ed markowski | resurrections

Poetry Dispact No.285 | June 8, 2009

ED MARKOWSKI

Here’s a man who lives and breathes poems. I can’t imagine a day goes by that he does not nail at least one or two. Magic-morning-Markowski.

Here’s a brand new beauty by a poet who can do it all—short poems, long poems, fat poems, skinny poems, story poems, list poems, lyric poems, talk poems…haiku, haibun, you-name-it: “Hey, have I got a poem for you!”

This is one of them—making a little something out of what appears to be nothing. Damn right skeletal. Reminiscent of the late/great American poet, Robert Creeley, father, I’d suggest, of the thin poem strolling down the page. Poems that take on weight

one

or

two

words

at

a

time.

–norbert blei

resurrections

on
the

day
i

was
god

i
resurrected

cheney
mao

custer
stalin

amin
sherman

jim
jones

rasputin
batista

manson
calvin

mussolini
franco

kim il sung
kim jong il

the
ayatollah somany

&
hitler twice,

hung
them,

returned
religion

to
antiquity

for
eternity,

resurrected
kerouac

carver
capote

dickinson
groucho

fellini
munro

babe
ruth

jesus
lennon

lucy
chaplin

desi
zeppo

julia
child

maris
mantle

oakley
twain

harrison
holiday

patsy
cline

colonel
sanders

joyce
blake

sexton
stowe

duchamp
picasso

johnny
cash

hank
snow

knute
rockne

hemingway
hackett

jim
beam

jack
daniels

elvis
twice

every
woman

who
ever

wanted
elvis

but
settled

for
less

then
died

too
young,

got
loaded

with
all

of
them,

then
woke

up
naked

with
a

bleached
blonde

named
sheila

who
gaps

plugs
at

fat
jack’s

kar
klinic

out
on

route
twelve,

on
the

lawn
in

front
of

her
rusty

double
wide

behind
three

fading
but

still
kind
of

pink
flamingos

in
a

place
called

eden
acres

just
this

side
of

the
tennessee

state
line.

ed markowski 5/30/09

Editor’s Note: Markowski has two short stories due out in the next two issues of smokebox magazine, titled: “1986” & “Beyond the Mountains.” Don Wentworth’s Lilliput Review will be publishing a broadside of Markowski’s short poetry titled “Drunk with Religion” Markowski recently performed at The National Arts Club in Manhattan & at The chautauqua Institution with Cor van den Huevel & Al Pizzarelli. His country western & statistical haibun can be found at Simply Haiku. His short poetry most recently appeared in Phillip Rowland’s journal of short poetry NO/ON.