Birthday Sonnet for Grare

I've always loved (your) Grace in 14 lines, sometimes

1 have to fit my love for Grace into either
'.An unweildy utopia or a smaller space,
Just a poem, not a big pro j ect for changing the world
which I believe
It was the color of your hair that inspired me to try
to do in words
$ince such perfection doesn't exist in isolation
,Like the hyacinth, Royal or Persian blues
that go so well with you.

Now ol d er than we were before we were forty

And working so much in an owned world for rent money
Where there seems l ittle time for the ancient hilarity
We di gresse d with o nce on the hypnopompic verg es of the sublime
Now more engrossed in hypnagogic literal mysteries of
our age and ages I propose
To reiterate how I love you any time
OTH E R B O O KS BY B E R N ADETTE MAY E R

Eating The Colors o f a Lineup o f Words:

The First Books of Bernadette Mayer (Station Hill, 201 4)
Includes: Story (1968), Moving (1971), Ceremony Latin (1964) (1975),
Poetry (1976), Eruditio Ex Memoria (1977), The Golden Book of Words
(1978), Red Book in Three Parts (2002), The Old Style is Finding
Something About a Whole New Set of Possibilities (unpublished collection)

Uncle Andrew's Pile of Pads (Coco n ut Books, 201 4)

The Helens of Troy, New York (New Directions, 201 3)
Studying Hunger Journals (Station Hill, 201 1 )
Ethics of Sleep (Trembling Pillow Press, 201 1 )
Poetry State Forest (New Directions, 2008)
Scarlet Tanager (New Directions, 2005)
Indigo Bunting (Zasterle Press, 200 4)
Two Haloed Mourners (G ranary, 1 9 98)
Another Smashed Pinecone (United Artists, 1 998)
Proper Name and Other Stories (New Directions, 1 99 6)
The Desires of Mothers to Please Others in Letters (Hard Press, 1 99 4)
The Bernadette Mayer Reader (New Directions, 1 9 92)
The Formal Field of Kissing (Monk Books, 201 1 , Catchword Papers, 1 990)
Utopia (United Artists, 1 9 8 4)
Midwinter Day (New Directions, 1 9 99, Tu rtle Island Fou ndation, 1 982)
Memory (North Atlantic Books, 1 975)

Col laborati o ns:

At Maureen's (wl Greg Masters ; Crony Books, 201 3)

The Cave (w/ Clark Coolidge; Adventures in Poetry, 2009)
What's Your Idea of a Good Time? (w/ Bill Berkson ; Tuumba Press, 2006)
The 3:15 Experiment (w/ Lee Ann Brown , Danika Di nsmore,
Jen Hofer; The Owl Press, 200 1 )
Bernadette Mayer's Sonnets was originally printed by
Tender B uttons Press in an edition of 1 000 copies.
This edition commemorates its 25th ann iversary,
reprinting the origi nal text in fu l l with an add itional 2 1
"skinny" sonnets taken from Bernadette's papers at
the U C S D Archive for New Poetry. The publishers
would l i ke to thank Rob Melton, Heather Smed berg &
the rest of the UCSD Mandeville Special Collections
staff for facilitating the first collected publication of
these poems and archival images.
 v
e e ryone makes love to their
�
�)
t�/
it would be sHeet to know you r �l}t)t this second

but you wouldnt dare come here/for f ear

as �have of eating this opel_l,...l'andwich, I'veia>t

to I 'forget and pou' v e got t J-r orget & not rew:Xritd

tomorrow the two identical but differnt dutch ilainting<;

will not look the way they do today & I will not lie down

thinking of you as if at the beginning of something ,., I do -

�
you a t as if you were married aAd �•"'""-.,.

It would be nice to lose one's mind, my mind

I'd like to lose it, i wouldn't mind at all )<:/J

To actual>ly be in the lunatic asylum at las�.

all for you and for the taxi drivers .1'he cant sp.a.;a

I'll go & •be s

a ked what ydar what d
lo,;\.v c �
� ili is
's
.. a.� () l.
AN , ....,,. tJUM/I
& who's the president, :ro&.Atr g�t!! a an3q &) ee MhJ not'i'
I could teach prodody but nob�dy

knows what it is.

Bo send me away to anpbodf·

 SONNET
---.... ..,,... ..

Everyone makes love to their bereft & go

I'd like to know you right this second
B�t you wouldn't dare come here for the fear
I �ave of eating t h i s open s an dwic h I've got
I forget and you've got to I fo rg et & not copy
Tomorrow the two identical different Dutch paintings
Will not look the fruits the way they look today
Thinking o f you as if at the beg inning of some thing I do,
I will not lie down
1
;'j
�1
Yo .act as if you were married
Th� who comes by whenever you please
I 'm\,not either
You,called early, alot to say, I forget
The plot, it was we are alike now it's late
You're asleep I'm awake
 Bernadette Mayer

Sonnets
25th Anniversary Edition

TENDER BUTTONS PRESS

New Yo rk City
201 4
Copyright 1 9 89, 201 4 Bernadette Mayer
All rig hts reserved . No parts of this book may be
reproduced in any form without the author's written
perm ission, except for brief quotations in review.

Tender Buttons Press

N ew York, New York
www.TenderButtonsPress.com

Cover desig n : Alyssa Gorelick

Interior desig n : Wayne Sm ith
Tender Buttons Logo by Joe Brainard, printed with permission
Images & Skinny Sonnets courtesy of the Bernadette Mayer Papers at
Special Collections & Archives, U C San Diego Library

Catalog uing-in-publication data available

From the Library of Congress
Originally published, 1 9 89
ISBN 978-0-927920-05-6

Printed by BookMobile

Skinny Son nets " Rem iniscence", "Moment", "Transition", "New" &
" Frogs Legs" appeared in Crow (200 1 ) , editors Rod Sm ith &
Leslie Bumstead ( Edge Books) .

Special thanks in the 25'h Ann iversary Edition to

Katy Bohinc and Cassandra Gillig.
CONTE NTS

Introd u ction, Bern adette Mayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

Ed itor's N ote, Lee Ann Brown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv

So nnets

Son net ("Love is a babe as you know and when you") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1

Holding the Thought of Love . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 2
Son net ("Alone due to exigency well as apt can tell") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Sonnet ("I am supposed to think of my personal dot") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 4
Son net ("A thousand apples you m ight put i n you r theories") . . . . . . . . . 25
Spying on the Neigh bors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26
A Chinese Breakfast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
T h e False Finch's Wedding Gown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Son net for Fred Pohl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29
Son net List Without Comm as . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Two Thousand Non-I nterfering Ballet Dancers Get R i d of
the Extra Witch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .3 1
Son net ("You Jerk you didn't call m e up") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .3 2
Son net ("It would b e n ice t o lose one's m ind m y m i n d ") . . . . . . . . . . .. . 33
Sonnet ("My hand is like a m uffin j ust baked in the electrocuting") . .. 34
Son net Welcome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 35
To M r. Robert Herrick and Another . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 36
Sonnet ("You read about U ranus in the Times?") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Son net ("Everyone m akes love to their bereft & go") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
The N u merous 25-Year-Old 85-Year-Olds of 1 985 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Freezetag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Sonnet ("Moth like porphyry lights the town ") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41
Clap Hands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42. . . .

So nnet : Twenty Dollars i n Hell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Warren Phinney . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 44
Inc andescent War Poem Sonnet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . 45
The Handcuffing of H ermits Who Grab the Genitals' Police . .. . . . . . . 46
Ta king t h e H u m bler Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
So nnet ("At 1 72 E. 4th Street near the bottom of NY's Avenue A") . . . 4 8
So nnet ("Other t h a n what's g o n e on a n d stupid art") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
We Eat Out Together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
On Gifts for Grace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 1
Birth day Son net for Grace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 2

ix
 Homeopath ic Busyness . . . . . . . .53 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Pot of Toast . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .. 54 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I ncidents Report Sonnets 1 -6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55-60

Sonnet (" Beauty of songs you r absence I should not show") . 61 . . . . . . . .

Sonnet ("To perform for you , ask me why, shall I sleep?") 62 . . . . . . . . . . . .

A Catskill Eag le . . . . . . . : . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Engineering Glory, the Sublime, Both Coasts . 64 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Epistemolog ical Sonnet . . . .. . . 65 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Sonnet ("Ash is left behind from thi ngs") . 66 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Returning the Books to Their Shelves . 67 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Sonnet ("Whaddo I do now just desire?") 68 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

With Grace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Sonnets: The Landlord Was Thrown Out of the Rent

Stabilization Group . . . . . . . . 70 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Sonnet Flanders Road . .. . . . . . . . 71 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Spooky Action from a D istance: Sonnet about how love is as

teach ing as you breathe deeply with disrespect for the text and
become disjecta mem bra from you r lover 72 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Book of Dolls . . . . . . . . . . . 73 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Sonnet: Kam ikaze . . . . . . . . . . . 74 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Sonnet ("Waiting for you t o come back from a comedy show") . 75 . . . . . .

Sonnet ("So long honey, don't ever come around again ,

I'm sick o f yo u") . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 76 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A Marriage o f Cut Flowers . . . . 77 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Earthworkers' God Is Healed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Octave Sublime Excuses for Say Poetry Pretty There Are
No Tastes Instead of the Rooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
.

Sonnet We Are Ordinary C'mere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... . . . 80

Sonnet ("You dare to study philosophy baby I'll tell you") . ....... . . . .8 1
1 4 Questions for To m Savage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 2
.

The Presence of One Who Sometimes Leaves a Place . . ....... . . . . 83

Sonnet: Will I Write Poetry? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 84 .

Sonnet ("The arts of death stop by and by not this letter") ....... . . . . 85
Of Question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... . . . 86
Someth ing I Can't Say Here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... . . . . 87
To a Moving Violation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... . . . 88
Noth ing Known, a film . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Son net ("nothing to wake to you can never") . 90 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Complete I ntrod uctory Lectu res on Poetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 1

The Phenomenon o f Chaos . . . . . . .92 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

x
Ski nny So nnets

Tuesday .
. . . ..
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95.

