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Thanksgiving 2004 : A Menu Poem For Kent Johnson
Thanksgiving 2004 : A Menu Poem For Kent Johnson
Thanksgiving 2004 : A Menu Poem For Kent Johnson
by Geoffrey Gatza
Geoffrey Gatza
BlazeVox [books]
Buffalo, New York
Stir Fry of Scallops and Shiitake Mushrooms with Gingered Grits and Bacon Vinaigrette
2 Course
nd
3 Course
rd
4 Course
th
Hamachi with Edamame Puree, Spicy Grapefruit and Watermelon Radish Salad
5 Course
th
Seared Rare Ahi with a Plum Wine & Daikon Beurre Rouge Steamed Jasmine Rice
6 Course
th
Fire Roasted Rack of Lamb and Rosemary DemiGlaze Sauted Purple Artichokes and White Asparagus
7 Course
th
Table of Contents
Scallops ....................................................................................................................... 11 Shiitake Mushrooms .............................................................................................12 Ginger Grits ...............................................................................................................13 Bacon Vinaigrette...................................................................................................14 Tomato consomm ...............................................................................................15 Alphabet of Vegetables........................................................................................16 Ron Syllabub..............................................................................................................17 Dungeness Crab .....................................................................................................18 Meyer Lemon ...........................................................................................................19 Hamachi......................................................................................................................20 Edamame ...................................................................................................................21 Spicy Grapefruit.......................................................................................................22 Watermelon Radish ..............................................................................................23 Rare Ahi ......................................................................................................................24 Plum Wine .................................................................................................................25 Fire Roasted Lamb.................................................................................................26 Rosemary...................................................................................................................27 Purple Artichokes...................................................................................................28 White Asparagus ...................................................................................................29 Asian Pear Trifle......................................................................................................30
Scallops
The very conditions, that basic inhospitality and constant suspicion, that eventually enabled the emergence of a new art and the triumph of painting in America.
Shiitake Mushrooms
pungent works of art persist in musty new directions dark garnets one can touch a tickle of sweet acidity and a hint of roasty earth some decaying stacks of books on the floor heart and core of ages past touch their wicked little game rope cutting across wood
Ginger Grits
epigram
When I die and they bring my ashes to rest at Garys World of Miniatures roadside attraction We will pass their diminutive version of the Vietnam War Memorial, the Eiffel Tower, The Great Wall and the Pyramids, the Seattle Space Needle, the Sidney Opera House.... will wander past the United Nations building, and off by the "Its a Small World" area sits the styrofoam model of the Vatican In the round area of St. Peters Square they will empty my ashes from the urn and my scattered form will be the very essence of americana
and in that moment may I find the great poets gone before - I will tell them Kent Johnson was my friend And youd damn well better watch out
Bacon Vinaigrette
If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.
Francis Bacon
Tomato consomm
Alphabet of Vegetables
Back on earth, Mr. O'Keefe is also engaged in more mundane forms of cost control. Professors are being cut. Poets, heaven forfend, are being made, reproduced, redundant :
Alan Asparagus Boris Beets Clara Carrots David Daikon Eric Endive Fredric Fennel Ginger Gourd Haricot Vert Iceberg Lettuce Japanese Eggplant Robert Kale Lemon Grass Morris Maize Kelley Nettles Jasper Onion Paula Pea Arron Qunice Ruby Radish Sarah Spinach Turnip Kettlebottom Ugandan Principal Vidalia Onion Jenny Wasabi Xai Yam Zucchini
poemsaboutguns.blogspot.com/
L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E.blogspot.com/
postavant.blogspot.com/ avantgarde.blogspot.com/ quietude101.blogspot.com/ grumpyoldmn.blogspot.com/ dangerouspuppy.blogspot.com/ CompleteIdiotsGuidetoPoetry.blogspot.com/ winebeforeitstime.blogspot.com/ ilikebush.blogspot.com/ leafybob.blogspot.com/ alwaysgreener.blogspot.com/ paidwhatonesode.blogspot.com/ papertiger.blogspot.com/ kakapo-ssible.blogspot.com/ 100mattresses.blogspot.com/ magneticpoetrykit.blogspot.com/ danagioiasucks.blogspot.com/ idratherbebowling.blogspot.com/ myprettypony.blogspot.com/ listentome.blogspot.com/ thegreatgatsby.blogspot.com/ aquarrelwithourselves.blogspot.com/ poetryideathatwillhauntmylateryears.blogspot.com
Ron Syllabub
"But since, ceteris paribus, no poet can afford to dispense with anything that may advance his design, it but remains to be seen whether there is, in extent, any advantage to counterbalance the loss of unity which attends it." Edgar Allan Poe; The Philosophy of Composition; 1850. [Yasusada] takes my breath away' Ron Silliman
O wild Kent Johnson, thou breath of Autumn's being, your florida blue ink drives leaves auburn like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing sunsets with fighter jets climbing in the transparency of my dreams christ in concrete old pizza and ice everlasting unseen presence ceteris paribus, god always coincides with my desires
Dungeness Crab
"He lashed out and then deliberately pushed a poem into my face. The base of the poem struck me and cut my bottom lip. "At the same time he was repeatedly saying 'Why are you doing this? Why don't you just leave me alone?'" Another poet who was outside the club said he had no reason to react as he did. "In this situation he wasn't under any threat. The poet who he went for is the mildest-mannered poet," the US's Academy of Poetry quoted him as saying. A Scotland Yard spokesman told APR: "We are aware of the incident but no complaint has been made." On scene, Paul Valery, was quoted as saying, "the folly of mistaking a paradox for a discovery, a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, and oneself for an oracle, is inborn in us."
