Jerome Rothenberg Poems

I like to cross
these borders. They take place
between the dead & dead.
I make my mind up
...

I was amok & fearless
twice deceived
for which I sought out
satisfactions
...

the bridges of Chicago
are not the bridges of Paris
or the bridges of Amsterdam
...

He takes a book down from his shelf & scribbles across a
page of text: I am the final one. This means the world will
end when he does.
...

I am the Giant Goliath,
I digest goat cheese.
I am a mammoth's calf.
...

The cruel majority emerges!

Hail to the cruel majority!

They will punish the poor for being poor.
They will punish the dead for having died.
...

1

he picks a coin up
from the ground

it burns his hand
...

a trembling old man dreams of a chinese garden
a comical old man dreams of newspapers under his rabbi's hat

a simple tavernkeeper dreams of icicles & fisheyes
...

Despair leaves
a dry spot
the passage of light
through my veins.
I fail as a celibate.
...

1
infant encoil'd
inside a worm

2
The Throne of Mary
...