Dreambooks: New and Selected Poems -- 2010-2020

By JS Venit

There are so few new titles. Mornings were bitter bitter music without sounds bitter sounds without music then you brought the skylarks earrings. The truth is slanted like rain you were left floating on a boat the rain where so much is hidden. Light was carried off like finite numbers fresh glimmers of silent nouns remember there is no ‘u’ in that spelling
Italics are useful vowels have no color how beautiful it was to hear them. Was Einstein still listening was the Volga intelligent as gold. In the end you chose the past tense chose chaos grammar and the bloodless murder of a stone. Looked at steadily from the road scissors flew by like cities astrologers flew by like scissors cities flew by like Rimbaud.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 14, 2020
• ISBN: 9781796081954

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 © 2020 by JS VENIT.

Library of Congress Control Number:        2020900606

ISBN:                    Hardcover                     978-1-7960-8196-1

                             Softcover                       978-1-7960-8197-8

                              eBook                           978-1-7960-8195-4

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Rev. date: 01/23/2020

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CASALTA — AUGUST 2018

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CORFU — APRIL 2019

For David Lindsay Martha

and Peter

With love in alphabetical order like Rimbaud’s vowels

CONTENTS

FROM THE WRONG KIND OF SNOW

PUZZLES

TO SYLVIA

TEMPTRESS

COWS AND CROSSES

THE ENEMY OF THE GOOD

THE PHONE BOOTH AT AIX

LACEWORK

THE DOMINANCE ROUNDTABLE

JUSTIFIED MARGINS

NEWS FROM THE AIR

BLANCHE NEIGE

FOR JOHN CLARE

MISS MISS I MISS YOU

PANOPTICON

TOLSTOY’S DEATH

DISTINGUISHED GHOSTS OF THE ILLINI

THE MAN ON HORSEBACK

TURNING THE MOON OVER IN ITS SLEEP

MONTALE

NEGOTIATING WITH THE HARBORMASTER

UNITED NOMADS

BARBARIANS AT THE CRADLE

FACES

RUINS

HEARSAY

OMNIBUS SCRIBBLES

SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS

PARATXIS

THE SADNESS OF LEOPARDI

THE BEGINNNING OF INFINITY

THE CRITIQUE OF PURE SEEMING

SOUVENIRS OF DON QUIXOTE

THE DRIVEN SNOW

THE THIEF OF SLEEP

CATS SLEEP

STRANGLERS’ REST

A FABLE

SOMBRE GUESTS

THE WINES OF FRIUL

LA PIA DAMA

KING MIDAS

OUR MUTUAL FRIEND

ILLUMINATIONS

ANTI-MATTER

THE WRONG KIND OF SNOW

MADRIGAL

PIGS’ TROTTERS NEAR THE RIALTO

THE REPUBLIC OF DREAMS

THE BEGINNING OF INFINITY NO. 3

LA VEUVE RIMBAUD

INBAL ET AMBRE

THE MIXTURE DREAMER

THE GUARDIAN OF SOULS

NINETEEN RANDOM EPIPHANIES

THE MOUSE QUEEN

TO THE SKY

FROM L’AIR DU TEMPS

THE WOLF AND THE SUFI

SKYWRITING IN THE NIGHT AT LEIPZIG

LEVIN’S BREAKFAST

LES DEUX ALICE

THE PAROLE EVIDENCE RULE

L’AIR DU TEMPS

SECOND-HAND RESTAURANTS BESIDE THE DANUBE

DIRGE

AFTERNOONS IN THE COUNTRY

JACOB’S LADDER

THE CLOUDS WILL SAVE US

THE LOW COUNTRIES

THE AFTERLIFE

DÉJÀ VU

LE CHATEAU DES MORTS

WASHINGTON CROSSING THE DELAWARE WITH TENNYSON AT NIGHT

AS PROMISED

DEAD SOULS

THE DEATH OF LI BAO

WANLING’S FIFTH LETTER

