In the Honorific Style

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A moment of pause and applause for blogger and poet compatriot <3 K. Happy Birthday!
(and hey, it's also a 4th of July poem, and hey, it's not one of ours, but hey, it rocks anyway. I'm trying to dig up a recording of this...the text falters at showing his tendency to scare the beejezus outta you with the combust-shout-scream)

Dream Song 22
Of 1826

John Berryman

I am the little man who smokes & smokes.
I am the girl who does know better but.
I am the king of the pool.
I am so wise I had my mouth sewn shut.
I am a government official & a goddamned fool.
I am a lady who takes jokes.

I am the enemy of the mind.
I am the auto salesman and lòve you.
I am a teenage cancer, with a plan.
I am the blackt-out man.
I am the woman powerful as a zoo.
I am two eyes screwed to my set, whose blind—

It is the Fourth of July.
Collect: while the dying man,
forgone by you creator, who forgives,
is gasping 'Thomas Jefferson still lives'
in vain, in vain, in vain.
I am Henry Pussy-cat! My whiskers fly.

Comments

  1. JonJuly 4, 2009 at 7:58 AM

    I've always had a hard time with Berryman. He's clearly writing crazy shit. Why is he selling it as normalcy? granted, the "I am..." anaphora might not have been a cliche back then, but still... I like anaphora... and I like excess... but this seems excessive, inasmuch as it uses it's only trick as much as possible (and the trick is of debateable effectiveness). But I have a nagging feeling I'm missing something.

    I purposefully made the website as loudly forth of july as possible. I saved the old picture of brass rods. Remember, this website, the points, our comments, all are only as good and engaged as we make them. So feel free to change everything back, to simplify or to amplify. Now, I'm going to go make some comments.

    ReplyDelete

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