Malcolm Miller Poems: Difference between revisions

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Thanks to Rod Kessler, English professor Emeritus from Salem State we have some of his  
Thanks to Rod Kessler, English professor Emeritus from Salem State we have some of his  


Salem-Centric poems listed below.
Salem-Centric poems shown below.


Malcolm Miller’s Salem Poems –an incomplete compilation  [13 February 2016]
Malcolm Miller’s Salem Poems –an incomplete compilation  [13 February 2016]


'''Standing on the Salem-Beverly bridge gazing seawards
 
                at four in the morning March 1990'''
'''Standing on the Salem-Beverly bridge gazing seawards at four in the morning March 1990'''


to the right the final  
to the right the final  
part of Salem shines  
part of Salem shines  
with spaced lights curving  
with spaced lights curving  
towards the end  
towards the end  
of our power
of our power


to the left Beverly  
to the left Beverly  
like a finger lit  
like a finger lit  
by many gold  
by many gold  
rings points  
rings points  
towards some union
towards some union


out beyond  
out beyond  
our marriages  
our marriages  
out where only dark  
out where only dark  
bigger than all our lights  
 
bigger than all our lights
seem to call
seem to call


I am going
I am going
I am going
I am going
will I see
will I see
will I see
will I see
you there?
you there?
[INTO THE HIGHER AIR, 1992, 72 pages, p.8]
[INTO THE HIGHER AIR, 1992, 72 pages, p.8]




'''Witch Trials ''' Salem  Mass.  1692
'''Witch Trials Salem  Mass.  1692'''


the trees were stark  
the trees were stark  
to begin with  
to begin with  
and the choppy sea  
and the choppy sea  
often grey and cold
often grey and cold


Indians had strange  
 
 
Indians had strange
ways and eyes  
ways and eyes  
their arrows could travel  
their arrows could travel  
a long way and accurately
a long way and accurately


far off the English king  
far off the English king  
could not be relied on  
could not be relied on  
rumors spoke of changes  
 
rumors spoke of changes
not to their advantage
not to their advantage


order is always maintained  
order is always maintained  
by a form of no  
by a form of no  
the haunches of women even young  
the haunches of women even young  
shake fire in the thatched-roof cabins
shake fire in the thatched-roof cabins


fire is a dangerous element  
 
fire is a dangerous element
and a moral god insufficient  
and a moral god insufficient  
there are always reasons to kill  
 
there are always reasons to kill
many wished for more than twenty
many wished for more than twenty
[INTO THE HIGHER AIR, 1992, 72 pages, p.33]
[INTO THE HIGHER AIR, 1992, 72 pages, p.33]


'''A clean Well Lighted Place In Winter'''
'''A clean Well Lighted Place In Winter'''


it’s 3 in the morning  
it’s 3 in the morning  
the fatal lapsed hour
the fatal lapsed hour
I am the sole  
I am the sole  
customer here  
customer here  
in this Dunkin Donut on  
in this Dunkin Donut on  
the coast of Massachusetts
the coast of Massachusetts


the coffee is all right  
the coffee is all right  
the donut not bad  
the donut not bad  
the music being offered  
 
only fair  
the music being offered
only fair
and behind the counter  
and behind the counter  
the young woman  
the young woman  
who quit high school  
who quit high school  
out of boredom  
out of boredom  
is yawning
is yawning


a mute kind  
a mute kind  
of weary-eyed goddess
of weary-eyed goddess


but a goddess none the less  
but a goddess none the less  
in this god  
in this god  
blessedly open place  
blessedly open place  
or don’t you know  
or don’t you know  
don’t you know yet  
don’t you know yet  
about closed up towns  
about closed up towns  
in cold dark times
in cold dark times


                                          [FURTHER AND FURTHER  POEMS (1992), 72 pages, p.65]  
[FURTHER AND FURTHER  POEMS (1992), 72 pages, p.65]  




'''ZONE 3'''
'''ZONE 3'''


I used to buy a ticket  
I used to buy a ticket
from Boston that said  
from Boston that said  
to Salem Mass  
to Salem Mass  
now it says  
now it says  
to Zone 3
to Zone 3


I used to have moments  
I used to have moments  
of joy now I have
of joy now I have
no problems
 
no problems
 


I used to be free and easy  
I used to be free and easy  
now I am acceptable
now I am acceptable
and do the right  
and do the right  
thing for  
thing for  
the situation
the situation


I used to be loyal
I used to be loyal
to something I could not  
 
to something I could not
define now I am  
define now I am  
a good citizen
 
a good citizen
      [FURTHER AND FURTHER  POEMS (1992), 72 pages, p.16]  
 
[FURTHER AND FURTHER  POEMS (1992), 72 pages, p.16]  
 


'''State College Canteen'''
'''State College Canteen'''


on his last day of work the guy  
on his last day of work the guy  
by some quirk of inspiration  
 
by some quirk of inspiration
profit or satire  
profit or satire  
loaded the huge soft  
loaded the huge soft  
drink machines with beer  
drink machines with beer  
the price was right and the day
the price was right and the day
spring-like  
spring-like  
never have students learned more  
never have students learned more  
about religion
about religion
Dionysius was dancing in the halls  
Dionysius was dancing in the halls  
and singing in the corridors
and singing in the corridors


never did the philosophy professor  
 
a master of logical positivism  
never did the philosophy professor
a master of logical positivism
seem more absurd  
seem more absurd  
his much praised sobriety was found  
his much praised sobriety was found  
to be a sort  
to be a sort  
of living death and all the English  
of living death and all the English  
instructors by afternoon were being  
instructors by afternoon were being  
booed from the building  
booed from the building  
for not knowing how to teach  
for not knowing how to teach  
young people how to return  
young people how to return  
to the sun                                 [POEMS THAT  NEED YOU  (1993) p.41]
 
to the sun  
 
[POEMS THAT  NEED YOU  (1993) p.41]




there is a sign in a bar in my  
there is a sign in a bar in my  
home town that is like modern life  
home town that is like modern life  
do not hesitate to ask for credit  
do not hesitate to ask for credit  
it says  
it says  
our way of saying no is very polite   
our way of saying no is very polite   
    
    
        [Unsatisfactory Fragments of Lukewarm Fire, (Jan. 2004) p. 57]
[Unsatisfactory Fragments of Lukewarm Fire, (Jan. 2004) p. 57]
 


'''College Girl in Massachusetts'''
'''College Girl in Massachusetts'''


in the winter dawn a girl bound  
in the winter dawn a girl bound
for history class sure  
for history class sure  
footed and neat with  
footed and neat with  
the grace of morning  
the grace of morning  
her face almost fresh as  
her face almost fresh as  
recent snow the night’s  
recent snow the night’s  
full twinkling moon over  
full twinkling moon over  
Salem harbor
Salem harbor


college girl bearing your proud  
college girl bearing your proud  
unchallenged face towards  
unchallenged face towards  
the necessary war of all  
the necessary war of all  
the living I go  
the living I go  
with you
with you
I go with you clear-eyed sprite  
I go with you clear-eyed sprite  
your earnest brow of morning
your earnest brow of morning


even over here I feel  
 
even over here I feel
your unique breathing  
your unique breathing  
the privateness of your being  
the privateness of your being  
descended from trees and birds
descended from trees and birds
and from darkness kind  
 
and from darkness kind
to all its stars
to all its stars


I go with you lovely scholar  
I go with you lovely scholar  
and may you find on  
and may you find on  
your way however  
your way however  
buried the gold  
buried the gold  
of unteachable joy
of unteachable joy


