SELECTED POETRY
by Marc Goldin

AMELIA

Amelia’s laughter fluttered delightedly down the hallway,
Stopping at each room for a moment
This was a good sign – for months earlier, all had been silent as the tomb.
The silence was not unusual - Amelia
Had designed a construct of her own to live in.

Things troubled Amelia often – her world harsh and punitive,
She wandered alone in its arid scrubland for long periods,
Stopping to rest and repair when she could
She’d found a small spot in the middle of this vast wasteland,
Settling herself in to lie down and pick from its nourishing fruits.

Amelia sometimes slept for hours and hours and hours – her dreams
Spoke of dismemberment and beheadings – the flowing water of the oasis
Turning to blood
Sometimes at night, the djinns visited, other times, the imps – but
Amelia slept in black lipstick to protect her from the more shadowy manifestations,

present but unseen.
One day, while Amelia rested, a traveling troupe of clowns came over the dune –
Rolling, tumbling and leaping over each other with great, exaggerated movements.
At first, Amelia did not know what to make of this but was soon charmed.
Her laughter slowly burst forth – delighted peals each tumbling over the last,
Not unlike the clowns.
Laughing and laughing until she no longer cared what time it was….

---

THE THREE PATRIARCHS – SLIGHTLY SKEWED VERSION

ABRAHAM AND THE ‘PROMISED LAND’

For my grandfather: 1893 – 1964

In Whitechapel, so it was told
there’d been born a son
Tucked between four daughters
in an insane sort of symmetry

Looking towards Aldgate –
Commercial and Wentworth
his locus, where he grew
and plied those selfsame streets

Or, swinging from gaslamps with
other children – playing in
reeking alleys off Brick Lane, maybe stumbling over
dead things or,
the odd moment in Victoria Park

Through the maze of streets – Spitalfields
and Fournier – nameless, another
grasping nobody with nothing,
he knew of course, that it was
not forever

When the call to go forth came, he
left – slipping like an East London thief,
or Rodinsky, away with what he carried but
intentionally missed a trip to‘the Somme’, which
being 1914, a good thing – The new land,
not so promised but still an american reality

Years and years later, it had all gone wrong, when
the too-lateness of it was thick with disbelief as the
gift of telling had been spent to its last copper penny.
Still, he’d had to take their suit measurements.

It wasn’t supposed to happen like that – he’d distinctly
remembered the Voice had told him it was Canaan but
he must have not heard correctly – the Voice wouldn’t
cod him, would it?
Which is why, at that moment of realization, he’d ended
up face down at a table in the neighborhood
drugstore over coffee…

---

THE SACRIFICING OF ISAAC

For Isaac (Izzy) Benaim 1934-2004

Abraham laid his son’s head upon stone
Hand raised to strike, but looked up
For some reason
Sun rising in the east
His eyes temporarily blinded
By a golden glow - dropped his hand

Isaac lay quiet, motionless
The way his father had arranged him, waiting
He too, saw the glow in the east
Filling him with a certain breathlessness
As if in some divine presence

Abraham was confused – He had
Surely heard his directive clearly
From the Voice earlier
He must accomplish what the Voice
Had set him to do
But the blinding glow made this impossible – Suddenly
Filled with uncertainty

Shall he, in a bold downward stroke
Deliver his only son, as commanded by the Voice?
Or in temporary blinded state
Do nothing
His true path, yet to be revealed

The sun continued to rise in the east
Isaac remaining as he was
Cool stone under cheek, one trusting eye cast heavenward
Abraham, eyes no longer sightless from the sun
Took this as a sign – and at that moment, knew
Arm raised once again, this time flashing downward
Isaac made not a sound

Some time later – minutes, hours
Abraham once more heard the Voice
Heard that this had been a construct – a measure of loyalty
But was not actually required
In the end – for it had only been a test
Abraham sank to his knees
Cradled Isaac’s head in his arms, trusting eye
Still turned heavenward, but sightless now
As the sun continued its trajectory
Now, at its zenith
Blazing down
Upon all in the land…

---

JACOB

For Jake Vaughn

Jake thought he’d copped the One
Rising sun tattoo on the back of her neck, a genetic
mix of Sapporo and Arkansas but
music also part of her dna

Her face, cool and unhurried, she
could’ve lived another life
among the Beats but she was here now,
ready to stay a spell and
kick it with Jake.

