The Case for Memory

1931 –

2024


I was amok & fearless
twice deceived
for which I sought out
satisfactions
in a tree.  Too carelessly
I reached for love
& beaten down
I found you
in a froth or frenzy
spent my days around
the pan yards.
I would ask no help from those
whose trust is weak
but I would buy the latest
& the least. 
I live for something practical
--the case for memory--
I set one foot into the space
the others leave abandoned.
Not your lord or slave
I meet you
in an equal clash of wills
& face you down.
I only touch the ground 
on Sundays

45 I Give Up My Identity

My name is smaller
than it sounds.
I work & polish it
until a light
shines through.
I thrust a thorn under 
my tongue.
I drop the little stones
behind me. Striding
I can feel my height extend
up to the rafters.
My voice is thin,
still thinner
is the space between
my footsteps
& the earth.
I do not want you
calling me
except at the allotted
times. I scratch my head
because I know
it's empty.

Jerome Rothenberg

2003

Lorca Variation 34 A Book of Hours

3:00 P.M.

The green man, more a man
than most, took a scissors,
cut the sky with it,
let a river loose
till it became
a sea, the way that yellow
turns to gold,
his scissors tore its blue
apart, his lips
grown pale with dust,
the branches broke
& from the west a man rode up,
who saw the west in ruins,
Pan sat with a zither
heaping sadness upon sadness
earth upon air
until the sun itself was lost,
the air as murky
as the soul of man
he bathes in it
he sits inside
a molten pool
a catherine wheel spins overhead
a hundred pinwheels


6:00 P.M.

They set the snake loose
where the weather

Jerome Rothenberg

1996

The Lorca Variations (I) “Lorca’s Spain: A Homage”

Beginning with olive trees.
			   		     Shadows.
Beginning with roosters.
				       	     Crystal.
Beginning with castanets & almonds.
					     Fishes.
This is a homage to Spain.
This mists dogs.
This silences rubber.
This is Saturn.
Beginning with yellow.
					     Eclipse.
Beginning with needles.
					     Insomnia.
Beginning with baskets.
					     The Moon.
Who is naked? The imagination
(wrote Lorca) is seared.
This is a homage to water.
Beginning & end.

Jerome Rothenberg

1993

Poems

The Case for Memory

More by this poet

45 I Give Up My Identity

Lorca Variation 34 A Book of Hours

The Lorca Variations (I) “Lorca’s Spain: A Homage”

Poems

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The Case for Memory

More by this poet

45 I Give Up My Identity

Lorca Variation 34 A Book of Hours

The Lorca Variations (I) “Lorca’s Spain: A Homage”

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