but but

                                        and other incomprehensible poems

                             by Johannes Beilharz

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| Dictionary stuff | but but | The walls of | From the Erie series |

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Dictionary stuff

I. Proposition

     tight beam thick nick, cladding

II. Geographical tinge

                      conservation des peaux brutes

III. Characterization sketch

                                         »... off his rocker?«

                                  »... deep end?«

                      »suppose ... doesn't tick right«          disgrace or honor

IV. Approach to poetry and method; more tingeing

                             »To be honest, I've never been thrilled by poetry. It just means nothing to me. 

                                                                                                 It's okay as long as it rhymes.«

                                                     (She tempts him with a clarinet.)

                                                      »You'll never ever see the moon, at least not the one you're after.«

                                                                                    Last draw from waxy carmine lips,

                                                                                    hand arc down, stub out

                                          Where is there love in all of this?

                                                                   Where is the emblem?

                  Where is the rose, where the thorn?

                                                       You who refuse the thorn

V. End

                         End in cigarillo or gnatsy dagger 

                                                      (thank you, L. Cohen)

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      but but

                                                                   An attempt at purity dedicated to the fridge
                                                                   from whence descended

only of as repulsive rain recall

          vision when was

     pant raw not blue

  please place blood beneath

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The walls of

I have seen them, and if only in reality

                  You may not have seen them

     while unclenching a fist, while removing pink chewing gum from your hair where someone much younger had taught you a lesson & a blow to your ego an encounter that survives & has been embellished for didactic reasons

                   I feel peaceful now with the assurance that you are making your way safely on glistening rainy streets

      I have seen them and you have become another, known and peaceful

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From the Erie series

                                                             Very condensed theatrics

                                                                            in 3 acts, Aristotelian continuity broken

                                                                            Putting in an appearance:
                                                                            Theodor Fontane (1819-1898)
                                                                            20th Century Understanding of Water Fun
   

                                                                            Intrusion by name association:
                                                                            Gabriel Ferrater (1922-1972)

I. Stage set

              John Maynard & Lake Erie there through Theodore

                            flivver & yell & splash & laugh & speed & yodel & water-filtered exhaust

                            flivver & splash & rush & speed & speed & 

                                                                              clash & yell & yelp

                                                (Captain unflinching, bass voice)

                                      Thank God (or no?) nothing up in smoke

                                                (Captain unflinching, off deck in measured steps

II. Current potential

               What cruel green thinking

                                                          (like divers out there as off New Zealand,

                                                                         on mission

III. Mediterranean shift

                                                                              Dalíesque backdrop, but amid hills

                                                                              and friendly apple orchard greens, blacks,

                                                                              greys, whites, reds

                                   Stone masons, I call upon you for stone masons, 

                                   you who built that mansion in fall 

                                   as well as menstruating sun 

                                   and that scalpel scraping life

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All copyright © 2003 by Johannes Beilharz.

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