THE BODY by Michael Benedikt
(Wesleyan University Press, l968)
[Last Modified 10/02. 2 Poems--'Thoughts' & 'Air'--slightly revised again in this edition. 9/02: Link added to Site Searchbox]
Poems appear in l998/9 & Y2K-era updates
Selections here so far are from Parts I & II of THE BODY--except for Welcoming-Poem just below, from Part IV.
Besides Titles of Poems At This Page this page has Titles of All Poems At This Website
& Links To The 4 Other Pages Of This Website
Poem Welcoming You To This Web-Page
THOUGHTS
Excuse me, isn't that you I see semi-concealed out there
Sizing things up from inside the conning-tower of your head,
--Your eyes, like mine, gliding around softly beneath the waters
And peering around out of twin perforations.
Strange to think we place such reliance on mere fluids!
Can ducts which punctuate the underground of a field
Examine it at will then, for buried treasure? Are rain-puddles spying on
us both even now
And are raindrops voyeurs accidentally tapping at our windows?
Deep down under all our substances though,
Beneath the liquids & all the various unobservant stuffs, too,
I sense spirits--immaterial, yet shifting around from foot to foot.
[Note: Above, from Part IV of The Body. The Body is a IV-part book]
AIR
THE AMBITIOUS LUMP
(poem to return in a future edition of this
page)
THE CITIES
MOTIONS (after
Man Ray, Surrealist Photographer)
MR. RAINMAN
THE HELPER
THE EUROPEAN
SHOE
THE EYE
SOME LITANIES
AN ENORMOUS DANGLING
SACK-LIKE NET (after Rene Magritte, Surrealist
Painter)
3 Love
Lyrics:
TIME (with Illustration
by Contemporary Graphic Artist June Hildebrand Abrams)
IN LOVE WITH
YOU
PINK BUDS
A BELOVED HEAD (above 3
love poems have garden settings. This one's a narrative & sci-fi oriented
love poem)
Original l968 Table
of Contents, Parts I & II of The Body
With titles of those
poems from Parts III & IV online
at Other Pages Of
This Website
Air, air, you're the most omnipresent thing I know.
Not even the songs of whales tracing patterns upon or under
The sea, are more inscrutable, or beautiful, to me;
You carry sails of travelers to interesting places
And adventurers, sailors, or just plain traders;
You encourage the bicyclist to mount his apparatus
And you are ever-present around swimming-pools
So that when the excessively-dedicated swimmer may emerge
From the water an instant, he'll freeze;
Yet air, you're famous for hanging around fetid places
Too, ready to clear the dank atmosphere
With a breath of yourself--I’ve found you in
The slums of the intellect even, about to puff
When the mind’s hopelessly tired after too much travel,
Or choking after contact with unthinking people
And you’re present in poems rescuing one when one’s
feeling somewhat stifled
Poised like a bouquet there, sprightly and colorful.
[Poem Undergoing Revision. To Return in '03]
Tired of poultry, the experimental chemist
Slouched under the laboratory light.
His assistant, Phyllis, for whom he had
An eye, had crept out at exactly five
Leaving the mad old man there
Beneath all the flourescent tubes.
Soon, through the window, the lunar
Rays shone. The landscape brilliantly
Lit up, by the reflections from frost.
But the old man lay among the poultry
Droppings, a victim, as local police termed it,
Of "Desperate, Unrequited Love."
Phyllis' life was changed by the event.
No sooner had she attended Georg's
Funeral, than she abandoned her staid old ways.
Parties all night, festivals at which
Her nudity glittered with the aspics,
Poetry readings in little cellar bars!
--Her life was changed. She bought a dog.
In the park, for free, they
Fondled her near The Fountain. Enough
Had soon happened to fill a lifetime.
Then, tired of the Arts & Sciences of Men,
Phyllis crept home to gentle Peoria.
In Peoria, Phyllis was somehow unsatisfied.
Her restless ways became apparent
To her parents, and one day, as she
Was returning from the corner soda parlor
With the local plumber, her parents
Drew her aside. "Our dear Phyll," they
Said, "you are insufficiently happy here.
