Read The Collected Poems of Ted Berrigan Online
Authors: Alice Notley
under tasteless stockings
and under the sting which leaves no ash
the grey snow of someone’s epoch annoys
and redeems
through certain fraudulent practices which,
like sulphur, blacken
making an undenied hash of all that
and that will now not melt in the first sunbeam
being its own muse
FOR ANDY WARHOL
Upon this field the physical energies of
Clouds. He will no longer desire the
Demanding force, an incredible
Fortune has fallen across their paths. I wait
a Payer is paying for the art it releases
Prisoners from the hands
In an automobile accident on the
Face
And achieved enemy face
Paleface changed captive
Photographs later
Were tipped “What does this mean, my son?”
Became categorical as in “yes” held on
The arms and
Powder on a little table
And down in a green forest ravine near to “her”
Security of the relationship is made utterly
With high stakes and shot at those targets out of
Boughs that spell
“
MY PAINTINGS
”
a faint smile appears
shaking your beliefs
of which you have done no more
than sketch in the main outline
You are not a glutton for experience
There is a sudden buzz of activity
In the clear blue sky
an enormous room with a balcony
less virulence
our labors were directed toward
isolating and creating
such a pattern
“you must allow your feelings to
float free, by
themselves, like dead leaves.”
“I’ve got it.”
we were furious
You got him out of your system
he was lying out of compassion
“Don’t you see what it means?”
human society upside down
The second name
First we must retrieve our honor
women came down to breakfast
We saw that beautiful creature,
Kay Francis, in
“Cynara”
the shabby taxis and peeling posters
teashops
and ugly window-dressing
a technical brilliance
I never saw the like of anywhere else
“Merde” said Marco
in the apricot-coloured bar
Olga was in another bar
I am sure you understand
The captain lost his temper
A car drew up at the corner
a profusion of melons, oranges and
fish
all through that night
a lobster had been following him
I had an uncomfortable night
the only place I know
where horror borders on poetry
should have “roots”
mass of ash-blonde hair
and black, clinging dresses
(the emotions: outline of
a theory)
into her mouth
blistered strips of bladder
wrack
A red-tiled floor
thereafter we walked
sweeping, landscapes of white
limestone rock and
red rock
the most curious concoction
doubly oppressive
the sluggish heat:
I remember running
Irony and parody held pride of place
in her silk evening dress
Olga had several minor parts
little of Knut Hamsun
several bravura touches
“marking time”
treating it lightly
The death of Max Jacob
naked
with a lion
a small lesbian
smoking a pipe
some silent young men
“Shit!” they exclaim
“Fuck all women!”
They all start singing patriotic songs
Loud shouts and
running feet on the staircase
“Coward! Coward!”
the death of Robert Desnos
quite charming in a red and black dress
with black shoes
about three handbreadths high
The salesgirl laughs at us
I turned back
battered by the frightful air
But I made a kind of wager with myself
detail dazzled me
I considered making it
the theme of my next novel
Every day I had experience of this
a blue-eyed little girl with brown pigtails
their big red-tiled kitchen
big platefuls of bilberries for dessert
children’s laughter
the fresh scent of wild berries
that little brown-haired girl
would be stood up against a wall
on richer, fiercer colors
ocher, red, purple
it’s “splendid animalism”
Ramon Fernandez made a special trip
to see
“Well,” I said, “have you seen it?”
although I knew he was absolutely broke
my chosen themes had not lost
their sharpness
MY NAME
Smiling with grace the mother, the spouse, leaned
across to the fourth of their after-the-theatre party,
who was a girl older than this boy, aged almost seventeen,
by perhaps two years.
THE PROBLEM OF EVIL
I led in my childhood and youth the gently bred existence
of my class and my kind.
PATRIOTISM
An estimated two million wasps were loosed on an area
of four hundred and fifty miles inhabited by
eighty thousand people.
MY BEST FRIEND
That was about you in my story.
AN ORPHAN LEARNS TO COUNT
The Police swooped down in a squad car.
MALNUTRITION
By accident I met some rich homosexuals of the international
queer set who cruise around the world, bumping
into each other in queer joints from New York to Cairo.
CANCER
For there was a heavy curtain over the window, and in the
center of the room, an electric light bulb, suspended from
the ceiling, was all wrapped in newspaper.
SUNBURN
Loading his gun with one of these buttons, he seated
himself on the bed beside his wife, and declared his
intention of shooting the witch cat.
DEATH BY DROWNING
For, in respect to the latter branch of the supposition,
it should be considered that the most trifling variation
of the facts of the two cases might give rise to the most
important miscalculations, by diverting thoroughly the
two courses of events; very much as, in arithmetic, an
error which, in its own individuality, may be inappreciable,
produces, at length, by dint of multiplication
at all points of the process, a result enormously at
variance with the truth.
DEATH IN THE AFTERNOON
She sighed in vain for the chaff and the wheat, not knowing
the one from the other.
MASSACRED BY THE INDIANS
Ain’ nothin’ new about that neither.
