Poems begining by D
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Dream Song 103: I consider a song will be as humming-bird
© John Berryman
I consider a song will be as humming-bird
swift, down-light, missile-metal-hard, & strange
as the world of anti-matter
where they are wondering: does time run backwardâ
which the poet thought was true; Scarlatti-supple;
but can Henry write it?
Dream Song 73: Karensui, Ryoan-ji
© John Berryman
The taxi makes the vegetables fly.
'Dozo kudasai,' I have him wait.
Past the bright lake up into the temple,
shoes off, and
my right leg swings me left.
I do survive beside the garden I
Dream Song 50: In a motion of night they massed nearer my post
© John Berryman
In a motion of night they massed nearer my post.
I hummed a short blues. When the stars went out
I studied my weapons system.
Grenades, the portable rack, the yellow spout
of the anthrax-ray: in order. Yes, and most
of my pencils were sharp.
Dream Song 93: General Fatigue stalked in, & a Major-General
© John Berryman
General Fatigue stalked in, & a Major-General,
Captain Fatigue, and at the base of all
pale Corporal Fatigue,
and curious microbes came, came viruses:
and the Court conferred on Henry, and conferred on Henry
the rare Order of Weak.
Dream Song 31: Henry Hankovitch, con guÃtar
© John Berryman
Henry Hankovitch, con guÃtar,
did a short Zen pray,
on his tatami in a relaxed lotos
fixin his mind on nuffin, rose-blue breasts,
and gave his parnel one French kiss;
enslaving himself he withdrew from his blue
Dream Song 64: Supreme my holdings, greater yet my need
© John Berryman
Supreme my holdings, greater yet my need,
thoughtless I go out. Dawn. Have I my cig's,
my flaskie O,
O crystal cock,âmy kneel has gone to seed,â
and anybody's blessing? (Blast the MIGs
for making funble so
Dream Song 42: O journeyer, deaf in the mould, insane
© John Berryman
O journeyer, deaf in the mould, insane
with violent travel & death: consider me
in my cast, your first son.
Would you were I by now another one,
witted, legged? I see you before me plain
(I am skilled: I hear, I see)â
Dream Song 90: Op. posth. no. 13
© John Berryman
In the night-reaches dreamed he of better graces,
of liberations, and beloved faces,
such as now ere dawn he sings.
It would not be easy, accustomed to these things,
to give up the old world, but he could try;
let it all rest, have a good cry.
Dream Song 88: Op. posth. no. 11
© John Berryman
In slack times visit I the violent dead
and pick their awful brains. Most seem to feel
nothing is secret more
to my disdain I find, when we who fled
cherish the knowings of both worlds, conceal
more, beat on the floor,
Dream Song 65: A freaking ankle crabbed his blissful trips
© John Berryman
A freaking ankle crabbed his blissful trips,
this whiskey tastes like California
but is Kentucky,
like Berkeley where he truly worked at it
but nothing broke all nightâno firesâone dawn,
crowding his luck,
Dream Song 110: It was the blue & plain ones. I forget all that
© John Berryman
It was the blue & plain ones. I forget all that.
My own clouds darkening hung.
Besides, it wasn't serious.
They took them in different rooms & fed them lies.
'She admitted you wanted to get rid of it.'
'He told us he told you to.'
Dream Song 23: The Lay of Ike
© John Berryman
This is the lay of Ike.
Here's to the glory of the Grewt Whiteâawkâ
who has been runningâerâerâthings in recentâechâ
in the UnitedâIf your screen is black,
ladies & gentlemen, weâI likeâ
at the Point he was already terrificâsick
Dream Song 133: As he grew famousâah, but what is fame?
© John Berryman
As he grew famousâah, but what is fame?â
he lost his old obsession with his name,
things seemed to matter less,
including the fameâa television team came
from another country to make a film of him
which did not him distress:
Dream Song 58: Industrious, affable, having brain on fire
© John Berryman
Industrious, affable, having brain on fire,
Henry perplexed himself; others gave up;
good girls gave in;
geography was hard on friendship, Sire;
marriages lashed & languished, anguished; dearth of group
and what else had been;
Dream Song 121: Grief is fatiguing. He is out of it
© John Berryman
Grief is fatiguing. He is out of it,
the whole humiliating Human round,
out of this & that.
He made a-many hearts go pit-a-pat
who now need never mind his nostril-hair
nor a critical error laid bare.
Dream Song 94: Ill lay he long, upon this last return
© John Berryman
Ill lay he long, upon this last return,
unvisited. The doctors put everything in the hospital
into reluctant Henry
and the nurses took it out & put it back,
smiling like fiends, with their eternal 'we.'
Henry did a slow burn,
Dream Song 32: And where, friend Quo, lay you hiding
© John Berryman
And where, friend Quo, lay you hiding
across malignant half my years or so?
One evil faery
it was workt night, with amoroso pleasing
menace, the panes shake
where Lie-by-the-fire is waiting for his cream.
Dream Song 84: Op. posth. no. 7
© John Berryman
Plop, plop. The lobster toppled in the pot,
fulfilling, dislike man, his destiny,
glowing fire-red,
succulent, and on the whole becoming what
man wants. I crack my final claw singly,
wind up the grave, & to bed.
Dream Song 99: Temples
© John Berryman
He does not live here but it is the god.
A priest tools in a top his motorbike.
You do not enter.
Us the landscape circles hard abroad,
sunned, stone. Like calls, too low, to like.
Dream Song 51: Our wounds to time, from all the other times
© John Berryman
Our wounds to time, from all the other times,
sea-times slow, the times of galaxies
fleeing, the dwarfs' dead times,
lessen so little that if here in his crude rimes
Henry them mentions, do not hold it, please,
for a putting of man down.
