Sur le Bout

de la Langue
Thanksgiving 2018 | A Menu Poem
Guest of Honor : Rachel Blau DuPlessis

GH
BLAZEVOX[BOOKS]
Buffalo, New York
Thanksgiving Menu-Poem 2018, Sur le Bout de la Langue
Copyright © 2018 by Geoffrey Gatza

Published by BlazeVOX [books]

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without

the publisher’s written permission, except for brief quotations in reviews.

Printed in the United States of America

First Edition

BlazeVOX [books]
Geoffrey Gatza
131 Euclid Ave
Kenmore, NY 14217

Editor@blazevox.org

p ublisher of weird little books

BlazeVOX [ books ]
blazevox.org

21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
 Thanksgiving Menu
Sur le Bout de la Langue
Aperitivo
Crisp Gruyere Tuiles and Anise Smoked Apple Marmalade
Little Roquefort Soufflés with Candied Herbs
Aldudes dried sausage, Prosciutto di San Daniele

Acqua e Menta (a mix of sparkling water and green mint flavored syrup)

Antipasto
Lobster Tempura, Crunchy Citrus and Sage Leaf

Grand Cru Osciètre Petrossian Caviar on a Ginger Crepe

Gingerino, blood orange wedge, crushed ice

Zuppa
Autumn Nage of Freshwater Crayfish and John Dory with Saffron and Fennel

Garden Verbena Ice Cream

Prosecco Spritz

Primo
Jingisukan Style Grilled Hokkaido lamb
Stir-fried bitter greens, garlic and a single Peperoncino

Puligny Montrachet Champ Canet Domaine Jean Marc Boillot

Secondo
Turbot with morels, chicken mousseline, whirled peas, vin jaune sauce

Savennières 2010 "L'Enclos" Domaine Eric Morgat

 Grande Tradizione
Roast Turkey Wat with Spicy Cardamom Lentils, Sour-Dough Injera

Blason d’Issan 2011, Margaux

Contorno
White Asparagus, wild thyme and lavender breadcrumbs
Roast Chestnuts, Cantrell, and Bacon Velouté
Sweet Potato à l'estragon

Formaggi e frutta
Epoisses washed with pomace brandy, Pont l’Eveque
Roquefort, Stinking Bishop, Taleggio

Rosemary Scented Roasted Peaches, Plums, and Nectarines

Inniskillin 2015 Niagara Estate Riesling Icewine

Dolce
Chilled Fortissimo Chocolate Millefueille

Warm Meringue Gossamer of Meyer Lemon and Redcurrant

Blanche d’Armagnac

Caffè
Candied Soursop frozen in liquid nitrogen served with piping hot Soursop Jam

Elegant Italian Espresso and Caffè Macchiato

Digestivo
Tre Soli tre 2001 Grappa di Nebbiolo da Barolo
Thanksgiving Poem
Sur le Bout de la Langue
26 Four Letter Dreams

Fanfare for ‘merica .......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 14

