Recuts from "american poetry (free and how) [Koja Press, 2001, NY]

(In the following poems I manipulated language of various classic 
literal works, or their translations, to create poems of my own.)


Sign of the Beast
(Dante, Inferno, Cantos 1, Henry F. Cary translation)
		
			                                       For Wiliam James Austin

As a savage
		who wanders out 
of a gloomy wood,
			
			the valley of the dead
			behind my shoulders,

I found me: 
				(no easy task)

a man with a speckled skin
chasing the sweet season
			of a she-wolf,

my every vein weeping 
				with delight

midway between a robust growth
		
and pitiful past.

A cause and a source
had filled me with purpose:

I must lead thee
	to see the beast
that invokes hope.

Onward we move



Natural Man
(William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors, Act 5)

sorry I hinder'd you, a chain dishonesty doth it

this week hath been heavy, man:
buried a friend this afternoon. 
extremity of rage had his eye stray'd. 

I gained my freedom, 
so help me heaven.

a living dead, not rough enough in private.
his urging head jealous, 
sweet recreation moody and dull. 
life-preserving rest disturbed his sickness.  

decipher this:
these conduits are the parents of my blood, 
a mere anatomy of my gnawing fortune.

the copy of our conference 
fed clamours of his sleeps, 
therefore comes his meat upbraidings 
fit of madness, done wrong: 

we came into the world 
and now let's go!  

his fury had committed:
we shall make a full satisfaction of the present hour
against the laws and statutes of this town

hark, hark, brother
scorch your face

does thou know my voice?
God speaks to me, 
so I grant you fear of death
and shut doors of imagination

the raging fire of fever bred his venom
more deadly than a mad dog's tooth.
a needy hollow-eyed wretch  
bound by grim justice,
beheaded by Time's deformed hand.

my grained face will drizzle your memories
and draw cuts into the world

sorry I hinder'd you, brother.
come, stand by me, fear nothing.

our sour age deceives a natural man


The Better Part </b>
(John Milton’s Paradise Lost: Book I)
	
1

Sing, Muse of Chaos!
restore us from loss,
illumine what is low.

In the beginning 
the chosen seed 
pour'd from your 
frozen loins 
to become your
barbarous sons 
who blotted out
among the 
powers of Eve,
came like a deluge 
on the South, 
and spread to 
transform the 
image of a brute,
adorn'd with 
gay religions full 
of pomp and gold,
by falsities and lies.

First, Moloch, a horrid kid,
besmear'd his parents' tears—
for the noise of drums

(his lustful orgies 
costed plenty)

till a good scandal 
drove them to Egypt 
of inglorious neighbourhoods.

"O Mr of P.O.s,
Mrs with M.A.!
that strife was dire,
as this place and this 
dire change testifies,

but what power of mind, 
could have predict’d such loss?

And
who could believe, 
that all these YPs, 
whose exile
hath emptied 
the cities, 
shall fail 
to re-pulse? 
and repossess 
their native LA 
and such?

Wav'd round the coast, 
a pitchy cloud of locusts 
is looking for a trendy 
spot in the sun
impious like night, 
and so numberless
a multitude like which 
the populous North
never seen.

Surrounding fires
darken all the land of Nile.

2

Hey, Muse of Chaos!
Come singly where you stood 
on the bare strand,
while the promiscuous crowd 
display’d its shapes and forms,

be witness for me
of Moloch homicide, 

of those male and feminine spirits that can 
either assume godlike sex  or approve of the bestial love, 
or both; 

dilated  cumbrous-like flesh can please 

when they 			so soft

but, in 	shape 

can execute their aery purposes,

and works of love,
				and
his 	lowly   down 		though large,

of despicable crescent

spears nightly 	   by the moon

virgins paid
on th' offensive mountain, 
		
while smooth 	like heat	all a summer's day

	ran	from his

purple with blood of Infected daughters

3

led	by the vision,
Ezekiel saw 	the dark idolatries,
his eye	displaced In his 
own temple,	turning inward. 

Next 	came alienated Judah
who mourn'd 	in earnest
and lopp'd off his 		sea monster,
yet his temple dreaded 		a downward fish.

Him follow'd Rimmon, whose 	delightful seat
was like 	the fertile banks of
Abbana and Pharphar;

and Ahaz, his 	sottish conqueror,
bold with 	odious off'rings.

After these, 	appear'd
a crew 	under names of
Osiris, Isis, Orus,
with monstrous shapes   and abus'd;

the least erected led them on.

Their 	  wand'ring brutish     forms 
did not escape 	th' infection 
when they 	doubl'd sin 
with the Calf in Oreb, 
equalling his Maker  with a matron.

Belial came last, 	with lust 	and violence 
more lewd	then love 	at the altars, 
and worse than rape.

4

Behold, Muse

witness the streets 	
of Sodom,
injury and outrage 	
in luxurious cities,

where the noise 	
of riots ascends 
above their 	
loftiest tow'rs,

and when night 	
darkens the streets, 
then wander forth 
the sons of Belial, 

flown with 
insolence and wine,
hurling defiance toward 
the vault of heav'n.

High above them, 
a face of deep scars,
a dove-like sadist 
with ever-burning ego

discerns hideous urges 
and courage to discover 
what else is not 
to be overcom’d

to provoke 
our better part.



