The End of Dreaming

By JS Venit

In this his tenth collection of poems, JS Venit continues his strange encounters, finding a new depth as in the Museum of Sleep.

After Labor won the election, Clem Atlee became PM. The surprised emcee staggers into the heat, driving squirrels downhill, delivering sheet music posthumous addresses more cracks in the coalfields. We walk into the blight of spring on the border somewhere between the Vistula and Colorado candlefish rise to adorn the outlet. Are these the only shadows that we know? They come from a different place like a country beyond some vague defensive distance to the sea. And yet they seem to know who we are, that weve been here before, that we come from very far away.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 30, 2015
• ISBN: 9781514411230

JS Venit

JS Venit was born in New York and emigrated to Belgium in 1980 where he lives and works. His poems have been published in the Partisan review, the American Poetry review, Literary Imagination and the Little Magazine. This is Mr. Venits eleventh collection of poems.

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Copyright © 2015 by JS Venit.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2015915876

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-5144-1125-4

              Softcover       978-1-5144-1124-7

              eBook            978-1-5144-1123-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Rev. date: 10/07/2015

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CONTENTS

I

MARIA STARDUST FROM THE AIR

THE RAVELED SLEEVE OF CARE

THE ONE THING ABOUT AMERICA

THE PLEASURES OF BEING INVISIBLE

PHILOSOPHY IN EUROPE

CLOUDS AT NIGHT

MNEMONIC DEVICES

ALONE WITH AMERICA

THESE STRANGE LITTLE POEMS

MUCH NICER THAN PALERMO

THE X FACTOR

ANOTHER DREAM

VARIATIONS ON A SCRIBE

WUTHERING HEIGHTS

THE VILLAGE OF INTENSIVE SLEEP

LINES

MESSAGES FROM THE GODS

LONG CONFUSING DREAMS

FIRE AND NIGHT

ONE BLIND MOUSE

BARBARIANS AT THE GATES

LOST WIDOWS OF SHANGHAI

THE DEVIL’S METAL

FORBIDDEN DREAMS

THE SORROWS OF CHINESE WOMEN

WHAT THE WIND DID TO THE NEWSPAPER

NORTHEASTERN OBSTACLE POEM

RABBBITS TO ACHERON

WINTER READING

PROUST’S DEATH

VICTIMS OF THE WIND

BEWILDERED TREES

BLANK PAGES

FACTS ON THE GROUND

MANTUA

AFTER LUNCH

YOUR STORY

WATCHING HANNAH PLAY

GOETHE’S WAR AIMS

THE OTTOMANS ARE FALLING

SHOOTING THE BREEZE

MALLARME TONIGHT

THE KING OF THE ANTARCTIC

CASALTA

II

POPULAR MECHANICS

NORTHERN LIGHTS

THRENE FOR A DAY

COUNTRY HOUSES

THE KAISER IN HOLLAND

WHAT WE HAVE LEFT UNDONE

CABANNA CABINE

THE READING

LIGHT WINTER SLEEP

PALER SHADES OF GREY

ASTRAL GARDENS

ALL THUNDRESTORMS ARE LOCAL

VERTICAL FRIDAYS

SOUTHERN COMFORTS

UNTITLED EVENINGS

NIGHT STARS

BLACK OLIVES FOR CHARLES SIVES

WHAT INVESTORS REALLY WANT TO KNOW

PALLADIUM

THE QUALITY OF LIFE

MOST AND LOST OR LOVE AND MOVE

OPUS POSTHUMOUS

WHEN WE WERE GREEN

HIDDEN LAYERS

SOMETHING TO START WITH

WHY MILAN

HOW BEST TO MOURN THEM

HER LAST WEEK ON EARTH

WHAT WE LEFT BEHIND

THE ARCHIPELAGO OF DREAMS

L’ECOLE DES PONTS ET CHAUSSEES

THINGS WILL CHANGE PERHAPS

ZONA NOTTE

PEBBLES IN THE SAND

MINIATURES

AND THEN

LARGE GLASSES

THE YELLOW PERCH

APRES SLEEP

TAKE AND BRING