Dream ("Period was when") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Dream ("Courted art was long") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
.

Dream ("Anatomy panoptically") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Thu rsday N ight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Two l's Thu rsday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 00
Rem iniscence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 01
Moment. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 02
Transition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. ............. .... ........ 1 03
New . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 04
Frogs Legs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . 1 05
Inside .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 06
Adu lts . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 07
Son net ("Measure the attri bute") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 08
Saturday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 09
Sunday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 10
Sonnet ("Close the um brella door of") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Temporary Scudding of the Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Barbed Purselaining Planning . . . . . . . . . . . ..
. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 13
Left in Box on Street near House . . . . . ......... ................ 114
Go Back to Sleep Song . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........ ............ .... 115

Orig inal Note on Sonnets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 9

.

Praise for the 1 •• Edition . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 20

.

Biography . . .
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . 1 22
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I mages, in o rder of appea ra nce

B irthday Sonnet for Grace, final copy . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Son net (" Everyone m akes love to their bereft & go"), early version . . . . . iv
Son net (" Everyone makes love to their bereft & go"), final copy . . . . . . . .v
1 4 Questions for Tom Savage, original layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xii
Sonnet We Are Ordinary, C'mere, final copy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv
The Complete I ntroductory Lectu res on Poetry, final copy . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Orig inal Title Page for "Skinny Sonnets" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
So nnet ("At 1 72 E. 4th Street near the bottom of NY's Avenue A") ,
early version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 8
.

xi
�:

14 QUESTIONS FOR TOM SAVAGE

Is when or where I start or you even fair? I dont know, . is it not? Sex
I mean & dying for & this equal sign of worth. But is it to whose good-lookingness
We looked confused before till wlii.en into sex like Dan & Who talking it was
Spoken around right-after-we-wer&�kids? Know I when my rights all & of animals may
Confuse them now with kids who laugh to be goats to our satyrs, what is worth?
Satiric for it to be that of the question rather about children, arent they as little welcome
Or less, in New York City public place at least, as radicals & queers are were will be?
Age three, me you or saintly, supernal this's & that's of all the sexes, who is welcome in
. this world?
When being among spreads the venial sins' impatience on th� obedience to biblical guilt
bcilth immoral
• ·

& immaterially genital the diseas�s then venereal, that is coming from love
Dying of which they or the innocent are in sex not manipulative like corporate eXl!cs
Deciding there's no money in cervical caps for want of victims to the hegemony of pregnancy
& governmental devils who make proclivitous women children & men in healthy baths mortal
by planning to kill them all
& as many real friends, love & the marks of that they see & they see not nor the bey ond of
the question how come we're all scared
to make love
FROM TH E AUTH O R

Si nce it's been so l o n g since t h e Sonnets have been

published by Tender Buttons, I'll tell you what I've learned
since: tender button is a eup hemism for the cl itoris;
chipm u n ks eat m ice; mugwort is a member of the artem isia
plant fam ily; there are mountain lions around East N assau,
New York; Langston Hug hes made money from poetry;
many of the people who explored Tutan kham u n 's tomb died
of heart things; Disney's real name was D'lsne; you can fly
if you have the right philosop hy; Trader Joe's is ru n by the
same German fam ily as Aldi 's; there's a cloud formation
that looks like a flying saucer; a lot of the X- Files are playful;
Kevin Bacon was in the first Friday the 1 3'h movie; the
same 'reason' I thought I cou ld help change the world
is the 'reason' I thought the sonnet form wou ld lead to a
'conclusion'. See my website (conclusion.com). Someth ing I
always knew is it's all Aristotle's fault. Cahokia is/was a B.C.
city near St. Louis where 25,000 native Americans lived;
capitalism is the culprit, never doubt it; now that I've outlived
my parents, I feel that I'm less finite than before. The solution
to caring for hanging plants is to buy new ones whenever you
need to. Or, hang them upside down in a water bath without
losing the potting soil. The polar vortex wobbles because of
g lobal warming and it winds u p here or there. Sense lessly
g reen men drink depth charges.

Bernadette Mayer, J u ly 1 1 , 201 4, East Nassau , NY

xiii
 sor.;NET WE ARE ORDINARY c '!I.ERE

Excerpts I love you from abstracts

So wpat who cares songs of one and
Exp � ien ce of this is a case like
Whole and I am not from there I write
To you to say I know nothing as ever
No rhyming no everything there is
No proceeding no thinking you will be my
What �ill you be? And that is the end
-·��-
Excei# for the instance
What � re you wearing?
f
Why a en't you here?
Where,, d you put the window?

C'mere
Tell m� the rest of it

xiv
E D I TO R 'S N OTE

Bernadette Mayer gave me entree into the world of being a poet­

publisher where making a nest for the work we love is com pletely
intertwined with the poems we write. She showed me the endless
beauties of Stein as a case study of how to write against, out of, and
around others' poems. Our press itself is named i n homage to Stein's
rad ical poem of everyday l ife. To "Tend Her Buttons" to me, is to n u rt u re
and publish experimental wom en's poetry, to tend the buttons of books,
each book to be born a complex object forever folding outwards. When
I learned that Bernadette was i n search of a publisher for her Sonnets I
real ized I had found the perfect first book for my new press.

Sonnets is a powerfully inclusive erotic experience of read ing. From

the very first sonnet, we hear Shakespeare's " Love is a babe" and its
seam less flow into "as you know and when you I Put you r startl ing hand
on my cunt or arm o r head I Or better both your hands to hold them in
my own;' you are right there in a personal moment of m aking new a form
which has been around for a long time. We read Sir Thomas Wyatt's
line "They flee from me that sometime did me seek" preceded with her
head long "I'm so mad at you I'm sure I'll take it all back tomorrow" and
the vernacular and classical come together again in "C'mon and show
me something newer than even Dante:'

Spl iced throughout with compositional strategies like collage,

reversal, found language ("Mommy the Twilight Zone is on I love yo u "),
uncensored language, and aural/inventive spellings, these poems show
what happens if Stein's "language is a real thi ng, not an i m itation" is
true. Words and phrases are rearranged like etymolog ical bricks as
in the stanza beginning "Tell like so cause me B'ill loves you to not to
know:' Is it Bill Berkson or Bill Shakespeare or some other? Both, both.
With a m usicality born of early study of Greek and Latin prosody, here
Bernadette is Catullus-as-a woman writing personal-political forms on the
Lower East Side, sonnets railing agai nst the incommensurate intricacies
"of love and landlords:'

The form of these sonnets deal with mortality and constrai nts, but even
more, with love, and its m u ltiple specificities and pleasures : "Clap
Hands" begins with the personal add ress of "I'll write you sonnets till
you come I home from school again . . . " The line break says it all. Many
specific loves are remixed in the li nes, and amplified to a larger visio n :

xv
 "I'll have a million neighbors in the city
All at once above below it's easier for love"

And :

" To fuck everyone as in the millennium

It m ight be a very g reat pleasure"

Be sure to pay special attention to Bernadette's genius and subversion

of "ending" couplets such as :

"Couplet I adore you it's my habit

I want manly things & should not, women come to me"

And :

" N ot not cou ntable's the specificity o f its love

Couplet opposites yes of stream of no"

And the famous double couplet ending of:

"Wake u p! It's the m iddle of the nig ht

Either die or make love at the hand of
the Cobra Commander

To m ake love turn to page 4 4.

To die turn to page 1 30.

In which the page n u mbers have to change in each ed ition in which this
sonnet appears.

Through read ing these " Hyacinth, royal or Persian blue" poems again
and again I have learned that "stanza" means "room " and that you,
Bernadette, are a master builder. Thank you for "building a building of
fairest not-prose" and letting me have a hand in helping to set the mortar
of the book, giving so much perm ission as poets to "go on our nerves;'
experimenting always.

Thank yo u Bernadette for the privi lege of letting me publish you r amazing
Sonnets. Thank you for showing m e how to make books, opening the

xvi
possibil ity of being able to affect the world that way. We gave away many
of the first 1 000 copies to the g reat poetry gift economy, and I have been
"repaid" u ntold times over, by association, by ru nning into young poets
on subways in Williamsburg with copies of Sonnets in hand much as we
had bootlegged out-of-print Zukofsky's 80 Flowers j ust as pale from its
many xeroxings.

Thanks to the prodigious efforts of a new generation of younger poets

hungry for you r generous, generative, permission-g iving work, Sonnets
is again available far and wide. Thank you to Katy Bohinc for her
fearless vision, devotion and, can-do energy that made this special 25'h
Anniversary edition and Tender Buttons Press relaunch a reality, and to
Cassandra Gillig who figu red out how to locate the "Skinny Sonnets"
written i n reporters' notebooks which I am so excited about including in
this expanded edition, and so much more. Big thanks to everyone over
the years who has g iven of their time and love to make this book happen.

