René Ricard Dream
In the dream I had last night
I was crossing the road in London
(I think it was Mile End Road)
when I literally bumbed into René Ricard
He was carrying a load of notebooks
and other personal items. He pushed them
into my hands, saying, I think
you could use these. I walked on
carrying them and stepped into a pub
where I could sit down and read them.
I was well aware that what had just
happened was extraordinary since
I knew in the dream that he had died.
I was amazed I had been chosen
to receive these things since although
I had met René I did not “know” him.
Apparently the pub that I’d found
was one where he was a regular
because the people there recognized
that the stuff I had was his and they
asked about that. They didn’t show suspicion
but wonderment. The next thing I knew
I was at my friend Scott’s house
in Islington, still with René’s stuff,
telling Scott what had just happened
but he didn’t know who René was
and I had to explain it to him. On
walking, I began to wonder
whether René had ever actually
lived in London. Somehow I doubt it.
Postscript to René Ricard Dream
Sage Robert advises that my dream
could mislead – “if it implies that René
was a great poet, which he was not,
imo. He had rare talents
but they lay elsewhere.” To live
in strangers’ dreams is a talent indeed.
But is the René Ricard of my dream
René Ricard in person? Nothing
in dreams i entirely what we imagine.
This René Ricard of London looked
nothing like the one who walked
Manhattan’s streets. He more resembled
Gary Indiana. The High Priestess
of the Temple of Oshun says
mind my homework. But my René or Gary
gives permission to slough it off on you.
Gretchen’s Law
I thought it was death pro-
nouncing my name
a plot to extinguish my silence but no
just bad moods driving out the good
a specter haunting Brooklyn
yes, these are my own outages
collected workarounds
or an aliquot part
no, I didn’t write them
just a minute of deep breathing to reduce stress
brought them briefly into view
and yet the torments of beaut
make me happiest
were we made this way on purpose
so diaphanous and disagreeable
how can you just forget
this shiver in which time contracts?
Barry Schwabsky
Feelings of And
Black Square Editions: New York, 2022
