POETRY ROOM

The University was too big for the poetry reading. The library, the refectory, the common room were all too big. The quad was too outdoors. The best room in the university, with chandeliers and quiet rugs, was too big. The auditorium was too big, and the theatre, and the black box. The classroom was too big, and too plain. The student coffeeshop was too big; even the student workers’ voices were banging around in there and there were no customers. Still the wooden bar & toppling tables – so familiar -- were inviting. It was a good space: dark, out of the way, rough and tumble, empty. And it had a stage. So they built a little felt hut on stage, with chairs, & asphalt, & blankets, & foam, & mohair, & fat, & made a little tunnel to get in, & read in there.

BAGHDAD

Bhagdad
Bahgdad
Baghdad
Bagdhad
Bagdahd
Bagdadh

REVISED PLANS FOR SABBATICAL

June: POETRY
July: POETRY
August: POETRY
September: POETRY
October: POETRY
November: POETRY
December: POETRY
January: POETRY
February: POETRY

STATE HOUSE, MAY

yellowed grey against poured grey
sedate grey against white computer screen
brushed grey against scrambled light
silver against silver-grey
grey against ghostly blue
gauze against cotton
mint green against Atlantic metal
green tint against sulphur wash
ink on soaked paper
pencil mark against sheer blue
mauve cloud in light blue
[tallow against mauve cloud slashed w/ light blue]
[marshmallow against cream soda]
lard against fleece
[soap against suds]
tea-stain against dirty suds
tea-stain against snow
nylon stocking against grimy swab
brushed shadow on porcelain
shadow against dust-bowl
blue shadow on glass
[settled dust against open window]
fist against threat
[indifference against threat]
[flinch against threat]
[candy in the palm of a child about to cry]
[forbearance against despair]
[moon against electric cloud]
[bone against cloud]
splintered tooth against racked cloud
[beacon against storm clouds]
ermine against snow
ermine against fuzz
fur against cotton
mink in fog
white smoke against smoke
[bared belly against rumpled comforter]
feather against metal
church candle against cloudy ink
sandwich in church buffet

STATE HOUSE, APRIL

brushed grey against tumbled grey
anonymous grey against palest grey
smoky grey against pale glass
blue haze against grey
[blue mesh against pale grey]
[blue mesh against light grey]
[blue mesh against white-grey]
[blue smoke against smoke]
lard against smoke
[tallow against smoky blue]
creamy chalk against azure
cream feather against hopeless grey
creamy white against blue
blue-white against blue-grey
light blue against grey-blue
[milk-blue against silver-grey]
powder blue against memory of blue
startling blue against mauve cloud
[wild cotton against rose-grey]
wintergreen against rose-grey
butter against rose
faint rose against palest blue
[palest blue with rose tint]
[light yellow against suffused grey]
saffron against scumbled cloud
cascading yellow against plunging cloud
[charcoal on faded denim]
peppermint against cotton candy
marble against fog
sable against fur
fuzz on mist
green-grey against steam
dove-grey against milky cloud
[cobweb against metallic cloud]
[leaning tower beneath glowering cloud]
cucumber slice against Himalayan peak
[light batter against whipped cream]
mirage against milky screen
birdshell against glaze
brush-mark on watered silk

THE SKY

God’s television

PRONOUNS

The distance from I to we
The difference between she & he
The glory of you
The warmth of us
The omnipotence of they
The insignificance of her & him & them

PLANS FOR SABBATICAL

To learn:
       100 names of flowers
       100 names of birds
       100 names of trees & shrubs
       how to change a tire
       desktop & web publishing

To write:
       irreversibility essay
       Douglass essay
       essay on audience
       new book
       start novel

To publish:
       Book #2
       Book #3
       Book #4

To paint:
       bathroom

To finally read:
       Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things

To clean:
       office

WE CATCH DINNER & A MOVIE

When I walked into the Cheesecake Factory I knew exactly what I wanted & said so: I know what I want: A chicken salad sandwich please. And water.

Everyone around was having 2 ft tall salads & ginormous wedges of cheesecake with jacuzzis of whipped cream.

I really enjoyed the first half of my chicken salad sandwich. Oh I love that grilled brioche bread. I love those roasted almonds. I love that mayo. The third quarter sandwich was a little bit tough going but I chomped along anyway. Christ people all around were eating giant starters like Easter bonnets & entrees as big as your head. But with all the goodwill in the world I just couldn't make that last quarter sandwich.

Then we caught a movie. It was Crash. I thought it rather good. Though I just couldn't buy racist remarks out of that Hotel Rwanda guy's mouth. Funny thing about Hotel Rwanda: I met the guy who directed it a long long time ago in the Irish Arts Center in New York. He was on the run I think and doing a play about Long Kesh. Yeah Terry George. I watched the Special Features & felt so proud of him & not nearly so proud of myself.

When the little girl in Crash was shot & her mother's mouth opened and no sound came out & the kind father screamed & no sound came out, my mouth was screaming too, with no sound, in the darkened cinema.

It was cool to take in dinner & a movie. I don't think I've ever done that before. I think it demonstrated a very serious commitment to entertainment. That was the first time I've ever done that.

WE WENT TO THE BEACH

Yesterday we went to the beach. It was a beautiful day. My daughters were off school. What better than to go to the beach? We made a picnic. Summer had come at last! It's summer, I said. We're a family. Let's go to the beach.

We went over our favorite bridge. Then took 195 East to Exit 10 then 88 South to the beach. It was an easy drive: splendid, spacious, without complications. We arrived in almost exactly the time Mapquest predicted: 45 minutes. It felt good to go to the beach. I was happy it was so easy.

The beach was astounding. It was huge and sandy and reminded me of Seven Mile Beach in Grand Cayman. It was a great big ecstatic boomerang. There were people and big bold seagulls. I remembered my father running down a different beach like a prop plane trying to take off holding out his arms & shouting: Dirty seagulls! as they jumped back into the air in front of him. There were small splats of jellyfish. My toes squelched over one.

There were three of us. One went in the sea and swallowed a lot of it. One let the sea almost touch her breasts. One held up her skirt and marched along the shore. Two relished the picnic. One had sand in her sandwiches. Two sunbathed. Three went for a walk. One looked for a restroom. Two laughed. One complained. It was a wonderful day at the beach.

A lot of people were there, checking each other out. Actually it was my first time at the beach. My first time on 88 South. First time driving 195 East. A very good day at the beach.

FOR THE RECORD

On the corner of Elmgrove
& Lloyd:
The Providence Journal
Boston Herald
Boston Globe
Daily News
New York Times
New York Post
Washington Post
& The Barrons.

                                                            light in april

                                                                                         dull grey
                                                                          irish rain

                                                                   bluey
                                                            silver-grey tarnished silver

                                                                           sunny golden white gold

                                                            warm golden

                                                            golden-blue       sunny


                                                                           light grey light



                                                            grey-white


                                                                     golden-blue
                                                                           peaks blue-light-gold
                                                                           silver-grey
                                                                           gold & silver-blue
                                                                                     grey, lowering



                                                           warm gold

                                                golden

                                   balmy blue      light blue silver-gold
                                                        gloomy      tarnished silver
gloomy rain-tarnished   stars
                                                               golden-yellow-green


                                                 light green & grey

                                                                           leaf green & white-gold
                                                                           leaf-green      light blue      green-blue


                                                                sublime
                                                        light leaf green & light blue

INTERIM STATEMENT

On the corner of Elmgrove
& ______________ :
The Providence Journal
Boston Herald
Boston Globe
Daily News
New York Times
New York Post
Washington Post
& The Barrons.