from “Barge”
IX.
Just like a poem rose the building
Pure in the evening, its modern angles
Highlighted by a halo of glowing cloud
Backed by an evening sky with just
The palest touch of blue
A beautiful homeless drag queen sitting
On the sidewalk, matching that other
Homeless queen, dressed in pink
Every day, even in the dead of winter
Sitting with her things in the same spot
And the people in the evening speaking
Such sweet things to one another
“Thank you so much for dinner”
“Oh, it was just a pleasure”
The energy is all and nothing
This poem is a machine for writing
Poems, and as I think that I realize
It will one day break down and stop
Writing poems, but that day I will
Find another machine and friend
— Vincent Katz
originally in Shampoo # 29
Vincent Katz will be the guest at a New School poetry forum tonight (November 19) at 6:30 in room 510 of 66 West 12 Street in NYC. Katz, author of Black Mountain College: An Experiment, will read and comment on such Black Mountain poets as Robert Creeley, Charles Olson, and Robert Duncan.