Dream Song 105: As a kid I believed in democracy: I

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1. Democracy It’s coming through a hole in the air, from those nights in Tiananmen Square. It’s coming from the feel that it ain’t exactly real, or it’s real, but it ain’t exactly there. From the wars against disorder, from the sirens night and day, from the fires of the homeless, from the ashes of the gay: […]...
2. Democracy Democracy will not come Today, this year Nor ever Through compromise and fear. I have as much right As the other fellow has To stand On my two feet And own the land. I tire so of hearing people say, Let things take their course. Tomorrow is another day. I do not need my freedom […]...
3. You smiled, you spoke, and I believed You smiled, you spoke, and I believed, By every word and smile deceived. Another man would hope no more; Nor hope I what I hoped before: But let not this last wish be vain; Deceive, deceive me once again!...
4. Dream Song 84: Op. posth. no. 7 Plop, plop. The lobster toppled in the pot, Fulfilling, dislike man, his destiny, Glowing fire-red, Succulent, and on the whole becoming what Man wants. I crack my final claw singly, Wind up the grave, & to bed. €”Sound good, Mr Bones. I wish I had me some. (I spose you got a lessen up your […]...
5. Dream Song 102: The sunburnt terraces which swans make home The sunburnt terraces which swans make home With water purling, Macchu Pichu died Like Delphi long ago— A message to Justinian closing it out, The thousand years’ authority, although Tho’ never found exactly wrong Political patterns did indeed emerge; The Oracle was conservative, like Lippmann, Roared the winds on the height, The Shining Ones behind […]...
6. As I Walk These Broad, Majestic Days AS I walk these broad, majestic days of peace, (For the war, the struggle of blood finish’d, wherein, O terrific Ideal! Against vast odds, having gloriously won, Now thou stridest on-yet perhaps in time toward denser wars, Perhaps to engage in time in still more dreadful contests, dangers, Longer campaigns and crises, labors beyond all […]...
7. Souvenirs of Democracy THE business man, the acquirer vast, After assiduous years, surveying results, preparing for departure, Devises houses and lands to his children-bequeaths stocks, goods-funds for a school or hospital, Leaves money to certain companions to buy tokens, souvenirs of gems and gold; Parceling out with care-And then, to prevent all cavil, His name to his testament […]...
8. Dream Song 265: I don't know one damned butterfly from another I don’t know one damned butterfly from another My ignorance of the stars is formidable, Also of dogs & ferns Except that around my house one destroys the other When I reckon up my real ignorance, pal, I mumble “many returns”— Next time it will be nature & Thoreau This time is Baudelaire if one […]...
9. 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 […]...
10. Dream Song 7: 'The Prisoner of Shark Island' with Paul Muni Henry is old, old; for Henry remembers Mr Deeds’ tuba, & the Cameo, & the race in Ben Hur, —The Lost World, with sound, & The Man from Blankey’s, which he did not dig, Nor did he understand one caption of, Bewildered Henry, while the Big Ones laughed. Now Henry is unmistakably a Big One. […]...
11. Dream Song 61: Full moon. Our Narragansett gales subside Full moon. Our Narragansett gales subside And the land is celebrating men of war More or less, less or more. In valleys, thin on headlands, narrow & wide Our targets rest. In us we trust. Far, near, The bivouacs of fear Are solemn in the moon somewhere tonight, In turning time. It’s late for gratitude, […]...
12. Song of the Universal 1 COME, said the Muse, Sing me a song no poet yet has chanted, Sing me the Universal. In this broad Earth of ours, Amid the measureless grossness and the slag, Enclosed and safe within its central heart, Nestles the seed Perfection. By every life a share, or more or less, None born but it […]...
13. Dream Song 131: Come touch me baby in his waking dream Come touch me baby in his waking dream Disordered Henry murmured. I’ll read you Hegel And that will hurt your mind I can’t remember when you were unkind But I will clear that block, I’ll set you on fire Along with our babies To save them up the high & ruined stairs, My growing daughters. […]...
14. Dream Song 93: General Fatigue stalked in, & a Major-General General Fatigue stalked in, & a Major-General, Captain Fatigue, and at the base of all Pale Corporal Fatigue, And curious microbes came, came viruses: And the Court conferred on Henry, and conferred on Henry The rare Order of Weak. €”How come dims one these wholesome elsers oh? Old polymaths, old trackers, far from home, Say […]...