Snow Life .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 16
Verb Wasp ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 17
USA A-Go-Go ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 19
Surfin’ in the USA .............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 20
Okay USA .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 22
Dreamin’ in the USA ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 23
Poetry USA Dies yet Again ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 25
Pork Boat ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 26
Bing Bing Bing ................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 28
Love Talk Fame ................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 29
With a bright idea ............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 30
Kinda obligated here, right? ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 31
Geez ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 32
Peas ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 34
Lovin’ in the USA .............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 35
The hour and the Indigo Apple ................................................................................................................................................................................... 36
Cardinal Numbers ............................................................................................................................................................................................................ 38
The Intoxicating Leadership of Lamas .................................................................................................................................................................... 39
Don't Miss This Shit ......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 41
Astonishing ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 42
Come back home ............................................................................................................................................................................................................... 44
Donna’s Song ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 45
Amid a Wild Life in the USA ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 46
Knew Before Coming ...................................................................................................................................................................................................... 48
The Spider does not Spin its Web for a Single Fly .............................................................................................................................................. 49
Supporting characters .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 50
IntroductionIntroduction
Hello and welcome to the 2018
Thanksgiving Menu-Poem. This is the
seventeenth incarnation of the
Thanksgiving Menu-Poem! Our guest of
honor is the magnificent Rachel Blau
DuPlessis. This series began in 2002 with
a Menu-Poem to honor Charles Bernstein,
and since then this series engages
Thanksgiving as the basis to celebrate
poetry, poets and the poetry community.
Being a trained professional chef I have
blended my love of food and poetry into a book-length work as a feast of words to bring everyone a tiny bit closer
together.
This project is a conceptual meal served for the thousands of friends I would love to have over to our home
gathered around a table to celebrate Thanksgiving Day. Since it is unavoidably impossible to even consider doing such a
thing in real life, I have designed an imaginary menu of foodstuffs that reflect upon the guest of honor as a person, a
poet and their poetry.
This year our guest of honor is Rachel Blau DuPlessis. I have had the wonderful opportunity to work with her
over the past year publishing her book, Around the Day in 80 Worlds. We had such a good time it was a natural decision
to ask her to be this years guest of honor.
I had been in awe of the work of Rachel Blau DuPlessis for an embarrassingly long amount of time. Her poetry is
exuberant, assiduous and intelligent. I find myself returning again and again to her long poem Drafts. Amongst her lines
I always find new ways of looking at the world, new questions to dwell upon, with, as always, no ready answers in sight.
I find comfort in the charm and resistance pasted into her collages. And I hope that this menu-poem adequately
expresses my appreciation for her while creating a sense of harmony that interprets my understanding of her work. Or
instead of harmony maybe a better word would be a free-translation, or an invocation of the intentio Walter Benjamin
discusses in The Task of the Translator.

The menu
The menu-poem series gets its title and general direction from the idiom, sur le bout de la langue, French for on
the tip of one's tongue. This idiom refers to the phenomenon of failing to retrieve a word from memory while suggesting
that you will be able to recall it shortly.
Starting with the variety of senses the course of the meal follows the autumnal season with aromas, temperature
variations, mixed textures and flavor combinations. The structure of the menu takes the form of a classical Italian
formal dinner but our meal will not be limited to only Italian cuisine. The dishes emulate cooking methods from many
traditions, Chinese, Ethiopian, Japanese and Thai, Russian and French as well as a few American favorites.
The meal opens with many small dishes and non-alcoholic drinks. The Aperitivo and Antipasto courses offer a
variety of flavors and texture combinations. The crisp lobster tempura and lemon contrasts the softness of the ginger
crepe and ice-cold caviar. A similar theme develops with the soft Roquefort Soufflés and the brittle Gruyere Tuiles.
The Zuppa course is a flavorful nage, which is a broth prepared with white wine, aromatic vegetables, and herbs,
in which the crayfish and John Dory is poached with saffron and fennel. The next course is a Jingisukan Style Grilled
Hokkaido lamb. It is quite literally named Genghis Khan style and is delicious. The lamb is sliced thin and cooked on a
uniquely shaped convex grill shaped very like a Mongolian helmet. The Hokkaido lamb is cooked communal-style by the
diners themselves on a tableside grill.
The main course of this thanksgiving meal is the turkey, the Grande Tradizione, Italian for grand tradition.
Served in the style of an Ethiopian stew, a roast turkey wat with spicy cardamom lentils it is accompanied by a sour-
dough injera. Injera is a large flatbread with a slightly spongy texture made from teff flour.
Many of the courses have two components, one hot and the other cold. This effect is to create a dynamic
sensation in the mouth, examining how flavors interact with varied temperatures. This is dramatically highlighted in
the Caffè course where pieces of candied soursop are frozen in liquid nitrogen then served on an ornate spoon with
piping hot soursop jam. The effect will be quite sensuous and gratifying. The meal concludes with a contemplative
vintage grappa from Piedmont

The wines
The wines and brandies are French and Italian with one exception, an icewine from the Niagara region, which is
very near my home. It is plucky and sweet, slightly viscous and will be an even match the rosemary scented stone fruits
and bold cheeses. Other beverages include a white Armagnac, a vintage grappa, rich Italian roast coffee, Acqua e Menta,
which is a mix of sparkling water and mint. Gingerino is a delightful aperitif that sets an easy opening to the meal. It is
red and lightly sparkling, sweet, bitter, citrusy, spicy and herby.
The poems
The poems themselves are based around four letter words. Prior to processing the pieces, I gathered up the
complete list of four-letter words in English. I divided them into an excel spreadsheet, alphabetized them and then
assigned a color to each lettered section. You can see a full grouping of the colors in the final poem-collage, Supporting
Characters. The assigned colors of the four-letter words follow throughout the series. Many poems use only four-letter
words and many do not. There are limits to text art experiments substituting in the space of poetry, but it was a fun
time creating this project and if you feel as I do, a bit of fun is needed at this moment in time. Hurray!

