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i am nothing if not expression a meaningless even if then, never a poem decrypted, never wave particle wave. if not this chiasmus: i am without this nothing, nothing within this: a chair on it a pipe the smoke about to fill the room with an unmistakeable odour of burning flesh; the bomb explodes through walls both thick and thin. the ribs of wood and bone splintering, the house collapses like a lung exhalation, wind escaping from a gaping womb: gaping at the womb, I become dizzy from this blue and red profusion, a long exhalation: a sigh, a tension relieved a last breath breathed, anew: nothing if not these: a pipe odour about to fill the room, an unmistakeable cherry blossom, his grandfatherly smell in the tobacco shop on the Rue Royal in a chair watching an evening's news: the murder, the shelling, the game scores; in his chair surfing the information highway, the world-wide-web closing in around him, an absence of compassion, a real nihilistic negation. here a pipe, a chair there. sit, be comfortable, the smell about to fill the room, an odourless gas from the pipes above you. · · · · · ·
Poetry on Swans Iraq on Swans Gerard Donnelly Smith, a poet and musician, teaches creative writing, literature and composition at Clark College in Vancouver WA. CERRO de la ESTRELLA (Logan Elm Press, 1992) was chosen for The Governor's Award for the Arts in Ohio, 1992. Excerpts from THE AMERICAN CORPSE (10 poems) were published in Apex of the M in 1995. He is the current director of the Columbia Writers Series, an Honorary Board Member of The Mountain Writers Series, and co-advisor of the Native American Student Council at Clark College. He has also organized readings for Poets Against the War. Do you wish to share your opinion? We invite your comments. E-mail the Editor. Please include your full name, address and phone number. If we publish your opinion we will only include your name, city, state, and country. Please, feel free to insert a link to this article on your Web site or to disseminate its URL on your favorite lists, quoting the first paragraph or providing a summary. However, please DO NOT steal, scavenge or repost this work on the Web without the expressed written authorization of Swans. This material is copyrighted, © Gerard Donnelly Smith 2003. All rights reserved. |
This Week's Internal Links
FOOLS' CRUSADE: Yugoslavia, NATO and Western Delusions - by Diana Johnstone (Book Excerpt)
Diana Johnstone's "Fools' Crusade" - Book Review by Louis Proyect
Diana Johnstone On The Balkan Wars - Book Review by Edward S. Herman
Diana Johnstone And The Demise Of 'Yugoslavism' - Book Review by Gilles d'Aymery
Selective Recognition and the Dismantling of SFR Yugoslavia - by Konstantin Kilibarda
Lessons From Yugoslavia: Blueprint for War? - by Jan Baughman
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Accomplishments - Poem by Sabina C. Becker