THE HUNTER’S MOUTH

SOUPLAND AND SOAPLAND

SHE

CALLIGRAPHY AND RAIN

ERRATA

STRAW AND HAY

INDOOR READING

ROSES

III

L’ANNO PROSSIMO L’ANNO SCORSO

JAZZ GOAL

ADAM SMITH

THE VALISE

NEW THEORIES OF HARM

FARM INTERRUPTIONS

FAUST 2015

YOUR THING ABOUT THE SNOW

SILENTLY OVER KONINGSWINTER

GREY SQUIRRELS IN THE COUNTRY

MOVING PICTURES

NEGATIVE ASKING FORM

BAKERS CAN’T BE CHOOSERS

THE CHATEAU BONJOUR

ON THINGS STREET

RESTAURANTS ALONG THE DANUBE

RAPUNZEL

THE WAY YOU ARE REMEMBERED

PORTRAIT OF A LIFE

ETERNITY VIA THE STARS

THE TREATY OF BREDA

SIGNS OF PREMATURE AGEING IN CHILDREN

BARRIERS TO ENTRY AND EXPANSION

THE ONLY WAY TO TRAVEL

UNITED STARS

THE PALL GIRL

THE TEARS OF THINGS

BREEZE MARINE

THE SUBJECT OF YOUR ESSAY

A QUIET EVENING IN THE COUNTRY

ANOTHER STORY

DAYLIGHT SAVINGS

ASPECTS OF THE AFTERLIFE

LOVE POEM

WE JUST HEAR WHISPERS

WAR AND PIECES

EATING THE STARS WITH YOU IN VENICE

WHY THERE ARE NO ADVERBS HERE

ENCORE MALLARME

MIGRATORY BIRDS

SHE ISN’T THERE

BEADS OF GLASS

‘H’ AS IN FRAULEIN

SUFI MECUM

ELIXIR ELICIT EXIT

COUNTESS HOHEMBS

LATEST SORTIES

THE CLOUDS AT SAINT-CLOUD

IDAHO

THE TOOLS OF IGNORANCE

RIDERLESS DREAMS

EQUESTRIAN STATUES

THE MUSEUM OF SLEEP

THE END OF DREAMING

PAPER SCISSORS ROCK

POUR MOMO ET HANNAH

I

MARIA STARDUST FROM THE AIR

Ariel you should know better

than most. Today the left hand

speaks from the air of formless

things the thoughts of a cloud

speeding across the unguarded

verandas of the night. Too few

judges in this mountainous land

stand shoulder to shoulder beside

the dulcimer and sing hearts building

in the shadows of a perfect life.

The local imposters always got

it right down to dreaming their

magnetic dreams scattering fish

like manna in the slippery valley

spreading confusion before their

rivals in the streets but that won’t

destroy everything tout à fait.

THE RAVELED SLEEVE OF CARE

We want and need clear data absent

buyers and sellers as to how to balance

their demands to cover our needs like

a warm blanket of snow but without its

blurring hesitation. These discussions

are invariably close but the stones will

be covered and coaxed into the global

legal post like an avalanche lacking a new

direction. A passing non sequitur greets

us like an abandoned tenant. Because

we are small there are too many mistakes.

Vague music drifting in through the sand

like a breezy wave. You tilt the meadows

die ferns wilt the Decembrists freeze and

years later the Czar unexpectedly frees

the serfs. The big firms were all part of

it at the time and they said no more

disagreements.

THE ONE THING ABOUT AMERICA

In my mouth there are so

many poems and a rainbow

like the darkness and light

and the road that I know

is as simple as falling asleep

and moving toward you unborn

but filled with dreams that

don’t move but change the

way somewhere in a field

a child suddenly rises from

its knees and falls in love

with a new pair of shoes.

THE PLEASURES OF BEING INVISIBLE

Some things have changed

for the better in the sky like

lace and paperless homework

looking toward the moon as

it fattens like an epigram in

space. I suppose we’ll travel

backwards there like twins

that the sentence will