In the remote darkness of the fridge,it slumbers lightly, immersed in custard.The hour is sluggish. The house sleeps unabridged.All night… More
Recumbents
Cardiogram (May)The Seine was green by your armFurther than the Mirabeau bridge beneaththe hills like a breathingThe suburbs praised usI would have wanted I would haveso needed you to… More
On Translation
Translation is of course conspiracy. Whatever else it is or may intend, translation represents a concerted move of the few against the many, the foreign against the domestic, there… More
Restless Incarnation
Like most novelists, Mishima writes principally about himself. In each volume of his Sea of Fertility tetralogy, which shines ever more obviously as one of the great works of… More
Through Western Eyes
Mishima was a very strange Japanese. His ritual suicide, his final call to cast off Western influences and return to traditional Japanese values, including veneration of the emperor, has… More
Grace Notes
Before Langston died—long before he died—he prepared the order of his funeral service: no minister, no prayers, not even an MC. The folks invited got there, and a jazz… More
Laying It Down
This Langston riff is for that cardigan-sweater-wearin’ blues poet Raymond R. Patterson, Professor Emeritus, CCNY, author of 26 Ways of Looking at a Black Man and Elemental Blues.I found Langston behind his… More
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