HomeArchivesSubmissionsCorpse MallOur GangHot SitesSearch
Exquisite Corpse - A Journal of Letters and Life

Poesy
Five Poems
by Bill Evans ||
Author's Links

Ok, Listen


The job is killing
Me, no
Being me
Or me
Being you
Who will
Play us
In the movie?

Dot to dot
Molecules
Tongue and
Groove souls
Being famous
Some star
Taking his or
Her shirt off
But is it Art?
And who cares?
O wily audience
I mean, you do
We do, being
Caring people
Half-dead, half
Deadly, but the
Other half alive!
And that's the half
I am addressing at
This present moment
Don't go away; we'll be
Right back!
Right after
This word from our
Commercial sponsor…

I shall now sing
A song - O
Run like hell
The future is
Out there, a
Giant television

Fashion orders
From the Gap
Everybody in
Pilgrim clothes
Everybody naked
Pressed between
Pages - damn, I
Always meant to
Write that book first

And I ask you, what
Happened? What
Shoot me, occurred?

Anyway, we missed it
Being painfully occupied
Always wooing when we
Should've been thinking
Always thinking when we
Should've been wooing
Or thinking about wooing
Or not thinking, woo-less
Un-wooable, de-wooified

Everybody
In prison
Clothes
Antarctic
Swim wear
Everybody
In cans
Dreaming
Robot dreams

Our donut
Theory of
Radical
Accomplishment

"Is it a circle
Or a zero?"
"Mine's got
Sprinkles!"
"My what big
Teeth you have
Granny!" "Oh, really…"

Children
We are
Stories
And we
Do not last

Deep luck
And mystery
Energy, get over it

You only know
Where you
Can go
Those
You don't
Choose, choose you

And I love best
What loves me
Opening at theaters soon, then closing

Sincerely, you can quote that

 
 
My Masterpiece


Of course, I was somewhere else
As the glorious event
Was just getting started
Don't mind me, I thought
Washing out the coffee pot
I am absolutely nothing
If I am not thorough
After various risqué
And modern adventures
I like an ordered home

Because home is where you hang
Your hat, where the hats
Hang their heads, where the heart is
Hung on the family
Meat rack, hang out
With your friends, that is
If you have any -
The pistols locked tastefully
In their decorative display case
Beneath the mounted noggins of our personable forbears

So I will take the world
Thanks, with sauce
Tape a naked Iceland to an
Available sarcophagus
Surf the big waves
With the big dogs
For the big thoughts
Big (not!) Big feeling in the details
Of our mystical estrangement
Big shot, big fuss, big mess, big bridge, big buildings, big orphic cubism…

Big New York City to you, fiery pilgrim

Big mouth, big plans, big deal

 
 
Ode to Joan


for Leelee Sobieski

Not being a vision
Doubter myself, I
Also have been chosen
To command misfits

Drive the English
Out of France
Drive the English
Department
Out of Wrecking Poetry!

Transform serious
Loser energy
Into fearsome love…

Or whatever, O
Leelee of Arc
In Times Square -

Big movie star head
And a suit of armor
Tall girl, in heels
According to Selena

O we have seen miracles
On our TV's, but I didn't
Watch all of it; I watched
Some of it: evil bad guys

Humble village folk, loyal
Blind kid, skanky dauphin
Peter O'Toole as the rotten
Representative of a corrupt

And powerful religious oligarchy
O damn them all Leelee, excuse me, Joan
Fierce teenage kick-ass virgin warrior
Whose heart was so pure, it refused to burn

And died, can you believe it, forgiving everyone…

But not me, like History, I keep grudges
And as an artist, I plot revenge
The nourishing of scars, the
Nurturing of petty and vindictive swipes

A heart so positively flammable
Ouch, it carries warning labels

(Deep tequila charged with dark vanilla -)
(Packs a wallop and then some -)

Listen, I am not a saint
And there is no God
But if there were
As statistically
Improbable as
His or her taking
Any kind of interest
In French politics…

For the record
Praise wild
Belief, praise
Hacking off
One's hair
And wearing
Roguish clothes
Praise risk, praise
Bearing one's standard
Praise the very record
And the preposition "for"

For joyous are the mysteries
Brought to us by television

For the flames
Were real

And the feet
Were hers

The people
Needed her

 
 
Modern Adventures

 
To begin at the end
And move backwards
Sweet battery
Of knockout
Burnout energy
Lookin' like a hero
In a textbook mirror
With the strength of Ra!


All the way
From out there
To in here
I'm betting everything
On everything, always, alas

It is, and
It isn't
It should be
But won't
The glass
Half naked
Or half clothed
That's something…

For what is important
Is rarely
Comforting
Both speaker
And receiver
A collage of masks
O flatterers of massive
Anxiety and sex appeal

Suddenly, I
Ask for shit
And I get it

Go figure…

So one becomes
The instrument
Etc. And so forth
"Patricia, I was stoned!"
As virginal as spring
Another loser king
At the seasonal roulette table

I don't know
Rock star
Performance artist

Blur of dreamy hair
Across a neon heart, whatever

But will it play
On Mars?
A far cry -
Check your
Basket of kisses
For prize upon entering

The very symbols
You are wearing
Suit you perfectly

Sure, a lot is fake
We'll want
Those, too!
Believe it if
You must, or
Because you do

Oh yeah, and
Another thing

NOT SEARCHING, FINDING…


The great sap rising
From our fiery
Technology

We don't need
Further training
We need passion, vision

I stand by my philosophy

 
 
No Comment


You're either in
Or out
And you
Can't run
A tab -
Are you
With me?
We'll
Discuss
My fee later

So unfashionable
To say this
We should be
So lucky…

Pretty pirate boys
And wonder
Girls with
Pistol-whip aplomb

Rockin' Buddhas

On the dash of an

Available party-van

Hell, we all
Have thoughts
We all speak
The Language


First you get to
Be the door
And then you
Knock on it -

People, shit transforms…

And not to mention
Feelings, sure
Feelings -
Everybody's
Got some
Very sleepy or
Alert, unbelievably
Horny with pert
Significance
Conspicuously cognizant
In the grand tradition
Of erstwhile and cellular molecular division

And I'm not complaining

See also "snogging"

Do you take
Lessons
Or a pill

O charm
School
Drop-out

Just another
Has-been who
Never was/

Cut your

Head off

For love


We thank you for existing at
This locus on the time-line
It hasn't always been fun
Slimy, fiery, crawling from
The sea - restless evolution
Towards affordable real-estate
Versus ever-present fake-estate
Entertainment, extermination
Extinction, the sex thing, networking…
 
Which brings us
To the check
Fraught with
Positive attention

Payable in
Souls to
Bearer on
Demand -
No kidding
Spend the body
And the spirit flows!

Plus a juicy
Tip: buy
Dear, sell cheap

Sealed oh so humanly with primate kisses

Tip my cap, and we're gone

BROKEN NEWS || CRITIQUES & REVIEWS || CYBER BAG || EC CHAIR || FICCIONES || THE FOREIGN DESK
GALLERY || LETTERS || MANIFESTOS || POESY || SERIALS || STAGE & SCREEN || ZOUNDS
HomeArchivesSubmissionsCorpse MallOur GangHot SitesSearch
Exquisite Corpse Mailing List: Subscribe | Unsubscribe
©1999-2002 Exquisite Corpse - If you experience difficulties with this site, please contact the webmistress.