When Hemingway put his brains to the wall with a

shotgun, that was style.

a symphony orchestra. there is a thunderstorm, they are playing a Wagner overture and the people leave their seats under the trees and run inside to the pavilion the women giggling, the men pretending calm, wet cigarettes being thrown away, Wagner plays on, and then they are all under the pavilion. the birds even come in from the trees and enter the pavilion and then it is the Hungarian Rhapsody # 2 by Lizst, and it still rains, but look, one man sits alone in the rain listening. the audience notices him. they turn and look. the orchestra goes about its business. the man sits in the night in the rain, listening. there is something wrong with him, isn't there? he came to hear the music.

gnore all possible concepts and possibilities – ignore Beethoven, the spider, the damnation of Faust – just make it, babe, make it: a house a car a belly full of beans pay your taxes fuck and if you can't fuck copulate. make money but don't work too hard – make somebody else pay to relax, and stay of the streets wipe your ass real good use a lot of toilet paper it's bad manners to let people know you shit or could smell like it if you weren't careful.

the best one can settle for
is an afternoon
with the rent paid, some food in the refrigerator,
and death something like
a bad painting by a bad painter
(that you finally buy because there's not
anything else
around).

queers do this
or is it that you're
afraid to die?
biceps, triceps, forceps,
what are you going to do
with muscles?
well, muscles please the the ladies
and keep the bullies
at bay—
so
what?
is it worth it?
is it worth the collected works
of Balzac?
or a 3 week vacation
in Spain?
or, is it another way of
suffering?
if you got paid to do it,
you'd hate it.
if a man got paid to make love,
he'd hate it.

still, one needs the
exercise—
this writing game:
only the brain and soul get
worked-out.
quit your bitching and
do it.
while other people are
sleeping
you're lifting a mountain
with rivers of poems
running off.