Ken(nan) Gault 26 December 2020

                       (Ken Gault 1982)

'I wanted to be

Like him,' like Peter

Bock, to be

Peter Bock,

     -I took in Ken Gault, 

     -Drew his face oval,

     -Neck lines to

     -His shoulders;

I wanted his grace,

Self-assuredness,

I paid to

Bring him home,

     -Ears, nose, mouth, with lips

     -Sewn tight, his silence

     -Kept session

     -Serious;

For less than rent, I

Had ownership; peered,

Curious

What he thought,

     -Crayoned some head hair,

     -Worked between colors

     -Of his plaid

     -Shirt, and eyes;

Traded dead air for

Man-made, intimate

Dialogue:

He was hung,

     -Wary expression

     -Eluded more than

     -Proximate

     -Critiquing;

We are connected

Through ex's, 'couldas,

Shouldas,' shares

At the Pines,

     -Invited tricks would

     -Roleplay naked lines

     -With complete

     -Abandon;

'I was a mummy,'

Bandages costumed

Foot-in-mouth

Prevention,

     -Linkages presumed 

     -Staged, histrionic

     -Recital

     -Of housemates;

Hausfraus hummed of their

Experience to

Educate

Innocent,

     -Marched to the beats of

     -A dedicated,

     -Drummer boy

     -Entourage;

Different montage

Predicated search

For inner

Most batboy,

     -Clued on preference

     -Promulgated WASP

     -Attachment

     -To frat boys;

Paid to commingle

With hotel guests, hewed

To 5 Oaks

Showcasers,

     -Waylaid by poets'

     -Friends, window shopped by

     -West Broadway

     -Gallerist;

Fabulous: fiction;

Substantiated:

Fact; (Waldorf

Pragmatist),

     -Exhibitionists

     -Hauled out family

     -Jewels for

     -Inspection;

Bald-faced disclosure

Kept zipped up yule log's 

Warm, drizzled,

After bite,

     -180 degrees

     -Of separation

     -Quarantined

     -Perspective;

Spared KS eclipse

Warranted pallor

For full-blown

Conversion,

     -A dearth of bare mooned

     -Perversity palmed

     -Appetite

     -In austere;

Fulsome hindquarters,

Beano calmed, tooted

Last boyfriend's

Best gossip,

     -Lip serviced forest    

     -For the trees in it,

     -Close pursuit

     -Guaranteed;

Fancied hirsute cloth

Penance applying

Pectoral

Decoupage,

     -Conte accompli,

     -While bandied about

     -Languished with

     -The spectral;

Some doubt distinguished, 

Determination 

That conflicts

Be resolved,

     -Subsumption involved,

     -Spouted sepia

     -To depict

     -Full-blooded.

   

28 December 2020

      

     

Patrick Porter 20 January 2020

                   (Patrick Porter 1983)

                     (Patrick Porter 1981)

                       (Patrick Porter)

Camera shy you

Couldn't be among

Eyes counting

On a shot,

     -Delicately drawn

     -Out from collegiate 

     -Field to share 

     -A hot house;

Understood to be

Unavailable-

Straight- intrigue

Invited,

     -Wolves gathered at the

     -Doorways, under the

     -Windows, or

     -Improvised;

Strong armed chaperones

Negotiated,

A tea dance

Translated,

     -Tones commensurate

     -Unlocked prefigured

     -Innocence

     -In profile;

Temple gyrated,

While beauty and its

Beasts engaged

In worship,

     -Redirected gaze

     -Appropriated

     -Submissive

     -Demeanor;

Tabula rasa,

Demure conveyor

Of sublime

Contrivance,

     -Collective pastel,

     -Kabbalah readings

     -Fixated

     -Rendering;

Neutral observer,    

Copse copulation,

Migrating

Shower crowds,

     -Reverse portrayal

     -Isolated, ground

     -Rectangles

     -Counterpoised;

Singular, table 

Voices divulged honed

Gossip with

Cutting bite,

     -Mundane disclosures

     -Pictorially

     -Absorbed by

     -Gessoed skim;

Guest ancestries staged,

Epidermis beige

Tanned, buffed with

Sandpaper,

     -Brown hair coarsened, eyes

     -Skirmished with dog day 

     -Kin, tongue licked

     -Sun chapped lips, 

Three seasons en plein

Air exhibition

Watershed

Abandon,

     -Hockney snapped cedar

     -Framed, showering boy,

     -By artist's

     -Permission;

Faced back, distinctions

Shrank to remnants in

Super 8

Camera,

     -Business attired,

     -Crisp, white shirt, knotted

     -Necktie of

     -Coaxed portrait.

