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Three Poems by Jerome Rothenberg

THAT DADA STRAIN

 

the zig zag mothers of the gods
of science the lunatic fixed stars
& pharmacies
fathers who left the tents of anarchism
unguarded
the arctic bones
strung out on saint germain
like tom toms
living light bulbs
aphrodisia
“art is junk” the urinal
says “dig a hole
“& swim in it”
a message from the grim computer
“ye are hamburgers”                                                                                                                                      

1985

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From A SENECA JOURNAL: Prelude

 

a city on a turtle’s back

a long house

was like Jerusalem’s

temple

resting on a whale

 

impossible to bring it all

together

 

1982

A SHORT POEM FROM “A BOOK OF MIRRORS”

 

A world caught in a mirror

too vast to be contained.

Infinities of mirrors.

The ones who see it

falter, their hands

break the glass.

They are the sorry mystics,

misfits from

the middle states,

we spy them

on a distant planet,

hidden from time.

 

2018

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