Calisthenic 1, Week 8

Writing Poetry:  exercise five, pg. 100.

John Ashbery, "Glazunoviana" (Vintage, pp. 274-75):

The man with the red hat
And the polar bear, is he there too?
The window giving on shade,
Is that here too?
And all the little helps,
My initials in the sky,
The hay of an arctic summer night?

The bear
Drops dead in sight of the window.
Lovely tribes have just moved to the north.
In the flickering evening the martins grow denser.
Rivers of wings surround us and vast tribulation.

Result:


The deity with the perfect track record
And David Hume, is he there too?
The compass giving way to superstition,
Is that here too?
And all the little distortions,
The invisible monster in the sermons,
The pitchfork of a right shoulder's eye?

The war hero
draws dementia in sight of the bullet-ridden apathist.
Horrific substitutes have spread to the north.
In the appropriate time zone the martins never lose sleep.
Landfill-stink of wasted lives overwhelm us and parade organizers.