Letter to Gregory

Hersch Silverman

O Gargoyled friend
pondering centuries
in your storehouse
of horsedrawn chariots
recalling life
before daliesque womb-world
grecian urns trusting boys
loving masters trojan horses gods-

O gargoyled friend
stoned hypnotic
gazing into a grotesque
sculpted countenance
bequeathed imaginary breath
by ancient bards,
your atavistic mind
boglike screams
confined in muddy limbo-

do you cruise to nirvana
in your shiny
metta-developed wisdom
wondering sad gassed in nostalgia
for new york westside hiway
running with picasso detroit molochs
exhausting the young in haste,
or university cadenced minds
rapt in sheepskin dreams-

are you in delusion
spending gargoyle reveries of imagination
as incredulous insights
dropping poetic relatives
into whirlpool thoughts-

O gargoyled friend
sing self-effacing songs of love
trumpet poems
full of the joy of life
and blast the riot
from the mind
of our self-destructive
marathon civilization

c.2001

To read more amazing letters between these two poets get Long Shot #24 at a better bookstore near you in May, or order from us, or better yet subscribe.