Articles in Jim Benz
Joe Citizen
by jim benz
He hopes to avoid Leon on his way to the elevator. Just past the open door
of the fileroom, on the wall of the mid-office corridor, he sees a shadow
approaching. He ducks into …
Bacchanalia
by jim benz
When in heaven they said Hell. Was it hell for them.
Once they said Oyster.
We countered with Foie Gras Mousse.
Can you smile for appearance sake.
Are we dignified and merry.
Have they the proper understanding.
“Ascending pure, …
off the map
by jim benz
Except for faces and hands, there is no surface
that defines our mutual convergence.
“Your blue is clear / as on the first day.
In your presence I am a man …”
She stared at …
Buk-ku
by jim benz
one tooth missing
when she smiles –
another morning
***
naked and drunk
on a flop house bed –
happy for the bed
***
the feel of you
our bodies sloshing together
in a filthy room
***
filled with blood
and the screaming outside
my throbbing temples
***
watching …
manifesto
by jim benz
“Grammatical tautology” is the subject of this sentence.
Simultaneously, it is also the subject of the previous sentence.
The predicate of the prior sentence is also the subject of the previous sentence.
Therefore, the subject of …
What it is like to be a bat
by jim benz
Abstract:
This poem partially describes the ongoing effort to home-build a JW-03 Luxury Blender. You may read it as an illustration of the brilliant things people do …
Catalyst of the fuel-injected pinhead (on a hot summer day)
by jim benz
Wind repels
the dull knife
of my body
like gravity
gives weight
to exhaustion,
and this broken
road, half drunk
on time-wasted
asphalt, is faithless
and wicked.
Minneapolis
on a bike
at East Hennepin
and Fifth
is nothing
but a …
Schrödinger’s poem
by jim benz
A semantic meaning is crafted within a poetic structure,
along with the following device (which must be secured
against direct interference by the meaning): in the final
strophe, there is a self-referential contradiction, so
insignificant that …
The Radio Gods
by jim benz
[First Character: pissing in a kettle]
Vocation for a jug. A vocational
discourse is in pouring, and who
dreamed of drinking to enoble
this predilection for the old thing
newer. If the jug is drained, a …
scythe and a sandglass
by jim benz
Serafino has one handkerchief
which he keeps in an oak box
wrapped in linen beneath his bed.
It is as clean as the tears of a saint
and twice as holy. Prior to its …
early evening
by jim benz
After the first glass of bourbon,
sitting in the shade, smelling charcoal
turn to dust and chicken skin
to gold, the grass and weeds
don’t look so tall.
Share:
Spider web and sequence
by jim benz
1. In human terms, concrete thought is unavoidably abstract.
2. Divergent thought has convergence as its ultimate goal.
3. ‘Sequential’ is a human equation based on abstraction.
4. Interconnection is everything, but perhaps …
Falling Down
by jim benz
pull yourself together, breathe
got twisted in a lung fit, coughing
spit up bone-songs, all stripped down
all feedback snarl and knuckle skin
choking on a dream nozzle shiver, spit-grin juice
grated, lesion-mated spastic anti-fortune juice
rasped a …
Conversations with a stalled poem
by jim benz
1
If only someone strange would knock on my door. I could be inspired.
2
It’s August, an august month “marked by majestic dignity or grandeur.” I feel bland.
3
Three men are walking …
deus ex machina
by jim benz
Here are
as we see we
go here
through a slippery
crack here is ex
nihilo here
is a taste of some
parallel para-
llel here is
flesh
mortified by faith-
less oxymoron
blind eye
chord a bar
of reverb-
erant joy here
is beauty
undefined
within a …
Reading Lips on the Freeway at Five
by jim benz
Fucking asshole …
Goddamn fucking son-of-a-bitch …
Fucking goddamn son-of-a-bitching asshole …
Fucking A, you stupid cocksucking piece of shit …
Holy shit, what a motherfucking son-of-a-bitching cocksucker …
Jesus Christ, what …
Eating Billy Collins
by jim benz
As I rode my bike down Lake Street
on a warm summer day
I caught the gaze of a panhandler
holding a neatly printed sign in his hand
He was not unshaven or scowling,
there was …
In the random orifice of time (change)
by jim benz
Q: Do you believe this poem?
A: I’ll believe anything with a fluctuating rate of change.
Q: So you agree that metaphors are reversible?
A: Only when time-reversed dynamics are …
Notes on the Human Enigma
by jim benz
I. As a Forethought
In the middle of the night, a pharmacist finds himself standing in a circle of drummers. “If this is not a true brine,” he asks, “why …
Maturity
by jim benz
At twelve o’clock, revulsion / on the telephone
and a yellow blur / cutting ribbons in my head:
dissolultion / of yesterday’s joy ride, or was it
today’s? On the path / to the phone, a …
saturday morning
by jim benz
breakfast at Elsie’s -
a whole neighborhood
in three shrinking rooms
***
drawn on the face
of our elderly waitress
an imprint of scowls
***
long wait for coffee -
could this cup
be any more empty?
***
tasty menu -
beneath the side order …
Dans les vignes du Seigneur
by jim benz
Joy punches the walls of our heart,
pulls at our lips, curls our toes.
She looks out from a mirror
where she doesn’t live,
from a house of mirrors,
from the back of a …
In a Matrimonial Rut
by jim benz
A bird sang from the upper branches of an oak
Beneath that, a porcupine bristled his quills
Completely bored, I drank another beer
Despite the fact my beer supply was nearly finished
Eagle-eyed, I …
Family Picture, 1964
by jim benz
My father,
sunk into a deep
black chair,
has his legs crossed
exposing a white
hairless calf above his sock.
A magazine
lies open in his lap
and his eyes
have the blank stare
of a man displeased
with cameras.
On the arm …
a cup of coffee
by jim benz
arrhythmia
could it be another morning?
ungodly
perhaps I’m dead
oh for the climate of dreams
found lacking, found
casting aspersion
on daybreak
full of songbirds
full of meaningless
ennui or conflict, snarling
eggs be damned, give me coffee
Share:
Ode to John Cage
by Jim Benz
very much silence
very much silence
very much silence
very much s
still more silence
still more silence
still more silence
still more s
not a whistle
nor a squeal
not a shout
nor a cry
only s
(what is
this sound that lingers
in …
anti-ku
by Jim Benz
all this time
sitting on benches
watching buses
***
this street
the other street
they all look the same
***
down on the ground
too many drinks
not enough pity
***
coughing up blood
a glimpse of skinny junkies
out my window
***
no more time
the landlord pounding
on your …
when the poet read Bukowski by the fallen bridge
by Jim Benz
1.
Performers of the open mic
In Minnesota
Sit on chairs
And stools in the crowded room
Of their coming
Moment, which they cannot fathom
In the cramped and jittery
Wisecracks
Of a coffeehouse, …
The Cruel Fates
By Jim Benz
A man walks into an uptown wine bar,
looks around for a place to sit
but sees only a single chair available
amidst three women at a small table
in the middle of the room.
He’s …
