from “Happy New Year”
Freud ate kosher, yes
and loved the soaring Shema of
Jewish unseen god
you and I two Jews
with two heads for “them” to lop
I hate being sliced
Decapitation
conturbat [?] me I’d rather
be shot in face, friend
Pearl’s father goes round
with Islamic scholars to
make peace! that’s extreme
if God can’t include
Kafka and Proust—I’m out, but
he does include them
I am looking for
a book on writing Agnon
is said to have done
I only partly
think it exists like shining
wisdom in days, awe
oranges don’t rhyme
but I love Agnon saying oranges
eat just oranges
there’s a country one
that lives only on fruit, sweet
gratuitous fruit
Kenneth told me his
analyst told him get the
pleasures out! beware!
gratuitous plea-
sures! what are they i asked?
oh breasts, oranges!
I thought of you Dave
as a young kid from Brooklyn
which you weren’t—ah
I felt so old crazed
full of sexual tensions
and you seemed shy, sweet!
when your father died
you said to me; he was holy
was a holy man
I was frightened for
you and later too scared, scared
like a child’s darkness
my wife took a plane
with you and she said that you
knew my poems by heart
she was impressed
to get her attention I
made poem- pictures
she was visual
I taped them to the mirrors,
hoping she’d read, see
now I’m very old
go to very few parties
throw my sins away
but only forgive
forgiveness comes from you, you
God even can’t do!
Happy new year, Dave
happiness beyond; poems
and never be sad!
— David Shapiro
September 13, 2007
Go to Source
Author: The Best American Poetry
