Jerome Rothenberg

Poems and poetics

Outside & subterranean poetry (64): Ludwig Wittgenstein, 'Philosophy As Poetry' or 'Thinking While Talking'

[The following is yet another excerpt from the forthcoming Barbaric Vast & Wild: A Gathering of Outside & Subterranean Poetry from Origins to Present, edited with commentaries by myself & John Bloomberg-Rissman, & published by Black Widow Press as the fifth volume of Poems for the Millennium.  Earlier excerpts have been posted on Poems and Poetics over the last several years, referring to the work as “a mini-anthology in progress,” but the completed work will now appear

Ed Friedman: Four new poems ('Ideal Boy') from 'Two Towns'

Good Habits

The ideal boy

gets up early.

Light is dim outside,

not so bright inside either.

Salutes parents

bare feet knees together,

proud posture with no sassy upturns.

Goes for morning walk.

Does not wander from path.

Jerome Rothenberg & John Bloomberg Rissman: 'Poems for the Millennium, volume 5': The 'Table of Contents' (part two)

James Tilly Matthews, The Air-Loom Machine, c. 1810
James Tilly Matthews, The Air-Loom Machine, c. 1810

[What follows is the second half of the table of contents for Barbaric Vast & Wild: A Gathering of Outside & Subterranean Poetry from Origins to Present, which has been announced for March publication by Black Widow Press.  The first half appeared in Poems and Poetics on February 2, & numerous excerpts from the book-in-progress have appea

Gerry Loose: Three Ogham poems from Inchmarnock with a note on poetics & translation

Slate with ogham inscription from Inchmarnock, circa 4th-8th century a.d.
Slate with ogham inscription from Inchmarnock, circa 4th-8th century a.d.

1/ HAVING REACHED THE HOLY REWARD

  

Her body fades with her hair becomes invisible her skin is a salmon.

Singing eye sings her songs together kine alpine kine grazing.

Guarded life is guarded shielded ringed with soldiers.

South from our slit ribs bees swarm north.

Now is elsewhere jealousy did this.

 

Thieves clean her breasts.

A bower is constructed high in the thorn.

Three fires jealousy love and death maggot us.

Under no place there are no trees there is no place.

Pulse great throbbing blooded heart harts live in her irises.

 

 

2/ GAMING BOARD                      (to be read in any direction)

 

you’re blest               you’re dead

you’re fading            concentrate

 

you’re hopeful          counting chickens              

shit shit                     shit shit

 

you’re hopeful          you’re hopeful                     

shit shit                     shit shit

 

o sweet                       o pale

you’re flying             you’re fleeing

 

you’re dead               a corpse

concentrate               you’re fading

 

you’re hopeful          o sweet

shit shit                     you’re flying

 

o pale                          you’re hopeful

you’re fleeing                       shit shit

 

you’re blest               you’re hopeful

you’re fading            shit shit

 

you’re hopeful          you’re hopeful                     

shit shit                     shit shit

 

you’re chiselling      you’re dead

will it hold                concentrate

 

you’re dead               o pale

concentrate               you’re fleeing

Jerome Rothenberg & John Bloomberg Rissman: 'Poems for the Millennium, volume 5': the 'Table of Contents' (part one)

Adolf Wölfli, Campbell’s Tomato Soup, 1923
Adolf Wölfli, Campbell’s Tomato Soup, 1923

[The book itself – Barbaric Vast & Wild: A Gathering of Outside & Subterranean Poetry from Origins to Present – has been announced for March publication by Black Widow Press.  What follows is the first half of the table of contents. The rest appear here.]