Rue De La Vallee

By J S Venit

You should see the days here the weather is useless gentle rain when the focus should be on irrigation but there is still time to do nothing to sit here and be quietly bitten and that was all you had to tell them that the things we were offered offend the misery of history with us and our own surroundings. Language runs off with all of last week preceding us into the haze like an arabesque. The raddichio are eternal. My horse said it would go faster and dies in a Russian novel under the catalpas beside which they said everything was broken.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 16, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796065077

J S 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 Partisan Review, The American Poetry Review, Literary Imagination and the Little Magazine. This is Mr. Venit's thirteenth collection of poems.

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Copyright © 2019 by JS Venit.

Library of Congress Control Number:    2019916047

ISBN:                  Hardcover                        978-1-7960-6509-1

                            Softcover                           978-1-7960-6508-4

                            eBook                                978-1-7960-6507-7

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.

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: 10/14/2019

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CONTENTS

I

IN THE POETRY KINGDOM

MAHLER’S DAUGHTERS

LILLE IN THE RAIN

THE CRANES ARE FLYING

THE KEYS TO THE VILLA

IN SEARCH OF LAND IN SEARCH OF TITLES

VOICES OF SPRING

CLOSELY GUARDED SECRETS

INTANGIBLES

THE AMBASSADORS OF SLEEP

PROOF OF THE HOMECOMING

TIME ON THE INSTALLMENT PLAN

THE LATE SONATAS

CHASING RAINBOWS

LISTENTING TO SCHUBERT

RETURN OF THE MAGI

BAROQUE CONCERTOS

POEM WITHOUT WORDS

LA MAISON DU SOMMEIL

UNKNOWN LONELY POETS

USCITA

THE LAST OYSTER

THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE

MAGICAL REALISM

EXCHANGING FRAGMENTS

RECENT WEEKENDS IN HAVANA

MORE POEMS WITHOUT WORDS

SECRETES CHINOISES

EMPHASIS ON THE UNICORN

ALLEGRA

TEAPERSONS

ON COPERNICUS STREET

TO HAVE AND NOT TO HAVE

CONTINUING VENICE

II

BIDING AND GOBLIN

LEAVING CANCUN

THE POEMS OF APOLLINAIRE

THE GOLDEN THREADS

OMEN

IN THE TIME OF ROCKS

DINNER WITH CATHEDRALS

WATCHFUL FARMERS

THE FUTURE TENSE

ELEGANT SOLUTIONS

THE HOUSE OF ERRANDS

HANGING THE KAISER

UNCLE VANYA

HOUSES FILLED WITH A STRANGER’S BOOKS

DOMESTICATION

THE RESTLESS SEA

IN THE RAIN MUSEUM

WATERING THE STONES

EATING THE SUN ALIVE

THE LOST MUSES

VENETIAN WELLS

FINAL MATTERS

UNEXPECTED WHISPERS

COLD IMAGINED PLACES

MY LIFE BY SOMEBODY ELSE

STERBEN UND SCHREIBEN

PANORAMA IN BLACK

THE LOTTERY OF BABYLON

MADAME ESPION

BRIEF SONATA FOR SPRING AND OBOE

SWALLOWS

III

BRUSSELS SUMMERS

THE ORIENT EXPRESS

SLEEPERS

FROM THE AIR

SEVEN MOMENTS IN SPRING

VILLANELLE

HEALTH WARNINGS

THE BROTHERS GRIMM

ANONYMOUS NEIGHBORS

WATER NOISES

APHASIA

REFRACTIONS

TURNING PAGES

OLD ZEN KOAN

MEDIEVAL ANIMAL TRIALS

SONATINA ITALIANA

MODERN FAMILIES

AN DIE MUSIK

DREAMERS

ZERO CHANCE OF RAIN

LEARNING TO PRONOUNCE YOUR NAME

LATTICES

SONGS WITHOUT MUSIC

CAPTAIN MALESTROM

IV

WHILE ENGLAND SLEPT

UNSHELTERED AND UNHEARD OF

ONE OF MANY

INTO THE GATHERING NIGHT

GEWUTZTRAMINER

LETTERS FROM A FOOL

MEMORABILIA

STARLIGHT

CLOUD PORTRAITS

QUEEN JULIANA’S CASTLE

LA PLEIADE

EVENING SONNET

YES AND NO

SAILING TO SCOTLAND

THOUGHTS AND RIVERS

LES OMBRES ERRANTES

SOUTH OF THE DEVIL

LIFE AS AN OSTRICH

POEM WITHOUT A MULE

ODE TO HUSSERL

LOUISIANA

WEDDINGS IN THE COUNTRY

N’EST-CE PAS

POEM WITHOUT A RIVER

CHERNOBYL FOR THE BOURGEOISIE

IN THE MONSOON SEASON

CASTLES IN THE SAND

SNAPDRAGONS

MISCELLANEOUS IMPRESSIONS

INDIGENOUS MUSIC

IN MEDIAS RES

STARS AND ABBOTS

RIDING WEALTH

THE GIFT OF THE EMOJI

THE PENELOPE CHAPTER

V

AUTUMN LINGERIE

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

WILD ROSES

LE PASSE SIMPLE

THE POSTERITY PAPERS

SUMMER HOUSES

WHERE DREAMS MAKE SENSE

CHERRIES IN THE SUN

EPIGRAPH

SMALL CHANGE

KINDERTOTENLIEDER

THE THIEF OF LOVE

SPRING DRESSES

CORFU CLOUDS

MAN WITHOUT A SONNET

MY FAVOURITE ROOM

I

IN THE POETRY KINGDOM

In the poetry kingdom a gentle

rain is starting to fall like perhaps

In the poetry kingdom there

are holes in the trees and the olives

In the poetry kingdom you can

find a new life

In the poetry kingdom the internet

is broken

In the poetry kingdom there are

no homeless mice

In the poetry kingdom your inbox

is always empty’

The roads and wine

flow in the poetry kingdom

In the poetry kingdom the tress

release their perfume at night

In the poetry kingdom we are

ruthlessly bitten

In the poetry kingdom the stars

are shining

In the poetry kingdom there are

lacerations

In the poetry kingdom we are

ashamed of the sun

In the poetry kingdom the king

just apologized and fled

In the poetry kingdom oceans

are calling

In the poetry kingdom beggars

are a form of adornment

In the poetry kingdom tears

have their reasons

In the poetry kingdom ghosts

know better

In the poetry kingdom it

feels belated

It can go on forever

in the poetry kingdom.

MAHLER’S DAUGHTERS

They are adrift like cream puffs

in the Alps or clouds as if Venice

never counted or softer voices that

have come unmoored like hills or

the poet of unconsolidated loves

and used furniture salesmen. So

now it slowly quiets down no more

thunder no more electricity. Each

birthday has a different sound even

if the bells ring in their persistent

E flat minor.