John Trause
JOHN J. TRAUSE, the Director of Oradell Public Library, is the author of six books of poetry and one of parody, Latter-Day Litany (Éditions élastiques, 1996), the latter staged Off Broadway. His translations, poetry, and visual work appear internationally in many journals and anthologies, and Marymark Press has published his visual poetry and art as broadsides and sheets. A Brevitas member since 2009, he has shared the stage with Steven Van Zandt, Anne Waldman, Karen Finley, Andrei Codrescu, and Jerome Rothenberg; the page with Billy Collins, Lita Hornick, William Carlos Williams, Woody Allen, Ted Kooser, Victor Buono, and Pope John Paul II; and the cage with the Cumaean Sibyl, Ezra Pound, Hannibal Lecter, Andrei Chikatilo, and George “The Animal” Steele. He is a founder of the William Carlos Williams Poetry Cooperative in Rutherford, N.J., and the former host and curator of its monthly reading series.
Website: http://www.johnjtrause.com/
Dactylic Dilemma
Who wipes the
ass of the
Venus de
Milo, huh?
In Memoriam Prince
Red
Raspberry
Purple
Black
Gold
Rainbow
Layering / Schichtung
Layering
crocus, hyacinth, violet, lilac,
wisteria
Schichtung
Krokus, Hyazinthe, Veilchen, Flieder,
Glyzine
Craning to See a Hotel Room
She was raped by a fat director
in a hotel room
run by a feckless manager.
She was murdered by a fat director
in a hotel room
run by a feckless manager.
Without a hitch, the pressure swells
and fear wells up,
just a touch.
Evil psycho,
I want to watch.
Ladies in a Cage
Suddenly last summer
a lady in a cage elevator
descended to the tropical garden
within her home,
her son gone, consumed,
while she mistook
the psychiatrist for him.
Suddenly last summer
a lady in a cage elevator
descended to the sweltering jungle
within her home,
her son gone, repulsed,
while she mistook
the intruder for him.
The Last Iris
mitte sectari, rosa quo locorum / sera moretur.
- Horace, Odes I. 38.
On a front corner
of the abandoned
gas station
on the corner of a block
in the commercial
district of a suburb
sits a cement and brick
flower planter.
The large purple iris,
blooming in spring,
remains fresh and in bloom
through even
the coldest November.
A Juster John
I saw the crescent moon against the sky last night
and morning star arrayed together past delight.
Today it is the sun’s turn to obscure the moon
with brighter rays to mark the path to vast delight.
The road I take to Mecca or Jerusalem
runs like my journey home where I forecast delight.
The way to Rome or to Medina leads to home
where I compose my verses to outlast delight.
So end my travels in my vast scriptorium
with hajj tonsure intact, head bowed in fast delight.
