Overtalk

The following poem is an erasure of the Grifter's part of an interview by David Muir on ABC on 25 January 2017; it is based on the transcript here.
 

Overtalk

a tremendous magnitude   the – the size of it The size

The top great   tremendous   the size   the size    these big

Ultimately    relatively    absolutely 100 percent

very stable very solid    Even more solid    a good thing

better than ever    much better    very serious   very simply

never said    make a deal    make a new deal

clobbered   nice and easily    immediately    I wanna

As soon    As soon    physically    I would say    Yeah I would say

Certainly    immediately   some really good really solid

They shouldn't be very    They shouldn't be very

a big heart    very strong    very solid    great   a good job

far less   I'm gonna tell   I will tell   the whole    great heart

criminals    really bad people    people    getting out

gonna get them out    gonna get 'em out   number one priority

We're gonna be talking    fantastically well    very proud

very very unfairly    brilliant    very good    fantastic

I'll be speaking    We will be talking    So let me tell you

so misrepresented    supposed to    you weren't supposed to

Sure And I do – and I'm very     and I mean it

But just so you – it was supposed to   Number two    somebody said it

It wasn't It was hardly even   I said it And I said it strongly    horrible

number one Number two I would've    if I was

I would've    I would've    I would've    And I would've

But as you know    It doesn't   So I would've

different   much differently    totally different

So but    you're just   I would've    much easier   I ended up    I got it by the way

But it turned out    You and everybody    said and almost everybody said

So I went   I went   And that's the beauty    

With that being said if you look    you look   you look   you look

You take a look   you're gonna    and we're gonna   Well we're gonna

But it could very well be    Absolutely   But we're gonna

In fact I heard    they were saying it's not    It's not    I said   He said

They don't wanna talk    You have people    You have people    in my opinion

David David David    Of course and I want    Sure Sure Sure   Sure done

No it hasn't Take a look    Really Then why    Excuse me then why

then he's – then he's    You know I always talk    when they wanna    you wanna

but not    wanna     or have to    We're gonna   And then the next time – and I will say

none of 'em    None of 'em    They would all be    None of 'em    

But when you look   a lot to look   There's nothing bigger There's nothing bigger

Let me just tell you you know    millions of people    when I say that if you would’ve

they're saying We agree    We agree    very smart people   people

people are saying they saw    I heard    But you're not talking about

But it's a small little    I will tell you     we're gonna have an idea

Now you're telling me    all of a sudden

But you have other    and you have other    You take a look    how many

Take a look     And you're gonna find    I didn't say there are    

But I think there could very well be    That's right   And I also say    and I also say    

I would've    But I would've    I wouldn't have    I wouldn't have

I wouldn't have   I would've    I would've    I never even

That’s true   That's true   very much   not at all   Not at all    No not at all

Believe me    And if you look at it they all    They all    They didn't    

I don't believe I got one    it would've been different

Now you have to understand I – I    Maybe she didn't She should've

She thought    in the bag She should've    she thought

you're talking about    you know   But they didn't I went   I went   I went   I went to all

That's all I    No no We're looking at it    No no    a tremendous

one of the great    ever In terms of    the most ever or just about the most ever

When you look at    One of the greatest    ever But again I    I didn't

What I'm saying is    if there are    there might be Look    if you look back

Chicago    Chicago    laughing    You look   you look

But take a look   very beautiful   Very beautiful And I    But look   Look

It's not    It hasn't    believe me   look what's going on    It's only

But    smiling and laughing    Now once    didn't do    All of a sudden

So here's the point    a lot of stuff    possibly I say probably But possibly

We're gonna    And then we're gonna    If people    I don't know

We're gonna    we talk about    we're gonna    so important

Now I'll say    I think   first of all would – would be a great thing

But I believe    And I believe    would've been    Well we're gonna   We're gonna

