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Desire Street
August, 1996
cyberspace chapbook of
The New Orleans Poetry Forum
established 1971
Desire, Cemeteries, Elysium
Listserv: DESIRE-Request@Sstar.Com
Email: Robert Menuet, Publisher
robmenuet@aol.com
Mail: Andrea S. Gereighty, President
New Orleans Poetry Forum
257 Bonnabel Blvd.
Metairie, La 70005
Programmer: Kevin R. Johnson
Copyright 1996, The New Orleans Poety Forum
(10 poems for August, 1996)
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Contents:
Saved by the Chlorophyll
Advanced Mathematics
I Do
In View of the Cemetery
Not here, not now
Old Man
pink tooth-brush
Poetry in its Soft-ball Stage
Yellow Brick Road
Loneliness
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Saved by the Chlorophyll
by Clara C. Connell
I have the desire to crawl into my lungs and breathe you.
Where there is choking, I would weed the windy pain,
bleeding the chlorophyll of green-leafed lungs
that survive the arid ground.
I am falling in the distant rain.
Flowering on the edge of an icicle.
Crying into bloom in the treetop of epiphanies.
You are Beelzebub,
bribing me with a flute
while I dance
the seedy dirt.
I am bare-assed and flying on the besmirched horns of
decadence,
begging to be stirred in my neighboring Neptune.
I see you:
A teasing labyrinth in the empty sky.
A white speck in the black milk.
The gristly vortex
in the skirts of snakes with mirrors.
Becoming hope in the crushing watery space.
Shiny green leaves enter me like an evangelist.
A wild dove feeds my burning tongue.
Taming the snorting fire.
Cleaning my eyes with providence.
Cooling me with the spit of beyond.
See me breathing.
The embrace.
Leaving the leeching.
Passing the gates and
praising the chlorophyll.
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Advanced Mathematics
by Andrea S. Gereighty
Your wet dream, age twelve
an Andre Gide fantasy
woman spread-eagle:
alive, though wrists
handcuffed.
Free style, breast stroke:
arms
earthbound wings
tied to stakes, mattress springs.
Legs tethered in leather
her body a perfect mathematical X
the one variant, a real restraint
Constricts
constraints
silk blindfold.
My style? Astride,
side by side
or some position more
akin to Y, the other unknown.
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I Do
by Barbara Lamont
I sat on a chenille covered bed
in a cheap motel in Asbury Park
the night I decided to marry you.
You played bridge
lightly sprawled on a cheap tin
folding chair, the backs of your hands
pale in the darkness.
You riffled and ruffled the cards
and I knew that you knew
and grew moist between my knees
slick with pressed nylon and long grey garters
stretched halfway down my thighs,
which is what we wore those days.
I had a hat
with a brim to give me depth
I think we smoked,
red red Revlon lipstick
against the white filter
like the Queen of Hearts.
Two no-trump, you intoned
your bush blonde eyebrows
uniting suddenly to make you look fierce
and I knew you would win
the game, and me.
I left it all behind that night
on a bed in Asbury Park
New Jersey, cast my lot with yours
yet we did not touch or speak
all the way home to Bronxville
where Ernest let me in two minutes to curfew.
In the afterwarmth of victory
You said "he should have trumped".
I smelled the starry South Carolina nights
in your hair, and dreamed.
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In View of the Cemetery
by Christine Trimbo
Headstones rise above the wall
white in the set sun
two runners plod, breathing out
Waiting cars rumble heavy
music blows from windows
the green light disappears them soon
Waiter/students on the deck
feet on black-wire chairs
reading the paper, so slow
The umbrella sprouts above
the center table
the shade has spread evenly
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Not here, not now
by Robert Menuet
Try not to remember
that thought you just had.
Ssshhhh, this is a library!
Those weren�t gunshots,
not here on Napoleon,
avenue of the Little Corporal,
his victories all around us:
Marengo, Milan, Jena, Cadiz,
Austerlitz,
etc.
That volley of pops, they were too small
to be anything but Chinese fireworks;
they invented gunpowder
you know.
