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ROBIN WYATT DUNN - POEMS

2/15/2017

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​Robin Wyatt Dunn lives in a state of desperation engineered by late capitalism, within which his mind is a mere subset of a much larger hallucination wherein men are machines, machines are men, and the world and everything in it are mere dreams whose eddies and currents poets can channel briefly but cannot control. Perhaps it goes without saying that he lives in Los Angeles.



it's underneath everything
each moment
barnacles scraping the sky
you and I mirrors of the void
hold me tight for the star
and for the dart over the board
hold me tight for the sword
at my throat
and hold me tight
for the entropy within my bark
over the night



                                                                       ***

give me everything
the sky
and the void
give me the truth



                                                                   ***


these days it's hard to make a living
hard to make a killing even
everyone keeps crawling out of the grave
stumbling drunk
and pissed off
unable to find a doctor or a home
me, I keep fighting the good fight with the coffee percolator
putting it in
turning it on
and watching the water quality drop
me, I keep my eye on the sky
where we have written clouds
these words are gods,
small and delightful
agents from another planet
planet history
planet quark
whose mustard gas is a mild fart
whose righteousness is only mild indigestion
and whose rutabagas shine in the sun
come in to the shadow of my evening glasses
we are making coffee
this tree is my friend



                                                                    ***


it's enough
the stalwart weight of my bones
and the sound of talking
some startled
some weeping
some laughing
in the evening
 
 
when I was a boy voices were like planets
moving over my head
 
now they are like birds
on my shoulders



                                                                       ***



these times fall over my head
in encephalitic bliss
slow and fine
tinkling wine
a sledgehammer made out of years
 
place the rack back on the bun
and sun the fanny till it's done
she's got a lot to let out
from her gout
and her earnest narrative
of the people's escape from slavery
 
these times imprison well
with the ludicrous swell of the gun of the stars
firing the earth into space
 
firing the brain to the hands
firing the words to the year




                                                                       ***


Now, I must lie to you
Though the lie is also the truth.
The limits of my range are showing
Forty meters hereabouts
A certain oven
Overhang
Strand of trees
Some water
The chipmunk.
No one hereabouts hovers right
On the right side
Near the exit
From the cave
It's all one thing, of course
I'd be lying--and I am--
If I said there were clear distinctions
Marks on the path to tell you where to go
A feeling in the bones to mark the perturbation
In the stillness of thought
But still:
Haven't you seen me somewhere before?
I thought I knew you too
When I saw you walking.




                                                                        ***

​
so shine me on
in this bare moonlight
whose essence is the sun
over you
and in your eyes
shine me on over the dark
whose essence is your soul
liquid and fire
rambunctious and afraid
shine me on into the fire
whose name is my own
older than me
older than the rocks




                                                                        ***


each life makes a heart
whose circumference circles the void
steepled and shaped over the aeon ravaged cursus of you
whose hue rouges the lime light
of yous
prosody or war
striking the tent
and moving over the light




                                                                   ***


Prison, prison prison
Prisoner, prisoner
Prison my prisoner
My prisoner
Prisoner!
Prison once meant "prize"
Hold it in your hands
This beautiful thing
Shiny
Noble
Astonishing
Concrete and blood
This prize
Earns rewards
Earns friends
It keeps you awake at night
it sleeps under your bed
It marches centuries
like water
This prize
Beacons
This mark
over your eye
I am your prisoner
I am your prison



                                                                      ***


the right goes up and down
spinning thread
making sounds
over my back, fine wires sketch other sounds:
years and years.
Everything I want is far away,
And all that's near is so dear I fear it;
Why should I love these simple things
so easily taken away?
What is it I've been listening to,
Since I was a boy?



                                                                     ***


bent right our reaver smokes the grave
craving gravity
some theater
or the nearness of now
some headache or music
the bastion of the sky
flirting with events
rash and diligent
exploding colors over the mast of the forest
 
whose barren burden
deer
or birds
blacken the midnight of their passing
enrichment inside the snow-filled winter
filled with the blessing of agony
 
minutes mirror over the roof
where he stares at me
ears flipping
 
our reaver banes and bones the back and brain
bullets and graves
 
pull the curtain and declare the voice god
and your arms props
 
run into the snow




                                                                      ***


For Roberto Bolano
Poets chew on my balls
And climb over my back
Swing from my hair
Dangle over my grave.
The poets are watching the sky
To see what is written on it
And they are playing basketball, with a telephone.
Poets have come over to stay in my house.
They have found the food, and are cooking it, on the roof.
They will not give me any of it.
Also, they are reading my books and are complaining.
The poets are angry about reality
It is not conforming to their expectations.
Some of them make love in the doorway,
To prove that reality is wrong.
One of them is beautiful, a woman.
She will not look at me.
Over in the clouds the poets have parked a judicial system
Complete with a god and a justice of the peace
But no jail
They take turns being the prosecutor and the convicted
Wearing the haloes.
In the kitchen,
They have begun to smoke marihuana,
And talk about sunsets.
Sunsets are boring, they say.
And they nod, sagely.
I do not want to say goodbye to the poets so I invite them to stay at my house, even though we have run out of food.
The socialists have pointed out that the state should have provided food for us; most of us agree except for Jose, who points out it is immoral to eat food. We agree with him also.
Outside, it has begun to rain,
And we are sad.
There is no sadness like the sadness of rain.
Like the sadness of their faces, in marble.
Thieves before the execution, laughing.




                                                                        ***


each light makes a spark
in the light
where it existed
where it is thinking about existing

each spark makes a light
inside the space where you are sleeping
 
 
“each light makes a spark” first appeared at Duane's PoeTree blog, Jan. 25, 2017.




                                                                 ***


Death to California, USA
Death to the Caliph
The Successor
Death to Sacramento, and Los Angeles
Death to all of the Angels
And their Gods
Death to Turtle Island
Death to all the names
Death to the King
Hold his head in your mind
Over the precipice
The people are rejoicing
In his blood
Death to the idea of the idea
Death to the trajectory and the orbit
Death to the hurry and the wash
Death to the flag
Ride the bear
To the bonfire



                                                                     ***
My friend loves me
In fire;
 
No telling when
What bend
Or insist
His wrist
Or the bark
Or the bank
 
the end
the turf
 
what worth is the human soul
so tired
 
mystical
and fragrant with god
with the truth
 
whose agency ignites my spirit
over this pedestrian park?
 
imagined and nightmarish
impossible to imagine
 
his love binds me to the earth
who is only a servant of higher things
whose mind is the febrile corner of the stars
whose dance
 
makes me dance
 
my friend dances too
like a bad actor
like a haunted house
coursing over the mind of a cinema-addict
drunk and happy
 
it is all right to know nothing
of what came before
in evenings like this
because
well, because
it just is
 
and your friend is back
 
leering and elegant
a full sport
in a dignified failure
of a nation.
 
the full value
of a huge equation
spilling its variables over the paper
over the chalkboard
over the university
igniting the library
with sex
and footsteps
 
each luminary descends
Homer
and Faulkner
 
to remind us to keep quiet
before the book
and the water
 
but Bobby is still singing
because he is happy




                                                                        ***


beat down the grum
who suns the dome of your hearsay
 
who opens the tome of your caress
who burns the name of your regret
 
who loves you
 
it's time:
stunning and bright
limning your body with fire
​
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