[The Taste of Inexplicable Nothingness, 1994]
[The Taste of Inexplicable Nothingness, 1994]
 
 
'''HAWTHORNE'''
 
Nathaniel Hawthorne you never went
 
to a brothel
 
drank but not to excess
 
were not athletic and agile but sat
 
your large domed skull hid
 
subtle and at times sinister thoughts
 
 
you married one of Salem’s Peabody sisters
 
and never committed adultery
 
at dusk in Salem after Bowdoin
 
you went walking in dark heavy clothing
 
your face impossible to read
 
and children were fearful
 
 
your sunless body did not discover god
 
what pleased you you enjoyed but life
 
was at bottom a sort of wretched thing
 
lightened by family and comfort
 
Melville your temporary friend by far
 
was a holier more extraordinary spirit
 
 
his work outlives yours but still
 
the best hotel in Salem is the Hotel Hawthorne
 
in it one can eat the Scarlet Letter lunch
 
the menu boasts sinfully unpuritan desserts
 
a huge statue of you looms on Hawthorne Boulevard
 
nobody around here notices it much
 
 
midwestern schoolteachers snap your photo
 
busloads of them file through the streets
 
the House of Seven Gables is a must
 
making the city a lot of do re mi
 
talent you had and intelligence to spare
 
what was lacking was lacking almost fatally
 
[THE TASTE OF INEXPLICABLE NOURISHMENT ( 1994), p.10]
 
 
'''good night Irene'''
 
I have a cousin
 
Irene
 
she often stands downtown with
 
a severe condemnatory look
 
as if the world
 
has disappointed her
 
 
she doesn’t know who
 
Walt Whitman is
 
if she did
 
he could be in
 
for a real good
 
talking to
 
 
'''Jesus Suspended In Stone From the St Joseph Church Salem Mass'''
 
Son of a distant desert people
 
what are you doing up there
 
hanging like some penance
 
or warning of what can happen
 
if you speak well and directly
 
and don’t flatter the top dogs
 
 
your body hangs huge
 
as a statue from Easter Island
 
a continual embarrassment if noticed
 
a terrible mistake like Stalin
 
in Red Square kept alive
 
by technological skills
 
and a lot of money
 
 
you seem hooked up to a sort
 
of pillory by puritans or sadists
 
what did you do anyway
 
and how weary you must be all
 
these centuries hanging there
 
gaped at by foreigners who
 
can’t really  tell why
 
they keep you on view
 
as they go about earning more TV
 
channels and winter trips to Florida
 
 
you’re more or less like a prisoner
 
captured in a war who just got
 
lost in the shuffle and never
 
made it back
 
to your own people     
         
[THE TASTE OF INEXPLICABLE NOURISHMENT  (1994), p.33]
 
 
at the campus of one of the lesser
 
state colleges in Massachusetts
 
 
a disgusting perhaps degenerate
professor is eyeing the tan
 
new bodies of poor
 
quality students
 
 
most hardly made it out
 
of high school and many so
 
unscholarly will fail in
 
a year departing on these long fitness
 
 
crazed legs he ogles and wants
 
wrapped around him
 
a disgusting professor is eyeing
 
some of the greatest bodies in
 
 
history that will not be able
 
to cope with Shakespeare or calculus
 
Kierkegaard and even Picasso
 
might seems European rock bands to them
 
 
the disgusting degenerate prof
 
is eyeing them
 
hips sinuous with strength and
 
beauty the gods would rock with
 
 
may they live forever the poor
 
quality students with miserable
 
IQ’s and long shining rich
 
hair in the wind their skins of
 
 
magical entrancement and their
 
fine shaped skulls that do not
bother with history or ethics
 
or expository prose
 
the disgusting professor is eyeing
 
them day after day
 
he is paid 34,000 per annum and
 
worth every penny   
                                         
[THE TASTE OF INEXPLICABLE NOURISHMENT  (1994), p.56]
 
 
'''BEFORE SUNRISE DUCKS SALEM HARBOR WINTER'''
 
part of black
 
water and still
 
darkness in air
 
 
the eerie normal
 
cluck as you pass
 
 
they hug shore
 
vague neat clumps
 
sealed in
 
who they are
 
yes but who
 
are they 
                 
[THE RIVER OF MUDDIED WATER BEARS GOLD (1994), p.36]
 
 
'''SALEM HARBOR'''
 
the great sailing
 
vessels that used to reek
 
of mid
 
ocean brine and china
 
spices and teas
 
strong black pepper born
 
in Java split mahogany
 
trees to adorn
 
and enrich Massachusetts
 
who remembers them now but
 
museums full of
 
paid customers
 
 
some tame pets of pleasure
 
cruisers litter
 
the harbor flushing their god
 
damned toilets casting
 
garbage ashore cruddy
 
with bacteria
 
 
too many mediocre
 
spirits have hung about
these streets too
 
many generations for
 
anything but humdrum
 
to happen
 
 
a handful of intelligent
people are going about
 
their business suspected
 
of whatever crime is
 
in the air     
                 
[THE RIVER OF MUDDIED WATER BEARS GOLD (1994), p.51]
 
 
'''TOURISTS'''
 
what have they come to see
 
so many hundreds of miles slowly
 
across droning repetitious highways
 
and inching traffic jams
 
steering evenly up to gasoline pumps
children smashing each other


with kleenex boxes in the back seat




and to end up dressed undistinguishedly


in some inferior hotel with water
that barely goes down the basin
finding a twisted cigarette
butt and a condom in the drawer
later to trudge after a row of arrows
to gawk at a museum where cruel
people once killed harmless women
and the kids proudly wearing t
shirts with the city’s name
rooked for too much money by smiling faces
the universal ice cream cones
jammed towards their mouths in exotic flavors
evenings wondering what to do next
missing home and the reassurance of custom
a kind of ordeal has them in its grip
days to go and almost every hour
money ebbs out of them like blood
from a wound
and the newness of the never seen
shining at times like something dreamed once
they don’t always like
to wonder about again
having come so far to find
what is not really here anymore
or perhaps anywhere
                                                         
[THE GOOD RAIN OF CANADA 1994, 72 pages p.46
'''SANDLOT BASEBALL'''
nobody had any money to speak
of and nobody had any jobs
nobody had any heartache or cancer
nobody ever saw such good baseball
nobody knew what time the game began
god was the umpire god the rain
that stopped it and god
the dust of the basepaths
non-artificial reality grass green
as if the sea overflowed and firm
with the right stuff of earth
white ball white ball you are but a dream
we played with a ball taped
black as tar and sticky and not
altogether proper and round
even Babe Ruth could not hit a home run
but the Boston Red Sox did not hear
more angels than we in the darkening sky
the ball lost in twilight still
joyous we did not dream the white ball dream
[THE GOOD RAIN OF CANADA (1994), p.23] 
'''my mother has to go to the rehab hospital'''
I come to her old place
to pick up a few things
mail and the like and out
the window see
in the park under
the low hanging shade
trees a woman sitting
in a chair right where mother
used to sit
from this angle and distance it almost
is mother
but she will never sit under
the summer trees again
she is lying in the red
brick rehabilitation hospital
like a doll in its crib
she will never sit under
the summer trees again and the only
hope now is she
doesn’t know it 
                                   
