thanksgiving 2004 : a menu poem for kent johnson

8/6/2019 Thanksgiving 2004 : A Menu Poem for Kent Johnson

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Thanksgiving Dinner 2004

by A holiday

Geoffrey Gatza poem series



Thanksgiving Dinner 2004

A holiday poem series

Geoffrey Gatza

BlazeVox [books]

Buffalo, New York



Thanksgiving Dinner 2004Guest of Honor Kent Johnson



Thanksgiving Menu 2004

guest of honor: Kent Johnson

1st Course

Stir Fry of Scallops and Shiitake Mushrooms with Gingered Grits

and Bacon Vinaigrette

2nd Course

Tomato consommé with an Alphabet of Vegetables

garnished with a Ron Syllabub

3rd Course

Dungeness Crab Salad with Meyer Lemon Vinaigrette

4th Course

Hamachi with Edamame Puree, Spicy Grapefruitand Watermelon Radish Salad

5th Course

Seared Rare Ahi with a Plum Wine & Daikon Beurre RougeSteamed Jasmine Rice

6th Course

Fire Roasted Rack of Lamb and Rosemary Demi–GlazeSautéed Purple Artichokes and White Asparagus

7th Course

Asian Pear Trifle



Table of Contents

Scallops.......................................................................................................................11

Shiitake Mushrooms.............................................................................................12

Ginger Grits...............................................................................................................13

Bacon Vinaigrette...................................................................................................14

Tomato consommé ...............................................................................................15

Alphabet of Vegetables........................................................................................16

Ron Syllabub..............................................................................................................17

Dungeness Crab .....................................................................................................18

Meyer Lemon ...........................................................................................................19

Hamachi......................................................................................................................20

Edamame...................................................................................................................21

Spicy Grapefruit.......................................................................................................22Watermelon Radish..............................................................................................23

Rare Ahi ...................................................................................................................... 24

Plum Wine .................................................................................................................25

Fire Roasted Lamb.................................................................................................26

Rosemary...................................................................................................................27

Purple Artichokes...................................................................................................28

White Asparagus ...................................................................................................29

Asian Pear Trifle......................................................................................................30



Shiitake Mushrooms

pungent works of art persist in musty

new directions

dark garnetsone can touch

a tickle of sweet acidity and a hint of roasty earth

some decaying stacks

of books on the floor

heart and core

of ages past

touch their wicked little game —

rope cutting across wood



Ginger Grits

epigram

When I die and they bring my ashes to rest atGary’s World of Miniatures roadside attraction

We will pass their diminutive version of the VietnamWar Memorial, the Eiffel Tower, The Great Wall and thePyramids, the Seattle Space Needle, the Sidney Opera House....

will wander past the United Nations building,and off by the "It’s a Small World" areasits the styrofoam model of the Vatican

In the round area of St. Peter’s Squarethey will empty my ashes from the urn

and my scattered form will bethe very essence of americana

and in that moment may I find thegreat poets gone before - I will tellthem Kent Johnson was my friend

And you’d damn well better watch out



Tomato consommé

I can seeclearly now



Alphabet of Vegetables

Back on earth, Mr. O'Keefe is also engaged in more mundaneforms of cost control. Professors are being cut. Poets, heavenforfend, are being made, reproduced, redundant :

Alan Asparagus poemsaboutguns.blogspot.com/

Boris Beets L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E.blogspot.com/

Clara Carrots postavant.blogspot.com/David Daikon avantgarde.blogspot.com/

Eric Endive quietude101.blogspot.com/

Fredric Fennel grumpyoldmn.blogspot.com/Ginger Gourd dangerouspuppy.blogspot.com/

Haricot Vert CompleteIdiotsGuidetoPoetry.blogspot.com/

Iceberg Lettuce winebeforeitstime.blogspot.com/Japanese Eggplant ilikebush.blogspot.com/

Robert Kale leafybob.blogspot.com/

Lemon Grass alwaysgreener.blogspot.com/

Morris Maize paidwhatonesode.blogspot.com/Kelley Nettles papertiger.blogspot.com/

Jasper Onion kakapo-ssible.blogspot.com/

Paula Pea 100mattresses.blogspot.com/Arron Qunice magneticpoetrykit.blogspot.com/

Ruby Radish danagioiasucks.blogspot.com/

Sarah Spinach idratherbebowling.blogspot.com/Turnip Kettlebottom myprettypony.blogspot.com/

Ugandan Principal listentome.blogspot.com/

Vidalia Onion thegreatgatsby.blogspot.com/

Jenny Wasabi aquarrelwithourselves.blogspot.com/Xai Yam Zucchini poetryideathatwillhauntmylateryears.blogspot.com



Ron Syllabub

"But since, ceteris paribus, no poet can afford to dispense with anything that may advance hisdesign, it but remains to be seen whether there is, in extent, any advantage to counterbalance theloss of unity which attends it." Edgar Allan Poe; The Philosophy of Composition; 1850.