I'll conclude by q uoting one of Bernadette's "20 Questions about

Form or N ew Forms" from a handout I received in one of her amazing
workshops, aptly n u m ber 1 4 :

"What form (sonnet, etc.) is most full of knowledge, relevance to the

moment now:•

Lee Ann "Thee who comes by whenever you please" Brown

Editrix, Tender Buttons Press

J u ly 1 4, 201 4
Troy, North Carolina

xvii
 Sonnets

To Rosemary Mayer
SON N ET

Love is a babe as you know and when you

Put you r startling hand on my cunt or arm or head
Or better both you r hands to hold in them my own
I'm awed and we laugh with questions, artless
Of me to speak so u ngenerally of thee & thy name
I have no situation and love is the same, you live at home
Com e be here my baby and I'll take you elsewhere where
You ain't already been, my richer friend, and there
At the bottom of my sale or theft of myself will you
Bring specific flowers I will not know the names of
As you al ready have and al ready will and already do
As you already are with you r succinctest cock
All torn and sore like a female m asochist that the rhyme
Of the jewel you pay attention to becomes you r baby born

21
 HOLDI N G TH E T H O U G HT OF LOVE

And to render harmless a bomb or the like

Of such a pouring in different directions of love
Love scattered not concentrated love talked about,
So let's not talk of love the diffuseness of whi(fh
Round our heads (that oriole's song) like on the platforms
Of the subways and at their stations is today defused
As if by the scattering of light rays in a photograph
Of the softened reflection of a truck in a bakery window

You know I both understand what we found out and I don't

H i king alone is too complex like a slap in the face
Of any joyo us appointment even for the making of money

Abandoned to too large a crack in the unideal sphere

of lack of summer
When it's winter, of wisdom in the astronom ical arts,
we as A & B
Separated then conjoin to see the sig hts of Avenue C

22
SO N N ET

Alone due to exigency well as apt can tell

The name of dum best truth I've stayed the hell
The dimwitted dippers by a writer a g uy by that name
Oh how turn as hers infinite the exactness of
Always with replaced as old always by another
And as to lines no not you r responsible sway
Many times by a poet who saw you female of art
The wish to make you lost began & can't say that
That to be so old again as in identified father
Ignorant Orion was said to settle the bill mom
Like settles stands for all n ight g ives but without
You feel another whose vag ina somewhat over love her
Com m u nicating m other in fidel ity I am thus plus
Which I thought still but without sphere her here

23
 SON N ET

I am supposed to think of my personal dot

I do and it is d u l l if you won't call
Who cares Angel I could find you even within my wrist
Nobody m i nds because of sleepi ng, I detest i• myself
Why doesnt anybody want to demand to make love
Female to actual famous female or vice versa
Warm indoors is the repeating of the trivial of something
It doesn't matter what, I ' m tired of not

Absence l i ke parents is the astrophysical

What who knows come in I've got my birth control out
Come by get lost the curtain if fictionally red is not then real
Nor's the blood shed why for what, we warn televisions of it
Dont say anything bad like fuck or shit or otherwise & besides
You might have to wear ostensible clothing & hairdos all you r lives

24
SO N N ET

A thousand apples you might put in you r theories

But you are gone from benefit to my love

You spoke not the Italian of Dante at the table

But the stingy notions of the bedded heterosexual

You cursed and swore cause I was later

To come home to you without yo ur fucking dinner

Dont ever return su numero de telefono it is just this

I m ust explain I dont ever want to see you again

Empezando el 2 d e noviembre 1 9 80:someth ing I dont love you

So stick it u p you r ass like she would say

I'm so mad at you I'm sure I ' l l take it all back tomorrow
& say then they flee from me who sometime did me seek

Meanwh ile eat my existent dinner somebody and life

C'mon and show me something newer than even Dante

25
 S PYI N G ON T H E N E I G H B O R S

In the Catholic book of being turned on

Lost in the people who believe in just wrists
Jewelless and watch less & clean l i ke big n u ns
You lift up their skirts and look beneath

To the idiotic u niverse of most informed design

For living in it all ways all the fucking time
In the dirty city & the dirty cou ntry of all us
H ealthy naughty girls & boys who look at you

Out from the pictures of our bodies in the news

Before anybody dies there's all this pleasure
From out of the lunacies of mothers plus fathers
You visit on the slig htly defunct g lobe or orb

26
A CH I N E S E B R EAKFAST

Is it so far to the door?

Does Max's sandwich diminish my confidence to reach it?
Do fears as unnatural as dreams to waki ng
Reflect something of anything for everyone else?
Should m adness ensure, would the tiny hole
For a dislodged nail in the wall be its focus?
Does the belong world in yo u ?
D i d t h e finch devour the bluejay
Right in the cleft of the dead bird of paradise?
Did a she slip the awful cup?
As spring comes a man's apple juice em its an ankle bracelet
And you' re as forlorn as the mean dentist's smock of our culture
Plus a he can't find a parki ng space cause the ice is still thick
As the thief of the way a day might memory look

27
 TH E FALS E F I N C H 'S WEDDI N G GOWN

In the blue descriptive city

Each u nsorted square tripartite m ineral
Does not turn into the round or not-bed of the rich poor
The 35mm black and white tri-x print film signals
The millenium falcon and the salacious cru m b
I t ' s funny to ram a n d c h i p a t studies t i l l
You c a n make even t h e bluejays charming t o others
Through definition, forecast and the u n religious word

In these centrally located walls

Shouting at dawn on the opposite school
Right beside the birds really singing
I wonder whether to bother to sort you r purple clothes
From the desirable pink ceilings and roofs of sleep­
Which letter of the alphabet would I become?

28
SO N N ET FOR F R E D POH L

I'm not male or female either but that

That's reaching too addenda many countries
Much of a conclusion-you'd just as soon be
Entirely without my crystal our tooth
& as usual I rushed you past you r wealth
To malely fixing eggs my father's death in my book house
Of so what yes and no retrievable between legs
Naive couplet consequent to do

No such thing too m uch wo rk to do for money

No beginning of laser epic Clark arch
Yet counter the concept of sonnet not with its meters
The way thought proceeds countable like geologic stuff is not;
Not not countable's the specificity of its love
Couplet opposites yes of stream of no

29
 SON N ET LI ST WITHOUT COM MAS

Who who a sinner what too sensitive cold carbon

Right to d ispute dont face west too cold mirror
To nature the roof and the floor holding heart
Heat sparks or flame playfellows explain
Nothing Ch inese everything the sonnets of
Henn iker Henniker's stove stamps of the rose
Winter of certain dates sleek financial m i l k air
Marbles u pstairs increase bath baby and tools
Yellow sq uirrel running exacerbating funny home
White as the snow the date is g etti ng rid
Of the l lamas credit the color of the hat
Knowledge of remorse at market or college n o
Bears cement o f w i n e a t meals swell woolen slippers
D ry leaves that befo re the wild h urricane fly when they
meet with an obstacle mount to the sky

30
TWO THO USAN D N O N -I NT E R F E R I N G BALLET DANCERS
G ET RID O F TH E EXTRA WITCH

Retrograde aspects of low-cop non-election-year

Participation m i g ht mean putting you r bracelets
Guatemalan on early in the evening to avoid the
footsteps of the man you might devour

The straitest woman at the farm loved our arms

Yet the ancientest scientists m i g ht never have
Not by which we know nothing but brave philosophy
Mean ing you can sleep through a bright night before

Bright before you exercise an individual breakfast

Stoned men think they are different from stoned women
It might be appropriate to marry Mary Magdalen
And stone /onald /eagan a little in person at Carnac
This proves all who m ake love tonight are good poets
& poetesses beg forgiveness befo re you r available hardens

31
 SON N ET

You jerk you didn't call me u p

I h aven't seen y o u in s o long
You probably have a fucking tan
& besides that instead of making love tonigh•
You ' re dri n king you r parents to the airport
I'm through with you bourgeois boys
All you ever do is go back to ancestral comforts
Only money can get-even Catullus was rich but

Nowadays you g uys settle for a couch

By a soporific color cable t.v. set
I nstead of any arc of love, no wonder
The G.I. J oe team blows it every other time

Wake up! It's the m iddle of the night

You can either make love or die at the hand of
the Cobra Commander

To m ake love, turn to page 4 4 .

To die, turn to page 130.

32
SO N N ET

It would be nice to lose one's mind my mind

I'd like to lose it I wouldn't mind at all
To be in the lu natic asylum at last
All for you and for the taxi d rivers

I ' l l go and be asked what year what day it is

& who's the president, how come he's a resident
I could teach prosody there but no body
Knows what it is
So send me away to anybody
Anywhere who m ight
Not know someth ing I might not
Since I must vice versa live

Whaddya mean perforce?

Army or navy or marines?

33
 SON N ET

My hand is like a m uffin just baked in the electrocuting

toaster under the l ig ht of the smoke detector full of
American Americium to create the further tumors that make
poets underpaid in life com pared to the mora dismal occu­
pations like vacuum cleaning or storing thoug hts in mach ines
or sel ling objects to people

Writing poems is really dumb but fuck it even we want

entertainment I saw the art of the city today smokestacks
and buildings from the hospital windows where everybody
I know is im prisoned and being demeaned on dem erol or else
everything's o.k. thank god they' re all fine having had
operations in there you wouldn't want to sleep with me in
exchange would you ?

This i s m y new form o f son net

Th is is the closing of it
Please don't stop loving me right this moment
Or else one of us might kill the other
J ust like i n the papers

34
SO N N ET W E LCO M E

To the 1 98 1 - 1 982
Poetry season
At the Ear Inn
What a mess is everything
In this world we live in
Fran<;:ois Marie Charles Fou rier said i n 1 800
This planet should be sent to a l unatic asyl um
But it's not poetry's fault
For being so concerned
With love beauty sex and ideas, money
All the preoccupations of the philosophers, thieves
& prostitutes, I myself make no image
When I say anything including saying
Let's get on with our non-paying work as always

35
 TO MR. ROBERT HERRICK AND ANOTHER

You take the red paper and fold it

In half like this, then you cut it

Like any heart or Valentine hearts

But you make the cut in the mi cJ,Ple

And not on the outside Mr. Herrick

Then the Prussian blue sky becomes

Silver & paintings seen unless you

Hide them & a written note of love
Can be hidden archaeologically for

A million years if the stuff lasts

I'd like to hide this note for you

It's cut now in the middle the way

Needless curtains divide a window,

Shirred and strait, I dont see why

36
S O N N ET

For that which is not conscious, the

language provides no means of expression.
- Gregory Bateson

You read about Uranus in the Times?

How there's two more moons? & how the g uys
In the neighborhood I g rew up in got arrested
For killing a final cop and wounding a woman one?