DIARY OF A THIEF

THE WAY

SEVENTEEN STEPS TO A GREATER WHATEVER

DOUBLE HANNAHS

L’UFFIZI

ES WAR EINMAL

IF THE SNOW FELL ALL AT ONCE

ARIETTA

EARLIER VERSIONS OF OURSELVES

VISITATIONS OF THE MUSE

THE COST OF LIVING

NARRATIVE EVENTS

SOLSTICE

WHITE ECOLOGICAL ARTISTS’ PAPER

L/S/M/F/T

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST

WAR AND PEACE

SULLA MARE

IO WIND

WHAT HANNAH SAID

SPLENDID POCKETS

FAMILY TREES

MOMENTOS

COLLAGES

TO MALLARMÉ

FOR HANNAH

LÉCOLE DES PRINCESSES

PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG GIRL

THE RETIRED BRIDE

GHOSTS

GIVING AWAY THE BRIDE

SOME CLOOSING WORDS

FROM THE END OF DREAMING

MARIA STARDUST FROM THE AIR

THE RAVELED SLEEVE OF CARE

THE ONE THING ABOUT AMERICA

THE PLEASURES OF BEING INVISIBLE

ALONE WITH AMERICA

WUTHERING HEIGHTS

THE VILLAGE OF INTENSIVE SLEEP

MESSAGES FROM THE GODS

ONE BLIND MOUSE

BARBARIANS AT THE GATES

LOST WIDOWS OF SHANGHAI

THE DEVIL’S METAL

THE SORROWS OF CHINESE WOMEN

RABBBITS TO ACHERON

PROUST’S DEATH

VICTIMS OF THE WIND

BLANK PAGES

FACTS ON THE GROUND

AFTER LUNCH

WATCHING HANNAH PLAY

GOETHE’S WAR AIMS

MALLARMÉ TONIGHT

THE KING OF THE ANTARCTIC

NORTHERN LIGHTS

THRENE FOR A DAY

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 IVES

WHAT INVESTORS REALLY WANT TO KNOW

THE QUALITY OF LIFE

MOST AND LOST OR LOVE AND MOVE

OPUS POSTHUMOUS

WHEN WE WERE GREEN

HIDDEN LAYERS

HER LAST WEEK ON EARTH

THINGS WILL CHANGE PERHAPS

PEBBLES IN THE SAND

AND THEN

LARGE GLASSES

THE HUNTER’S MOUTH

SHE

CALLIGRAPHY AND RAIN

JAZZ GOAL

THE VALISE

NEW THEORIES OF HARM

FARM INTERRUPTIONS

SILENTLY OVER KONINGSWINTER

MOVING PICTURES

NEGATIVE ASKING FORM

THE CHATEAU BONJOUR

THE WAY YOU ARE REMEMBERED

PORTRAIT OF A LIFE

RAPUNZEL

ETERNITY VIA THE STARS

SIGNS OF PREMATURE AGEING IN CHILDREN

UNITED STARS

BARRIERS TO ENTRY AND EXPANSION

THE ONLY WAY TO TRAVEL

BREEZE MARINE

THE SUBJECT OF YOUR ESSAY

A QUIET EVENING IN THE COUNTRY

LOVE POEM

WE JUST HEAR WHISPERS

WAR AND PIECES

EATING THE STARS WITH YOU IN VENICE

ENCORE MALLARMÉ

SHE ISN’T THERE

LATEST SORTIES

THE TOOLS OF IGNORANCE

EQUESTRIAN STATUES

THE MUSEUM OF SLEEP

THE END OF DREAMING

PAPER SCISSORS ROCK

FROM THIS PAGE LEFT BLANK

ABOUT THESE POEMS

ALL THE FUTURES IN THE WORLD

ANOTHER DREAM

ALLAH’S TEARS

SONNET CORDIALE

THREE BIG CEDARS

NOTES FROM THE ETHEREAL PAST

RAW METAPHYSICAL TEARS

OYSTERS OF THE BROWINING PAST

TO AN OLD POEM RAINING IN VENICE

CHEVAL

VRAISEMBLANCE

THE AZOV SEA

THE PERILS OF PAULINE

SPRING FLOWERS WITH TRAPEZE

FOUR PROVERBS

BLUE AZUL

DARKER MATTERS

LES VIES ANTÉRIEURES

NOTES TOWARD A SUPREME INDIFFERENCE

LANGUAGES WITHOUT ROOTS

SUSPENDED ANIMATION

BONNE NUIT MA PRINCESSE

PORTRAITS IN THE AIR

ROBERT WALSER

CACAPHONY’S VIINTAGE YEARS

WHAT THE LAST PAGE TURNED INTO

EATING THE TRANSLATIONS

BACH AT MIDNIGHT

MOI-MÊME

THE UNICORN

LA DICTÉE

NOTES AT THE END OF THE ROSE

SONGS OF THE CLOUDS

ON READING YOUR POEMS AGAIN

WALLET

FOR YOUR SNOW

SHORT LINES

COLLAGE

FOOTPRINTS

ABOVE FREEZING

HANNAH’S MAGIC POTION

ENGLISH SPELLING

