John J. Trause
Hydration, Hydration, Hydration
Wozu Dichter in dürftiger Zeit
JOHANN HÖLDERLIN
People these days are so concerned
about the state of their hydration
that they carry around water bottles wherever they go.
Why is it that this infantilization,
this drive for the bottle
transcends the usual etiquette of time and place?
A baby whines in the sanctuary.
A toddler tips the table.
Personal hydration as a public good,
a basic human right,
is played out before the powers that be.
The greatest good has come to be the right to choose
to regulate the state of one’s hydration.
You will see them everywhere:
Bottle in the schools, at the library,
where drink is prohibited, in the supermarket,
on the bus. Bottle at the latest lecture,
at town hall and the post office. Bottle
on the train, at church service
and the meeting of the PTA, Oh, I mean PTO.
Bottle at the theater. Bottle
in the park, at the party and at the picnic.
Bottle on the beaches, Bottle on the tarmac,
Bottle in the fields, and in the streets.
Bottle in the hills. Surrender.
When systems fail, when sub- and superstructure
crumble, when the pyramid is leveled,
the bottle stands,
and the bottle will be the ruin of us all.
In Memoriam Prince
Red
Raspberry
Purple
Black
Gold
Rainbow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C5AE_7WNe4
[David Bowie Marianne Faithfull I Got You Babe]
None can be more wonderful than the image of Major Tom,
the Man Who Fell to Earth,
who hit the Angel of Death on the way down
and had it embedded in his chest,
and an intergalactic nun
singing and swinging,
fueled by cocaine and heroin
respectively.
The ravages of the Seventies.
None can be more fly but more out of time
than the three not-so-spry
backup singers to the side and back,
heroin (?) and pre-crack.
We got your back.
I got you, babe.
1990 – 2000 - 2010
Last night I dreamed that I did the lambada
with Nelly Furtado
and Demi Lovato.
That Hyperlink Patch from the Past
John J. Trause, the Director of Oradell Public Library, is the author of Eye Candy for Andy (13 Most Beautiful… Poems for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests, Finishing Line Press, 2013); Inside Out, Upside Down, and Round and Round (Nirala Publications, 2012); the chapbook Seriously Serial (Poets Wear Prada, 2007; rev. ed. 2014); and Latter-Day Litany (Éditions élastiques, 1996), the latter staged Off-Off Broadway. His book of fictive translations, found poems, and manipulated texts, Exercises in High Treason (2016), is published by Great Weather for Media. His translations, poetry, and visual work appear internationally in many journals and anthologies, including Otoliths, the artists' periodical Crossings, the Dada journal Maintenant, the journal Offerta Speciale, the Great Weather for Media anthologies It’s Animal but Merciful (2012) and I Let Go of the Stars in My Hand (2014), and in Rabbit Ears (NYQ Books, 2015), the anthology of television poems. Marymark Press has published his visual poetry and art as broadsides and sheets. He is the subject of a 30-on-30-in-30 essay on The Operating System, written by Don Zirilli, and an author of an essay on Baroness Elsa at the same site, both in April 2016. He has shared the stage with Steven Van Zandt, Anne Waldman, Karen Finley, and Jerome Rothenberg; the page with Lita Hornick, William Carlos Williams, Woody Allen, Ted Kooser, Victor Buono, and Pope John Paul II; and the cage with the Cumaean Sibyl, Ezra Pound, Hannibal Lector, Andrei Chikatilo, and George “The Animal” Steele. He is a founder of the William Carlos Williams Poetry Cooperative in Rutherford, N. J., and the former host and curator of its monthly reading series. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize (2009 – 2011, 2013).
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Wozu Dichter in dürftiger Zeit
JOHANN HÖLDERLIN
People these days are so concerned
about the state of their hydration
that they carry around water bottles wherever they go.
Why is it that this infantilization,
this drive for the bottle
transcends the usual etiquette of time and place?
A baby whines in the sanctuary.
A toddler tips the table.
Personal hydration as a public good,
a basic human right,
is played out before the powers that be.
The greatest good has come to be the right to choose
to regulate the state of one’s hydration.
You will see them everywhere:
Bottle in the schools, at the library,
where drink is prohibited, in the supermarket,
on the bus. Bottle at the latest lecture,
at town hall and the post office. Bottle
on the train, at church service
and the meeting of the PTA, Oh, I mean PTO.
Bottle at the theater. Bottle
in the park, at the party and at the picnic.
Bottle on the beaches, Bottle on the tarmac,
Bottle in the fields, and in the streets.
Bottle in the hills. Surrender.
When systems fail, when sub- and superstructure
crumble, when the pyramid is leveled,
the bottle stands,
and the bottle will be the ruin of us all.