Or could it be a .22 caliber?
But who ever thought of a .22 automatic? Maybe
a little tommygun, a miniature
for the city's rats, like in a disney movie, rat
gangsters in pin stripe suits. Gangsters and bankers,
they dress the same,
especially on St. Valentine�s Day.
They finally got Capone for Income Tax Evasion,
and the Volstead Act was repealed.
Antoine�s had a special room
during prohibition,
you entered through a door marked Ladies.
I just heard of a 9mm gun that was maimed
a gangster who was stupping another gangster�s
momma. Sounds Oedipal, doesn't it, but there it is,
Oedipus Cracks. I wonder what that boy told his momma
after he shot her 21-year old man.
But that was in Washington.
Try not to think about it.
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Old Man
by John Kopfler
I see you, Old Man,
in the cliffs' crags
at dawn.
Teach me to stalk
cougar on your desert floor --
teach my wings silence.
Have your palm fronds
rustle the still night.
Walk my feet, Old Man,
in the dreams
of my twilight quest.
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pink tooth-brush
by kevin R. johnson
under the splintered flow of fingers between the
criss-cross of extremities migrating a tussled
bed I am an X dead center below you
then we curl like worms in this bliss-
soaked landscape of infinite curves of
tongue & hips & I want these smells
to last not washed away with Dawn
not corrupted by propriety.
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Poetry in its Soft-ball Stage
by Nancy Cotton
It's that original trick
(In the beginning was the word)
Of making something
Out of nothing
That boggles the mind, yet
Is so common,
As we struggle with our own
Hats.
But when magician turns observer,
Flights of doves to facts,
Words like warm fudge
Drop to experimental form
In the cold element of water.
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Yellow Brick Road
by Cedelas Hall
A middle-aged father
waits inside his truck,
writes copious journals,
accepts...welcomes
his slow starving death
inside a snow embankment,
only feet from
people passing,
yards from a cleared road,
safe within his tomb
beside his yellow brick road.
He waits for the tap
on the window,
voice of salvation.
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Loneliness
by Paul Chasse
Loneliness isn't alone
Its rain
Big wet
Sloppy drops
Jesus's tears
Loneliness isn't alone
Its fog
Wake up
Empty bed
Wet windowpanes
Loneliness isn't alone
It's night
Hungry cat
Campbell's soup
T. V. sorrows
Loneliness isn't alone
It's everywhere
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THE POETS OF DESIRE STREET
Paul Chasse
Clara C. Connell lives in the country with her cat Sniffles. She is a psychotherapist.
Nancy Cotton is an immigration attorney.
Andrea Saunders Gereighty owns and manages New Orleans Field Services Associates,
a public opinion polls business and is currently the president of the New Orleans Poetry
Forum. Her poetry has appeared in many journals, as well as in her book, ILLUSIONS
AND OTHER REALITIES.
Cedelas Hall is from Brookhaven, Mississippi. Her chapbookBefore They Paved the
Road recounts her experiences in that state. A writer/actress, she appeared as "M'Lynn" in
"Steel Magnolias" at LePetit Theatre du Vieux Carre.
Kevin Johnson, Piscean, enjoys Tequila under the stars and writes about the
physiology of nothingness.
John Kopfler is a Wise Man who lives on Island Road in St. Francisville.
Barbara Lamont writes about fear.
Robert Menuet is a psychotherapist, marital therapist, and
clinical supervisor. Previously he was a social planner.
Christine Trimbo lives in a house that once neighbored Degas' house. She has two
bicycles and a grey kitten named Lolita.
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ABOUT THE NEW ORLEANS POETRY FORUM
The New Orleans Poetry Forum, a non-profit organization, was
founded in 1971 to provide a structure for organized readings and
workshops. Poets meet weekly in a pleasant atmosphere to
critique works presented for the purpose of improving the writing
skills of the presenters. From its inception, the Forum has
sponsored public readings, guest teaching in local schools, and
poetry workshops in prisons. For many years the Forum
sponsored the publication of the New Laurel Review, underwritten
by foundation and government grants.