[The Good Rain of Canada (1994) p.35]
'''I evolve in silence'''
on a cold sunlit Thursday having
paid my rent in a hotel
named after a revolutionary hero
I go to bed at noon
in my large
white 2 windowed high
ceilinged room as the radio predicts
accurately winds of 60 miles an hour and more
already the great panes are shaking
the white curtains fill with sun
from millions of miles away
gold splashes on the white walls
I lie in bed on pillows
mute and deathless with attention
the panes of glass shake and boom
like opera singers
outside the wind gusts take
over the town and I stare
at the all blue sky filled to capacity
with bright romping air
nobody in the world is very far away
I evolve in silence
why we are here
always like this with no newspapers
with no thought of food and friends
with no loneliness for
a woman this would not interest
[I Who Am True To You (March 1996), p. 57;  MM lived in the Lafayette Hotel]
'''I Find Myself'''
I find myself wondering what
became of a dog I used to
see in the early morning inspecting
the neighborhood by the tidal inlet
you know where the tide comes in
over the mudflats and the bulrushes
stir even in seeming no wind
have you seen the dog mostly
brown with long ears
what is he doing these days
what about the small hill he would sit
upon as if surveying his kingdom
if you see the dog or hear
about him would you let me know
he has a white spot on his chest
and goes along with a lope sometimes
[I Who Am True To You, March 1996), p. 66] 
'''THE GUEST'''
with nowhere to live I camp
out in libraries
books in huge even rows
are strangely silently tolerant
none of the great Russian novelists
care if I hobo by them
only a few English writers would
advise me to clean up my act
and I won’t
mention their names what for?
For a few days now I have been
the guest of the poets
in a state college library
I arrive at early morning opening
trying to look scholarly
I stay until midnight closing hoping no
one officiously eyeing me
narrowly states the case
“you aren’t a student here are you…”
for a few days more I will be
a guest of certain great spirits
whose living testimony sings
out in pages of books
books mostly unopened   
[poems (1996) p. 56]
'''My Uncle Jack’s Pub in Salem Mass'''
when my uncle Jack opened the back
door of his pub I was
admitted to the world
of whisky and dark polished wood
panelled walls upon which Jack
Dempsey and Joe Louis ruled
with a perfection of classic
American mayhem
seated on a stool near men I had
only to call
out for a tall glass of beer
like ginger ale to join the dim
tribal conspiracy against vacuum
cleaners and laundry detergents
dishwashing and the telephone’s
trinket like gossip
here the measure more largely
held in the tilt of a cap
like a wink and the splurge
of coin and crisp
here almost a quiet dignity maintained
the mystery of malt that “does
more than Milton can to justify
god’s way to man”
biting into a free bowl
of pretzels at 12 years old listening
to the deep loom of voices
where schoolteachers and local goody
goodies and their fussy minions were not
apt to venture I called
out for more
Uncle Jack filled my glass again
on the dark wood panelled walls the baleful
watchful stare of Joe
Louis held sway
Jack Dempsey was almost laughing
with animal joy 
[I Am Writing This For You (March 1997), pp. 12-13]
'''CLOSING DOORS'''
Walt Whitman is shouting from the third floor
stacks for god’s sake do not
bar the door
throw open the windows
but because of 2.4 inches
of snow and a wind of some
miles an hour they are closing
the state college library at noon
the word has just been megaphoned
as at a disaster
as if yes run run
run for your life
put down that book of poems and run
away into the where
Henry David Thoreau is tussling
with one of the librarians for he will
not leave but commit
an act of civil disobedience
Mark Twain is yelping with glee
Robert Frost has one foot
in the door they cannot close
the security police are telephoned to rush
forward to judgement
the library director red-faced
with fear of his car getting stuck
begs the students
of life to desist and leave
he almost offers money
because the snow is falling somewhat
in eastern Massachusetts
and the state college at Salem
has been bewitched
into fear and trembling 
[I Am Writing This For You (March 1997), p. 48] 
'''despair of a minor poet'''
thinking of the great
poets of history I settle
down under a tree by Salem
harbor to write my own
great poem
nothing happens
my pen shipped all
the way from Japan just
dangles there
in museless air
the hand holding it
could be a pen
holder
I gaze at the ocean blue
thanks to the sky
I hear the maritime ancient
cry of countless gulls
thanks to ears composed
it is said of dust
I look far out upon
the waters until there is
nothing and I am also
such a void
I seek the breath
of a god to be filled
that does
not come
                                 
[what light is left (Sept. 1997), p. 25]
'''around that corner'''
around that corner
on Chestnut Street someone
has flowers annually
in the yard
there are over 80
people on the street
someone without flowers has the flowers
in view from a window
someone on Chestnut
Street has a fireplace
someone has moments at
night that would surprise you
someone else has such
a yesterday
someone on the street is hardly
ever wet from rain
around that corner
on Chestnut Street
someone has four children
someone has four walls
someone has a Labrador
retriever with four paws
someone on that street
has quite a hope
the last one did
not work out
nobody is dying on Chestnut
Street yet
nobody is giving
birth to poems or music
nobody is wanted by the police
on Chestnut Street around the corner only
2 or 3 know the score
of the ball game just
about over
                                                                 
[what light is left (Sept. 1997), p. 33]
'''years of the pears'''
late summer evenings
like early fall
pushing the boat off
grating smoothly on sand
water-bound as pirates
the local vikings from
our fiord for booty
across the harbor with two
pair of oars plunged
in cold clear water to Marble
head now breaking the dusk here
and there with bright
human outcry
4 or 5 boys to end
up in delectable pear trees
the orchard at its crux
the raid boat waiting half
out of water
on the dark foreign shore
to stuff plucked pears
in our pockets before
quiet dropping like cats
to terra firma but this
time the orchard man got
a whiff of us
half hobbling out with flash
light the size of a club
the white radiance casting
our faces as on police
wanted lists as we ran
for it our 12 year old
legs he was no match for
“I know who you are!”
he called still coming
all the way down to
the shore we pushed off like devil
island escapees rowing for life
“I’ll get you!” he called over
the waves into the dark
we double-oared for home
bodies beating with blood
and delectable pear joy
joy like we had robbed
the very stars of their light
taken the measure of
mountainous sized seas
behind us flashing the torch
with futile hollers a man cursed our
hijinks our dusky blasphemous god 
               
