William J. Barker
[The following poems were originally published in Barker's Sunamou (Rocca Sinibalda: Castle Contintental, 1963), with a forward by Caresse Crosby. An interview with Barker -- poet, novelist, actor, and raconteur -- is scheduled for the next issue of Talisman.]
WILL WHAT
Yew
it was all for you
plum eye
if
those lashes gnash
my oxygen
if
them teeth gape
pinking spades
yew
october’s bouncing
belly button
yew
gubble bum
swinging your 16
saracen summers
brother bother
Yew
Mirky Mikey
it was all for you
JOYRIDE
There is no bruising after death
So count your love bites now
Misgivings shared are more than half gifts
And will bloom on unfresh air
Milestones of columns prop antiquity
Wine nights wash clay toes
Bloody Mary fires up youth's perfect murders
As eagle knickered Prince Hal
Covets the dark Jewel of Empire
Olympian anemones outlive mudstuck cars
Hobo hotdogs
Are fanned by startling
Or confidential detectives
Atop a grisaille mountain
A cornered temple to the pest
Calls come-on in a step mother voice
A boydom tumbles
Still blue wheels climb the days
Alph changes sides
Finalities challenge tomorrow
Are the stouter legs we meet
Really more innocent?
IN MAY SUNKEN TREES ARE GREENER
I know what you wanted
Moscow Nights
Not so many facts
But the down horned moon
Hathor
Plucking the stars of Scorpio
In the coolth
But attendants in potato sacks
Pulling back the gates of pain
And the bullfrog inferno
Juggling virago kitchen
And jeep tracked gazelle skins
Sleeked by lush
Sans oublier the little Hetty pipe
And the meteor tapes of kif
The night portending eyes of the vanished city
The jewish jacket of be kind to children week
And I im mud heavy cactus boots of Mexico
And I saying I can twist if I will
I could I would I didn't
Do more than pace the walls of Marrakesh
Knowing you well within the dance
Viewed from the bridge of standing by
The electric eel once more
Charges narcissistic batteries
A joke person dying in the Mamounia gardens
Worries because the birds can't get at the water.
CROSSED WIRES
IMPOSSIBLE TO COME YET STOP BROKE STOP MIKEY STOP
MUST FINISH HEAT WRITING = SONA =
I HAVE WRITTEN = CRESSIDA =
MY LETTER HUSTERICAL COMING SOONS IS POSSIBLE KISSES
LOVE YOU MISS YOU BACK IN A MINUTE
= FOG HORROR COMING MONDAY YOUR SUNA
ARRIVING GIB 6 OCLOCK = SUNA
SONA = SUNA = CRESSIDA = SUNA
MUST HEAT FINISH WRITING
IS HUSTERICAL COMING IMPOSSIBLE
MY LOVE I MISS YOUR
BACK IN A MINUTE KISSES
FOG HORROR TO COME YET
YOU HAVE WRITTEN
MONDAY 6 OCLOCK LETTER
MIKEY BROKE GIB
COMING POSSIBLE SOONS
YOU ARRIVING
STOP = STOP = STOP
ACTA EST FABULA
Love and not love played out on these pamphylian sands
In sight but out of reach the sacred spring
The bosky culmination of our pilgrimage
Incongruous high noon to which we sacrifice facsimiles
Skins flayed and then worn again as tunics
That once were nerved and eager to the tips of touch
We laugh dolphin waves we force an early mediterranean
We call back suns that only set for moons to inundate
Sheets that were sails
No whiter than our love no whiter than our not love
Wafted aloft in a paean
Too difficult for ears of friends and enemies
Unbearable then to us
We traded tunics and our city fell like Sidé
Among its mangled stones upon that day of mandragore
That night Zeus and Poseidon spoke in thunderlightning
Phosphorus on tree bark
Archaic smiles and lonely fright
And in atonement have I raised this minaret
Breathing our shape to clouds so other skies may see
Love and not love played out on these pamphylian sands
WILL WHAT
Yew
it was all for you
plum eye
if
those lashes gnash
my oxygen
if
them teeth gape
pinking spades
yew
october’s bouncing
belly button
yew
gubble bum
swinging your 16
saracen summers
brother bother
Yew
Mirky Mikey
it was all for you
JOYRIDE
There is no bruising after death
So count your love bites now
Misgivings shared are more than half gifts
And will bloom on unfresh air
Milestones of columns prop antiquity
Wine nights wash clay toes
Bloody Mary fires up youth's perfect murders
As eagle knickered Prince Hal
Covets the dark Jewel of Empire
Olympian anemones outlive mudstuck cars
Hobo hotdogs
Are fanned by startling
Or confidential detectives
Atop a grisaille mountain
A cornered temple to the pest
Calls come-on in a step mother voice
A boydom tumbles
Still blue wheels climb the days
Alph changes sides
Finalities challenge tomorrow
Are the stouter legs we meet
Really more innocent?
IN MAY SUNKEN TREES ARE GREENER
I know what you wanted
Moscow Nights
Not so many facts
But the down horned moon
Hathor
Plucking the stars of Scorpio
In the coolth
But attendants in potato sacks
Pulling back the gates of pain
And the bullfrog inferno
Juggling virago kitchen
And jeep tracked gazelle skins
Sleeked by lush
Sans oublier the little Hetty pipe
And the meteor tapes of kif
The night portending eyes of the vanished city
The jewish jacket of be kind to children week
And I im mud heavy cactus boots of Mexico
And I saying I can twist if I will
I could I would I didn't
Do more than pace the walls of Marrakesh
Knowing you well within the dance
Viewed from the bridge of standing by
The electric eel once more
Charges narcissistic batteries
A joke person dying in the Mamounia gardens
Worries because the birds can't get at the water.
CROSSED WIRES
IMPOSSIBLE TO COME YET STOP BROKE STOP MIKEY STOP
MUST FINISH HEAT WRITING = SONA =
I HAVE WRITTEN = CRESSIDA =
MY LETTER HUSTERICAL COMING SOONS IS POSSIBLE KISSES
LOVE YOU MISS YOU BACK IN A MINUTE
= FOG HORROR COMING MONDAY YOUR SUNA
ARRIVING GIB 6 OCLOCK = SUNA
SONA = SUNA = CRESSIDA = SUNA
MUST HEAT FINISH WRITING
IS HUSTERICAL COMING IMPOSSIBLE
MY LOVE I MISS YOUR
BACK IN A MINUTE KISSES
FOG HORROR TO COME YET
YOU HAVE WRITTEN
MONDAY 6 OCLOCK LETTER
MIKEY BROKE GIB
COMING POSSIBLE SOONS
YOU ARRIVING
STOP = STOP = STOP
ACTA EST FABULA
Love and not love played out on these pamphylian sands
In sight but out of reach the sacred spring
The bosky culmination of our pilgrimage
Incongruous high noon to which we sacrifice facsimiles
Skins flayed and then worn again as tunics
That once were nerved and eager to the tips of touch
We laugh dolphin waves we force an early mediterranean
We call back suns that only set for moons to inundate
Sheets that were sails
No whiter than our love no whiter than our not love
Wafted aloft in a paean
Too difficult for ears of friends and enemies
Unbearable then to us
We traded tunics and our city fell like Sidé
Among its mangled stones upon that day of mandragore
That night Zeus and Poseidon spoke in thunderlightning
Phosphorus on tree bark
Archaic smiles and lonely fright
And in atonement have I raised this minaret
Breathing our shape to clouds so other skies may see
Love and not love played out on these pamphylian sands