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Jack Spicer Short Poems

Famous Short Jack Spicer Poems. Short poetry by famous poet Jack Spicer. A collection of the all-time best Jack Spicer short poems


by Jack Spicer
 This ocean, humiliating in its disguises
Tougher than anything.
No one listens to poetry.
The ocean Does not mean to be listened to.
A drop Or crash of water.
It means Nothing.
It Is bread and butter Pepper and salt.
The death That young men hope for.
Aimlessly It pounds the shore.
White and aimless signals.
No One listens to poetry.



by Jack Spicer
 If the diamond ring turns brass
Mama's going to buy you a looking glass
Marianne Moore and Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams
going on a picnic together when they were all students at the
University of Pennsylvania
Now they are all over seventy and the absent baby
Is a mirror sheltering their image.

by Jack Spicer
 A dead starfish on a beach
He has five branches
Representing the five senses
Representing the jokes we did not tell each other
Call the earth flat
Call other people human 
But let this creature lie
Flat upon our senses
Like a love
Prefigured in the sea
That died.
And went to water All the oceans Of emotion.
All the oceans of emotion are full of such ffish Why Is this dead one of such importance?

by Jack Spicer
 Rest and look at this goddamned wheelbarrow.
Whatever It is.
Dogs and crocodiles, sunlamps.
Not For their significance.
For their significant.
For being human The signs escape you.
You, who aren't very bright Are a signal for them.
Not, I mean, the dogs and crocodiles, sunlamps.
Not Their significance.


Book: Shattered Sighs