She's in stabile condition, life is

Kind of hot if em pty-seem ing, don't you think?
Me and the cop who arrested him have got alot i n common
Not only cause of Ridgewood and cause his name is Angel

My voyager, Uranus is far away as far as my pessary

From the magnetosphere forgive me cock
Gaea was born of Chaos in a phoneless prison
Let's have a baby today, I gave

You a new name

37
 SON N ET

Everyone makes love to their bereft & go

I'd like to know you right this second
But you wouldn't dare come here for the fear
I have of eating this open sandwich I've goL
I forget and yo u 've got to I forget & not copy
Tomorrow the two identical d ifferent Dutch paintings
Will not look the fruits the way they look today
Thinking of yo u as if at the beginning of something I do,
I wil l not lie down

You act as if you were married

Thee who comes by whenever you please
I'm not either
You called early, alot to say, I forget
The plot, it was we are alike now it's late
You ' re asleep I ' m awake

38
TH E N U M E R O US 25-YEAR-OLD 85-YEAR-O LDS OF 1985

Two of you out d rinking together again tonight

Why not invite me to you r state while I'm a child
In a bell fu ll of books and national journalism
Oh com rades of memory, at last our homework is done !
Like the ten petals of the mountain laurel
Time's determ ined exactly by mach ines
Or digits not reflective or predictive, a fact
Like drowning in the ocean in a d ream
You mig ht've been thrown out of like a tavern
Then I followed you & you and cou nted
On you to collect me and we became a g ro u p
Like t h e t e n petals o f t h e mountain laurel

Sex, where's the couplet?

The concluding modern thought's a warm winter scarf

39
 F R E EZ ETAG

Buildings prevent the sun

Sky turns blue after eclipse-green
"You were pretty g lamorous
I n your day:' he said
The weather himself n ot being desireable
Nor does he bring home with him
An exciting friend, a companion
To introd uce us to the new
life like learn ing as a baby

Of th is and especially of that of memory

The handsome man with all the twins
I d reamed the madwomen's servants
Cou nted u pon madmen's answers in springs
H aving drunk the tunneling spring waters
Of l unatic wandering strangers within the
rectangular house schemes

40
SO N N ET

Moth like porphyry lights the town

Like a ph ratry against the city how many
famous men die in a summer today it was
The painter Clyfford Still when he died
I opened the window in the pantry
To bring down the screen on the sill resting
Was a snake curled snakel i ke d isturbed by m e
I t crawled back behind o n e o f m any o f cold
Old New England's kitchen sinks in child hood
A snake extracted from a pipe is preserved in a jar
In a plumber's win dow in New York where I'll go back
Next week I was l ucky to see Sti l l's pai nting
Years ago, I am abstract a poet I am not what
I forget is poetry com pared-porphyry like moth.

41
 CLAP HAN DS

I ' l l write you sonnets till yo u come

Home from school again, the music of you r cave become
A stalagm itic presence, honey I don't have
An electron ically reg ulated discharge tube..that can emit
extremely rapid, brief and brill iant flashes of
light, such a squinting and twisting around
as to disorder it's nice to divide a sonnet

This way when you m ight fuck me up the ass

On acco unt of the presence of the bureau by the door
Cause of some song l i ke the one by Tom Verlaine
Where he says adieu like a kid from Brooklyn

Tel l like so cause me Bill loves you to not to know

Turn the hear to why over Bill me cause I ' l l know I you
Say and am to exist I not entranced pretty
Can't Bill with startling say Shakespeare myself that

Couplet I adore you it's my habit

I want manly things & should not, women come to me

42
SO N N ET: TWENTY DOLLARS I N H ELL

Introduction : Poetry's good because it's hold up in the known rooms

of stanzas before anybody wakes us up mornings as hegemony love
the pretension of ink might notice dear father dear father the chu rch is
hot the church is hot but there m ight be q u ite a few little songs to be
sung before the decimation of the race or love that you have right now
in american time beats which is more time for a person from here or
there to work in but less time due to that lesion of the leisure of the
bom b which one doesnt mention to be d ramatic poets have always
sunk ships or died in or dear the water maybe

If you adore me
Why dont you take out you r old-fashioned arms
& threaten me my darling we' re at a loss
A little spear a bow and arrow ought to do us good
You can push a thread through the outline of a kite
With a scissor or something else sharp in the n ursery school
Which expresses a distrust for m etaphor because
The children losing their teeth all the white sense
Your anger at any idiotic situation & dont sit still
At all, they want to but they l ive with you
And in all truth how can they not know
Heartily materialistic fears, I ' l l g ive you twenty dollars
To erase them & so will any child of o u rs to get them
So how can we begin agai n ?

43
 WAR R E N P H I N N EY

A little boy on August first night

Got into the colors possible in the light
Of this u n iverse & of his cock
We spoke the words the little boy ,
My l ittle boy like in the liturgy & in the l itany,
Thee, more aug ust that is magnificent
Than any of the daily concerns, his soft skin.
And losing my judgment I forgot about his Vol kswagen
Which was needed in the morning to carry his father
And his mother to work, it was not his car
But the d rive wasnt far and before you left
After the phone calls we answered
From friends to find you there was time
For another mention of the Russian Revolution
Then I wound u p with my feet at the head of the bed
Knowing hippily about our stars, you r g u itar
& the meeting from which we fled, the proper porcupines
H aving eaten enough of your parents' car's gaslines
To g ive us time to make the l ittle more love
We'd dreamed of before the tow truck came.

44
I N CAN D E SCE N T WAR P O E M SON N ET

Even before I saw the chambered nautilus

I wanted to sail not in the us navy
Tonight I'm waiting for you , you r letter
At the same time his letter, the view of you
By him and then by m e in the park, no rhymes
I saw you, this is in prose, no it's not
Sitting with the molluscs & anemones in an
Em pty autumn enterprise baby you look pretty
With your long eventual hair, is love king ?
What's this? A sonnet? Love's a babe we know that
I'm com ing up, I'm com i n g , Shakespeare o n ly stuck
To one subject but I ' l l mention nobody said
You have to get yo ung Americans some ice cream
In the artificial light in which she woke
 TH E HAN DCU FFI N G OF H E R M ITS W H O G RAB TH E
G E N ITALS' POLICE

"Did you go out of your body?"

"I was feelin good !"
"Yeah but did you go out of you r ..body?"

Weighing trucks and curious l i ke love u pon the postal scale

With faculties still growing feeling still the reprod uction
Of parad isaical children by the wisest anarch ist rhapsodists
There was a beautifu l table brought from China made of what
But that the soul rem embering how she felt but what she felt
remem beri ng not
Like a big good g iant doing a corporal work of mercy, washing the
outsides of the u pstairs windows while singing of
the pleasures of good g ianthood
Retains an obscure sense of possible sublim ity
To which with growing facu lties she doth aspire feeling still
That whatsoever point they gain they still have something to pursue
No man no transformer in cinnabar's mythgear or footwear
Could leap in Elizabeth's room like some Wordsworthian m i l kman's
walkman
I have yo ur purse I am at the wh ite house, I have the edible rhym ing
tiger lily buds for you
& will roast them in potato batter along with snow pea pods
Till I live in a house of numero us fi ne things heaped together u n i­
verse- like & know how come all do not love all.

46
•TA KI N G TH E H U M B LER PAT H "

for Ron Padgett

Was exc ellent advice from Ron

In a dre am
I fell
We were wal king in the rush hour
Got pushed into a snowb ank
By a man in a Bentley
&clim bin goveritlfellinlikeGreek&Latin
Scared at first I'd lose the bottom
But now I can get the Five Good Cookies
To eat and com pare with
The Five Sweet Cupcakes
I wanted in the first place
From the origins of the alphabets of the world

So, think twice

47
 SON N ET

At 1 7 2 E. 4th Street near the bottom of NY's Avenue A

Lig hts make black shadows of g reen trees
And at noon they shout l i ke can nibals
They shout l i ke birds for an hour at noon ,
To watch the wind I wi l l not go (outside my house)
I can't, all night the night is going on
The g rand trees, school's closed, the phone bills
Rhyme i n three's and each of us takes turns being
Jealous but it's I who have no stylus
I can't hear symphonies, can't hear the popular
Songs goodbye n ight you you ng men of morning
Why don't you spend the h urricane with me
Coming light you r brand n ew flashlig hts a little bit
Come on, be even more generous, you boys

48
SON N ET

Other than what's gone on and stupid art

I've no even mem ory of people and their part
In bed I forget all details
T he female with the male entails
For whatever that's worth who cares
He who worries or she who dares
To die practically without mentioning
Again our idiotic utopian friendships

All the city's a mass of slush and ices

You might know I dent about poetries
My hand's you r hand within this rhyme
You look at me this is all fucked u p time
I'm just a sparrow done u p to be
An Amazon or something and he? or thee?

