Joelchace.pdf

F e a t u r e d P o e t
Joel E. Chace
Selected Poems:
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______________________________________________ “Pork” is from the electronic chapbook The City on the Hill, from 2River View“Cheers: Freaking in Tongues” is from the electronic chapbook The Reason Why I Cannot “Maggnummappuss” is from the print chapbook maggnummappuss from Rick Lupert of “in the kingdom of the American Way” is from the poetic sequence polydicks poke her products from Big Bridge “curriculee curricula” is from the electronic chapbook curriculee curricula from Potes and “heisenberg” and “uncertainty principle” are from the full-length print collection Uncertain Relations, from Birch Brook Press. Selections from “o-d-e” are from the print poetic sequence “o-d-e,” forthcoming from “even” and “godhead” are from the print chapbook Greatest Hits, forthcoming from Pudding “levee” is from the electronic poetic sequence levee from 2River View “petal file” and “a decorative hermit” are from the print chapbook to the thief, forthcoming  2000 Joel E. Chace
WE WE WE ALL THE WAY! in his speeches in his columns in his homes  2000 Joel E. Chace
Cheers: Freaking in Tongues
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Maggnummappuss
It loves the dark It loves the dank It shatters a world like a little glass tank It’s layered pied It’s growin’ horns! licks the puss of festering dreams comesat night comes where it will It’s comin’ to the City on the Hill!  2000 Joel E. Chace
in the kingdom of the American Way
it’s people you know and theyall have this glow about em lappin til I get pretty damnlost and pretty damn drawed in drawed the biggest fuckin circle of em allhe’s done up in chinos rayon pretty up from nothin from bout the tiniest ever good and worked up hell one sideta other’a that hall they’re screamin  2000 Joel E. Chace
foggy cuz it’s soundin like they’re shoutin so I kinda slip away out back the hallset down by a big ole dumpster and try to sort things out but it’s mighty steamy and I’m hearin HALIBUT STEW and picturin he’s a chef in some shit-hole restaurantand he’s holdin a tree-size meat cleaver and lookin at an almost whale on a carvin board the floor Fatty though he’s feisty dives flail away so the fish is floppin circlesand Fatty rolls his saucer eyes throws down hands course the fish just keeps squirtin the kitchen door so it’s Fatty and the fish and all of us are sittin inthe dark laughin like crazy hell  2000 Joel E. Chace
curriculee curricula
catch the dazzle of distant streams stone buildings on a hill gray heads in black gowns the whirpool illusion itall was there where we could never speak or know the truth I write you at this long awaited first opportunity to explain my disappearance from the Academy know that I was seized by two men who came upon me silently and swiftly between the dining car and coach I was told at the point of their revolvers since all are brutish in their knowledge since the hearts of the wise are in the houseof mourning since the hearts of fools he went to the midnight bovine grasslands calledutopia he lived among those bulks blacker than midnight of the plains they call perfection he stared into amber cattle-eyes little oceans little depositories of emptiness prison houses of patience they took me on to New York then to Boston  2000 Joel E. Chace
where they made me ship as a cattleman I left Boston on March the 25th a Sunday and arrived in Liverpool Friday a week they left me there till yesterday then forced me on to London which we reached today at 6 a.m. by rail seeing the palace apartment enveloped in flames he who’d drunk many hogsheads of strong wine knew he must take matters into his ownhands though afterwards palace-pissing protests provoked protective policies and he missed his wife and kids which caused him many laminations all through last summer we were annoyed by chickens on the campus lawn around the powerhouse where they scratched away manure from all the beds a number of people are of the opinion these fowle come from your warehouse if these birds are yours is there no way you can keep them from our grounds I don’t want to adopt strenuous methods my wish you see is perfectly natural and it is not a pleasant thing to shoot since the faculty are legion since the sacred iliad is no more than a duststorm of apish kings and peoples since tis well to besilly in season to invite folly to our  2000 Joel E. Chace 10
