TEN by John Jack Jackie (Edward) Cooper
Poets Wear Prada ď‚ Hoboken, New Jersey
TEN First North American Publication 2012 Copyright Š 2012 John Edward Cooper All rights reserved. Except for use in any review or for educational purposes, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any informational or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher:
Poets Wear Prada, 533 Bloomfield Street, Second Floor Hoboken, New Jersey 07030 http://pwpbooks.blogspot.com/ Printed in the U.S.A.
for Joan
Noli Me Tangere
I touch unreality with words.
Noilly Me Tanqueray
I touch unreality with gin—plus vermouth.
Housekeeping
Dust—the sensuality of neglect.
Botanica
Garbage has valor: it’s a kind of flora, aesthetics both state of mind and I don’t mind.
Caveat Redemptor
You get what you cannot pay for.
Guano
Truth— a gull
visible only far from the sea.
On the Fly
Sketch joy—attempt to seize it, take some home in a jar. What can, remains. Memory will provide its seal, you supply the holes.
You Say You Want an Evolution
Dost man make widow, all— or, rather, monkey, uncle?
Horatio
Less fraction, more whole.
Oil and Vinegar I was beginning to think my salad days were through.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR JACK COOPER has read for Farrar, Straus and Giroux, served as research associate for the Modern Language Association, was an ESL teacher for the ELESAIR Project, and is now Production Editor at Poets Wear Prada. His American English translation of poems by Jean-Pierre Lemesle, Wax Women, with photos by Henry Jacobs, was published November 1985 by International Art Office, Paris.
TEN by John Jack Jackie (Edward) Cooper
Poets Wear Prada ď‚ Hoboken, New Jersey