‘[Yasusada] takes my breath away' Ron Silliman

O wild Kent Johnson, thou breath of Autumn's being,

your florida blue ink

drives leaves auburn

like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing

sunsets with fighter jets climbing

in the transparency of my dreams

christ in concrete

old pizza and ice

everlasting unseen presence

ceteris paribus,

god always coincides with my desires



Dungeness Crab

"He lashed out and then deliberately pushed a poem into my face.

The base of the poem struck me and cut my bottom lip.

"At the same time he was repeatedly saying 'Why are you doing this?Why don't you just leave me alone?'"

Another poet who was outside the clubsaid he had no reason to react as he did.

"In this situation he wasn't under any threat. The poet who he went for is themildest-mannered poet," the US's Academy of Poetry quoted him as saying.

A Scotland Yard spokesman told APR:

"We are aware of the incident but no complaint has been made."

On scene, Paul Valery, was quoted as saying, "the folly of mistaking a paradox

for a discovery, a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capitaltruths, and oneself for an oracle, is inborn in us."



Meyer Lemon

Hibernaculum

It is not difficult to write poems in America:

weaving baskets in a world of paper or plastic.

It is difficult to get work, real work I mean

something that will pay for the energy thatwill burn and keep us warm during winter.

Not difficult to put words to anger and spout

about how the administration is to blame for everything that is wrong – it is in the wrong

1

Knowing does not stop the callsthe constant calls for money we

just do not have –

when one is underemployed there is so much time

Not difficult to write poems

when so muchAmerica is happening

[

it is difficult to find someone for who

poetry will make one bit of differencein their daily life – summer days past

]

1 and hang it all, I will not mention his name in my poem



Hamachi

If you don't find God in the next person you meet,it is a waste of time looking for him further.Mahatma Gandhi

In the emerald blue silence

of gamelan chimes

It came returned to me, stamped

DECEASED

fading ananda

a mix of whatever

happens to be around

slipping into autumn bliss

an ironic after-echo of issues

raised by hammers, colliding

diminishdiminish



Edamame



Spicy Grapefruit

To Shine

“That's a lot of tommyrot,” he says,with a broad, crafty smile. “All thingsconsidered; I’m certainly not a pacifist!”

As the stocky servant who mimicshis master, himself a clown, winds

up on the paths of all things criminal

as a fly to a frog, a frog to a snake,a snake to a bird, a bird to a Martian,

and a Martian to a fly

what amounts to a threnody of grief the mind shapes itself to the body, as

a rain forever falling, a vapor ever rising



Watermelon Radish

Watermelon radish and shiso salad

10 leaves of shiso, julienned2 watermelon radishes, peeled, and sliced thin and julienned

1 cup half and half

Salt to tasteToss julienne of shiso and watermelon radish

in half and half. Season with salt.

To Serve

On a large plate, spread edamame puree over the base

of the plate. Place two grapefruit segments in the center.

Add 5 hamachi slices: alternating hamachi slices and grapefruit slices.

Place small amount of candied turmeric over each piece of hamachi.

Pour 2 Tablespoons of spicy grapefruit juice over plate.

Garnish with spoonful of watermelon and shiso salad.



Rare Ahi

Of authorship, or the vacant face of email

At a party

Ethan Paquinasked me

slyly, if I

was Kent

Johnson.I am notKent and

to prove

so much

I will say

something

stoopidtonight

I probablyshouldn’t

tell thisas I did

not ask Ethan

if I could putthis here

but to balance

I corresponded

with Jullich

thinking hewas Bernstein

go figure



Plum Wine

The audience waitsin a kind of

hebetudinous

fixation,

perhaps astonished

at the perfectlysustained level

of mediocrity

[ …

she is polyonymous;Hecate the Hetronym

protecting readingsand dynasties from

the quiet ramblings

of brothers in love.

]



Fire Roasted Lamb

Thread: A lion is made up of the lambs he's digested

Ron Silliman

Can’t get one past

ole’ Kent Johnson

arms and legs

splay outwards

Ron Silliman

Kent Johnson

Poetics List Administrator

Ron Silliman

Can’t get one past

ole’ Kent Johnson

---------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe, e-mail: wxPoets-users-unsubscribe@[...].org



Rosemary

Remembrance



Purple Artichokes

My Green Lantern Power Ringfor Kent Johnson

Wonderland is for lucky girlsand music takes a happy pill

a dreary Wednesday

we have entered the purple wetlandsthe smell is of cauliflower, subjective

a steel gray pine tree

in the sunset three shapes take formthe states of matter, being and union

a row boat in sand



White Asparagus

St. Sebastian

When he was finally discovered to be poet he was handedover to the Mauretanian archers, who tied him to a treeand shot him with arrows. They left him for dead on thattree. The widow St. Irene, horrified, took him down andtended to his prickly body. She kept an arrow as a artifact.

As soon as Sebastian's health returned, he was pissed. Hepublicly challenged the Emperor to defend his preemptivemilitary doctrines and poorly planned economic strategies.