I hope you enjoy this meal, the menu and the poem. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Rockets, Geoffrey
Biographical Information

Poet, editor, and scholar Rachel Blau DuPlessis

earned a BA from Barnard College and a PhD from
Columbia University. Her special interests are in
modern and contemporary poetry, especially issues
of gender, the long poem, and cultural poetics. She is
one of the foremost critics of her generation, and
her works of scholarship include Writing Beyond the
Ending: Narrative Strategies of Twentieth-Century Women
Writers (1985), H.D.: The Career of That
Struggle (1986), The Pink Guitar: Writing as Feminist
Practice (1990), Genders, Races and Religious Cultures in
Modern American Poetry, 1908–1934 (2001), Blue
Studios: Poetry and its Cultural Work (2006), and Purple
Passages: Pound, Eliot, Zukofsky, Olson, Creeley and the
Ends of Patriarchal Poetry (2012). As editor, her books
include The Selected Letters of George Oppen (1990) and,
with Susan Stanford Friedman, Signets: Reading
H.D. (1990). With Peter Quartermain, she
coedited The Objectivist Nexus: Essays in Cultural Poetics (1999) and with Ann Snitow, The Feminist Memoir Project: Voices from Women’s
Liberation (1998; reprint 2007). She is affiliated in an editorial capacity with journals such as Journal of Modern Literature (JML) and
with book series on poetry and poetics from the University of Alabama and Iowa presses.

DuPlessis’s major work as a poet is the long poem Drafts, which she began in 1986 and published the final installment of in
2012: Surge: Drafts 96-114. Other books in the project include Drafts 1-38, Toll (2001), Drafts. Drafts 39-57, Pledge, with Draft,
unnumbered: Précis (2004), Torques: Drafts 58-76 (2007), Pitch: Drafts 77-95 (2010), and The Collage Poems of Drafts (2011). As Patrick
Pritchett has noted, DuPlessis’s work as both a scholar and critic is based “on the logic of the provisional and the
contingent.” Drafts is itself an open text, ongoing and investigatory; in the words of poet and critic Ron Silliman,
“DuPlessis’s Drafts begins more with questions than answers, literally in Draft 1 chasing a bird in the bush, sensing that the right
answers need to be further questions.”

A professor at Temple University for many years, DuPlessis retired in 2011. In 2012, she was a Distinguished Visitor at the
University of Auckland. She has also held an appointment with the National Humanities Center in North Carolina and a residency
at Bellagio sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation. DuPlessis’s many honors and awards include a Pew Fellowship in the Arts,
the Roy Harvey Pearce/Archive for New Poetry Prize, Temple University’s Creative Achievement Award, and grants from the
Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Fund for Poetry.

From the Poetry Foundation

Books by Rachel Blau DuPlessis

Poetry books and chapbooks, including collage poems in books:

Late Work, Traces. NY: Black Square Editions (forthcoming 2019).

