Book 1: Razzamatootie
"Razzamatootie,." Danny Richmond
Canto 1--Chicken Pie
Surprising voice out of clamour'sjelly roll poultry anthem flags an exactmoment erupting tootie begins.1
How can you say that in Latinwhen horns and whistles recallfrom before a precise buried today?
Exuberance counters the failureto shed inflicted syntactical devotionin place of pies where it goes when
tootie being the substantive declensionof razz stumbles out of a previous exileof insults into the joy of gravy
and thighs, don't forget thighsflashing through rhymed proliferationof bang's intimate further hope
That's the tootie again, intractable2adamant beyond imagination'sadmirable reflection of receding bang
big as all git out, furtheropenings seeming to stutterof small pies steaming endlessly
When it comes back reclaimingtoday, swallows dart through itstill buzzing with Dante's voice
and swart ships, too, light soddenair alive with bird songand goat bells figure a pie
morning cannot surpass in othermornings and songs of raucouserectile excitements humming
outside the arras knowingwhatever voyeurs lurk in its foldswill never get it especially given
tootie's refrain to the effect you shouldkeep your fingers off the clinamen3unless you're ready for the ride
1 "Oh, Lord, I wanna eat that chicken, eat that chicken, eat that chicken pie ..." Charles Mingus, Oh Yeah!
2 "My Lady is desired in highest Heaven," Dante, Vita Nuova, XIX.
3 Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, 2: 216-220.______________________________________
Canto 2--Erectile excitements
Helen was another tootie whoserazz launched some surprisingacts out of Schenectady, bygoneeras massed on the verge chantingher name till the cows came home
Cows here signify large groupsof meaning headed for the nearestcliff or store window in the questHelen bestowed upon erectile tissuesyearning to come forth in shining borders
Sweet showers still ring with buzzjigs the works toward whatever pilgrimagecan yet be found beyond dollar dayevents in shades of dappled greenout the back door past art's camp
Swell tales of recurrent flow throughold temples now given to tower'smassive investments erected in namestaut with money's tumescent tugstill speak of her tattered glory
starved and secretly barfingin the bathroom in hope pastparticiples roaming the stretches of wordsmight open the secret to herawkward posture and bleeding hands
The shop windows unaccountablyextend around former necessity'sshredded and unstrung compositionsinto shoddy colonnades of erectile razzswelling with dreams of release
That's where tootie is known to enteror what H.D. called a tootieeidolon,4 casting its glances hitherand thither with reckless abandon breedingsprees and spasms wreak havoc
with celestial balance while all alongkeeping tumescence in hand tho largelyconcealed unless needed to bring democracyto some parched distant landclamouring for cheap toilet paper.5
4 H.D., Helen in Egypt.
5 "[W]e need to accept responsibility for America's unique role in preserving and extending an international order friendly to our security, our prosperity, and our principles." "Statement of Principles," Project for a New American Century.______________________________________
Canto 3--Clamour's anthem
The clash you hear may resemble distantarmies if you squint and ignore synatactical
devotion as it rises tall and stiff againstsea's undulating dream of further
earful extensions though even thensimilarities breed in withdrawing
roar leaves faith to wander forestwhistling My Jellyroll Soul to distant
ocean proclaiming only to hoot6reasonably matches the quiver
factor as it breaks against kissscattering with laws of uncounted
melancholy seeds of yet to besurprised, unmoored razz
bearing extreme instances of promiscuoussounding's miscreant repetitions,
damp intimations, and wine darkeruptions disturb hope's nagging
insistent claim on laminar nostalgiaafflictions masquerading as cows
on their way home. No kiss can getyou past that7 and even razz has been known
to throw up hands in gestures signifyingcessation of bovine blundering
while encouraging ambient astonishment'srandom misdirections and indiscrete composure
functions to flourish, all indicationsof seduction strategies having registered
insignificant successes unworthyof uncertainty's luminous demand
to face the music and lift your feetto irregular time function's wiggle insistence.
6 "Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting," Charles Mingus, Blues & Roots.
7 "Ah, love, let us be true / To one another!" Matthew Arnold, "Dover Beach." See also "Dover Beach," Jack Spicer, Lament for the Makers: "... No / Babylonian poets employ charms / Each other's arms are not enough either when the sea shifts and changes / The flight of seagulls here. The pebbles there. Chickens of some hen."______________________________________
Canto 4--Inflicted devotions
There's something to be saidfor those silk ropes under the bedas Susan Sarandon proved unequivocally
with Tim Robbins when he couldn't gethis fast ball magnificent though it wasover the plate though come to think
of it maybe it was leaves of grasswhose syntax John Winthrop no doubtwould have put in the stocks when itstaggered in from the bush smelling
of razzed out bears and the deep funkof those pendulous boys though it'sdevotion frankly ups the ante pastpies otherwise friendly game of hold 'emto be raised and called beyond any reasonable
exhalation advanced devotions measuredin garlands by the pound might be expectedto bring to the table. Beyond that liesmere poetry, shooting turkeys and holdingforth in uncommon saloons overcomingyesterday's imposition of bound rudiments
in surprising combinatory beautymechanisms.8 The boggle factor bindsart to shop windows and committee roomshaggling over expected regulation of publictootie declensions. It's no place for respectableintoxicants and random maenads lookingfor a dance, the groves hemmed round
with blatant intimations of animaldepartures and fleeing forms of errantcritter logic--infliction honks, a signalto duck or watch your back when theygather at the river distributing awardsto well crafted iterations of good old paton the back for a job well hungwith all those moving devotions
8 "Before even beginning, there is, to my knowledge, no mirror." Victor Coleman, "A, The Shepherd whose Voice Never Returns," MAL ARME, Letter Drop 3.
