In Memory of the Anti-Poem


and to the memory of Jiri Kolar, d. 12 August 2002





etude in an obsolete mode

you walk up the krakovska
to listen to some jazz
at the club
past the police station window open

you pause you
hear the sound
you have to place it
of a typewriter

the frantic fingers of a policeman
on the outdated machine

indictment
absurdist epic
or intricate typogram…

hours later jazz over
you walk back down the road

the hammering continues
upon the warm summer air




exercise for a careless tear of paper against the grain


read the antipoem out loud
until you know it by heart

repeat it
as a song without mind

sing it like a razorblade
shining the length of a vein




the order of speech


trembling
tumbling

to the chaotic gravity of the world




evidential poem number one


'glazed room full of hair

shoes

suitca

ses

clothing

artificial limbs

cooking utensils




praxilla's adonis or the first antipoem 5^th century b.c.


anti-leaving
anti-lovely
anti-earth

anti-sunlight
anti-with it
anti-shining

anti-stars
anti-moon
anti-smile

I'd miss the cool of the anti-cucumber

anti-
anti- anti- anti- anti- anti- anti- anti-
anti- anti- anti-
anti-




anti-titled un-poem


write the window
is open

read the sound
may be heard

draw the words
thick in the air like flies

(like flies
deleted)

see the sound
of diacritical marks

infecting your re-
marks

regarding the re-invention
of the typewriter




de-antiStalinization miracle poem


the anti-statue of Stalin

weeps for Anti-stalin alone




action poem


select a poem a favourite poem.
cut out a sheet of black paper of about its size.
place it over the poem until it is entirely masked.
tilt it so that enough of it is visible, legible.
copy it.

non. all. most. other. poems




evidential poem number 2: 1990


'a war with all the arrogance
of the ruffians of the past

'what are we to say
about the present



the cause and disaster I'm also responsible for

'I too
fell prey to

'the poetical illusions of that great and beautiful epoch
that was up to its eyes in guilt




the final antipoem


written with our eyes shut
with the rattle of the typewriter

in dialogue with materials that bleed



© Robert Sheppard 2005