Red
Raspberry
Purple
Black
Gold
Rainbow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C5AE_7WNe4
[David Bowie Marianne Faithfull I Got You Babe]
None can be more wonderful than the image of Major Tom,
the Man Who Fell to Earth,
who hit the Angel of Death on the way down
and had it embedded in his chest,
and an intergalactic nun
singing and swinging,
fueled by cocaine and heroin
respectively.
The ravages of the Seventies.
None can be more fly but more out of time
than the three not-so-spry
backup singers to the side and back,
heroin (?) and pre-crack.
We got your back.
I got you, babe.
1990 – 2000 - 2010
Last night I dreamed that I did the lambada
with Nelly Furtado
and Demi Lovato.
That Hyperlink Patch from the Past
herringbone, houndstooth (pied-de-poule) seersucker, end-on-end (fil-à-fil) tattersall, check check, tattersall end-on-end (fil-à-fil), seersucker houndstooth (pied-de-poule), herringbone In an old black-and-white flick see that flickering patch that looks like a washed out but live-wire lavender metallic hypertext textile hyperlink flickering light in a futurist flash or a blast from the past circa ’66 – ’67 a hyperlink patch from the past herringbone, houndstooth (pied-de-poule) seersucker, end-on-end (fil-à-fil) tattersall, check check, tattersall end-on-end (fil-à-fil), seersucker houndstooth (pied-de-poule), herringbone a hypertext link from the past circa ’66 – ’67 or a blast from the past flickering light in a futurist flash hyperlink textile hypertext that looks like a washed out but live-wire lavender metallic see that flickering patch in an old black-and-white flick herringbone, houndstooth (pied-de-poule) seersucker, end-on-end (fil-à-fil) tattersall, check check, tattersall end-on-end (fil-à-fil), seersucker houndstooth (pied-de-poule), herringbone | herringbone, houndstooth (pied-de-poule) seersucker, end-on-end (fil-à-fil) tattersall, check check, tattersall end-on-end (fil-à-fil), seersucker houndstooth (pied-de-poule), herringbone In an old black-and-white flick see that flickering patch that looks like a washed out but live-wire lavender metallic hypertext textile hyperlink flickering light in a futurist flash or a blast from the past circa ’66 – ’67 a hyperlink patch from the past herringbone, houndstooth (pied-de-poule) seersucker, end-on-end (fil-à-fil) tattersall, check check, tattersall end-on-end (fil-à-fil), seersucker houndstooth (pied-de-poule), herringbone a hypertext link from the past circa ’66 – ’67 or a blast from the past flickering light in a futurist flash hyperlink textile hypertext that looks like a washed out but live-wire lavender metallic see that flickering patch in an old black-and-white flick herringbone, houndstooth (pied-de-poule) seersucker, end-on-end (fil-à-fil) tattersall, check check, tattersall end-on-end (fil-à-fil), seersucker houndstooth (pied-de-poule), herringbone |
John J. Trause, the Director of Oradell Public Library, is the author of Eye Candy for Andy (13 Most Beautiful… Poems for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests, Finishing Line Press, 2013); Inside Out, Upside Down, and Round and Round (Nirala Publications, 2012); the chapbook Seriously Serial (Poets Wear Prada, 2007; rev. ed. 2014); and Latter-Day Litany (Éditions élastiques, 1996), the latter staged Off-Off Broadway. His book of fictive translations, found poems, and manipulated texts, Exercises in High Treason (2016), is published by Great Weather for Media. His translations, poetry, and visual work appear internationally in many journals and anthologies, including Otoliths, the artists' periodical Crossings, the Dada journal Maintenant, the journal Offerta Speciale, the Great Weather for Media anthologies It’s Animal but Merciful (2012) and I Let Go of the Stars in My Hand (2014), and in Rabbit Ears (NYQ Books, 2015), the anthology of television poems. Marymark Press has published his visual poetry and art as broadsides and sheets. He is the subject of a 30-on-30-in-30 essay on The Operating System, written by Don Zirilli, and an author of an essay on Baroness Elsa at the same site, both in April 2016. He has shared the stage with Steven Van Zandt, Anne Waldman, Karen Finley, and Jerome Rothenberg; the page with Lita Hornick, William Carlos Williams, Woody Allen, Ted Kooser, Victor Buono, and Pope John Paul II; and the cage with the Cumaean Sibyl, Ezra Pound, Hannibal Lector, Andrei Chikatilo, and George “The Animal” Steele. He is a founder of the William Carlos Williams Poetry Cooperative in Rutherford, N. J., and the former host and curator of its monthly reading series. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize (2009 – 2011, 2013).
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