PRIMARY TROUBLE: An Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry

edited by Leonard Schwartz Joseph Donahue and Edward Foster

Talisman House, Publishers Jersey City, New Jersey Contents

LEONARD SCHWARTZ Introduction • 1

Poetry

WILL ALEXANDER from Lightning, Part II: Ball Lightning • 7 The Psychotropic Squalls • 12 Explosive Decibel Journeys • 14 IVAN ARGUELLES from "That" Goddess, Canto the Tenth • 18 DODIE BELLAMY from The Letters of Mina Harker • 25 Things To Do in Providence • 34 Red Shift • 39 A Certain Slant of Sunlight • 41 MEI-MEI BERSSENBRUGGE Experience • 42 CHARLES BORKHUIS Inside Language • 46 Quartet • 50 LEE ANN BROWN Come go with me out to the Field • 54 The Lyric Can Snare • 55 JOSEPH CERAVOLO Data • 56 Dangers of the Journey to the Happy Land • 57 The Crocus Turn and Gods • 58 NORMA COLE Saturn • 62 PETER COLE from Speech's Hedge Where The Honey, 1,12, and 24 • 68

xv In Nora's House with Rilke's Apollo • 75 from The Book of During, IV • 82 DIANE DI PRIMA For H.D. • 84 Paracelsus • 87 JOSEPH DONAHUE Desire • 89 Transfigurations • 95 Opiate Phobia • 100 STEPHEN ELLIS Weathered Ides Grant Young Flesh • 101 Your Poems at Daybreak, the Destruction of Knossos by Afternoon • 102 NORMAN FINKELSTEIN from Track • 103 EDWARD FOSTER Morning • 107 Hermetic Silence • 108 In Your Words • 109 The Marriage of True Minds • 109 KATHLEEN FRASER Frammenti Romani: «t-lll Boot, wet sand and more white • 118 These labdanum hours • 119 FORREST GANDER A Table Laid with Horrors • 121 DREW GARDNER Fire Music • 122 Near Hermes • 124 JOHN HIGH mustard seeds in her field • 125 ANSELM HOLLO on the occasion of becoming an echo • 130 mescalito • 131 VIRGINIA HOOPER Argument for Resurrection • 132 Drawing Room Drama • 135 Deep Season • 136 Seven Doors Away • 137

xvi Lost in the Galleries • 139 A Reading • 141 FANNY HOWE Torn Parts: the story • 142 SUSAN HOWE Thorow • 150 RONALD JOHNSON Beam 1 • 169 Beam 7 • 171 ANDREW JORON The Birdsongs Are Aging • 173 Baring the Device • 174 Zirkus • 175 Shade of a Grammarian • 176 ROBERT KELLY from The Loom • 178 MYUNG MI KIM The Bounty, II • 187 ANN LAUTERBACH Subject to Change • 192 For Example 1: Stepping Out • 193 For Example 5: Song of the Already Sung • 199 NATHANIEL MACKEY The Phantom Light of All Our Day • 204 Memphite Recension • 207 John Coltrane Arrived with an Egyptian Lady • 209 Slipped Quadrant • 210 Song of the Andoumboulou: 12 • 213 KEVIN MAGEE from Tedium Drum, part III • 215 Instrumentum Vocale • 217 TOM MANDEL from Prospect of Release • 221 The Shade • 225 It Moves Across • 227 from Midwinter Day • 229 ALBERT MOBILIO The Third Kind of Interior Word • 233 Step One • 234

xvu Step Seven • 235 LAURA MORIARTY Rondeaux • 236 SHEILA MURPHY from Pure Mental Breath, 13 and 22 • 246 EILEEN MYLES Maxfield Parrish • 248 CLAIRE NEEDELL from Reaches the Body • 251 ALICE NOTLEY Jack Would Speak Through the Imperfect Medium of Alice • 255 from Desamere • 257 GEOFFREY O'BRIEN Scroll • 265 Ornamental Syllable • 269 The Prophetic Child • 271 Theory of Climate • 273 MICHAEL PALMER The Theory of the Flower • 277 Notes for Echo Lake 2 • 280 Untited (September '92) • 282 UnKtled ("O you in that little bark") • 283 SIMON PETTET Annul • 286 mad lady on the steps ...» 287 Rose Garland Sonnet • 288 Mevlana • 289 Echo • 290 STEPHEN RATCLIFFE from space in the light said to be where one / comes from, 40 and 43 • 291 DONALD REVELL Sirius • 293 ED ROBERSON from The Aerialist Narratives, Chapter Three • 295 ELIZABETH ROBINSON The New Language • 310 Mortar • 312 JANET RODNEY from Anywoman's Lyric • 313

xvm DAVID ROSENBERG from Job Speaks, Chapters 3,13, and 14 • 317 Anywhere Out of the World • 328 STEPHEN SARTARELLI An Early Spring • 330 Phantasmatikon • 332 That Land (3) • 333 That Land (4) • 334 LESLIE SCALAPINO from Crowd and not evening or light • 335 ANDREW SCHELLING Run My Hand Under • 341 Isha Upanishad • 342 LEONARD SCHWARTZ Monuments to the Not Yet Lived • 349 Exiles: Ends • 354 BARRY SEILER The Lake • 358 SPENCER SELBY The Spread • 359 DAVID SHAPIRO After • 361 Sentences • 362 House (Blown Apart) • 363 A Book of Glass • 364 Archaic Torsos • 365 To an Idea • 366 Lateness • 367 Taking a Look • 369 AARON SHURIN Agora • 370 Temptation • 375 Continuous Thunder • 376 Very Days • 377 MARY MARGARET SLOAN Eccentricity of the Middle Ground • 378 GUSTAF SOBIN Notes on Sound, Speech, Speech-Crystals and the Celestial Echo • 386 Violet City: Aspects of the Transitive • 389

xix What the Music Wants • 393 On the Nature of the Iconic • 395 Premises • 397 Towards the Blanched Alphabets • 399 JOHN TAGGART Twenty One Times • 401 GEORGE TYSH Genitalia • 405 Evangelle • 409 Precious Mettle • 426 JOHN YAU A Different Cereal • 427 We Are All Vultures • 429 Edificio Sayonara • 430 Angel Atrapado VIII • 432

Poetics

WILL ALEXANDER Alchemy as Poetic Kindling • 437 CLARK COOLIDGE from The Crystal Text • 443 EDWARD FOSTER Poetry and Joy • 444 FANNY HOWE Well Over Void • 446 ROBERT KELLY Spirit/Vanguard Art • 450 LESLIE SCALAPINO from an interview • 452 GUSTAF SOBIN A Few Stray Comments on the Cultivation of the Lyric • 456 ANNE WALDMAN Both, Both: An Introduction • 461

Contributors' Book Publications • 466

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