Meyer Lemon
Hibernaculum
It is not difficult to write poems in America: weaving baskets in a world of paper or plastic. It is difficult to get work, real work I mean something that will pay for the energy that will burn and keep us warm during winter. Not difficult to put words to anger and spout about how the administration is to blame for everything that is wrong it is in the wrong1 Knowing does not stop the calls the constant calls for money we just do not have when one is underemployed there is so much time Not difficult to write poems when so much America is happening [ it is difficult to find someone for who poetry will make one bit of difference in their daily life summer days past ]
Hamachi
If you don't find God in the next person you meet, it is a waste of time looking for him further. Mahatma Gandhi
In the emerald blue silence of gamelan chimes It came returned to me, stamped DECEASED fading ananda a mix of whatever happens to be around slipping into autumn bliss an ironic after-echo of issues raised by hammers, colliding diminish diminish
Edamame
Spicy Grapefruit
To Shine
That's a lot of tommyrot, he says, with a broad, crafty smile. All things considered; Im certainly not a pacifist! As the stocky servant who mimics his master, himself a clown, winds up on the paths of all things criminal as a fly to a frog, a frog to a snake, a snake to a bird, a bird to a Martian, and a Martian to a fly what amounts to a threnody of grief the mind shapes itself to the body, as a rain forever falling, a vapor ever rising
Watermelon Radish
Watermelon radish and shiso salad 10 leaves of shiso, julienned 2 watermelon radishes, peeled, and sliced thin and julienned 1 cup half and half Salt to taste Toss julienne of shiso and watermelon radish in half and half. Season with salt. To Serve On a large plate, spread edamame puree over the base of the plate. Place two grapefruit segments in the center. Add 5 hamachi slices: alternating hamachi slices and grapefruit slices. Place small amount of candied turmeric over each piece of hamachi. Pour 2 Tablespoons of spicy grapefruit juice over plate. Garnish with spoonful of watermelon and shiso salad.
Rare Ahi
Plum Wine
The audience waits in a kind of hebetudinous fixation, perhaps astonished at the perfectly sustained level of mediocrity
[ she is polyonymous; Hecate the Hetronym protecting readings and dynasties from the quiet ramblings of brothers in love. ]
Thread: A lion is made up of the lambs he's digested Ron Silliman Cant get one past ole Kent Johnson arms and legs splay outwards Ron Silliman Kent Johnson Poetics List Administrator Ron Silliman Cant get one past ole Kent Johnson
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Rosemary
Remembrance
Purple Artichokes
Wonderland is for lucky girls and music takes a happy pill a dreary Wednesday we have entered the purple wetlands the smell is of cauliflower, subjective a steel gray pine tree in the sunset three shapes take form the states of matter, being and union a row boat in sand
White Asparagus
St. Sebastian
When he was finally discovered to be poet he was handed over to the Mauretanian archers, who tied him to a tree and shot him with arrows. They left him for dead on that tree. The widow St. Irene, horrified, took him down and tended to his prickly body. She kept an arrow as a artifact. As soon as Sebastian's health returned, he was pissed. He publicly challenged the Emperor to defend his preemptive military doctrines and poorly planned economic strategies. Sebastian, thus went into holy battle, armed with his poems and superpowers, he easily defeated the Emperors guards. And when the time came to slay the evil Emperor, Our Lord appeared and bade him to cease. He was captured and re-sentenced to death, this time by clubbing. After his second execution, his body was buried where San Sebastiano Library and Starbucks now stand.