NUMBERS. s.l.:Materialist Press, 2018 (collage poems; forthcoming)
Around the Day in 80 Worlds. Buffalo, NY: BlazeVOX, 2018.
Torn Notebook. Philadelphia: Robinson Press at The University of Pennsylvania, 2017 [chapbook; collage poem].
Selected Poems, Poesie scelte, 1978-2015. Translated by Anny Ballardini. Verona, Italy: QuiEdit. 2017.
Days and Works. Boise, Idaho: Ahsahta Press, 2017.
Poesis. Houston: Little Red Leaves Textile Editions, 2016 [chapbook].
Graphic Novella. West Lima, Wisconsin: Xexoxial Editions, 2015. Collage poems.
"Churning the Ocean of Milk." Alligatorzine. http://www.alligatorzine.be/pages/151/zine160.html 2014
[chapbook; collage poem].
Interstices. Cambridge, MA: Subpress, 2014.
Brouillons. Translated by Jean-Paul Auxeméry with the collaboration of Chris Tysh. Paris: José Corti, 2013.
Dieci Bozze. Translated by Renata Morresi. Macerata, Italy: Vydia editore, 2013. This book won the Premio Achille Marazza
for poetry in translation, in 2014.
Surge: Drafts 96-114. Norfolk, UK: Salt Publishing, 2013.
Draft 108: Ballad and Gloss. Houston, Texas: Little Red Leaves Textile Editions, 2012 [chapbook].
Bozza 111: Arte Povera. Translated by Renata Morresi. Rome: Archipelago Edizioni, 2012 [chapbook].
Draft 96: Velocity. Houston, Texas: Little Red Leaves Textile Editions, 2011 [chapbook].
The Collage Poems of Drafts. London: Salt Publishing, 2011. Collage poems.
Pitch: Drafts 77-95. London: Salt Publishing, 2010.
Torques: Drafts 58-76. Cambridge, England: Salt Publishing, 2007.
DRAFTS. Drafts 39-57, Pledge with Draft, Unnumbered: Précis. Cambridge, England: Salt Publishing, 2004.
Draft, unnumbered: Précis. Vancouver: Nomados, 2003 [chapbook].
Drafts 1-38, Toll. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2001.
Renga: Draft 32. Philadelphia: Beautiful Swimmer Press, 1998 [chapbook].
Drafts 15-XXX, The Fold. Elmwood, CT: Potes & Poets Press, 1997.
Essais: Quatre Poèmes. Collective translation, Royaumont, completed by Jean-Paul Auxeméry. Bar-le-Duc, France:
Un Bureau sur l’Atlantique, Editions Créaphis, 1996.
Draft X: Letters. Philadelphia: Singing Horse Press,1991 [chapbook].
Drafts 3-14. Elmwood, CT.: Potes & Poets Press, 1991.
Tabula Rosa. Elmwood, CT: Potes & Poets Press, 1987.
Gypsy/Moth. Oakland, CA: Coincidence Press, 1984 [chapbook].
Wells. New York: Montemora Editions, 1980. Selected for the Duration Press Online Out of Print Book Archives,
1999. http://www.durationpress.com
Interesting Links
Rachelblauduplessis.com
This eponymous site is DuPlessis’s official author page. Everything RBD is to be found here! Poetry, criticism and visual works
online as well as a fine collection of author photos.

http://rachelblauduplessis.com

Rachel Blau DuPlessis on Jacket2.

There are 25 great pieces of DuPlessis’s poetry and criticism. Here are a few gems:

• Theorizing the alphabet

• Anne Waldman

• Manhood and its Poetic Projects

• Draft 89: Interrogation

• Draft 88: X-Posting

• Oppen from seventy-five to a hundred, 1983–2008

• Stein's wedding cake

• On Frank O'Hara, 'Second Avenue'

Poetry Foundation
Read a selection from Eurydics: Snake. And you can also listen to the podcast: Fierce Storehouses of Articulation: A Discussion of
Rachel Blau DuPlessis's "Draft 85: Hard Copy"

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/rachel-blau-duplessis

PennSound: Rachel Blau DuPlessis

Listen to hundreds of recordings of poetry, complete conversations with poets, podcasts of PoemTalk, question and answer
sessions along with full lectures.

writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/DuPlessis.php
 Sur le Bout
de la Langue

26
Four Letter Dreams
 Aperitivo

Crisp Gruyere Tuiles with Anise Smoked Apple Marmalade

Little Roquefort Soufflés with Candied Herbs
Aldudes dried sausage, Prosciutto di San Daniele

Acqua e Menta
Fanfare for ‘merica

nude
owls
love
jazz
nude
owls
know
love
 Antipasto

Lobster Tempura, Crunchy Citrus and Sage Leaf

Grand Cru Osciètre Petrossian Caviar on a Ginger Crepe

Gingerino, blood orange wedge, crushed ice

Snow Life

I have a lot of this

I have a lot of that

I have a lot of time

I have a lot of love

I have a lot of snow

I have a lot of life

I have a lot of mops

I have a lot of dust

I have a lot to hide

I have a lot to know

I have a lot of fear

I have a lot of pain

I have fish
I have legs

I have life
I have time

I have time to dust

I have time to deny

I am clay
I am anew

I am life
I am snow
Verb Wasp

Apex arms
Cake bake
Dark eggs
Grab fire

Hope hold
Idea jams
Know lies
Maze nite

Oops open
Pews quiz
Rich serf
Thud upon

Verb wasp
Xyst xyst
Yeah yeah
Zoom zoom
 Zuppa
X`x``
Autumn Nage of Freshwater Crayfish and John Dory with Saffron and Fennel

