Joanne Kyger

  • “You know when you write poetry you find”
  • You know  when you write  poetry  you find
    the architecture    of your lineage     your teachers
     like Robert Duncan for me   gave me some glue   for the heart
    Beats   which gave confidence
     and competition
     to the    Images    of Perfection
  • . . . or as dinner approaches    I become hasty
     do I mean PERFECTION?
  •  

    September 17, 1986

  • “Influences in Poetry”
  • Dream:
    • In a room    getting ready for a party
    • with Dotty,
    •   Ducan MacNaughton comes in and says
    •   “Stephen Rodefer is on his way here to kill you!
    •   You’d better hide.”
    •   We run to the bathroom
       and lock the door.
    •   Come to think of it
       Duncan looks pretty strange himself.
    • “There’s only room for one
      at the top of the steeple”
      -Robert Frost
  • “Morning is such a welcome time. It doesn’t demand”
  • Morning is such a welcome time. It doesn’t demand
    much from the pocket- Some coffee, a cigarette,
    and the day starts, full of optimism & clarity of hope
    While the Muse holds her head, and the crazy Elementals
    hold down their wrath
    lightly under the earth’s surface.
    Some vague attention
    of wind stirs the golden oats
    and Ita Siamese drags her breakfast rabbit over
    the roof three
    times into the house and escorted out
    the door. While Aram Saroyan & W.S. Merwin
    debate the paucity of their fathers’ feelings
    in New York Times reviews,
    the deer
    coming down the pathway still
    are my startled guests as this morning proceeds normally
  •  

    reprinted from Just Space: poems, 1979-1989, Black Sparrow Press, 1991

  • “Oh Man is the highest type of animal existing”
  • “Oh Man is the highest type of animal existing
     or known to have existed
     but differs from other animals
     more in his extraordinary mental
    development than in anatomical
    structure . . .”
    Well when I think of men
    I think of then in a sexual manner
    Otherwise, I don’t notice the difference, you know
  • being absorbed as being  one just thinks ‘people’
    and not ‘male’ and ‘female’ so much as someone
    to talk to. And how men are all
  • the same being born from Man and Woman and out
     of a woman’s body commonly known as ‘Mother.’
  • “And God said let us make MAN in our own image,
     after our likeness and let them have dominion.”
  • And “Nature may stand up
     and say to all the world,
    ‘This was a MAN!'”
  • And then “I pronounce you MAN
     and wife.”
  • Daddy you is dandy
  • when you’re here. Shrill and soft old Autumnal
  • wind blow     and we are tucked below
  • the shallow soil where seeds spring
     up and wither quickly
    flirting madly.
  •    I’ve got him now,
  •    the beautiful one for my part
  • of the year here in my dark
    and expensive underground
     all mine before he is shared
  • and killed again by the fearless boar
     he is hunting and torn apart
    and his blood runs out and red roses and anemones
  • bloom    and it is spring    and
     he is gone again
  • That man about town gone again . . .
  •  

    reprinted from Just Space: poems, 1979-1989, Black Sparrow Press, 1991

  • “Tuesday, October 28”
  • It was a beautiful golden day
    Now a black split shape
    scuttles under
    de foot. So long, Sayonara.
     The fat cat lays down
    dozing. I could use a little rest too
    I only slept 11 hours last night,
    wrote some letters, swept the floor,
    planted 2 rows of onions, snow peas
    And now I am looking forward
     to washing my hair.
  •  

    reprinted from All This Every Day, Big Sky, 1975

  • “October 28, Take It Easier”
  • I wonder what the ocean is like today?
    Cold and flat, hot and flat?
    Cold and whippy,, tide out, in? The sand
     will be warm, I’m sure
    for the sun is out today, and although not warm
    in the house
    It is in the spot I am going to now.
  •  

    reprinted from All This Every Day, Big Sky, 1975

  • “October 29, Wednesday”
  • In a crowd of people I am suddenly elevated. No matter that
    the crowd follows Ginsberg and Snyder, out on a quick
    demonstration march thru the halls of a tall building out
    into the gardens, their faces among the trees as little
    Chinese sages grained into the wood. White walls, somewhat
    Grecian in the fancy takes you. I AM ELEVATING! from a
    cross legged position, I rise slowly off the ground in a
    crowd of people, easy as can be. ELEVATED! Mr. Ginsberg
    and Mr. Snyder frown, not so much? As they are on their busy
    way, as groups of people pour their respect and devotion to-
    wards them. Pour, pour-they’re busy drinking it up all day
    in teacups. Do you think we’ve sent these young ladies and
    gentlemen in the right direction? That is to say, haven’t
    we sent thin in the right direction though.
     With my back against a stone wall
    in a courtyard, I am closing my eyes and-Now if you will
    just observe me, I will move up off the ground, hopefully
    as much as a foot, two feet, grind. In my Tibetan bathrobe.
    Silence.
  •  

    reprinted from All This Every Day, Big Sky, 1975

  • “Earlier”
  • Into the party, with engraved invitations, I am bored when
    I realize the champagne in the decrepit bowl is going to get
    filled up a lot. Well then, on the greens in front of the
    Mansion are walking Tom Clark and Ted Berrigan, what chums!
    Do you think I could possibly fall in step, as they turn same
    to far flung university on horizon, gleaming. You bet your
    life not. The trouble, says Ted, with you Joanne, is that
    you’re not intelligent enough.
  •  

    reprinted from All This Every Day, Big Sky, 1975

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