And – and by the way when I say you're gonna    You can never really

you know there are gonna be – no matter what    there are gonna be

But we will    OK so I'm glad    So I went    I have great    I'm – I don't have

But that's    But I have    speech     speech if you look   OK

we see    They said    one of the great    and – and    There was – somebody

paid great homage    paid great homage    In fact they said    the biggest

and they said    equal I got    a long    take – take out your    probably

I know    I know    a total    I could've     gotten

Absolutely   loved it    loved it    a long    They never even

very inaccurately I hate to say    you and you probably

but turn on    and see how    And see how    speech   speech

good speech And you and    speech    very very    speech

If I    there were like    wanted    but    couldn't They were all

I would say I would've    would've    speech    big   big success – success

And then I    and I    And they    Excuse me   Not you

but    – and they    speech And I know    speech    extraordinary

loved it Loved and liked And it was    extraordinary

No because you    Well you just    I didn't    I didn't wanna – talk about

speech But I think I did    really    You saw    I didn't

a massive    very unflattering   unflattering   a massive

In terms of a total    supposedly the biggest    And I    you would even

They say I had the biggest    speeches I'm    But I didn't    You just

Part of my whole    who have been    will never be    Part of that is when

unfairly    a massive    a crowd – I looked over that    Wow

And I've seen    Big big    That was some    When I looked

all of the various    the biggest    speeches I said    I was talking

I won't    demean    and    demean    faraway

more importantly    I'm saying   No I think you’re    talking    talking

I think you're    And that's why I think    And that's why you    pretty bad

Right   carnage    speech    tremendous – from certain    carnage

It is carnage It's    carnage This is    – is not like    being shot

Thousands    over a period – over a short period

This year   worse    last year   catastrophe  

want help   love to help    send in    send in

Maybe they're not gonna    Maybe they're being overly    Maybe there's

But you can't    Chicago   Chicago is    Chicago is worse

report    report about every    fix    shot in a city in a country

Maybe it's okay if    I want     fix    very easily fixable

They're gonna have to    But they gotta fix    I don't want

essentially    Chicago    Chicago And Chicago    a great

can be a great    can't be a great    Excuse me    can't be a great

a loaf of bread Can't be a great   But so far they have been    And I wasn't

So look    speech very nice speech    shot and killed    speech

You can't have    weren't shot    speech But    shot    speech What – what's

So all I'm saying    I say You have to    and you have to    because you can't

I want   It's a big    Well I'll be talking about that

So you'll be there and you'll be able to see    You're gonna see

Well I have    I have great respect    said – I was a little    said he's not

torture As you know    gonna be    as opposed to    who didn't

And he will I think    And he is – you know I haven't

But I will tell you I have    intelligence And they are big    waterboarding

Because they say it does    It does   I would do    I would do – I wanna    I wanna

When they're shooting – when they're chopping    people and other people

when they're chopping    people    nobody has ever    Medieval

would I feel    waterboarding   As far as I'm concerned    fire    fire

Now with that being said I'm going    I'm going    

I think    gonna be     I'm gonna    But I have spoken    the highest    intelligence

And I asked    Does it    Does    absolutely   I don't want people    or anybody's heads

Okay    or    or anything else I don't want – look    to have seen

much different You never saw    Now they    and they    and they

So we have    and we're not    We're not    even    I will say   I will

and    and my    And if they don't wanna    If they do wanna    I will

I wanna do    But do I feel    Absolutely I feel    Have I spoken    I haven't seen

But I think    Have I spoken    feel strongly    Absolutely

I wanna keep     no I wanna – I will    And I'm gonna    And if they don't wanna

100 percent    Do I think    Absolutely   Right   We're talking about – no it's not