For the Present
(Homer, The Iliad, Book 1, Samuel Butler’s translation)

1
The memo said,    "outwit shall not overreach 

up your bidding? 

		rue my coming.     persuade me. 

find me a hereafter

	in fair exchange to my liking, 

or I will come and take,

		your own whomsoever "

2
and he to I may come shall
let us draw the sea into a ship 
But of thought this we take will 
let us have a hecatomb on board

and let us send ____
let some be in us command man chief among  
  , either, or , 		

mighty that  		or yourself,  

and appease

warrior you are,

	that we may offer   the the anger

; for the
present, 

 , and find her
	         expressly; 

, 
 scowled 		steeped

at him and , "You are  in
insolence and lust of gain. 
With what can any bidding

foray in your open heart? 


I came answered


3
 not fighting ills me. 

me and them 

there is a great between

4
space - Sound Insolence!

We have followed you,  for your pleasure, 

from gain  -  not ours  -  
				to your shameless satisfaction 

I have toiled this rob for  self,
to forget the given 
to threaten the have

and for You      
				Never when me 

which , for
and which of  .

sons of T.R. sack any rich prize 
my hands do better

				MY CITY, I DO

5
receive your share
	
	so good 
							as you do, 
When the sharing comes,


back to my done
					my labour, 
					my sharing

though it is 
of the part 
					I, the largest
					and forsooth, 
I can
get and be 

	therefore, go back

					gather gold
					substance_____

MUCH BETTER
Now, Fly if you will 		(thankful is done. 

"no prayers will do me honour
I will not stay"

6
DISHONOURED SHALL COUNSEL OTHERS
and stay above all

her tent is another fear
TAKE YOUR OWN PRIZE

care for your anger
it will be  me . . . for you."

 the  affected answer,
			a divided heart

Go home as you are
	
				hateful

					ever quarrelsome

I care neither for you nor my ship;

comrades are game "      

			There is no king here, 

Was it not ill heaven that made you brave?



Fever of Babylon
(William Blake, The Second Book of Milton)

		they said: pretend to poetry: a false body
		of Visionary Life renderd Deadly 

O Daughter of Babylon

When I first Married you, I gave you my whole soul
I thought that you would love my loves & joy in my delights
Seeking for pleasures in my pleasures 

O Daughter of Babylon

Then thou wast lovely, mild & gentle. now thou art terrible      
In jealousy & unlovely in my sight, because thou hast cruelly
Cut off my love in fury & I have no love left for thee

	She relents in fear of death: She shall begin to give
	Her maidens to her husband: delighting in his delight
	And then & then alone begins the happy Female joy
	As it is done in thou Babylon.

I write down these Visions
to cast from Poetry all that's not Inspiration
to despise a self-devouring monstrous human Death
& to go on & go on

She bursts her crimson:  
Men are sick! 

I have turned my back upon these Heavens 
builded on cruelty In which Man liveth! 

	O sweet Female forms—
	dwell on!
	float in the air!
	spread your magnificent shine 
	over the whole Earth
	with songs of amorous delight
	in a spontaneous dreadful heart!

Her little throat labors with inspiration:
thrill, thrill, thrill into the great expanse!

	O Virgin Mother of Whoredoms!
	awake from the Slumber 
	of Six Thousand Years!

	bring Jerusalem in the arms 
	of the night watches; 
	and give 
	in the streets
	to display Nature's cruel holiness!

The Lamb falls!
Madness & blasphemy are triumphant over Death!

I come to discover 
The Idol Virtues of the Natural Heart!

	They stood in a dark land of fiery corroding waters,
	pale and cold, upon the Rock of Ages[:]

	lured by the Shadow Mother 
	Spinning the Egg form'd World 
	from her bowels     

	Daughters of trembling
	Sons of fear

	collecting distinct fibres of the Selfhood 
	into impregnable strength of the utterd word,
	fixd into a frozen bulk of a subject

Beyond the outline of Identity, I seek answer


Beacon One
(Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Adonais") 

1
Thaw the frost which binds such dear minds!
awake from the trance of sad empty years

Rise, my obscure compeers, 
on the fringe of a ruined Paradise

			don’t mourn 
			all the fading melodies
	
mocking a true melancholy
	
	to satiate the circumference 
			of desolation

and their appointed inheritors 
		   	of unfulfilled renown

transformed into a marble dust:
		
			a sustained feed of 
			consigned fragments

attracts to crush

		      	to pierce 
			their guarded wit

2
My bark is driven past the revolving year

before we blow it

			in the coming bulk 
			of our refulgent prime

before we learn the art 
of speaking the fitting truth

			before corruption eats our bones
			and darkness descends over our minds

Rise, my obscure compeers,
say: with me the Future dares!

3
they say: 
"we made it with nature
just follow the green"


		another flush through the pale limbs,
		another stain of moonlight vapour


fragrant corpses lead the city 
to a a hoary slope of Desolation

		One plastic stress
		sweeps through the dull dense world 


access the bones—access the Paradise,
access the shatter'd wilderness


		Break this dome of multi-gray stains,
		transfuse the white radiance of fragments!


from kindling brain to brain
repelling sustaining cold
to Burn

		through the web 
		of being a man and a beast


Far from the shore,
sphered skies are
burning through the Beacons.</i>
………….
………….

1997-2001