[what light is left (1997), pp. 44-45]
'''sunday on the north shore'''
dads romping successfully
on expensive bikes with daughters
and sons as mom well
protected in sun tan
oil and helmet churns
rhythmically along also
along smoothly contoured former railroad
beds the flat earth that once
shook with pounding iron giants
smoke steaming monsters leads to
goodies at the convenience store
the squirrels and birds do not know
the suburban whir and whiz of bike
tires means Sunday
the clicking sound tells gears
have switched
green trees speckle and shade
Sunday is a good time late
morning peace in the fine
summer on the North
Shore of Boston not tremendously far
from where Thoreau determined
to go it alone with whatever god
turned out
to be
and Nathaniel Hawthorne deliberate
and heavy browed pondered
the Salem Witch Trials
his ancestor a judge and pondered
again and spoke
with a silence that would not yield
to gentle tones the dark
coming of something dark   
           
[what light is left (1997), p. 63] 
'''Down in the valley with Delores Cormier'''
she sang as if she sang
to live
Delores Cormier down
there in the valley
the valley so low
late in the evening
you know what happens then
Delores in the school house
in the 7th in the 8th in the 9th grade
Dolores in her special blue
luminous party dress
not very tall shapely already
bursting forth
bursting like music from the whole
orchestra of creation
like wind in the trees or spring
rivers driven by natural law
Dolores Cormier down in the valley year after year
a jet of yearning that had not yet
accepted the limits
in her luminous blue dress singing
singing so as to really be there
we were all just beginning to live
at all the school parties at holy snow
Christmas and last school day flowering
with June we would await her arrival
in her uncle’s car in her special
blue dress she held up away
from the puddles and mud
carefully like an expectant bride
down in the valley the valley so low
hear Dolores
hear that train blow  love hear it
for it is Dolores come to sing her face
enclosed in purposeful solemn
her voice rising from somewhere
like a declaration of something
we were ready for something
more than parents or teachers could say
she had come to tell us everything
she had ever felt and believed
like the penetrating concentrated haunting
outcry of an oboe she throbbed
through our classrooms year after year
down in the valley love
deep in the evening
it’s an old American classic or something
probably you have heard it
we were all just on the verge
of life she was singing
and singing about
and so many years later though
not that very many I suppose in downtown
Salem in a shabby rooming house
where anything goes
in a week by week rented room Dolores
lay dying
bride of death at about age 40
jets of blood pouring out so many
knife wounds they stopped counting
it was Dolores Cormier of Miss Turbett’s class
the blood didn’t stop as if eager to flow
like an endless terrible song
they didn’t mention in the Salem Evening News
already the courts had taken
her children away
she was an alcoholic deemed unworthy parent
and suspected of drugs and prostitution
Dolores Cormier of the Saltonstall School
dead of viciousness and spurned sex
dead of bad companionship
dead of whatever she died of
deep in the evening she lay still
[what light is left, 1997, pp. 70-72]
 
'''Return'''
you return to the park
where you played as a youth
under your feet the half
frozen ground crunches making
you conspicuous though
no one is there
you would not say the thoughts
and feelings that rise in you
along the sandy cove gulls sit
on calm water as you turn
over with your foot
what the tide has brought in
the mid afternoon sunlight makes
a pale yellow cast to the air
it would be almost vulgar to say what you feel
a brown dog is walking
on a leash as around it so much
space seems wasted                                               
[from Amazing Stranger,1998, p. 49]
'''The Sad Girl Who Sells Gasoline'''
the merit gas station on north
street in salem mass open
day and night in the dark hours
has a sad girl sitting
and waiting for you to come
drivers who drive in a 2 a.m. see
her sorrows as she sits
alone in her glass cage awaiting dawn
when she will rise and walk
away from so much gasoline
if you drive by wave at the sad girl
will you and smile as though yes
life is good it’s all right
and if you need to fill your tank stop
there and tell her the gasoline is marvelous
   
[From a powerful kingdom of yes, 1999]
'''I am going to say goodbye'''
I am going to say goodbye to this city
where every streetcorner has begun to annoy me
even the handsome trees no longer
seem created by god
only the handsome women yet spark
my veins with magical red
and there are not so many
do you hear not so many
I am going to go to another city
where every streetcorner will annoy me more freshly
where my anger at crowds full of folly
will seethe and sparkle with new vitality
and for a while as in the days
of my youth I can even
consider myself a great poet
intelligent people read with amazement                           
[The Holy City Within (Jan. 2001) p. 8]
'''Coyotes At The Edge Of Town'''
a rumor  has arisen there are
coyotes at the edge of town
coyote-faced with yellow grey
matted fur they prowl
in bands of 4 to 7
they can cover 40 miles
in a single night someone said
though there are no coyotes here
in Massachusetts everyone is talking
about their arrival
how they probe and slink
out of the dusk
deadly hunters they make the most
of any habitat
the newspaper headlines wonder if now
is the time to call out the national guard
in behalf of children and domestic animals
several other sightings
are being reported
coyotes spotted out by the power station
and the water reservoir
someone ran as fast as he could
someone is carrying a hand gun everywhere
some people only go out in organized groups
a neighboring town is asking what
measures are being taken
I do not go out in the dark anymore myself
though I know there are no coyotes                       
[I Have Wasted My  Life So
Beautifully (June 2001) p. 10;
also in Final poems (2004); see
“Howl” in so what 2008), p. 12,
and “In My Town” in  Poems(2012), p. 3]
'''Salem Harbor'''
in the dead of night I spot
white as white can be
on the black typical water
swan amazing as stars
mysterious there in ancient formation
upon the waters high and dry
slow moving as an emperor who
abides by divine right
aloof and riding high in the dead
of night a great white kingdom
in the dead of night when I know
silence such as day cannot
not so far off just out there
upon dark waters we hardly remember
out of range almost of our mere business
beyond the words we yoke to things
not needing our obvious meanings
not needing our instruction or praise
but I will not trouble long with gaze
such whiteness and poise that keeps me well 
[I Have Sent A Message To The King (Dec. 2001), p. 7] 
'''The Brazilian Girl'''
The very dark haired Brazilian girl
who works at the Dunkin Donut
on Canal Street in Salem
has come in this morning with her hair
loosed like a dark waterfall
at the source of the river of life
her tall white body strides to
and fro behind the counter equal
to a fine sleek horse incited by
the New England cold
she has scored a tremendous triumph
today with my glands and muscles and bones
that will remember her a long time though
she doesn’t know it
she doesn’t know at this very instant the blood
making its way through me
is shouting her name in scarlet and gold
though I don’t know her name 
[Now (Feb. 2003), p. 27; MM had “Brazillian”; ]
'''William Buckley
'''letter carrier'''
'''R.I.P.''''''
40 years a letter carrier
in Salem Mass William Buckley
carried the mail in snow and sun
in a kangaroo leather bag
year after year his mother gave
the day he started out
William Buckley pace by pace
on his shoulder what added up
to tons of stamped enveloped stuff
through the streets of his hometown
William Buckley lugged and trod
aimed at mail boxes slots and dogs
how his blue Irish eyes would stare
into your eyes without wavering
this bag has sent 3 kids to college
he would say who is dead today 
[Now (Feb. 2003), p. 45] 
'''Late At Night'''
late at night in your home town
you play your trump cards
at 2 a.m. you close your door
on who they think you are
and wander the streets
by their darkened homes
you are the last watch under the stars
at the end of time
[No More Death (2006),p. 8]
'''College'''
the state college is deserted
around xmas
they have gone home by
the thousands to a green
tree that is doomed
strange how the long hallways and corridors
without anything happening
the empty classrooms with disembodied seats
seem to echo something
better than an education 
[No More Death (2006), p. 10]
'''poem'''
I camp out on a small wall close
to the state college here
my attention directed to serious study
of the hips and legs
of the many many young women students
there’s that old creep again one blonde says
they should do something
about him another book-laden
beauty exclaims shooting me
a dirty look
I am far from being insulted
or discouraged by these discourtesies
at my age you take what
you can get quite glad
to be part of the proceedings 
[mere happiness (Sept. 2006) p. 71]
'''New England'''
they come to the hotel here
from ohio and south
carolina and go
where they are told
by tourist guides
they agree to like
what they see
in the evening they telephone
their children who do not
really know
who they are   
                               