BAD NEWS
The man in bed—staring at me appraisingly—was enormous.
SPRING RETURNS
We are drawn to shit because we are imperfect in our uses
of the good.
THE PENNILESS WINDOW
He drew his wife’s attention to the pustule on the top
of my skull for I had removed my hat out of courtesy.
THE DOORS OF PERCEPTION
There were seven to choose from, all putty.
THE TERRORS OF PUBERTY
She didn’t realize her belly was more provocative when
it had been run through with hatred.
A PROVERB
Meanwhile the papers were reporting masochists shooting
tacks, with rubber bands, at apes in zoos.
A MESSAGE FROM THE LOVED ONE
I was horrified.
SYMBOLISM
He must have pressed the wrong button, or several of them,
for when the door fretted open he found himself deep underground,
with no heart to try again.
THE MODERN CRISIS
“What’s this nasty piece of wood stuck in your boobs?”
THE AFTERLIFE
“The Cherry Orchard.”
THE WORLD TODAY
“Jungle Law,” the man agreed.
DEADLY VISIBLE RAYS
They had many days now when they were very happy.
SOMETHING’S HAPPENING HERE
Your historian will not attempt to list the sights he
pointed out in the multitudinous halls since no one will
ever forget them anyway.
EIGHT SQUARES
A good smell of hot coffee is coming out of the coffee-pot
on the table.
A GIFT
“You in the new winter
stretch forth your hands”
I AM A MAN OF CONSTANT SORROW
“I know from my own experience that telepathy is a fact.”
Morning
(ripped out of my mind again!)
Take off your hat & coat & give me all your money
I have to buy some pills & I’m flat broke
FOR GIUSSEPPE UNGARETTI
He called his Mama
Mohammed Scee-ab
He put his hand on
Her rear to be funny
She killed herself
You can bet no one ever told
His father
He made love to Frances
The talking mule
He’s no sap either
He chopped her head off
So she can’t yell and
He’s plumb vanished
Let’s go with him to Naples
To insult the old priest whose belly
Bulges over his belly-button
Like a piggy
And at number 5 Subnormal Street
We’ll see his sad Victrola
You sap!
If you aren’t turned on by now
It’s your earache!
Winds in the stratosphere
Apologize to the malcontents
Downstairs
The torpedo was friendly
it buggered us
Mayday!
The climax came later
In the water
Near a sea-horse
Flame & Fury
The colt and the dolt became outlaws
The automobile slew them
Brother and sister departed
With apologies to the mother for intercourse
In their hearts
If he bites you he’s friendly
If it hurts you
Go away
Don’t give him a fresh try
Unless you have titties
Like a fast horse
He made coffee
In his maid’s uniform
He made coffee with animals
From the desert
Who expectorated into the coffeepot
His veins swelled up with an army
Of germs whose unconscious’s
Hated these possibilities
He reared back saying, “Me Nasty!”
So We began to
BE
Nasty
As for what happened next
You can bet that he learned to express himself
Tooting my horn on duty in the infantry
Made my name mud
PU
In the army I had nosebleeds
The Infantry was so distracting
It kindled up in my nose
An invisible odor
That hindered my toots
One day while on duty
I rammed into a chestnut
And got blood all over my flute
Not to mention this nosebleed
I spat out so many teeth I knew it was an omen
The vitamins I had to take made me ill
Ten blood transfusions It was almost all over
When two big rocks stopped the bleeding
This was my unhappy childhood
He was ugly
She kissed the poor fellow
On his belly
ai-yai-yai
Wild horses couldn’t hold him
He snaked her carcass
Around a finger
Like a bowling ball
Come and get it!
They threw him in the pen
And busted his illusions
On the fires of Corregidor
His rifle slowly
Fired
Better and better
Killing the idiot
Near Paris, there is a boat. Near this boat live the beautiful Woods.
They are a charming family, the Woods, very friendly: Mr. Woods, Mrs. Woods, their son Peter, and their tiny daughter, Bubbles.
Mr. Woods is very rich. He has a grand house, in four pieces: a kitchen, a stable, a room for lying down, and a room for infants. In this house there is, in addition, a brain room.
Mr. Woods’ garden is also very grand. It is full of lettuces, flowers and fruits.
Mrs. Woods likes cooking plenty. She makes pies, pots of tea, and desserts. The little Woods have beautiful appetites. They eat a lot.
Mrs. Woods’ kitchen is very appropriate. It has a pretty little furnace, a table, four chaise lounges and a large placard. On the placard there are six S’s, six tassels, and fifty soupspoons. (One of the soupspoons is crusty.) There is also a grand casserole.
In the room for laying down there are four tiny books, four chaise lounges and four tiny tables. One sometimes goes to the toilet on the tables.
In the room for infants there is a big table, plenty of chaise lounges and one grand placard on which are pictures of the toys of the tiny Woods: a puppy, a train, a toupee, a cigarette, some balls, some books, a pellet, soap, a strangler’s cord, and lots of other things.