You are not the little girl we knew
Who went wincing up to the attic
Tenderly, when struck, and would not
Come down for a week; you seem more hip
Now, and very unlikely to stay
More than an unhappy few months more here.
Why don't you get out and leave now?"
Phyllis filled her bags with their money
And went down the highway, a victim
Of inherited kindliness, troubled
By remembrances of recent events....
after Man Ray, Surrealist Photographer
Carrying in the black bundle
the evening paused on the roadway
To tug at the ribbons around it
to peek beneath the
wrapping-paper
While mumbling to itself
Then carried it another fifty feet
And stopped by the roadside
sat down
And turned it upsidedown shook the package listened to it rattle
Then trotted away
into the privacy of a little group
of roadside trees...
It returned smiling
but carrying nothing
O lovely unpredictable
hour
In the rain, an angry outcry: 'Get your hands off my trickling
face'!
A damp rug
my
chilled hands
Show that we have a rather sinister visitor:
A smudge
in a soggy grey coat
And shoes that hiss on the diningroom table
We thought he simply needed a shave but that shadow on Mr. Rainman's cheek
actually meant that he was almost completely covered
with mosses
and various other greens growing there...
O my pink-cheeked, innocent young daughter
O my daughter in your ancient but hardly yellowed white pinafore
what are you doing peeking at him shyly at midnight
through the skylight
and then with puckered lips
sliding down towards him here
--sailing
straight down the bannister
You stand out enough!
To be helpful
To lift up someone's eyelid at midnight
To observe their lack of vigor
To grasp them by one arm and drag them out of the room and downstairs
And dress them in an old oilskin against black insects buzzing around a lamp
in the hall
Then to drag them down the front flight of stairs
And to place them in the trunk of the car, afterwards locking it carefully
for safety
Then to drive them out to the country
Down all those dark, deserted roads, with only the black night butterflies
alert
And there, in the country, to find a quiet, relaxing place
Perhaps on a knoll or in a darkness-shrouded field or under a bridge with
the water tricklings
writing maledictions over everything
And to bury them there
In the oilskin
With the insects still keeping their distance
And to bury them deeply and undiscoverably
--To be this helpful
Is unappreciated, often.
The European Shoe is covered with grass and reed, bound up and
wound around
so that it may slip easily over the wearer's head.
In case you are an aircraft pilot, you must take care that the European Shoe
does not
creep off your foot, and begin to make its way carefully
across the fusilage.
The European Shoe pressed against the fugitive's nose, preventing it
from imminent
departure.
The European Shoe spends summers in delightful ways. A lady feels its subtle
and
unexpected pressure the length of her decolletage. (It
winters in pain).
That time I lent you my European Shoe you departed with a look of grandeur,
and in
total disrepair.
The European Shoe knocks on the door of the carefree farmerette. "The harvest
has been gathered in, ha, ha," it says, moving shyly
forth along the edge of the couch.
I pointed to the European Shoe. I ate the European Shoe. I married the European
Shoe.
Tears fall from the eye of the European Shoe as it waves goodbye to us from
the back
balcony of the speeding train.
It helps an old lady, extremely crippled and arthritic, move an enormous
cornerstone.
It invents a watch which, when wound up tightly, flies
completely to pieces.
It was a simple and dignified ceremony, distinguished for its gales of
uncontrollable
laughter, in which I married the European Shoe.
If it rains, the European Shoe becomes very heavy. I failed to cross the
river,
where thousands of European Shoes lay capsized.
And so we lived alone, we two, the envy of our neighborhood,
the delight of our lively hordes of children.
I saw a flightful of graceful sparrows heading to distant, half-forgotten
islands over the
distant seas; and in the midst of that annually questing
company,
I saw the European Shoe.
It never harmed anyone, and yet it never really helped anyone.
Gaily it sets out into the depths of my profoundest closet, to do battle
with the dusts
of summer....
The narcissist's eye is blue, fringed with white and covered with
tempting salad leaves
The purse-stealer's eye is yellow.
The eye of the non-combatant is white. In the center is a target rendered
in green
and black.
The voluptuary's eye comes to a point. It is like a silo, the echo of a
halo.