[so what (Dec. 2007) p. 32]
'''poem'''
I am going to die in Salem
on a brilliant sunlit day
in october with the gold
and red leaves in abundance
I am not going to die of disease
I am going to die of life
I am going to die in Salem
without benefit of family or clergy
without great belief in humanity and progress
but with the sunlight leaping
forth from the sky
I am going to die amid the splendor of things 
[overdue angels (2008 or 09) p. 16]
'''home town'''
none of the police
 
in the entire history
of Salem Mass has ever
read a good poem
not a single mailman
or fireman knows who
Paul Cezanne is
the effective problem
solving mayor has little need
for the actual
truth of things
                                 
[overdue angels (2008 or 09), p. 52; Salem’s mayor at the time was Kim Driscoll]
'''steve'''
there’s a guy named steve
runs a market downtown
has for 38 years
any weather steve
is standing there inside
steve doesn’t say much
but he stands there
people who don’t even shop
at steve’s market pass
and say there’s steve
somehow his presence
means something fundamental
to the town
it’s almost magical
it almost makes no sense
[God Is Born (2010) p. 30; Steve’s Quality Market at 36 Margin Street in Salem was rebuilt and expanded in 1060]
'''Salem Ma'''
tourists arrive from all
over the country
they are not to blame
for their boredom
they go obediently from one
historic site to another
they are not to blame
for nothing interesting to see
any more than for the sudden drizzle
they often sit at outdoor restaurants
they are not to blame for their
efforts at seeming enthusiastic 
[if there was a heaven (July 2010), p. 50]
'''burial grounds'''
the old burial ground in old Salem
is filled with sinkholes and cobwebs
fumbling tourists photograph
the 1721 tomb stone
of one Ebenezer T Jones
reverend who liked
to push people around
and call it god 
[The White Hours, 2010, p.21] 
 
                             
                                 






                   
   
   


                                           
                                                     


         


                             




       
==See Also==
Vertical File in Salem Collection : '''Miller, Malcolm'''






[[Category:Browse Index]]
[[Category:Browse Index]]

Latest revision as of 10:31, 20 August 2020

Malcolm Miller was a Salem poet. His main entry is Miller, Malcolm H.

Thanks to Rod Kessler, English professor Emeritus from Salem State we have some of his

Salem-Centric poems shown below.

Malcolm Miller’s Salem Poems –an incomplete compilation [13 February 2016]


Standing on the Salem-Beverly bridge gazing seawards at four in the morning March 1990

to the right the final

part of Salem shines

with spaced lights curving

towards the end

of our power


to the left Beverly

like a finger lit

by many gold

rings points

towards some union


out beyond

our marriages

out where only dark

bigger than all our lights

seem to call


I am going

I am going

will I see

will I see

you there?

[INTO THE HIGHER AIR, 1992, 72 pages, p.8]


Witch Trials Salem Mass. 1692

the trees were stark

to begin with

and the choppy sea

often grey and cold


Indians had strange

ways and eyes

their arrows could travel

a long way and accurately


far off the English king

could not be relied on

rumors spoke of changes

not to their advantage


order is always maintained

by a form of no

the haunches of women even young

shake fire in the thatched-roof cabins


fire is a dangerous element

and a moral god insufficient

there are always reasons to kill

many wished for more than twenty

[INTO THE HIGHER AIR, 1992, 72 pages, p.33]


A clean Well Lighted Place In Winter

it’s 3 in the morning

the fatal lapsed hour

I am the sole

customer here

in this Dunkin Donut on

the coast of Massachusetts


the coffee is all right

the donut not bad

the music being offered

only fair

and behind the counter

the young woman

who quit high school

out of boredom

is yawning


a mute kind

of weary-eyed goddess


but a goddess none the less

in this god

blessedly open place

or don’t you know

don’t you know yet

about closed up towns

in cold dark times

[FURTHER AND FURTHER POEMS (1992), 72 pages, p.65]


ZONE 3

I used to buy a ticket

from Boston that said

to Salem Mass

now it says

to Zone 3


I used to have moments

of joy now I have

no problems


I used to be free and easy

now I am acceptable

and do the right

thing for

the situation


I used to be loyal

to something I could not

define now I am

a good citizen

[FURTHER AND FURTHER POEMS (1992), 72 pages, p.16]


State College Canteen

on his last day of work the guy

by some quirk of inspiration

profit or satire

loaded the huge soft

drink machines with beer

the price was right and the day

spring-like

never have students learned more

about religion

Dionysius was dancing in the halls

and singing in the corridors


never did the philosophy professor

a master of logical positivism

seem more absurd

his much praised sobriety was found

to be a sort

of living death and all the English

instructors by afternoon were being

booed from the building

for not knowing how to teach

young people how to return

to the sun

[POEMS THAT NEED YOU (1993) p.41]


there is a sign in a bar in my

home town that is like modern life

do not hesitate to ask for credit

it says

our way of saying no is very polite

[Unsatisfactory Fragments of Lukewarm Fire, (Jan. 2004) p. 57]


College Girl in Massachusetts

in the winter dawn a girl bound

for history class sure

footed and neat with

the grace of morning

her face almost fresh as

recent snow the night’s

full twinkling moon over

Salem harbor


college girl bearing your proud

unchallenged face towards

the necessary war of all

the living I go

with you

I go with you clear-eyed sprite

your earnest brow of morning


even over here I feel

your unique breathing

the privateness of your being

descended from trees and birds

and from darkness kind

to all its stars


I go with you lovely scholar

and may you find on

your way however

buried the gold

of unteachable joy

[The Taste of Inexplicable Nothingness, 1994]