THE FIREFLIES IN YOUR HAIR

PANTOMIME

THE HUNTER GRACCHUS

MULTIPLE CHOICES

THE MINISTRY OF CLEAN AIR

FIRE AND LIFE

DUST ON THE COUNTER

A PRAYER TO BE NAMED

ASHES

KODAK

FREEDONIA

THE MOTHER OF HIS COUNTRY

QUATRAIN

THE FINE PRINT

COSMOGRAPHIA

SCENES IN THE COUNTRY

RADIO DAYS

SONNET IN SILENCE AND C MINOR

FUGUE MARITIME

THE UNSMILING CLOUDS

UNENCUMBERED TITLES

THE NOISE OF SILENCE

MEN ON HORSEBACK

THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT

OUT AND OVER

DOING BY LEAVING

NEITHER HERE NOR THERE

INSIDE THE POETRY FACTORY

SOME THINGS WE MAY NEED TO DISCUSS

RECIPES FOR SPRING

MAHLER’S ELEVENTH

BUSINESS HURRICANES

TO THE CHANGING WEATHER IN VENICE

CLOUD FORMATIONS

RARE EDITIONS

PROGRAMATIC MUSIC

FROM CARAVANSARY

WELCOMING THE STRANGER

ARIAL DAYS

THE REPUBLIC OF SLEEP

LESSONS IN READING

THE SOUNDS OF WORDS

MON TESTAMENT

AIRPLANE POEMS

THE CRAZY WOMEN OF SHENZHEN

SPOKEN ENGLISH

ARS POETICA

RHYMES

TOLSTOY’S WIFE

BENEATH THE HOUSES

DREAMING IN BROAD DAYLIGHT

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

DESERT CLOVER

THE POETRY PRESIDENT

ROUGH JUSTICE

THE FILMS OF OZU

ALADDIN

PERIPHERAL VISION

GIRLS IN THE RAIN

A COUNTRY OF VAST DESIGN

VIRTUAL LOVE

FLOATING WEEDS

THE GILDED AGE OF INDIFFERENCE

ACCIDENTAL PRESIDENTS

KAZAN

KAFKA’s POEMS

JAKOB VON GUTEN

TOKYO STORY

THE STEPS TO THE POOL

LATE SPRING

MURDERING THE SNOWFLAKES

FLOWERS ON THE WALL

MASHA DASHA SASHA

TWO SHADOWS VIEWING A PHOTOGRAPH

LATE SPRING

DAVID READING

ABGESANG

PAPER SMILES

ROBBER ROBERT

TO AN ANGEL

BLUE DRESS

THE AUSTERITY REPORT

WYSTERIA

BEOWULF

POEM FOR THE SEVENTH

CRYING OVER SPILT WORKMEN

BREEZES IN THE WIND

IN THE TIME OF THE WOLVERINES

THE THICKNESSS OF TIME

RED SKIES IN THE MORNING

POEMS OF THE DEAD

SWANSONG

METEROLOGY

THE INNER CITY

ILLUSIONS OF THE REAL

NO TIME FOR A TITLE

RHAPSODY IN BEIGE

THE VICAR OF DELFT

CINQUE TERRE

BLACK EYES FIRST

CHASTE KISSES

NOTES TO SELF

UNDER THE WILLIAM TREE

OF FIELDS AND HIEROGLYPHICS

SHADOWS IN THE RAIN

RARE FOOTAGE

DOMANI E DOPPODOMANI

THREE O’CLOCK SHADOWS

SNAPSHOTS FROM THE MOON

COLLAGE OF SUMMER

HAPPY FAMILIES

THE WHITE LOTUS OF REBELLION

LÉTÉ DES SOLEILS

VOWELS AND CONSONANTS

ON NOWHERE STREET

UNOPENED JARS

FORGET YOUR LOVE OF VIOLENT STORMS

CAPTURING THE HUNTER

À LA RECHERCHE DE QUELQ’UN D’AUTRE

THE LANGUAGE IN YOUR ROOM

BY WHICH I MEAN CANARDS

FREE LANDS

MILLLION DOLLAR MOVIE

THE GIRL IN THE GREEN KIMONO

HUNGARIAN CLOUDS ON HORSEBACK

IMMUTABLE WEATHER

NOMAD GAMES

PROUST AND TOLSTOY

LOOKING AT ALBANIA

FROM RUE DE LA VALLÉE

IN THE POETRY KINGDOM

MAHLER’S DAUGHTERS

LILLE IN THE RAIN

VOICES OF SPRING

CLOSELY GUARDED SECRETS

INTANGIBLES

PROOF OF THE HOMECOMING

THE LATE SONATAS

POEM WITHOUT WORDS

UNKNOWN LONELY POETS

THE LAST OYSTER

THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE

MAGICAL REALISM

RECENT WEEKENDS IN HAVANA

MORE POEMS WITHOUT WORDS

TEAPERSONS

ON COPERNICUS STREET

BIDING AND GOBLIN

THE POEMS OF APOLLINAIRE

OMEN

IN THE TIME OF ROCKS

THE FUTURE TENSE

ELEGANT SOLUTIONS

THE HOUSE OF ERRANDS