Garden Verbena Ice Cream

Prosecco Spritz
USA A-Go-Go

Yawn yarn yard

Yams yoga yogi

yoni yolk yawn

yarn yurt yule yowl
yard yams yond
your yowe yore yond

yuca yuga yuca

yuck yuks yuck

yawl yank yell yelp

yoke yoke yore
yolk yolk your

yoke yolk yarn

yack yarn yank

yard yawl yaks yams

yare yaks yaud yard
yawl yawn yawp
yeah yeah yeah
Surfin’ in the USA

Stop
Trum
Rump
Umpt
Mptr
Ptru
Surf
Surf fuck
Trum suck
Rump fuck
Umpt suck
Mptr fuck
Ptru pink
Suck sink
Surf fuck Surf
Trum suck Ptru
Rump fuck Mptr
Umpt suck Umpt
Mptr fuck Rump
Ptru pink Trum
Stop cock Surf
 Primo

Jingisukan Style Grilled Hokkaido lamb

Stir-fried bitter greens, garlic and a single Peperoncino

Puligny Montrachet Champ Canet Domaine Jean Marc Boillot

Okay USA

Many page
Neon menu
Okay

Epic jets okay

Noir orgy
Fuck oats
Give into hats
Okay

Fade away
Okay

Easy echo okay

Meow Meow
Dreamin’ in the USA

Ibex eats Amen snow walk

Math wand Hawk fame sand

Jinx tarp Geez kite quiz

Lace oboe Daze exam cage

 Secondo

Turbot with morels, chicken mousseline, whirled peas, vin jaune sauce

Savennières 2010 "L'Enclos" Domaine Eric Morgat

Poetry USA Dies yet Again

Dads dead
Moms dead
Poem died

Art’s dead
Dada dead
Punk died

foul play

dead dead foul play

dead dead died dead

rude poet died

sexy poem died
Born dead

lets kill
just kill
Soul dies

foul play

dead dead died dead

dead dead foul play
Pork Boat

Oink
Oink
Oink
Oink
Oink
Oink
Oink
Oink
Oink
Oink
Oink
Oink
 Grande Tradizione

Roast Turkey Wat with Spicy Cardamom Lentils, Sour-Dough Injera

Blason d’Issan 2011, Margaux

Bing Bing Bing

sing sing sing

sing king sing
king sing sing
king sing ring

ring xing zing

zing wing sing
wing ding ding
king king king

xing zing ding

sing wing ting
xing zing ding
sing sing sing

ling ping ring

sing wing ting
xing zing ding
sing sing sing

king king king

sing king sing
sing wing ting
ling ping ring

ling ping ring

xing zing ding
sing wing ting
king king king
Love Talk Fame

talk talk
love love
zoom zoom
talk talk
zoom zoom
love love

fame fame
meow meow
With a bright idea

Can’t hate
Can’t hath
Can’t hats
Can’t haul
Can’t haut
Can’t have that
Can’t hawk
Can’t haws
Can’t hays
Can’t haze
Can’t hazy
Can’t hate
Kinda obligated here, right?

