Silence

By JS Venit

We all live in boxes. In the underworld too many vendettas.Persephone waits but Rainer and Marina are tired of waiting you probably won’t see them again this year. Meet me at Grizzly Corners near the Villa of Forgiveness if you know how to duel. And if you don’t open the tired armsof these hills to the remorse of Macbeth and Iago. Iago had none he was strictly in the villainy business somewhere in Hungary igniting rainbows with the balance of payments. Macbeth clearly missed his chance so turn again burnished wood refrigerate everything batteries live forever.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 24, 2020
• ISBN: 9781664131880

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.

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.

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Rev. date: 09/24/2020

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

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CONTENTS

PART I

THE POETRY OF SILENCE

KAMARINSKAYA

EARTH IN SNOW

ADAM VS LOVE

VENTRILOQUIST

WEATHER

MEETING DOSTOEVSKY

FIRST LINES

TOLSTOY’S WIVES

IN A PORTRAIT OF FEATEHRS

SILENCE

FACTS IN THE AIR

RED SKIES RED LEAVES

ALSATIAN EYES

THE END OF MEMORY

NOTES EN PASSANT

THE NOSE

STEALING SNOW

CONVERSATIONS WITH PROUST

A BED OF LEAVES

ROWANBERRIES

BURNING DACHAS

LETTERS TO SIELNCE

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF TEARS

SCHUMPETER APPLIED TO ASTROPHYSICS

THE LAST DAYS OF KHRUSHCHEV

THE MINISTRY OF SILENCE

OOLONG

THE WINTER PALACE

PETER GAST

PART II

THE SCARF COLLECTOR

THE SOCIETY OF STATELESS PERSONS

TOLSTOY’S THEORY OF HISTORY

SUMMERS IN BRUSSSELS

LES ALPES EN HIVER

VICTOR THE BELLIGERENT

WINDFARMS

ODE TO YALTA

OPUS HOCUS

IN THE HORTA MUSEUM

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DARK ALLOYS

SOLO FOR UNACCOMPANIED HAND

IN THE TIME OF WORDS

POETRY

NINE LONELY STANZAS

YESTERDAY AND TOMORROW

BEDSIDE MANORS

REQUIEM FOR SUMMER

THE KISSING CONTEST

VARIATIONS

ENTELECHY

MEETINGS WITH REMARKABLE MEN

CIRCLES IN THE PARQUETRY

VARIATIONS ON FOUR LINES

THE EDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

THE CHERRY ORCHARD

CORANOVA

NUF CED

IVY DAYS

SATURDAY CLOSINGS

AFTER AFTER

PART III

LET’S PRETEND

ODE TO THE ODE

THE STARS YOU LOVE ARE OUT

PLACEBO

TWO LOST POEMS

ALMOST MANY

BLANK PAGE

TREMULO

VANESSA BY SAMUEL RICHARDSON

HAS AND HAD NOT

ROCKS AND PHLOX

NEWSREEL

TURNAROUND

SPHINX

MISNOMERS

CANTERBURY TALES

THE DEAD OF NIGHT

FOXTROT

NEIGHBORS

THE GARDEN OF CATS

DON JUAN IN HEAVEN

DIPLOMACY BY OTHER MEANS

TESTAMENT

CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD

WHAT MAY HAVE HAPPENED

WANDERJAHRE PART I

THE BROTHRS SOMETHING OR OTHER

STEEPLECHASE

THE SOMNABMBULISTS

ENGLISH 101

AN OLD LAKE

DREAM SEQUENCE

CHAPTER HEADINGS

LA VITA NUOVA PART III

THE SPEED OF LIGHT

CRYTOGRAPHY

GRACELAND

LINES TAKEN AT RANDOM

THE PASSING HOUSE

KAYAK

CARPETS SCARVES AND WIGWAMS

A GAME OF INCHES

AVALANCHE

TO A NEW ADDRESS

DEJA VUE ALL OVER AGAIN

ENDANGERED SPECIES

ABOUT THE WIND

REVISTING THE CLASSICS

LONG DISTANCE

THISTLE

WINES OF THE YANGTZE

FOR AND SINCE

TO A DYING POET

BENIGN NEGLECT

IN AND ON

TIME AND PATIENCE

ROCK AND TINSEL

SEVENTEEN RANDOM HAIKU

DEMOGRAPHY

VARIATIONS IN THE KEY OF SILENCE

GENESIS

PART IV

CASALTA

ICING

THE FIFTIES

MONKSHOOD

IRREGULAR VERBS

GLASS PLASTIC AND MIXED

THIS HOUSE

DIE WANDERJAHRE PART II

MOMENTS IN THE SUN

BASHO

STILTED

ODE TO JOSEPH CORNELL

WOLVES AT BAY

JENNY LIND

SHUFFLE

CAMERA OSCURA

DIARY OF A MOLE

THE VOLSTEAD ACT

CASALTA DUE

MIR

BOLIVIAN FOLK MUSIC

IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE

PALINDROME

FINSITERRE

SHAPES WITHOUT POWER

KRASNODAR

DRAGONCELLO

CLOCKWORK

THE HINCHLY BORE

OUR PROSPECTS

POSTHASTE

SKIRMISH

JERUSALEM

NOW AND LATER

TICK TOCK

IN THE AIR

LESSONS FROM READING

MODERN TIMES

OBSERVATIONS FROM THE STARS

PART V

TOUSSAINT 2019

ABSTRACTIONS IN THE AIR

ODE TO ROSA LUXEMBOURG

LES FAUVES

THE WAR OF THE TIES

ODE TO MARINA TSVETAEVA

WHITE SMOKE

POERTY MUST BE SILENT

Pour Hannah et Alexander

PART I

THE POETRY OF SILENCE

The poetry of silence

Is not the poetry of speech

The poetry of silence

thinks without noise

The poetry of silence

is waiting for you to return

The poetry of silence

misspells its name as science

The poetry of silence

defers to itself

Are there really missiles

in the Mississippi or is it

just the poetry of silence

The poetry of silence

understands you but little else

There is no punctuation

in the poetry of silence

The poetry of silence

would like to hold your hand

The poetry of silence

is rapidly losing weight

The poetry of silence

is silent in the end

The poetry of silence

slowly shakes its head

The poetry of silence is

spent or sent

KAMARINSKAYA

Accretive poetry or requiems

released to wander. Buildings

copy nature while music lamely

follows with the precise tread

opulence requires. The pear tree

in my neighbor’s garden showers

me with unwanted fruit but I still

prefer our smaller cities one feels

the darkness coming on. Trips to

the Other World The Mysterious

Ice Quartet The Steel String The

Murdered Hostel. My love is strong

and fiercely loyal but makes no

mention of the Czar or uniforms

paintings or quiet sounds the future

spelled and other sleights of hand.

Perhaps they have all been poisoned.

EARTH IN SNOW

The way stars