Bleezer’s Ice Cream

Related poetry:

1. The Emperor Of Ice-Cream Call the roller of big cigars, The muscular one, and bid him whip In kitchen cups concupiscent curds. Let the wenches dawdle in such dress As they are used to wear, and let the boys Bring flowers in last month’s newspapers. Let be be finale of seem. The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream. […]...
2. Hallelujah: A Sestina A wind’s word, the Hebrew Hallelujah. I wonder they never gave it to a boy (Hal for short) boy with wind-wild hair. It means Praise God, as well it should since praise Is what God’s for. Why didn’t they call my father Hallelujah instead of Ebenezer? Eben, of course, but christened Ebenezer, Product of Nova […]...
3. Mud Soup 1. Had the ham bone, had the lentils, Got to meat store for the salt pork, Got to grocery for the celery. Had the onions, had the garlic, Borrowed carrots from the neighbor. Had the spices, had the parsley. One big kettle I had not got; Borrowed pot and lid from landlord. 2. Dice the […]...
4. It was your first outing It was your first outing, or more rightly, our first outing With you. We were as proud as new parents could be, Wheeling our son in the crowded Sunday shopping throng, Glancing down again and again to reassure ourselves, and you, That we were indeed one, gazing in awe at your small face And trusting […]...
5. December 30 At 1:30 in the morning a fart Smells like a marriage between An avocado and a fish head. I have to get out of bed To write this down without My glasses on....
6. The Sugar-Plum Tree Have you ever heard of the Sugar-Plum Tree? ‘T is a marvel of great renown! It blooms on the shore of the Lollipop sea In the garden of Shut-Eye Town; The fruit that it bears is so wondrously sweet (As those who have tasted it say) That good little children have only to eat Of […]...
7. Kafka's Hat With the rain falling Surgically against the roof, I ate a dish of ice cream That looked like Kafka’s hat. It was a dish of ice cream Tasting like an operating table With the patient staring Up at the ceiling....
8. The Icecream People the lady has me temporarily off the bottle And now the pecker stands up Better. However, things change overnight Instead of listening to Shostakovich and Mozart through a smeared haze of smoke The nights change, new Complexities: We drive to Baskin-Robbins, 31 flavors: Rocky Road, Bubble Gum, Apricot Ice, Strawberry Cheesecake, Chocolate Mint… We park […]...
9. Salvage GUNS on the battle lines have pounded now a year Between Brussels and Paris. And, William Morris, when I read your old chapter on The great arches and naves and little whimsical Corners of the Churches of Northern France Brr-rr! I’m glad you’re a dead man, William Morris, I’m glad You’re down in the damp […]...
10. To put this World down, like a Bundle To put this World down, like a Bundle And walk steady, away, Requires Energy possibly Agony ‘Tis the Scarlet way Trodden with straight renunciation By the Son of God Later, his faint Confederates Justify the Road Flavors of that old Crucifixion Filaments of Bloom, Pontius Pilate sowed Strong Clusters, from Barabbas’ Tomb Sacrament, Saints partook […]...
11. Unto my Books so good to turn Unto my Books so good to turn Far ends of tired Days It half endears the Abstinence And Pain is missed in Praise As Flavors cheer Retarded Guests With Banquettings to be So Spices stimulate the time Till my small Library It may be Wilderness without Far feet of failing Men But Holiday excludes the […]...
12. Tenth Commandment The woman said yes she would go to Australia with him Unless he heard wrong and she said Argentina Where they could learn the tango and pursue the widows Of Nazi war criminals unrepentant to the end. But no, she said Australia. She’d been born in New Zealand. The difference between the two places was […]...
13. Lines Written In Early Spring I heard a thousand blended notes, While in a grove I sate reclined, In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts Bring sad thoughts to the mind. To her fair works did Nature link The human soul that through me ran; And much it grieved my heart to think What man has made of man. Through […]...
14. Of Brussels it was not Of Brussels it was not Of Kidderminster? Nay The Winds did buy it of the Woods They sold it unto me It was a gentle price The poorest could afford It was within the frugal purse Of Beggar or of Bird Of small and spicy Yards In hue a mellow Dun Of Sunshine and of […]...
