Selected Poems, 1956-1968 Page 14
I wanted to be
when I was seven years old
a perfect man
who kills
W H E N I M E E T Y O U I N T H E
S M A L L S T R E E T S
When I meet you in the small streets
of rain-streaked movies
and old-fashioned shaving equipment,
you smile at me from my blood, saying:
an obsolete wisdom would have married us
when I was fourteen, 0 my teacher.
I walk through your Moorish eyes
into sun and mathematics. I polish
Holland diamonds, and deep into Russia
I codify in one laser verse the haphazard
numbers leaping from each triangular storyoh all world-hated flashing work
I make precise
for the sake of the perfect world.
Like jigsaw pieces married too early
in the puzzle we are pried apart
for every new experiment, as if simplicity
and good luck were not enough to build
a rainbow through gravity and mist.
I T H A S B E E N S O M E T I M E
It has been some time
since I took away
a woman's perfume on my skin
I remember tonight
how sweet I used to find it
and tonight I've forgotten nothing
of how little it means to me
knowing in my heart
we would never be lovers
thinking much more about suicide and money
A P E R S O N W H O E A T S M E A T
A person who eats meat
wants to get his teeth into something
A person who does not eat meat
wants to get his teeth into something else
If these thoughts interest you for even a moment
you are lost
I 233
W H O W I L L F I N A L L Y S A Y
Who will finally say
you are perfect
Who will choose you
in order to edit your secrets
I sing this for your children
I sing this for the crickets
I sing this for the army
for all who do not need me
Whom will you address
first thing tomonow morning
your dreams so bureaucratic
you refuse to appear in them
How beautiful the solemn are
Yes I have noticed you
Whoever gives you money
will be remembered for his pride
I love to speak to you this way
knowing how you came to me
leaving everything unsaid
that might employ us
When you are torn
when your silver is torn
take down this book and find
your place in my head
234 I
W A I T I N G T O T E L L T H E D O C T O R
Waiting to tell the doctor
that he failed
and that I failed
I count the few remaining coins
I should have dropped at Monte Carlo
in the little wishing well
they offer you with the gun
still thinking about you
and the sparks between us
dull, milky and peculiar now
like dimes that have been dipped
in mercury too long ago
Last night I asked my brain
to put back into my loins
my love for you
Free at last I fell asleep
both of us naked and hungry
I am sure you willed me
the fullest audience with your body
on condition I die
What did you leave in my room
on my bed
against the wall
that is so cold and impossible and greedy
I 235
I T ' S G O O D T O S I T W I T H P E O P L E
It's good to sit with people
who are up so late
your other homes wash away
and other meals you left
unfinished on the plate
It's just coffee
and a piano player's cigarette
and Tim Hardin's song
and the song in your head
that always makes you wait
I'm thinking of you
little Frederique
with your white white skin
and your stories of wealth
in Normandy
I don't think I ever told you
that I wanted to save the world
watching television
while we made Jove
ordering Greek wine and olives for you
while my friend scattered
dollar bills over the head
of the belly-dancer
under the clarinettes of Eighth Avenue
listening to your plans
for an exclusive pet shop in Paris
Your mother telephoned me
she said I was too old for you
and I agreed
but you came to my room
one morning after a long time
because you said you loved me
From time to time I meet men
who said they gave you money
and some girls have said
that you weren't really a model
Don't they know what it means
to be lonely
lonely for boiled eggs in silver cups
lonely for a large dog
who obeys your voice
lonely for rain in Normandy
seen through leaded windows
lonely for a fast car
lonely for restaurant asparagus
lonely for a simple prince
and an explorer
I'm sure they know
but we are all creatures of envy
we need our stone fingernails
on another's beauty
we demand the hidden love
of everyone we meet
the hidden love not the daily love
Your breasts are beautiful
warm porcelain taste
of worship and greed
Your eyes come to me
under the perfect spikes
of imperishable eyelashes
Your mouth living
on French words
and the soft ashes of your make-up
Only with you
I did not imitate myself
only with you
I 237
I asked for nOlhing
your long long fingers
deciphering your hair
your lace blouse
borrowed from a photographer
the bathroom lights
flashing on your new red fingernails
your tall legs at attemion
as I watch you from my bed
while you brush dew
from the mirror
to work behind the enemy lines
of your masterpiece
Come to me if you grow old
come to me if you need coffee
D O N O T F O R G E T O L D F R I E N D S
Do not forget old friends
you knew long before I met you
the times I know nothing about
being someone
who lives by himself
and only visits you on a raid
M A R I T A
MARITA
PLEASE FIND ME
I AM ALMOST 30
H E S T U D I E S T O D E S C R I B E
He studies to describe
the lover he cannot become
failing the widest dreams of the mind
&: settling for visions of God
The tatters of his discipline
have no beauty
that he can hold so easily
as your beauty
to trade himself for your love
Do not trust him
unless you love him
I 239
I N D E X O F F I R S T L I N E S
A cloud of grasshoppers,
A cross didn't fall on me,
A kite is a victim you are sure of,
A person who eats meat,
Aren't you tired,
As I lay dead,
As the mist leaves no scar,
Beneath my hands,
62
Beside the shepherd dreams the beast,
33
Between the mountains of spices,
73
Calm, alone, the cedar guitar,
Catching winter in their carved nostrils,
7
Claim me, blood, if you have a story,
203
Clean as the grass from which,
z86
Come back to me,
I78
Come, my brothers,
I04
Come upon this heap,
99
Created fires I cannot love,
202
Do not arrange your bright flesh in the sun,
Do not forget old friends,
During the first pogrom they,
Edmonton, Alberta, December 1966, 4 a.m.,
225
Evidently they need a lot
IIB
Eyes: . . . . . . Medium,
I22
Finally I called the people I didn't want to hear from, I03
Flowers for Hitler the summer yawned,
I34
For a lovely instant I thought she would grow mad,
9
For you,
76
For your sake I said I will praise the moon,
52
Foreign God, reigning in earthly glory,
2z3
Found once again shamelessly ignoring
I93
Give me back my fingerprints,
2II
Give me back my house,
I7I
Go by brooks, love,
4 3
24 1
God, God, God, someone of my family,
72
He has returned from countless wars,
8
He pulled a flower,
22
He studies to describe,
2 39
He was beautiful when he sat alone, he was like me,
he had,
205
He was lame,
I95
He was wearing a black moustache and leather hair,
126
Here we are at the window . . . ,
185
His blood on my arm is warm as a bird,
4
His last love poem,
97
His pain, unowned, he left,
102
Hitler the brain-mole looks out of my eyes,
98
How you murdered your family,
16
Hurt once and for all into silence,
44
I almost went to bed,
68
I am a priest of God,
207
I am locked in a very expensive suit,
90
I am one of those who could tell . .
