Sunday, July 3, 2011

Jerry McGuire and Shakespeare

A summer's day is a summer's day, yet if thou wert there, there were nowhere, else as they say. Then what need of metaphor? But in age thou knowest such need as was barely sensed  before,no matter who's in attendance. Especially when you realize you can't even step into the same river the first time. Today my friend and fine poet Jerry McGuire puts rocket fuel in the bard's car and lets the spin take him. (And I feel like a d.j.)



BLONDE IN PINK SHORTS
                            --Jerry McGuire

You'll see that time of year
in me
that comes and comes
and then is gone and there

you were but not the sun
in all its high
fashion will never make that
difference hold still.

"Still" the word, still
as can be,
you'll go on burning after
the fire's gone

wherever fire goes. Time, time,
temperament,
tempests in teacups, official
temporaries.

What goes on still
goes, till, river and ash,
what you see is what
you've never got.

This ice is hot! (The sun
a blonde in pink
shorts hanging out on the
temporary edge of things)


                                      --from Vulgar Exhibitions (Eastern Washington UP, 2002)


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SONNET 73
            --William Shakespeare

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west;
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourish'd by.
   This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
   To love that well, which thou must leave ere long.


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Jerry McGuire Bio Note

I've published two books of poems, The Flagpole Dance, published by Lynx House Press in 1991, and Vulgar Exhibitions, published by Eastern Washington University Press in 2002. Much of my work is poetry, drama, and experimental fiction done in collaboration with musicians, dancers, and visual artists, and designed for specific performance environments. Most recently film-maker Allison Bohl and animator/painter Yeon Choi have produced works incorporating my poems, voice, and digital soundscapes. I teach Creative Writing, poetics, and film studies at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.



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