Shot Across the Bow #2
Poetry for poetry sake swimming around
my head (The Collected Poems of
Ted Berrigan)
while I plant my feet and demand
subject matter:
dark rich Beethoven strings
televisions painted red
Bukowski
and beer
because:
India is teeming
Melissa never loved me
and my mother was beyond
love or even
discussions of love
this and a million more wasted pebbles
turning cleverness into
a cop out
that can’t be allowed
in my search
for a home
neither desperate
nor gleaming.
Small Canvas
See the model as if thrown
to the ground by the artist,
legs pried boldly
to pouting slit and hair
while here a breast
there a breast
here an eye
there an eye
floating it seems
conflicts
with the meaning
of stone
but not of love
or need.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rob Woodard is the author of the novels Heaping Stones [Burning Shore Press, 2005] and What Love Is [Burning Shore Press, forthcoming]. He is currently working on a poetry collection entitled King of Long Beach. His work appears regularly in print and on the web in both the US and Europe. He lives in Long Beach, California.
A mention of Ted Berrigan – wow! – spread the word…