September 23rd, 2009 / 1:34 pm
 Uncategorized

GIANT Excerpt: from The Dance of No Hard Feelings by Mark Bibbins (#3)

Give Us the Dark That Keeps the Darkness Out

We finally get the terrain–its fever greens
and where’ve-you-been-all-my-life browns–
also cars, bridges, likewise decked out.
Admit we bow to a number of things, among
them October, distance to icecaps, radii
of moons. Neglect arrows through but certain
zeros will not rake us in. Obliterate as you
bloviate, bossman, on your occidental rug.
What spectacular thing could you make out
of all you’ve thrown away, then what would
you devise to make it explode? The proper suit’s
a posture, the wrong not yours but occupy some
semblance of a self. Catapult the propaganda,
dip it in disease and hurl it at the fourth
estate. Give back the hook stuck in skin,
the lake-like cold; follow prongs of fire
across denuded plains until we ghost
and summer underground.

All this week, HTMLGiant will be posting poems from The Dance of No Hard Feelings (Copper Canyon) Mark Bibbins’s eagerly and long-awaited followup collection to 2003’s Sky Lounge. Day #1 is here. Day #2 is here. Check back daily for fresh doses.

9 Comments

  1. September 23rd, 2009 / 6:50 pm davidpeak—

      okay. that does it for me. i’m buying this fucking book.

  2. September 23rd, 2009 / 2:50 pm davidpeak—

      okay. that does it for me. i’m buying this fucking book.

  3. September 23rd, 2009 / 8:12 pm lorian—

      jesus christ.

  4. September 23rd, 2009 / 4:12 pm lorian—

      jesus christ.

  5. September 24th, 2009 / 12:35 pm HTMLGIANT / GIANT Excerpt: from The Dance of No Hard Feelings by Mark Bibbins (#4)—

      […] and long-awaited followup collection to 2003’s Sky Lounge. Day #1 is here. Day #2 is here. Day #3 is here. Check back daily for fresh […]

  6. October 22nd, 2009 / 1:07 pm Brian Chambers—

      The last word of the poem is actually “underground” rather than “aground”.

  7. October 22nd, 2009 / 9:07 am Brian Chambers—

      The last word of the poem is actually “underground” rather than “aground”.

  8. November 27th, 2009 / 10:02 pm Justin Taylor—

      Thanks for the catch. It’s fixed.

  9. November 27th, 2009 / 6:02 pm Justin Taylor—

      Thanks for the catch. It’s fixed.