THE LOVER
The lover told
The blind pianist
About his
Ardent love,
Asked the pianist
To improvise a tune
About his lover.
For thirty two minutes,
The pianist sat
With his hands
Suspended above the key board
As in one of
John Cage’s compositions.
The pianist left the room.
The lover, sat there, puzzled,
Reviewed his love,
Wondered how the pianist knew the truth.
The lover went into the next room,
Tossed to the pianist
Some coins and the bouquet
He had bought to give
To his beloved.
BUTTERFLY
I see my eye
On the end of a butterfly wing.
The butterfly flies
From flower to flower.
My eye is touched
By the red of a rose.
The butterfly brings
My eye back to me.
The eye that returned
Tells the eye that stayed what happened.
The eye that stayed
Is begging the butterfly to be on its wing.
NIGHT
Night is speeding
By my house.
Different from cars,
Night is noiseless
And has feathers.
Different from cars,
Night does not need a driver
Or road map;
Does not require
The earth be speared
In the side
In order to move.
When night speeds
It moves in slow motion.
Cars hate us,
But when night
Goes by our house,
Night touches us
With her five spread fingers
And her palm
Ardent with love.
AN UNCLEANED HOUSE
I observe what is before me.
I cannot observe everything
Because it is the human condition.
I see my emptied wine glass tipped over
On the floor, some drops oozed out,
Soiled the white floor.
I see a fluff of my wonderful dog’s hair.
I see other fluffs of my dogs hair
Scattered throughout the room.
I have not swept the floor in a week.
I see a spot left by the dirt on her shoe.
The spot has been there a long time,
For even long ago when I mopped the floor,
I went around this spot.
FINGERS
While sipping wine I noticed
Something I never noticed before,
Two fingers on my hand were missing.
I looked around the room,
Saw the two fingers standing on a Chinese dish,
The dish had green dragons around its border.
I observed carefully my two missing fingers,
One became a boy, the other, a girl.
My two fingers were kissing.
The two fingers flew back to my hand,
My hand now has five fingers,
But those two fingers no longer kissed.
click for larger view
|
 Duane Locke
2716 Jefferson Street
Tampa, FL 33602-16200
| Announcing: THREE NEW BOOKS OF POEMS By Duane Locke
[Duane Locke has renounced print publication to publish electronically. Duane Locke has over 4,000 poems published, over 2,000 in print publications, American Poetry Review, etc. and since September 1999, over 2,000 in e zines.]
1. Published in February, 2OO2, E book:
THE SQUID'S BLACK INK,
Published by Ze books (the publisher of poetry
For only 69 cents per book)
Contact: http.//www.blquanbeck.com.zebooks. Inquire:
NOVLNymph@aol.com or Ward708@aol.com
2. Published in February, 2002, E Book:
FROM A TINY ROOM,
Published in Spain by OTO' S E-BOOKS, http.//atotos.gksdesign.com/ebooks/locke or http://atotos.gksdesign.com/ebooks/buy1.htm or
http://www.atotos-ebooks.com
Inquire: guiam@wols.es.
Price: 5.60 Euros.
3, Forthcoming in April, 2002, E book:
THE DEATH OF DAPHNE,
Contains 50 poems never published before. To be published by 4*9*1, URL: 491.20m.com. Inquire: Stompdcr@aol.com Price $5.
Order the above through the internet.
[Duane Locke's 14th print book is still in print, WATCHING WISTERIA. Order from Vida Publishing via iod@ironoverload.org. Or order from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and many others. Paperback, $9.95; Hardcover, $19.95]
|
[BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE: Duane Locke, Doctor of Philosophy in English Renaissance literature, Professor Emeritus of the Humanities, was Poet in Residence at the University of Tampa for over 20 years. Has had over 2,000 of his own poems published in over 500 print magazines such as American Poetry Review, Nation, Literary Quarterly, Black Moon, and Bitter Oleander. Is author of 14 print books of poems, the latest is WATCHING WISTERIA ( to order write Vida Publishing, P.O. Box 12665, Lake, Park, FL. 33405-0665, or Amazon or Barnes and Noble). Since September 1999, he became a cyber poet and started submitting on-line, and since September 1999 he has added to his over 2,000 print acceptances with 1,195 acceptances by e zines.
He is also a painter. Now has exhibitions at Thomas Center Galleries (Gainesville, FL) and Tyson Trading Company (Micanopy, FL) Recently a one-man show at Pyramid Galleries (Tampa, FL)
Also, a photographer, has had 116 of his photos selected for appearance on e zines. He photographs trash in alleys. Moves in close to find beauty in what people have thrown away.
He now lives alone in a two-story decaying house in the sunny Tampa slums. He lives isolated and estranged as an alien, not understanding the customs, the costumes, the language (some form of postmodern English) of his neighbors. The egregious ugliness of his neighborhood has recently been mitigated by the esthetic efforts of the police force who put bright orange and yellow posters on the posts to advertise the location is a shopping mall for drugs. His alley is the dumping ground for stolen cars. One advantage
Of living in this neighborhood, if your car is stolen, you can step out in the back and pick it up. Also, the burglars are afraid to come in on account of the muggers.
His recreational activities are drinking wine, listening to old operas, and reading postmodern philosophy.
|
| |