Meetings are open to the public, and guest presenters are
welcome. The meetings generally average ten to 15 participants,
with a core of regulars. A format is followed which assures
support for what is good in each poem, as well as suggestions
for improvement. In many cases it is possible to trace a poet�s
developing skill from works presented over time. The group is
varied in age ranges, ethnic and cultural background, and styles
of writing and experience levels of participants. This diversity
provides a continuing liveliness and energy in each workshop
session.
Many current and past participants are published poets and
experienced readers at universities and coffeehouses worldwide.
One member, Yusef Komunyakaa, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize
for Poetry for 1994. Members have won other distinguished
prizes and have taken advanced degrees in creative writing at
local and national universities.
Beginning in 1995, The New Orleans Poetry Forum has
published a monthly electronic magazine, Desire Street, for
distribution on the Internet and computer bulletin boards. It is
believed that Desire Street is the first e-zine published by an
established group of poets. Our cyberspace chapbook contains
poems that have been presented at the weekly workshop
meetings, All poems presented at Forum meetings may be
published in their original form unless permisssion is specifically
withheld by the poet. Revisions are accepted until the publication
deadline of Desire Street. Publication is in both message and file
formats in various locations in cyberspace.
Workshops are held every Wednesday from 8:00 PM until
10:30 at the Broadmoor Branch of the New Orleans Public
Library, 4300 South Broad, at Napoleon. Annual dues of $10.00
include admission to Forum events and a one-year subscription to
the Forum newsletter, Lend Us An Ear. To present, contact us
for details and bring 15 copies of your poem to the workshop.
Copyright Notice
Desire Street, August, 1996 Copyright 1996, The New Orleans
Poetry Forum. 10 poems for August, 1996. Message format: 14
messages for August, 1996. Various file formats.
Desire Street is a monthly electronic publication of the New
Orleans Poetry Forum. All poems published have been presented
at weekly meetings of the New Orleans Poetry Forum by
members of the Forum.
The New Orleans Poetry Forum encourages widespread
electronic reproduction and distribution of its monthly magazine
without cost, subject to the few limitations described below. A
request is made to electronic publishers and bulletin board
system operators that they notify us by email when the
publication is converted to executable, text, or compressed file
formats, or otherwise stored for retrieval and download. This is
not a requirement for publication, but we would like to know who is
reading us and where we are being distributed. Email:
robmenuet@aol.com (Robert Menuet). We also publish this
magazine in various file formats and in several locations in
cyberspace.
Copyright of individual poems is owned by the writer of each
poem. In addition, the monthly edition of Desire Street is
copyright by the New Orleans Poetry Forum. Individual copyright
owners and the New Orleans Poetry Forum hereby permit the
reproduction of this publication subject to the following limitations:
The entire monthly edition, consisting of the number of
poems and/or messages stated above for the current month, also
shown above, may be reproduced electronically in either message
or file format for distribution by computer bulletin boards, file
transfer protocol, other methods of file transfer, and in public
conferences and newsgroups. The entire monthly edition may be
converted to executable, text, or compressed file formats, and
from one file format to another, for the purpose of distribution.
Reproduction of this publication must be whole and intact,
including this notice, the masthead, table of contents, and other
parts as originally published. Portions (i.e., individual poems)
of this edition may not be excerpted and reproduced except
for the personal use of an individual.
Individual poems may be reproduced electronically only by
express paper-written permission of the author(s). To obtain
express permission, contact the publisher for details. Neither
Desire Street nor the individual poems may be reproduced on
CD-ROM without the express permission of The New Orleans
Poetry Forum and the individual copyright owners. Email
robmenuet@aol.com (Robert Menuet) for details.
Hardcopy printouts are permitted for the personal use of a
single individual. Distribution of hardcopy printouts will be
permitted for educational purposes only, by express permission of
the publisher; such distribution must be of the entire contents of
the edition in question of Desire Street. This publication may not
be sold in either hardcopy or electronic forms without the express
paper-written permission of the copyright owners.
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