Readings in Contemporary Poetry
Kostas Anagnopoulos and Charles North
Tuesday, February 9, 2016, 6:30 pm, Dia Chelsea
Dia:Chelsea
535 West 22nd Street, 5th Floor
New York City
Introduction by Vincent Katz
Kostas Anagnopoulos
Kostas Anagnopoulos was born and raised on the West Side of Chicago. His mother was a seamstress and his father was the editor of a Greek-American leftist newspaper. Anagnopoulos is the founder and editor of Insurance Editions. He has published six chapbooks and a book titled Moving Blanket (New York: Ugly Duckling Presse, 2010). Insurance Editions will publish What Works, his latest chapbook, in early 2016. He lives in Jackson Heights, New York, with his husband and daughter.
Changes
Jupiter moves close to me
Feet up on coffee table
Ankles crossed like Woody Woodpecker
Cross myself like Greek Orthodox
I’m acting out knowledge unknowingly
I’m fond of rewinding, digging and snipping
I’m an evaporator
The reader doesn’t know
You just don’t know
Wearing flip flops in the rain can kill you
You slip and die
Your bald spot exposed
We’ve switched dry cleaners
It doesn’t matter because the sun is dying
When would you like?
Same day?
Cost extra
The new owners must learn the old systems
That’s life
The old customers are taped to the wall
But now a new coat of paint
I’m all for change and pink slips
But you can't just plant me and deflate me
All day on a love seat
Waiting for this girl to figure out
Why I’m writing this
Trying my luck at rebirth
No matter who delivers me
Bingo!
I’m in solid with the old neighborhood
Destined to keep turning the pages
Talking to myself
“Did you get the memo that you’re dying”
“Wait a second I just got reborn!”
Sorry we’re closed for repairs
Repair me too
Blood washed off with a cup of bleach
And tomorrow you’ll be miserable
But never stop praying
To St. Fanourios finder of lost items
Bake a little cupcake for him
People continue working their cruelty on people
Flexing their muscles in the Capitol
Meanwhile tongue is served
Or severed!
Feet up on coffee table
Ankles crossed like Woody Woodpecker
Cross myself like Greek Orthodox
I’m acting out knowledge unknowingly
I’m fond of rewinding, digging and snipping
I’m an evaporator
The reader doesn’t know
You just don’t know
Wearing flip flops in the rain can kill you
You slip and die
Your bald spot exposed
We’ve switched dry cleaners
It doesn’t matter because the sun is dying
When would you like?
Same day?
Cost extra
The new owners must learn the old systems
That’s life
The old customers are taped to the wall
But now a new coat of paint
I’m all for change and pink slips
But you can't just plant me and deflate me
All day on a love seat
Waiting for this girl to figure out
Why I’m writing this
Trying my luck at rebirth
No matter who delivers me
Bingo!
I’m in solid with the old neighborhood
Destined to keep turning the pages
Talking to myself
“Did you get the memo that you’re dying”
“Wait a second I just got reborn!”
Sorry we’re closed for repairs
Repair me too
Blood washed off with a cup of bleach
And tomorrow you’ll be miserable
But never stop praying
To St. Fanourios finder of lost items
Bake a little cupcake for him
People continue working their cruelty on people
Flexing their muscles in the Capitol
Meanwhile tongue is served
Or severed!
Charles North
Charles North is the author of fifteen books of poems and prose, including What It Is Like: New and Selected Poems(New York: Turtle Point Press; New York: Hanging Loose Press, 2011), which headed David Orr’s “Truth and Beauty: 2011’s Best American Poetry” list for National Public Radio. With James Schuyler, he edited Broadway: A Poets and Painters Anthology (Putnam Valley, N.Y.: Swollen Magpie, 1979) and Broadway 2: A Poets and Painters Anthology (New York: Hanging Loose Press, 1989). He has also published collaborative works with artists and other poets, and has received numerous awards, including two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, four Fund for Poetry awards, a Poets Foundation award, and a Foundation for Contemporary Arts grant. North has been Poet-in-Residence at Pace University, New York, since 1997. He lives and works in New York.
Show Tune, for Harry Mathews
Rosemary, qu’est-ce qu’il y a?
The incurable wound
That pierces the dark
To the tune of “Lush Life”
Would just as soon
Be dawn in Antibes
And that half-finished translation
Move everyone to tears
The incurable wound
That pierces the dark
To the tune of “Lush Life”
Would just as soon
Be dawn in Antibes
And that half-finished translation
Move everyone to tears
Books
Readings in Contemporary Poetry: An Anthology