from Broken Glosa: an alphabet of post avant glosa
Stephen Bett
Lewis Warsh: Dancing Up a Ruse
Rousseau said something about something.
He said something.
He said: I’m going to give you a fat lip.
The doorman held the umbrella
Superficial Things―Lewis Warsh (with nods to l.W. & Un/Wired)
Rousseau said something about something.
My father shortened his name from Warshafsky
when he was in his twenties. Maybe it was
2 a.m. at Anne & Lewis’s, which is one for the money old son
He said something.
Pepper told me he was gay on the
train from Boston to New York.
One track / One ticket / One way
He said: I’m going to give you a fat lip.
But he didn’t say (mid-Atlantic voice)
don’t forget to warsh your hands old boy
there’s a good chap, the old upchuck trick
The doorman held the umbrella
for the dark figure with the fat lip in the rain
said he was dancing up a ruse to snag a late train
speeding at 4 a.m. trying not to buck your grain, rattle your chain
Phyllis Webb: The Spit
And spit
give me water for spit.
Then give me
a face.
Solitary Confinement ―Phyllis Webb
And spit
broken glass
for shards
to speak
give me water for spit.
Gloss this mal du
doute … never
was spat out
Then give me
ash in time
to witness
its burn
a face.
To spite
itself
still
Lew Welch: Which Planet Are You (Currently) On?
Draw a circle a hundred feet round.
Inside the circle are
300 things nobody understands, and, maybe
nobody’s ever really seen.
Step out onto the Planet―Lew Welch (with nods to earlier glosas)
Draw a circle a hundred feet round.
Big enough to hold that old
Franz Kline line … in a forest
of Zen-inflected absence
Inside the circle are
you sitting still? expecting a tr ck?
Locked in snug as a bug
(in a toppled chestnut tree
300 things nobody understands, and, maybe
one twins another, this freedom bit
that satori hit
& which dream pops first
nobody’s ever really seen.
It’s voided (ha) shudder / quiver / shiver
Step out onto another planet far side of
despair, don’t hang there for long
Stephen Bett is a widely and internationally published Canadian poet with 24 books in print. His personal papers are archived in the Contemporary Literature Collection at Simon Fraser University. Stephen Bett in online at stephenbett.com.