He had to own her – at least the way
his homies laid it out for him but
it was all show cause he just wanted
whatever she could manage.

She put it on paper with him –
tried it for a year, while
he never peeped it coming, just that
one day she’d said ‘finito’.

Sad-ass motherfucker had thought it
was indefinite – she hadn’t but
just a missed cue on his end
which, in itself, was not a problem

But how it came down – brutalis in extremis
Him, away at the weekend, while
she rummaged the flat for what
she’d need in the afterlife and
walked into the mist

With everything but a couple of
raggedy cats they’d adopted and
maybe a cd or two but had
she really needed to take that
big screen television?

© Marc Goldin

Reproduced with permission

---

MARC’S MISCELLANEOUS FAVOURITES:

MAIGHREAD MEDBH

"I had several of my book reviews published by a now defunct Irish lit site (local.ie). The lit. editor of the site, Maighread Medbh was kind enough to take my submissions. She is a wonderful poet and writer herself"

Click image to read about Medbh's poetry collection, 'Tenant' on the Salmon Poetry site; to read Medbh's poem, 'The Price that Love Denied' on the Magdalene Story website, click here; to contact Medbh directly on the Mother Millennia site, click here or for related items on Amazon, click here

---

THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST

"Both Nikos Kazantzakis’ book and Martin Scorsese’s film. A life changing experience."

Click image to read Christine Iannone's article, 'The Last Temptation Reconsidered' on the First Things site; for an extract from Kazantzakis's novel on the Thoughts Worth Thinking site, click here; for Steven D. Greydanus's article on Scorsese's film on the Decent Films website, click here; for David Ng's review of the film on the Images Journal site, click here or for related items on Amazon, click here

---

UNDERGROUND COMICS AND GRAPHIC NOVELS

"Of course R. Crumb is the father of them all and whose work made me see things differently. Two newer artists I like: Chris Ware – 'Jimmy Corrigan' series and Daniel Clowes – 'Ghost World' and 'Eightball' series."

ROBERT CRUMB

Click image to visit The Crumb Museum website; for the Official Robert Crumb website, click here; for a biography and selected bibliography of Crumb on the Fantagraphics Books website, click here; for the Looking for Crumb website, click here; for the Robert Crumb unofficial fan site, click here; for a Robert Crumb chronology on the Sony Classics site, click here; for Steve Burgess's profile of Crumb on Salon.com, click here or for related items on Amazon, click here

CHRIS WARE

Click image for biography and selected bibliography of Ware on Fantagraphics website; for a bibliography of Ware's published comics on the Acme Novelty Warehouse site, click here; to visit the Chris Ware Resource site, click here; for a short profile and images by Ware on the Lambiek website, click here; for links related to Ware and the 'Jimmy Corrigan' book on the Random House website, click here; for the From the Mind of Chris Ware website, click here; for Andrew Bird's interview with Ware on the Brave New Waves site, click here or for related items on Amazon, click here

DANIEL CLOWES

Click image for a biography and selected bibliography of Clowes on the Fantagraphics website; for Corina Chocano's interview with Clowes on the Salon.com website, click here; for a biography of Clowers on the X Roads website, click here; for the World of Daniel Clowes website, click here; for Craig Elliot's interview with Clowes on the More Goat Than Goose website, click here; for a selection of images by Clowes on the Lambiek website, click here; for a profile of Clowes and the book, 'David Boring' on the Random House website, click here or for related items on Amazon, click here

---