15. Tableau at Twilight I sit in the dusk. I am all alone. Enter a child and an ice-cream cone. A parent is easily beguiled By sight of this coniferous child. The friendly embers warmer gleam, The cone begins to drip ice cream. Cones are composed of many a vitamin. My lap is not the place to bitamin. Although […]...
16. The Civil War I am torn in two But I will conquer myself. I will dig up the pride. I will take scissors And cut out the beggar. I will take a crowbar And pry out the broken Pieces of God in me. Just like a jigsaw puzzle, I will put Him together again With the patience of […]...
17. Dream Song 120: Foes I sniff, when I have less to shout Foes I sniff, when I have less to shout Or murmur. Pals alone enormous sounds Downward & up bring real. Loss, deaths, terror. Over & out, Beloved: thanks for cabbage on my wounds: I’ll feed you how I feel:— Of avocado moist with lemon, yea Formaldehyde & rotting sardines O In our appointed time I […]...
18. No Sunday Chicken I could have sold him up because His rent was long past due; And Grimes, my lawyer, said it was The proper thing to do: But how could I be so inhuman? And me a gentle-woman. Yet I am poor as chapel mouse, Pinching to make ends meet, And have to let my little house […]...
19. Elusive wisdom thoth (who became hermes who became mercury) Who was both moon and wisdom to the egyptians Manifested himself mainly as an ibis – a watery bird A restless creature that could not stop searching Through marshy ground with its sickle-shaped beak So to the christians the bird became a scavenger The worst sinner from whom […]...
20. Americanisation Britannia needs no Boulevards, No spaces wide and gay: Her march was through the crooked streets Along the narrow way. Nor looks she where, New York’s seduction, The Broadway leadeth to destruction. Britannia needs no Cafes: If Coffee needs must be, Its place should be the Coffee-house Where Johnson growled for Tea; But who can […]...
21. The Drunkard's Funeral “Yes,” said the sister with the little pinched face, The busy little sister with the funny little tract: – “This is the climax, the grand fifth act. There rides the proud, at the finish of his race. There goes the hearse, the mourners cry, The respectable hearse goes slowly by. The wife of the dead […]...
22. You cannot make Remembrance grow You cannot make Remembrance grow When it has lost its Root The tightening the Soil around And setting it upright Deceives perhaps the Universe But not retrieves the Plant Real Memory, like Cedar Feet Is shod with Adamant Nor can you cut Remembrance down When it shall once have grown Its Iron Buds will sprout […]...
23. Death's Waylaying not the sharpest Death’s Waylaying not the sharpest Of the thefts of Time There Marauds a sorer Robber, Silence is his name No Assault, nor any Menace Doth betoken him. But from Life’s consummate Cluster He supplants the Balm....
24. Again The children are back, the children are back- They’ve come to take refuge, exhale and unpack; The marriage has faltered, the job has gone bad, Come open the door for them, Mother and Dad. The city apartment is leaky and cold, The landlord lascivious, greedy and old- The mattress is lumpy, the oven’s encrusted, The […]...
25. Ch'ing P'ing Tiao Clouds bring back to mind her dress, the flowers her face. Winds of spring caress the rail where sparkling dew-drops cluster. If you cannot see her by the jewelled mountain top, Maybe on the moonlit Jasper Terrance you will meet her...
26. Ducks and wisdom [from a motif by Jean Dunand (1877-1942)] Seven lacqueur ducks on a silver pond Their rippling held in a moveless frieze Nothing now can help them swim beyond The stoned edges (invent a new-age breeze) Eternity is water starved of trees Their fixture is our own – for all we fidget History puts us down […]...
27. One Third Of The Calendar In January everything freezes. We have two children. Both are she’ses. This is our January rule: One girl in bed, and one in school. In February the blizzard whirls. We own a pair of little girls. Blessings upon of each the head The one in school and the one in bed. March is the month […]...
28. Millennium The great millennium is at hand. Redder apples grow on the tree. A saxophone is in ev’ry band. Brandy no longer taints our tea. Dimples smile in the red-rouged knee. The dowagers are no longer fat. Radio now makes safe the sea- And the Turk has bought him a derby hat. Even our sauerkraut now […]...