20 January 2021

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  

Christopher Makos 16 January 2021

               (Christopher Makos 1969)

Documenting fast

Forward flashpoints from

Occasioned

Encounters,

     -Evocative pose

     -Studied in pigment

     -Without a

     -Set pretext;

Rolls of exposures

Developed on sheets

Promulgate

Their context,

     -Diced composition

     -Expounded over

     -Carte blanche propped

     -On easel;

Captioned sightings time

Stamped generation,

Black and white

Filled in blanks,

     -Fresco appointment,

     -Extempore sketch,

     -Momento

     -Impression;

Happenstance, minute,

Parterre swivels of

Heads, arms, hands, 

Legs, and feet,

     -Finite comeuppance,

     -Proportionally

     -Imparted 

     -Chest, arms, hand;

Arrived, departed,

Z scale boxcars hauled

Magnified,

Mortal freight,

     -Brutal space supplied

     -For miniscule limbs

     -Assembled

     -In fashion;

Guided scrutiny

Picked through buried trash,

Declared finds

Lost treasures,

     -Mise en scene smoked through

     -Cigarettes, ashes

     -Collected

     -In foam cups;

Fourth wall interlude,

Afterimages 

Imposed third

Degree burns,

     -Village, hinterland,

     -Stonewall rioters

     -Repulsed with

     -Projectiles;

Safety pins, razors,

Pricked, sliced, skin; black boots, 

Leather belts,

Lashed eyebrows;

     -Overturned trash cans,

     -Garbage, bottles, rocks,

     -Construction

     -Site bricks winged;

Hustler's bulging, black

Jeans solicited 

Johns, against

Building wall;

     -Bouncer at peephole

     -Eyed would-be patrons,

     -Nervously

     -Stalled by door;

Punk rock trio stood

At CBGB

Entrance, begged

Engagement,

     -Cash for drink tickets-

     -No liquor license-

     -Black walls, black

     -Lights, dance floors;

Candid shot, three males

Pissed, spaced apart, at

Porcelain

Urinals,

     -No running water,

     -No fire exits,

     -The toilets

     -Overflowed;

David Johansen,

Richard Hell photo

Op, backstage

Performance,

     -Gayola payoffs,

     -Wall Street employees

     -Blackmailed by

     -Mafia;

Man Ray's official

Passport reproduced

Over two,

Clean pages,

     -Lined up, carded, cops

     -Threatened pictures for

     -Newspaper

     -Publishing;

Lance Loud in profile

At boudoir mirror,

Vogue covered,

Crouching male,

     -Effeminate men,

     -Men dressed in full drag,

     -Arrested,

     -Taken out;

Divine, movie star,

Interviewed next to

Director, 

John Waters,

     -Handcuffed woman, hit

     -With baton, asked crowd,

     -'Why don't you...

     -Do something?'

 16 January 2021    

     

     

     

     

     

     

    

     

     

    

     

   

     

     

    

     

     

     

     

     

    

  

Raymond Foye 30 January 2021

                   (Raymond Foye 1981)

Watched from behind the

Scenes, as Bob, Rene,

And Eric, 

Imploded,

     -Dodged pose, pressed into

     - Paper edge, shaken

     -When fledglings

     -Hit concrete;

I can't sleep on floors,

Bum cigarettes, beg 

For my food

On the streets,

     -Wisecrack with wordsmiths

     -Wearing their prep school

     -Blazers to

     -Drink cocktails;

Got to be outside  

Of my head to hear

Oracles

Proclaiming,

     -Coffee shop windows 

     -Muffled shoplifted 

     -Faces from 

     -Rumors spread;

Seeing something through

Someone else's eyes,

Emperors

Wear new clothes,

     -Stream of consciousness

     -Dares you: colourful

     -Curlicues

     -Enshrining;

I can remember

Thinking, 'How can I

Do that?' while

Protected,

     -Skate the treachery

     -Of benefactors,

     -Misreading

     -Ice thickness;

Or eliminate 

Accumulated

Lechery

Of art books,

     -To delineate, 

     -With refined brush strokes, 

     -Eros of

     -Spines subtly;

Pile quotidian,

'Til emotional

Connections

Have surfaced,

     -Dial cerulean

     -Static reception

     -So signal

     -Penetrates;

Poet delegates:

Each a camera

'Nailed on bone,'

Then dispersed,

     -Words, which 'sledgehammered

     -White walls', misprinted,

     -'Saxophones

     -Infiltrate;'

'Would you wear my eyes?'

