Long Gertrude Poems

Eric Mottram on the American literary and cultural scene during 1965-66 while he was the recipient of the American Learned Societies’ award for a year. (begun in the last post and to be continued)

January 2,...

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Kentucky's late summer sunshine
sunk deep into their skin
as the boy rode on the back
of his Grandfather's coppered horse,
the tobacco harvest would begin soon,
aromas of sweet leaf darkness
were wafting in the field heat,
to the big barn...

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omo-gori-ola- "often only hollas" but...
its my mic not ikenna's
aunty tee momohmutana-seems to like plenty tea more than bannnas
Gertrude? NO! she aint RUDE! dont. .. slam her
Olumide- he's only mild...wasnt dissing her.
the scribe-his drive, like with...

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Don't ask me how it happened; I have no clear recollection. I have always had this brazen habit of coming right out and directly asking for whatever I want; I always figured "no!" was the...

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The Florida of My Youth - My Generation
By Franklin Price
10/13/2019

Was born in mid November of nineteen forty five,
Was the last of seven siblings (only four are still alive).
Four sisters and two brothers, I was to...

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Three Score and Fifteen Years Ago
By Franklin Price
11/14/2020

Three score and fifteen years ago
I was born upon this earth
Joined a family of eight,
Was the ninth, for what it's worth

Four sisters and two brothers
A mother, father there...

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I sauntered in an evening mist
   A midnight's heaven, magic-kissed
      Lamp-lit raindrops pattered, awesome
         Shining city turned violet blossom
 ...

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It wasn’t until this evening while I was sitting
in the hospital lobby watching blood pour from 
underneath my chair from the women behind me
waiting for my name to be murmured over the loud speaker
that I...

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you are all a lost generation -- Gertrude Stein ?

I

Once hallowed encephalon 
cavernous cerebral chasms
	now less serene 
		ruptured n' spleen
Subjected to ravenous days?
Days n' illumination?
n' summers hibernation?
Awaiting eschatology and Madonna's divination

In summers somnolent slumbers I...

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Hear this recitation
the Lenape nation
bore a child of extreme size,
in the Onteoras,
the Catskills of yore now,
this man would live out his whole life.

Winisook was his name,
and he gained local fame
from standing at seven feet tall,,
to...

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-- Re:  Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, Rue de Fleurus #27, Paris --

What would Gertrude. What, Gertrude.What, Gertie?Have thought.Have thought what thought?Thought thought driving,forward,remorselessly.Remorseless Remorse? Forward.Never reverse;no reverse.No.No remorse.
Remorseless,spurning reverse,seated.High!Seated high in Auntie.Then...

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it's easy to imagine the moon fell out of the sky
but no, it's still up there, where it's always been
    I look around to see what chases me; nothing moves...
  ...

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She is long, lean and very much into exercise
In body building contests, she always takes top prize
Now she is training for a Triathalon
Her mother coaches her from her car eating Bon Bons
She tells her it...

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Charlie’s got an old bar outside of town.
It’s pretty seedy and plenty run down.
Characters who don’t lightly suffer fools
go there to drink whisky and to shoot pool.

Some huffy stuffy ladies from up-town
decided one day they’d...

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I do not wish to proffer an explanation 
What I wish to do is stand still a moment
Whilst you now observe me

I have this vantage point

Aware yet blind to perspective
We both presume
What I hope to...

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When the mind speaks

Poetry immensely personal I hide behind
storytelling not talking about my feelings
but the sensibility of others.
What happens have nothing to do with me the onlooker
the observer, like an architect surveying a building
and finding...

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I lead myself, to a faraway place,
in dreams I traveled, to find His grace.

  My journey stood before me, when I walked,
his power was released, as I talked.

  The road I was on,...

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She sat near the window
In her new wheel chair
In red robe and slippers
And soft greying hair

She heard someone calling
A voice in her head
It must be my husband
At work in his shed

Bob, is that you?
Quick bring...

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A million words can bring you back,
I know because I've tried.
A million tears can't bring you back,
I know because I've cried.
A million hugs and kisses,
What you gave when you were here.
A million stories, a million...

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It was a cold and muddy day
as Gertrude lay smiling.
Just the kind of weather 
that she adored.
She could splash around 
for hours in the glop 
and guzzle up 
all her shlopp 
when it was time.
Oh...

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The President of the United States called last night,
he spoke most curtly, demanding to know her middle name.
She sent him packing with a stinging rebuke.
Her middle name is Gertrude;
that secret she will take to her...

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( An experiment, because of an idea Gertrude Stein had about the musicality, or poetic polyphonetics of repeat·ed/ing ( fleeting, depleting,  reexcreating? ) words or phrases.  I only hope God's not listening... well,...

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When he had control of the remote I could get out of sorts
I preferred the dramas and he wanted only sports.

But on one type of programming we could usually agree.
We both got a big laugh...

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The Ghost visited Hamlet
So that he wouldn't forget
That his father was murdered
And evidence was to be gathered

Claudius sat upon the throne
And the treason was unknown
Why Gertrude favored him
And brought grief to all of them

To be...

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She is known as Dotty,
her actual name is Gertrude,
that secret she will take to her grave.

Powerful people have always sought her out.
Edison visited in the summer months,
he proposed many times,
but a man that would electrocute...

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