But it's    tremendous    It's    we're going to    speech And it's    tremendous

in many cases or in some cases are looking    tremendous

You look    you'll be hearing    a whole    You'll be very

You're looking   in many cases in some cases    I don't want

They're    They're coming    I don't want    I'm gonna be

Now I'll absolutely    I think that    a tremendous    and various other

And all you have    take a look It's – it's    I don't want    have and    have

more    than ever    They – and it's from    So look look    Believe me I know

even better    They're deep    they're serious    We don't

You're going to see – you're going to see We're going to    extreme

And    extreme And we're not    we think    even a little

we're gonna    It's going to be    It's gonna be very very

I don't want    You look   You look   You look

Okay I mean take that    Anger   anger    How can you    Look David     David

I mean I know you're    The world    The world What You think this is gonna    The world

We went    We shouldn't have    We shouldn't have    The world

Take a look   Take a look    Take a look    And    and    and    The world    David

Well we should've    And you know it's very    you wouldn't

they got the money They got the money    leaving – when we left we left

which wasn't    It's not    And by the way and I said    And they were essentially

And    and    forever And    and it would go – it was just    We got in

I said    That's essentially    We should have    You wouldn't

Now I wasn't talking about    But had we   would've very good happened

They would not have    rather unbelievable    the world   Wait wait can you

Who are    who say    Fools   call    call    fools   We should've

excuse me We should've    you wouldn't    And we would have    We have

And    falling apart   Our roads – excuse me Our roads our    our     falling apart

We have    And    we can't    or we can't    And we can't    fix    We can't

Look    We've been    Nobody even knows    they don't really know

But it's time It's time   Well don't let it    we'll see    I mean we're gonna see

You know I told    and I told    wants to talk    I don't wanna

I wanna let – I wanna    take place    the talk takes place I watched

Then they'd say    Okay and I kept saying to myself    All right

I don't wanna do a lot of talking    I wanna talk after    not before

It's going to be – what my plan is is that I wanna    I'm not gonna    

Just so you understand people talk about    And I told    the best thing    nothing

And then we'll    and we'll    and – and    Believe    you'll have

And I told    except    I wanna get it fixed The best thing I could do

if I didn't do anything    begging me to do something But I don't wanna

So just so you   disaster   It's    It's    It doesn't    It's

You know    I know    And I said    terrific folks   I said Look

and I'm okay    We wanna    I said    They're gonna    it's gonna

That's the thing    But the right thing    So I wanna    Nobody's gonna

gonna be terrific And    very very happy    And now    don't even

They don't even    Remember    keep    keep    Remember    Remember

I mean you do admit that I think right    We are going to    if you look

We're gonna    So nobody ever    No no    here's what I can    we are going

a better    much better    much better    you can have    you want and    you want

We're gonna    much better    much less   And remember    I said

very good at this stuff    And why not    We're gonna    But I don't wanna

I wanna give great    much lower   You know when you     say no one I think no one

you’re talking about    And then you know knowing    on television saying how

Okay We want    We want the answer    But I will say millions

millions and millions and millions    It's too    and it's no

And    unfortunately    very very sad    very nice

but –    he said that    no longer   He's a staunch

He said    no longer    He made that    campaign trail

he said    is crazy It's crazy And you know what they were both right

Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Thomas Hardy Listens To Louis Armstrong

My first full-length poetry book, Thomas Hardy Listens To Louis Armstrong, was published on 1 July 2015 by Eyewear Publishing in London. You can order it any local bookstore near where you live (it has an ISBN and all that). It's also available directly from Eyewear, from Amazon, and soon from Small Press Distribution.

The book has three blurbs:

You’ll find sundry sorts of life that touch Andrew and you as well, in all sorts of verse: brief or long, quick or deep, free or meter, filled with experience. What’s more, you may well want to speak them to family and friends. His last poem’s last line tells us “verses did what verses mean to do”—a truth that’s worth to check back on!

John Felstiner

Andrew Shields is maestro of the sympathetic and the savvy.  He writes with unapologetic lyricism and with a narrative self-awareness that is anymore too rare in contemporary poetry.  The poems in the volume are entirely composed—and I intend that word in all the ways one might employ it: composed in the manner of a piece of music, composed in the way one might describe someone as being emotionally pulled together.  The simple stoicism of “Sundowning” will break your heart; “Blackbird” is a masterwork.  Everything about this collection sings.