The gravedigger's eye is hollow. It is surrounded by a thoroughly
contemporary
serenity.
The dynamite salesman's eye is like a pool, in which he who leans to drink
may be lost.
Drifting forever, like a cloud.
The maiden's eye is tucked under.
The billiard-player's eye comes to a point. It is like a mild wine. Each
billiard-player
suffers from imperfect nostalgia.
The ghost's eye is green.
The poet's eye is like a candy
The battleship captain's eye is like the light that falls in a glen, when
the doe has done
with drinking.
The eye of the Realist is inflatable!
Titles of All Poems At This Page
SOME LITANIES
(FOUR POEM-PLAYLETS)
1.
Was the arrangement made between the two couples legal?
No.
Did they spread the word around?
No.
Have you visited the two couples lately? Did you have an interesting time? Was it illegal?
No.
What was the decoration like?
It was furnished in Swedish "modern." Woven strings were hanging
down in the living-room.
A bird flew in the window and out again.
Will you ever marry?
No.
Have you ever been married?
I don't remember.
Do you love your husband?
Yes.
2.
May I please have this dance?
No.
May I please have that dance?
No.
Aren't you going to wear anything to the dance?
Yes.
Are you a good dancer?
Yes.
Do you know how to dance?
No.
May I in that case have your company during the dance they decide
to play at midnight, whatever it is?
I have fallen in love with your eyes, lips, hands and hair.
No.
3.
During the lapse of several years, during which I spent most of
my time in Barcelona, was the magazine
I edited published?
Yes.
During the lapse of several years, during which I spent most of
my time in Barcelona, was the magazine
I edited published?
No.
Aren't you absolutely sure?
No.
Aren't you absolutely sure?
Yes
Will you ever come to Barcelona with me?
No. I am afraid to leave behind the business affairs of the magazine, of which I am General Manager.
Are you really that conscientious?
No.
4.
Would you care to deal him a death-dealing blow?
No.
Would you care to pay him a little visit?
No.
Would you care to improve the promptness of his laundry service by making persistent enquiries?
No.
Are you really his legal guardian?
No.
Would you care to hand him this large can of fortified beeswax?
No.
Do you have a favorite hobby?
Yes. Devoting myself entirely to that boy!
AN ENORMOUS DANGLING SACK-LIKE NET
After Rene Magritte, Surrealist Painter
A large weight lay inside the enormous dangling sack-like net.
When the breeze pressed forth, it swung
in the holder's hand; then, bit by bit, it came to a full stop.
Stooping down, we could see the outlines of the weight: they were
those of a small building, a country-house.
It was surrounded by apple-trees in flower. Young men in rough work-clothes,
with rough-hewn ways,
had propped up ladders and were climbing in the branches looking for
apples.
The gestures they made in their search, so practical & so firm,
so simple and yet so inadvertently beautiful,
seemed somehow to admonish the stranger to take heart....
The cleft in my hat
is bearing a little
soot
A seed falls
--Suddenly
A few fanning spears
Like grass
appear there;
And now a red flower...
Above poem as illustrated (with flower in hatband) by contemporary graphic artist June Hildebrand Abrams
Would you mind telling me exactly what your personal symbol is,
a tendril?
If so, my little cottage will soon be vine-covered.
Its faithful old caretaker will go to the tool-shed and find his gardening
spade and wheelbarrow
woven together with a lovely, greenish, spidery
tracing
And then his fingers, arms, and legs. There could come as a matter of fact
A sobbing from from all the help there--ah, what training for any lazy
maids!
And even though the smoke which whirls as it escapes the chimney
Will take on the shape of an arbor in which we may never sit
What a definite reminder of yourself you will have established, weaving it
tightly around my heart,
and its various outbuildings.
And ah!--How much better than if you had revealed
That you had chosen for your personal symbol something like hogwort,
or liverwurst...
