POEMS FOR SELF THERAPY
For Bernhardt Gottlieb
1.
Stand in front of a mirror
and declare
I am the champ
I am
the champion
(remove shirt or blouse
if that will lend greater credence to your
words and puff up)
Repeat: I am the
champ
have a champion champignon in my crotch
I am a big man on campus
I was not a big man on campus
but I have become a big man off campus
I am a big girl off and on campus
off and on / off and on
Raise an eyebrow—purse your lips
murmur
me a charming scamp
I shall pursue lucrative campaigns
(spoken with quiet resolve)
Toast yourself
A mes Victoires!
with a glass of champagne.
2.
When despondency clogs your throat
coils around your heart
gets you by the ankles
because spouse to spouse correspondency
is not what it used to be
how do you respond?
By taking to drink?
(nicht gut)
By making like a heartless beast?
(nicht gut)
By kicking a subordinate?
(Ausflucht)
If all the voices insist
"Respond to your responsibilities
respond to your responsibilities"
and you reply
perfectly spondaicly
"FUCK! YOU!"
Congratulations—
you have made a start.
Be still
yourself's the thing
wherein you'll catch the power.
3.
Make positive and purposeful proposals
admitting no postponements
or opponency
from yourself or anybody else
to yourself and everybody else
you care for.
As for imposters
expose them.
Despots
puzzle and depose them
with deadly suppositories.
Above all
in the time of repose
propound
superpositions—
try the pseudo-Hellenic postposition
new and exciting juxtapositions
Even a wicked contra-
position
(providing it is not an imposition)
to give and receive
Almighty Love's
sweet depositions.
4.
Equilibrium's part
equanimity the rest
there's no equality
between your iniquities
inadequacies
and your best
and anybody else's
so why equivocate?
sing with them
swing with them
all the way out
to your equator
5.
Your world's
your mind
you're a world
a veritable mindfind
so think the world of your mind
protect it from the maniacs inside and out
the dipso
the klepto
the nympho
yes the nympho and the others
let them be a pale web of reminiscences
not the monuments—mind you—of the world
you are known and know by
the living commentarius
of your mind—this should be worth alot to you
money money money
your mind is.
6.
After removing all clothing and ornaments, dance
in front of a full-length mirror and self-instruct:
"To call this noxious
is nocent to the soul it is
only a ninny would believe it shameful
it is innocent—all of it
if you have to
examine every part of it
until you can pronounce it
innocuous—
this exercise is a bath
against the pernicious
teaching that the things it does
are obnoxious and unclean
that its puissance is a nuisance
it is you and your lover
and our death-defeating nectar."
7.
It makes very good commonsense
to understand yourself as a communicant
in a great communitas
which contains a number
of communities to which you
also contribute
world within
world
within world
a commonplace I know
but remember you are
in some measure measured
by the other men and women
among whom you make your commotion
until death's incommunicado
so make your weal and wealth
communicable.
8.
You must bring
2 such contiguities
as your consciousnesses 1 and 2
into tough contact
without fear of contamination of the tactile
1 that faces the world
by the deep, intangible 2
(or more)
that peeks out and peers up at you
for a tactful pact between them
is the kind of integrity
we call being "together."