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