HAWTHORNE

Nathaniel Hawthorne you never went

to a brothel

drank but not to excess

were not athletic and agile but sat

your large domed skull hid

subtle and at times sinister thoughts


you married one of Salem’s Peabody sisters

and never committed adultery

at dusk in Salem after Bowdoin

you went walking in dark heavy clothing

your face impossible to read

and children were fearful


your sunless body did not discover god

what pleased you you enjoyed but life

was at bottom a sort of wretched thing

lightened by family and comfort

Melville your temporary friend by far

was a holier more extraordinary spirit


his work outlives yours but still

the best hotel in Salem is the Hotel Hawthorne

in it one can eat the Scarlet Letter lunch

the menu boasts sinfully unpuritan desserts

a huge statue of you looms on Hawthorne Boulevard

nobody around here notices it much


midwestern schoolteachers snap your photo

busloads of them file through the streets

the House of Seven Gables is a must

making the city a lot of do re mi

talent you had and intelligence to spare

what was lacking was lacking almost fatally

[THE TASTE OF INEXPLICABLE NOURISHMENT ( 1994), p.10]


good night Irene

I have a cousin

Irene

she often stands downtown with

a severe condemnatory look

as if the world

has disappointed her


she doesn’t know who

Walt Whitman is

if she did

he could be in

for a real good

talking to


Jesus Suspended In Stone From the St Joseph Church Salem Mass

Son of a distant desert people

what are you doing up there

hanging like some penance

or warning of what can happen

if you speak well and directly

and don’t flatter the top dogs


your body hangs huge

as a statue from Easter Island

a continual embarrassment if noticed

a terrible mistake like Stalin

in Red Square kept alive

by technological skills

and a lot of money


you seem hooked up to a sort

of pillory by puritans or sadists

what did you do anyway

and how weary you must be all

these centuries hanging there

gaped at by foreigners who

can’t really tell why

they keep you on view

as they go about earning more TV

channels and winter trips to Florida


you’re more or less like a prisoner

captured in a war who just got

lost in the shuffle and never

made it back

to your own people

[THE TASTE OF INEXPLICABLE NOURISHMENT (1994), p.33]


at the campus of one of the lesser

state colleges in Massachusetts


a disgusting perhaps degenerate

professor is eyeing the tan

new bodies of poor

quality students


most hardly made it out

of high school and many so

unscholarly will fail in

a year departing on these long fitness


crazed legs he ogles and wants

wrapped around him

a disgusting professor is eyeing

some of the greatest bodies in


history that will not be able

to cope with Shakespeare or calculus

Kierkegaard and even Picasso

might seems European rock bands to them


the disgusting degenerate prof

is eyeing them

hips sinuous with strength and

beauty the gods would rock with


may they live forever the poor

quality students with miserable

IQ’s and long shining rich

hair in the wind their skins of


magical entrancement and their

fine shaped skulls that do not

bother with history or ethics

or expository prose

the disgusting professor is eyeing

them day after day

he is paid 34,000 per annum and

worth every penny

[THE TASTE OF INEXPLICABLE NOURISHMENT (1994), p.56]


BEFORE SUNRISE DUCKS SALEM HARBOR WINTER

part of black

water and still

darkness in air


the eerie normal

cluck as you pass


they hug shore

vague neat clumps

sealed in

who they are

yes but who

are they

[THE RIVER OF MUDDIED WATER BEARS GOLD (1994), p.36]


SALEM HARBOR

the great sailing

vessels that used to reek

of mid

ocean brine and china

spices and teas

strong black pepper born

in Java split mahogany

trees to adorn

and enrich Massachusetts

who remembers them now but

museums full of

paid customers


some tame pets of pleasure

cruisers litter

the harbor flushing their god

damned toilets casting

garbage ashore cruddy

with bacteria


too many mediocre

spirits have hung about

these streets too

many generations for

anything but humdrum

to happen


a handful of intelligent

people are going about

their business suspected

of whatever crime is

in the air

[THE RIVER OF MUDDIED WATER BEARS GOLD (1994), p.51]


TOURISTS

what have they come to see

so many hundreds of miles slowly

across droning repetitious highways

and inching traffic jams

steering evenly up to gasoline pumps

children smashing each other

with kleenex boxes in the back seat


and to end up dressed undistinguishedly

in some inferior hotel with water

that barely goes down the basin

finding a twisted cigarette

butt and a condom in the drawer

later to trudge after a row of arrows

to gawk at a museum where cruel

people once killed harmless women


and the kids proudly wearing t

shirts with the city’s name

rooked for too much money by smiling faces

the universal ice cream cones

jammed towards their mouths in exotic flavors


evenings wondering what to do next

missing home and the reassurance of custom

a kind of ordeal has them in its grip

days to go and almost every hour

money ebbs out of them like blood

from a wound

and the newness of the never seen

shining at times like something dreamed once

they don’t always like

to wonder about again

having come so far to find

what is not really here anymore

or perhaps anywhere

[THE GOOD RAIN OF CANADA 1994, 72 pages p.46


SANDLOT BASEBALL

nobody had any money to speak

of and nobody had any jobs

nobody had any heartache or cancer

nobody ever saw such good baseball


nobody knew what time the game began

god was the umpire god the rain

that stopped it and god

the dust of the basepaths


non-artificial reality grass green

as if the sea overflowed and firm

with the right stuff of earth

white ball white ball you are but a dream


we played with a ball taped

black as tar and sticky and not

altogether proper and round

even Babe Ruth could not hit a home run


but the Boston Red Sox did not hear

more angels than we in the darkening sky

the ball lost in twilight still

joyous we did not dream the white ball dream

[THE GOOD RAIN OF CANADA (1994), p.23]


my mother has to go to the rehab hospital

I come to her old place

to pick up a few things

mail and the like and out

the window see

in the park under

the low hanging shade

trees a woman sitting

in a chair right where mother

used to sit


from this angle and distance it almost

is mother

but she will never sit under

the summer trees again

she is lying in the red

brick rehabilitation hospital

like a doll in its crib


she will never sit under

the summer trees again and the only

hope now is she

doesn’t know it

[The Good Rain of Canada (1994) p.35]


I evolve in silence

on a cold sunlit Thursday having

paid my rent in a hotel

named after a revolutionary hero

I go to bed at noon

in my large

white 2 windowed high

ceilinged room as the radio predicts

accurately winds of 60 miles an hour and more


already the great panes are shaking

the white curtains fill with sun

from millions of miles away

gold splashes on the white walls

I lie in bed on pillows

mute and deathless with attention

the panes of glass shake and boom

like opera singers

outside the wind gusts take

over the town and I stare


at the all blue sky filled to capacity

with bright romping air

nobody in the world is very far away

I evolve in silence

why we are here

always like this with no newspapers

with no thought of food and friends

with no loneliness for

a woman this would not interest

[I Who Am True To You (March 1996), p. 57; MM lived in the Lafayette Hotel]


I Find Myself

I find myself wondering what

became of a dog I used to

see in the early morning inspecting

the neighborhood by the tidal inlet


you know where the tide comes in

over the mudflats and the bulrushes

stir even in seeming no wind

have you seen the dog mostly


brown with long ears

what is he doing these days

what about the small hill he would sit

upon as if surveying his kingdom


if you see the dog or hear

about him would you let me know

he has a white spot on his chest

and goes along with a lope sometimes

[I Who Am True To You, March 1996), p. 66]


THE GUEST

with nowhere to live I camp

out in libraries

books in huge even rows

are strangely silently tolerant


none of the great Russian novelists

care if I hobo by them

only a few English writers would

advise me to clean up my act

and I won’t

mention their names what for?