49
 WE EAT OUT TOG ETH E R

M y heart is a fancy place

Where g iant reddish-purple cau liflowers
& wh ite ones in French & English are outside
Waiting to welcome you to a boat
Over the low black river for a big dinner
There's alot of choice among the foods
Even a tortured lam b served in pieces
En croute on a plate so hot as a rack
Of clouds blown over the cold filthy river
We are entitled to see anytime while we
Use the tablecovers to love each other
Publicly d ishing out imitative luxuries
To show off poetry's extrem e generosity
Then home in the heart of a big limousine

50
ON G I FTS FOR G RACE

1 s aw a gre at teapot
I wante d to get you this stupendous
1 000/o cotton royal blue and black checked shirt,
There was a red and black striped one too
Then I saw these boots at a place called Ch uckles
They laced u p to about two inches above you r ankles
All leather and in red, black or purple
It was hard to have no money today
I won't even speak about the possible flowers and kinds of lingerie
All linen and silk with not-yet-perfumed laces
Brilliant enough for any of the G races
Full of luxury, g race notes, p rosperousness and charm
But I can only praise you with this poem-
Its being is the same as the meaning of you r name

51
 B I RTH DAY SON N ET FOR G RACE

I 've always loved (your) Grace in 1 4 li nes, sometimes

I have to fit my love for G race into either
An u nwieldy utopia or a smaller space,
J ust a poem , not a big project for changing the world
,

which I believe
It was the color of you r hair that inspired me to try
to do in words
Si nce such perfection doesn't exist in isolation
Like the Hyacinth, Royal or Persian blues
That go so well with you

Now older than we were before we were forty

And working so much in an owned world for rent money
Where there seems little time for the ancient hilarity
We dig ressed with once on the hypnopompic verges of the sublime
Now more engrossed in hypnagogic literal mysteries of
o u r age and ages I propose
To reiterate how I love you any time

52
HO MEOPATH I C B U SY N ESS

Rigo ro usly going from field to field

To pl ow u p the internecine wars, how do
pe op le fin d the time for their suppers
Or lost articles, there's so m u ch blood
On the pre cinct steps even in the imagist snow
And I go from the moments are becoming tinier
To soon it will be bloody tomorrow's being over
Instead of any extent of thought's, love's
Or work's privileges big enough to be
The right doses. I make little m oney at it
But then who doesn't wake up at 6am to think
Before the grapefru its' eyes, the student cereals
Floating around in, of all things, some milk
Before the window's corridor where the snow flies u p

53
 TH E P OT OF TOAST

As the page declares its divinity

In the g rass field above the garden
I'm thinking of women a sister
Two sisters a mother a mother-in-law
Maybe we spoke of socks or m ittens
Maybe in view of the weather we worried
About the ten found Siamese kittens
Or the m issing ostrich feather
From Margaret's best hat speaking without
Stopping u ntil there's a crisis in the house
And then a string yards long
Comes to be wound about o u r legs
Entangling us till there's no stepping out
Of the circular casements in which we' re about

54
I N CI DEN TS R EPORT SON N ET

for G race

Wo ke up from d ream on
Jul y 9, 1 965 , d ream was erotic
(can't rem ember what was in it) ,
I th ink the woman was attem pti ng
to sit on her chair while
lifti ng the man's wal let
but then on the boatride my hand
got caught in the elevator door
by the firecracker tossed in
by a child who was a woman as m issing
as the coffee money, anyway I
lost balance and, falling, woke u p
jerking off through t h e chair,
another chair, was still falling
on my foot, sorry.

55
 I N CI D E NTS R E PORT SON N ET #2

for Grace too

I was not yet married when

at age 2, a female other, I
put my fi nger into the forms of add ress
of the most blue night early in the morning
and said to my sister Rosemary, "Well,
what do you think of this!"

At the time we were both

sitting on the floor before the balls
of blue glass we were to clean
so often in the futu re and by the window
Rosemary once fell out of, who ag reed
our exploration was fascinating

Only trouble is
Our mother hit the ce iling

56
I N CI D EN TS R EPORT SON N ET #3

for all G race

Ap parently I was lying

i n a na rro w bed with Peggy
in my ap artment on 1 1 th street
when she and I first discussed
ou r im pre ssions of sex and
autoe roticism together.

Approximately 1 8 years later, we've

remembered this weird and
naive conversation and wondered how come
we could 've been twenty then and,
despite our crazy catholic u pbringing,
with the total importunity on everything
like looking and touching,
we didn't do anyth ing.

57
 I N C I D E NTS R E PORT SON N ET #4

yet for G race

Maria told me tong ue-kissing

could get you pregnant
and Jan ice who eventually got preg nant
by the guy
who was also on heroin
who was supposed to be my boyfriend
said you could get pregnant by swimm i n g
b u t w e all got most shocked
when we went over to Laura Cashdollar's house
and her mother liked to watch us
making out, it was alot weirder
than dancing to American Bandstand
or playi ng kissing games
in Freddie Stegel's cellar.

58
I N CI D ENTS R EPORT SO N N ET #5

for G race also

No w you must remember that bed

we sle pt in head to feet in u pstate new york.

David who was probably fou r

had just s o badly injured his foot.

We had scared the wits out of the kids

playing hide & seek outdoors in the dark.

We ate Canad ian Oat Bread and baked

millions of potatoes for our charges.

You and I took notes on everything

including Colin's d ream ravi ngs.

I'm forgetting to mention many things

including attempting to swim in the shallow stream .

Then we got into o u r tiny bed together

with our shared immortal fear of love.

59
 I N CI D E NTS R E PO RT SON N ET #6

this one's for G race

I took a little of the blue color

once called Persian or Royal
new better Hyacinth
though I can't but doubt that that flower's so dark
as you and I are letting it be
for the sake of ag reeing with
what colors are called now
& to get rid of the nationalist
& elitist adjectives no longer appropriate,
and put a glowing-in-the-dark shooting star on it
and then a full and a sliver-
and a half-moon as well
only thing is the kids still
wouldn't turn the lig hts out to see.

60
soN N ET

Beauty of songs you r absence I should not show

How artfully I love you, can you love me?
Let's be precise let's abd icate decorum
You come around you often stay you hit home

Now you are knocking, you need a tylenol;

From all that comedy what will you tel l ?
At least y o u speak, I t h i n k I'd better not;
Often men and not women have to sleep

You've come and gone-to write the perfect poem

And not ten like men or blossoms, but I am profligate
I strike the ground for ruin while you sensibly sleep
And so in this at least a poem can have an end

How could you sleep, I go to wake you up

My Lysistrata, my unannounced rhyme

61
 SO N N ET

To perform for you , ask me why, shall I sleep?

You make love so beautifully I don't know what to do
You come and put you r u n iversity hand
You 've thrown yourself off the roof by now•

A wh ite dog chases a man around the park

You r school hand you r rich hand you r suburban hand
Cares if I come I am a woman & we women must both
Have babies & there's my mi rror & there's my baby

I want one i ntent on your form like a room

Prepare food and eat it if the race would survive
The crystal lay like a com parison with wealth to you
I checked and you don't have your car keys

Can I believe her? So

Returned from the dead.

62
A CATS KI LL EAG LE

Not a son g of love but

Whe n I ask George
Do es he have a handg u n
H e says , "S u re baby"

Oth erw ise it's dar k

Why. d on't you drive & arrive up here
In yo ur rev ersing Lochinvarish Chrysler Reliant
I've got my period & bleed in my Plymouth Horizon
Like when we went to the cave in your Vol kswagen bus

O dear Sir Lancelot

Would you want this particular bowl?
Poor Arthu r it is not his cock
The search being over of some mystery

I put something wooden in my mouth and on the safe porch

I fear the absences of friends who were once here
sitting laughing at this table, a rectangle, they
were driving a Renault Le Car

63
 ENG I N EER I N G G LO RY, TH E S U B LI M E, BOTH COASTS

I g ive a catholic thanks in praise of you r being

And in resemblance: "you were made for it"
You r name means farmer, river rising, a jeweled fig u re
Leader, am oral of the beaches and hills
You contrived it and you speak of ethics u n like the boy
You are the biblical beloved & I am flattered on the day
After the day of atonement you make me come so much
I walk out into the h urricane to speak, I have
No doubt of the truth since to life we engi neer
Our usual toast & to the raucous trees
The shadows of which are making me wait as you do
To play around with you , to go to which hotel as
You r baby in generous time-you wou ld take some of
You r years of life away, I'd g lad ly add them to mine

64
E P I STEMOLOG I CAL SO N N ET

In n er keys on you r my key ring o u r metal ring

fo r h ol ding keys is gold is a base drum I cooked
A con vin cing convection of stews you have to learn
How to talk so you can cook Mount Cook very well or
Cook th e Cook Islands and cool your heels until
Th ere will of cou rse be no more wars or g raduate schools
But all peace will meld even scholarsh ip back together
And Kant will come up often before the kangaroo courts

A number of lines has a structure picked u p

From habit a t y o u a n d melancholy truth
J might sing forever with never a goal nor solution
Except the singing of the tables of the alph abets
And the millions of interconnecting macaronic words
In the free verse fam il ies of the lndo-Euro pean stones

65
 SON N ET

ash Ash is left behind from things

laugh As I love to see you laug hing when you come
drink Or even drink-boom, wow! a wild boy
plate Bring those dam n apricots on a gold plate
crack Before bottles in the park go crack
walls Toward wilder heroin istic walls and we
train Must then get on the red & tan, not the train
traffic Or that exacting traffic plane
pages Between the pages of th is your book
O.K. Read by m any O.K. people
know Who know that stupid
noise Noise is com ing from the street
stil l Still in the still night
independence On independence day welcome death !

with Ph ilip Good

66
 TU R N I N G TH E B O O K S TO TH E I R S H E LVES
RE

I co ul d h ave caught a taxi to you r city

B ut I cou ldn't have gotten back in time
To put bo oks on shelves at P.S. 1 9
I wish I liv ed by a wide stream
I sh o uld' ve called a taxi to your city
A library should have books in it
Pum pki ns shouldn't be made into m ulch
Balloons shouldn't get butter on them
Maybe homes shouldn't have these stupid windows
And art as we know is next to nothing
A library does have books in it
So you come here by train with a cold
I'd rather ru n out for love, never phone
And slam books back u p on their shelves

67
 SON N ET

Whaddo I do now just desire?

Break with any artifice or color?
Like the paid-for-rains and suns?
Commercials done on Avenue D today?
I won't court you yo u oug htta be normal
As if
I'm talking to another who's never
Not there, asleep malely

Meanwhile men in suits are waking up

And fine if they can appear to say
This is so
All together we wish for others in our beds
So that in the night we can hold some one of the num bers
Of like-mothers for all of stupid time

68
W IT H G R ACE

after the Price Chopper

We sit in the car d ri n king beer

St udyin g the architectural shingles of the center
Drive fast outta there down the prettiest road
Past my old house in glee of rem i niscence
Covering every subject in universe in m i n utes
High on Monument Valley Road
Praising each other right
Past the Open H eart Memorial and
Laughing at the i ntersection
Of Lake Buel with 23
That we've been in such harmony for 23 years
P lan a long trip together
Stop short for a rabbit
Get back with the g roceries

69
 SO N N ETS : TH E LAN D LO R D WAS TH ROWN O U T OF TH E R E N T
STAB I LIZAT I O N G RO U P

The landlord was th rown out of the rent stabilization g roup

Because he did so m any wrong and bad thi ngs
We don't know what this means yet
& whether o u r rent wi ll go down or u p
I f that's a punishment for us or him
He who's harrassed us all this time
Then we harrassed him this is not like love
Now finally he's th rown out we th rew him out long ago
Of the possible ways of being human
& so maybe it's kind that he's now out of time
With his colleag ues because of his manipulations
I don't like the landlord's hand so m uch that I am happy but
Why's he been so derelict like a lover
As to let things go this far?

