The Roominghouse Madrigals Read Online Free PDF

talk and
    they think right away, ah ha! he’s too intelligent for
    this job, he won’t stay
    so there’s really no sense in hiring
    him.
    now, YOU walk into a place and you don’t have any trouble:
    you look like an old wino, you look like a guy who needs a
    job and they look at you and they think:
    ah ha!: now here’s a guy who really needs work! if we hire
    him he’ll stay a long time and work
    HARD!”
     
 
    “do any of those people,” he asks “know you are a
    writer, that you write poetry?”
    “no.”
    “you never talk about
    it. not even to
    me! if I hadn’t seen you in that magazine I’d
    have never known.”
    “that’s right.”
    “still, I’d like to tell these people that you are a
    writer!”
    “don’t.”
    “I’d still like to
    tell them.”
    “why?”
    “well, they talk about you. they think you are just a
    horseplayer and a drunk.”
    “I am both of those.”
    “well, they talk about you. you have odd ways. you travel
    alone.
    I’m the only friend you
    have.”
    “yes.”
    “they talk you down. I’d like to defend you. I’d like to tell
    them you write
    poetry.”
    “leave it alone. I work here like they
    do. we’re all the same.”
    “well, I’d like to do it for myself then. I want them to know
    why
    I travel with
    you. I speak 7 languages, I know my music—”
    “forget it.”
    “all right, I’ll respect your
    wishes. but there’s something else—”
    “what?”
    “I’ve been thinking about getting a
    piano. but then I’ve been thinking about getting a
    violin too but I can’t make up my
    mind!”
    “buy a piano.”
    “you think
    so?”
    “yes.”
     
 
    he walks away
    thinking about
    it.
     
 
    I was thinking about it
    too: I figure he can always come over with his
    violin and more
    sad music.
     

Not Quite So Soon
     
     
    in the featherbeds of grander times
    when Kings could call their shots,
    I rather imagine on days like this
    that concubines were sought,
    or the unspoiled genius
    or the chopping block.
     
 
    how about a partridge or a grouse
    or a bound behind the merry hounds?
    Maybe I’ll phone Saroyan in Malibu
    or eat a slice of toast…
     
 
    the trees shake down September
    like dysentery, and churches sit on their
    corners and wait, and the streetcars are slow,
    and everywhere
    birds fly, cats walk, people ruefully
    exist…
     
 
    the charmers are gone, the armies have put down
    their arms, the druid’s drunk, the horses have tossed
    their dice; there are no fires, the phone won’t ring,
    the factory’s closed, tenesmus, everything…
     
 
    I think
    even the schizomycetes are sleeping;
    I think
    the horror of no action is greater
    than the scorch of pain; death is the
    barker, but things
    may get better
    yet. I’ll use the knives for spreading
    jam, and the gas to warm
    my greying love.
     

Counsel
     
     
    as the wind breaks in from the sea again
    and the land is marred with riot and disorder
    be careful with the sabre of choice,
    remember
    what may have been noble
    5 centuries
    or even 20 years ago
    is now
    more often than not
    wasted action
    your life runs but once,
    history has chance after chance
    to prove men fools.
     
 
    be careful, then, I would say,
    of any seeming noble
    deed
    ideal
    or action,
    be for this country or love or Art,
    be not taken by the nearness of the minute
    or a beauty or politic
    that will wilt like a cut flower;
    love, yes, but not as a task of marriage,
    and beware bad food and excessive labor;
    live in a country, you must,
    but love is not an order
    either of woman or the land;
    take your time; and drink as much as is needed
    in order to maintain continuance,
    for drink is a form of life
    wherein the partaker returns to a new chance
    at life; furthermore, I say,
    live alone as much as possible;
    bear children if it happens
    but try not to bear
    raising them; engage not in small arguments
    of hand or voice
    unless your foe seeks the life of your body
    or the life of your soul; then,
    kill, if