Larry vs. Larry

[larryrap]

....................“Happily come to anchor in this calm bay, I want no more now than to cheat fate’s vigilance,
....................not to thrust myself upon its attention, to cling unobserved to my good fortune
....................and be unnoticeable.” – Bruno Schulz, Fatherland – trans. Celina Wieniewska


Larry isn’t well.
Today he found two volumes of “50 Ways to Get a Life”,
and left them flapping vainly on the curb.

His shelves have filled for many years
with holocaust accounts.
A castaway by a brook, he waits for rain.

The Book of Remedies was banned
3000 years ago
to stress the tiny letters of our loan,

but everywhere he looks
he sees old bookstores shutting down.
His phone is charged, but the ring is set on low.

[larryrap]

....................“For to see your face is like seeing the face of God” – Genesis 33:10

Someday I’ll arrive at your gate
with my speech, many years in the making:
I was wrong.

A hundred thousand years go by
wrestling worms
in the gut of a star.

Bet how could love have happened
without betrayal, brother?
How?

Until then, meet me in the Eigengrau
where colors bleed from a sunken sun
and everything is allowed.

[larryrap]

....................In Ngoio, a province of the ancient kingdom of Congo, the rule obtains that the chief
....................who assumes the cap of sovereignty is always killed on the night after his coronation.
....................The right of succession lies with the chief of the Musurongo; but we need not wonder
....................that he does not exercise it, and that the throne stands vacant.
........................................- Frazer, The Golden Bough

I’ve been placed at short order in the position
of leader of the free world. My situation is precarious:
the title was not designed to last.

*

Work, now more than ever, absorbs me:
executions, receptions, a smidgen of the old backroom
thunder and spark. Extreme measures, times. I often feel
that the world is fortunate to have me.
My enemies – bastards in plain sight –
would rather die than submit to my hand.

*

From the bottom of my predecessor’s pail
(a Marilyn Monroe print on it – nice touch) I have retrieved
a crumpled list:

..........Depth-charge flashes in computer screens.
..........Nine climate models churn out Communist Manifesto.
..........Jewish plague, long thought suppressed, on the rise.
..........Stigmata mar thousands of harvested limbs.
..........“Out of Order” sign seen hanging from the sun.

*

My close assistant (this insistence on patterns
is most unnerving) eyes me coldly, scanning his mail.

*

Cobalt mornings smothered with sunsets.
Boeings flying backwards.
I hope, with some luck, for the omens to last.

[cookala]

Larry babes! back for more.
Science Fiction Story – strange, but I like strange. also very original, and I love the images, esp the dead roaming the malls, who caused it all. governments swell to huge empires of erasure is horrific but enlightened as well. and the shotgun poets! good stuff
Now Call the Chief – The genie has deserted the lamp. indeed.
The Retired Prophet Club – seems like it’s missing it’s middle
The Lurch – also seems unfinished, but the bones are there.
When I’m Like This – leave me alone and let me have my freakin moment already!!! heh. we all get them, some (like me) more than others
We Need To Talk – forboten desire, eh? ditto what I said above
Small But Legible – good rhythm but um, er, a bit telly. but I get the sentiment – oh! to accomplish getting published but not read. *sigh* don’t give up!
Monday – ah, the weekend as Pegasus, I like it. being retired every day for me is now a weekend, and I’m loving it. Monday, the bane of all working people everywhere. I sympathize.
The Bell – this made me chuckle, it’s a funny set of images.
One Hundred Twenty – I like the jest of this, and the nod to the durm and strang-ers of literature. the po of the poor, yes.
Out Back – the dream is spot on as far as skipping around and not making sense yet making sense in parts. and the slant rhyme and imagery are so good.
Bird vs Bird – like this a lot for it’s rhyme and tone. and folds of darkness returning wowed me. image awesomeness!!
When the Angry Poets Take Over – the title made me chuckle. heh. like this one a lot, too. well said, ot should I say poeted?
I’m So Down – this touched my heart. nice. very nice.
Two Problems With Time – S2 is superb, esp Yet even as we shackle our leg to its trot – so superb I think maybe you don’t need S1, and because S1 seems to want to be a different poem.
I Used to Have A Reputation – N grows a conscious with age. nice turns of phrase in this throughout and strong images. nice
How to Prepare Fresh… - scathing take, hard to read, but well done.
The GIF – must be brain dead now, just not getting this one, but it has some stunning imagery
Upon Collecting… - a perfect thump. yes.
No More Lies – the muffins were perfect. great way to end!
Celebrity Deaths – I like the karma in this, the gifted being resurrected without gifts because they got so full of themselves. teach them a lesson!
To A Rival – nice use of symbolism with facing backwards with a mop in his hand succinct and says so much.
Larry vs Larry - the sarcasm is not lost here. how we undermine ourselves, even with the best of intentions.
It’s Violence Today- oooh, watch out for N! the images in this are awesome, as is the metaphor they carry. nice
Lice: The Poems Speak – another scathing commentary here, if I’m correct. if not, apologies.
I Talk – I got SBD – sudden brain deadedness. I read but nothing comes to me. (and I’m referring to myself) this energizer bunny has dead batteries right now.
Book of Remedies – ditto above. I think that’s it for today for me. wanted to comment on them all but … my apologies. but let me say I have enjoyed reading all these – so much goodness and many keepers, imho.

