Vincent Katz: Books: Art Books and Catalogues, Alex Katz

Alex Katz: Smile Again, 2000, Jablonka Galerie, Köln, Germany

Daily Observances
Gone
Inventor's Gate
Ives Field
Paul Taylor Dance Company
Peter and Linda
Scott and John
Steve and His Girl
Ted Berrigan

Daily Observances

Sunday is a day for
taking stock of things
observed during

the week. That red
haired plump boy
in bus yesterday

with likewise
plump rat-tailed
dad, handsome

friend. Spring’s
mildness investing
autumn, walk

through park,
odd sense of ease,
no crowding, no

rushing. Design
top of nerved
insistence. Poetry

changes one’s look
as the painting,
walking down

ledge of park’s
lighted stone.
Library ceiling

immense height
of learning,
intricate joy,

two lives changed,
changing endless
others parade.

21.xi.99
Top

Gone

Wander’s all gone now.
Just his boots stood on
the sidewalk this morning,
after they’d removed
a suitcase full of t-shirts,
a garbage bag of old sweaters,
stuff even Salvation Army
didn’t want, a case
of old casettes, a pair of boots.
That’s all that’s left, that
and the box of photos
and the valise of letters.

10/99
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Inventor’s Gate

Crazy lady lives
in a tree-house
in the Bronx.

I got sad once
at this ad on
television. It

said, “If you’re
an inventor, maybe
you’ve got an idea

no one’s thought of.”
Man nods over
a calendar, power’s

writ so large
even the fool
can comprehend it.

11/99
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Ives Field

ball game on a hill
the cluttered masses
have clustered away

from city’s errant freak
hard earth gradual
flower fleck in fold

child man adult wrinkle
bluberries in a peanut
butter bucket tilled

impressive hold
rest attired symbol
pressed remit intern

soft salient sky preside
over me over my
arms enfold boot

caps and light red
greens delicious
sight marble cloud

Top

Paul Taylor Dance Company

a sagging weight
resigned strength
forefends

hodgepodge elegance
mired sanity
rust

instinctive grace
a needless rush
flustered

off the mark
sitting punching
a cold lying down

in death
in flag of country’s
death

black not black
back of space
regret

yellow green
purple red
wait

hungry entity
priest vision
wrist

Top

Peter & Linda

Peter was a loser
Linda was beautiful
Peter denied Christ thrice before the cock’s crow
Linda looked in the mirror and was perfect
but then, after Christ was crucified and went to heaven
Peter became strong and healed the sick
he didn’t need Linda any more
he looked over her, an odd moon
his flashy clothes a clever intrigue
was he a good man or bad?
Linda lay back and drank the stars
she was thinking other thoughts
her beauty was so permanent it hurt
their two faces, two minds, two bodies, became one

Top

Scott And John

It’s just a trip I took
half a lifetime ago.

I can’t get away from it:
it’s part of my psyche.

I can consciously submerge
or consciously summon it:

neither is satisfactory,
so I vacillate.

23.i.99

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Steve And His Girl

Police lease fleece
robbers drown gown

walnut sky prevented
mountain wall invert

isolate poplar wingnut
trumpet along path