"Trance Position," "The Blue Compels," and "Waves"

Trance Position

1

They’re not going to _____________________
(Within this _________)
Please, tell them to _____
(Rot ____)
This will not _________
This movement takes _____
(Inside the ______)
(Cabbage _______)
Ignore the shadow of __________________
The shadow on ___________________________________________________
(This will not ________)
(The ______)
(Not ______)

The thousand __________
Thoughts _______
(And amulets _________)

Before we accuse _________
Before we neglect to ________
The soundboard ________
The soundboard needs ________
They’re not going to be a __________
(Alien Sedition Act of ______)
(After all, ________)
(Regular _______)

They’re not going to see the _________
(The _______)
(After the ___________)
(And ________)
There’s no place to _____________
(The filter is _________)
(The writing is _________)
(In honor of _________)
(Reason and _______)
(You talked to ________)
(You rode to ________)
(Now no more ________)
(No __________)

Royal ________
Irresponsible ________
After the ______
You won’t see them again after _________
(The belt ____)
Deliver us from ________
(The sand on the ______)
(Overage ___)
Before the call, before the ________________________

 

2

bring songs their brigades of salt and solitude

palm horses to a right session

cherish the loss of tollbooth reese

often together these eminent eagle pillboxes these polished devastating

testicle belief and string theory obligation to union syllabus and oncological payment mercury

(cure-all solvent Patrick’s raquetball)

(how pointed on Roscoe built as part and lobby)

 

silt takes lucking and nozzles the thanks

belief in red optometry through breaks in pearl sauceboat ideals putrefaction

before rising polish hotdog decree suitable billboard and purse-snatching holiday sandwich sausage beseems peel OK

then dingbat operates fourscore salvation process

oh yes inside the very professor health

not prospects hellebore regulates irradiate

you gotta see the pellicle remnant pressurized

arranged breaks take seminal purebred Delphic tollbooth tamping perfection

 

open pell-mell rescue and omnivorous dimestore holiday dispute

despite rising angst and hurled custom distinguish

they chute won’t topical price range and belfry pessimistic and honorific

finding roar for built hand and terpsichorean dandling

furled honest popcorn talk defined wristwatch

 

infinite purse registers the purple precedent escape hatch destiny pie chart

before disinformation
pollywogs

(poodle putty
help journey)
thou sign

built

beyond Solly angry savior and tiedye favor potato dancer

tilting English cigarettes without their progress tomcar

drinking this portion tupelo and disinterred

for without angry salvation dames polished hanging

without silver bring bleach to teach rain days

devious property

pointed sight harbors holiday forgetful and honest polished wrong games

Bertha wreck

time bry

wike hills

think hock

 

somnambulist blends foregone totalitarianism

bring time impossible solvents to paw the poolhall and forensics

perfect likeness to swordfish and holiday chastening

pell-mell segment

raise the sight beyond polished homonym seminar belfry tollbooth

purify the signage very dim

pearl temperature horizon of our tolerant misnomer and pale peagreen freedoms

bring lionized ice perfection hilt

before Simon braced the telephone for Pauline

brazen telling hustles eggs to infiltrate the nectar fruit of poison bees

inside hind olive ponds the pure strikes

between records of pellagra telepathy and rhizome sandwiches

bin hold dime Reagan picture tooth

reason talks brown orange pull

nonce dog Paul rising discipline hidden health clarity talkies

bill legend trace

drame pace

till sigh

Hilo rye

team pi

peat bry

describe scene pollution meter board

ring solvent laughter from honorable

 


 

The Blue Compels

                    for Tom Raworth

 

1

The blue compels
sign language
right
holidays
Parcifal

Siegfried
registers
health
to polish

porous
signposts
and hollow
saucers

The blue compels
preferences
eleven
hotdogs
to race

a fat purse
to hold
impossible
right/wrong

this beginning
anteater
holiday bouquet
all washes

The blue compels
personhood
without chaste
blisters
on easy street

the abolition
of compulsory
organ
omnipresence

arms
baskets
baskets
of blue flowers

 

2

The blue compels
thoughtful
iridescent
pomegranate
Crimean

triangular
syntax
holograms
sandwich shops

reserves
through pioneer
hype
and longboats

The blue compels
fingerprint
award
ceremonies
hologram

torrid
mothball
soup
power allegiances

rescue
Puligo
and soften
authorities

The blue compels
personal
eminent domain
ricecake
timeshares

parallel
hymen
pollen
Rogers

sockdologer
palm sayer
polyanna
husbandry

The blue compels
Remington
tollbooth
orange juice
sandwich shop

this purple
holiday
songbook
orison

lime bake
channel
offering
tulip

The blue compels
quasi
elevator regs
tablecloth
junction

Horace
to pool
horseback
home holiday

almost oriental
olive oil
omnidirectional
mascara kit

The blue compels
distinct
horsehair
polish
results-oriented

alternate
hostage
positive
necklace

first time
sincerity
twofold
distinctions

The blue compels
furbelow
telegraphy
since
pullulation

sincere
informative
disturbance
Colcester

Siamese
four-square
pool cue
heath bar

The blue compels
origin
Siamese
information
polish

irregular
honesty
illustration
highboy

timeshare
lollipop
goner
talk

 


 

Waves

Without a doubt the song proceeds infinitesimal in its advances roguish parallax

I think you’ll find a certain savoir faire right or wrong in this inning to pearly the pellets prepped and consolidated

Is this, is this the honest to goodness four-way harp and promised follicle of invention inveterate attention retention intention

And they’re, they’re presumed illegitimate and holdover process the polished hostler to persuade the pillbox the parallel onions and toy with olive sundown sandwiches

Before any willy-nilly time box holds bans on red belt left prong right holiday oil ring tell ten pre—

And so you see atop the projected castle for holiday sandwich shop meaning numbers perambulate without

They find inside elevated regulated integuments blistered to a fine seal a brine deal a teal beal

Inside.  Inside this random olivetree broken tooth Oregon crackerjack bamboozled soup operation process enhancement

But really, honestly enveloping our pregnant lice to beep precede perceive…indeed onion holidays limetree peace and soda peace and filters peace and philters and so on forever

You’re going to come in broken but polished rocked into perfect balls tonic holiday stranger all-night onion dance and brain candle

Going in, going in eleven legends proffer elephant tunes to our handles of brows fine irritant to perish health

It was best yes Ungaritic and even omnipresent bolster of disease to right the performance through suing

Tell me about it long house rowing table for dungeon honest Roger legend table

Talk about it reet least

 

 

Michael Ruby

Michael Ruby is the author of eight poetry books, most recently Compulsive Words (BlazeVOX, 2010), American Songbook (Ugly Duckling, 2013), The Mouth of the Bay (BlazeVOX, 2019), The Star-Spangled Banner (Station Hill, 2020) and the forthcoming Close Your Eyes, Visions (Station Hill, 2024). His trilogy in prose and poetry, Memories, Dreams and Inner Voices (Station Hill, 2012), includes ebooks Fleeting Memories (Ugly Duckling, 2008) and Inner Voices Heard Before Sleep (Argotist Online, 2011). He co-edited Bernadette Mayer’s early books, and Mayer’s and Lewis Warsh’s collaboration Piece of Cake (Station Hill, 2020). He lives in Brooklyn and worked for many years as an editor of U.S. news and political articles at The Wall Street Journal.

 

Edited for Unlikely by Jonathan Penton, Editor-in-Chief
Last revised on Monday, July 2, 2018 - 11:39