II
It's im possible sometimes for the woman not to think of the landlord
if he's a man as a father, that's what some of the old women in the
building here have told me, yo u would n 't want to live with him, this is why
no body ceases to pay their rent or goes on rent stri ke or is willing to
face another father-judge in the cou rts, do you remember how you r
kids' teachers, i f you have them, can make y o u feel nervous in that
same way, the authorities avoid them. So it is right the land lord is a
man, his agent is a woman who is so pervasively divisive as to be
inhuman I wont talk to her she makes me want to weep I wont lie
down I wont give a tip to the landlord's pimp, could this be a sonnet?
I wonder on it, who is who and what is what. I dont live in this build-
ing by accident this is my reservation I live with the sleepi ng lions I
was rem inded cars were when you crossed in the m iddle of the street
that they thought I actually owed them something just at the moment
they woke u p to roar at me and you and perhaps eat us.

70
S ON N ET FLAN DERS R OAD

Today she cleaned up and left in the red car

She said m ist was caught in the mountains
Take all the lettuce you want from the garden
She said she was born in 1 9 4 8 which makes her
32, what's the m ist doing being caught
In the val leys so contiguous like overheari ng
Neighbors quarreling I can almost touch the
Pot roast the man of the house m ade for once

To think o n too few strangers makes me blind

Befogs the mind next door obscures my sanity
In the country clouds what's bright in humankind

I'll have a m i llion neig hbors in the city

All at once above below it's easier for love
Demystifies does organize the film before my eyes

71
 S P O O KY ACTION FROM A D I STANCE: SON N ET ABOUT H OW
LOVE I S AS TEACH I N G AS YOU B R EATH E D E E P LY WITH
D I S R ES P ECT FOR TH E TEXT AND B ECO M E D I SJ ECTA M E M B RA
FROM YO U R LOVE R

for Don Yorty

And young he (there's always been this dare) sleeps waking

Partly sideways, mollescent yet macho (only joking)
Always retreating back to what the !awned home
Or something irreligious m ight be, who knows what's known ?
Many other absent things done in times like ours of these
U nfulfill love's presence like it was one of those
Displayed wedding cakes on 1 4th street with a bed of pink
Beside the hockey players, if you begin yo ung to think
Life is shit you ' re better off later when you get
A sort of basketballish hope from you r fancier genes yet
I've seen how the light looks in each circumstance
And gone out to get oranges, Tide and water all at once

It might be right to write of just the hour

That's a structure good as love's or any measure

72
TH E B O O K OF DO LLS

previous to the little images being put in the g rave

which say mama & papa accord ing to which arm is raised
real people were buried along with the dead one
the sleeping eyes are attached to a lever at the waist
sleeping kings to sea in burning ships with real men on them
the baby is unbreakable and joi nted and even when shipped
says, "ah, ah, aaah ;' when ti pped

the bald white china head of the earliest known

sleeping doll the hair is attached to a small spot
on the head's crown even stones into a h u man image
the ancient boy and g i rl doll Queen Mary is very
interested indeed in all kinds of and the d ressing
of the hair which is so im portant the sloped & sq uare
shoulders narrow waists and large hips fixing a date

73
 SON N ET: KAM I KAZ E

Dawn & night o f fighting , lovers like actual wars

And as gentle men might be gentle, so they are not.
Jeans we all wear independent of our m utual sexes
Some li psticked & rouged & eye-linered, some not.
I dont want to meet h i m , he does not prepare the food ;
Also I am old. He the same age, younger, awaits my death.
A scholar, he doesn't count the births or clothes ;
A scholar too, I keep track of the ages of the clothing.
Love seems to die for him with love's attention ;
No point in thought or fight with dyed-in-wool women.

If we cant get along then who the fuck can ?

I will not run or go forward American, divine wind.
A person, I m ust insist on a heartless agreeing ;
A person too, he must agree some love can be.

74
SO N N ET

Waiting for you to come back from a comedy show

You and I what do we do? We read Aristophanes
Because you are still in school. On the street
A crazed Hasidic man called you my husband, I am not

You are who I am pregnant, g ive me my kiss

You whom I often & silently come where you are
That I may be with you , we ought not to speak
At all like this for the women who are you r brothers

Now we have a rest together at last & dream

Of the salt & pepper shakers & of the scary sisters
Of us who seem exempt chasing each other around
You knowing less than I cause I'm a formal mother

Not-son fuck me again

Close this night's seven windows

75
 SON N ET

So long honey, don't ever come around again , I'm sick of you
& of you r friends, you take u p all my time & I don't write
Poems cause I spend all my time wanting to fuck you & then
You put the apple onto the grilled cheese, I tie you up

Save me from you r respective beauties, keep them home

Thanks for all the rock & rol l m usic, if such a
Thing can be said. Who are those g uys? The B-52's?
That's what Ethie told me. Can I believe her?

You wanna get married ? You tie me u p with

Garter belts & less than Heidegger & Kierkegaard the fact
That as we know the poem is not the thought so a slap
Might notice that Uranus suspected a comet? Let me know

He kicks her fallen hat & they are not grownu p

A n y more than a vase o f flowers i s , painted, so what?

76
A MA R R IAG E OF CUT F LOW E R S

It's a room in a hotel

This has no m r. meaning at all
The prom iscuous lilacs
The too-sweet tuberose
Some sweet williams and
A pink delphinium dolphin
Who sees them says that this place must
Fill this room with someth ing

To fuck everyone as in the millenium

It might be a very g reat pleas u re
To seduce and slap at all smells
I could hit your penis grand father
Of a funeral parlor or a reg ular field
And all that is complaining darling

77
 TH E EARTHWO R K E RS' G O D IS H EALED

Witness the sarcophag us of non-Raphael

I open the window
He & I've got synchronous particles
Plus the death sim u ltaneous of the real
The lithographer now non-George
Two socialists I loved
Lived to be skinny and prolific
Within their torsos existed
The unprepared hum of health
Twice too past their nonidentical deaths
But do I g ive a fig about death?
Let's forget them !
Those two g reen birds who bite my fingers
Till I scream for identical help

78
OCTAVE S U B LI M E EXC U S E S FOR SAY PO ETRY
PR ETTY TH E R E A R E N OT TASTES I N STEAD O F
TH E R O O M S

Word you r sublime on the courtyard

Someone's not so bad
Excuses you r for say musics or poetry there is
None living on top or below
Tastes played are not mine
I see you in sublime
Instead of the stanzas the rooms
But to be surrou nded's loss

79
 SON N ET WE AR E O R D I NARY C'M E R E

Excerpts I love y o u from abstracts

So what who cares songs of one and
Experience of this is a case like
Whole and I am not from there I write
To you to say I know noth ing as ever
No rhyming no everything there is
No proceeding no thinking you will be my
What will you be? And that is the end

Except for the instance

What are yo u weari ng?
Why aren't you here?
Where'd you put the window?

C'mere
Tell me the rest of it

80
S O N N ET

You dare to study philosophy baby I'll tell you

About fucking Aristotle I n ever planned to fall
In love with you who often h appen by where I am
Let me hide you am idst the sublime responsibility you are

Now not let off & as such idiots love's own we speak
Let's be q uiet we own noth ing we know no fact I h it
Our love is not allowed it's m issed the rain is snow
It's not and there is more than one dream of visit

I fell for you intolerably to others let's get

I thought you were my other, boys and children had
So did g i rls but let's proceed maybe in ath letic secret
We'd make some love and money interned by repetition

The first of the month is a Monday

The beginning of our residency

81
 14 QU ESTI O N S FOR TO M SAVAG E

Is when or where I start or you even fair? I dont know,

is it not? Sex
I mean & dying for & this equal sign of worth. But
is it to whose good-lookingness
We look confused before till when into sex l i ke Dan
& Who talki ng it was
Spoken around right-after-we-were-kids? Know I when my
rig hts all & of animals may
Confuse them now with kids who laug h to be goats to our
satyrs, what is wort h ?
Satiric for it t o be that o f the question rather about
children, arent they as little welcome
Or less in N ew York City public place at least, as radicals
& queers are were wi ll be?
Age three, me you or saintly, su pernal th is's & that's of all the sexes,
who is welcome in this world?
When being among spreads the venial sins' im patience on the
obedience to biblical g u i lt both immoral
& immaterial ly genital the d iseases then venereal, that is
coming from love
Dying of w�ich they or the innocent are in sex not manipulative
like corpo rate execs
Deciding there's no money in cervical caps for want of victims to
the hegemony of preg nancy
& governmental devils who make proclivitous women children &
men in healthy baths mortal by planning to kill them all
& as many real friends, love & the marks of that they see & they see
not nor the beyond of the question how come we're all
scared to make love

82
TH E P R ES E N CE OF O N E W H O SOM ETI M ES LEAVES A P LACE

It's a secret if you don't tel l and don't lie

He can really eat a ham and cheese sandwich
No kidding, will he come, now he's too cold, I count,
I will g ive him another name, I wake him up as if
All people could do all things, you court the food of sleep
While I take you r presence less lightly, I want to get
To the n i nth floor where you ' re in my bed as if reason
Could prevent my ascension in the lift, I shout your name.
Another name? Call me back. A tree out of its g roup
Is vulnerable like paint washes in the air,
Reasons about the end of the literal distance between us
It is from you renamed that I would write this in you r arm s :

What o f the ch u rch a n d the place you touch : h o w dare y o u sleep?

