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Category: Aaron Belz

My Chosen Vocation

When you emailed me

with news of my failure

in my chosen vocation

it left me confused

but also rather sexy-looking.

I slumped on the couch

in a daze, and my hair

was messy in an intentional way,

because I had volumized it

with Matrix Essentials

Foam Volumizer.

My beard was also volumized

with a vitamin enriched formula

that nourishes dormant roots

with essential nutrients

so that I looked like Walt Whitman

after he had walk’d along

the beach under the paling

stars of morning.

from Glitter BombFind it in the library

Copyright © Persea Books 2014
Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc.
on behalf of Persea Books.

Palindromes

Hopkins Palindrome

I caught this

morning morning’s

minion, then gushed

glossolalia thus:

“Suh tail a loss

olg deh sug neht!

Noinims gninrom

gninrom sihtth!

Gu aci!!”

Famous Palindrome

My girlfriend has a freaking weird name:

Eman Driewgnikaerfasahdneir rigym.

Two Utah Palindromes

Utah, I hatu!

We HATU, Utah. Ew.

from Glitter BombFind it in the library

Copyright © Persea Books 2014
Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc.
on behalf of Persea Books.

Beginning with a Couplet from Jane Kenyon's Boat of Quiet Hours and Continuing with One from Jorie Graham's Region of Unlikeness, Proceeding with Another Couplet from the Kenyon Book, One from Graham, and So on until the Last Couplet, Which Is by Seamus Heaney (A Cento)

I was reading about rationalism,

the kind of thing we do up north.

Now I will make a sound for you to hear.

A sound without a mouth.

The sound of water rushing over trees

felled by the zealous beavers,

look up and it’s suitors, applause,

it’s fast-forward into the labyrinth

of my red dress with blue leaves

and lemon lilies—the one you bought for me—

sounds rising up now and then from the valley,

a hammering, intermittently a dog,

mid-afternoon the sound of weeping in the hall

woke me…hurried steps on the stair, and a door,

on the steps across the street a teacup of flour.

Three mismatched linen napkins folded below it—

the tiers of sugared pastries: angel wings,

cat tongues, and little kiwi tarts;

let’s consider the dark, how green it is.

let’s consider the green, how dark, with the rocker at its heart.

You are like a rich man entering heaven

through the ear of a raindrop. Listen now again.

from Glitter BombFind it in the library

Copyright © Persea Books 2014
Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc.
on behalf of Persea Books.

Your Objective

In a given situation

Your objective should be

To act as much like yourself

As possible. Just imagine

How you would act

And act that way.

A good rule of thumb

Is, try to be similar

To who you really are.

But keep in mind

That there’s no way

To perfectly replicate

Yourself at all times.

from Glitter BombFind it in the library

Copyright © Persea Books 2014
Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc.
on behalf of Persea Books.

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Idaho Humanities Council, a State-based program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this (publication, website, exhibit, etc.) do not necessarily represent those of the Idaho Humanities Council or the National Endowment for the Humanities.