Mattress disheveled,

'Bargaining

From steel cage,'

     -'Rimbaud bleeds over

     -My stolen pants,' 'dipped

     -In poems,' to

     -'Wrap my corpse;'

'Painter, paint me a 

Jail,' in the red paint,

'Yellow-eyed

Dog whistled,'

     -We devoured each

     -Other word by word,

     -'Plucking rolled

     -Balls of sound;'

'Bathroom stalls have ears,'

So share no secrets,

Billie's pitch

Stuck to walls,

     -'Doctors hide foreskin

     -Strips inside chart notes,'

     -'Strangle with

     -Noose of books;'

'Jazz, listen to it

At your own risk,' with

The needle

Going down,

     -'Songs are like tattoos,'

     -Razored blues, speakers

     -Blasted in

     -Stereo;

The carefully made,

Startling beautiful,

Remembrance    

Of lost time,    

     -The fully bared, laid 

     -Out, encumbrance of

     -Transient 

     -Perceptions;

Journals, notebooks, dumped, 

Retrieved, burnt, soaked, dried:

Words, arranged,

Rearranged,

     -Radiator steamed,

     -Painted over, torn,

     -Obtrusive

     -Abstractions;

'I can get very

Bored with my own things,' 

The mourning

Of a poem,

     -'I sit here writing

     -For fear of seeing

     -What's outside

     -(Of) my head.' 

    

  30 January 2021     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

William S. Burroughs 19 November 2020

 

                           (William Burroughs 1983)

Fearful of nightmares,

Hallucinating

Little men

Playing house,

     -Terror of nightmares,

      -Melancholic tones

     -Textured by

     -Fear, guilt, rage;

'Ghostly grey figures, 

Apparition of 

Green reindeer

In the woods,' 

     -Nude figures cut out,

     -Genitals cut off,

     -Scissors gripped

     -By stained hand;

Red phosphorus mixed

With potassium

Chlorate, black

Powder bombs,

     -Sudden outbursts sprayed

     -Explosive temper,

     -Violent

     -Forces stirred;

Pistol in shoulder

Holster, assembled,

Pin readied

Tommy Gun,

     -Gun metal rifles

     -Pulled off walls, pointed,

     -Brown bovines

     -Switch their tails;

'Let me show it to

You... real beauty...I

Love the feel

In my hand,'

     -Chain smoked cigarettes

     -Sucked down, stomped out, in

     -Back-room bars

     -Swilling beers;

'You Can't Win' spelled it

Out: if found unlike 

Others, best

Keep apart,

     -Underdog's quick wit

     -Joking undermined

     -Threatening

     -When cornered;

Boy, 'gibbon,' measured,

Weighed, Harvard lectured,

Eccentrics

Sacrosanct,

     -Draftsman aped student,

     -Won Cooper Union

     -Semester

     -Scholarship;

Thinking dissected,

Finger severed, son

Committed

To parents,

     -Entry-level job

     -Mindless, next job, wrist 

     -Transaction

     -Leveraged;

Flunked enlistment, ducked

Draft, copywriter,

Bug sprayer,

Writ server,

     -Piece de resistance

     -Boy wonder flunkey,

     -A saddle

     -Amigo;

Jack, junk, Huncke, Allen,

Joan, Neal, orgone box,

Billy, Kells,

In snapshots,

     -Arthur, David, A.,

     -Henry, Ellsworth, B.,

     -Barnett, Hans,

     -The cutout;

New York, Texas, New 

Orleans, Mexico, 

Tangier, 'Lunch,'

Tri fold-ins,

     -Europe, Africa,

     -Europe, Florida,

     -Five Village

     -Subway stops;

Primordially

Disembodied graft

Absorbed male,

Oozed female,

     -Cordially sublime

     -Beauty encompassed

     -Masculine

     -Fruition;

Possessed by evil

Spirit, the sentence:

Recording

Instrument,

     -Recessed conflicting

     -Emotions in paint

     -Strokes, drunk blind

     -Hailed their cabs;

Interzone routines

Unpredictable,

Un-sequenced

Travelogues,

     -Workspace frequented

     -By local poets

     -And artists,

     -Keen sitters;

Cartographer's script,

Detritus, mixed for

Indexing,

Editing,

     -Photographer's kit,

     -Art supplies, art books,

     -Painted, stacked

     -Canvasses;

(Stock characters), Gimp,

Vigilante, Rube,

Shake Man, Kid,

Doctor, Nurse,

     -Big city slicker 

     -Denizens, Village

     -Wannabes,

     -His subjects;

