The Collected Poems of Ted Berrigan Read online

lights up

  Grand Valley

  Now

  Robert Creeley speaks:

  the air is getting

  darker

  and darker

  the Rose of Sharon

  moves

  towards the door

  and through.

  TED BERRIGAN & ROBERT CREELEY

  Where

  This

  is as is

  it goes

  which does

  as that was

  that . . . or

  over time & that

  was, is,

  that. Check: call it

  WHAT.

  Out the Second-floor Window

  On St. Mark’s Place

  She walked

  with the aggressive dignity

  of those

  for whom someone else’s

  irony

  is the worst of disasters:

  I loved her for it.

  O Love

  AFTER LEOPARDI

  O love!

  I have collected

  a scar or two

  & even a disturbing

  memory or two

  Since I fell for you.

  Life in the Future

  FOR DONNA DENNIS

  White powder

  purple pill

  pink pill

  white powder

  (2)

  Blue air

  white mist

  blue/white sky

  MARS

  & it’s Autumn in the Northern hemisphere

  there.

  Anselm Hollo

  Come to Chicago

  Go to the

  Aspidistra Bookstore

  Buy

  THE LAST PURITAN.

  Stay with us.

  Poem

  TO TOM CLARK

  Autobiography

  Men at Arms

  Brideshead Revisited

  Evelyn Waugh

  Acid

  Get your ass in gear

  Ten Things to Do in the Closet

  Turn around.

  Turn around.

  Turn around.

  Feel.

  Suss.

  Whine.

  Shut up.

  Turn on light.

  Exercise.

  Kill Dog.

  Orange Black

  BACK DEATH

  Strategy

  Strategy is what you do how

  Sitting Bull

  Larceny

  The

  opposite

  of

  petty

  is

  GRAND.

  I’m No Prick

  The best way of

  going all that way

  to get something

  and bring it back

  is that way. This

  is potent information,

  that, a way to go, then.

  Bolinas

  get, in the complexity of our present

  responsible element seething between

  impasto excitation & somber, subtly evoked grandeur.

  Congratulations

  To

  Lee & Mike.

  I ride this bike

  To your joy

  For your little boy.

  Déjà Vu

  Discussing Max Beerbohm

  with Mike Brownstein.

  Neal Cassady Talk

  “I’m standing toe-to-toe with you, see, looking you right in the eye,

  you see, and at the same time digging that you are tapping your left foot, but,

  and also, at the very same time, understand, I am digging that an American

  flag is coming out of your left ear.”

  surface

  In the House

  Sometimes it is quiet throughout the night

  And you learn in the morning that

  The man in the next room

  Died in his sleep.

  But there is no shortage of applicants

  For the room.

  Vignette

  Kissed Maggie soundly; and the Doctor

  declined to write me another prescription:

  (if that “; and” meant what its weight does,

  this would be ROMANCE.)

  Inflation

  It’s difficult

  for the young queer

  poets these days.

  They

  have to be

  as good as

  John Ashbery

  (sigh).

  I’m glad we

  Only have to be

  like Allen Ginsberg!

  (Cheers)

  WANT

  CAN

  DO

  Flying United

  Ladies & Gentlemen,

  You will depart

  The Aircraft

  at the

  Terminal Area

  to your left.

  Thank You for Flying United.

  The D.A.

  Today I had planned to fribble away

  in “The Digger’s Game”

  But Chemistry dictated that I lie on the bed

  all day too fast to dig.

  Song

  “All things considered, it’s a gentle & undemanding

  planet, even here.”

  I seldom know it.

  I do remember consistently

  to feed it. Snore. In the air

  in the house

  in the night bear with me.

  Red Wagon

  TO ALICE NOTLEY

  She

  She is always two blue eyes

  She is never lost in sleep

  All her dreams are light & air

  They sometimes melt the sun

  She makes me smile, or

  She makes me cry, she

  Makes me laugh, and I talk to her

  With really nothing particularly to say.

  Remembered Poem

  It is important to keep old hat

  in secret closet.