Jill Alexander Essbaum

Andrew Shields is a musician himself. If you have not heard him play, read his poems. The scene in which Thomas Hardy listens to Louis Armstrong could only have been arranged by someone like him.

Durs Grünbein

*

Plus, it was summarized in the Poetry Book Society Bulletin as follows:

 Music swells from Andrew Shields' debut collection, from anonymous buskers "whose words have long been drowned out by the year" to Osip Mandelstam's 'Tambourine', from soaking in 'Monk's Dream' to hearing "unfinished poems in radio static". Rhythm and melody consume this poet, "spoken words [his] only instrument" yet conjuring verse "for the dancers / and the dance, unnoting, unwitting, unwrit" in a sweeping collection of symphonic depth and detail.

  "Symphonic depth and detail"! That makes me smile. :-)

Creepy Universe

My seven-year-old daughter Sara is getting into planets, and my nine-year-old daughter Luisa was looking at a book about the planets with her. There was lots of astronomical information in the book, including a projection about how long the sun will continue to shine and when it will implode (I think it said approximately 5 billion years). 

This made Luisa very nervous and upset about the idea of the sun and earth disappearing. My wife remembered that our son Miles (now 14) was nervous in the same way when we first got the book when he was about five! I remembered my own nervousness about the temporal and spatial dimensions of the universe when I was a kid. Here's a poem I wrote about that kid:

The Seven-Year-Old Atheist 

The universe gives me the creeps.

— Willem de Kooning

The seven-year-old atheist knew the sky

of California, in winter even bluer

than in summer. He knew that cats could die,

like grass beneath a stone, and children, too.

With his every breath, the universe

expanded, made him smaller. So he willed

himself to grow, energetically cursed—

"God damn it to hell!"—his puny build. 

Neither curse nor prayer could change the speed

of light or turn his energy to mass.

He did not breathe in vain. He did not need

mysterious ways. He lay down on the grass

and dreamed he was a stone that someone kicked.

He would have been surprised at his own trick,

if he had disappeared. Instead, he flew

across the lawn, then landed, woke, and grew. 

(The poem was published in Softblow, along with three others.)

Rummy's Player

In "honor" of the tenth anniversary of "Shock and Awe," here's a little ditty I wrote back in early 2003.

RUMMY'S PLAYER

He are a drunken driver with a silver spoon

his Junker father spat into his tomcat mouth

(they is an old-time family founded on appointments,

an oily bunch of skull-and-boney schoolyard bullies).

He are no self-made man, no rocket scientist,

but just a five-to-four minority pretender,

a spastic spoiler of subject-verb agreement,

a legacy admission threatening to use

tactical atomic weapons to destroy

reinforced Iraqi bunkers underground. 

*

When you hear the Serious People all agreeing about something, whether it's a war in Iraq or Iran, a "debt crisis," or the impending doom of Social Security—BEWARE.

*

And Rummy still can't admit he was wrong:

10 yrs ago began the long, difficult work of liberating 25 mil Iraqis. All who played a role in history deserve our respect & appreciation.
— Donald Rumsfeld (@RumsfeldOffice) March 19, 2013

September Rain

So here we are, three leap days later, and it's Tuesday again.

SEPTEMBER RAIN

for Dieter M. Gräf

Past autobahn construction sites,

threats

of traffic. Past television

towers

atop Hessian hills. Past

buzzards

soaring between sudden

showers,

kestrels hovering over

prey,

flocks of starlings

descending

into roadside trees. Past a freshly

plowed

field of crows. Through the

cloud

of spray from asphalt. Through

slaps

of rain from overpasses. Past

airplanes

starting and landing over the

skyscrapers

of Frankfurt. Everything standing, even

ruined

medieval castles perched

strategically

on the passing bluffs.

Passed

by a car from Cologne — how the cathedral

withstood

and withstood the air

raids.

The rain

clears;

soon we'll be home, safe as

towers.

