31 January 2011

Poems & Lists

The Art of Relationships

on our list of things to do together
the most important item remains
an unwritten glow, bouncing

between our ribs and spines
---------------------------------------------------

We do really have a list of things to do together. It includes:

Go apple picking.

Bake rainbow cookies.

Go to a Weakerthans concert.
See the abandoned City Hall station.
Read e.e. cummings and Ferlinghetti.
Eat Thai noodles for the hundredth time.

Eat creme desserts at the Hungarian bakery.
Eat salmon over coconut rice while touching each other.
Lay together on an uninhabited island in the ocean and the sand.
Watch flying lanterns from a boat and give birth to a baby dragon.

5 comments:

Monkey Man said...

Love your last two lines. Very nice.

the walking man said...

Personally I would opt out of the Ferlinghetti and substitute Bukowski who never got sucked into the west Coast king makers clutches.

Chris said...

Bukowski is good too but I find him a little overrated. Ferlinghetti has one good book, I think, "A Coney Island of the Mind," but I'm iffy about the rest of his stuff.

the walking man said...

I have a friend whose father worked at City Lights before Ferlinghetti took over and pushed out them he did not care for.

The problem of his was he really did point to some and say "you're work is immature and not worthy of our way of life" which in turn destroyed their confidence same as happened to Emily Dickinson.

After the pronouncement was made upon Richard Brautigan he quit writing for 8 years. Then when RB came back and began to write again after those 8 lost years...he moved the next generation of poets away from the drug infested whiny ass Beats, Ferlinghetti propped up.
But then just like most of the other Beat poets he too was a suicide in 1984.

Bukowski on the other hand was in southern CA and told a story of Kerouac and Ginsburg coming down from SF to meet and hang out with him. He took them whoring around, drinking and spending their money and when they were broke he sent them back north. Bukowski was no fool.

Want to read what in my mind is the most honest love poem ever written Chris? Look up Confession by Bukowski.

Chris said...

Wow, I didn't know that about Ferlinghetti, or Bukowski for that matter. I did look up that poem and really liked it. Maybe I just haven't given Bukowski a fair chance. I'll check out some more of his stuff. Have you read anything by Andrew Michael Roberts? He's one of my favorites.