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"Shakespearean fish swam the sea, far away from land; Romantic fish swam in nets coming to the hand; What are all those fish that lie gasping on the strand?" -- W.B.Yeats
Art News
You're always hearing people talking about Salvador Dali and you know Man Ray and a lot of the other Surrealists said the large artistic woman with the wrought-brass and agate jewelry as she checked her chignon but you almost never hear them even mention Dada who was only just of course the one man responsible for starting the whole thing.© Carl Selph, 1999After Reading Claudia Roth Pierpoint on Marina Tsvetaeva
There is plenty food, they say, and time enough when we have eaten it all. But who can take any more rice and pearl barley and different kinds of meal? A strong nail is already hammered in, high on the wall.© Carl Selph, 1999After Dinner, Saint-Tropez
Une femme d'un certain âge her pale gold head inclined toward me, speaks of the plage where man- and woman- kind in search of the benign delights of sun and air both gambol and recline stripped altogether bare. She twirls her brandy glass and laughs at what she's told -- the unembarassed, crass behavior of the old and young, the simple talk, handshakes, the noisy child she noticed on her walk -- opposites reconciled. She offers me a drink. We strike an attitude. We both are glad to think the brain does not go nude.© Carl Selph, 1991 First published in the San Miguel WriterHibiscus Tea
"Addresses are given to us to conceal our whereabouts." --Saki On clement days the sisters take their tea Under the yellow-plumed mimosa tree, A custom they've enjoyed returning to Now they've attractively arranged a few Mementos of their trip to Kathmandu. With pity they indulge the souls that fail, That have not heard--nor missed--the nightingale. Both sisters wear the avid, untried face Justly awarded to their sanguine race. Those who would burgeon spurn the commonplace. This day Miss Caro to Miss Elinor: "Hibiscus. Perfect. I'll have one drop more." Her sister pours. "About that Vizsla pup-- Mother's teapot is cracked! Not half a cup! The cruise.... This cloth is soaked! Spain's coming up."© Carl Selph, 1999Just off the Ring Road
Hell's suburbs aren't so bad. No one has chilblains or serious burns. The weather's always Fort Lauderdale in April. All the post-modern ranch houses front onto the golf course, where you play eighteen holes every day in eighteen strokes. Your next-door neighbors are Barbie and Ken on both sides. Every morning at nine-thirty Barbie comes over for coffee and to tell you and Midge, your permanent wife, this like crazy story about when she was a flight-attendant and this dumb woman couldn't get out of the restroom. After your daily four-hour nap you always catch the six o'clock news, and the anchorman, Ken, looks right into your eyes and says, "Sit back. Relax. There's no news again tonight."© Carl Selph, 1999
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Carl Selph Poetry Index Original Writing Page Images from Myst © 1993 Cyan, Inc. and Riven © 1997 Cyan, Inc. All rights reserved. Myst® and Riven® are registered trademarks of Cyan, Inc. Used by permission.