Home ⇒ 📌John Berryman ⇒ Dream Song 55: Peter's not friendly. He gives me sideways looks
Dream Song 55: Peter's not friendly. He gives me sideways looks
Peter’s not friendly. He gives me sideways looks.
The architecture is far from reassuring.
I feel uneasy.
A pity, Гўв‚”the interview began so well:
I mentioned fiendish things, he waved them away
And sloshed out a martini
Strangely needed. We spoke of indifferent mattersГўв‚”
God’s health, the vague hell of the Congo,
John’s energy,
Anti-matter matter. I felt fine.
Then a change came backward. A chill fell.
Talk slackened,
Died, and began to give me sideways looks.
‘Chirst,’ I thought ‘what now?’ and would have askt for another
But didn’t dare.
I feel my application failing. It’s growing dark,
Some other sound is overcoming. His last words are:
‘We betrayed me.’
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)Related poetry:
- Dream Song 133: As he grew famousâ€"ah, but what is fame? As he grew famous—ah, but what is fame? — He lost his old obsession with his name, Things seemed to matter less, Including the fame—a television team came From another country to make a film of him Which did not him distress: He enjoyed the hard work & he was good at that, So they […]...
- 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 […]...
- 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 […]...
- Dream Song 54: 'NO VISITORS' I thumb the roller to ‘NO VISITORS’ I thumb the roller to And leans against the door. Comfortable in my horseblanket I prop on the costly bed & dream of my wife, My first wife, And my second wife & my son. Insulting, they put guardrails up, As if it were a crib! I growl at the head nurse; we […]...
- The Dream Love, if I weep it will not matter, And if you laugh I shall not care; Foolish am I to think about it, But it is good to feel you there. Love, in my sleep I dreamed of waking,- White and awful the moonlight reached Over the floor, and somewhere, somewhere, There was a shutter […]...
- 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 […]...
- 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. […]...
- Dream Song 111: I miss him. When I get back to camp I miss him. When I get back to camp I’ll dig him up. Well, he can prop & watch, Can’t he, pink or blue, And I will talk to him. I miss him. Slams, Grand or any, aren’t for the tundra much. One face-card will do. It’s marvellous how four sit down—beyond My thought how […]...
- Dream Song 121: Grief is fatiguing. He is out of it Grief is fatiguing. He is out of it, The whole humiliating Human round, Out of this & that. He made a-many hearts go pit-a-pat Who now need never mind his nostril-hair Nor a critical error laid bare. He endured fifty years. He was Randall Jarrell And wrote a-many books & he wrote well. Peace to […]...
- Dream Song 71: Spellbound held subtle Henry all his four Spellbound held subtle Henry all his four Hearers in the racket of the market With ancient signs, infamous characters, New rythms. On the steps he was beloved, Hours a day, by all his four, or more, Depending. And they paid him. It was not, so, like no one listening But critics famed & Henry’s pals […]...
- Dream Song 17: Muttered Henry:â€"Lord of matter, thus Muttered Henry:—Lord of matter, thus: Upon some more unquiet spirit knock, My madnesses have cease. All the quarter astonishes a lonely out & back. They set their clocks by Henry House, The steadiest man on the block. And Lucifer:—I smell you for my own, By smug. —What have I tossed you but the least (tho’ […]...
- Dream Song 57: In a state of chortle sin once he reflected In a state of chortle sin—once he reflected, Swilling tomato juice—live I, and did More than my thirstier years. To Hell then will it maul me? for good talk, And gripe of retail loss? I dare say not. I don’t thÃnk there’s that place Save sullen here, wherefrom she flies tonight Retrieving her whole body, […]...
- Dream Song 28: Snow Line It was wet & white & swift and where I am We don’t know. It was dark and then It isn’t. I wish the barker would come. There seems to be eat Nothing. I am usually tired. I’m alone too. If only the strange one with so few legs would come, I’d say my prayers […]...
- 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. […]...
- Dream Song 72: The Elder Presences Shh! on a twine hung from disastered trees Henry is swinging his daughter. They seem drunk. Over across them look out, Tranquil, the high statues of the wise. Her feet peep, like a lady’s in sleep sunk. That which this scene’s about— He pushes violent, his calves distend, His mouth is open with effort, so […]...
- Dream Song 116: Through the forest, followed, Henry made his silky way Through the forest, followed, Henry made his silky way, No chickadee was troubled, small moss smiled On his swift passage. But there were those ahead when at midday They met in a clearing and lookt at each other awhile. To kill was not the message. He only could go with them—odds? 20 to one-and-a-half; Pointless. […]...
