Caravansary

By JS Venit

I am trying to balance silence with alarm on behalf of the subliminal because a sign
is positively expressed even if the tree in which it hangs seems distant. Time corners
a defiant Faust in the rural aquarium encircles Proust with catalpas in the dust of another
garden the tapestry streams from the loom to keep the nervous suitors at bay coasts
moan silver roars in the quilted season of its own undoing before I hand you a meaningful
exemplar of love and Spring. In the sky substitution is absolute its odyssey infinite but
we still have to relinquish well maybe a few children in expensive suits alone on the
shore patiently waiting for the ephemeral.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 21, 2018
• ISBN: 9781984573438

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 © 2019 by JS Venit.

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.

The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 12/20/2018

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CONTENTS

PART I

WELCOMING THE STRANGER

ARIAL DAYS

THE REPUBLIC OF SLEEP

BOOKS AND WATER

LESSONS IN READING

THE SOUNDS OF WORDS

THE SLEEP ADVISOR

MON TESTAMENT

SOME THINGS ARE REVERSED

AIRPLANE POEMS

THE CRAZY WOMEN OF SHENZHEN

SPOKEN ENGLISH

WASTED ELGEANCE

ARS POETICA

RHYMES

TOLSTOY’S WIFE

BENEATH THE HOUSES

DREAMING IN BROAD DAYLIGHT

IN THE GLOOM OF PENGUIN EVENINGS

IN THE PENAL COLONY

HAPAX LEGOMENON

SAFE CONDUCT

STUDYING THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE

THE SOUND OF ONE HAND CLAPPING

FOR ALL THE WRONG REASONS

REMEMBERING THE STATUES

STORMY MUSIC

DESERT CLOVER

WHORL

THE POETRY PRESIDENT

IN THE DAYS OF SILENT MOVIES

SECOND ODE TO THE RUSSIAN POETS

CAPITAL

ROUGH JUSTICE

THE FILMS OF OZU

ALADDIN

PERIPHERAL VISION

PART II

GIRLS IN THE RAIN

TROMPE L’OEIL

VIRTUAL LOVE

A COUNTRY OF VAST DESIGN

THE END OF WHOM

FLOATING WEEDS

ON THE BEACH

THE GILDED AGE OF INDIFFERENCE

ODE TO FRANK O’HARA

ACCIDENTAL PRESIDENTS

KAZAN

KAFKA’s POEMS

THE LAST THING I REMEMBER SEEING

JAKOB VON GUTEN

TOKYO STORY

THE STEPS TO THE POOL

DOUBLAGE

LATE SPRING

VOYAGE

MURDERING THE SNOWFLAKES

FLOWERS ON THE WALL

MONO NO AMARE

SILVER AND GOLD

MASHA DASHA SASHA

TWO SHADOWS VIEWING A PHOTOGRAPH

LATE SPRING

HOMELESS

CHICAGO CHARDONNAY

DAVID READING

ABGESANG

ISOTOPES

PAPER SMILES

ROBBER ROBERT

TO AN ANGEL

BLUE DRESS

THE AUSTERITY REPORT

WYSTERIA

BEOWULF

POEM FOR THE 7th OF JULY

CRYING OVER SPILT WORKMEN

BREEZES IN THE WIND

PART III

IN THE TIME OF THE WOLVERINES

THE THICKNESSS OF TIME

RED SKIES IN THE MORNING

POEMS OF THE DEAD

STUFF OF THE ROAD

SWANSONG

METEROLOGY

THE INNER CITY

ILLUSIONS OF THE REAL

NO TIME FOR A TITLE

RHAPSODY IN BEIGE

THE VICAR OF DELFT

HIS OLD SKATES

CINQUE TERRE

GLIMPSES OF THE VIEW OF DELFT

BLACK EYES FIRST

PAINTING SMOKE

CHASTE KISSES

NOTES TO SELF

UNDER THE WILLIAM TREE

OF FIELDS AND HIEROGLYPHICS

SHADOWS IN THE RAIN

THE GOLDEN LANCE

RARE FOOTAGE

SUMMER READING

SHADOW PLANES

AFTER THE STORM

DOMANI E DOPPODOMANI

WEATHER IN THE SKY

THE CLEAN SOIL ACT

THREE O’CLOCK SHADOWS

THE MAYOR OF LVIV FALLS IN LVOV

SNAPSHOTS FROM THE MOON

COLLAGE OF SUMMER

HAPPY FAMILIES

PART IV

THE WHITE LOTUS OF REBELLION

L’ETE DES SOLEILS

VOWELS AND CONSONANTS

ON NOWHERE STREET

PROFESSOR DISMAY

UNOPENED JARS

THE IDIOT

FORGET YOUR LOVE OF VIOLENT STORMS

MALAY COOKING

CAPTURING THE HUNTER

A LA RECHERCHE DE QUELQ’UN D’AUTRE

WHAT IS THE LANGUAGE OF YOUR DREAMS

IN THE RAIN

THE LANGUAGE IN YOUR ROOM

HAND MADE WORDS OF STONE

IF IT WAS STARLIGHT

BY WHICH I MEAN CANARDS

FREE LANDS

HAND MADE EVERYTHINGS

MILLLION DOLLAR MOVIE

THE WINDOWS

THE GIRL IN THE GREEN KIMONO

MEN SHOOT HORSES DEER SHOOT MEN

HUNGARIAN COLORS ON HORSEBACK

RUE DE LA VALLEE

TO THE RAIN

MISSED ENCOUNTERS

IMMUTABLE WEATHER

DIENSTSPRACHE

CAMEOS DE MON ENFANCE

NOMAD GAMES

THE WORLD OF THINGS

PROUST AND TOLSTOY

THE DEATH OF AN ANGEL

LOOKING AT ALBANIA

For David Shapiro poet and friend

PART I

WELCOMING THE STRANGER

For David Shapiro

The Odyssey is all we have

these tattered sheets these

sails escaping like a cat into

the distant air the extra stich

of worry beside you on the

loom time that begins with

your own to die with or desire.

These were the concerns

of our youth: canals rivers

harbors punctuation and

a uniform currency its bright

uniformity like apostrophes

set loose in dark shivering

forests. In the moonlight the

porch sinks ever deeper into

whispers suspended in forsythia

and cedar like the endless

point of being spring.

ARIAL DAYS

The leaves are too green like

frozen beds of bread. Hamburg

weddings again and all that’s left

of the 12th of September like peep

holes into the grown up eyes of

the past. Now gunshots sound out

like rain and fall like salt onto your

shoes. Was this your dream to

discover a frozen country to be

read to there? The time of year

no longer matters and you have

grown indifferent to the wind with

her wild red hair. You open the

random page like a window you

dust down the usher’s empty

chairs.

THE REPUBLIC OF SLEEP

The daughter of the famous

Swedish candlemaker accompanies

the piano with airplane days and

the rain on page 27. Or was that

a sandal maker converting doubt

into shade. There are still too many

missing notes in the wind too many

faults in the desert but when you

finally get home the address on the

doorstep will still be the same sleepy

amber concocted by the cold. Like

bodies at dawn and their half lives

divided by a divided people we the

people rushing to be closer to what

ever it is we choose.

BOOKS AND WATER

The books of the dreary sybaritic

past. Or the past of the dreary books.

Quelle difference! Or the what about

the Scottish Enlightenment. The next

stone bridge of jangling mutes the hubris

of the near and distant