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 | 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 | '''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] | |||
'''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 | |||
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] | |||
'''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 | |||
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] | |||
'''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] | |||
'''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