- Dream Song 49: Blind Old Pussy-cat if he won’t eat, he don’t Feel good into his tum’, old Pussy-cat. He wants to have eaten. Tremor, heaves, he sweaterings. He can’t. A dizzy swims of where is Henry at; . . . somewhere streng verboten. How come he sleeps & sleeps and sleeps, waking like death: Locate the restorations of […]...
- Dream Song 13: God bless Henry God bless Henry. He lived like a rat, With a thatch of hair on his head In the beginning. Henry was not a coward. Much. He never deserted anything; instead He stuck, when things like pity were thinning. So may be Henry was a human being. Let’s investigate that. … We did; okay. He is […]...
- 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. […]...
- Dream Song 88: Op. posth. no. 11 In slack times visit I the violent dead And pick their awful brains. Most seem to feel Nothing is secret more To my disdain I find, when we who fled Cherish the knowings of both worlds, conceal More, beat on the floor, Where Bhain is stagnant, dear of Henry’s friends, Yellow with cancer, paper-thin, & […]...
- Dream Song 69: Love her he doesn't but the thought he puts Love her he doesn’t but the thought he puts Into that young woman Would launch a national product Complete with TV spots & skywriting Outlets in Bonn & Tokyo I mean it Let it be known that nine words have not passed Between herself and Henry; Looks, smiles. God help Henry, who deserves it all […]...
- 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, […]...
- Dream Song 66: 'All virtues enter into this world:') ‘All virtues enter into this world:’) A Buddhist, doused in the street, serenely burned. The Secretary of State for War, Winking it over, screwed a redhaired whore. Monsignor Capovilla mourned. What a week. A journalism doggy took a leak Against absconding coon (‘but take one virtue, Without which a man can hardly hold his own’) […]...
- Dream Song 34: My mother has your shotgun. One man, wide My mother has your shotgun. One man, wide In the mind, and tendoned like a grizzly, pried To his trigger-digit, pal. He should not have done that, but, I guess, He didn’t feel the best, Sister, —felt less And more about less than us. . . ? Now—tell me, my love, if you recall The […]...
- Dream Song 2: Big Buttons, Cornets: the advance The jane is zoned! no nightspot here, no bar There, no sweet freeway, and no premises For business purposes, No loiterers or needers. Henry are Baffled. Have ev’ybody head for Maine, Utility-man take a train? Arrive a time when all coons lose dere grip, But is he come? Le’s do a hoedown, gal, One blue, […]...
- 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 […]...
- Dream Song 108: Sixteen below. Our care like stranded hulls Sixteen below. Our care like stranded hulls Litter all day our little Avenues. It was 28 below. No one goes anywhere. Fabulous calls To duty clank. Icy dungeons, though, Have much to mention to you. At Harvard & Yale must Pussy-cat be heard In the dead of winter when we must be sad And feel […]...
- Dream Song 6: A Capital at Wells During the father’s walking—how he look Down by now in soft boards, Henry, pass And what he feel or no, who know? — As during hÃs broad father’s, all the breaks & ill-lucks of a thriving pioneer Back to the flying boy in mountain air, Vermont’s child to go out, and while Keats sweat’ For […]...
- 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, […]...
- Dream Song 50: In a motion of night they massed nearer my post In a motion of night they massed nearer my post. I hummed a short blues. When the stars went out I studied my weapons system. Grenades, the portable rack, the yellow spout Of the anthrax-ray: in order. Yes, and most Of my pencils were sharp. This edge of the galaxy has often seen A defence […]...
- 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 […]...
- THE FRIENDLY MEETING Lovingly I’ll sing of love; Ever comes she from above. THE FRIENDLY MEETING. IN spreading mantle to my chin conceald, I trod the rocky path, so steep and grey, Then to the wintry plain I bent my way Uneasily, to flight my bosom steel’d. But sudden was the newborn day reveal’d: A maiden came, in […]...
- Unlyric Love Song It is time to give that-of-myself which I could not at first: To offer you now at last my least and my worst: Minor, absurd preserves, The shell’s end-curves, A document kept at the back of a drawer, A tin hidden under the floor, Recalcitrant prides and hesitations: To pile them carefully in a desparate […]...
- 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 […]...
- 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‚” […]...
- 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 […]...
- 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 […]...
- 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 […]...
- 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 […]...
- 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 […]...