by: Paul Maziar
Paul Maziar’s poems are exercises in shambolic precision and grace, paeans to the certainty of awe and surprise. Their twists and turns urge us to rethink what’s possible as the poet asserts our perceptual sovereignty even in the face of the inscrutable. Or as he cheekily puts it “One person really says a lot.”
Reverdy
for Kostas
Everything’s still funny
despite the neighborhood portmanteau
outlook or lookout
bright star up top tonight
you say it’s mimsy
we just haven’t recovered
from the twentieth century
lacunae on purpose
makeup your mind
but leave it unsettled
if that’s your thing
enlargement rather than erasure
eat at joe’s
he’s going to weep
he is weeping
was it something I said?
the peripteral is full of exits
and the hamburgers tears
a cool customer is here
he wants a drop of water
and the year 25 yamazaki
I have no trouble with these conditions
from about a block remove
how the heads look
like plant busts
having tamed minds
and a thing or two to say
unfolding at will
flaring up
living life
for misunderstandings
I guessed your name
I was wrong
nothing better to say than that
Note to Self
for Larry
It’s good to have life goals
Shake hands with a monkey
Go see the world
So called Lady Liberty
Giambologna’s Mars
The memorial plinth in the Children’s Park
At Tompkins Square
Cellini’s Perseus
With Medusa’s Head in Florence
The 6th century wooden bodhisattva
At the Met among others
In full relief
Apollo wasn’t always matte
A thousand years ago
Literally hours
Loading up on sleep
Never works
First impulses change
Behind the scenes
Those friezes again
Hades looks a hell of a lot like Denver at Saint Lazare
Go to St. Denis say hello to Marie
Walls dissolve
Into big tacky windows
You want to just lie down right there on the floor
Watch the ceiling float away
Looking up to June coming in
Fell over that scraper again
Note to self
Get scraper removed
Endless Horse
for Kit
One person really says a lot
Kids carry light
Conductors on our street
That’s where we meet
The singer
Has a cardboard guitar
Up to his ears in song
Let’s switch roles
Let’s switch vistas
The chollas are in bloom
The marguerittes are friendly
Like in the movies
Bless you
Creator of the endless horse
Paul Maziar is the author or the chapbooks FIORI, Pneumatics, Little Advantages, and the forthcoming Geranium Days. He lives in Portland where he is a freelance writer for artcritical, and co-editor of Couch Press and Banqueted.
