Talking Poetry

Forget the dream
Forget the poetry received in a dream
Forget New York, forget language
Forget you love violent electric storms

Forget the slit open, opened
Forget a closed cloud, bread and lips
Forget David Shapiro
Forget yourself Buy and sell yourself

Forget the great globe itself
Forget the angels in Silesia*
Forget provisions for the trip
Forget that face

Forget eight arms for power
Forget peace Forget restless form
Forget whether it was an actor or a butcher
or a traitor at night
Forget whether it was interpretation or
Amelioration

Forget, forget!

Copyright ©: David Shapiro

(in: In Memory of an Angel, 2017)

*a refrence to Angelus Silesius.

You are the you in this poem,
Mon amour.
Harrisburg mon amour.
Boats break.

So-and-so asked me,
To whom does the you in your poem
Refer.
I said, Are you feeling well, So-and-so.

I can’t believe I said.
It. So sue me.
I said, It’s the beloved, So-and-so.
Oh is that all.

Well, I said, she wouldn’t think
It was so little.
To look up into your face
Is like looking into the devastated stars.

Lights of all kinds I traced,
You and you and you and you.
You are the you of this poem, mon amour.
Boats break.

Copyright ©: David Shapiro

(in: After a Lost Original, 1994)