Waylan Martin
A Poem I Have Promised Not To Revise
Letting the gin into me is like giving
In but I can’t stop thinking about the thoughts
I have, picturing the movements and occasional
Words that are paradoxically unclear, and so
I have been reading Frank O’Hara and keep trying
To prove to my friend, David, that it’s all a matter
Of exuberance and spontaneity, which
Fellini said (of spontaneity) is the secret of life
Though I can’t translate Italian, and because
We have to all rely on translations unless we
Want to only read the American poets who I think
Were better anyway than Hardy and those others
Whom I can’t remember by name, though what I said
Before about not stopping to study the inner movements
Of me, like Hamsun did while he starved, and for that matter
Forget Bukowski, that guy was such a ham. It’s time
For dinner about now, and did I mention I woke today
At 2:30 pm which is a little after twelve hours after
You wrote or titled that poem which I think
Is your best? I woke that late because I was editing a poem.
