Saturday, August 1, 2009

TC: One More Saturday Night (for Reverdy's Ghost)


.


File:Père-Lachaise avenue fog.jpg




Through the night

It snows on the

Sierras as it does

On the grave of

Apollinaire in the

Cemetery of Père

Lachaise

And on

The radio I get

Truck music from

San Jose:

“Want to make it to

Amarillo by

Morning…”

“...Just

Because you ask me to.”


The green oak

Burns weakly

In the grate

And as I write

In the window

Of the loft

The light

Turns blue.



File:Snow Scene at Shipka Pass 1.JPG




Cimetière du Père Lachaise, avenue in fog: photo by Lothar Streidle, 2004

Winter scene, Shipka Pass, Bulgaria: photo by psy guy, 2006



8 comments:

Lally said...

Another gem Tom.

TC said...

Many thanks, Mike.

Anonymous said...

Simple and full of images at the same time. Quite a tribute.

TC said...

Thank you Lucy. Reverdy was a solitary figure and thus perhaps not as well known as he should have been. But he remains a poet much revered in some small circles of other poets.

A glass of papaya juice
and back to work. My heart is in my
pocket, it is Poems by Pierre Reverdy.

--Frank O'Hara, "A Step Away From Them"

woodman said...

Jeez, I'd forgotten that Reverdy toss-off from FO. That may just be the single most enduring self-portrait that he left us. Then he left us.

TC said...

Woodman,

Speaking of "then he left us", it was 43 years and ten days ago... odd to consider that's longer than the time it was given him to be on earth.

Some bits from "Reverdy" by Frank O'Hara and Bill Berkson:

"Reverdy is not like Chopin. He is a long city street with small musical houses on it.

"Picasso is fire, Reverdy is flint.

"In America there is only one other poet *beside* Reverdy: William Carlos Williams..."

xileinparadise said...

Tom -- I brought up the subject of the influence of the French poets of that era (particularly Apollinaire, Reverdy, even Soupault) with Paul Mariani, the WCW biographer, and he agreed that Williams was very much aware of their writing and of course was well read in French to begin with. Bram Djikstra's book on Williams and Cubism also delves into this influence. Spring And All. Need I say more?

TC said...

Pat,

That says it all... almost.

See new post up top right now, further pursuit of same unfathomable phantom.