https://www.albany.edu/offcourse
http://offcourse.org
ISSN 1556-4975
Published by Ricardo and Isabel Nirenberg since 1998
Poems by Michael Fisher.
The character Ψ [psi] can best be described as follows:
The letter psi is commonly used in physics for representing a wavefunction in quantum mechanics, particularly with the Schrödinger equation and braket notation. It is also used to represent the (generalized) positional states of a qubit in a quantum computer.
Reason
I know
this world
is a drop of dew pepsi
but Ψ but Ψ
how's a beer commercial a poem?
(black tie and black spats
muscloid juggernaut)
everyday
children go to church
read from Leviticus
and never learn
about cancer
air
delivers faith to their mouths
they exhale cantos
it's all a bell jar
with fissures Ψ passes through
I get confused
by simple questions
daydream, write friends letters
at least in my head
No, they never get sent...
I taste bitter smoke
feel air molecules and entropy
in faces
stories kept secured
behind thick flesh [no stanza break]
I think it's time to let Ψ in
Prosody
“Prosody” uses images from “Eric Weissteins's World of Science”
cut
tiny
words
first
look
for letters
some
boil ridden
(those will fester)
feel
for warmth
often found at endings
beware if it smells almondy
if there is no heat move on
there's always another poem
like a genderless
figure in a rear view mirror
(consider: FIRE! vs fire
the prosody of the first [f] & [r] blister
but the second a whisper
vowels that save us from cold)
but if a word warms hands, smash her, grind the bastard's head to paste
before she wraps her arms around you
an embrace to move you to sing an honest song
or let the word's malnourished voice carry nothing the end is zero
Parenthood
Ψ wants purpose, fabricates purpose, creates purpose, wants not purpose-
less, a scythe, a scythe to mow the lawn, a purpose, blades
too long, blades made short
And
I'm a soft shell
but in time
will roast like corn
what has been lost, what has been weighed, what the lost and the weighed
& what is gained & what is lost and what is weighed and gained
and lost & what is the what
But
Ψ does origami
to stop his thoughts
he lights the bare bulb lamp
folds create shade golems
shadows which move on their own to New York
to swagger pass parks, puke poetry and warm beer
they live happy in closed boxes like schrodinger's cat
bless to be alive and dead
(to know both secrets)
until Ψ lifts the lid to find if he has bad news
Cigarette Burns
part I
a film whispers to Ψ
in dark nondescript clicks
but still
mechanical―polyphonic
frames camera's pans stumbling
to tell Ψ a story but still
a lead character out of focus
represents out-of-focus-living
packaged morals and lessons
but still
off camera a voice calls
“steve” “steven”
pathos charismatic
each actor a mark
of true sincerity
but still
part II
Ψ don't know much about cinematography yet moved
ends his evening in tears but still
he though he made friends to join for drinks
while right angles―corners of earth
but still
without character
celluloid lovers
he hears dear death haikus over an empty parking lot
halogens overhead
pinpoint isolation
but still
candy wrappers & ice
drenched by cola
disappear in storm drains
musically
might he join them
An Explanation of Ψ
I confess this Libretto is:
a wound I licked dream of violins
fluke of static an unpublished manifesto a cabbie read me
misfired synapse missing potholes among rants against government
a face I mistook for someone else feedback, both musical & ethereal
an alarm clock that never went off sounds of an old metal fan
conversation in a foreign language a lingering thought for your hometown
a building and all the people that lived there, the over growth dead, weeds to remind
bills I forgot to pay novels read backwards
a doctor's appointment I skipped fallen power lines
a friend I don't talk to cramps late at night
a two dollar bill I didn't know I lost scattered white streaks of a dried marker
an accident that never happens a shore house in Gloucester, MA
a song I'll never hear again pealed red paint has the answer
blue balloon floating to invisible a colony of fruit flies
ash from a fire years ago blood from someone suffering
a phone number of no one I know on scrap paper traveling by wind across the city
seven digits circled with a heart secret pledge to yourself
a puddle that dried up skin before the bruise spreads
a faint circle on the sidewalk and the skin after it heals
wine down the drain foo-fighter in peripheral
a bride's maid at Dooley's Cleaners, corner of Richmond and Elm, she was in red
I never saw her face a composition created from books in land fills
glossolalia in margins morals eroded in plastic
another message to stop poor eyesight
footnote praise bass clarinet stepping over music
child's footsteps a viral video no one sees
the strange sounds of a pan flute I hear every summer around midnight, is there anyone
spoiled milk the genius of a man who can't write
a lecture by a dead professor a line of poetry I can't remember
the smear of finger prints no pen, nor paper, nor recollection
on a glass against the setting sun
and the slant light from stain glass church windows
Ψ take out the wrinkled photo behind your credit card
yellow smudged by fingerprints―a black eddy memory
you won't throw away
make a pack with no one
to use your real name
Author Bio: