SongBu®st (BlazeVOX, 2024), Stephen Bett
Cover image by Geoffrey Gatza
Breaking into song, or breaking it apart? Maybe a bit of both.
Simultaneously a celebration & a send up of iconic pop culture lyrics.
That
Micropoetics Buddy
Stop the tape
it aint Peggy Sue
— cool at the loo
(ah hey, fountains
R us)
Every day it’s a
gettin’ vaster
’til some mutt
says go ahead ’n ask her
A hey, a hey hey
that infrathin
delay
Blast of gun shot,
bullet hole in
target
Gorgeous cover,
& ah’m stumped
PS: Love like this
will suRly come their way
(a hey, the hay
hay)[1]
difference, however
miniscule, between two seemingly identical things—eg., looking at an object
(hearing a sound, etc.) now, and then one second later; or Duchamp himself
noting, the “infrathin separation between the detonation noise of a gun
(very close) and the apparition of the bullet hole in the target.”
I couldn’t remember
which Buddy Holly song kept the “hey hey” brain-worm in my head; thanks to
Carol Reid for remembering, and thus releasing me.
Then there’s
Duchamp’s urinal, titled Fountain & signed R. MUTT
And Patrick Stump
(originally Stumph—rimes with Donald Drumpf, hey?) did a truly gorgeous cover
of this Buddy Holly song, “Every Day.”
Hey,
Third Rail Infrathining
Ooh hey, hey, hey
Sunshine on a
kick’d back day
Light me up, grrl
…
Talkin ’bout
your livewire jag
lyin’ on yer ol’
third rail
I. guess. you’d. say.
What can make me
feel that way?
Sounds like live
’Murican gunfire play
But tell me more
…!
glued — like a stamp to a letter
(like birds of a
feather)
says you been
charged
poli-sci’d out,
runaway Sue
Caint make you’m
be untrue
Nuttin’ you could
say or do [2]
That
Magic Sailor
I
sailed an ocean, unsettled ocean
Magic,
magic, magic, magic
Oracle — more nautical
than prodigal
Polis has eyes on
da field
“We are a coast
people … no-
thing but ocean
out beyond us”
Edge of dumb-struck
space
Sail
on, sail on sailor
Sunshine kick back
day
This
magic mo-ment …
so
different & so new
(nuttin’ you could
say or do)
… Brought to us by our
favorite (third
rail) multi
model
relational database
management
system
(oh please… please me)
Support your local
Global
Oracle Cloud
Infrastructure
(New Regions coming
soon!)
Sail on, oh magiK
Oracle …
Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh
[3]
Infrathin
Hall of Mirrors Effect (or, Calling Out the Joneses)
For what it’s
worth ’cause
something is
happening here
& you don’t
know what it is
do
you, Mister Jones?
… Man
with a gun over there
telling me I gots
to beware
Wait … it’s Mr Jones his Self!
— that there
“Me and Mrs Jones”
We got a THING
going on
know it wrong /
much too strong
let it go now (go
now
go now, ooh …
(Feels so
suicidal, jes’ like
Bobbie Zee’s clone
cojones)
Tarnation … schlepping wit’ them
damn Joneses coupla dude-
bro infra-thin’ers
nuttin in ’em the space
between front
& back
sheet a’ paper
What
I’m writing is an infra-novel
… connects the dots (sailor Jones
Everybody look
what’s goin down
whole lotta
shakin rimes they
are a’changED /
more’n enough
ordnance for y’all
Children, what’s
that sound?
Workin on the
chain ya-hay-hain
or lolling
themselves
to death (LOL) [4]
The
Creeley / Spicer Outtakes
Instant
Karma’s gonna get you
Gonna
look you right in the face
nuttin’ you can do
or say ’bout that one, ace
Well
we all shine on
Like
the moon and the stars and the sun
Give it up for
sailor grrl, happiness sho’s a warm gun
— kickin’ ass on a
sunshine day, sport! aint we got fun
* * *
He
come groovin’ up slowly, he got walrus gumboat
he say will
dance, chow down— yo dis’ lumpen brute
He
roller-coaster, he got early warnin’
nothing’s out
beyond us, it jes’ riding the swells
an empty creel,
taint no spice wuz forwarnin’
He
say “one and one and one is three”
Got to be so
jacked when you’re one-eye at sea
(one to one to
one they’s too Unfollowed)
* * *
Come
together
Right
now
Over
me
Lordy, lordy
… Q ’n boogaloo
rearin’ up down
south
we aint never gon’
free [5]
You
put a spell on… you
You put a spell
on… you
beCAUSE you’re
ff-EYE-nn
caint stop the
things that you do
no, we aint lyin’
It’s your
recombinant flirtation
(odor & colour
combo’d)
a singular touch
of the marvelous
sewing brain farts
together
on the bizarro
spectrum
(your tried &
true normal)
No, aint buyin’
your fortuitous
backdated gas up
w/ sewing
machine &
umbrella
Sunshine days you
skipped
the light
fandango, a
capella, & up
the tarantella
(but after…
salmonella)
Brainpan chem
leaks chill ’n
drill down fried
wire, sail on
lighter grades of
third rail
Back on the coast we
was
feeling kinda
seasick,
walleyed circuits
always
runnin’ round
Watched you triple
down
on the ol’
narrative shtick
(hey hey hey)
So we shone a
gloss
on your cabeza [6]
Cubed
& Walleyed Leftover
Reprise &
refrain
Sugar, ahh,
honey, honey
infra- infra-
thin sides of a
sheet
Eye to Eye
Same face
Cross eye
frisson! [7]
Not
in the Margins, But (snugly) in the Kerning
I’ll
l’ight the fire
You
place the flow’ers in the vase
(dude crude lewd…
chick bailiwick
shtick)
La-la,
la-la-la-la-la
Come
to me now (come to me now)
And
rest your head for just five minutes
Such
a cozy room (such a cozy room)
Y’all CSN Young cool coots
unkerned it’s
N Y corduroyed off the sill
cozy, cozy insistent! (in Creel voice)
infra-aged, in
that lil’ split second
Our
mouse is a very, very, very fine mouse (very
fine mouse)
With
two cats [bats, rats] in the yard
Life
used to be so h’ard
For you “a fluent”
faux-freak (zed-head?)
… some kerning
& tracking for sure
La-la-la-la,
la-la-la-la-la
I (’n) sip it
(lol-lol)
if U kern t’ do id
Catchy as catchy
can
(aka, rasslin’ w/
Picabia)
coddled catch, all
holds bar
two half-C’s on
Snug as a bug in
smug
a mis-kerning? [8]
The
Great Contender
The
man who shot Liberty Valence
clearly didn’t
care mucho much for Valencia
(nor likely
cross-town rivals VillaRReal)
That derby hall a’
miRRors… a’gin & redux
When Val rode
to town the womenfolk would hide
(Rreal men &
transfolk, they’d abide onside)
Give me hibbity
jibbity or give me the point of a gun
the
only law that [libs] understand —
lib·bard·y
for not from dems wackos
Rrose Sélavy
likely-wise cried snide
in zir Yellow
Submarine
(it’s true,
#LookItUp!)
Putt it right on
the platter
The
man who flipped a birdie on yr Lib Pal
— poor Burt
Bacharach, dead
at 94 just this
week —
He
was the [gravest] man of all
he was the Great
Contender
Just
laughing and gay like a clown
in my town [9]
Inhabiting
the Sound Gaps
I
said see, C.C. Rider
Oh,
see what you have done
You slipped ma’
disc, sailor grrl
Chopper Couture
din’t stand a chance
Well
now see, see see rider
…
SEE what you have done
thIN diff: dis ultra-tiny-tinny fit
you DISappeared,
gap in the hall a’ …
holla!
I
said see, see see rider (see, see rider)
see
what you done done
Doubly (&
parenthetically) minced
coma zone-out in
my comma
Très infrathin of
infra-thin & infra thin
the ol’ miRRor
image RE-flect E-ffect overload
So whose fleet
feet turns the page
tha’s extreme
tenuity (ThieRRy Davila)
published Dec 17,
2010, at 11:22 am
updated Dec 17,
2010, at 11:22 am
Same Diff times
t’ree — w/in da minute
one & one
& two & two
Inhabit every in·ter·val
(a hey hey)
C.—gap—C. at sea,
oh see here sailor grrl
You are that
dancin’ sound
Slippered outta
dat vis·U·al hegemony
some différance,
n’est pas?
The hear of her·e·sy
what you just
Undone
Yas hear
don’t see it
Surfer·Grrl
[10]
Insta
Surfing
Li·ddle
surfer, li·ddle one
Made
my heart come all Undone
(Sailor’s gurl,
heart’s a twURL)
Teeny-tiny itsy
dot fitter-upper
reeled in, bought
you by Rreal men
(In my
Woody them’s would take you…)
Diss ol’ Miss O’
Ginny RE·verse flipped
chic-o-layin’
cutie pie voice print
all over our gooey
screens
Do
you wuv me, do you wi’dul star-twick one?
(jes’ me & mah
Woody)
’N don’ go
DISappearing in the gap
there’s have all
Rreal womyn gone
Whoa,
oh, mercy mercy me
things
aint what they used to be…
On stage now
#FiveSeconds Get·It & Forget·It
please identi·size
Rupi Kaur
for Po·it
Laur·E·ate
(made 30 mil las’
year!)
Infra-Mincing our
way to you,
dear insta·read’R …
Lie-la-lie
Lie-la-lie-lie-lie-lie-lie, lie-lie-lie-lie-lie
Lie-la-lie-lie-lie-lie-lie
Lie-la-lie
Lie-la-lie-lie-lie-lie-lie, lie-lie-lie-lie-lie [11]
Infra
Lasting
If it’s infrathin
it’s gotta be well short
of “infrasimilar”
As gurl to grrl…
Same diff, or not
really?
(an A’muricanISM)
Go teach your
grandmother
to suck electric
prunes (dear)
(masquerading in
the fridge?)
This crew at sea —
[We’re]
not ready to face the light
[We]
had too much to dream
Last
night
Think dream,
sailor
If thinkin’ could
be dreamin’
(more than a thin diff)
wch aint for real,
that
boat sailed
Well,
I told you once an’ I told you twice…
InfraTHIN’s “the
very lastness of things
… [a] frail and
final minimum before
reality
disappears”
(Bang,
homesteader)
This
could be the last time…
Oh,
no Oh, no-o-o
So
darlin’, save the last dance
… us mincing ones
It’ll put your
duplicitous reel
on edge [12]
M lettered ready
for USE
Last
night
Thinkin
bout las’ night…
It was reel it
back in
It was She-e-e-e-e-e-ry,
Sherry bay-yay-bEE
It was mincing up
airy-fairy & fiery
—
Oh no, oh no, you’re gonna b-u-u-rn! —
right down to the
lastest glittery ember
It was rolling
round the roses Rosie
mein frau dug
infraRED out of sight
It was won’t you come
out tonight
pyre higher &
higher on a magiK
red-hot-wire
carpet flier
It was Sher-err-erry
airheads flambée
bloodstains track
the hall of miЯRors
(It were nowhere
Rreal womyn’d done gone)
It was Sailor Grrl
cresting adrift
our on·lie
the lone·lie muse, feisty
M lettered ready
for USE [13]
Musing
Looking
out on the mourning drain
I
used to feel so Un·In·spired (oow-OOM!)
(Lord,
it made me feel so wired)
… ’til Sailor Grrl
rode in on the waves
(with Liberty Val
& the lib·bard·ies
… thems PO’ets)
Born to it, like
(notwithstanding
CAGAB)[14]
Nat·U·ral
muse-worthy
fender bender syn·the·sizer
Wishin’
& hopin’ (& thinkin’ & prayin’)
gets you dis·harmonized
just a mate’s
pre-tender
in tha’ Hall a’
MiRRors
The right grrl, on
the left
(we got steely
about Miss O’ Ginny)
she weren’t
ah’mused
won’t “wear her
hair just for him”
Steady rain water
on the brain
all fluids a go-go
return to sender [15]
[1] Marjorie
Perloff’s new book on micropoetics, Infrathin, gets after Duchamp’s
notion of “infrathin”: there is a
[2] The Temptations, “My
Girl”; Mary Wells, “My Guy”
[3] The Beach Boys, “Sail
On Sailor”; The Drifters, “This Magic Moment”; Jack Spicer’s “coast people”
quote, redux (again); Oracle Corp, Silicon Valley: yet another term &
concept ripped out of Western Civ.