[larryrap]

Hi cookala,

Thanks for taking all that time. I assure you that the lack of basic sense in many of the poems is completely my fault.

Thanks again to all the viewers and kind commentators. Maybe we should make this NaPo thing a tradition?

[larryrap]

Stretched across a long Saturday,
a dilation occurs. The mirror of possibility
milks over.

The breach becomes a pinhole, then shuts.
A glitch which sent time drifting off course
corrects itself. Stars recalibrate and snap into place.

Here I dawdled for weeks, regretting speech, regretting silence.
Now I walk home in the dark,
circling the lake, waving an awkward goodbye.

I slip my fingers up a stem
and release a handful of seeds.
Whatever grows will grow.

[prokopton]

Hey larry,
you have finished. nicely done.
I have read several of the last dozen you wrote and enjoyed some images - wrestling worms,for example
but not all of your stories are easily accessible. I would need to examine the quotes more carefully I think and take some time, but they have substance, not just in subject matter. I like the glimpses of your mind you care to share in your poems.
Congrats on a good month.
Gffeo

[5th column]

Hi Larry, I'll echo Geoff in admitting to not being completely up with all the poems as time went on but the imagery and breadth of imagination have been outstanding. One of my favourite threads this year.

[Angela]

Larry, We did it, man! Whew! You have written some really interesting and engaging things. Here are a few that stood out to me.

1st April 2016- I like this grateful start.

We need to talk is my favorite piece here. It is lush and real- sad and lovely. It is life. I hope you decide to put a mark on this one for reworking later.

Palestinian Children is beautifully gruesome and held my attention to the last. Made me shudder more than once.

It's violence today is another poem worth keeping. The images are crisp and I like the tense and threatening feeling I got from this.

I talk: The last two lines made me snort.

The Breach is an apt ending. I feel that sense of loss, too. Stars recalibrating and snapping into place was full of gear and clicking sounds. The last strophe was perfectly melancholy. I like that the option for growth was left open. Nice, nice, nice.

[Julie]

"to roam the shopping malls –
the old malls, shameless Edens of love and lies,
so ancient and human they must have started it all."

Nice.


"I rub my ear: silence.
The genie has deserted the lamp."

Nice!


"while the plane continues its peaceful descent,
and the stewardess sits down beside you,
removing her cap and smiling
and a sense of lightness fills you like sleep
and you lean back slowly becoming transparent,
entranced by the pitch of the wind pushing back
against the wings’ immobile advance."

Oh, that's great.



"brown drops thick with sky."

!!




"I left bed with reluctance, as one forsakes a neighborhood gone bad."

!!


"I surely would have loved."

Ooh.


"The people I want to confess to
no longer exist, or are silent."

!!

"Dedicated to the young man
sent to knock down a nest

who finally stepped off the ladder
and told his girlfriend, “I can’t”."

OH, nice nice nice.

"those marked by forceps or the teeth of a sibling from behind,"

!!


"Drunk on the sudden rectangle of sun
an insect lands on the open page
with a small, perfect thump."

!!





"“Out of Order” sign seen hanging from the sun."


!!! All of it interesting. This especially good.




I didn't have enough to say, but I read with pleasure and interest.

[Tony Hoffman]

A lot of good stuff here, Larry. I like The Last Hotel a lot. Science Fiction Story is an epic condensed into 11 lines. Monday is brilliant--and coming all too soon. One Hundred Twenty sounds like quite a gathering. Larry vs. Larry is very well done. Congrats on making it through!
Tony