Compositional History

Today we find ourselves in a very novelistic world.

As in foot note (1)

What do you have to think the poem is

indicates the source

anything beyond that

you find there is a lot better poetry

decourous certainly

double removed

it is in the letters these figures

write to each other.

1. No one is left behind on earth

Notes From Narragansett

The painter worked into evening

and ended up creating night.

"You see the moon is shinning on the ocean,

and a woman is carrying in the laundry

over her tumbled arms."

It began to rain on the ocean.

I said, I see nothing

but nothing I said

said to him there

was no ocean, no woman, no laundry, no moon.

World as Voyeur

waves slapping like jello

vanished noises

swinging our naked arms

like the dead

laid down on their pillars

living at the back of the orchard

and called and sent home

and bled

a cadence behind the eyes

voices like bombed out homes

reading the train schedules

reading the hotel menu

reading Ulysses for the first time

at 36. Life happens

in a few fine years

and nothing but doing it all

over again will suffice.

I'm wondering when the river

its course, is a bad thing

when it changes

and the fish all die out

or a good reason.

I practice being still.

I practice

and practice.

I think the poem has changed.

Even though I didn't want to show you that.

Poem Without Revisions

He issued the definition

like a hand coming out of the sunlight,

like the universe was suppose to fill up.

He said, "There is more importance

leaving the white carnations of our world."

There was a parade turning down our street.

There were trucks and very shiny automobiles.

There were people throwing candy.

For a moment I felt that I might be coming home

to my dear wife.

And I hoped for a long time.

The summer was almost over in the tomatoes.

There was only one window in which the swallows could leave.

We walked to the field where no horse was.

I could not sing.

I could not say anything.