*
Like I said. As a poet. As a friend.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
“Everyone knows how much I love you.
All your gestures
Have become my gestures.”
Variation on a translation by Kenneth Rexroth of an anonymous Japansese poem.
“Landscape with a Man Being Killed by a Snake,” the title of a painting by Nicholas Poussin.
“How can I find you in that stupendous blaze” is derived from a line by Aaron Shabtai, translated by Peter Cole.
At ease in honesty, derived from Albert Camus’s notebooks.
I never know when you think I’m interesting, derived from André Gide’s notebooks.
“Gone Klimpt” wrote the poet Ronald Johnson.
I listen to what I can leave out: Miles Davis said it.
“There are bright moments”—the riff comes from “Bright Moments Song” on Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s album, Bright Moments, Atlantic Records, 1973.