HANGING THE KAISER

HOUSES FILLED WITH A STRANGER’S BOOKS

DOMESTICATION

WATERING THE STONES

THE LOST MUSES

VENETIAN WELLS

UNEXPECTED WHISPERS

MY LIFE BY SOMEBODY ELSE

STERBEN UND SCHREIBEN

PANORAMA IN BLACK

SWALLOWS

THE ORIENT EXPRESS

SLEEPERS

SEVEN MOMENTS IN SPRING

VILLANELLE

HEALTH WARNINGS

THE BROTHERS GRIMM

ANONYMOUS NEIGHBORS

WATER NOISES

APHASIA

OLD ZEN KOAN

SONATINA ITALIANA

ZERO CHANCE OF RAIN

LEARNING TO PRONOUNCE YOUR NAME

LATTICES

SONGS WITHOUT MUSIC

CAPTAIN MALESTROM

WHILE ENGLAND SLEPT

UNSHELTERED AND UNHEARD OF

ONE OF MANY

MEMORABILIA

CLOUD PORTRAITS

QUEEN JULIANA’S CASTLE

LA PLÉIADE

EVENING SONNET

YES AND NO

SAILING TO SCOTLAND

THOUGHTS AND RIVERS

LIFE AS AN OSTRICH

ODE TO HUSSERL

WEDDINGS IN THE COUNTRY

N’EST-CE PAS

CHERNOBYL FOR THE BOURGEOISIE

CASTLES IN THE SAND

SNAPDRAGONS

MISCELLANEOUS IMPRESSIONS

INDIGENOUS MUSIC

IN MEDIAS RES

STARS AND ABBOTS

AUTUMN LINGERIE

WILD ROSES

THE POSTERITY PAPERS

SUMMER HOUSES

WHERE DREAMS MAKE SENSE

KINDERTOTENLIEDER

THE THIEF OF LOVE

SPRING DRESSES

MAN WITHOUT A SONNET

MY FAVOURITE ROOM

NEW POEMS

THE POETRY OF SILENCE

EARTH IN SNOW

TALL ROCK IN A STRANGE PLACE

WINTER AND RILKE

THE VENTRILOQUIST

WEATHER

MEETING DOSTOEVSKY

SILENCE

FACTS IN THE AIR

ALSATIAN EYES

THE END OF MEMORY

LE DOUANIER ROUSSEAU

HOMONYMS

STEALING SNOW

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF TEARS

THE LAST DAYS OF KHRUSHCHEV

FROM THE WRONG KIND OF SNOW

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PUZZLES

The penguin’s feet

and the zebra’s head

are missing the river

follows overhead like

scattered ice and light

flickers into constant

lamentation. I have

only the beginning or

the end to return to

the things that aren’t

like us anymore their

lines unhooked like

spidery time and the

greedy language of

the omniscient dead

who know as ancient

lovers do how far light

travels and that writing

this to you is like watching

cats in a snowy garden.

TO SYLVIA

You grew up in the Bronx

in a puerile two-story marriage

stifled hating your father

while I waited outside quietly

strangling time haranguing the

future slowly maturing. Maybe

it was really in Krakow where

in winter the snow piles up on

Copernicus’ house. The stars

were shining there like quiet

rooms in the dreamy future of

his great mind the painter more

or less of the feathery clouds

when your boats took off like

high street boots in their heyday

leading you on like bravura.

We got a big hoot out of life

then sometimes even denying

the facts pointing to you stubbornly

from the insistent distance to cast

away the pain or at least the soft

part of. How could we know

what was waiting to happen

what would be left of our luck

or the esperanto of this river

that follows you like a sharpened

knife or whatever comes from

the woods and is normal like

a disease in the temple closet

or the rain that tramples on the

leaves after the wind tears

them out of your hair or eyes.

You nearly died once thinking

about this at the Minerva tram

stop and then later you really did.