  3 Pages

  FOR JACK COLLOM

  10 Things I do Every Day

  play poker

  drink beer

  smoke pot

  jack off

  curse

  BY THE WATERS OF MANHATTAN

  flower

  positive & negative

  go home

  read lunch poems

  hunker down

  changes

  Life goes by

  quite merrily

  blue

  NO HELP WANTED

  Hunting For The Whale

  “and if the weather plays me fair

  I’m happy every day.”

  The white that dries clear

  the heart attack

  the congressional medal of honor

  A house in the country

  NOT ENOUGH

  Conversation

  “My name

  “My name

  “My name

  “My name

  “My name

  “My name

  is Wesley

  is Wesley

  Wesley

  is Wesley

  Jackson,

  is Wesley Jackson,

  “My name is Wesley Jackson,

  I am

  I am

  I am

  I am

  25 years

  25 years

  old,

  old,

  I am 25 years old,

  I am 25 years old,

  I am 25 years old,

  and

  and

  my favorite

  my favorite

  my favorite

  favorite

  favorite

  and my favorite

  song

  song

  song

  and my favorite

  and my favorite song

  and my favorite song

  my favorite song

  and my favorite song

  is

  is Valencia.”

  Valencia.”

  “Isn’t />
  “Isn’t

  that

  “Isn’t that

  beautiful,”

  beautiful,”

  “Isn’t that beautiful,”

  “Isn’t that beautiful,”

  Frank

  Frank

  said.

  Frank said.

  To Southampton

  Go

  Get in Volkswagen

  Ride to the Atlantic

  Step out

  See

  Your shadows

  On fog

  At the second stop

  The same ocean as

  At the first

  Back in Volkswagen

  Ron’s or somebody’s

  Backs up

  Steps on the gas

  COCA COLA 20 Cents

  Machine noise

  Satisfaction

  Home

  Away from home.

  sunday morning

  FOR LOU REED

  1.

  It’s A Fact

  If you stroke a cat about 1,000,000 times, you will

  generate enough electricity to light up the largest

  American Flag in the world for about one minute.

  2.

  Turnabout

  In former times people who committed adultery

  got stoned;

  Nowadays it’s just a crashing bringdown.

  3.

  A Mongolian Sausage

  By definition: a long stocking: you fill it full of shit,

  and then you punch holes in it. Then you swing it over

  your head in circles until everybody goes home.

  Something Amazing Just Happened

  FOR JIM CARROLL, ON HIS BIRTHDAY

  A lovely body gracefully is nodding

  Out of a blue Buffalo

  Monday morning

  curls

  softly rising color the air

  it’s yellow

  above the black plane

  beneath a red tensor

  I’ve been dreaming. The telephone kept ringing & ringing

  Clear & direct, purposeful yet pleasant, still taking pleasure

  in bringing the good news, a young man in horn-rims’ voice

  is speaking

  while I listen. Mr. Berrigan, he says, & without waiting for an answer

  goes on,

  I’m happy to be able to inform you that your request for a Guggenheim

  Foundation Grant

  Has been favorably received by the committee, & approved.

  When would you like to leave?

  Uh, not just yet, I said, uh, what exactly did I say with regards to leaving,

  in my application . . . I’m a little hazy at the moment.

  Yes. Your project, as outlined in your application for a grant for the

  purpose

  of giving Jim Carroll the best possible birthday present you could get

  him, through our Foundation, actually left the project, that is,

  how the monies

  would be spent, up to us. You indicated, wisely, I think, that we knew

  more about what kind of project we would approve than you did,

  so we should

  make one up for you, since all you wanted was money, to buy Jim a

  birthday gift.

  Aha! I said. So, what’s up?

  We have arranged for you and Jim to spend a year in London, in a flat

  off of King’s Row.

  You will receive 250 pounds each a month expenses, all travel expenses

  paid, & a clothing allowance of 25 pounds each per month.

  During the year,

  At your leisure, you might send us from time to time copies of your

  London works. By year’s end I’m sure you each will have enough

  new poems for two books,

  Which we would then publish in a deluxe boxed hardcover edition, for

  the rights to which we shall be prepared to pay a considerable

  sum, as is your due.

  We feel that this inspired project will most surely result in The first major

  boxed set of works since Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn!