29. Breaking and Entering Many setups. At least as many falls. Winter is paralyzing the country, but not here. Here, the boys are impersonating songs of indigenous Wildlife. Mockingbird on the roof of the Gun Shop, Scrub jay behind the Clear Lake Saloon. And when she darts into a drugstore for a chocolate-covered Almond bar, sparrow hawks get the […]...
30. Values '67 Pass by citizen Don’t look left or right Keep those drip dry eyes straight ahead A tree? Chop it down – it’s a danger To lightning! Pansies calling for water, Let ’em die – queer bastards- Seek comfort in the scarlet, labour Saving plastic rose Fresh with the frangrance of Daz! Sunday! Pray citizen; Pray […]...
31. The Butter Factory It was built of things that must not mix: Paint, cream, and water, fire and dusty oil. You heard the water dreaming in its large Kneed pipes, up from the weir. And the cordwood Our fathers cut for the furnace stood in walls Like the sleeper-stacks of a continental railway. The cream arrived in lorried […]...
32. The Man Born to Farming The Grower of Trees, the gardener, the man born to farming, Whose hands reach into the ground and sprout To him the soil is a divine drug. He enters into death Yearly, and comes back rejoicing. He has seen the light lie down In the dung heap, and rise again in the corn. His thought […]...
33. UNCLE BOB Shell-shocked from Korea A grenade that left him The platoon’s only survivor, Put him in Stanley Royd For thirty years. He tailored there And out on weekend leaves He made and mended Everybody’s clothes, Crying copiously While he sewed. When they cleared out The chronic cases Uncle Bob came home, Shopping for Edna, Doing the […]...
34. In The Secular Night In the secular night you wander around Alone in your house. It’s two-thirty. Everyone has deserted you, Or this is your story; You remember it from being sixteen, When the others were out somewhere, having a good time, Or so you suspected, And you had to baby-sit. You took a large scoop of vanilla ice-cream […]...
35. We Are Those People I have abhorred the wars and despised the liars, laughed at the frightened And forecast victory; never one moment’s doubt. But now not far, over the backs of some crawling years, the next Great war’s column of dust and fire writhes Up the sides of the sky: it becomes clear that we too may suffer […]...
36. The Two Old Bachelors Two old Bachelors were living in one house; One caught a Muffin, the other caught a Mouse. Said he who caught the Muffin to him who caught the Mouse, – “This happens just in time! For we’ve nothing in the house, “Save a tiny slice of lemon and a teaspoonful of honey, “And what to […]...
37. Cappuccino smile Ah, the aromas of that conversation, The brimming, cappuccino smile Swirled in chocolate rich and cinnamoned, The gentle coffee curlicues interlaced In arabesques of creamy foam, redolent Upon your lips, lilted in the cup of your Countenance, glazed in syrup gilt. Your words were velvet plumes Of soothing, honeyed dews You tea-spooned in my mind, […]...
38. Band Concert BAND concert public square Nebraska city. Flowing and circling dresses, summer-white dresses. Faces, flesh tints flung like sprays of cherry blossoms. And gigglers, God knows, gigglers, rivaling the pony whinnies of the Livery Stable Blues. Cowboy rags and nigger rags. And boys driving sorrel horses hurl a cornfield laughter at the girls in dresses, summer-white […]...
39. An Edwardian Sunday, Broomhill, Sheffield High dormers are rising So sharp and surprising, And ponticum edges The driveways of gravel; Stone houses from ledges Look down on ravines. The vision can travel From gable to gable, Italianate mansion And turretted stable, A sylvan expansion So varied and jolly Where laurel and holly Commingle their greens. Serene on a Sunday The […]...
40. English Flavors I love to lick English the way I licked the hard Round licorice sticks the Belgian nuns gave me for six Good conduct points on Sundays after mass. Love it when ‘plethora’, ‘indolence’, ‘damask’, Or my new word: ‘lasciviousness,’ stain my tongue, Thicken my saliva, sweet as those sticks – black and slick with every […]...