{"id":7786,"date":"2021-07-05T15:48:39","date_gmt":"2021-07-05T15:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/?p=7786"},"modified":"2021-07-05T15:48:39","modified_gmt":"2021-07-05T15:48:39","slug":"3-poems-by-frederick-pollock-self-starter-gran-via-something-i-said","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/3-poems-by-frederick-pollock-self-starter-gran-via-something-i-said\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Poems by Frederick Pollack, Self-Starter, Gran Via & Something I Said"},"content":{"rendered":"

Self-Starter
\n 
\n(i.)
\n 
\nA superhero from a distant
\nfranchise of the Marvel universe
\nfinds himself in a labyrinth.
\nA few turns, retracings,
\nvery human moments
\nof indecision confirm that\u2019s what
\nit is. His great secret motivator,
\ncontempt, rises (not breaking
\nthe mild, righteous surface);
\nand with a combination
\nof fire from his eyes
\nand steely blows he breaks through
\nwall after ivy-covered wall.
\n(In a straight line. Diagonal to
\nthe lie of the maze. It\u2019s unclear why
\nhe doesn\u2019t fly. Contempt.)
\nShells, fossils, bas-reliefs
\ndislodged by his violence fall among
\nthe smoking bricks and vines. (The point
\nof a labyrinth is terror, despair;
\nwhy art? The superhero doesn\u2019t stop
\nto ask. An irritant.)
\nA last kick and he\u2019s out. Somewhere \u2013 he can
\nresume his universe-saving
\nfrom anywhere. But for a moment
\nhe\u2019s tired,
\nhis mood less than triumphant.
\nThis has happened before; he views it
\nas a tribute paid to everything mortal.
\nAnd wonders what his enemy placed
\nthis time at the center
\nof the maze to consume him.
\n 
\n 
\n(ii.)
\n 
\nGran Via
\n 
\nThe famous sights must still
\ngrace faded glossy calendars
\non walls somewhere.
\nAnother horse and king. Sword pointing
\nthe dead behind him
\ntowards death \u2013 there\u2019s no point, otherwise.
\nIt might be instructive
\nto remove the bronze kings, keep the horses.
\n 
\nDecide at any point
\nthat the approaching pretty park
\nwill be pretty, the stuff between
\ninteresting, and turn back.
\nYou will at once destroy
\ntourism and the basis
\n(Baudelaire, the fl\u00e2neur<\/em>, etc.)
\nof modern poetry.
\n 
\nWherever you are, forgive the locals.
\nYou remind them that time doesn\u2019t have
\na long grey beard but white stubble.
\n 
\n 
\n(iii.)
\n 
\nSomething I Said
\n 
\nIt\u2019s worse
\nthan remarks that ended
\njob interviews, dates, jobs, relationships.
\n(She sat there crying or enraged,
\nand since I\u2019m nice I apologized
\nfor months or the duration.)
\nI turn from whoever it is,
\nstaring and pale, and myself. There are depths
\nof self and wit I\u2019d rather weren\u2019t.
\nBut a waitress here with hors-d\u2019oeuvres,
\nthough impeccably trained, has dropped them,
\nthe tray aghast in midair.
\nA general has almost spilled his drink.
\nA celebrity ages. Noted lobbyists
\nand cokeheads, always in motion, stop.
\nHidden children whisper. From the terrace
\na wolfhound enters, steals some human food,
\nand gazes up with doubtful sympathy.
\n(In the distance, workers
\nerecting a tent for the raffle grin,
\nbut they\u2019re from the past, some old novel.)
\nAcross the salon our host and hostess
\nstand motionless, still gracious.
\nI should bottle it, I think,
\nby which I mean keep silent but connote
\nresearching, mastering this skill,
\ninventing time travel and returning
\nto stymie history with well-placed words.
\n 
\n 
\n\"\"<\/a>
\n 
\n 
\nAuthor of two book-length narrative poems, The Adventure<\/em> (Story Line Press, 1986; to be reissued by Red Hen Press) and Happiness <\/em>(Story Line Press, 1998), and two collections, A Poverty of Words<\/em> (Prolific Press, 2015) and Landscape with Mutant<\/em> (Smokestack Books, UK, 2018). In print, Pollack\u2019s work has appeared in Hudson Review, Salmagundi, Poetry Salzburg Review, Manhattan Review, Skidrow Penthouse, Main Street Rag, Miramar, Chicago Quarterly Review, The Fish Anthology<\/em> (Ireland), Poetry Quarterly Review, Magma<\/em> (UK), Neon <\/em>(UK), Orbis<\/em> (UK), Armarolla, December<\/em>, and elsewhere. Online, his poems have appeared in Big Bridge, Diagram, BlazeVox, Mudlark, Occupoetry, Faircloth Review, Triggerfish, Big Pond Rumours<\/em> (Canada), Misfit, OffCourse , Poetry Life and Times <\/em>(2015) and elsewhere.
\n 
\n 
\n 
\n 
\n 
\n 
\n 
\nRobin Ouzman Hislop is Editor of Poetry Life and Times<\/a> at Artvilla.com <\/a>; You may visit Aquillrelle.com\/Author Robin Ouzman Hislop <\/a> about author & https:\/\/poetrylifeandtimes.com<\/a> See Robin performing his work Performance (University of Leeds)<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

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Self-Starter   (i.)   A superhero from a distant franchise of the Marvel universe finds himself in a labyrinth. A few turns, retracings, very human moments of indecision confirm that\u2019s what it is. His great secret motivator, contempt, rises (not breaking the mild, righteous surface); and with a combination of fire from his eyes and … 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":[781,595,808,796,366,401,43],"tags":[18,136,874],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7786"}],"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=7786"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7791,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7786\/revisions\/7791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}