GREEK LESSON

Publication

'Regula Horatii, for Robert Kelly'

appears in the 2014 issue of Tribeca Poetry Review

with many thanks to Editor Kenlynne Rini.

Morning poem #5 / Potsherd # 1

"If the poet has not yet written his morning poem, then it must still be morning."

etiam in lingua Latina

ONOMASTICA EDITA

IN NOMINIBUS

IN NOMINIBUS SS. LARKIN ET APOLLINAIRE

t h e y  f u c k  y o u  up ,  y o u r  t v   s  h o w s

  o        a      r      p        a       n       h      a  a     e   i

  g        n      o      e        r       e       e      n    p    l    g

  a        t       f        r        t       d       l       f    p    c    m

  n        a      f        a       r       a        o      o     y   o     u

   s        s       t        t        i       y       v      r     d    m     n

   h        y       s       i        d       a       e      d    a     e      d

   e         i       u       o         g      t        b     a    y     b      a

   r         s       p        n        e      a        o     n     s     a      n

   o         l        e        p        f      t        a      d           c       d

   e         a         r        e        a      i       t       s            k       t

   s         n         s        t        m      m             o            k      h

            d          h         t         i        e             n            o       e

            o         i          l                                    t         s

                       w        c          y                                   t        e

                                  o                                                e        a

a                                               r        m

 t                                                          o

              n

    s

       t
      e 
      r


          s

  

to which you devoted

such attention

and the guts of many an hour

and so much forfeit innocence!

Before these programs curdled

their dead eyes still fixed on you

as their non-degradable

hypnotic

            literalism

as a corpse cools and congeals

cooled and congealed

            that happened

if you’re lucky.

For to count such losses

even to conceive of such 

damage

is the work of sanity at least

I think

as is the sadness.