Monday, July 4, 2011

American Stanza

Larry reading from American Stanza at home,
in background is Ken Saville's Tossing the Bone cross.

Dont be a humble haiku 
stretch your feet out 
become an American stanza 
we still have something to do with art 
be one of us 
become
big inspite of yourself 
broadcast large
make money off of your many words 
become the rolling American stanza 
that is studded with products 
and still loves the land 
the Western version of it
where one slow roll of a hill disappears almost
into a ribbon of road
as you drive     and drive
and know you're not in the big city
that you're large and flat
and too big for one page
too roaring, too specific,
too car oriented   too bound to the daily clock of money 
as you value your job and if you dont have one 
try not to feel guilty
as we enter a major stage of pessimism
both in and out the city
and your words and loops of phrases
sing through the air and catch the horns
of the ghost on the prairie
yanked along into song
too enormous for a haiku
too full of problems
too necessary
too grounding
the rolling out aloud bark and welcome 
getting down to deeds like
putting on a roof      and balancing hammer & nails as you walk 
tiptoe between the possible falls
and get it up
to persist,  native ingenuity is all there ever was
to stretch this country out to any sense
to give it form
large    and difficult
trite    and straight
to learn the old again
for the first time
having always before
been new
the old ingenuity to make do 
and get us out
get this line out of its chains again
its remains 
its slow death 
and rest,
its stretching out into a new fate.

"stretching out into a new fate"
larry goodell / placitas, new mexico / 19Dec82, winder solstice
this duende broadside is on 2 sheets legal seconds, duende press

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