Overture: Chorus by Jack and Adelle Foley

OVERTURE: CHORUS

that the hummingbird’s wings are of a remarkable rapidity he had noted often

            nothing could be done the shift of his breathing         had to begin

12 o’clock and he still hadn’t had a                dermal sensation

            the block of the governor                         is therefore revealing

the muck of the plains            living blues              a means of reversing

                        whereof is so manifest

such crooked crooked pathes, such ways this palace hides

                        wit and power, to study the travail

new adventures list he undertake

                        the way and its power                        leading to the outside

in the eyes of the law                                  a long time, & ideas rise up

            toward toward gratification                inhaling     exhaling      rise & fall

I name that audacity               with him a hundred fold          intellect does, & the soul

                        I name that audacity whose courage unmanned

                                    in the form that is

with the heavenly heart              excitations unbounded

                            INDOLENCE                                 indolence and distraction

directly the roots of                            towards punishment, towards

THE ORIGINS                        

AND HISTORIES                    simultaneous with:                  who can tell in such matters?

OF CONSCIOUSNESS                                                          he blackened his face, his bowels

DISPATCHED FROM THE EARTH BY HIS BROTHERS

HE BEGAN TO                                                                       star of the magi: regeneration

BREATHE AGAIN                                                                   temperance: self-control

FOR A LONG TIME NOW I HAVE FELT THE VOID            a peculiar token

LIKE THE PLAGUE

                                                                                                                        a power

creating in the soul a craving of           the greatest force         wild animals

size of the altar           indispensable for those who are to apprehend his meaning aright

our most logical form the syllogism                like consternation spread

has the greatest force              and the big hat with the turquoise-inlaid eye

at the bottom of her soul                    “Look! Niña! It is the general!”          on the vermin of

the house         holding back   the lymphatic milk of fishes               made in silence

through the way          more literary than music though so-called “music”

the swarming “population”       lo for this little while                       sugar curse Eve fish-hook!

from the freshness of my eyes           little boat and a smell of

the revolver

ready

            come oh bird settle a moment

                                                            EXPERIENCE ANYTHING a bullock wagon

the tramp of feathers the thunder drop the white snake

for a long time now I have felt the void like the

plague it is the

revelation        a formidable call to the forces that impel the mind

we do not see it as it is but as it has been fashioned

                                    moving heads on rollers

                                    animated hieroglyphs

                                    a disinclination or resistance

rolling eyes, pouting lips, muscular spasms

mirrors, shoots, sources,         (limbs!)

in a pier is burning (east, east is burning!)

the old man drew, in a black spirit, hugely, against,

in the flickering light, again, against,

in the earliest march, courageous,

far more astounding    astounding —

the days in which

sweetbriar, nebraska                                                                            began to rivet, it

                                                                                                            shared persuasion

at the spring at sunset                        simultaneous with:                     no sight of the highway

                                                                                                            for a long long time

the knight in disguise                                                                          your sweet dividing

                                                                                                            informs the statement

                                                                                                            endlessly there

who knows                                                                                          its effect to force

                                                                                                            since pleasure’s divided

the would-be merman                                                                          remove our ideas

                                                                                                            offspring of a union

the foolish queen                                                                                 amphibians reptiles

                                                                                                            forced to rise

                                                                                                            at a height above

adventures while singing                                                                     hot winter’s weathers

                                                                                                            the book of breath

when Peter Jackson preached in old church                                        opes his eyes

                                                                                                            a break of Yoga

factory windows are always broken                                                    that old old man

                                                                                                            he draws, in a black spirit, hugely

“this is the price I pay

for the light I shall someday see”

      _________________

and what if my body die

of this small inland town

BUT

draunk in tears no bird great beds of poppy only asleep dissolved

in thunder jars no guardian nine times battered to wear & weaving

oh keep him safe reveal him whose he was and who he was with the peak

of the mountain & his bones were boulders the Egyptian asp ship onward she

bore a child (clop-clop of horses) stored assembled and disassembled

                                                                                                                        the

startling impact of their loud bursts of noise as they arrive

   at unpredictable intervals of the stream—

the lines which spread                                                the theater’s alchemy

at night, anyway

                                                                        in a tight

net

                                                                                    the huge

when I saw that the light appeared I was astonished

   & again fell down, fell dead away

this is indeed the spirit of wisdom, the Eastern source

                        preserving their antiquity

for none of the pleasures I have is equal to what is given me

            the lines which spread                        the theater’s alchemy

some of these seem much older than was thought

                        God’s “immanence” or “indwelling” in the world

a particularly searching theory of the Shekinah

                                    the King on his throne

followers developed in great detail

                             most shameful sinners, burned

the process of creation burns, there are 2 versions of it, in Genesis,

                     in short, before all else, entirely practical

                                    works of the Chariot

my hopes for the theater are, strictly speaking, “idealized”

                        logos in vacuum

            innermost joy                          bound by love

these are the                manifestations

                        the next morning I communicated to my teacher

                                                                              lines that spread

_______________________


Jack Foley’s radio show, Cover to Cover, is heard on Berkeley, California radio station KPFA every Wednesday at 3; his column, “Foley’s Books,” appears in the online magazine Alsop Review. He has published 11 books of poetry, 5 books of criticism, andVisions and Affiliations, a chronoencyclopedia of California poetry. In 2010 Foley was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Berkeley Poetry Festival, and June 5, 2010 was proclaimed “Jack Foley Day” in Berkeley. A webfestschrift celebrating his life and work can be found in the current Tower Journal: www.towerjournal.com.
Website: www.jack-adellefoley.com/Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Foley_(poet)#Biography 

Adelle Foley is a retirement administrator, an arts activist, and a writer of haiku. Her poems have appeared in various magazines and textbooks. Along the Bloodline is her first book-length collection.