For a few days now I have been

the guest of the poets

in a state college library

I arrive at early morning opening

trying to look scholarly

I stay until midnight closing hoping no

one officiously eyeing me

narrowly states the case

“you aren’t a student here are you…”


for a few days more I will be

a guest of certain great spirits

whose living testimony sings

out in pages of books

books mostly unopened


[poems (1996) p. 56]


My Uncle Jack’s Pub in Salem Mass


when my uncle Jack opened the back

door of his pub I was

admitted to the world

of whisky and dark polished wood

panelled walls upon which Jack

Dempsey and Joe Louis ruled

with a perfection of classic

American mayhem


seated on a stool near men I had

only to call

out for a tall glass of beer

like ginger ale to join the dim

tribal conspiracy against vacuum

cleaners and laundry detergents

dishwashing and the telephone’s

trinket like gossip


here the measure more largely

held in the tilt of a cap

like a wink and the splurge

of coin and crisp

here almost a quiet dignity maintained

the mystery of malt that “does

more than Milton can to justify

god’s way to man”


biting into a free bowl

of pretzels at 12 years old listening

to the deep loom of voices

where schoolteachers and local goody

goodies and their fussy minions were not

apt to venture I called

out for more

Uncle Jack filled my glass again

on the dark wood panelled walls the baleful

watchful stare of Joe

Louis held sway

Jack Dempsey was almost laughing

with animal joy

[I Am Writing This For You (March 1997), pp. 12-13]


CLOSING DOORS

Walt Whitman is shouting from the third floor

stacks for god’s sake do not

bar the door

throw open the windows


but because of 2.4 inches

of snow and a wind of some

miles an hour they are closing

the state college library at noon

the word has just been megaphoned

as at a disaster

as if yes run run

run for your life

put down that book of poems and run

away into the where


Henry David Thoreau is tussling

with one of the librarians for he will

not leave but commit

an act of civil disobedience

Mark Twain is yelping with glee

Robert Frost has one foot

in the door they cannot close


the security police are telephoned to rush

forward to judgement

the library director red-faced

with fear of his car getting stuck

begs the students

of life to desist and leave

he almost offers money

because the snow is falling somewhat

in eastern Massachusetts

and the state college at Salem

has been bewitched

into fear and trembling

[I Am Writing This For You (March 1997), p. 48]


despair of a minor poet

thinking of the great

poets of history I settle

down under a tree by Salem

harbor to write my own

great poem


nothing happens

my pen shipped all

the way from Japan just

dangles there

in museless air

the hand holding it

could be a pen

holder


I gaze at the ocean blue

thanks to the sky

I hear the maritime ancient

cry of countless gulls

thanks to ears composed

it is said of dust


I look far out upon

the waters until there is

nothing and I am also

such a void

I seek the breath

of a god to be filled

that does

not come

[what light is left (Sept. 1997), p. 25]


around that corner

around that corner

on Chestnut Street someone

has flowers annually

in the yard

there are over 80

people on the street

someone without flowers has the flowers

in view from a window


someone on Chestnut

Street has a fireplace

someone has moments at

night that would surprise you

someone else has such

a yesterday

someone on the street is hardly

ever wet from rain


around that corner

on Chestnut Street

someone has four children

someone has four walls

someone has a Labrador

retriever with four paws

someone on that street

has quite a hope

the last one did

not work out


nobody is dying on Chestnut

Street yet

nobody is giving

birth to poems or music

nobody is wanted by the police

on Chestnut Street around the corner only

2 or 3 know the score

of the ball game just

about over

[what light is left (Sept. 1997), p. 33]


years of the pears

late summer evenings

like early fall

pushing the boat off

grating smoothly on sand

water-bound as pirates

the local vikings from

our fiord for booty


across the harbor with two

pair of oars plunged

in cold clear water to Marble

head now breaking the dusk here

and there with bright

human outcry

4 or 5 boys to end


up in delectable pear trees

the orchard at its crux

the raid boat waiting half

out of water

on the dark foreign shore

to stuff plucked pears

in our pockets before


quiet dropping like cats

to terra firma but this

time the orchard man got

a whiff of us

half hobbling out with flash

light the size of a club

the white radiance casting


our faces as on police

wanted lists as we ran

for it our 12 year old

legs he was no match for

“I know who you are!”

he called still coming

all the way down to

the shore we pushed off like devil

island escapees rowing for life

“I’ll get you!” he called over

the waves into the dark

we double-oared for home

bodies beating with blood

and delectable pear joy


joy like we had robbed

the very stars of their light

taken the measure of

mountainous sized seas

behind us flashing the torch

with futile hollers a man cursed our

hijinks our dusky blasphemous god

[what light is left (1997), pp. 44-45]


sunday on the north shore

dads romping successfully

on expensive bikes with daughters

and sons as mom well

protected in sun tan

oil and helmet churns

rhythmically along also


along smoothly contoured former railroad

beds the flat earth that once

shook with pounding iron giants

smoke steaming monsters leads to

goodies at the convenience store


the squirrels and birds do not know

the suburban whir and whiz of bike

tires means Sunday

the clicking sound tells gears

have switched


green trees speckle and shade

Sunday is a good time late

morning peace in the fine

summer on the North

Shore of Boston not tremendously far

from where Thoreau determined

to go it alone with whatever god

turned out

to be


and Nathaniel Hawthorne deliberate

and heavy browed pondered

the Salem Witch Trials

his ancestor a judge and pondered

again and spoke

with a silence that would not yield

to gentle tones the dark

coming of something dark

[what light is left (1997), p. 63]


Down in the valley with Delores Cormier

she sang as if she sang

to live

Delores Cormier down

there in the valley

the valley so low

late in the evening

you know what happens then


Delores in the school house

in the 7th in the 8th in the 9th grade

Dolores in her special blue

luminous party dress

not very tall shapely already

bursting forth

bursting like music from the whole

orchestra of creation

like wind in the trees or spring

rivers driven by natural law


Dolores Cormier down in the valley year after year

a jet of yearning that had not yet

accepted the limits

in her luminous blue dress singing

singing so as to really be there

we were all just beginning to live


at all the school parties at holy snow

Christmas and last school day flowering

with June we would await her arrival

in her uncle’s car in her special

blue dress she held up away

from the puddles and mud

carefully like an expectant bride


down in the valley the valley so low

hear Dolores

hear that train blow love hear it

for it is Dolores come to sing her face

enclosed in purposeful solemn

her voice rising from somewhere

like a declaration of something

we were ready for something

more than parents or teachers could say

she had come to tell us everything

she had ever felt and believed


like the penetrating concentrated haunting

outcry of an oboe she throbbed

through our classrooms year after year

down in the valley love

deep in the evening

it’s an old American classic or something

probably you have heard it

we were all just on the verge

of life she was singing

and singing about


and so many years later though

not that very many I suppose in downtown

Salem in a shabby rooming house

where anything goes

in a week by week rented room Dolores

lay dying

bride of death at about age 40


jets of blood pouring out so many

knife wounds they stopped counting

it was Dolores Cormier of Miss Turbett’s class

the blood didn’t stop as if eager to flow

like an endless terrible song


they didn’t mention in the Salem Evening News

already the courts had taken

her children away

she was an alcoholic deemed unworthy parent

and suspected of drugs and prostitution


Dolores Cormier of the Saltonstall School

dead of viciousness and spurned sex

dead of bad companionship

dead of whatever she died of

deep in the evening she lay still

[what light is left, 1997, pp. 70-72]


