Le Métro, 1943
—Artwork by Jean Dubuffet
—Poems by B.Z. Niditch, Brookline, MA
WAKING UP WITH SEA GULLS
Waking up with sea gulls
departing the sky
in a profusion of clouds
along the Cape Cod beach
the noon air is cool
as a beachcomber walks
glaring along the sand
tells me his name is Ned
and is a runaway
entangled in seaweed
tells me he is needy
on a winter February thaw
and draws me a landscape
in an epiphany of nature
peeks at the waves
under the sun rays’ shadow
and picks his way down
to the shore
bathing in frozen water
after a week.
__________________
IMPROVISATION #233
PROCLAMATION
Hinting more days
of winter
the groundhog
in the underground
by bog and in silence
comes out
like a Beat poet
after a slog of winter snow
goes up to the hinterland
and country hill
in the rucksack of meadow
shouting out\side
words we not know
in tongues of
the groundhog
who decides to head back inside
from his shadow to proclaim
to the media
it is the sunlight
for more days of the season
for Puxsatawney Phil
in Pennsylvania.
Swindler
IMPROVISATION #252
READING REVERDY
Reading Reverdy
pausing on the beach
in blankets
another is drawing
a mural in a color field
in canvas covering
over orange and red sponges
on the sea coast beds
to astonish us
we reaching out for shells
among the shore's seaweed
stones of Provence
yet finding whale bones
by a diary of influence
from a politician
as we read French quatrains
and hide out
from shields
of hail and rain.
__________________
IMPROVISATION# 240
AIRPORT OUT OF MIND
They said
over the intercom to land
in Cincinnatti
go on the ramp
check your passport
and stamp without spam
as you head
for the Rocky Mountains
to the port of San Francisco
in a shipping container
by way of Chicago
that your suitcase
in your retainer
by way of an extra
experience
to be absorbed
into your poet's
diary tightly bound
with personal cargo
when there is a reaction
to your superego
in the underground
of satisfaction.
Lili By The Window, 1935
IMPROVISATION# 238
ON FRENCH POSTER ART
If from the start
in Cubism
from prisms
of surrealism
into poster art
and neo-Realism
by Albert Glaziers
my staring at
The Bathers
at my satisfaction
at Jean Metzinger's
Tea Time
at noon
in my attraction
or in the graffiti
of Jean Debuffet's
cartoons.
__________________
IMPROVISATION #225
OFF OAK BLUFFS
The breeze
off Oak bluffs
as fishermen
when visiting from Lisbon
listen
to the fragmented
churning sea
with a voice in shadows
by the trees
hears us in echoes
by flakes of the snow
in local field
of local colors
as fishers by river banks
shielded from the sun
far out of reach
salmon on the blue surface
with its complicity
of nature.
Protestator, 1973
IMPROVISATION #239
HANGING OUT
Hanging out
as a Beat poet
in a justice
by curiosity
with an intense
sensitivity in the modernist
museum
at a first light
phenomenon
by you showing me
a first peek at
Russian and Greek
sleek icons
drawing in the balance
pressed by turning
out of a crusty critic
on a tripwire of intelligence
in the emergence
to make a trustworthy
from the presence
of perplexing primed here
over an index of things
leaking a deflection
into mechanisms
of wonder and sensitivity
of several centuries
at artistic evidence
transfixed under the prism
cover from an interior outing
into a convergence
at the audacious influence
of a resigned punctuation
and signature and signed
in a Kultur
that is passing.
Jazz, 1943
Today’s LittleNip:
IMPROVISATION #243
WHEN A POET SPEAKS
—B.Z. Niditch
When a poet
or artist draws us in
on canvas
or speaks in outlines
under cover
in profiled times
of shadows
in its eccentric settings
dreams in alarms
track us down
from a network of access
in a metaphoric process
of a geometric charming
us in
oversight.
_________________
Many, many thanks to B.Z. Niditch for today’s fine poems and pix! Head on down to the Central Library in Sac. (828 I St.) at noon for Third Thursdays at the Central Library poetry read-around—bring poems, preferably by someone other than yourself, about love, or to celebrate Black History Month. Then you have two choices of poetry readings in our area tonight: Poetry Unplugged at Luna’s Cafe features Tom Goff celebrating the life of Iris Rinehart, 8pm; and Poetry in Davis, also at 8pm, features James Lee Jobe and Dorine Jennette, plus open mic. Scroll down to the blue column (under the green column at the right) for info about these and other upcoming poetry events in our area—and note that more may be added at the last minute.
For more about artist Jean Dubuffet, go to www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/dubuffet-drawings/.
—Medusa
Celebrate poetry!
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