Jon Cone


XII POEMS

Grillparzer paid even the Doge’s Palace no more than a distinctly 
grudging respect. Despite its delicately crafted arcades and turrets, 
he wrote, the Doge’s palace was inelegant and reminded him of a crocodile. 

W.G. Sebald (tr. Michael Hulse) 



SMOG 

O hack, hack, hack amid the glaze of a Los Angeles noon! 



JAMES ELROY IS WRITING THE BOOK TO A MUSICAL
ABOUT THE EARLY DAYS OF ROCK N ROLL IN
THE CITY OF LOST ANGELS  

The time has come Theo Wall & Russ my lawyers said,
To speak of my agent Benny Kay Schwing,
Of songs vis-à-vis hits and purloined tracks,
Of saxophones and bling. 



AFFIRMATION 

YOU are beautiful and YOU are YOU.
And if the person YOU are with does not value YOU for who YOU are —  
That person is a right piece of shit.  



MODERN EDUCATION 

The universe is one.
That’s what the ‘uni’ part means: one.
Dumbass. 



KOAN

Two baristas are arguing.
A Zen monk walks up to them.
“Where does Death go during Milan Fashion Week?” the monk asks.
“Fuck off?” say the two baristas simultaneously.
Everyone is enlightened. 



THAT ONE CRITIC IN EVERY CROWD

I have heard the mermaids singing each to each.
Grrrrrrrrrrrr. They’re fish, damn it!
Fish do not do song.          

 

PYTHAGORAS

               The case of Pythagoras is mysterious.
Whatever one makes of him, he was an incredible human ancestor                             

               Incredible
He gave us this:  a2+b2=c2 

               Apart from its standing as an example of revealed knowledge

               it is also a poem of transcendent beauty that obliterates
the need for discursive language while providing 

               a perfectly abstract tool that nevertheless
applies to the fallen material world 



CHESS 

In Tibet, the Lion was used for the King
and the Tiger was used for the Queen —
and the Camel was used for the Bishop;
in Arabia, the Blackbird was used for the Rook;
in Burma, the Monkey was used for the Pawn.
Other animals such as the acana, crocodile
dog, dragon, giraffe, and the unicorn also
have been used around the world at different
times as substitutes for modern chess figures.
At least that is what I’ve discovered by browsing
Byrne J. Horton’s Dictionary of Modern Chess (1959). 
                                                               


WINTER

The shops are all closed. No glistening stollen.
Snow blows down the empty street like smoke.
One thousand miles away a young poet writes in
her notebook and her words burst into flowers
of pure light. In Paris Rilke studied the panther at
the ménagerie du Jardin des plantes. Concentrate.
Erupt like some genus from the deep. Back home
winds shake the grey timbers like trains passing by. 
 


JAZZ 

First time I heard
Eric Dolphy play bass clarinet
I knew I was hearing something special —  
it was far out, it was wild!
I couldn’t tell you nothing except that
whatever it was I just heard
I wanted to sound like that too. 
 


PORTRAIT OF A PHILOSOPHER 

Wittgenstein enlisted in the Austrian army in the
First World War. He wondered at the coolness
of his English friends and colleagues. In his private
notebooks, he recorded when he masturbated
and when he worked on his philosophical treatise.
Having nothing in common with his fellow soldiers:
Wittgenstein found them brutal and boorish, nearly
impossible to bear. Therefore, he suffered loneliness. 
			
			
			
TOAST

I drink to having survived one more year
another loss, another loss, another; 
I drink to animals, our friends —  
and books, and pens and paper, and words —  
the altogether accidental ordinaire of things.
I drink to the mad artists who gave us visions 
that somehow saved us, that made us alert in the rain —  
I drink to rain at night, and thunder — to snow 
and winds that sound like trains passing by. 
I drink to sunrise in summer —   
I raise my glass and drink to dawn, to dusk &
coffee, if it here be allowed, I drink a toast to thee — 
I drink to love, tears and laughs, and life in all its urgency. 

Jon Cone is a poet, playwright, editor, prose writer, and manuscript consultant who lives in Iowa City, Iowa. He can be followed on Twitter @JonCone.

 
 

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