Ceremony Latin

by Bernadette Mayer

2005 reprint of 1964 original.

Genres: Poetry

18 pages, Mimeo book/side-stapled

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

Bernadette Mayer (born May 12, 1945) is an American poet, writer, and visual artist associated with both the Language poets and the New York School. Mayer's record-keeping and use of stream-of-consciousness narrative are two trademarks of her writing, though she is also known for her work with form and mythology. In addition to the influence of her textual-visual art and journal-keeping, Mayer's poetry is widely acknowledged as some of the first to speak accurately and honestly about the experience of motherhood. Mayer edited the journal 0 TO 9 with Vito Acconci, and, until 1983, United Artists books and magazines with Lewis Warsh. Mayer taught at the New School for Social Research, where she earned her degree in 1967, and, during the 1970s, she led a number of workshops at the Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church in New York. From 1980 to 1984, Mayer served as director of the Poetry Project, and her influence in the contemporary avant-garde is felt widely, with writers like Kathy Acker, Charles Bernstein, John Giorno, and Anne Waldman having sat in on her workshops.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[M.W.P.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ovid

I. The Golden Age
 At first the golden age was the first
to spring up, which, with no avenger protector,
by its own will, without law, it was established, a
good & right thing.
 Not yet had the pine trees felledcome down
from its own mountains to visit a foreign land through
the clear flowing waves sea. Not yet were the towns
surrounded by deep ditches; there were neither swords
nor helmets; nations passed their leisure time free.


a high room floating away

I can see praying to the sun
or maybe the rain because they cover
everything & come from apparently nowhere

giant people

a desperate feeling like trying to explain
yourself in 25 words, talking faster than your
heart beats, away from everybody with bad music
playing too loud in the room & the chatter growing
louder & further away

two clocks in the same room
ticking out of time - same feeling



reading a poet's life
preconceived ends
real life of the poet

impressions accidental
 animals' intelligence



Mary Jemison White Woman
of the Genesee
simple writing w. form personal
James Baldwin stinks
nobody tells the truth



smells 
my body is full of sand
yellow and green cannot be
escaped I write like my mother
the doctor



kidney man
I got to buy potatoes
fertile period



The old man with the
jaundiced eye is watching

The laundry-sex



smells
lemon sachet: heavy sweet
unsettling
sandalwood smell: drunken
violets descending
penetrating perpetrating
sex
air wick to drown the
shit smell
cooking



flying room



"...how terrific even the music of some of the lowliest
composers can be.....the chorus from Boris...."

 I spoke with my tongue: O Lord, make me know
my end.
 And what is the no. of my days: that I may know
what is wanting to me.
 Behold thou hast made my days measurable:
and my substance is as nothing before thee. And indeed
all things are vanity: every man is living.
 Surely man passeth as an image: yes, & he is
disquieted in vain.
 He storeth up: & he knoweth not for whom he
shall gather these things.
 And now what is my hope? is it not the Lord?
and my substance is with thee.
 Deliver thou me from all my iniquities: thou
hast made me a reproach to the fool....And thou hast
made his soul to waste away like a spider: surely in vain
is any man disquieted
 Psalm 38



And Lamech lived a hundred & 82 yrs and begot a son.
And Lamech lived after he begot Now, five hundred & 95 yrs
& begot sons & daughters
 V28, 30 Chap5 Genesis

A car full of telephone books

Mozart Serenade NO. 12

Man is a master of everything. Woman is or ought
to be one of the things. There are half men & half
women. Christ. 

Good & evil cannot exist absolutely in the world.
Their destruction. Billy Budd.

A dirty man who knows Mrs. Vergara.

A woman exists who gives parties every year
& makes movies with narration out of them.
A western party, Vestal Virgins.



Father Burghardt's speech
Honor convocation 1962
Adventures of the Intellect
 accuracy of fact universality of
 knowledge integration to form view-wisdom

 Because i was silent my bones grew old whilst
i cried out all the day long.
 For day & night thy hand was heavy upon me:
I am turned in my anguish, whilst the thorn is fastened
 Psalm 31
 Give praise to the Lord on the harp sing to him
with the psaltery, the instrument of ten strings.
 Sing to him a new canticle sing well unto him
with a loud noise
 Psalm 32



4th Symphony Beethoven saying yes

Unmarked and unnoticed & important so alike
the words are the dust on my floor under the radiator
and the wine of the men who love men that i cherish.
I masturbate with you I hope and my love is greater
than yours.

I worship poems when I write them but the
next day I am horrible. Too bad I could get further.

O yes drunk.

Ludwig go after them.

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