FOR DAVID


 

Neeli Cherkovski



Poet Song
Poet Song
by Tina and David Meltzer
Vanguard Records, 1969

 

A Poem with Lines by David Meltzer

Because the storm goes through your head
"Don't worry about growing old"
I am sleeping in the Eye
"It is the sea I see through your mouth"
Wrote the poet to the poet when he was younger
Than he will ever be again

"Why not die alone? Roar ..."
of the poet to the song in the poem when he was older
than he will ever be again, "What I mean
when I talk about poetry ..."

This turns into a poem
For Love, what is Love?
I know the poet when he talks
to those who are "forever young." We mean
the spirit which can mean you are old
or ancient but young in an archaic way, like
petrified driftwood or the memory of love as
it lingers just off shore.

who is Love? "Somewhere, without mind,
love begins." I want to begin again, to start
over like a wave, to come over Broadway as
"The poet begins to examine the dissolution of love."

He writes, "The sea continues." old kelp
young kelp, a storm, a sea dog, a season
to be born (into). This turns into a poem
where Love may never die, like death
not dying, like a leaf of burnt umber
never quite dying, just becoming
something else (again).

"Is anything ever gone
to the poet who works up everything
Eventually."

What if the gods looked down and said
the terrible storm is a beautiful storm, eventually?

What is a poet?
Where is Love?
The grass is a sign in the rain.
The storm is a dog in the eye
of the song folded on top of the sea
as it rises like the Truth
toward the Sun in our mouths,
like Anything.

14 Sept 05

 

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