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

Blake’s Babes: A Prophecy

1
infant encoil’d
inside a worm

2
The Throne of Mary

throne of wisdom 
on which
the babe sits

he holds 
a little sign marked
EGO

3
Pity

a flying horse
swoops down
a rider scoops
the babe up
in his arms

4
Eve

she gnaws the apple in
the serpent’s mouth

5
Behold this Midnight Glory;
Worlds, on Worlds.

(Edward Young, Night Thoughts)

Jerome Rothenberg

2007

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

Poems

The Case for Memory

More by this poet

Blake’s Babes: A Prophecy

45 I Give Up My Identity

Lorca Variation 34 A Book of Hours

Poems

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The Case for Memory

More by this poet

Blake’s Babes: A Prophecy

45 I Give Up My Identity

Lorca Variation 34 A Book of Hours

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