Moved to the Bunker,

Once YMCA 

Boys' locker, 

Mezzanine,

     -Drinkers' noise sector,

     -Basement studio, 

     -Shadow of

     -Ninth Circle;

Midwest twang read out

Practiced underground

Passages

To the rapt,

     -Lidless edginess

     -Trapped on surfaces

     -Bled into

     -Dramatic;

Narrative driven

By daily typing 

In drink, drugs,

Induced trance,

     -Self-medicated

     -Alcohol, depressed,

     -Curated

     -Ambitions;

Rodent bitten draft

Manuscript, pasted

Over bits

And pieces,

     -Candid pencil takes

     -Instinctively pierced

     -Unwitting

     -Disclosures;

Voices posturing,

Visions mirrored back,

Dimensions

Shattering,

     -Choices pestering,

     -Decisions battered,

     -Buttressed eye

     -Zeroed in;

Introspective, self 

Analyzed, odd man

Outsider

Appraised all,

     -Extrospective half

     -Canonised surplice

     -Conditioned

     -Doubt sayers;

Wages, allowance,

Bail, drug sales, crop sales,

Advances,

Royalties,

     -Scholarship, wages,

     -Companionship, trips,

     -Grantee, sales,

     -Commissions;

Mote, Laura, Billy;

Giorno, Ginsberg, 

James; Ian,

Mort, felines,

     -Alice, Arthur, Tim;

     -John, Julia Mayo;

     -Holly, Charles;

     -And Sidney;

'Cities of the Red

Night,' fiction refuge,

Cragged nova

Complexion,

     -Grit of the red eyed

     -Oracle's formal,

     -Unrehearsed,

     -Delivery.

19 November 2020

 

     

     

     

     

   

     

     

  

    

    

     

      

Steve Hamilton 2 September 2020

               (Steve Hamilton 198?)

'Today the toaster
Refused to toast the
Bread, reason
Unexplained,'
     -Last week, laundromat
     -Washer wouldn't spin,
     -Plugged in, lights,
     -Started, stopped;
'There's no reasoning
With these machines, so
There was a
Group: Luddites,'
     -Attendant looked, said
     -Something to herself,
     -Put up "Out
     -Of Order;"
'I'm seldom happy,
They said. Who could be
Happy at
Times like these?'
     -Given a token,
     -Laundry floated in
     -Detergent,
     -Dirt, water;
'The marvelous might
Be hiding under
The carpet.
Rip it up.'
     -If the sign is gone,
     -It's possible that
     -The washer
     -Has been fixed;
'I ripped the carpet
Up and I found dirt.
A pity.
Quel dommage.'
     -Also possible
     -That someone took off
     -The "Out of
     -Order" sign;
Left dirt behind, 'lost
Again when camel
Collapsed in
A desert,'
     -Commission relapsed
     -With Alex Katz's
     -'Nabil's Loft'
     -Pandering;
'Intrepid journey
To find Calypso
Singer, or
Water glass,'
     -An ipso facto
     -Gurney commandeered
     -To convey
     -Eyeglass glint;
'The alchemy of
Despair is seldom
A failure.'
Even now.
     -Ingredients of
     -Prell shampoo redeemed
     -Balcony
     -Of brown hair;
'It began raining
In the desert and
I almost
Choked on mud,'
     -Van Goghed window shade
     -Torments nocturnal
     -Poet in
     -Oil seed black;

'The Party is in

A troublesome state,

Run out of

Alcohol,'

     -'Comrades: we must take

     -Up a collection,'

     -Redeem all

     -The empties;

'Ten thousand birds fly

Out of my head. It

Must now be

In summer,'

     -Five hundred pigs roll

     -Out of their beds, it 

     -Must be a

     -Mineshaft night;

'Three pomegranates

On a silver plate.

It must now

Be in Rome,'

     -Two dharma bums, Six

     -Gallery reading,

     -Must be San

     -Francisco;

'I tried to achieve

Total inertia.

My efforts

Applauded,'

     -I applied solvents

     -To relieve tincture

     -Of viscous

     -Adherence;

'Past tense sense: absence

Of chance enlivened

The dance of

Harmony,'

     -Prevalence of chance

     -Invigorated

     -Advance toward

     -Resemblance;

'Object acquired 

More subject. Verbs lost

Their nerve. Rhyme's 

Memory,'

     -Posers exposed with

     -Tones, sitters composed

     -Of dabs, hand

     -Flicks eyeballed;     

'As stars exploded

Over Mars, we ran

Under a

Nearby tree,'

     -'To explore nature's

     -Fortifications,'

     -Which stored faint

     -Resistance;

'Wild beasts waltzed to tune

Of a fake earthquake

Which faded

To musings,'

     -Vulcan climax mooned

     -Metropolitan    

     -Jaded on

     -A blind date;

'But your smile's crystal

Flaccidity has

Deferred plans

For retreat,'

     -While placidity

     -Mitred violent

     -Edges from

     -Glossy lips;

'Cells were on the march,

My celibacy

Abandoned,'

Celebrate!

