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Start by following Al Purdy.
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“I don't mind a bit being labelled a suicide.”
―
―
“— the loss of love
that comes to mean more
than the love itself
and how explain that?
— a still pool in the forest
that has ceased to reflect anything
except the past
from “Listening to Myself”
― Beyond Remembering: The Collected Poems of Al Purdy
that comes to mean more
than the love itself
and how explain that?
— a still pool in the forest
that has ceased to reflect anything
except the past
from “Listening to Myself”
― Beyond Remembering: The Collected Poems of Al Purdy
“Where the Moment Is”
I forget whether I ever loved you
in the past - when you enter the room
your climate is the mood
of living, the hinge of now,
in time the present tense.
Certainly you are the world
I am not done with
until I dispense with words -
Neutral as nature: something I say
will flash back like light
or shadow: you wait and become
a stranger I've not met
or hated or slept with.
The action begins quickly
word, inflection, reaction fall
into his place the moment is;
sometimes I can pre-determine you,
and taste you
becoming in my mouth,
a blank map to explore
in silence, a thought gone out
of me to make you be or say -
Eventually you back against
a wall and I or we may
suddenly find our mouths screaming
in anger or laughter
without meaning - and wince.
But the damned trouble and after
my existence - in my absence
you expect or mourn without a sound.”
― Beyond Remembering: The Collected Poems of Al Purdy
I forget whether I ever loved you
in the past - when you enter the room
your climate is the mood
of living, the hinge of now,
in time the present tense.
Certainly you are the world
I am not done with
until I dispense with words -
Neutral as nature: something I say
will flash back like light
or shadow: you wait and become
a stranger I've not met
or hated or slept with.
The action begins quickly
word, inflection, reaction fall
into his place the moment is;
sometimes I can pre-determine you,
and taste you
becoming in my mouth,
a blank map to explore
in silence, a thought gone out
of me to make you be or say -
Eventually you back against
a wall and I or we may
suddenly find our mouths screaming
in anger or laughter
without meaning - and wince.
But the damned trouble and after
my existence - in my absence
you expect or mourn without a sound.”
― Beyond Remembering: The Collected Poems of Al Purdy
“- so much like riding dangerous women
with whiskey coloured eyes -
such women as once fell dead with their lovers
with fire in their heads and slippery froth on thighs”
― Rooms for Rent in the Outer Planets: Selected Poems 1962-1996
with whiskey coloured eyes -
such women as once fell dead with their lovers
with fire in their heads and slippery froth on thighs”
― Rooms for Rent in the Outer Planets: Selected Poems 1962-1996
“Genius is children"
it lives in far Centaurus
and star clusters beyond cold Orion
and sometimes visits earth
when there is no one home”
― Rooms for Rent in the Outer Planets: Selected Poems 1962-1996
it lives in far Centaurus
and star clusters beyond cold Orion
and sometimes visits earth
when there is no one home”
― Rooms for Rent in the Outer Planets: Selected Poems 1962-1996
“(My dove my little one
tonight there will be wine and drunken suitors
from the logging camps to pin you down
in the outlying lands of sleep
where all roads lead back to the home-village
and water may be walked on)”
― Rooms for Rent in the Outer Planets: Selected Poems 1962-1996
tonight there will be wine and drunken suitors
from the logging camps to pin you down
in the outlying lands of sleep
where all roads lead back to the home-village
and water may be walked on)”
― Rooms for Rent in the Outer Planets: Selected Poems 1962-1996
“Seeing the sky darken & the fields
turn brown & the lake lead-grey
as some enormous scrap of sheet metal
& wind grabs the world around the equator
I am most thankful then for knowing about
the little gold hairs on your belly”
― Rooms for Rent in the Outer Planets: Selected Poems 1962-1996
turn brown & the lake lead-grey
as some enormous scrap of sheet metal
& wind grabs the world around the equator
I am most thankful then for knowing about
the little gold hairs on your belly”
― Rooms for Rent in the Outer Planets: Selected Poems 1962-1996
“I forget whether I ever loved you
in the past—when you enter the room
your climate is the mood
of living, the hinge of now,
in time the present tense.
Certainly you are the world
I am not done with,
until I dispense with words—
Yet neutral: something I say
will flash back like light
or shadow; you wait
to be a stranger I’ve not met
or fondled or slept with.
from “Where the Moment Is”
― Beyond Remembering: The Collected Poems of Al Purdy
in the past—when you enter the room
your climate is the mood
of living, the hinge of now,
in time the present tense.
Certainly you are the world
I am not done with,
until I dispense with words—
Yet neutral: something I say
will flash back like light
or shadow; you wait
to be a stranger I’ve not met
or fondled or slept with.
from “Where the Moment Is”
― Beyond Remembering: The Collected Poems of Al Purdy
“And you you
bitch no irritating
questions re love and permanence only
an unrolling lifetime here
between your rocking thighs
and the semblance of motion”
― Rooms for Rent in the Outer Planets: Selected Poems 1962-1996
bitch no irritating
questions re love and permanence only
an unrolling lifetime here
between your rocking thighs
and the semblance of motion”
― Rooms for Rent in the Outer Planets: Selected Poems 1962-1996
