{"id":1153,"date":"2009-04-22T07:28:51","date_gmt":"2009-04-22T11:28:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=1153"},"modified":"2009-04-22T07:28:51","modified_gmt":"2009-04-22T11:28:51","slug":"may-day-by-robert-kelly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/may-day-by-robert-kelly\/","title":{"rendered":"May Day by Robert Kelly"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"maydaycover002\"<\/p>\n

In 2007 Parsifal Press in Toronto published Robert Kelly’s May Day<\/em>, his most recent selection of\u00a0 shorter poems (written between 2003 and 2005). Unhappily Parsifal Press has gone out of business. Happily Charlotte Mandell has just put up a pdf of May Day<\/em> on her site \u2014 you can read the complete book here<\/a>. Below, to whet your appetite, I reprint the first poem in the book (minus 3 line indents, impossible to reproduce in this medium, but indicated here with a double m-dash):<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

ELEGIES FOR OSIRIS<\/strong><\/p>\n

I want the new thing
\nthe disclosure
\nmen among the trees
\ncrow feathers in their caps
\nprotecting order,<\/p>\n

the long legato of Vivica Genaux
\nembracing a castrato aria from Artaxerxes<\/p>\n

reborn every morning
\nchanting at you dull as monks
\nprioritizing rapture<\/p>\n

o such language darling
\nyou whose spokes are longer than the wheel
\nso must spin in the air of agreement<\/p>\n

-the sun is clear this morning,
\nbene volente – frictionless in almost
\nfall.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014 Beneath their Aqua Velva chins
\nthe channelers grunt and strain to pass
\na licit message – where do words come from,
\nEquivoque, where does the lighter get its flame,
\nplastic Prometheus of so many pockets,<\/p>\n

you mean it’s ok to tell the truth –
\nonly to your mother, and she is deaf.
\nDead? Words, where from, will you,
\ndisclose?<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014 A narrow place where everything is born,
\nthey call it so.ma, freshness, the gap
\nbetween any notice and the next
\n– any moment you might be speaking Turkish-
\ntruth touches you in the night
\nyou roll over, truth caresses the pillow
\nwhere later you’ll fall asleep and dream,
\nmessages everywhere.<\/p>\n

The thing that happens is the naked mind,
\nblue sky after days of rain.<\/p>\n

Central disorder
\nrapture bound around her ankles
\nstrum the catgut she uses to connect
\nthe botryoidal mindset
\nwith her prancing feet – ripe ripe
\nand movely ripe, clusters
\nof frost sweetened grapes
\nchastened to the ice-wine
\nof November rivers,
\nI am yours.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014 You wait there
\nstorming at the Sea Gate
\nenraged at me but still
\nsharing my pizza, one wedge
\nfor two appetites.<\/p>\n

But the air’s dry now, my sparrow,
\nand pale delight is back
\nthe haunted shade inside your clothes<\/p>\n

the pale shadow that is your skin
\nnow tell me what divine opacity
\ncasts that shade and from what light<\/p>\n

Now summon from the yew trees to appear
\nmedium demons of high magic, Saltarellus,
\nSequoius, Quousquinus, they know their jobs,
\nthey can have you on your back in no time
\ninterviewing the immortal stars<\/p>\n

to make them answer. They hardly know
\nwhat they’re saying, and you’re no better,
\nyou live for these moments of pure jive
\nwhen every word is shining ruby
\ntail light in rain.<\/p>\n

Circle me with light,
\nthere you are, young glory,
\none foot past the other
\nlike a goat going over a rope bridge,
\nbe like the bird but don’t fly,
\nbe like the moon but don’t fall<\/p>\n

as she my sister does night after night
\nexcruciating slow.<\/p>\n

In all those pages find me one new thing,
\nanything, name of an angel,
\nlips of a woman you (not I) kissed in dream –
\na kiss is strange, a wordless speaking
\nin the other’s mouth,<\/p>\n

and the sun writes only shadows on the ground,
\ntell me, lover, one new thing,
\nthat’s all, fox in a thicket it could be, a hunter
\ndead beside his rifle, a green
\nfeather in his hat band rolled from his head,
\nand not far away you hear a waterfall.<\/p>\n

\"maydaycover003\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2007 Parsifal Press in Toronto published Robert Kelly’s May Day, his most recent selection of\u00a0 shorter poems (written between 2003 and 2005). Unhappily Parsifal Press has gone out of business. Happily Charlotte Mandell...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[520,645],"class_list":["post-1153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-may-day","tag-robert-kelly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}