What of the soul, luxuries and discourse : did you eat?

83
 SON N ET: W I LL I W R ITE POETRY?

I heard a man say in a restaurant

When I fel l in love I got tired of causes
And knew it was time to get cruel
Otherwise I wou ldnt know who I was he said ,

Imagine a woman who was practically no one

Began to love another it was white as snow
the black horse was evil pleased as pu nch
& red as beets we walked out into the streets

Busy as beehives ful l of men like roosters

Ganders & dragons & l ions & tigers ful l of
Lionesses and tigresses, hens, geese & d ucks
As always there are three American Ind ians plus

Us twelve-year-olds without any mothers

At my door with the lion with them all asking me

84
S O N N ET

The arts of death stop by and by not this letter

I'd wish to know and be somebody better

Knocki ng on the food do not enter never

Does my father look like who alters all broken
Still there is noth ing to conclude what
Her birth is soon my period ic day so

Where is love is late mother I read

I wonder what speaking has to do with
Hotdogs I ' l l just leave the door open
And oh Marie is hungry and I am hungry too
To wait to get you from church to movie
Old escalators of the modern art I can't dark
What i nterspoken walls daug hter hungry
One step or two forgotten by this letter

85
 OF QU ESTI O N

There is no sign of her or him my love is

Building a building around you have to have
Harmed like she never planted who stays
Listening maybe to females to cu nts wondering
What were the wars' beginn ings who eats the serious
Serious there is no sign from her who the building
Reflects at least two things at once are nothing

Is the phone really tapped ? Will you come

With cl itorises with balls and all not hiding
In rooms as men might shun the traffic even
Of new friends do you think cocks are friendless?

The kids in j unior high say g i rls are nice as boys

Are awful and both g i rls & boys say th is same thing

86
SOM ETH I N G I CAN'T SAY H E R E

You don't exist i f t h e leaves are inept

Come by peonies of all the colors
Mommy the Twi light Zone is on I love you
Not as fire escape view or epic cartoon
You are my father in his g rey overcoat
You let me let Edwin see what's u p
That in my vagina would fall a d rop o f cock
And it would be on in the daylight and night
So that Theodore A. Mayer with a cup had a son
& late for school was I to tend the Bill Berkso n tombs
"Do you want to go to them ?" said creamy God
There are little bits of turkey in the sauce
And why did I happen to see you r photog raph,
Know you as equal not am I so, as I you

87
 TO A M OVI N G VIO LAT I O N

Red it was I know it was yellow

Christopher told me too, Philip, yet I
Believe both of you since light changes
Quick as l ust is last remem bered truth, Bill
& for sixty dol lars you could get just heart & head
About halfway around the world with both in bed

The sentient cops remem ber not

Their flashlig hts' infiltration
What are crows doing here in the city listening
I sleep unadorned in my folded u p thing
Since I ' m living in the basement of absent
Of this apartment which will waken like a list
Now into you r glove com partment I come without warning
The fear I feel of h umans will be gone in the morning

88
N OTH I N G KNOWN, a fi l m

Noth ing known or else twice sits

Right by the destiny of you in the m iddle of
A big dark car back seat the one on you r
Right's the friend a n d you ' re writing
A treatment in three dimensions so you bri ng
Out the magical sym bols named for
Who what might be standing for as if to say
All human beings feel the same way

Right by the same side but on the other's the guy

Who sort of j udges this thing so we look
At his him with no her here, this periodic character
Question mark fuck here with you r undone cock and
Why not remember you already left this guy right
In the m iddle of the tel ltale Coca Cola creation dream

89
 SON N ET

nothing to wake to you can never

do noise what's there to do check-cash?
a snarl of laugh i ng violets at the ing place
sonnet is an offer of a previous peace
welcome wednesday the day is forthright
it has hands and ending curly windows
and the sun is not to be out them
old grey spring sits down with us
like a big g roup without a sense of humor
not allowed to say that like the hyd rangea
it's awful to exist if you ' re poisonous

the morning dove is nearly in the room

but for the child guard the dove'd be in the room,
then flew back through the m i rror, no foo ling

90
TH E COM P LETE I NTROD UCTO RY LECTU R ES ON PO ETRY

for Ted Berrigan

It was when the words on the covers of books,

Titles as true as false leaves led me to believe
In inviting the u ltimate speculation of love­
That I could learn all of the subject-
That I first began to entertain what is sublime

Like a moth I thought by read ing J O KES AN D

TH E I R R ELATI O N TO TH E U N CO N SC I O U S or B EYO N D
TH E PLEAS U R E PRI N CI PLE o r EAT TH E W E E D S or
TH E O R I G I N O F S PECI ES or even a book on
CO U P D ' ETATS or TH E PRO BLEM OF ANXI ETY I
Could accom plish the knowledge the titles implied

Science that there is often more

In the notes on the back of a d iscarded envelope,
Gram mar in the shadows slanted on the wall
Of the too bright night to verify the city light

And then awakening, babies, to turn and make notes

On the dream's public epigrams and one's own
Weaknesses, self that's prone to epigrammatic rid icule

And to meditate on fears of all the animal dangers

Plus memories of reptil ian appellations for all
Our stages of learning to swim at a past day cam p

It is to think this or that might include all

Or enough to entertain all those who already know
That in this century of private apartments
Though knowledge might be coveted hardly anything
Is s hared except pen u rious poetry, she or he
Who sti l l tends to titles as if all of us
Are read ing a new book called TH E N EW LI FE.

91
 TH E P H E N O M E N O N O F CHAOS

Love's not intent today what did I see

A bank, a store, a pattern of leaves
Fallen to the basketball court because
Rain followed the smoke of eleven states' fires •

To exit from the u niverse you cou ld

Believe nothing is checked on
But we don't exactly exist do we
Otherwise how could we

Do you love me when the earth's sun

Sets on your song on your tongue
This is ridiculous the u niverse
Is no longer u niform

By this we mean the u niverse's not or aint

A standard of nothing love's turning no more

92
!H�. COMPu:TI: I�ODU CTORY U:CT'u� O'S POETRY

for Ted B errigan

It w a s when the words on the c over s o f b o o ks ,

ti t l e s as true as fals e l e aves led me to be li eve
I4 invi ti n g the ultimate s p e c u l a ti on of love -

!hit I could l e arn a l l of t he s u b j e c t -

!hat I firs t bega.� to ent erta=.n what is sublime

Like a mothI thought by r e ading JOI:ES AND

THEIR RELATION TO !f.E UNCONS C:Ol.'S or BEYOND
THf1 PLEASURE PR-.TN CIPLE or EAT T!:'}; :./L 'C'!:S or
TH� , OP..IGIN OF TiiE S P ECJES or even a b o o k o n
COUP D ' ETA 'IS or THE PROB LE·! OF A�i:G:ITY I
eo Jad ac comp lis h the Y.?lowl e d ge t h e ti t l es imp li ed

S ci en c e that ther e is of t e n more

In the no tes o n the bac k of a c!is car d e d enve lope ,
Grasnar in the s hadows s l ant ed on the wa l l
Of th e t o o bri ght ni g h t t o verify the ci t y li ght

A.�d then awake�.ing , babi es , t o turn a n d make n o t es

On the dr e am ' s pub li c e�i grws and one ' s own
Weaknes s es , s e lf that ' s pr o n e to epi gr a..'llll: a ti c ri di cule

of a l l t h e a.ni::: a l dangers
And t o m e di t a t e on . f e ar s
P lus memories of r ep ti li an app e l lati o n s for a l l
Our s tages of l e ar ni n g t o s w'i..u a t a p a s t c a y cal!lp

It i s to t �,ink this or tha t �.:ight i n c l ude a l l

0-r enough to enter t ai n a l l t h o s e w h o alr eacy know
That in this c entury of priva te apar tille nts
Though knowledge mi�ht be c ov e t e � har d l y anything
Is s har e d exc ept p enuri ous p o e try, s h e or he
Hho s ti l l t ends to ti t l e s as: if all of us
Ar e reading a new book ca l l ed TEE NE\.I LIF E .

93
S KINNY SONNETS

Hypnag o g i c Word Play ing

in R eport ers ' Not epads

for Phil

August 1 9 8 9
S K I N N Y SO N N ETS
Tuesday

Stars we were here

before you one
is one another
who said towels on
door's closed no
apricot on it did
Phil she slapped
her daughter then

I saw it no I
heard it then
other lamp/reader
arced into room
I wanted just
dream O K bye

97
 Drea m

Period was when

door entered d u m b
what was I she
revealed that was
the play the
calendar of us
notes on the criminals
by John he left

them then we were

in a play they
did something to
someone wh ile we
were somewhere to
g ive up everything

98
Drea m

Cou rted art was long

l ife in yr red briefs
icewater 747 tooth
brush you have my I
think they h ad this
sturdy thing ri pping
Rapunzel they had
this sturdy thing
ri pping Rapunzel

No need to repeat
Raoul Coutard was
lonely with her on
the road of baby
carriage/will not
m ake beds today

99
 Drea m

Anatomy panoptically
room for an avid Navaho
A biter of insects' nests
Foot in pond Honk
Max, Jody drove into
pond dead no sound
rescued Sophia be
too from bunkbed fell

All wonder if lamp

the can l ive in a
tree while the chair
while the driveway
& the clicking bram ble
raspberries be howl
(of civilization)

1 00
Thu rsday N ight

I kept ice cubes from the bats

I cheated I waited till
All would cross incandescent
Lam p the till I rad ishes
Went back m aybe ordered
Cold water there is no
He said there is no so
Then what next The H ag u e

All worlds cross

Limited no change
Loud laughs of
Then serious talk
Of laid-out laid
Down the adolescents

1 01
 Two l's Thu rsday

Cart that hammocked

I went to get more
But dont wake them
Perfect would be art
Of shadow change to
Imitate future or other
Breed I count patterns
Of leaves & go get