15. Politics ‘In our time the destiny of man prevents its meanings In political terms.’ Thomas Mann. How can I, that girl standing there, My attention fix On Roman or on Russian Or on Spanish politics? Yet here’s a travelled man that knows What he talks about, And there’s a politician That has read and thought, And […]...
16. Dream Song 132: A Small Dream A Small Dream It was only a small dream of the Golden World, Now you trot off to bed. I’ll turn the machine off, You’ve danced & trickt us enough. Unintelligible whines & imprecations, hurled From the second floor, fail to impress your mother And I am the only other And I say go to […]...
17. Dream Song 103: I consider a song will be as humming-bird I consider a song will be as humming-bird Swift, down-light, missile-metal-hard, & strange As the world of anti-matter Where they are wondering: does time run backward— Which the poet thought was true; Scarlatti-supple; But can Henry write it? Wreckt, in deep danger, he shook once his head, Returning to meditation. And word had sped All […]...
18. Dream Song 52: Silent Song Bright-eyed & bushy tailed woke not Henry up. Bright though upon his workshop shone a vise Central, moved in While he was doing time down hospital And growing wise. He gave it the worst look he had left. Alone. They all abandoned Henry—wonder! all, When most he—under the sun. That was all right. He can’t […]...
19. Song Unsung The song that I came to sing remains unsung to this day. I have spent my days in stringing and in unstringing my instrument. The time has not come true, the words have not been rightly set; Only there is the agony of wishing in my heart. The blossom has not opened; only the wind […]...
20. Dream Song 23: The Lay of Ike This is the lay of Ike. Here’s to the glory of the Grewt WhiteГўв‚”awkГўв‚” Who has been runningГўв‚”erГўв‚”erГўв‚”things in recentГўв‚”echГўв‚” In the UnitedГўв‚”If your screen is black, Ladies & gentlemen, weГўв‚”I likeГўв‚” At the Point he was already terrificГўв‚”sick To a second term, having done no wrongГўв‚” No rightГўв‚”no  – rightГўв‚”having let the ArmyГўв‚”bangГўв‚” […]...
21. Dream Song 35: MLA Hey, out there! —assistant professors, full, Associates, —instructors—others—any— I have a sing to shay. We are assembled here in the capital City for Dull—and one professor’s wife is Mary— At Christmastide, hey! And all of you did theses or are doing And the moral history of what we were up to Thrives in Sir Wilson’s […]...
22. Dream Song 19: Here, whence Here, whence All have departed orwill do, here airless, where That witchy ball Wanted, fought toward, dreamed of, all a green living Drops limply into one’s hands Without pleasure or interest Figurez-vous, a time swarms when the word ‘happy’ sheds its whole meaning, like to come and Like for memory too That morning arrived to […]...
23. Dream Song 12: Sabbath There is an eye, there was a slit. Nights walk, and confer on him fear. The strangler tree, the dancing mouse Confound his vision; then they loosen it. Henry widens. How did Henry House Himself ever come here? Nights run. Tes yeux bizarres me suivent When loth at landfall soft I leave. The soldiers, Coleridge […]...
24. Dream Song 106: 28 July 28 July Calmly, while sat up friendlies & made noise Delight fuller than he can ready sing Or studiously say, On hearing that the year had swung to pause And culminated in an abundant thing, Came his Lady’s birthday. Dogs fill daylight, doing each other ill: My own in love was lugged so many blocks […]...
25. Dream Song 80: Op. posth. no. 3 It’s buried at a distance, on my insistence, buried. Weather’s severe there, which it will not mind. I miss it. O happies before & during & between the times it got married. I hate the love of leaving it behind, Deteriorating & hopeless that. The great Uh climbed above me, far above me, Doing the […]...
26. Dream Song 87: Op. posth. no. 10 these hearings endlessly, friends, word is had Henry may be returning to our life Adult & difficult. There exist rumors that remote and sad And quite beyond the knowledge of his wife To the foothills of the cult Will come in silence this distinguished one Essaying once again the lower slopes In triumph, keeping up […]...
