Bill Zavatsky. Photo by Nora Howard
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104 Bus Uptown
How bad can it be,
dear wacky New York City,
when the first twelve lines
of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
blink down at me
from a poster on this bus
brought to us
courtesy of the MTA
and the Poetry Society of America
(of which, incredibly, I am a member!)
and, to its right, above the rear door,
another poster: Charles Reznikoff’s little poem
about how “the lights go out—”
in the subway
“but are on again in a moment,”
a poem I will be teaching to my students
in a few weeks’ time.
And perched in the center back seat
(she got on at Seventh Avenue and 42nd Street),
sitting all alone, as if on a little stage
lit by the bus-window daylight of midtown New York,
the beautiful actress Beverly D’Angelo
whom I can’t bring myself to ask
if she is Beverly D’Angelo, except that I
recognize the perfection of her charming overbite
as she chews gum like mad over wild blue eyes agog,
behaving as if she’s never sat on a bus before
or as if she expects a passenger to leap up
at any moment and cry, “Action!,”
with the cameras rolling like the eyes in my head
as I turn now and again to look at her
in her white jacket and skirt that don’t
quite match, a silk turquoise blouse
that color-keys her enormous eyes
(which just got off with the rest of her
at 57th and Eighth), and I’m lucky
enough to have been handed this
piece of paper twenty minutes ago
by someone on the street who must be
a secret agent for poetry, though it seems
to be merely an advertisement flyer
for 45th Street Photo, on the back of which
I’ve just written this poem
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Bill Zavatsky has published two full-length books of his own poetry, most recently Where X Marks the Spot (Hanging Loose Press), three chapbooks, and two books of co-translation (Earthlight: Poems by André Breton, with Zack Rogow; and The Poems of A. O. Barnabooth by Valery Larbaud, with Ron Padgett). His poems have appeared on CDs by Bill Evans and Marc Copland. He has been teaching since time immemorial, most recently a poetry workshop via Morningside Poets in Manhattan. [For more information on, and poems by, Bill Zavatsky, check this link.]
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Hello bill!! Great to hear your voice again. We met at one of the poetry foundation extravaganzas in nyc many years ago. Later we had a 4-hour lunch in nyc and you also gave a terrific reading in Baltimore hosted by my publishing company. Long time no see, as the lamentably racist saying goes. Thanks bill! Thanks terry!—cl
Posted by: Clarinda harriss | October 03, 2021 at 11:42 AM
this poem is as charmingly delightful and vibrant as the author of it is...bravo bill!
Posted by: lally | October 03, 2021 at 11:58 AM
Thanks back to you, Clarinda.
Posted by: Terence Winch | October 03, 2021 at 12:09 PM
Hi Bill! I love your work and especially this poem. We met a few years ago after a book party at Poet's House when we all went to some Italian restaurant in the West Village. You told me some very funny jokes. Did I mention that I love this poem?
Posted by: Susan Campbell | October 03, 2021 at 12:52 PM
I would like to congratulate the editor of this space for his keen eye on the D'Angelo's of our dreams, the poet Bill Zavatsky who found her on the 104 bus, to New York where poets have their poems given to them on buses, on the metro...a wonderful place and this a wonderful poem. One day Bill I would like to share my long lost poem "For The Love of Buses". That one also took place near the 104...a grand bus line. Happy to know it is spinning out movie stars as it must. New York, New York. Cheers Indran
Posted by: Indran Amirthanayagam | October 03, 2021 at 02:07 PM
I love this, Bill. And I do so love poetry that just nails New York, and yours does. Perhaps one time before too long we will be on the same coast. Deborah
Posted by: Deborah Taylor | October 03, 2021 at 02:42 PM
I love this poem and love to love NYC. Thanks to Bill and Terence.
Posted by: Beth Joselow | October 03, 2021 at 03:24 PM
Beth: thanks for the comment.
Posted by: Terence Winch | October 03, 2021 at 03:39 PM
Wow!!!! Bill—-Mosel Tov! I too love this poem since the time you read it to us at The Morningside Poetry Workshop. I’m so grateful to have attended since the first class in May 2013. You are an inspiration and mentor. Thank you for the picture of Beverly D’Angelo—now I too recognize her and will keep my eyes peeled next time I’m on the M104.
Joanne Gates Fioregmail
Posted by: Joanne Gates Fiore | October 03, 2021 at 04:07 PM
A speaker with eyes wide open that stay open and focus on a steady line a shaped flood of things, wry and urgent--how does he view all this and keep putting it on the page what a memory! I remember Bill's name I think in connection with a Bill Knott book or another remarkable one and what joy to read something of his for the first time.
Posted by: Don Berger | October 03, 2021 at 05:34 PM
the noticer, the poet, who knows what to see and then says it
Posted by: Grace Cavalieri | October 03, 2021 at 05:47 PM
This poem has all the freshness and vividness of having been written while the author was still on the bus. If he wasn't, it's all the more amazing.
Posted by: Peter Kearney | October 03, 2021 at 08:17 PM
Terrific poem, Bill.
Posted by: David Lehman | October 03, 2021 at 09:30 PM
Wonderful poem. I felt like I was on the bus with him. 💕
Posted by: Eileen | October 03, 2021 at 09:49 PM
O-o-o La La! Great documentation of a New York experience, Bill! Oh how you wrapped it up! Congratulations on your recognition...The Pick of the Week!
Posted by: M. Phyllis | October 04, 2021 at 12:51 AM
Great poem full of love for humanity.
Posted by: Chris Mason | October 04, 2021 at 09:22 AM
Another wonderful poem from this amazing poet, editor, teacher, jazz pianist and storyteller
Posted by: Janey | October 04, 2021 at 09:43 AM
What a wonderful poem! I am sorry to admit I haven't read any of Bill's poems for a long time, though I have 3 "slim volumes" on my shelves, one of which Bill signed when we met in New York in 2006, and I see now it's the one from which this wonderful poem comes. I've neglected these books for way too long! I've just hauled them down and will be dipping in . . .
Posted by: Martin Stannard | October 04, 2021 at 09:58 AM
Thanks, everybody, for your kind responses to this poem. Thank you again, Terry, for picking it, and to you, David, for making it all happen. Cheers, Bill Z.
Posted by: Bill Zavatsky | October 04, 2021 at 10:45 AM
Great poem!
Posted by: Wanda Phipps | October 04, 2021 at 12:17 PM
Hey Bill! Fabulous NY lyric. Love the way your line travels and gives one the motion of being on the bus with you.
Posted by: Maureen Owen | October 04, 2021 at 01:37 PM
WONDERFUL POEM ,
Posted by: Florence Kindel | October 06, 2021 at 09:36 AM
Thanks, Bill.
Love this poem.
Eamonn Wall
Posted by: Eamonn Wall | October 06, 2021 at 02:58 PM
How is it possible that I've not encountered this POET before??? I fervently hope he's willing to contribute something to my magazine, Glimpse. There's a Web site, Bill:
www.glimpsepoetrymagazine.com
Posted by: George J. Searles | October 06, 2021 at 10:49 PM
Wonderful to see you and Beverly here, Bill, "with the cameras rolling like the eyes in my head"! Thank you, Terence.
Posted by: Alan Bernheimer | October 09, 2021 at 02:49 PM