ET
ode pour l'election de son sepulchre
born in the hospital where Coltrane died
skipped second grade wrote poems in third
started the Hawk Club at Sunquam Elementary
(hung a dead crow from a tree & put up a sign)
started Melville Model Mashers
walleyed sixteen-year-old class scholar
Half Hollow Hills High Class of 1960
(denied Golden H Award)
unloved in college--undergraduate
(poems imply otherwise)
bowed to Haile Selassie / Ras Tafari
stood next to Malcolm shook Bobby Kennedy's hand
(not Jesus not Mother Ann Lee not JFK's hand)
saw the Doors live saw Howlin' Wolf
Paul Blackburn Stephane Grappelli
(not the Beatles not even the Stones not Dylan till later)
saw Auden's grievous Job-face
witnessed a drunken Berryman event?
(no Hart Crane no Dylan Thomas)
started the Sullen Art
tried looking the poet
started teaching
started marriage
started Poems of the People
started waves
started marriage again
tried not looking the poet
tried decades in peaceful obscurity
tried son husband father American
invented o-talk and other talks
tiny songs for tiny daughter
sung free unremembered not written down
thought it enough to live and do the work
(wrong from the start)
had secrets of course
had secrets
of course not told here
(pretty fair secrets) |