A couple poems
poetry by Frederick Pollack
If you haven’t already, go read Frederick Pollack’s poem “Ahasver,” then come back and read two more poems from the author below!
In the following, we travel first to another world, then into another mind. Fear not, for it is safe! At least in the bodily sense, for the underside is rarely safe to inhabit too long. Nothing is at risk except the nuance in how you look at life itself, and an adjusted perspective going forward. Happy reading!
Belcher
Overwhelmed, speechless,
Hawkins was glad for a change
that Belcher was stolid, unvocal,
mechanically running
analyses. Through the external mic
in his helmet the thin air
grumbled, almost whined, seemed
to suppress itself; thinner grains
sifted across the rocks, as always
on this planet of sand
and rock. The small cold sun
afforded what warmth it could.
Hesitantly Hawkins touched
the inscriptions, worn but still legible,
if they could ever be read, on
the stone. And Belcher, who never spoke,
spoke: I said everything there,
as plainly and accessibly as possible.
Parergon Philosophy, thought the philosopher, gratified by the insight, can be pursued amidst decay, even collapse. If, when the thinker has gone out to find water, a shell hits, or the barbarians or secret police, who are related modes, have come for him or her, the idea will remain as a torso -- say rather a seed, which the future will pick up and nurture. In his case it was the impossibility of ethics: each is disproved by any serial killer or statesman. Pursuing this, he was disturbed by the constant weeping of the poet elsewhere in his cell. It struck him as unprofessional or merely professional.
Meet the author:
Frederick Pollack is the author of two book-length narrative poems, THE ADVENTURE and HAPPINESS (Story Line Press; the former reissued 2022 by Red Hen Press), and two collections, A POVERTY OF WORDS (Prolific Press, 2015) and LANDSCAPE WITH MUTANT (Smokestack Books, UK, 2018). Many other poems in print and online journals. Poetics: neither navelgazing mainstream nor academic pseudo-avant-garde.
As far as the underside is concerned: I’m old, and have lived there since Nixon – more deeply in the age of Trump, covid, and Putin.