Fake news
Fuck yous
Geez

good guru goes gaga

good gnus grow gaga

gyro goes gaga gaga

gold gums grow grey

goat gnaw gnus gnaw

good gnus glow grow

glum gnat glob glob glom glue

glue glum glue glut glom glob

gods gogo gods gone

gods gone gone gone

gold gods golf

gods gyre glow

gulf gull guns guns gods

gulf guns gyre gyre gawk

gems glow

gems glow gold glow gyre gyre

gems guns grow grow good gnus grow
 Contorno

White Asparagus, wild thyme and lavender breadcrumbs

Roast Chestnuts, Cantrell, and Bacon Velouté
Sweet Potato à l'estragon
Peas

phew phiz pied pfft

peps perp pews pest
peep peek peen peel

peak pear pean peas

pass past peas pate
para pash pang pane

paid pain pair pace

pale pawn pays peer
pica pica pier pina

pins pink pipe pish

play plow plop ploy
play pink pawn pica

psst porn psst puff

puke puma pyre putt
push purr push purr

peps perp pews pest

pass past peas pate
pale pawn pays peer

play plow plop ploy

puke puma pyre putt
push purr push purr
Lovin’ in the USA

Step back shut down

talk more talk much

hear more hear much

talk less leap more

omit hate feel love

Step back shut down

kick hate omit foes

open mind open arms

flow move open eyes

arms flow step back

hips glow head hazy

eyes help amid fear

kiss more love much

open arms open hugs

step back shut down

live free fuel love
The hour and the Indigo Apple

This dream is about change.

And since change and loss are deeply connected,
This dream is also about loss.
This dream is haunted by loss and change.

I was startled away from the dream.

I feel uncomfortable not remembering the dream.
I lay in the dark chasing the dream.
I was reaching out for a lizard hidden in the rock.
I find myself reaching out to them to say one more thing.

I was tearful, pleading and angry. I ran away.

I felt my helplessness. My fear rose up.
I became silent. I sobbed into my hands.
I did not know how long I had to live.
 Formaggi e frutta

Epoisses washed with pomace brandy, Pont l’Eveque

Roquefort, Stinking Bishop, Taleggio

Rosemary Scented Roasted Peaches, Plums, and Nectarines

Inniskillin 2015 Niagara Estate Riesling Icewine

Cardinal Numbers

Ones tens Twos five Five four

Twos four Tens ones Twos five
Twos five Five four Ones tens
Five ones Tens twos Twos five
Five twos Five ones Five twos
Tens twos Twos five Tens twos
Five four Twos four Tens ones
Tens ones Five ones Five four
The Intoxicating Leadership of Lamas

Make
sure
that
damn
lama
beds
down
 Dolce

Chilled Fortissimo Chocolate Millefueille

Warm Meringue Gossamer of Meyer Lemon and Redcurrant

Blanche d’Armagnac
Don't Miss This Shit

Some dope shit made this week fire

Astonishing

Ugly fish
eyes hawk eats
jade goat
 Caffè

Candied Soursop frozen in liquid nitrogen served with piping hot Soursop Jam

Elegant Italian Espresso and Caffè Macchiato

Come back home

Oxen mole ibex eels

Crab toad hare bear

Come back home

Dogs cats lynx wolf

Clam frog ibex mole

Come back home

Clam outs fake flea

Frog hugs duck back

Come back here

Lion lies with lamb

Myth lets lion talk

Come back here

Oxen mole ibex eels

Crab toad hare bear

Come back home

Donna’s Song

ecru is the tone of my true love's hair

Her soft face is as rare as she is fair

Her pure eyes and her fine mind

I love the path on which she does wind

I love the path on which she does wind

ecru is the tone of my true love's hair

Of my true love's hair

Of my true love's hair

Oh I love my love
And well she know

Yes, I love the path where she goes

And still I hope
That the time will come

when she and I will live as one

when she and I will live as one

So ecru is the tone of my true love's hair

ecru is the tone of my true love's hair
ecru is the tone of my true love's hair
Amid a Wild Life in the USA

Last
Year
this
year
next
year
 Digestivo

Tre Soli tre 2001 Grappa di Nebbiolo da Barolo

Knew Before Coming

they
know
what
they
want
Okay

they
know
The Spider does not Spin its Web for a Single Fly

We were on the streets, so we were lucky to holiday in the radio.

We could listen to the ceilings and broadcast from the walls.
Although our radio is deteriorating, it makes for a fine home.
Ensnared by its charm and cheap rent we sleep contentedly in
This broken device of wood and transistors someone assembled
once, long ago, but wearied during its build and moved on.

The radio once said something like, ‘Spiders don’t spin webs
To catch a single fly.’ I was like, wait, what? No it was really
Like, like I was totally speechless when it said that.
I was standing in the doorframe by the copy machine.
You were eating breakfast in the evening, I asked you or the radio,
‘Is that us, are we the flies?’ You tapped silently on a dusty speaker.
We decided to go to the resourceful studio to dance and pick words.
Our minds were vacant but our bellies were full on Cap’n Crunch.