Someth ing, a I
finished the book I
didnt write, they
saw me, I cou nted
the errors of others
No that's Friday

1 02
Re m i nisce nce

Outside cool no bears

I'd dived for the bicycle
Bub bles they said there
& it m ust me be I'm
Not as harsh as most
Lesbians though in a
House of women I see
Shadows of the what

I've never gotten a

bicycle out of a
pond before I
found it strenuous
and son d idnt die
& noise is now noth ing
(behind me)

But--

1 03
 Moment

Honk oh sku n k I wi ll
Be q u ite next to you if
To stay here means
To m ake a good story
To sit under any light
Oh there here where
On a narrow pad it's
J ust the apples falling

& pears & now the

bats shadowing
Can I get back to
the house full of
teens, the tree
immotions: you ' re crazy

1 04
Transition

I know the # of everything

That is, I know nothing
There are seven leaps
Back to the scared house
Yet I'm immobile as my
Cousin the im itation
Aspen who whitens
As the seasons th reaten

I sit still here &

I dont know if
Any breakfast will
Be allowed . I am
Sorry for all my
Past sins frogs

1 05
 New

There's something in lengths

Of times & my friends
They wont lock the door
Like the danger in a car
Where when God locks it
The skin of you r arm
Gets pinched in the west
Th is is all new to you

Dear a pocket is
Desirable tree
A pocket dear
Tree for you r money
Is frenzy pocket
Get mo ney out q u ick

1 06
Frogs Leg s

Uh oh it's 2 :30 I 've gotta

be up at 8 but I always
wake 6 : 1 5 anyway then
med itate glacial cut-off
here i n the hypnagogic
closest to animal wo rld
No dont cross my path
you comforting spiders

but rain ok
since dont know u
well as inside & out
ugh meat food
on plate when leaf
might do

1 07
 I nside

I nside no animal adventured

warmth bug so far the ant
I'm scared of noise too
Brick on door to fight mosqu ito
Six kids sleeping in a
square of talked couches
I check to see they're all
There as I come inside

Amanda
Charlie
Ch rissie
Sophia
Marie
J ody

1 08
Ad u lts

Are moths: Mary Louise

Carol Bernadette and
pre viously Kathy. Max
& Alexandra are in their
reg ular rooms. Soon to
come: Charlie Sr. Steven
& Ph ilip Mars Johnny
Astrofix glue in Central
Station

Thought were fou r

doesnt belong here
why in that bathing
again today at all
or is it just for fun
Where are the gloves?

1 09
 Son net

Measure the attributes

of low salt cheezits
Let's go to the h u m m m
H e ' s struggling in the mouth
of the alligator or is it
It happens every time I
touch them you must
search for the bedspread

outside the cool

greed of the astronauts
bright yellow job is
proof a woman's
three women in corners
d u l led to o u r sense

110
Satu rday

Art, Baudrillard , such a

come on well she got
pillaged alot happened what
Central Station I'll have
some arms we can dovetail
but they come & vacuum
the masturbator king
multi-syllabic nonsense
syllables

Am is are was were

dim door free nothing
times it semi-cloudy
airplane noise sill of she
said the dead, the song
the lam p crashed up

111
 Su nday

Come to my house
to my house locust
his thrust my novel
an ignition of meaning
for northern orange curtains
for image bathroom curtains
a woman's servant & companion
absolute entry denigrate the king

Times it descri bing

cloud of fu nny water
it itches no but
theoretically we women
darkness I'm u pstream
blowing the wooden
hanger off

112
So nnet

Close the u mbrella door of

the what it's called a
beach towel in Ethie's
parents' house m useum
please get me a tissue please
She Coltrane apt sense was
beginning weeps arch she
turning worn her mid riff

Mean i ng's last possible

morning have nothing off
to exhibit rinsing it
turq uoise the wakeup
vig il of the first one u p
turn & y o u share with Marie

113
 Te mpora ry Scudding of the Sea

All at once & we dont

know if did I destroy
this there's optional nature
with Mary Money at 1 0 :30
The cabinet was a stairs
I'm young up the stairs
and for the fi rst time
I tear the orange food

from her crossed chest

from her chest crossed
seven watch cold desired
its cold its cold its cold
good mourning out here
dead mother's corpse

114
Barbed Purselai n i ng Pla nning

Did I destroy this the

putting up with horizontal
the licking man in prose
I dont know my name is
an international sunlight
wondered it's light here
honey bunch c'mere experiment
summed would you find out

what happens in the

income of the levels of
colors to feed you are
j ust because I came in
raspberry nectar g u les
could the half house appear

115
 Left i n Box on Street nea r House

Horizon acts if whe n

y o u float y o u cant b e
seen if when y o u swim
it's against the reg u­
lations. Duck down
when someone comes.
Rearrange the furnitu re.
Dont read harsh novels
comma clouds are never
Winter's got nothing to

With it the cabinet

Was in process
Acting to stripe
Point of open eyes

116
Go B ack to Sleep Song

Lie down legs apart, no

limbs touching lie on
back close to floor
lie down arms apart &
dont have a head you
are in the cou ntry you
lie down twice nothing
is just a riddle you

Module with a
revolving door
meaning red bathrobe
No you dont reject the words
Act that incorporates
While the it rest of
that book

117
118
NOTE ON SONNETS:

I didn't real ize I had written these sonnets m uch less that I had written
them for such a long time but one year recently without anticipation
I found I was writing sonnets all the time and after a while I began to
expect to write them and soon in the m idst of all this contemporary
sonnet writing going on I looked through my past poems in the morning
and discovered I'd been writing the always somehow peripheral sonnet
all along without understanding the forms of brief conclusive thought the
poems had been taking so often in 1 4 lines without me. How serious
notorious and public a form, to think you could find the solution to a
problem or an ending to an observation in one brief moment-a fraction
of an abreaction or the science of the pattern of cru mbs appearing on
the table from the eating of a loaf of bread . Why are we as h uman beings
so stu rdy? How can we conscion existence much less love? Is that why
we have philosophy? Why deconstruct so innately? Is the sonnet form
a form of abd ication of reality? Because it is so neat & thus does have
conclusion? Is poetry's method of conclusion disjointed to for instance
the life of the bee? If there are no conclusions why do we wish for them ?
Love m ust be a subject I felt. Are poems like dreams representations
of the absolute beauty of the future ? Is the dilation of a form like the
unbelievability and consequent common acceptance of the something
of giving birth as if that were someth ing less or more or equal to the
necessity of having as many astonishing fingers as have not once been
lost? When I studied my poems, I covered the floor with them and made
a survey. The inadvertent sonnets, most of love in doubt, won the contest
among other forms and other subjects, no subjects, landlord political
sex suppressed , tied only with the categories of experimental workouts,
poems for the dead and I don't know. And so it seemed m ost likely even
honest, given the chance, to make availablest the headlong sonnets
wh ich are a way of thinking amidst our hem ispheric faults-put on what
you call what a woman wears around her waist, our many-colored octave,
then rest from thought and form u l ate the next design.

{Bernadette Mayer, 1 989}

119
 PRAI S E FOR TH E FI RST E D I T I O N

Long ago, in the days of Sh akespeare and Du Bellay, the sonnet was
something far different from the genteel parlor game it has become
today. Bernadette Mayer's sonnets-sharp, dark and powerful-look back
to those strong beg innings.
- John Ash b ery

Bernadette Mayer in her Sonnets is like blowi ng a reed instrument

through the frame. So that something really 'tough' in the sense of
beautiful goes on outside the poems.
- Leslie Scalapino

Bernadette Mayer is an independent experimental writer who likes to

bounce artballs off trad itional wal ls. Most of her sonnets are 1 4-liners,
though some are longer-like those of Fu lke Greville, Lord Brooke
( 1 55 4- 1 628), who favored 1 8 to 2 4 lines-and many use the octave­
sestet contrast. Otherwise they're formally unorthodox, with seldom­
m etrical lines of all lengths and n o eno rhymes (except for one in rhymed
couplets) . Written to friends and lovers, mainly about feelings and
children and day-to-day life (unlike philosophical F.G !s) , they're often
impulsive-with wild paratactic leaps-but never "confessional!' They' re
idiosyncratic, they lack periods, they're unfashionable, they have questi on
m arks, they' re enlivening.
- Jackson Mac Low

1 20
Here is the real New Fo rmalism straight from the heart. Bernadette Mayer
demonstrates that the sonnet can be surprising, thoroughly elegant,
as direct as porn, filled with laug hter, anger, daily life, simultaneously
intense and casual, wise, literate, q uiet, true (see the Incident Reports
Sonnets ! ) , cou rageous, brazen, crabby, tu nefu l , exact, sly, open to
improvisation, willful, im possible to read si lently, as necessary as the rent,
and completely unforgettable.
- Ron Sill iman

With devotion as well as irreverence, Bernadette Mayer's sonnets

deliver the smart and lively, with a spirited purity decked-out in
amiable naughtiness. A sonnet is the ideal form for her play of order
against chaos in the National Human League, where numbers are
not the only score.
- John Godfrey

Bernadette Mayer is the genius of a difficult, libertine language. The love

s onnet will never be the same.
- Anne Waldman

1 21
Bernadette Mayer is the recipient of the 20 1 4 Poetry
Society of America's Shel ley Memorial Award and
the author of more than two dozen volumes of poetry.
A form er director of the Poetry Project at St. Mark's
Church in the Bowery and co-editor of the conceptual
magazine 0 to 9 with Vito Acconci, Mayer has been a
key fig u re on the N ew York poetry scene for decades.
Mayer has taught at Naropa Poetics I nstitute, New
School for Social Research, Col lege of Staten Island,
and New England Col lege. She has received g rants
and awards from : PEN American Center, Fou ndation
for Contemporary Perform ing Art, The N EA, The
Academy for American Poets, The Poetry Society of
America, and American Academy of Arts and Letters.