SurVision Magazine
An
international online magazine that
publishes Surrealist poetry
in English.
Issue Thirteen
JEROME ROTHENBERG
Coda to a Book of Dreams
For Robert Kelly
O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell
and count myself a king of infinite space,
were it not that I have bad dreams.
were it not that I have bad dreams.
No world more clear
than what we see
in dreams
nor more amazing,
numbers bursting into
stars & stars
enriching what we learn
when dreaming.
It is no more than this,
to sleep & be
the master of the universe,
not to be bound to earth
but gathering a trillion
other worlds,
to count myself
a little king
stepping aside for time.
Nothing is measured
that the mind can fathom
waking. In the way
her body beckons
when you turn to touch her
coming from a black hole
deep in space
& time. We learn to count
the deeper images
& those still deeper,
gods & angels
dancing on a pin. * * a chip
Before the dream
turns bad
in which a pin* holds * a chip
all we know
& all we fear
I stretch out flat
to the Horizon.
I arch above you
like a lid.
I vanish & return.
My name is Death.
The word extermination
resonates nothing
escapes. The world
itself ends in a time
beyond all time
where time ends
leaving a residue behind
of mindless space
& still more mindless
images the nightmares
that the mind conceals. * * reveals
To run from time
isn't a choice,
the stars we see
are overwhelming
& block the view
or bring up images
of light & dark,
a flickering
across the map
of time,
the flow of sand
in dreams.
"To Dream Infinity"
1/
To dream
infinity
& know the time
draws nigh
never more near
than now
2/
the far look
of an ancient
god
his hands
ready to bring us
down
3/
there is
no end to it
the universe
escapes us
& another universe
takes shape
4/
open & shut
absent
a god
whose malice
holds us
too close
5/
still to be
free & clear
the deeper
image
out of our beck
& call
6/
seeing the others
fallen
entering the pitch
& blackness
figments of an endless
mindless world
7/
the beauty
of the never-
ending
freezes us
more spectral
than a dream
8/
how many circles
make up a universe
if only the eye
allows it?
nothing that the mind
can know or tell
one
two
three
four
five
wild circles
From "In the Shadow of a Mad King"
A work in progress
"faces"
(1)
a family of thieves
& freaky princes
how they surround a mad king
keeping the faces of the dying
out of sight
(2)
no room for shame
the mad king stares
at his own face
the dead like hornets fly around
& won't be still
(3)
shadows crowd his mind
& leave a mad king
pining for a vanished throng
faces he no longer sees
only in dreams
(4)
When all is lost a mad king
cannot find himself
looking for a way to track his face
the outline of his shadow
disappearing
(5)
A circle of believers
holds out hands to touch
a mad king
never a touch enough
to show his face
(6)
a mad king hides the deaths of millions
the fragments of a mirror
that multiplies his face a million times
sending his faces hurtling
into mindless space
Jerome Rothenberg was born and raised in New York City, and now lives in California. An internationally known poet, translator, performance artist, with over eighty books of poetry and essays, he is also an anthologist, whose anthologies include Technicians of the Sacred, Shaking the Pumpkin, and the three-volume Poems for the Millennium. He has been the recipient of many honors, including an American Book Award, two PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Awards, and two PEN Center USA West Translation Awards.