Now we have to wait for you

alone at the quiet end of the village

like mushrooms asleep at night

where sleep waits to wake us or

points at you a little more

distinctly from the other side.

TEMPTRESS

Sherman never said "War

is hell." He said "War is cruelty

and you cannot refine it."

Unless you happen to have

some candlewax or a bolt of

torpor hanging deftly from

the mistletoe which makes

everything today seem so

lightly crisp.

What he did to Atlanta near

the bearpits with their crinkly

joy requires no verbs. He just

followed devotion like books

bound with ghosts and their

gentle sighs roaming from place

to place in time from plage to

plage or plagues suffering fools

gently in their outrage the

spruced-up forest waiting

for things to clear.

No tooth contradicts the stars

he said. That is to say in darkness

and complicity like a house at the

end of a siege. Had he given any

thought to time or peace? Oh yes

to the farm and Ohio the brown

sorrow hastens.

COWS AND CROSSES

It was on your watch that

it all started the scented trees

dragging their feet one foot

after the weary other pale

as stucco the dwindling ice

belonging to others after the

harvest. The New Age arriving

in atoms of porous steam. Time

to hand me another dream or

a furry mammal.

Feeling under the weather

or at least probing she explains

there is more to it than knowing

how to run and having a heart

subtly arrayed like a field of ebony

peppers. Indeed my agenda has

identified three additional items:

pricing committee meetings and

information which is both alert

and quiet now circling the past

like the Rhone or the Isar as it

should be.

In the end the verdict will surely

read ahistorical or thoughtlessly

grazing. But variation is the key

if not its essence. The Magi arrive

bearing a new technology with

which to bury deficits and spin

layers of endurable glass slippers.

The firm is well known to my

spell check which is patrolling

the frontier to the north to ensure

we are not mindlessly enchanted.

THE ENEMY OF THE GOOD

For Rosanna Warren

They spoke kitten on the pier

in its tinseled youth. Nothing

could be more propitious than

their decorative footsteps. At

the edges white out and polite

chatter ruled by conventions in

the fog while the secret police

waited quietly beside the lint

pressed for centuries like ghost

writers into the villagers’ willing

ears polishing their carrots encouraging

you to stop by or call. The race

miraculously headed for the exits

debris were acquitted and time

became everyone’s favorite utensil

again. The stream of whatever you

are thinking rushes over the stones

like the plasma of long-distance

calls. We fasted with a brood of

otters on unlimited horizons. The

Miscreant Rag came naturally to rest.

Or was that just the famous song?

THE PHONE BOOTH AT AIX

The magician had left his strange

wares on the shore again. They

asked about his citizenship date

of birth recent trades use of irony

etc. There was a sense of being

sustained by temptation and the

indelicate clutter living in secret

where domesticity had pushed

the heavy gate open connecting

the battery to try our mistakes.

Time became important again like

the sound a bridge makes in your

sleep when its unpainted edge

gets into bed with you. How do

you tighten nothing? The house

grew wary. We blushed and learned

from the obvious when its eyes

suddenly filled with smoke and the

wind with a voice connecting its

brightness to another era. Fresh

amendments are on their way like

milder versions passing in judgment.

The future will be more compressed.

Or maybe it will all blow over.

LACEWORK

According to the guidebooks

they usually put witches into

the landscape mostly in forests.

They call it rustification. Of course

they were all cannibals and the

gingerbread was only a cover.

Strange rites at midnight even

if it was only one witch to a forest

and she an especially old one

infirm half blind living on home

assistance with her scarred book

of recipes dogs’ ears scraps of

refrains refinements she couldn’t

remember or tell a stick from

a carrot an elixir from a rattle

a pig from a flying carpet.

THE DOMINANCE ROUNDTABLE

We should try to be less

I saw her this morning

inclined to sleep and then

later in my sleep transforming

the inaudible to mistranslated

sleep

instead of standing around

in the nervous language of

monopsony

the radiant don’t dance or fade

like birds’ feet in the snow

or Gretel’s crumbs but grimmer

and more likely to dissemble

in the spirit of transparency

instead of standing around

in the nervous language of

monopsony

of all the sheathes gathering

hemlock to bear false witness

and/or foreclose these persona

worry me

instead of standing around

in the nervous language of

monopsony

JUSTIFIED MARGINS

Here things are budding

the fast spring hurries on

like a brook the sounds the

earth makes arrive in a hurry

like the ability to think and

dust scatters its furniture

documents thicken like gnats

in a whirlwind.

No house or harbor is safe

but each recluse commands

its diverting surface beside

the numbness dwelling in

the driving mist.

I am slowly learning to