There is seemingly no object, image, or idea that couldn’t potentially work its way into a Kit Robinson poem. His work is oracular and quotidian, straightforward and complex, offering multiple points of view and stunningly variable textures…
by: Kit Robinson
UNCONFIRMED REPORTS
Long periods of silence
Random noise of earth effects
Simple misunderstandings
A serious painter in the traditional mode
Cats kick up clods of dirt
The train stretches toward the terminus
You have arrived exactly nowhere
A stray dot appears above your name in the winter sky
Let me know if there’s anything I can get you
Sympathetic vibrations
Unconfirmed reports
Unanswered letters
Boots of Spanish leather
Weather patterns shifting over time
Put solidarity here, identity is over there
Noise is a by-product
Here is where you put in your time
A mad poet in a spring shift
The sentence pre-supposes a period
Earthworms aerate the soil
Male sea elephants rest for three months before mating
Lost emails
The phrase sounds familiar
No answer is the new no
A born musician on a permanent bandstand
Translations that surpass the originals
Understanding that every utterance could be the very last
Emotional climate overcast with occasional showers
Meaning is construction work
The message is addressed to all of you
RASPBERRIES IN JANUARY
Raspberries in January
Wall of chartreuse
Cannot land a punch
The presiding spirit of this dream cris cheek
Driving down to Louisiana
Fertile crescent of the west
Will POTUS veto the XL Pipe?
The nation state has had its day
Now we have global capital vs. Islamic jihad
It’s not that simple
Voices echo deep within a cave
And do not stop to think if ever we return
We’ll drink a cup of kindness
Oranges scattered in shade
Free union
Then return of the problem-solving mind
Regarding the stage plot
Where to put the speaker
Stop
Don’t solve the problem
The problem will solve itself
Confirmed by the 10,000 things
Constantly in motion
Theater of operations
Studying for a final
If a lion could speak
A ship out on the sea
My life with the hour-glass turned over
Just walk away Renée
The sound of the 60s
Nostalgic even then
As youth mourns childhood’s end
Time and time again
An idiomatic expression
In an idiotic age
When lizards grow feathers
Sky clouds over
Temperatures drop
World goes hurtling through space
Put affairs in order
Dress casually
Order chow mein to bring home
The light at the end of the tunnel
Is light green
There are no wrong notes
Only a few conventioneers and tourists drinking quietly
The kids call scare quotes “scrunchy peace”
We join the animals
It is a pleasure to say the least
Kit Robinson is the author of Determination (Cuneiform), The Messianic Trees: Selected Poems, 1976-2003 (Adventures in Poetry), and twenty other books of poetry. His collaboration with Ted Greenwald, A Mammal of Style (Roof), was named among “the best poetry of 2014” by the Chicago Tribune. Recent work can be found online at Mary, The Recluse and Prelude. He lives in Berkeley and works as a freelance writer for cloud startups.
The header art that is featured with this poem is a photograph of one of Doug Aitken’s audacious installation art pieces, entitled Station to Station: A Nomadic Happening.
