My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer

THE HEADS OF THE TOWN UP TO THE AETHER (1960)

THE HEADS OF THE TOWN UP TO THE AETHER (1960) Spicer: My Vocabulary Did This to Me page 247 This page intentionally left blank HOMAGE TO CREELEY EXPLANATORY NOTES I. For Cegeste To begin with, I could have slept with all of the people in the poems. It is not as difficult as the poet makes it. That is the reason I was born tonight. He wanted an English professor—someone he could feel superior to, as a ghost. He wanted to eliminate all traces of the poetry. To kiss someone goodbye but you people out there know none of the answers either—even the simple questions the poet was asked. I am the ghost of answering questions. Beware me. Keep me at a distance as I keep you at a distance. Cegeste died at the age of nineteen. Just between the time when one could use one’s age as a power and one uses one’s age as a crutch. (cf. A Fake Novel About the Life of Arthur Rimbaud). At 35 one throws away crutches. (cf. Inferno Canto I) Spicer: My Vocabulary Did This to Me page 249 249 Several Years’ Love Two loves I had. One rang a bell Connected on both sides with hell The other’d written me a letter In which he said I’ve written better They pushed their cocks in many places And I’m not certain of their faces Or which I kissed or which I didn’t Or which of both of them I hadn’t. The two loves are the pain The Poet had. I do not think a doorbell could be extended from one of them to the other. The letter, naturally (as will become more apparent in the conquest of Algeria or outer space) was written to somebody else. The cocks want to be sure of themselves. Spicer: My Vocabulary Did This to Me page 250 250 Car Song Away we go with no moon at all Actually we are going to hell. We pin our puns to our backs and cross in a car The intersections where lovers are. The wheel and the road turn into a stair The pun at our backs is a yellow star. We pin our puns on the windshield like We crossed each crossing in hell’s despite. “I like it better in L.A. because there’re more men and they’re prettier,” someone said in The Handlebar tonight. “Intersections” is a pun. “Yellow stars” are what the Jews wore. The stair is what extends back and forth for Heurtebise and Cegeste and the Princess always to march on. Actually, L.A. is Los Angeles and there was a motion picture that showed everything. Spicer: My Vocabulary Did This to Me page 251 251 Concord Hymn Your joke Is like a lake That lies there without any thought And sees Dead seas The birds fly Around there Bewildered by its blue without any thought of water Without any thought Of water. “Conquered Him” is a poem by Emerson. The Dead Seas are all in the Holy Land. If you watch closely you will see that water appears and disappears in the poem. Spicer: My Vocabulary Did This to Me page 252 252 Wrong Turn What I knew Wasn’t true Or oh no Your face Was made of fleece Stepping up to poetry Demands Hands. Jacob’s coat was made of virgin wool. Virgin wool is defined as wool made from the coat of any sheep that can run faster than the sheepherder. There are steps on the stairs too, which are awfully steep. Spicer: My Vocabulary Did This to Me page 253 253 The Territory Is Not the Map What is a half-truth the lobster declared You have sugared my groin and have sugared my hair What correspondence except my despair? What is my crime but my youth? Truth is a map of it, oily eyes said Half-truth is half of a map instead Which you will squint at until you are dead Putting to sea with the truth. This is a poem to prevent idealism—i.e. the study of images. It did not succeed. Edward Lear was allowed to say this some time ago in his books for children. Actually The Poet thought of himself as “oily eyes.” That is why The Poem could never prevent idealism (Idealism). Orpheus and...