Jerome Rothenberg

Jerome Rothenberg with Tulips at Kelly Writers' House

Larry --
This was just finished up ... so from my computer directly to yours.
Abrazos,
JERRY

from FURTHER AUTOVARIATIONS

“I Feel the Sand Between My Teeth”

brittle like teeth
the mouth can’t hold
but take the shape
of tiny arrows
what the wolf in dreams
spews out    a cry
more like a tapping sound
like pebbles in a brook

the rat-a-tat
a wash board makes
against your fingers
or like castanets
the click & clack
precisely sand
pressed in your mouth
your tongue & teeth

feeling the grit
the particles in motion
bit after bit
you cough them up
or spit them out
leaving a mark on canvas
filled with blood & leaves
as many grains as stars

signaling the news
from space   the dark world
filled with signals
more than the mind
can hold   like dreams
that capture us
making a lie of time
where time runs wild

never to find
its equal
in the worlds below
through which you fall
& still will follow
absent your voice
that stays behind
silent as theirs

the black worlds opening
 to let the stars sing
from unbounded space
more like a scream
than what we cling to
rhyme & reason
stripped from us
the days ahead

turned backwards
where a river ran
& houses on the shore
were ringed by bears
encounters
endless trials & woes
we ran from
would not find an equal

in the time we knew
the end of politics
as farce & tragedy
foretold & fatal
where the naked ape
sets forth again
the power in his finger
pointing at the sky

the hidden universe & things
beyond his knowing
soon reduced to worms
a sky where stars
are also worms
the words pronounced
in foreign tongues
sounds like gusanos

waiting watching
with the others
& myself
among them
eyes obscured
by moonlight
without time
to think

or find a place
that saves us
from the dark
the light
the nameless killers
aiming to embark
& claim
their prize

23.vi.16
Jerome Rothenberg