78
I am sorry that the rich man must go,
168
I am too loud when you are gone,
195
I ask you where you want to go,
I)O
I believe you heard your master sing,
214
I don't believe the radio stations,
95
I do not know if the world has lied,
87
I had it for a moment,
1)5
I have not lingered in European monasteries,
45
I have two bars of soap,
6o
I heard of a man,
)0
I long to hold some lady,
64
I met a woman long ago,
198
I met you,
227
I once believed a single line,
124
I see you on a Greek mattress,
188
I stepped into an avalanche,
217
I want your warm body to disappear,
142
I was the last passenger of the day,
128
I wonder how many people in this city,
42
I would like to remind,
167
242
If I had a shining head,
I2
If this looks like a poem,
56
If your neighbor disappears,
JI
In almond trees lemon trees,
208
In his black armour,
30
In many movies I came upon an idol,
I40
In the Bible generations pass
I92
Is there anything emptier,
89
It has been some time,
233
It's good to sit with people,
236
It's just a city, darling,
224
It's so simple,
I I4
It swings, Jocko,
46
I've seen some lonely history,
200
January 28 1962,
9I
Layton, when we dance our freilach,
69
Listen all you bullets,
I7 3
Listen to the stories,
93
Loving you, flesh to flesh, I often thought,
59
MARITA,
239
Martha they say you are gentle,
Ioo
My friend walks through our city this winter night,
I76
My lady can sleep,
58
My lady was found mutilated,
26
My love, the song is less than sung,
54
My lover Peterson,
20
My rabbi has a silver buddha,
II6
Nothing has been broken,
I84
One night I burned the house
loved,
I90
Out of some simple part of me,
III
Out of the land of heaven,
7I
Poems! break out!
II)
Queen Victoria,
243
Several faiths,
I 32
She sings so nice,
2 3 I
She tells me a child built her house,
J2
Silence,
70
Snow is falling,
20I
So you're the kind of vegetarian,
I8J
Somewhere in my trophy room
I96
Strafed by the Milky Way,
IJ9
Suzanne takes you down,
209
Suzanne wears a leather coat,
I89
The big world will lind out,
174
The broom is an army of straw,
226
The coherent statement was made,
IJI
The day wasn't exactly my own,
88
The famous doctor held up Grandma's stomach,
92
The flowers that I left in the ground,
38
The miracle we all are waiting for,
IJ4
The moon dangling wet like a half-plucked eye,
28
The naked weeping girl,
II
The nightmares do not suddenly,
18I
The pai
n-monger came home,
1 1 5
The reason I write,
2JI
The snow was falling,
I75
The stony path coiled around me,
I 19
The sun is tangled,
21
The torture scene developed under a glass bell,
I I7
The warrior boats from Portugal,
I4
There are some men,
40
This could be my little,
ro6
This is for you,
221
This morning I was dressed by the wind,
216
Those unshadowed ligures, rounded lines of men,
5
Tonight I will live with my new white skin,
IJ7
Toronto has been good to me,
I64
Towering black nuns frighten us,
24
Two hours off the branch and burnt,
IJ8
Two went to sleep,
I9I
Under her grandmother's patchwork quilt,
65
244
Waiting to tell the doctor,
235
We meet at a hotel,
129
Whatever cities are brought down,
4 1
When I hear you sing,
194
When I meet you in the small streets,
232
When I paid the sun to run,
187
When this American woman,
IO
When we learned that his father
123
When with lust I am smitten,
67
When you kneel below me,
6I
When young the Christians told me,
3
Who is purer,
roB
Who will finally say,
234
With all Greek heroes,
r8
With Annie gone,
68
You dance on the day you saved,
172
You do not have to love me,
223
You have the lovers,
50
You know where I have been,
197
You live like a god,
229
You recited the Code of Comparisons,
165
You tell me that silence,
39
I 245
Document Outline
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
CONTENTS
I. Let Us Compare Mythologies
II. The Spice-Box of Earth
III. Flowers for Hitler
IV. Parasites of Heaven
V. New Poems
Index of First Lines