Author: admin

The Second Calling by William Butler Yeats

COUNSELOR: Poetry Crisis Line, what is your emergency?

CALLER:  Turning and turning

COUNSELOR: Have you tried switching off the dryer?

CALLER: In the widening gyre

COUNSELOR: No, I said the dryer. Can you hear me OK?

CALLER: The falcon cannot hear the falconer.

COUNSELOR: I get a code name? How exciting!

CALLER: Things fall apart.

COUNSELOR: What things?  Or is this more code? You can’t hear me because I’m breaking up?

CALLER:  The centre cannot hold.

COUNSELOR: I see. What sort of center did you escape from, exactly?

CALLER: Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.

COUNSELOR: It certainly sounds like it. Would you consider going back to that center and checking yourself in again?

Queen of Cheese Classics: “Humpty Dumpty: A la Poe” by Thomas Holley Chivers (1809-1858)

As an egg, when broken, never
Can be mended but must ever
Be the same crushed egg forever—
So shall this dark heart of mine
Which, though broken, is still breaking,
And shall nevermore cease aching
For the sleep which has no waking—
For the sleep which is now thine.

Alberto Rios calls the Poetry Crisis Line

COUNSELOR: Poetry Crisis Line, what is your emergency?

CALLER: The border is a line that birds cannot see.

COUNSELOR: You mean like a window?

CALLER: The border is a beautiful piece of paper folded carelessly in half.

COUNSELOR: Oh—so these birds you mentioned—are they origami cranes?

CALLER: The border is where flint first met steel,

COUNSELOR: Oh no. How far along are you on the paper cranes? Were you going for the traditional thousand?

CALLER: starting a century of fires.

COUNSELOR: Oh.

 

 

Read the rest of “The Border” by Alberto Rios here.

The Queen of Cheese Presents: Excerpt from “The Soiree of the Pig and the ‘Phibian” (in Old Possum’s Practical Puppets)

A pig and a frog do not usually mate,

But once in a while they go on a date–

After all, they’re accustomed to staying up late

From working together on network TV

That anyone raised in the ‘80s might see

(And green’s not the easiest color to be),

So they go to the clubs ‘til a quarter to three,

And they

hop hop hop hop

hop hop HOP HOP

And neither one wishes the evening would stop.

D. H. Rumsfeld calls the Poetry Crisis Line

COUNSELOR: Poetry Crisis Line, what is your emergency?

CALLER: As we know,  / There are known knowns.

COUNSELOR:  I see.

CALLER: There are things we know we know.

COUNSELOR: But can we truly know anything in this world?

CALLER: We also know / There are known unknowns.

COUNSELOR: You’re tripping me out, man.

CALLER: That is to say / We know there are some things / We do not know.

COUNSELOR: I know!

CALLER: But there are also unknown unknowns,

COUNSELOR: Wow, that’s deep.

CALLER: The ones we don’t know

COUNSELOR: Like the sound of one hand clapping.

CALLER: We don’t know.

COUNSELOR: Namaste, my brother, namaste.

COUNSELOR AT NEXT CUBICLE: Who was that?

COUNSELOR: I don’t know. [pause] Some hippie.

Theodore Roethke calls the Poetry Crisis Line

COUNSELOR: Poetry Crisis Line, what is your emergency?

CALLER: I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.   

COUNSELOR: I’ve had mornings like that. Do you feel this way often?

CALLER: I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.   

COUNSELOR: I’ll take that as a yes. Have you found any coping strategies that work for you?

CALLER: I learn by going where I have to go.

COUNSELOR: So, just take it as it comes and see what happens?

CALLER: We think by feeling.

COUNSELOR: That is so true. Most people don’t seem to realize it, but—

CALLER: What is there to know?   

COUNSELOR: Exactly! So much of what we think of as objective truth is just our own justification for what we want to believe.

CALLER: I hear my being dance from ear to ear.   

COUNSELOR: So you’re at least aware of your own subjectivity. How does that make you feel?

CALLER: I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

COUNSELOR: So… still waking up then?

CALLER: Of those so close beside me,

COUNSELOR: So there are other people with you?

CALLER: which are you?   

COUNSELOR: I’m not there, sir. I’m on the phone.

CALLER: God bless the Ground!  

COUNSELOR: So you’re calling from a landline? Or you need to ground yourself? Or are you talking literally about the ground?

CALLER: I shall walk softly there,   

COUNSELOR: Right. So if you’re not on the ground, where are you? The ferry? The subway?

CALLER: And learn by going where I have to go.

COUNSELOR: Do you know what the next stop is? Maybe I can help you figure out which line you’re on.

CALLER: Light takes the Tree;

COUNSELOR: You can connect from the Light Rail to the Three train at Christopher Street, or if you’re at the World Trade Center, you can walk north to Chambers Street, or northeast to Park Place.

CALLER: but who can tell us how?   

COUNSELOR: If you’re at the World Trade Center, there should be a conductor you can ask for directions.

CALLER: The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;   

COUNSELOR: That sounds like Christopher Street. Turn left when you exit the station, and walk east for a couple of blocks.

CALLER: I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

COUNSELOR: I hear you. I think there’s a coffee place on the corner, if it’s still there.

 

Read the original here.

Frank O’Hara calls the Poetry Crisis Line

COUNSELOR: Poetry Crisis Line, what is your emergency?

CALLER: I am not a painter,

COUNSELOR: How is that a problem for you, sir?

CALLER: I am a poet. 

COUNSELOR: I’m afraid there’s no cure for that.

CALLER: Why?

COUNSELOR: I don’t know. I just don’t think that medical science has found a cure.

CALLER: I think I would rather be / a painter,

COUNSELOR: Are you sure, sir? Van Gogh was a painter, and he was miserable.

CALLER: but I am not.

COUNSELOR: Exactly! How are you feeling?

CALLER: Well, 

COUNSELOR: Excellent! Is there anything else I can help you with?

CALLER: for instance, Mike Goldberg / is starting a painting.

COUNSELOR: Good for him! Have you tried not making it about yourself?

CALLER: I drop in. 

COUNSELOR: Because sometimes, just letting yourself feel good for another person’s success can help with these feelings of envy.

CALLER: “Sit down and have a drink” he / says.

COUNSELOR: What?

CALLER: I drink;

COUNSELOR: Don’t do that. You should never drink paint. Some people think it’s why Van Gogh was so miserable.

CALLER: we drink.

COUNSELOR: Well, Van Gogh didn’t actually drink the paint, but he may have put the ends of his brushes in his mouth while he was thinking, and he exposed himself to heavy metals in the pigments, and the chemicals in turpentine.

CALLER: I look / up. “You have SARDINES in it.”

COUNSELOR: That is one weird-ass cocktail.

 

https://www.poemhunter.com/best-poems/frank-o-hara/why-i-am-not-a-painter/