— 16-17 September 2001

Two poems at Hobble Creek Review

I have two poems up at the Hobble Creek Review: "Eagle (Letter from My Aunt)" and "Rain from Cloudless Skies." Thanks to Justin Evans for publishing my poems!

My reading at LEX-Icon in Mulhouse, June 10, 2012

I had the pleasure of reading at the Ballades event that concluded the LEX-Icon conference in Mulhouse on Sunday, June 10, 2012. The reading was organized by the indefatigable Jennifer K. Dick; she invited over a dozen poets to be part of a mobile reading that went to a variety of locations in the city. My reading took place in the middle of a square outside the Mulhouse offices of the Parti Socialiste.

At the last moment, I decided to begin with a bit of Ernst Jandl, "fünfter sein", followed by my translation of it. If you know the poem, you know that it's easy to memorize!

That got me good and warmed up, and from then on, the adrenalin carried me through the reading. Since I was doing an open-air reading without a microphone, I made a point of speaking as loudly as I could without shouting. That was quite exhilarating; it felt good to put my full voice into the poems. I wonder how that would work indoors with a microphone.

Here's my setlist:

1. fünfter sein (Ernst Jandl)

Ernst Jandl, who could not be there, sadly

2. fifth in line (my translation of the Jandl; I didn't sing it, though!)

3. The Seven-Year-Old Atheist

4. Expat

5. City

6. Slide

7. Cabinet d'Amateur

Many thanks to Jennifer for inviting me and to all the other poets who read for making it such a wonderful afternoon! I'm definitely interested in doing something similar in Basel, with a mobile group of poets wandering around reading! And I might well steal Jacob Bromberg's idea of crumpling up each poem after reading it.

Two poems online in London Grip

I've got two poems online in the latest issue of London Grip. You can see a list of all the poets in the issue here. My poems are "Waltz" and "Transplant."

Mr. Memory

In 1997, Bill Frisell released an album called Nashville, his "country" album. I took it upon myself to write words for some of the songs on the record, including the song "Mr. Memory" (click here to listen to it on Spotify):

MR. MEMORY

When you're alone with your name

what you recall is your self

Shoulders hunched up with the rain

no umbrella lost again

Mr. Memory heads for home

turns the corner and he's gone

If you forget your own name

what can you say to yourself?

The rain against the windowpane

is everything left behind

Mr. Memory waits for you

round the corner but you're gone

And you awake with no name

Bells ringing in a blue day

I just liked the expression "Mr. Memory" and let it and the melody take me places while I was writing. 

Last week, I watched Alfred Hitchock's The 39 Steps and was pleased to discover that Frisell's title might well be a reference to the character Mr. Memory, as played by Wylie Watson:

Dream of publication

The other night, I dreamed that I was looking at a list of forthcoming titles from a poetry publisher, and one of the titles was a collection of my poems, something like "Poems 1988-2011." In the dream, I was surprised, because I could not remember having heard anything from the publisher (and I wasn't even sure I had sent the publisher a manuscript). Then somehow I was talking to the publisher, and he said, "But I was told you were dead, and somebody gave me all of your poems to edit for a book." I was most emphatically not dead, even in the dream, as the publisher admitted. That's all I remember from the dream, except this: the overall tone was not weird or uncanny; it was just funny.

Habits

I recently had to replace my water boiler in the kitchen, which had started to leak. The new one is bigger, and it also boils the water much faster. So only now, when the water is done boiling much sooner than I unconsciously expected, have I noticed that I was in the habit of putting the water on and then taking my time in preparing my coffee filter to make my cup of coffee when the water finally boiled.

In this case, I only noticed that I even had a particular habit once the habit no longer functioned as such. It reminds me of this poem, which I wrote shortly before my second child was born:

HABIT

We've moved into the dining room,

and Miles into ours,

to make room for number two.

And every couple hours,

I head to what was once our room to get

something no longer there,

then turn around, amazed by habit,

by what I live in, unaware.

