MARCH POEMS, NO. 56

This old poet
Does not like
To be alone,
But this old poet
Is alone.

What does
This old poet
Do when alone.
He listens
To the night.

He writes down
Every word
The night speaks.
Before sleep,
He tears it up.

During sleep
Some force
Picks up the pieces,
Paste together again
Inside his body.

Next morning,
The words leap
From his body
To appear on computer screen.
The old poet prints the words.

 

MARCH POEMS, NO. 57

Her eyes
Were a color
That could not
Be classified.
When she tilted
Her head,
Put her eyes
Close to his eyes,
Her eyes burned
All the conceptions
Of eyes
That he had stored
In graves
Of the cemeteries
Scattered throughout the brain.
There was smoke,
Ashes in the brain;
An unknown,
Like a phoenix,
Leaped out of the ashes.
Her eyes
Obscured the unknown.
It was
A moment of rapture,
A rapture
Never experienced before
In our familiar world of lies.

 

MARCH POEMS, NO. 58

Je suis l'autre,
Said Gerard De Nerval,
Who was rumored
To tie ribbons
Around his pet lobster.
We cannot be certain,
For biography is a lie.
People lie about everything,
New liars come along
To correct the old liars.

Wine makes one talkative;
When we talk we talk lies,
Let us be silent.
Let me gaze upon a reality,
Your nudity.

 

MARCH POEMS, NO. 59

I gaze at the most beautiful woman I've ever met
As she drives.
She gazes at the screen of her BMW.
The screen says her parking lights are on.
The lights are not on,
But she believes the screen.
This event is the allegory of her life.
I can overlook that she has lived a life of lies,
For she is so wonderful to touch.

 

MARCH POEMS, NO. 60

The poet had been
A victim of sociability,
Associated,
Agreed with the lies that everybody spoke,
Found his life as empty
As empty as the empty lives he was among.
He did not want to spend his life alone,
But not to be alone he must accept sociability.
So the poet decided to accept loneliness,
Stay alone, drink wine, die alone.

---

alley photos
click for larger view

Duane Locke
2716 Jefferson Street
Tampa, FL 33602-16200

Announcing: THREE NEW BOOKS OF POEMS By Duane Locke
[Duane Locke has renounced print publication to publish electronically. Duane Locke has over 4,000 poems published, over 2,000 in print publications, American Poetry Review, etc. and since September 1999, over 2,000 in e zines.]

1. Published in February, 2OO2, E book:
THE SQUID'S BLACK INK,
Published by Ze books (the publisher of poetry
For only 69 cents per book)
Contact: http.//www.blquanbeck.com.zebooks. Inquire:
NOVLNymph@aol.com or Ward708@aol.com

2. Published in February, 2002, E Book:
FROM A TINY ROOM,
Published in Spain by OTO' S E-BOOKS, http.//atotos.gksdesign.com/ebooks/locke or http://atotos.gksdesign.com/ebooks/buy1.htm or
http://www.atotos-ebooks.com
Inquire: guiam@wols.es.
Price: 5.60 Euros.

3, Forthcoming in April, 2002, E book:
THE DEATH OF DAPHNE,
Contains 50 poems never published before. To be published by 4*9*1, URL: 491.20m.com. Inquire: Stompdcr@aol.com Price $5.

Order the above through the internet.

[Duane Locke's 14th print book is still in print, WATCHING WISTERIA. Order from Vida Publishing via iod@ironoverload.org. Or order from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and many others. Paperback, $9.95; Hardcover, $19.95]

---

[BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE: Duane Locke, Doctor of Philosophy in English Renaissance literature, Professor Emeritus of the Humanities, was Poet in Residence at the University of Tampa for over 20 years. Has had over 2,000 of his own poems published in over 500 print magazines such as American Poetry Review, Nation, Literary Quarterly, Black Moon, and Bitter Oleander. Is author of 14 print books of poems, the latest is WATCHING WISTERIA ( to order write Vida Publishing, P.O. Box 12665, Lake, Park, FL. 33405-0665, or Amazon or Barnes and Noble). Since September 1999, he became a cyber poet and started submitting on-line, and since September 1999 he has added to his over 2,000 print acceptances with 1,195 acceptances by e zines.
     He is also a painter. Now has exhibitions at Thomas Center Galleries (Gainesville, FL) and Tyson Trading Company (Micanopy, FL) Recently a one-man show at Pyramid Galleries (Tampa, FL)
     Also, a photographer, has had 116 of his photos selected for appearance on e zines. He photographs trash in alleys. Moves in close to find beauty in what people have thrown away.
     He now lives alone in a two-story decaying house in the sunny Tampa slums. He lives isolated and estranged as an alien, not understanding the customs, the costumes, the language (some form of postmodern English) of his neighbors. The egregious ugliness of his neighborhood has recently been mitigated by the esthetic efforts of the police force who put bright orange and yellow posters on the posts to advertise the location is a shopping mall for drugs. His alley is the dumping ground for stolen cars. One advantage Of living in this neighborhood, if your car is stolen, you can step out in the back and pick it up. Also, the burglars are afraid to come in on account of the muggers.
     His recreational activities are drinking wine, listening to old operas, and reading postmodern philosophy.

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