Poems 1959-2009 Quotes

“The Earth keeps turning, night and day, spit-roasting all the tanned
Tired icebergs and polar bears, making white almost contraband.
The biosphere on a rotisserie emits a certain sound
That tells the stars that Earth was moaning pleasure while it drowned.

— "Poem by the Bridge at Ten-Shin”
― Frederick Seidel, Poems 1959-2009

“And always to be the same.

Like the air and the wind,
The wind and the air.
I hear a very quiet voice,

Emphatic like a flower,
Saying
It is I.

— Frederick Seidel, from “The Girl in the Mirror,” Poems 1959-2009 (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2009)”
― Frederick Seidel, Poems 1959-2009

“COSMOPOLITANS AT THE PARADISE

Cosmopolitans at the Paradise.
Heavenly Kelly's cosmopolitans make the sun rise.
They make the sun rise in my blood.
Under the stars in my brow.

Tonight a perfect cosmopolitan sets sail for paradise.
Johnny's cosmopolitans start the countdown on the launch pad.
My Paradise is a diner. Nothing could be finer.
There was a lovely man in this town named Harry Diner.

Lighter than zero
Gravity, a rinse of lift, the cosmopolitan cocktail
They mix here at the Paradise is the best
In the United States - pink as a flamingo and life-announcing

As a leaping salmon. The space suit I will squeeze into arrives
In a martini glass.
Poured from a chilled silver shaker beaded with frost sweat.
Finally I go

Back to where the only place to go is far.
Ahab on the launch pad - I'm the roar
Wearing a wild blazer, black stripes and red,
And a yarmulke with a propeller on my missile head.

There she blows! Row harder, my hearties! -
My United Nations of liftoff!
I targeted the great white whale black hole.
On impact I burst into stars.

I am the caliph of paradise,
Hip-deep in a waterbed of wives.
I am the Ducati of desire,
144.1 horsepower at the rear wheel.

Nights and days, black stripes and red,
I orbit Sag Harbor and the big blue ball.
I pursue Moby-Dick to the end of the book.
I raise the pink flamingos to my lips and drink.”
― Frederick Seidel, Poems 1959-2009