Bruce Covey presents Andrei Codrescu

I’ve enjoyed Andrei Codrescu’s work for years! I can’t remember which anthology first pointed me to him, but it was before he began his NPR commentaries (you DO recognize that thick Transylvanian accent, don’t you??), and before he published his own landmark anthology American Poetry Since 1970: Up Late. I remember when my special orders for License to Carry a Gun and The History of the Growth of Heaven arrived at my undergrad bookstore; I remember how excited I was when Raised by Puppets Only to Be Killed by Research, Monsieur Teste, and Comrade Past and Mister Present all came out. The best place for you to start, however, might be to pick up a copy of his brand-spanking-new Jealous Witness: New Poems from Coffee House Press, which also contains the poem below, or, editorially, gander at his one-of-a-kind journal Exquisite Corpse  (I remember buying a lifetime subscription when it was still in its tall-and skinny paper format, when Andrei lived in Baltimore). Or his website (http://www.codrescu.com/livesite/). “Present at the Ceremony” first appeared in Coconut Nine. How happy I was when he agreed to contribute!

-- Bruce Covey


Present at the Ceremony

Art won
There wasn't even a contest
Now art is on tv every time you turn it on
You used to say that art is the great enemy
And now it's true
There was a time when that sounded like a joke
Made by an artist posed with a cigar between a neon sign for Bar
And a monk moon
Art is the greatest enemy another drink please
Then swaggering home under the monk moon weeping
The technology of the cosmos arrayed itself predictably overhead
As art advanced in the dark on the backs of stealthy products
Which entered the mouths of sleepers like serpents
In the morning everyone had strange appetites
They drove fantastic wombs to work and when they got there
Work was a game and everybody was ready to play
I have swallowed my reptiles early the police made me do it
Everybody else had to wait until the devices became user-friendly
And they put white smoke and sugar on the reptiles

-- Andrei Codrescu

Comments

[Jason Mashak]

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