poem

Notebook Cento #5 – now is a now and this is a this

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Sometimes I go back through my notebooks from Graduate school and make centos (collage poems) from phrases I find in the pages.   This is the fifth of a series of centos from my notebooks.

now is a now and this is a this

Notebook Cento #5
by Debi

a now is a now is a now
creating space
.                        between self and outside
.               inside and out
1st person and 3rd
disjunctive
.                  disruptive
find a place, not a position
not an either/or
.                    but an and and an and and an and and …
respect the thing itself
this is this, is this, is this—
.                 rather than this is that

Reading

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When I read The New
Yorker, it reminds me of Sunday

newspapers from my
childhood.  I always read

the comics first.  If I never
read anything more, at

least I’ve had laughter
in my week.

Poem: In the Beginning

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by Debi

in the beginning
a god-breathed whole
holy and holistic
I wanted so much
the mysteries of earth
the people who walked
out of paradise
destroyed burned
when the final darkness comes
neither you nor I were ready
blowing up
falling down
bombs and tombs
holes and horrific
at the end

Poem: The End of the World

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This was written in response to a gallery exhibition at the University of Washington Bothell called “Particles on the Wall” which had artwork and poetry created in response to the Handford nuclear site in Washington State.  I wandered back through the gallery a second time and wrote down images and phrases that were either inspired by the work, or seen in the poetry, thus creating a response to the totality of the exhibition.

The End of the World
by Debi

I forgive
I forgive
I must forgive

Shall I show you how we dressed our wounds?
downwater downriver
terminal winds
leaking glowing circling dying

someone launched
someone drove
someone fished
and never knew

easy to bury
in the late afternoon
dragged home
bedded down
the rest of us slept
in the river’s shadow

half a million years til Spring
what fossils will the future find?
we have gone blind
we are blind
the desert eats dust
a rabbit digs its own grave

obsolete history
drafted history
voided history
closed history
engineered history

restart
by dawn’s light

origami made from living flesh
unrecognizable
graying

the children unborn
carrying on the family business
cleaning up the waste
from the death beds of their fathers

this is my blood
a chalice of death
the last power
the final cover up

Every time … but it never is

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pathway (2)

Photo by Debi

 

Every time … but it never is.

Every time a car slows by the house,
I run to see if it’s you.
Anytime my phone rings,
I hope it’s you.
When Facebook says I have a message,
I pray it’s you.

But it’s never your car.
Never your call.
Never your message.

Every time … but it never is.

But it is always … sadness.
Always pain.
Always grief.
Always tears.

And every time …
it is always

alone.

Erasure: Revolution

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Erasure poem: Source Youth Challenges by Clarence B Kelland
by Debi

Revolution

poor working-men
descendants
compelled to become lowly
themselves
beliefs handed down
until wrenched
into tradition
alterations
to the leveling tradition
elevating of equality
perhaps hers
had risen beyond
the whole-souled
revolutionist father
of her family

Notebook Cento #4

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Sometimes I go back through my notebooks from Graduate school and make centos (collage poems) from phrases I find in the pages.   This is the fourth of a series of centos from my notebooks.

Notebook Cento #4
by Debi

drunken babbling
self-consciousness
does it get in the way?
humility
arrogance
self-confidence
we need to move beyond
in opposite ways
the same thing

Notebook Cento #3

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Sometimes I go back through my notebooks from Graduate school and make centos (collage poems) from phrases I find in the pages. This is the third of the series of centos from my notebooks.

Notebook Cento #3
by Debi

distance ———- home
love is in the mind
happens again and again
there are known unknowns
and unknown knowns
everyone lives parenthetically
do you have to work for it?
how much do you want it?
layers of imagery
presentation
representation
is any poem with footnotes
a mixed genre work?

Erasure: gods

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Erasure poem – sourced from Clouds by Aristophones
by Debi

gods

we commanded
then declared
dreadful things openly
an evening
beautiful
a torch the moonlight
but observe correctly
confuse the gods
threatening
when they are defrauded
the regular feast
the number of days
sacrificing
inflicting
gods are litigating
laughing
reason obtained afterward
deprived
gods
know better
to spend the days
according to the Moon

Notebook Cento #2

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Sometimes I go back through my notebooks from Graduate school and make centos (collage poems) from phrases I find in the pages.   This is the second of a series of centos from my notebooks.

Notebook Cento #2
by Debi

justify the story
what will serve you
formal constraints
dialogue
punctum
multi-faceted narrative
help us
guide us

fiction’s fuckin’ gone
facing the end
walk off the grief
behind the tear duct