To a Lady Gone Away West For The Summertime
Pink buds pink buds ah look my my how pretty
Two of them are surely blooming there
On the lawn of your vacation estate 'way out west and far out in the country
surely
Two more peek out from beneath the lofty linden-tree
Parked at the side of your driveway yet another set
No doubt flourishes just because you're there
Even in the shadows beneath that roadside covered wagon relic somebody left
standing out all century
Pink buds pink buds my my how nice
This emblem I'm in the midst of emblazoning for my love
Meant to be highly symbolic of "Summertime and Extremely Passionate Yearning
of Youth"
Utilizes this common motif
Pink buds I see you do not peek
Out of the flag of my landlord
Pink beds you are also the two reddish stone paperweights which she found
on a mesa
and gave me as souvenirs late last summer
And which I vainly place on the sheaves of my thinking and musing
To try and hold memories of my absent love down
Pink beds pink buds ah yes ah yes I particularly remember two
Night-blooming I recall they flower forth when I touch them
After tiptoeing discreetly Indian-style
Across the bosom of You, Oh my ever-so-bountiful one
Visiting Oh my generous Persephone
Your radiant place in the country all dark summer long.
Titles of All Poems At This Page
[from Part III of THE BODY]
A beloved head, yes a beloved head indeed, he thought--although
the mouth part was operated by a series
of small treadles set into the floorboards and conveniently
located in every room
The ears by various light-switches
And the eyes by twin faucets, mounted inside the writing-desk.
The hair was operated by a kind of abacus
Which helped him to keep track of various alluring developments there
--Sometimes, the fetching way it framed her lovely face or hung down loose
and flowed across her shoulders
Could envelop the attention of the Operator.
The body of the beloved was operated from an immense panel
Covered with hundreds of dials and flashing lights, hard-wired to an immense
computer behind the wall up there
One had to climb up to it by means of a ladder
Daring that only after consulting the manual which came with either the previous
computer,
or the previous beloved, sometimes the Operator just
can't remember which
--How often she'd suddenly whirl around to turn towards him
Smiling inexplicably, yet with a gesture so gentle and rare
That he himself could hardly believe that he'd created it!
--Much less the captivating way she arched her back and threw back
her head,
or stretched out her arms in even the most commonplace
of yawns;
Or the winsome way she reached up and adjusted earrings
in her long blonde hair, or other jewelry come slightly
awry
Or bent over after bathing, to comb it all out again
leaving him incredulous and almost trembling then
(Perhaps, by accident, he'd accidentally brushed up against some tiny
throttle
located in the vicinity of her knee?)
True, sometimes even the most controlling mind collapses.
Just look at the way the Operator's slumped over now.
It's evening, he's tired, his head hurts,
And after manning all those controls all day, his hand's exhausted
--In fact, he's fallen asleep there in his chair.
While with eyes ablaze, his lover passes the time until his next
awakening
By sitting around and sewing--presently the sleeve
Of a doll's kimono which quite generously albeit also somewhat whimsically
she's decided to give to a Japanese friend of hers who
collects such things...
----------------------
Note:Yes, a computer appeared in
the 1968 original of this sci-fi love poem about a supposedly computerized,
robot beloved--or rather, about a would-be controlling mind which is not
as controlling as it thinks
Poems at this page first appeared in book form
in THE BODY, by Michael Benedikt (Wesleyan University Press, l968),
© l968 by Michael Benedikt. These revisions ('Webversions'), ©
l998, l999, 2000, 2001 & 2002 by Michael Benedikt.
TITLES
OF POEMS AT THIS PAGE
(with Clickable Links To Poems)
FORTHCOMING TO THIS PAGE
IN LATER '02 OR IN
'03:
OTHER POEMS FROM PARTS
I & II & OTHER SECTIONS OF
THE BODY.
