Friday, November 14, 2008

There Sat Down, Once, a Thing on Henry's Heart

Strolling these days through The Dream Songs by John Berryman. Here he is in Dublin, 1967, reciting Dream Song 29.

Only the Irish-American poet, Liam Moore, who used to performed several Dream Songs amidst a Velvet-Undergroundesque swirl of feedback, comes close to Berryman reading the original.



Dream Song 29
by John Berryman

There sat down, once, a thing on Henry's heart
só heavy, if he had a hundred years
& more, & weeping, sleepless, in all them time
Henry could not make good.
Starts again always in Henry's ears
the little cough somewhere, an odour, a chime.

And there is another thing he has in mind
like a grave Sienese face a thousand years
would fail to blur the still profiled reproach of. Ghastly,
with open eyes, he attends, blind.
All the bells say: too late. This is not for tears;
thinking.

But never did Henry, as he thought he did,
end anyone and hacks her body up
and hide the pieces, where they may be found.
He knows: he went over everyone, & nobody's missing.
Often he reckons, in the dawn, them up.
Nobody is ever missing.

16 comments:

Jeff said...

Pardon me for going off-topic for a moment, but I wanted to comment on last night's game...

Ffffffffff-@@&#&*^$%@$ !!!!

Congratulations. A phyrric victory for you guys, though, I must say. If that had been a college-style overtime, you guys would have been toast.

Hey, were you informed that Bob Dylan's grandma (Mitch Mitchell) won't be coming down for breakfast today?

cowboyangel said...

Jeff,

You're definitely off-topic but in a poetic way, so that counts.

But my previous post was really meant for you and a discussion of this "phyrric" victory you speak of.

And at least spell it right if you're going to insult my football team, damn it; pyrrhic!!!! :-)

cowboyangel said...

Oh, I will respond to your comment on Mitchell here, though.

Yeah, I saw the news. I almost posted something, but I'm not sure I really cared for Mitchell enough. Buddy Miles, on the other hand. . . .

And you wouldn't be calling him Bob Dylan's grandma. At least not to his face.

Liam said...

That was awesome. Weird. He took a long time to get through a short poem.

I weep for Mitch Mitchell -- I think he was a great drummer.

cowboyangel said...

Liam,

Whoever posted the video at YouTube said Berryman was drunk. Perhaps. I actually liked how long it took him to get through the poem. It made me realize how important each word really is.

It also got me to try reciting the Dream Songs more slowly like that, which definitely kicks them up a notch in power.

I wish you had video of you performing the Dream Songs. I have your box set of tape recordings, which made me realize - You need to transfer those to CD. Have you ever looked into that?

Liam said...

I keep thinking of doing that, but I never get around to it.

cowboyangel said...

I'll try to ask the music librarian about it. You need that set on CD.

cowboyangel said...

Oh, have you actually read all of the Dream Songs? Going through from start to finish?

Did you study them at Reed or something? I'd love to have a class on them or just sit around with others who've read them and discuss.

I had only read various ones from time to time. It's funny, I didn't realize the link with Roethke until this time, and now it seems obvious. He even mentions him at one point.

The weird syntax is wonderful - really sets things off and makes you hear the language anew. I like these more than Roethke's nonsense poems, where I think he was attempting something similar. These have a darker, stranger edge to them.

Liam said...

"Berryman was best! He wrote like wet paper-mache. But he went the Heming-way, weirdly on wings and with maximum pain. We call upon the author to explain."

Yeah... the Dream Songs are great because there is meaning there, it's not nonsense, but it works on a kind of sub-rational, dreamlike way.

I never read the whole thing start to finish. I did write one of the chapters of my BA Thesis on the first book -- 77 Dream Songs.

cowboyangel said...

The weirdness starts to grown on you after a while. One or two, which is how I've usually read them, are weird but you only get so much of the effect. But read several day after day and there's a whole other world that starts to grow.

crystal said...

I hadn't realized Liam had grown a beard.

Jeff said...

Now wait a minute... Never mind Henry hacking people up. I sense a barfight coming on.

"Bob Dylan's Grandma" is what Jimi always called him, and you can't seriously be comparing Mitch Mitchell unfavorably to Buddy Miles. You can't be.

I mean, OK, there's Machine Gun, and Buddy was fine with Mike Bloomfield and the Electric Flag and all, but he was pretty pedestrian as a drummer compared to Mitch Mitchell. Just listen to his work on Manic Depression and Fire, for example. Hendrix preferred Mitchell as a drummer, he had a more freewheeling style, which is why Jimi went back with him towards the end (although he didn't seem to have much need for Noel Redding). In my book, the Experience was superior overall to the Band of Gypsys in every respect.

cowboyangel said...

Crystal - Liam has had beards in the past, but none of them were quite that impressive or Tolstoyean.

cowboyangel said...

Jeff,

Okay, so you've embarrassed and humiliated me in public about my lack of knowledge concerning the drummers working with Jimi Hendrix, who I claim is one of my big artistic heroes. I'm ashamed and hereby withdraw my statements about Mitch Miller. I mean, Mitch Mitchell.

Obviously, it's imperative that I read up up on my Hendrix. Thanks for shaming me into action.

Let's save our bar fight for something more noble and worthy.

Like a nice philosophical and nuanced discussion about the sudden and shocking loss of manly attributes of the New England Patriots football team. Do you think all the steroids they've been taking has turned them into girly-men? Or are they just so sad at losing Mommy Brady? :-)

Jeff said...

:-D

But my previous post was really meant for you and a discussion of this "phyrric" victory you speak of.

And at least spell it right if you're going to insult my football team, damn it; pyrrhic!!!! :-)


Manly attributes? After that "win" you guys managed to back into the other night?

Phyrric victory, pyrrhic victory, whatever.... For us is was a phallic victory.

cowboyangel said...

:-)