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Poetry

from Maybe the Sweet Honey Pours

 

 

VOICE. maybe

the sweet honey

pours hi hat

awake tape loop 1

 

 

 

VOICE: (MAYBE THE SWEET HONEY POURS AWAKE)

1.
tape loop 1
one another
indoors
them not secure
love of world makes it

impossible
men whose hours are ours
because
sultry? lonely

whose life of Thoreau
often fooled
atoned, cold & happy

on the verge
the roads here dry cars scarce
train careens through city

worry about health insurance
worry about visa
worry about night class

truths? no such thing
after twenty three hours
on a train

convinced & giving
eyewitness testimony
to:
hi hat
"Have to pee...
in clean washroom."

 

 

 

VOICE. 2.

tape loop chan 3 +4
"three or four, or two or just
because of one bad experience"

suddenly QUIET

eyes ears teeth

family behind you vanishes
& now

Oakville

 

 

 

VOICE. 3. tape loop chan 3 +4

forced to keep dry drums
jacket a long pour
outside doesn't even blink

mahal ko, I am almost
like so

 

Toronto

 

 

 

VOICE. 4.

tape loop 1

Phife Dawg! bury drums
your head in sand
with me

take a boat ride
eat & rest at my place
please

heat of battle makes you trill
daze when happiness gathers

most of all
you don't recover fast
in an orange light

meanwhile, Ill face the night
turn each song to give up

bed
at night, hug you, cigarettes
snare regions like U.S.

dreaming of Buenos Aires
let you lead the tangle

"Cant go on!" "Come on!"
mosquitoes, no hemophiliac
laughter of Cheetos Tiger

who could slice your right ear
who is more like

Evita Peron
run far, truism, ruminant
regrets do kill, Phife

 

 

 

VOICE. (4.)

Dawg
I have none
drums
starting over maybe
has
many meanings
tape loop 1

 

 

 

VOICE. 5. AKLOKi TO THE FUTURE

drums
3- tape loop 1
2-
1-

what's it called?
microphone check
one two
what is this

its da backoo ookoo wackaa in de koyyyee
its da wackaa ookoo mookah in da koyyy
its da wacka acka mooka in da joo
keys blue line swinger
these three birds are
wacka ookoo mooka in de toyy
its da wacka ooka mooka in da one

& rabbit
in Elmo's arm

is da wacka ooka wooka mooka one

& we're back
with three birds
in Ernie's arms

what are they called

it's da wacka ooka wooka in da one
it's da wacka ooka mooka in da one

forty four

seconds

 

 

 

VOICE. 6.

keys blue line swinger

seventh prince goes on loving though he loses way
"Lies, Youth, Faith!"
Go on, slovenly, though all you do is feel
unbearable pain, not able to
move, plan, sleep

debilitate

 

 

 

VOICE. 7.

drums
keys blue line swinger
eighth wind I hear your voice
too bad phone's on roaming
who would want to leave you,

mahal ko

nine times the sun sinks into
Lies, Youth, Faith...Let's start over
dub it a pop song feel what memory
taking to writing poems for whose character
Tony's performance in Happy Together
suddenly forebodes
"& miss you, love"
stars in rain through Niagara

 

 

 

VOICE. 8.

keys blue line swinger
drums
tense

I can truly say

terse

everything heard

truce

Im okay cuz

nest

hitting end of our long road

in Unreal City

aboard train absorb bright lightning

Chrystal Falls

stop by Taipei order tofu

from "you'll never see me again"

to "you'll never catch me because"

drive off day after

leave passport on toilet rim

cough up offal

into tape

 

 

 

VOICE. (8.)

disabused jaundice

shatter beer bottles over

cleaner dishes for life

drain until blood spiral

into spray water across sunken floor

& shoulder water splash into keys tweak
tape loops chan 1+2
about-face

lean forward against rail

embrace

all ways to Iguazu

buy used car & pedal push

thereafter

loneliness in lies, youth, faith

 

 

 

VOICE. 9.

tape loop 4
I was thinking hi hat
anyway tape loop 3
keys horn-in

everything
you say

 

 

 

VOICE. 10.

abandoning mantle of lies, youth, faith keys horn-in
anguish where tape loop 4
I adore your stony lungs hi hat
top of red lighthouse tape loop 3
only you wish to bring wantonness to
singe this accept only lore that an
empty theater projecting porn
or man whose eyes slit behind you
halts cab that captures the corner
warrant song to a psalm gazing
into space of sleep depravity
loneliness of forest behind your eyes
force cigarette after cigarette pack
hoarse lover stalks Unreal City
trawling across abandoned room
lies, youth, faith—what about the planets
of light, YouTube, Fay Da Bakery

 

 

 

VOICE. 11.

keys horn-in
Is the cost tape loop 2
hi hat
bituminous hearth? tape loop 1

 

 

 

VOICE. 12.

but stay, Lies, Youth, Faith tape loop 1

know irony hi hat

time to put on suit

speak out of turn

trough beauty

blunt tooth



 

 

 

 

 

 

Contributor

Paolo Javier

The former Queens Borough Poet Laureate (2010–14), Paolo Javier was born in the Philippines and grew up in Las Piñas, Metro Manila; Katonah, Westchester County; El-Ma’adi, Cairo; Burnaby and North Delta, Metro Vancouver. He’s produced three albums of sound poetry with Listening Center (David Mason), including the limited edition pamphlet/cassette Ur’lyeh/ Aklopolis and the booklet/cassette Maybe the Sweet Honey Pours. The recipient of a 2021 Rauschenberg Foundation Artist Grant, Paolo Javier was a featured artist in Greater NY 2015 and Queens International 2018: Volumes. His fifth full-length book of poetry, O.B.B., a (weird postcolonial techno dream-pop) comics poem that also includes illustrations by Alex Tarampi and Ernest Concepcion, has just been published by Nightboat Books. He lives with his family in Queens.

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The Brooklyn Rail

OCT 2016

All Issues