NEW AT SITE IN '01: A PAGE OF DARK LOVE POEMS FROM THE BODY
TITLES IN BLUE=POEMS AT
THIS PAGE
ORANGE=HALLOWEEN-&-HORROR
PAGE
PURPLE =DARK LOVE POEMS
PAGE
Info Below includes Complete Original l968 Table of Contents of THE BODY, Parts I & II
AIR
THE CITIES
MOTIONS
MR. RAINMAN (at this
webpage & also at
Halloween-&-Horror Poems page)
THE EYE OF THE ASSASSIN
(at Halloween page)
THE EUROPEAN SHOE
FRAUDULENT DAYS
THE AMBITIOUS LUMP
(Poem to return to this page)
MUTUAL MORTIFICATIONS
PROCESSION
DIVINE LOVE (at
Dark
Love Poems page)
THE AIDER (retitled asTHE
HELPER at this webpage & also at Halloween page)
THE EYE
SOME LITANIES
HIDING-PLACE
TIME
IN LOVE WITH YOU
PINK BUDS
TULIPS
THE GRAND GUIGNOLS OF
LOVE (at
Dark Love Poems page)
THE GREAT DIVAN (retitled as SEXTETTE: THE
GREAT DIVAN (at Dark Love Poems page)
SOME OLD MEN
(Halloween)
AN ENORMOUS DANGLING SACK-LIKE
NET
TEARS
(New-in-'02
at Thematic
Index page)
III & IV
Listed below are selections from Parts III & IV of The
Body online at this 5-page website so far
THOUGHTS
A BELOVED HEAD
EVENTS BY MOONLIGHT
(Dark Love Poems page)
JOY (Dark Love Poems
page)
THE VILLAIN
(Halloween)
THE WINGS OF THE NOSE
(Halloween)
THE DEBRIS OF THE BODY
(Halloween)
BEFORE GOING ON
(at Dark Love Poems page)
Return-Link to Top &
TITLES OF POEMS AT THIS
PAGE
(with Links To Poems)
Links To Other Pages Within This BODY-SKY
Website
1968 & 1998 Benedikt photos & a more complete Bio. than appears here.
Page 2--Selections from THE BODY
This Page, with Selected Poems from much-anthologized 1968 first book by a contemporary US Poet. Subjects in The Body (l968) range from droll to dark. Surrealist 'Black Humor' abounds. Quoth an early reviewer writing in Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, which published more poems from Body than any other literary periodical: 'Benedikt's poems are a highly serious form of play.' (Many other critics have commented on Author's sense of humor). This Selections page includes Lyric & Narrative poems--as well as works in unusual poetic genres such as 'list poems' & modern litanies. (Some examples of 'concrete' poetry to come). Page includes several examples of verse with long lines extending into strophes and verging on prose poetry--a genre dispensing with the line-break altogether. After Sky (l970), Benedikt published two books of prose poems, Mole Notes (1971); and Night Cries (l976), before returning to verse with The Badminton At Great Barrington (l980). Benedikt's early verse mixes both 'Modernist' & 'Post-Modernist' literary ingredients. A list of the many 1960's literary magazines in which nearly all the poems from The Body and Sky were issued prior to book publication, appears at last page of site (p. 5-- Thematic Index).
New Page in '01. From The Body. 1 or 2 from Sky forthcoming in '03. (Also has a circa l963, Uncollected Poem).
Page 4--'Spooky Poems for Halloween & All Year Round'
Particularly eerie poems gathered from various sections of The Body. With large-font versions of "The Helper" & "Mr. Rainman" residing at (of all places), Award-Winning Halloween-&-Horror Page. Includes 1 poem from SKY.
Page 5--Thematic Index to THE BODY and SKY
Index of Topics in The Body and Sky. A college-level teacher & student modern poetry resource classifying poems in Benedikt's first two poetry books by topic. Some thematic categories are accompanied by Notes & Commentary. So far, comments at page focus especially on the philosophy behind both books of poetry--on the esthetics of this modernist/post-modernist poet & on the unusually close relationship of both books of early verse to the visual arts (such as Surrealism, Pop Art & Minimalist Art, and 1960's 'Happenings"); & on various innovative poetic techniques explored in them. Index may be helpful as a teaching resource for later 20th Century & /or Modern Poetry classes & courses. May also be useful to Undergraduate students writing term-papers & Graduate students writing Modern Poetry theses. General Readers seeking a general overview of Benedikt's early verse may enjoy the Notes & Commentary. Also, unusual 1960's photos from Benedikt's 1960's Archive.
Searchbox. Search all 5 pages of this site at
Thematic
Index.
