{"id":4362,"date":"2015-07-11T20:35:20","date_gmt":"2015-07-11T20:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/?p=4362"},"modified":"2015-07-11T20:35:20","modified_gmt":"2015-07-11T20:35:20","slug":"bff-a-poem-by-frederick-pollack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/bff-a-poem-by-frederick-pollack\/","title":{"rendered":"BFF. A Poem by Frederick Pollack."},"content":{"rendered":"

 
\n 
\nBored, with the boredom of eternity,
\nDonatien Alphonse Fran\u00e7ois, Marquis de Sade,
\nand Leopold Ritter von Sacher-Masoch
\nhang out. They have little in common \u2013
\nnothing, according to Deleuze \u2013
\nbut shared experience of psych wards
\ncreates a bond. And Sade
\nis always tickled by the moralism
\nof his scholarly socialist philosemitic pal.
\n(\u201cContracts\u201d for bondage-and-discipline sessions,
\nthe invention of the \u201csafe word\u201d\u2013
\nparbleu!) Masoch for his part
\nfinds the Frenchman\u2019s wit
\ninstructive, and accepts with grace
\nhis constant teasing; it fulfills a certain need.
\n 
\nLike other dead white Europeans,
\nthey float over to America
\n(which, they have heard, is diverting and unserious).
\nSade preens: \u201cMy principles have triumphed!
\nWhat other people is as devoted to freedom?\u201d
\nHis companion demurs. \u201cIt may seem so,
\nbut note: the whip is unpopular,
\nhypocrisy remains the spice of shame,
\ntortures are generally banal, and women \u2013
\nstill bound to the paternalism you despised \u2013
\nare seldom given equal rights to them.
\nThis is far,\u201d he adds, \u201cfrom the vision
\nof your revolutionary pamphlet, Citizens!
\nYet One More Effort If You Would Be Truly Republican!\u201d
\n 
\nThe mood of the mercurial marquis
\nturns. \u201cThey\u2019re afraid of their masters,\u201d
\nhe sighs. \u201cWhose existence\u201d \u2013
\nthus Masoch, disapprovingly \u2013 \u201cthey deny.\u201d
\nThey are not watching in real time,
\never-tedious, but from the long end of a spectrum
\nwhere essences appear like subtitles.
\nThere the prevailing mood is an orange haze;
\nand the steady pop of small arms
\na rhythmic growl, like the machinery
\nthe two friends had expected.
\nSlowly they realize it is a machine,
\ndispensing souls to each side of the trigger
\nbefore they need determine their own nature.<\/strong>
\n 
\n\"Frederick<\/a>
\n 
\n 
\nAuthor of two book-length narrative poems, THE ADVENTURE and HAPPINESS, both published by Story Line Press. A collection of shorter poems, A POVERTY OF WORDS, forthcoming in 2015 from Prolific Press. Has appeared in Hudson Review, Salmagundi, Poetry Salzburg Review, Die Gazette (Munich), The Fish Anthology (Ireland), Representations, Magma (UK), Iota (UK), Bateau, Fulcrum,<\/em> etc. Online, poems have appeared in Big Bridge, Hamilton Stone Review, Diagram, BlazeVox, The New Hampshire Review, Mudlark, Occupoetry, Faircloth Review, Triggerfish,<\/em> etc. Adjunct professor creative writing George Washington University.
\n<\/strong>
\n 
\n 
\nrobin@artvilla.com<\/a>
\nPoetryLifeTimes<\/a>
\nPoetry Life & Times<\/a><\/strong>
\neditor@artvilla.com<\/a>
\nwww.artvilla.com<\/a>
\nArtvilla.com<\/a><\/strong>
\n <\/p>\n

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    Bored, with the boredom of eternity, Donatien Alphonse Fran\u00e7ois, Marquis de Sade, and Leopold Ritter von Sacher-Masoch hang out. They have little in common \u2013 nothing, according to Deleuze \u2013 but shared experience of psych wards creates a bond. And Sade is always tickled by the moralism of his scholarly socialist philosemitic pal. … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[595,43],"tags":[18,136,3],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4362"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4362"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4364,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4362\/revisions\/4364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}