Piotr Gwiazda


Manifestoes

                    or “poems that matter”

Poems that matter
Poems that think
Poems that grow in the mind
Poems that glow in the dark
Poems that glide
Poems that click
Poems with meanings
Poems with double (triple, quadruple) meanings
Poems that teach
Poems that preach
Poems that expand the boundary of what can be said
Poems that shrink






Candid poems
Poems that lie
Poems that embody, in either content or form, the experience of déjà vu
Poems as mirrors
Poems as meals
Poems written in bed
Yawn poems
Dawn poems
Poems about the moon
Poems that end too soon






Poems that have the same effect on you as a commercial, especially a well-made commercial
Poems that approach the condition of music
Poems that describe the tender beauty of lost objects
Poems that epitomize the idea of Europe – its violent past, uncertain future
Poems that produce the oceanic feeling
Poems that take advantage
Poems that present one group’s particular interests as universal interests
Poems that imitate the weeping of machines
Poems that use the latest technology
Poems that function as a test of the Emergency Response System
Poems that cost a dollar






Poems that consist entirely of clichés
Poems that consist entirely of passages borrowed from campaign speeches by Barack Obama
Poems for yuppies
Poems for all
Inauguration poems
AAA poems






Poems about empires that rise and fall, boulevards that change names
Poems about lethargy and pathos
Poems as news
Poems as slogans
Poems as weapons
Poems as fashion statements
Poems as games
Poems as novels

Poems with dots






It-ain’t-iambic-pentameter-but-it-rhymes poems
Poems with typos
Good Poems (selected and introduced by Garrison Keillor)
Poems that smile






Poems as fragments
Poems as wholes
Poems with holes
Poems for the disabled
Poems for two voices and one hand
Poems that are the product of the industrial revolution
Poems that offend the public taste
Poems that taste
Poems for immigrants
Poems for bigots
Poems that rage
Poems that jump off the page

Poems in need of a haircut






Poems of warres and alarums unto Nations wide
Poems of wind and rain
Failed poems
Poems of the petit pendant and of the long après
Unreadable poems
Poems that include words like arbitrary and fuck
Poems of the Absolute






Poems with titles like To Be Continued and For Sale
Poems for sale
Poems written with pens
Poems written with erasable pens
Poems you will never see on television, especially cable television
Poems with metaphors
Poems with recipes, patents
Poems for use
Zen poems






Platonic poems
Banal poems
Recyclable poems
One-word poems
Plastic poems
Bilingual poems
Hybrid poems
Downloadable poems
Universal poems
Camouflage poems
Nonexistent poems
Poems without consonants
Overheard poems






Poems that rename everything
Poems that ask What is a poem?
Poems that hold the door for you as you enter a building
Poems that say The die is cast
Poems that say Welcome in several different languages
Poems that say Hi
Poems that are like folk dances, full of fresh innocence, airy textures, glowing colors
Poems that do not presume you to be heterosexual
Poems that you can live in/with
Poems that function as trays
Poems that identify a problem in society the solution to which can only be conceived in poetic
           terms
Poems that are not worth the paper they are printed on
Poems that endure






Poems about root causes
Poems about UFOs
Poems with puns
Poems with guns
Poems with sequins
Poems with swastikas

Poems with Florida registration plates

Ten-nine-eight-seven-six-five-four-three-two-one-zero poems






Poems found in a library
Poems found in a trashcan
Found poems

Poems attached to electric poles, baby carriages, speeding ambulances
Poems inscribed on the bases of statues in provincial South American towns

Poems of moral suasion
Alka-Seltzer poems
Pure poems
Poems on tap






POEMS IN CAPS

Poems of dead white malehood
Poems for Rosa Parks
Poems for Princess Di
Poems for soccer moms
Poems for meter maids
Poems for auto workers
Poems equipped with an instruction manual
Man-walking-dog poems






Poems about flags
Poems about glass
Poems about grass

Poems that heal
Poems that hurt
Poems that hack

Poems about highways
Poems against the war
Poems against the sky






Poems to be read on a plane
Poems to be read in Hoboken
Poems to be read on a battlefield, especially a Civil War battlefield

Poems for patriots
Poems for cosmopolitans






Poems that resist headlines
Poems that resist interpretation

Poems written by hand
Poems written as a result of having been struck by lightning

Poems that offer snapshots of experience
Poems that insist on the illusionistic character of their effects






Poems whose stanzas look the same
Poems in chapbooks

Elliptical poems
Fence poems

Poems as elaborations
Poems about the future

Poems with gusto
Poems with genius

Poems that change
Utopian poems

Untitled poems
Unending poems

Poems as such
Poems about the weather


Piotr Gwiazda's poems and translations have appeared in many journals, including Barrow Street, Cleaves (UK), DIAGRAM, Drunken Boat, Columbia, Exquisite Corpse, Faultline, Hotel America, Linebreak, The Southern Review, Rattle, Talisman, Washington Square, and With+Stand; more are forthcoming this year in No Tell Motel and the Denver Quarterly. He is the author of Gagarin Street: Poems (2005). He has published essays and reviews in Contemporary Literature, Chicago Review, Jacket, PN Review, Postmodern Culture, the TLS, and elsewhere. He was Writer-in-Residence at the James Merrill House in Stonington, Connecticut in the fall of 2008. He teaches modern and contemporary poetry at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC).
 
 
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