Above: Photo
from
Thematic
Index: 'Tears,' a later 1960's Pocket-sized
theatrical event based on Body poem 'Tears.'
'Tears' (the poem) also appears there--added in '01 in memory
of 911 WTC Tragedy in NYC.
Thematic Index has larger version of photo
& complete caption--with info on this & Benedikt's other later 1960's
Poetry-&-Theater events.
Complete bio. appears in Who's Who in America; Who's Who in World; Who's Who in Entertainment, etc.
Selections from Benedikt's other poetry books appear at sites listed at end-of-page at Other Benedikt Websites:
Contemprary American Poet Michael Benedikt's publications include 5 collections of poetry: The Badminton at Great Barrington; Or Gustave Mahler & The Chattanooga Choo-Choo (University of Pittsburgh Press, l980)--a book about the joys & sorrows of love; & with Wesleyan University Press: Night Cries (prose poems, l976); Mole Notes (prose poems, l971); Sky (l970); and The Body (l968). Benedikt's recent poetry has appeared in Agni, Iowa Review, Jerusalem Review, Lips, Michigan Quarterly Review, The New Republic, New York Quarterly, Partisan Review, The Paris Review & New Washington Square Review. His work appears in 65 + anthologies of US poetry. Grants and Awards for his poetry have included a Guggenheim Grant, a NY State Council On The Arts Grant, and an NEA Fellowship.
Anthologies of poetry in translation under Benedikt's editorship are The Prose Poem: An International Anthology (Dell/Laurel, l976); and The Poetry of Surrealism (Little, Brown & Co., l974). He's also co-Editor & Translator, with theatre critic George E. Wellwarth, of 3 anthos. of 20th-Century European plays: Modern French Theatre: The Avant-Garde, Dada, & Surrealism (E.P. Dutton, l964); Post-War German Theatre (Dutton, l967); and Modern Spanish Theatre (Dutton, l969). He's the editor of Theatre Experiment: American Plays (Doubleday, l967). Benedikt is a former Associate Ed. of Art News and Art International. A former Poetry Editor of The Paris Review, his editorial selections are represented in The Paris Review Anthology (Norton, l990). Since l973 Benedikt has held an honorary position as Contributing Editor for APR (American Poetry Review).
Later l960's-early l980's, Benedikt taught Literature & Creative Writing as Visiting Prof. at Bennington, Sarah Lawrence, Vassar, Hampshire College and Boston University. He's read from his poetry & given brief residencies at many colleges and universities around the USA. In l986 he gave a videotaped 'retrospective' reading at invitation of Library of Congress in Washington, DC. Recent readings, at several Barnes & Noble 'Superstores' in the NY Metro area. A graduate of NYU's Washington Square College & Columbia University, he lives in Upper West Side Manhattan. E-mail: benedit2@aol.com
Photo of Benedikt in Manhattan Apt
ca. 1968--year of publication of The Body--by Rollie McKenna.
From The Modern Poets (McGraw Hill, l970)
Info re background of Benedikt Websites
via feature article at About.com:
'The Compleat Michael Benedikt--Poet
Laureate of The Net'
More About Benedikt--& some later poems
at:
The Academy
of American Poets
TITLES OF POEMS AT THIS PAGE
(with Links to Poems)
SITES WITH SELECTIONS FROM HIS OTHER PUBLISHED POETRY BOOKS
After completing THE BODY (l968) and SKY
(l970), Benedikt wrote Prose Poems exclusively until l976.
They appear in his 3rd poetry book MOLE NOTES (l971) and his 4th, NIGHT CRIES
(l976).
Selections from N.C. are available online
at:
Brief Prose
Poems
&
Prose Poems
& Microfictions
A couple of MOLE NOTES are online
at:
Theater, Film,
& TV Poems
And there's another from MOLE at
Xmas
Site:
'Xmas On Bay State Road' & Other
Poems
Selections from Benedikt's 5th & most
recent book of poetry at:
The Badminton at Great Barrington
Manuscript-In-Progress
At:
The
Thesaurus & Other New Verse
New Poems added in '02
Links to Other Pages Within This BODY-SKY Website
Next Page of This Site--'Dark Love Poems'
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