POEM OF THE DAY
ALL ERRORS TO REPLACE
with Henry and David in Limbo
in this dream Henry Miller & I read a book
of the poetry D. H. Lawrence didn’t have time
to write when he was alive & we’re both
laughing like maniacs watching Lawrence
float in Limbo still in his dead wasted
& tubercular body reeling off the lines
like a combined Cosmococcic telegraph
& ticker tape only like gold wire
the dream is a small enclosed space Henry
& I stand at ease foot to foot like enlisted men
both holding the book a thick leather bound
old tome both turning the beautifully scribed
with our fingers the textured vellum pages
Henry wears a huge rakish hat & a double-breasted
pinstripe suit & is young and a looker
like the picture in the 1975 Rolling Stone interview
Henry & I read aloud with difficultly laughing
as I said the dream is a small enclosed space
live gold wires crawl thru everything gold like
fire living like snakes sewing thru everything
like fire in lines but especially thru the book
like the care of a medieval monk illuminating
a manuscript but otherwise over everything
like a child scribbling his drawing of teacher
her hair only like snakes & fire & gold wires
to sew the dead into the dream & still
maniacal laughter Henry & I found it
hilarious at the time & now I can’t remember
any of what we read so I really can’t say why
Dana Pattillo
Note: I think I wrote this in December of 1978… or maybe 1980. I was 20 (or 21) years old. The title is a line from the poem Errata, by Charles Simic. Here are the relavant lines:
Will there be time left to list
all errors to replace
all hands guns owls plates
all cigars ponds woods and reach
that beer-bottle my greatest mistake
the word I allowed to be written
when I should have shouted
her name
(PoD 76)
6:50:04 PM 
|
