—Giuseppe Ungaretti
the imminent forward
finding this park
leaves the melting
*
limit false more
for all the lost songs
arena of disobedience
*
long for hollow soles
through solid orifices
full thought and icing
regular polish
higher organ force
*
the force abides whole
pillows the ring
and alleviates a certain
*
listen to silver
hostess bending low
*
filaments of ice
registrars of hope
pongo of salvation
of the long hollow
tell for primary
binary
*
hollow ornament
dawn hidden
*
honest tongs and plastic
primary holiday
breathing sealant ether
*
soars for eleven
bromine particularities
silver holidays
blanched poltroons
and all-day rhyming
blithe follower of peels
and tantamount lunch
of dogged tonic
responsible broad
telephone rater
pelican information
peace of mind and hells
breathing this beaming
burped songbook disgust
to toiling boardwalk
eastern pencil rate
telegraphs pregnant
stomach purity
holy onion bone
ninepin likeness bight
timely instinctual
Rhenish and renal reeve
summed up and stubborn
*
images finalize
their clout for progress
health surges below
briny olive too
penchant for rest stop
image of hostel
dressing for sainted
tennis polygon
all-night burlesque
selfsame brain fever
reese pursuant to art
*
operate on this
in the eleven
original breaks
the timely order
the principal horn
of ocular tools
of trading labor
for palatable
easel mind and time
*
the perfect division
distribution arc
and explanation
of television
upholstery void
thine loyal armrest
and two-dollar gum
summoned to landlubber
*
final military splendor
pork for holidays
purse the poignant tongue
and honest the rise
fake lace red dildo
from token hallways
for this purple pell
for this lying height
reason to partner
and paralyze hole
methinks sylvan rest
*
labor for seeing
along this tedious
road and door and heist
the ride breaks lacquer
the egg of season
you broke this holder
the mess in houseboats
the plain distinguished
for infant gather
don’t know the follicle
arranges and informs
bring this purple resonance
say the abolished
arrive for high court
*
long or short
the solvent brings this
the hostel takes a cut
all over the process period
as simple as that
beyond the hugging
tightening grip and help
physical theater
*
slugged the tenet there
and rammed the saint whole
for without this prong
for without this prank
this Udder Pradesh
without this elephant
for without almond
why did you bond
and stall this stinging
harmonizing opening
*
you ran through the ratings
elved the other half
taking a foreign song
and hyacinth days
the diamond wholesale
two little thingums
thingumbob breathers
bulletproof swansongs
irised precision
rightful formulas
and built Swiss paralegals
for this criminal
hustle lovely eyeglass
eat foreign swank scag
*
in sand under eleven
terrible eligible
for what great purpose
that was that
plow through August brains
and hoe to arrive
where olive lives
open and indefinite
Michael Ruby is a poet and literary editor who lives in Brooklyn. He is the author of nine poetry books, most recently Sounds of Summer in the Country (BlazeVOX Books, 2025), Close Your Eyes, Visions (Station Hill Press, 2024), The Star-Spangled Banner (Station Hill Press, 2020), The Mouth of the Bay (BlazeVOX Books, 2019), American Songbook (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2013), and Compulsive Words (BlazeVOX Books, 2010). His trilogy in prose and poetry, Memories, Dreams and Inner Voices (Station Hill Press, 2012), includes ebooks Fleeting Memories (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2008) and Inner Voices Heard Before Sleep (Argotist Ebooks, 2011). Recent ebooks include Titles & First Lines (Mudlark, 2018) and Compulsive Words (Argotist Ebooks, 2024), and his chapbook From an Album of Verses won the 2024 James Tate Prize from SurVision Books. Full recordings of most of his books are available on PennSound. His intermedia performances of “Visions,” “Close Your Eyes,” “Repeated Memories,” “Subway Poems,” “Titles & First Lines,” and “Fragments of The Star-Spangled Banner” are available on YouTube. He also is co-editor of Bernadette Mayer’s early books, Eating the Colors of a Lineup of Words (Station Hill Press, 2015); Mayer’s & Lewis Warsh’s collaboration Piece of Cake (Station Hill Press, 2020); and the selected poems of Steve Dalachinsky, forthcoming from City Lights Books. He worked for many years as an editor of articles on U.S. news and politics at the Wall Street Journal.
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