[4] Buffalo Springfield;
Bob Dylan (x2); Billy Paul; Moody Blues; John Lennon; Jerry Lee Lewis; Sam
Cooke; Calvin Tomkins, Duchamp: A Biography (p. 346), quoting Duchamp’s
front & back sides of a single sheet of paper as another example of
“infrathin”; Laurent Binet’s very fine novel HHhH (p. 241), a postmodern
historical metafiction as an “infranovel” of infinitesimally fine distinctions
over a singular historical event (the assassination of Heydrich, architect of
the Final Solution & “Butcher of Prague”)
[5] John Lennon, “Instant
Karma” & “Come Together” (& “Happiness…”); Creeley’s “One thing done”:
“let / me sing, one to / one to one, and let / me follow”
— such loveliness no longer seems possible, given the grotesque rise of white
nationalism presently around us
[6] The Alan Price Set, “I
Put a Spell on You”; Procol Harem, “A Whiter Shade of Pale”; Philip Lamantia, A
Touch of the Marvelous; Comte de Lautréamont: “the fortuitous encounter
upon a dissecting-table of a sewing-machine and an umbrella” —“one of the most
famous images… to play a major role in surrealist thought and poetics” (S.C. Bett,
Incidentally Philip Lamantia: A Study of the Poetics of Surrealism, p.
26)
[7] The Archies (again),
“Sugar Sugar”
[8] Crosby, Stills, Nash
& Young, “Our House”; Marjorie Perloff’s advance praise for derek
beaulieu’s VisPo work in his Surface Tension: db’s “poetry of
difference, chance, and eruption? Marcel Duchamp would have called it the
poetry of infrathin” (my emphasis); one of beaulieu’s poetics’
statements: “Write not just in the margins, but in the kerning”; Creeley’s
“Some Place” (“had I, had / I, insistent”); “Catch as Catch Can”: a late 19th
C wrestling phrase used as the title of a 1913 Francis Picabia painting
[9] Gene Pitney, “The Man
Who Shot Liberty Valence” & “The Great Pretender” (the latter also covered
by The Platters, & both songs written by Burt Bacharach); properly
speaking, Valencia & Villarreal Club Futbol are cross-region derby
rivals (the latter’s motto: The Yellow Submarine”); & fondly recalling
Grade 4 club Membership Card for “The-Look-It-Up-Club (motto: “We Don’t Just
Guess, We Look It Up!”)
[10] Mitch Ryder & the
Detroit Wheels’ version of “See See Rider” (aka “C.C. Rider”); C.C., as in
Chopper Couture (chopper apparel, huh?); several commentators on Marcel
Duchamp’s infrathin or inframince concept, easily googled—among
them: quoting Thierry Davila, curator of the Museum of Modern &
Contemporary Art (Geneva); David Zerbib’s review of Davila’s book Infrathin:
Bref histoire de l’imperceptible, de Marcel Duchamp…(published &
updated within the minute, note); Paul Matisse (step-son of Duchamp, &
grandson of Henry Matisse, collected & published Duchamp’s notes under the
title Inframince: “inframince [is] the very lastness of things…[the]
frail and final minimum before reality disappears”
[11] Beach Boys, “Surfer
Girl”; Paul Simon, “The Boxer”; Marvin Gaye, “Mercy Mercy Me”; as good an
estimation of these ‘identity excl’ Instagram poets as I can see (&
time-honoured too): “‘stop deceiving the uneducated crowd / with empty
sweetness’ (Metamorphoses 5.308-9) / aesthetically superficial /
ethically dishonest” — Joe Safdie, Scholarship, p. 44
[12] The Electric Prunes, “I
Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)”; Rolling Stones, “The Last Time”; The
Drifters, “Save the Last Dance for Me”; Re: “the very lastness”— see Paul
Matisse footnote to “Inhabiting the Sound Gaps”; Re: “the real” as
duplicitous—see Robin Blaser’s essay on Spicer, “The Practise of Outside”;
David Dowker introduces us to his (?) term “infrasimilar” in his poem “The
Information Paradox” (Dissonance Engine)
[13] The Traveling Wilburys, “Last Night”; Frankie Valli & The Four
Seasons; Arthur Brown, “Burn”
[14] “Coercively Assigned
Gender At Birth” (oow-OOM!)
[15] Aretha Franklin, “You
Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman”; Dusty Springfield, “Wishin’ and Hopin’”;
for a very insightful take on Aretha F’s voice see Paul Headrick’s story “The
Franklin Chair” in his collection The Doctrine of Affections