     -Balls held to the flame,

     -Bellicosity

     -Sequestered

     -Under bed;

'Who among you has

Ever thought to take

Some control 

Of this lust?'

     -Conjugate, discussed

     -Within grammar, a

     -'Technical'

     -Adjective.

     

 2 September 2020    

     

     

      

     

      

   
   

Henry Howard 23 July 2020

     [Study of Holbein's] (Henry Howard,                  Earl of Surrey no date)


(My) '...achievement small
In scale and flawed...' I'm
'...merely a
Man who served,'
     -I contrived to show
     -Court bard broadside, through
     -Pains, travails,
     -Attaining;
A 'literary
Personality'
Whose pen's work
Was 'distinct,'
     -Is still in print, as
     -Mercenary ken
     -Moves pieces
     -By default;
Faint praise when charged as
Borrower of text
In Latin
Translation,
     -'Neither borrower
     -Nor lender be,' traced
     -Lines patterned
     -Depiction;
'Many things tasting
Of a noble mind,'
Sir P. S.
Tongued the block,
     -Too 'tender aged,' lodged
     -Predilection when
     -Ranked, Chaucer,
     -Spenser, you;
Insurrectionist's
Vocabulary,
'Words, words, words,'
Formation,
     -Illustrator's stirred
     -Incubus foments
     -Primary
     -Canvasses;
'Victorious his
Lance, matchless his pen,'
Geraldine
Bird laments,
     -'Perchance to dream' that
     -Prick-tease heralded
     -Scholarly
     -Renewal;
'Windsor, wherein seems
Lust and joy did tread,
Pleasant dreams,
Quiet bed,'
     -Tendrils extracted
     -Of boy's foolery,
     -Bachelor's
     -Bowery;
'We have fought and chased
In active games, rein
Nimble braced,
We did strain,'
     -I have lain, encased
     -In cornstalks, food brought,
     -Left in peace
     -My gamble;
'No secrets forborn,
Or promise unkept,
Friendship sworn
Where trust leapt,'
     -Lawrence's pencil,
     -Adept in kinship's
     -Fist, garnered
     -Likenesses;
'Blood forsakes my guise,
Where is my fere, whom
Woes freed, lies,
Plaints entomb,'
     -Boxer's torso, knee,
     -Pubic plaits festooned
     -Conformist
     -Forbearance;
'I see that things pitched
Not as outward poke,
Wrapped in stitched,
Crafty cloak,'
     -Courtier Lawrence
     -Engaged attentions
     -To flesh out
     -Dramatic;
'Garments to clothe your
Naked man suffice
To lecture
Clad in vice,'
     -Moth furred armature
     -Swept from sedulous
     -Heads fixed by
     -Taskmaster;
'By princely acts I
Strove to make endure,
Houses high
Set my cure,'
     -Royalty's mister
     -Courted credentials
     -To stave off
     -Creditors;
'An heir unaligned
Shall reap fruits I sow,
Goods resigned,
Title crow,'
     -Each peer survived suits
     -Lifetime succession,
     -Lucrative
     -Patronage;
'My soul offended
With griefs of follies,
Bells mended,
Scourged mollies,'
     -Myself confounded
     -By correspondence,
     -Lads spread out
     -Spelling paint;
'Burdened dissolute
At the Lord's behest,
'Til refute
Viper's nest,'
     -Chastened, compulsive
     -Paper procurer,
     -Cotton limned
     -Where flesh foiled;
'When sudden storms heave
Falsehoods to assail,
Crosswinds reave,
Safe ports fail,'
     -Where leaden forearms
     -Paused, bettors wagered
     -Appointments
     -Steep decline;
'These newly risen
Men would by their will
Unchristen
Chosen krill,'
     -European tour
     -Unfastened vaults of
     -Luminous
     -Collections;
'Scarce hath seed formed man
When death leads to earth,
Branch's span
Lopped from birth,'
     -Five decades ceded
     -Level planche to prop
     -An easel,
     -Fresh soled shoes;
'My glass presents me
A determined breast,
Thrawldom free
Planted rest,'
     -My craft predestined
     -A life's dependence
     -Composing
     -Eminence.

23 July 2020