  Innocents Abroad

  in reverse, so to speak! We know your poems, yours & Jim’s, will tell it

  like it is, & that is what we are desperate to know! So, when

  would you like to leave?

  Immediately, I shouted! & Jim! I called, Jim! Happy Birthday! Wake up!

  Today in Ann Arbor

  FOR JAYNE NODLAND

  Today I woke up

  bright & early

  Then I went back to sleep

  I had a nice dream

  which left me weak

  so

  I woke up again

  dull, but still early.

  I drank some coke

  & took a pill

  It made me feel ill, but

  optimistic. So,

  I went to the Michigan Union for cigarettes.

  I cashed a check today—

  but that was later. Now

  I bought cigarettes, &

  The Detroit Free Press.

  I decided to eat some vanilla wafers

  & drink coffee

  at my desk

  There was no cream for

  the coffee. & the mail

  wasn’t out yet.

  It pissed me off.

  I drank some coffee, black

  & it was horrible.

  Life is horrible, &

  I am stupid.

  I think. . . . . . . . . . NOTHING.

  Then I think, more coffee. . .

  upstairs!

  Jackie’s face

  picks me up.

  She says, “there’s cream

  upstairs”

  Up more stairs via the elevator:

  cream talk amiably to Bert

  Hornbach

  Come downstairs

  &

  the mail has

  come!

  Lots

  of mail! I feel pretty good.

  Together with my mail back in office.

  Sitting.

  Johnny Stanton says: “Ted,

  you are a myth in my heart.”

  He is a myth in my heart!

  So, we are both myths!

  Warmed by this, & coffee,

  I go on. American Express

  says:

  “You owe us $1,906. Please

  Pay NOW.”

  I say, sure!

  (“Now” means “later”)

  Somebody else sends a postcard (Bill).

  He says,

  “I am advertising your presence

  at YALE, so please come!”

  I say to Bill,

  “Have Faith, old

  brother! I’ll be there

  when you need me.”

  In fact, I say that to everyone.

  That is the truth,

  & so,

  I open a beautiful letter

  from you. When we are both dead,

  that letter

  will be Part Two

  of this poem.

  But now we are both alive

  & terrific!

  In the Wheel

  The pregnant waitress

  asks

  “Would you like

  some more coffee?”

  Surprised out of the question

  I wait seconds “Yes,

  I think I would!” I hand her

  my empty cup, &

  “thank you!” she says. My pleasure.

  Wind

  Every day when the sun comes up

  The angels emerge from the rivers

  Drily happy & all wet. Easy going

  But hard to keep my place. Easy

  On the avenue underneath my face.

  Difficult alone trying to get true.

  Difficult inside alone with you.

  The rivers’ blackness flowing just sits

  Orange & reds blaze up inside
the sky

  I sit here & I’ve been thinking this

  Red, blue, yellow, green, & white.

  Things to Do on Speed

  mind clicks into gear

  & fingers clatter over the keyboard

  as intricate insights stream

  out of your head:

  this goes on for ten hours:

  then, take a break: clean

  all desk drawers, arrange all

  pens & pencils in precise parallel patterns;

  stack all books with exactitude in one pile

  to coincide perfectly with the right angle

  of the desk’s corner.

  Whistle thru ten more hours of

  arcane insights:

  drink a quart of ice-cold pepsi:

  clean the ice-box:

  past out for ten solid hours

  interesting dreams.

  2.

  Finish papers, wax floors, lose weight, write songs, sing songs, have

  conference, sculpt, wake up & think more clearly. Clear up asthma.

  treat your obesity, avoid mild depression, decongest, cure your

  narcolepsy,

  treat your hyper-kinetic brain-damaged children. Open the

  Pandora’s Box of amphetamine abuse.

  3.

  Stretch the emotional sine curve; follow euphoric peaks with descents

  into troughs

  that are unbearable wells of despair & depression. Become a ravaged

  scarecrow.

  Cock your emaciated body in

  twisted postures grind your caved-in jaw

  scratch your torn & pock-marked skin,

  keep talking, endlessly.

  4.

  Jump off a roof on the lower East Side