12.06.2004

Whitman Poem #1

I heard about this Whitman Award, and immediately this Monster’s interest is piqued. You may credit said organization for the unadulterated spread of brilliance now to be loosed upon you, dear Polyform Reader. Expect Random, Unprovoked Poems (RUP) on a quasi-regular basis. Emergency exits are located two to the front, two to the sides and two to the back. Should the cabin lose pressure for any reason, oxygen masks will deploy from your overhead console. Do not assist other passengers until you have properly secured your own mask. Do not be alarmed if the bag does not fully inflate. In the unlikely event of a water landing, your seat cushion will act as a floatation device.

Whitman Poem #1. "Crushed"

I have accepted my longing for you.
Now,
It’s comforting to me,
To live with a fading memory of
something only
maybe
I might interpret
as a beckoning smile of yours,

the merest shred
shard
piece
sliver
fragment
of an exchange
that only barely qualifies as a conversation,
words like pennies in the dirt, that’s all.

This is enough
for me to paint your lips
across the canvas of the best hotel sex ever
imagined as a memory relived
in the crush of a pink cadillac’s
crushed velvet seats

Those pennies in the dirt
are the seeds of a garden so lush
that I don’t have to know its fragrance
to remember it

It comforts me
so much that it aches.



best,
poeticpaulmonster

14 comments:

Lioness said...

Poetry, I like you better and better! Oh, I may be going bonkers and apologies if I've said this already, but I love Falkor (he's Fuchur in German), and the book is one of the most beautiful things ever written. I think I may even have used one of the site's pics on my Aristides post. So, very happy all round.

paulmonster said...

Yes, Falkor rocks. Falkor was one of my imaginary friends while growing up. Still is, really. Between Falkor and Chewbacca, I got all the fur I need.

And I have read your Aristides post, it is quite moving and lovely in its own right, thank you for that. You are most kind and excellent in your remarks, so yes, very happy all around.

Lioness said...

KILTS??? Are you serious??? Kilts are VERY VERY hot! Well done but stop that this minute! I don't need to start fancying you now do I.

(Er, I seem to remember you have a girlfriend? Or am I mixed up? In any case, girlfriend-of-paulmonster-I-seem-to-remember, really, I'm mostly harmless, no worries!)

Anonymous said...

No, Paul has no girlfriend. He is single and available. And lonely. So very lonely.

paulmonster said...

Right, step away, you anonymous boor. If you are who I think you are, (and I think you are who I think you are, you,) I'll be back in Portland soon enough and there'll be a reckoning, oh yes. And by the way, your mother called. She wants her fashion sense back.

Dear Lioness, you are most flattering indeed. Pay no attention to the disreputable ass-hat and his distasteful imprecations. But to answer your question, at the moment I am indeed quite unattached, as it were. Splendid Isolation, and all that. And you, dahling, are in Lisbon. Still, should you find a kilt out there in Portugal, I suppose arrangements could be made...

Lioness said...

Do you know, if embarrassment could be bottled... The one w the jealous girlfriend is M, sorry abt that, didn't mean to pry, don't know what I was thinking, probably wasn't, the joys of the sleep-deprived. I'll just go and watch my All Black vs Scots in kilts mpg3 commercial for comfort, why don't I, and THEN I may bury myself in the nearest hole. [But anon, that was hysterically funny!]

Signed,
The Lioness who blushes much to her dismay

paulmonster said...

Hell, if embarrasment could be bottled, then I'd HAVE SOMETHING ELSE TO THROW AT MR. ANONYMOUS-ASS-HAT.

Anyway. Be that as it may. No need for embarrasment here. You have won the discerning approval of my infant poems I'm most carefully and hesitantly introducing to this site, and so in these insomniac hours, you can do no wrong here.

Anonymous said...

The lady doth protest too much methinks. And by the by, the truth is never distateful, as I'm sure our feline friend the Lioness would agree. Think on that. And be dismayed.
- A. Asshatte

P.S. That's A-s-s-h-a-t-t-e. Please do me the courtesy of spelling my name correctly in the future.

Lioness said...

Oh shut up.

paulmonster said...

All right, o anonymous wonder. If you want a piece of me, you're gonna have to ante up with the big kids. I'm back in PDX on the 13th of this month, and we can sort this business out right quick.

I'm getting a pretty clear portrait of what I'm dealing with here, and let me tell you, bucko, last I checked, this Monster is still in charge of this little operation, and I'll spell Ass-hat any which way I damn well please. I ain't afraid of you. I scrape chunks of people like you off my boots every day. My GI tract pushes your kind out the back door on a regular basis (regularity contingent on the involvement of pumpkin bread).

You want to do this thing, let's do this thing. You just opened up a world of hurt. Boom.

Anonymous said...

Oh how quick they are to be censors and bullies. My goodness gracious me. I leave you to your oh-so-special-covert-mutual admiration-society. Oppress me once, shame on you...

"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.(Asimov)" Just you remember that Mr. Monster Man.

Your erstwhile admirer,

- A. Asshatte, a.k.a., The Subterranean

paulmonster said...

Okay.

My sense of humor can be quite blustery and strained, and this is not the first time (nor, I suspect, will it be the last), that I may have inadvertantly crossed some line or another. So whomever you are, Subterranean One, if I have seriously offended you or made you feel sincerely unwelcome in this forum, please accept my apologies.

On the other hand, this is just a weblog we're talking about here. And not a mutual admiration society. I post here first and foremost for myself. The principle is that everyone else is free to comment as they see fit (and obviously there are hordes and hordes of you out there clamoring to have your say, you all will just have to settle down, now). One of the hazards of such a principle is that you then have to deal with my handling of these things.

Seriously. I ultimately don't see any reason to take umbrage at anything here (perhaps poems weren't such a good idea, after all).

Pettiness is unbecoming in any setting. We all have more important things to right about, yes?

my final word on this matter,
paulmonstertyrranical

Anonymous said...

Oh, no offence was taken at all.

I'm just taking the piss out of you, you luscious brown monster man.

still yours, yours, ever yours -

A. Asshatte, a.k.a., Tangy Spice

Lioness said...

Hey P., did you know I covertly admire you??? How very quaint of me. Nope, I do it in the open actually, thought that much was clear. And what do you mean poems were not a good idea? They were! Anon, don't be jealous, you can have your own blog and post poems as well you know. I'd even read them - and I'm not pulling your leg, I would. I might like P.'s better though, because of all the animals and things.