despite the hour they quit the train severely inebriated having spent all night sampling potent liquors immediately upon the London station platform they commenced to quarrel and fell into the Thames and drowned and so it was I separated from them for the first time since I’d left the School for Long Vacation what their object was I never did discover nor ever now will do money don’t treat don’t tilt your chair inthe dining room class room or that you must pay your share of generalbreakage as well as your own individual breakage adapted learned returned against his will to native soil where now he ambles heavily nostrils well stopped with rue speaking againhis native tongue with bovine inflections amusing those who hear those who have never journeyed I understand the chickens belong to you last summer again we were greatly disturbed by their running over our truck path scratching manure away from peonies grapevines trees is there no way you can keep them from our campus it is just as unpleasant for me to write about  2000 Joel E. Chace 11
this matter as it is for you to receive this letter my wish is perfectly natural it is not a pleasant thing to shoot the chickens dancing in the prison parking lot he throwshis head back and howls at the moonstreaked doing in there come down and graduate with us you in there you in there buddy boyoh yeah I’m here come up and they left me with sufficient funds to make my way back to Liverpool the Tunoman that ship that brought me hither sails tomorrow morning and so I can return to Boston from there I’ll shift to New Haven where I have many a friend it must be evident I write this in great haste so cannot give particulars now aside from having suffered their rough treatment I am extremely grieved at your great trouble I shall be glad to make amends for whatever difficulties I have caused although I could not help it as you will understand this is a bitter disappointment having interfered to your dear wife and the good faculty since recitations are compulsory since the fools are changed as the moon since faculty are  2000 Joel E. Chace 12
legion since the wise are fixed as the sun since no diplomas shall be granted until allbills are paid since stars are what our eyes madness and folly since our souls are black derbysworn for holidays since we must leave  2000 Joel E. Chace 13
heisenberg
quite shy and sensitive hisparents fostered a constant later photo of the two boyswith their father as he in some copies of the print makeshim seem partially system itself “because it’sclear everything is so that  2000 Joel E. Chace 14
spent most of his timewith the Youth Movement his to culture Germanmusic poetry song always and moral behavior inter-actions with women rarely the intermediate stages of thisprocess occur in less billionth of a second and arenot observable he would slip out lateat night to beer halls where  2000 Joel E. Chace 15
to derive the resolvingpower of the interfer- telescope and the microscopewhen an angry Wien still lost Wien sawno reason to pass the young head underlined afterthat a little h that  2000 Joel E. Chace 16
“Jewish physics” he becamethe trail blazer of German the University of Berlin 1942“think of the time after the cat- efforts go toward killingoff and suitably  2000 Joel E. Chace 17
uncertainty principle
purple and the waves littleboxes the scatterings you the whole matter waltz andgrass or gas or flowers washing overgender exposure only when window uncertain split infini-tives functioning not the competition everything sothat you can claim trons overflowing spectralshores virtually the green the line notthe living subtitles after  2000 Joel E. Chace 18
from o-d-e
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odd how on canvasses the arrows piercing his flesh have come for those not much filled with love and courage zing-rays pass on through flatten spread poor adherences unsoundable maws from toed edges membranes out  2000 Joel E. Chace 29
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above a mountain called Two-Top in Pennsylvania the high inverted triangle of November raincloud  2000 Joel E. Chace 31
liquid rippled fire spreading close as blood as if a spackler horizons wide had scraped all along that whole stretch and the voice of legion had said  2000 Joel E. Chace 32
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petal file
under mind the matter lies deeper remembrance doctor’s yard he holding the needle lies little indians the good doctor telling us we were  2000 Joel E. Chace 44
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a decorative hermit
they said not too deep nottoo chill after all it’s our flanks enlighten uswith darkness prick us with all that’s the stuff oldweedy say your lines and you’re a couple of hundredyears old keep in mind on trawl old troll for pro-fundities chilled like dreamed though hiredto hide myself loudly with nication in the arbors yetthe leaves need raking from  2000 Joel E. Chace 47
for me the oracular tuft where Ipark my bought buttocks there he’ll swear thenswear we live within SUNSET LEISURE-RAMBLESMY RAVES OF ICE WITH MYSELF LOUDLY WHEREYOUR NURTURED WEED GROWS  2000 Joel E. Chace 48
paid not to dream so onmy own time I’ve dreamed can recognize the night-beastI’ve kept at bay they will waken the coldestwinter morning and will be will strew it with theirsmiles then live forever  2000 Joel E. Chace 49

Source: http://www.threecandles.org/resources/jchace.pdf