27. Dream Song 99: Temples He does not live here but it is the god. A priest tools in a top his motorbike. You do not enter. Us the landscape circles hard abroad, Sunned, stone. Like calls, too low, to like. One submachine-gun cleared the Durga Temple. It is very dark here in this groping forth Gulp rhubarb for a […]...
28. Dream Song 86: Op. posth. no. 9 The conclusion is growing. . . I feel sure, my lord, This august court will entertain the plea Not Guilty by reason of death. I can say no more except that for the record I add that all the crimes since all the times he Died will be due to the breath Of unknown others, […]...
29. Dream Song 126: A Thurn A Thurn Among them marble where the man may lie Lie chieftains grand in final phase, or pause, ‘O rare Ben Jonson’, Dictator too, & the thinky other Johnson, Dictator too, backhanders down of laws, Men of fears, weird & sly. Not of these least is borne to rest. If grandeur & mettle prompted his […]...
30. Dream Song 36: The high ones die, die. They die The high ones die, die. They die. You look up and who’s there? €”Easy, easy, Mr Bones. I is on your side. I smell your grief. €”I sent my grief away. I cannot care Forever. With them all align & again I died And cried, and I have to live. €”Now there you exaggerate, Sah. […]...
31. Dream Song 37: Three around the Old Gentleman His malice was a pimple down his good Big face, with its sly eyes. I must be sorry Mr Frost has left: I like it so less I don’t understood— He couldn’t hear or see well—all we sift— But this is a bad story. He had fine stories and was another man In private; difficult, […]...
32. Dream Song 75: Turning it over, considering Turning it over, considering, like a madman Henry put forth a book. No harm resulted from this. Neither the menstruating stars (nor man) was moved At once. Bare dogs drew closer for a second look And performed their friendly operations there. Refreshed, the bark rejoiced. Seasons went and came. Leaves fell, but only a few. […]...
33. Dream Song 22: Of 1826 I am the little man who smokes & smokes. I am the girl who does know better but. I am the king of the pool. I am so wise I had my mouth sewn shut. I am a government official & a goddamned fool. I am a lady who takes jokes. I am the enemy […]...
34. Dream Song 46: I am, outside. Incredible I am, outside. Incredible panic rules. People are blowing and beating each other without mercy. Drinks are boiling. Iced Drinks are boiling. The worse anyone feels, the worse Treated he is. Fools elect fools. A harmless man at an intersection said, under his breath, “Christ!” That word, so spoken, affected the vision Of, when they […]...
35. Dream Song 89: Op. posth. no. 12 In a blue series towards his sleepy eyes They slid like wonder, women tall & small, Of every shape & size, In many languages to lisp ‘We do’ To Henry almost waking. What is the night at all, His closed eyes beckon you. In the Marriage of the Dead, a new routine, He gasped his […]...
36. Dream Song 85: Op. posth. no. 8 Flak. An eventful thought came to me, Who squirm in my hole. How will the matter end? Who’s king these nights? What happened to. . . day? Are ships abroad? I would like to but may not entertain a friend. Save me from ghastly frights, Triune! My wood or word seems to be rotting. I […]...
37. Dream Song 79: Op. posth. no. 2 Whence flew the litter whereon he was laid? Of what heroic stuff was warlock Henry made? And questions of that sort Perplexed the bulging cosmos, O in short Was sandalwood in good supply when he Flared out of history & the obituary in The New York Times Into the world of generosity Creating the air […]...
38. Dream Song 67: I don't operate often. When I do I don’t operate often. When I do, Persons take note. Nurses look amazed. They pale. The patient is brought back to life, or so. The reason I don’t do this more (I quote) Is: I have a living to fail— Because of my wife & son—to keep from earning. €”Mr Bones, I sees that. They […]...
39. Dream Song 83: Op. posth. no. 6 I recall a boil, whereupon as I had to sit, Just where, and when I had to, for deadlines. O I could learn to type standing, But isn’t it slim to be slumped off from that, Problems undignified, fiery dig salt mines? — Content on one’s black flat: Soming no deadline—is all ancient nonsense— No […]...
40. Dream Song 90: Op. posth. no. 13 In the night-reaches dreamed he of better graces, Of liberations, and beloved faces, Such as now ere dawn he sings. It would not be easy, accustomed to these things, To give up the old world, but he could try; Let it all rest, have a good cry. Let Randall rest, whom your self-torturing Cannot restore […]...