Poems for Infidels

Contents

Contents I Stand Here Ironizing 11 Tangos Beginning Tango, or Tango of the Beginning 15 de Grotesco 17 de Criminal 18 de Muse 19 Tango of Fear 20 Tiger-Kitten 21 Dance of Re-memberment 22 Useless Claims of Love 23 A Fool Such As I 24 A Tour of Someone Else’s Hometown 25 Elegies The Day I Loved You Most 29 Elegy from a Nightingale’s Point of View 30 Two Letters from Lavinia 35 A Vase of Bones 39 Blue Aura 40 Elegy, Horribly Glamorous 41 My Childhood, if it had Taken Place in an Actual Desert 42 Death of the Local Carnival 43 Poem 44 Accusations The Black Words 47 O Alive Who Are Dead 48 Something Gorgeously Heretical 49 Reverse Everything 50 Hidalgos of the Golden Age 51 Gone With The Wind 52 The Lotus Eaters 54 Insidious Charismas 56 The Story of O as Told by E 57 Cherries in the Snow 58 Love L’Amour 63 Cirque du Liz and Dick 64 An Ornate Encounter 66 Ardent Departure 67 The Miraculous Influence 68 People are Different from Each Other 72 Boca del Mundo 73 Infidelity 74 Dolly Sonnet 75 Artificial Paradise 76 Our Remarkable Lyricism 77 Speech of the Simple Bard, Unbroke by Rules of Art 78 Notes 79 Preserve for us rebellion, lightning, the illusory agreement, a laugh . . . whose difficulty leads us to a new rebellion. —René Char This page intentionally left blank. ...