Light Quarterly 50, Autumn 2005

Quiet Rooms

QUIET ROOMS

You know I think it's fine to talk about those things in quiet rooms. (Mitt Romney)

We talk about these things in quiet rooms
where nobody can sit alone for long.
We weave our words as if on ancient looms,
turning our measured voices into songs
everyone begins to sing as one.
We choose our usual places in the choir,
pursuing harmonies nobody spun
and tunes that leave us nothing to desire.

If several singers always take the lead,
it's only that their voices are the best.
If anyone's outside, why don't you come
and join us? We'll teach you what you need
to know to sing our songs, or play a drum.
Or just come in and listen. Be our guest.

Antiphon

The first issue of Antiphon, a new online poetry journal based in the UK, includes my poem "The View From Here."

On reading through the rest of the journal, a few of the poems struck me in particular:

"Why do you live on your own, without any children?", by Michaela Ridgway
Nil by m0uth, week 3, by Cora Greenhill
Triptych, by Claire Dyer

But most of all I liked Archie's Paris, by David Harmer, which reminded me of the first sentence of Reginald Shepherd's essay "Why I Write" (which I quoted in my brief eulogy for him when he died, over three years ago now).

The Rule of Law

THE RULE OF LAW

what might have been

The suicidal perpetrators died,
but those behind the scenes were hunted down
and put on trial for the crimes they had
abetted. Now they are in jail for life.

The citizens feel safe to know their land
is ruled by law, not fear, nor force, nor vengeance.

Poems in Nth Position

I have three poems up in the April selection of poetry in Nth Position.

The first, "A Thousand Times Too Many," derives from this.

The third, "L'art pour l'art," is about this guy:

Horizon Review, Issue 5

Issue Five of Horizon Review is up, and it's a pleasure to have four poems of mine featured alongside the work of such a strong line-up of poets, including Mark Granier, Alison Brackenbury, Ian Duhig, and Rob A. Mackenzie.

First Rain in Delhi on Whale Sound

Nic Sebastian reads my poem "First Rain in Delhi" on Whale Sound here. Thanks, Nic!

Two poems at The Nepotist

Two poems of mine are featured today by The Nepotist. As the titles make clear, these contain explicit language (and explicit themes!): "Up Shit Creek" and "Cock and Bull." I'm flattered and humbled by the Nepotist's introduction to the two!

2010 Alhambra Poetry Calendars

The 2010 Alhambra Poetry Calendars are now available. I'm honored to have a poem of mine in the English edition yet again, but I'd also like to recommend that those who read other languages pick up one of the other editions as well; I got the German and French editions for 2009 and have been enjoying them immensely.

Belgian Beers

In a post about the alcohol problem in Scotland (which, as a nurse, he sees vividly from the inside), Swiss writes that "retailers can afford to sell alcohol for less than the price of water."

I spent the summer of 1991 in Leuven, Belgium, at a three-week conference on Translation Studies (that still runs every summer, see here). Every day at lunch, I would have a sandwich, and it struck me that it was cheaper to buy beer (even the delicious Trappist beers, like Leffe) than to drink water or juice—and the beers were twice the size of the non-alcoholic beverages! So, as I was on a budget, I had a beer with my lunch every day, and then a coffee. The afternoon sessions went from two to four, and I was often quite groggy, despite the coffee ...

My presentation on Walter Benjamin was terrible, but later I cracked the tough nut of his essay "The Task of the Translator" and wrote a pretty good study of it. I know I wrote more than one poem while I was there, but this is the only I'm sure I wrote there (AJS at 26):

MARKS OF SUCCESS

André Dumont stands in the square
with a bird on his head. His white beard
and collar, distinguished marks
of worldly success, of achievement—
about them no one seems to care.

Except for the birds.
He is another tree, another lamppost
or flagpole on which they sit
and shit. When one flies away,
another comes to sit and shit
on André Dumont, who keeps standing,
with his beard, collar, and other marks
of success, in the middle of the square.