HOW2
Workbook

Poems by Eileen Myles

 

Flowers

Flowers
are out
all over
New York.
Every deli
tonight is
lit with
mad daffodils
jonquils
baby’s
breath
eucalyptus
pussy willow
blasts of
cox comb
roses,
irises. It’s
Spring. I pick
pink gerber
daisies. I pick
two then begin
veering off
into hotter
pink-orange
flowers
then white,
no red.
The mix is
a mess. I
throw back
the difference
& slip in another
daisy — fully
pink then
another one. A big
pink group —
surefire same-
ness is good.
It’s strong.
In the car
they look yellow
you said
No pink.
Really? I’m
freaking out.
We turn on
the light.

You won.
They’re pretty.
Later we’re
parked at
another
brightly-lit store.
Same spring.
Hundreds
of flowers
outside as
the world
continues
its impossible
turning. We
miss you.

 

Rosie’s Poem

you’re
right
it’s
a beautiful
wagon

low
weekly
races

a pile
of stones

the mystical
  person
      who is
my lover
       in
   Rapid
    City

hello
   puppy
your magical
      hair
at the
   corne
  of night
       &
lightning,

Motel 6
     I always
   think of
    the price
     as the
  temperature.

the 2 of
     us
my shadow
& my shadow

the lightning
over all
the
motels.

I’m curbing
myself
because what
isn’t curb.


Bio: Eileen Myles was born in Cambridge, MA in 1949. In 1974, she moved to New York where she studied poetry with Paul Violi, Alice Notley and Ted Berrigan. She edited the magazine, Dodgems, from 1977 to 1979 and directed the St. Mark’s Poetry Project from 1984 to 1986. She also co-edited The New Fuck You: Adventures in Lesbian Reading (Semiotext(e), 1995) with Liz Kotz. Her books include Chelsea Girls (Black Sparrow, 1994), School of Fish (Black Sparrow, 1997), Not Me (Semiotext(e), 1999) and On My Way (Faux Press, 2001).


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