It was Renaissance artists who portrayed him as a youth pierced by arrows, Sebastian was an older, 400 pound man in Normal, Ill.
Once, Sebastian used his healing abilities, to cure the prefect of Rome of gout, In appreciation he released the Christians under his persecution and thus converted.
After all, is the matter of nuclear omnicide and everything it implies in terms of our collective psyche a tamed and settled matter? I mean, who is the Author of Hiroshima? Doubled Flowering stands, when all is said and done, as a work of troubled imagining imagining what it might be to live and struggle through a fate that potentially awaits every human being.
Real Name: Geoffrey Gatza Occupation: Crime-fighter, Poet Base of Operations: Buffalo, NY USA Marital Status: Single Height: 6'3" Weight: 195 lbs. Eyes: Blue Hair: Brown Birth date: Unknown Birth place: Unknown Title: None, acting for the Avant Garde Affiliation: Known to work with Belladonna, a rogue artist Family: Unknown Analysis: A mystery. Lack of background information. Traces have turned up little of his life before his involvement with poetry. Vocal, forceful, enigmatic. Creative. Technically adept. Knowledgeable. Charismatic. Idealistic. Dangerous. Great potential should investigate further. Hidden past may hold key to control.
A prodigy who obtained his Literature degree while still in his teens, Geoffrey Gatza was a gifted poet, whose inability to work within the system led him outside of established literary circles. As the "Midnight Poet," Gatza used his great wealth, talent and formidable network of contacts to provide Avant Garde poetry for a wide range of readers for whom orthodox poetry had failed. While investigating the influx of a new and dangerous bio-mimetic languages, Gatza was infected with a mutagenic virus which interacted randomly with other chemicals in his bloodstream. As a result, Gatza lost his vision except while using special goggles of his own creation. Beatnik was one of the strongest Poets on Earth until his untimely fall before Gatza. During a final confrontation with the original Beatnik, Gatzas power level was increased tenfold when his father, seemingly performing an act of good will before his death, bestowed Gatza with his superior mental powers. With his father's ability to project lifelike three-dimensional images and psionic energy beams the Nobel Prize seemed well within his reach. Recently, Gatza was committed to Subway Asylum following several violent mental breakdowns. While there he made fast friends with T.S. Eliot who was committed for acting like a cat and Ezra Pound. Shortly afterward, a confrontation with Eliot, Pound and Closed Verse left Gatza nearly dead. He retreated into his mind, seemingly lost forever in a coma. It has been speculated the energy Gatza received from his father was the catalyst for his insanity but this is not entirely true. Something else has been infecting his mind...something powerful. Gatza has dedicated himself to protecting the downtrodden of his city from a continuing series of deadly schemes by the insidious Iowa writers.
Blaze
Real Name: Blaise Occupation: Crime-fighter, former house cat Base of Operations: Buffalo, NY USA Height: 27 cm Weight: 15 lbs. Hair: Orange Marmalade Eyes: Yellow Birth Date: Unknown Birth Place: Debuke, Iowa Affiliation: The Chinese Throwing Cats Family: Mother, 2 sisters Hobbies: Chess
Once a 20th century house cat known as Blaise, assumed the role of Freedom Fighter after she saw her family killed by the arch criminal The Crow. Some time later, after wandering as a lone warrior she changed her identity to Blaze. Allying herself with Clarice during the Zero Second Crisis, she became a being of pure chronal energy. Since the Crisis she has mastered the timestream itself. In an effort to create the Universe in her image, Blaze traveled back in time to only moments before the Big Bang occurred. This was foiled when the original NEA was alerted and a battle ensued, Blaze fully aged Dana Gioia and murdered Formalist-Man, Dr. GoodMoral, and The Oracle. She has yet to be brought to justice for her crimes against humanity.
Clarice
Name: Clarice Waldman Age: 3 Height: 24 cm. Weight: 6 kg. Hair: White and Orange Eyes: Yellow Birth Date: Unknown Birth Place: Bombay, India Affiliation: Avant Garde Family: No Living Relatives Hobbies: Chess Analysis: A company cat. She will never betray Gatza or the Avant Garde. Believes in the artist way: All work no play. She keeps a clean slate and no hidden skeletons.
The daughter of evil villain Tiger King, Clarice joined the Avant Garde after her father was killed in battle with the Robert Frost and Robert Bly. Clarices superfeline body is laced with hidden cybernetic claws. She also carries a mango-staff given to her by her father, able to shoot spirals of electricity on command. She rarely leaves home and has never been officially spotted outside Avant Garde headquaters.