Return

you return to the park

where you played as a youth

under your feet the half

frozen ground crunches making

you conspicuous though

no one is there


you would not say the thoughts

and feelings that rise in you

along the sandy cove gulls sit

on calm water as you turn

over with your foot

what the tide has brought in


the mid afternoon sunlight makes

a pale yellow cast to the air

it would be almost vulgar to say what you feel

a brown dog is walking

on a leash as around it so much

space seems wasted

[from Amazing Stranger,1998, p. 49]


The Sad Girl Who Sells Gasoline


the merit gas station on north

street in salem mass open

day and night in the dark hours

has a sad girl sitting

and waiting for you to come


drivers who drive in a 2 a.m. see

her sorrows as she sits

alone in her glass cage awaiting dawn

when she will rise and walk

away from so much gasoline

if you drive by wave at the sad girl

will you and smile as though yes

life is good it’s all right

and if you need to fill your tank stop

there and tell her the gasoline is marvelous

[From a powerful kingdom of yes, 1999]


I am going to say goodbye


I am going to say goodbye to this city

where every streetcorner has begun to annoy me

even the handsome trees no longer

seem created by god

only the handsome women yet spark

my veins with magical red

and there are not so many

do you hear not so many


I am going to go to another city

where every streetcorner will annoy me more freshly

where my anger at crowds full of folly

will seethe and sparkle with new vitality

and for a while as in the days

of my youth I can even

consider myself a great poet

intelligent people read with amazement


[The Holy City Within (Jan. 2001) p. 8]


Coyotes At The Edge Of Town

a rumor has arisen there are

coyotes at the edge of town

coyote-faced with yellow grey

matted fur they prowl

in bands of 4 to 7

they can cover 40 miles

in a single night someone said


though there are no coyotes here

in Massachusetts everyone is talking

about their arrival

how they probe and slink

out of the dusk

deadly hunters they make the most

of any habitat


the newspaper headlines wonder if now

is the time to call out the national guard

in behalf of children and domestic animals

several other sightings

are being reported

coyotes spotted out by the power station

and the water reservoir


someone ran as fast as he could

someone is carrying a hand gun everywhere

some people only go out in organized groups

a neighboring town is asking what

measures are being taken

I do not go out in the dark anymore myself

though I know there are no coyotes

[I Have Wasted My Life So Beautifully (June 2001) p. 10; also in Final poems (2004); see “Howl” in so what 2008), p. 12, and “In My Town” in Poems(2012), p. 3]


Salem Harbor

in the dead of night I spot

white as white can be

on the black typical water

swan amazing as stars

mysterious there in ancient formation


upon the waters high and dry

slow moving as an emperor who

abides by divine right

aloof and riding high in the dead

of night a great white kingdom

in the dead of night when I know

silence such as day cannot

not so far off just out there

upon dark waters we hardly remember

out of range almost of our mere business

beyond the words we yoke to things

not needing our obvious meanings

not needing our instruction or praise

but I will not trouble long with gaze

such whiteness and poise that keeps me well


[I Have Sent A Message To The King (Dec. 2001), p. 7]


The Brazilian Girl

The very dark haired Brazilian girl

who works at the Dunkin Donut

on Canal Street in Salem

has come in this morning with her hair

loosed like a dark waterfall

at the source of the river of life


her tall white body strides to

and fro behind the counter equal

to a fine sleek horse incited by

the New England cold

she has scored a tremendous triumph

today with my glands and muscles and bones


that will remember her a long time though

she doesn’t know it

she doesn’t know at this very instant the blood

making its way through me

is shouting her name in scarlet and gold

though I don’t know her name

[Now (Feb. 2003), p. 27; MM had “Brazillian”; ]


William Buckley letter carrier R.I.P.'

40 years a letter carrier

in Salem Mass William Buckley

carried the mail in snow and sun

in a kangaroo leather bag


year after year his mother gave

the day he started out

William Buckley pace by pace

on his shoulder what added up


to tons of stamped enveloped stuff

through the streets of his hometown

William Buckley lugged and trod

aimed at mail boxes slots and dogs


how his blue Irish eyes would stare

into your eyes without wavering

this bag has sent 3 kids to college

he would say who is dead today

[Now (Feb. 2003), p. 45]


Late At Night

late at night in your home town

you play your trump cards

at 2 a.m. you close your door

on who they think you are

and wander the streets

by their darkened homes

you are the last watch under the stars

at the end of time

[No More Death (2006),p. 8]


College


the state college is deserted

around xmas

they have gone home by

the thousands to a green

tree that is doomed


strange how the long hallways and corridors

without anything happening

the empty classrooms with disembodied seats

seem to echo something

better than an education

[No More Death (2006), p. 10]


poem


I camp out on a small wall close

to the state college here

my attention directed to serious study

of the hips and legs

of the many many young women students


there’s that old creep again one blonde says

they should do something

about him another book-laden

beauty exclaims shooting me

a dirty look


I am far from being insulted

or discouraged by these discourtesies

at my age you take what

you can get quite glad

to be part of the proceedings

[mere happiness (Sept. 2006) p. 71]


New England


they come to the hotel here

from ohio and south

carolina and go

where they are told

by tourist guides

they agree to like

what they see

in the evening they telephone

their children who do not

really know

who they are


[so what (Dec. 2007) p. 32]


poem


I am going to die in Salem

on a brilliant sunlit day

in october with the gold

and red leaves in abundance

I am not going to die of disease

I am going to die of life


I am going to die in Salem

without benefit of family or clergy

without great belief in humanity and progress

but with the sunlight leaping

forth from the sky

I am going to die amid the splendor of things

[overdue angels (2008 or 09) p. 16]


home town


none of the police

in the entire history

of Salem Mass has ever

read a good poem


not a single mailman

or fireman knows who

Paul Cezanne is


the effective problem

solving mayor has little need

for the actual

truth of things


[overdue angels (2008 or 09), p. 52; Salem’s mayor at the time was Kim Driscoll]


steve


there’s a guy named steve

runs a market downtown

has for 38 years

any weather steve

is standing there inside


steve doesn’t say much

but he stands there

people who don’t even shop

at steve’s market pass

and say there’s steve


somehow his presence

means something fundamental

to the town

it’s almost magical

it almost makes no sense

[God Is Born (2010) p. 30; Steve’s Quality Market at 36 Margin Street in Salem was rebuilt and expanded in 1060]


Salem Ma


tourists arrive from all

over the country

they are not to blame

for their boredom


they go obediently from one

historic site to another

they are not to blame

for nothing interesting to see


any more than for the sudden drizzle

they often sit at outdoor restaurants

they are not to blame for their

efforts at seeming enthusiastic


[if there was a heaven (July 2010), p. 50]


burial grounds


the old burial ground in old Salem

is filled with sinkholes and cobwebs


fumbling tourists photograph

the 1721 tomb stone


of one Ebenezer T Jones

reverend who liked


to push people around

and call it god

[The White Hours, 2010, p.21]







































==See Also==

Vertical File in Salem Collection : Miller, Malcolm