I was breaking down the wall and you sat on the fence,
And years later we noticed that there was one more thing I wanted to say.
Every November we called each other to celebrate the anniversary of that day.
It has been eighteen years now, now nineteen, now twenty.
How time flies when the situation is desperate for explanation.
How the frenzied remodel exposes the words: passing years.

The only record we had to play at the time was Pink Floyd’s The Wall.
But that was too spot on, if you know what I mean.
But when the government did fall, our radio had no credibility.
The migratory patterns of radio waves spin in bright blue gyres.
Our language was empty but the river rode high.

I think of him picking the first blossoms of periwinkles,

Sometimes I wonder if any of his stories were true, as
If all the words he spoke were simple submarines floating beneath
The surface of an imaginary Sargasso Sea anticipating
An adventure or a nautical disaster to transpire but doesn’t.

Still the words spawn, the language clouds sprout raindrops.

The silver glistening sounds resemble eels.
In the mud they emerge at dusk, wriggling.
The fishermen gather on the riverbanks with buckets and nets
Scooping up the letters to knot together new words, new phrases.

The words for hyacinth and amethyst are a part of a larger story.
The radio waves that transmit us are spider webs spun from hope.
Supporting characters

arms bear cats dogs eels

fine gold have ibex jade
kiss lynx mole neon okay
pawn quiz rich some that
ugly vase wolf xing yore
zing

Geoffrey Gatza is an award winning editor, publisher and poet. He is the driving force behind BlazeVOX, a small press
located in Buffalo, NY and was named by the Huffington Post as one of the Top 200 Advocates for American Poetry. He
is the author many books of poetry, including A Dog Lost in the Brick City of Outlawed Trees, (Mute Canary 2018)
Apollo (BlazeVOX 2014) and HouseCat Kung Fu: Strange Poems for Wild Children (Meritage 2009). His work has
appeared in FENCE and Tarpaulin Sky. His play on Marcel Duchamp was staged in an art installation in Philadelphia
and performed in NYC.


His writings are based on inspiring situations: visions that reflect a sensation of indisputability and serene
contemplation, combined with subtle details of odd or eccentric, humoristic elements. With a subtle minimalistic
approach, his works references surrealism as well as the avant-garde or the post-modern and the left-wing democratic
movement as a form of resistance against the logic of the capitalist market system. Often these are framed instances
that would go unnoticed in their original context. Through a radically singular approach that is nevertheless inscribed
in the contemporary debate, he tries to increase the dynamic between audience and author by objectifying emotions
and investigating the duality that develops through different interpretations. He lives in Kenmore, NY with his
girlfriend and two beloved cats.

http://www.blazevox.org
Photo Notes

Page Description and Photo Credit

6 University of Auckland in 2012

http://www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz/features/short-takes/images/symposium-
duplessis02.jpg
9 Jacket2 Author Page
https://jacket2.org/content/rachel-blau-duplessis
13 Rachel Blau DuPlessis lecturing in Arizona
15 Nathaniel Mackey and Rachel Blau DuPlessis at Kelly Writers House, 2017 taken by
Al Filreis
18 Rachel Blau DuPlessis and Robert S. DuPlessis standing in front of a sculpture that
moves by Liliane Lijn that uses a line from my work, London. Taken by Lijn, Jan. 2017
21 Photo by Alan Bernheimer
24 Rachel Blau DuPlessis in NZ - NZEPC
At Arthur's Pass, 2012
http://www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz/features/short-takes/
27 Self Portrait
33 Rachel Blau DuPlessis and Ron Silliman at Kelly Writers House
37 https://terresdefemmes.blogs.com/mon_weblog/2013/11/rachel-blau-duplessis-
brouillon-85-27.html
40 University of Auckland in 2012
http://www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz/features/short-takes/images/symposium-
duplessis02.jpg
43 Rachel Blau DuPlessis and Robert S. DuPlessis. (in France). Taken by Auxeméry (RBD’s
French translator, 2001)
47 Mary Oppen, George Oppen, Rachel Blau DuPlessis sitting on the deck of the DuPlessis
house, 211 Rutgers Avenue, Swarthmore, PA, in 1979. Taken by Robert S. DuPlessis.