Sebastian, thus went into holy battle, armed with his poemsand superpowers, he easily defeated the Emperors guards.And when the time came to slay the evil Emperor, Our Lord appeared and bade him to cease. He was captured andre-sentenced to death, this time by clubbing. After hissecond execution, his body was buried where SanSebastiano Library and Starbucks® now stand.

a grown, beardedman in court dress

contains notrace of anarrow, yet

[the light had changed]

foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little

statesmen and philosophers and divines. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sebastian is protector of the Avant Garde

It was Renaissance artistswho portrayed him as a

youth pierced by arrows,Sebastian was an older, 400pound man in Normal, Ill.

Once, Sebastian used his healingabilities, to cure the prefect ofRome of gout, In appreciation hereleased the Christians under hispersecution and thus converted.



Asian Pear Trifle

After all,is the matter of nuclear omnicideand everything it impliesin terms of our collective psychea tamed and settled matter?

I mean, who is the Author of Hiroshima?

Doubled Flowering stands,when all is said and done,as a work of troubled imagining—

imagining what it might be to liveand struggle through a fate

that potentially awaits every human being.



Real Name: Geoffrey Gatza

Occupation: Crime-fighter, Poet

Base of Operations: Buffalo, NY USA

Marital Status: SingleHeight: 6'3"Weight: 195 lbs.

Eyes: Blue Hair: Brown

Birth date: Unknown

Birth place: Unknown

Title: None, acting for the Avant GardeAffiliation: Known to work with Belladonna, a rogue artist

Family: Unknown

Analysis: A mystery. Lack of background information.

Traces have turned up little of his life before his involvement

with poetry. Vocal, forceful, enigmatic. Creative. Technically

adept. Knowledgeable. Charismatic. Idealistic. Dangerous.

Great potential – should investigate further. Hidden past may

hold key to control.

A prodigy who obtained his Literature degree while still in his teens, Geoffrey Gatza was a gifted poet,whose inability to work within the system led him outside of established literary circles. As the "MidnightPoet," Gatza used his great wealth, talent and formidable network of contacts to provide Avant Gardepoetry for a wide range of readers for whom orthodox poetry had failed.

While investigating the influx of a new and dangerous bio-mimetic languages, Gatza was infected witha mutagenic virus which interacted randomly with other chemicals in his bloodstream. As a result, Gatzalost his vision except while using special goggles of his own creation.

Beatnik was one of the strongest Poets on Earth until his untimely fall before Gatza. During a finalconfrontation with the original Beatnik, Gatza’s power level was increased tenfold when his father,seemingly performing an act of good will before his death, bestowed Gatza with his superior mental powers.With his father's ability to project lifelike three-dimensional images and psionic energy beams the NobelPrize seemed well within his reach.

Recently, Gatza was committed to Subway™ Asylum following several violent mental breakdowns. Whilethere he made fast friends with T.S. Eliot who was committed for acting like a cat and Ezra Pound. Shortly

afterward, a confrontation with Eliot, Pound and Closed Verse left Gatza nearly dead. He retreated into hismind, seemingly lost forever in a coma. It has been speculated the energy Gatza received from his father was the catalyst for his insanity but this is not entirely true. Something else has been infecting hismind...something powerful.

Gatza has dedicated himself to protecting the downtrodden of his city from a continuing series of deadlyschemes by the insidious Iowa writers.



Blaze

Real Name: BlaiseOccupation: Crime-fighter, former house catBase of Operations: Buffalo, NY USA

Height: 27 cmWeight: 15 lbs.Hair: Orange MarmaladeEyes: YellowBirth Date: UnknownBirth Place: Debuke, IowaAffiliation: The Chinese Throwing CatsFamily: Mother, 2 sistersHobbies: Chess

Once a 20th century house cat known as Blaise, assumed the role of Freedom Fighter after shesaw her family killed by the arch criminal The Crow. Some time later, after wandering as a lone

warrior she changed her identity to Blaze. Allying herself with Clarice during the Zero SecondCrisis, she became a being of pure chronal energy. Since the Crisis she has mastered the time-stream itself. In an effort to create the Universe in her image, Blaze traveled back in time to onlymoments before the Big Bang occurred. This was foiled when the original NEA was alerted and abattle ensued, Blaze fully aged Dana Gioia and murdered Formalist-Man, Dr. GoodMoral, andThe Oracle. She has yet to be brought to justice for her crimes against humanity.

Clarice

Name: Clarice Waldman Age: 3Height: 24 cm.

Weight: 6 kg.Hair: White and OrangeEyes: YellowBirth Date: UnknownBirth Place: Bombay, IndiaAffiliation: Avant GardeFamily: No Living RelativesHobbies: Chess

Analysis: A company cat. She will never betray Gatza or the Avant Garde. Believes in the artist way: All work noplay. She keeps a clean slate and no hidden skeletons.

The daughter of evil villain Tiger King, Clarice joined the Avant Garde after her father was killed inbattle with the Robert Frost and Robert Bly. Clarice’s superfeline body is laced with hiddencybernetic claws. She also carries a mango-staff given to her by her father, able to shoot spiralsof electricity on command. She rarely leaves home and has never been officially spotted outsideAvant Garde headquaters.

thanksgiving 2004 : a menu poem for kent johnson

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