From NO EMERGENCY PARKING And Other poems
Selected and collected by Tony Vaughan
A SENSE OF TIME
A sense of time
and a sense of Kazaaz,
Inspiration is not calculation
But the think, non-machine
song
source
of sparrows where
the blessed
spirits do not have problems
when they do what
they do.
The dark blank window
overlooking Broadway
San Francisco
North Beach.
Did you know?
Lenny Bruce
jumped out
from there.
not to die
but to elude the
F.B.I.
Illuminating the spot
With chicks
& red wine.
The Joy of now
Is the tempest beyond©Tony Vaughan
VISITATION
For Jack MichelineYou were surrounded by
Yellow -- yellow hair.
Yellow socks, a yellow
Wall, yellow light --
Nothing would change
I wanted to give you
A gift of yellow
fishes – but the scene
was miles from the sea
-- Some of us wore hats
-- but you – in your
yellow hat – you
Could have worn a
Hat for all of us.Tony Vaughan
ARTAUD AT CAFFÉ TRIESTE
To Antonin Artaud\ (1895 to 1948)
Director, essayist, revolutionary
‘I want to give them the experience itself
The plague itself so they will be terrified.’I see
Antonin
Artaud
reborn He sits
at a table
at the Caffe Trieste
anonymous, profound
in deep inarticulation
in an accelerating
science—
beyond the disguise
of hemline
and a collision of ceilings. History A great lunge
into the unknown. Gentle Artaud
with a nimbus
of red x’s& fluorescent green
sunglasses Kinky Buddha by a telephone booth.He breaks
each of his thoughts
in two
like a stick. He builds a little fire.
striking the match
of imagination
in vision’s breathwhere his shadow flickers and looms
above a room
of barking poets
on a rainy night:a rare signal
of uncommon love
through a stillflaming
art. He is reversing just one or two assumptions
that exist
in the world.©Tony Vaughan
BEFORE THE GIRL
Light breaks before the girl and
the child. Not the wind that makes
a discarded newspaper
blow along
but circumstance
just outside
the open light
of Café Trieste.
Standing in line for drinks.
Cold light. A circle of family.
A terrific stranger possibly arrives
out of accident
and necessity.
Is everything art
at such times?
Even the glittering pinwheel
somebody blows carelessly
before handing it to her baby.
So young to be a mother.
Cute as always
even in her sense of responsibility.
And aren't you
tiny child
a little old to
still be laughing
in a baby carriage? Daughter of fire. Emperor's well.
Daughter of water. Radiance©Tony Vaughan
memories and posters for Tony Vaughan
more Tony Vaughan poetry
Back to Tony Vaughan Homepage