[New-Poetry] All aboard!

[JforJames at aol.com]

A nice, if overly long, riff on a found poem/title. I wonder why more poets  
don't end their poems before the reader mentallly says to him/herself, "I get  
it, okay...I get it." 
 
And this is nothing against the poem per se, but a complaint against  
typesetters or layout design people who set titles in a font sizes over 12  points 
and then in bold (embolden them). What is that all about? The title needs  no 
such aggrandizement. Let the body of the poem speak without some blimp  of title 
flying over it and blocking out the light the reader needs to read  by.
Finnegan
 
In a message dated 8/16/2007 1:15:41 PM Eastern Daylight Time,  
grahamd at ripon.edu writes:

One Train May Hide  Another 
 
 (sign at a railroad crossing  in Kenya)
 
 
In a poem, one line may hide another  line,
As at a crossing, one train may hide another  train.
That is, if you are waiting to  cross
The tracks, wait to do it for one moment  at
Least after the first train is gone. And so when  you read
Wait until you have read the next  line--
Then it is safe to go on  reading.
In a family one sister may conceal  another,
So, when you are courting, it's best to have them  all in view
Otherwise in coming to find one you may love  another.
One father or one brother may hide the  man,
If you are a woman, whom you have been waiting to  love.
So always standing in front of something the  other
As words stand in front of objects, feelings, and  ideas.
One wish may hide another. And one person's  reputation may hide
The reputation of another. One dog may conceal  another
On a lawn, so if you escape the first one you're  not necessarily safe;
One lilac may hide another and then a lot of lilacs  and on the Appia
     Antica one  tomb
May hide a number of other tombs. In love, one  reproach may hide another,
One small complaint may hide a great  one.
One injustice may hide another--one colonial may  hide another,
One blaring red uniform another, and another, a  whole column. One bath
     may hide another  bath
As when, after bathing, one walks out into the  rain.
One idea may hide another: Life is  simple
Hide Life is incredibly complex, as in the prose of  Gertrude Stein
One sentence hides another and is another as well.  And in the laboratory
One invention may hide another  invention,
One evening may hide another, one shadow, a nest of  shadows.
One dark red, or one blue, or one purple--this is a  painting
By someone after Matisse. One waits at the tracks  until they pass,
These hidden doubles or, sometimes, likenesses. One  identical twin
May hide the other. And there may be even more in  there! The obstetrician
Gazes at the Valley of the Var. We used to live  there, my wife and I, but
One life hid another life. And now she is gone and  I am here.
A vivacious mother hides a gawky daughter. The  daughter hides
Her own vivacious daughter in turn. They are  in
A railway station and the daughter is holding a  bag
Bigger than her mother's bag and successfully hides  it.
In offering to pick up the daughter's bag one finds  oneself confronted by
     the  mother's
And has to carry that one, too. So one  hitchhiker
May deliberately hide another and one cup of  coffee
Another, too, until one is over-excited. One love  may hide another love
     or the same  love
As when "I love you" suddenly rings false and one  discovers
The better love lingering behind, as when "I'm full  of doubts"
Hides "I'm certain about something and it is  that"
And one dream may hide another as is well known,  always, too. In the
     Garden of  Eden
Adam and Eve may hide the real Adam and  Eve.
Jerusalem may hide another  Jerusalem.
When you come to something, stop to let it  pass
So you can see what else is there. At home, no  matter where,
Internal tracks pose dangers, too: one  memory
Certainly hides another, that being what memory is  all about,
The eternal reverse succession of contemplated  entities. Reading 
     A Sentimental Journey look  around
When you have finished, for Tristram  Shandy, to see
If it is standing there, it should be,  stronger
And more profound and theretofore hidden as Santa  Maria Maggiore
May be hidden by similar churches inside Rome. One  sidewalk
May hide another, as when you're asleep there,  and
One song hide another song; a pounding  upstairs
Hide the beating of drums. One friend may hide  another, you sit at the
     foot of a  tree
With one and when you get up to leave there is  another
Whom you'd have preferred to talk to all along. One  teacher,
One doctor, one ecstasy, one illness, one woman,  one man
May hide another. Pause to let the first one  pass.
You think, Now it is safe to cross and you are hit  by the next one. It 
     can be  important
To have waited at least a moment to see what was  already there.


--Kenneth Koch



 



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