G. P. Skratz
G. P. Skratz has performed permutations of SUNDAE MISSILE,
his "sound translation" of the Latin Catholic Mass, at a wide
variety of venues from the Bisbee Poetry Festival to the
Center for Contemporary Music at Mills to a one month
theatrical run at Berkeley's Kala Institute. He can be
reached at gpl@well.com.
THE PREFACE OF THE CANON
fairy diplomat just a mess, argument solid starry,
notify zephyr, etiquette glacial eyes aglimmer:
doom city soggy,
tottering impotence, o turkey deals:
quick cum booms the genitals very old tuna,
experiment songbook,
lunatic deals lunatic doom eclipse:
nonviolence sings of laryngitis beforehand,
sad old violence drinks the table upstanding.
beat denim detriment blurry eye,
river tease a tree, credit mouse,
hug the very old tuna, hug the sparrow tune sandwich,
sing of distant wrenches now this crunch upon us
see this much:
atom bomb fizzy soda very simple tune at the leaky tavern,
leaden bar sunrise o try to rise,
leaden event duel unisex,
leaden mama dada hotter water eat the albatross.
quaalude dance & jelly acne archer jelly,
cherry bomb crooked crack cellophane:
quinine sexist clone mirror quotation, universe dioxide:
___________
THE SANCTUS
sandwich, sandwich, sandwich,
dynamite days of savagery.
plenty of quality error
storybook toes.
o zany sin asbestos.
banner pick-ax key bandit anonymous domino.
o zany sin asbestos.
________________
THE PATER NOSTER
o ray mist!
please sip this solid terror buzz money tree,
& dive in an instant ocean ocean fermenting,
audacious misery:
pot of nozzles, key as in coitus:
sandals for cedar moment tumor:
convenient rectal tumor:
beat it full junta duel, sickness in jello yet in terror.
pond of nozzles quandary anthem to know the story,
ex-demented noble debutante nozzle,
sickness egg nog demented mouse terror bus nozzle.
egg nog in darkness in tents of the omen.
subliminal news tomorrow.
almond.
INGREDIENTS
Statement: After years of living surround by Linda
Lemon's works on/in/of dense gumbo of handmade paper--
traditional process, unprecedented artform--, I asked
her if she'd throw texts of mine into the mix:
evocations of the star ingredient of each piece. & so:
INGREDIENTS:
_____________________
Ribbon
on hither, on thither.
on hunchback of time.
what grieve for be done.
_____________________
Velvet
stuff it, cram it, velvet.
velvet factory, velvet roar.
_____________________
Celery
What tip this top.
O bottom, rise!
The eyes glow
but know nothing:
suburban Christmas.
_____________________
Grape
map-o-mars
arise from the grape
yr eyes
yr eyes
after jam, the skin
_____________________
These Flowers
bleed drops
of their shadows
that flow
into maps
of their roots,
grab my eyes,
swallow them
whole.
G.P. Skratz writes: Here are some collaborations I did with the late great
Darrell Gray (star student of Ted Berrigan & Anselm Hollo in the early 70s,
subsequently founder of Actualism & author of Scattered Brains, Haloes of
Debris, Essays & Dissolutions, etc). The idea of Darrell gracing the internet,
art venue he never knew, warms the old cold cockles.
___________________________________________________
COLLABORATIONS: 1975-1986:
DARRELL GRAY & G. P. SKRATZ
___________________________________________________
WARMING UP: A Sonnet
voice-planets collide into sentences.
there is a rescue squad at the end of every
noun, verb, atmosphere & kiss. the hands revolve,
loving the numbers as they fall
from the clock of the sonnet.
soon we'll wake up, see the bright
cuneiform unroll from the rose, a round
planet made of every dawn that didn't happen.
it flutters into our dreams like seismograph
tracks on the void, but when we enter
the intense arroyo of the sea-shell, the bell
that never rings, a meadow of sparks
fly loose, & the voice plummets down,
plummets down, & the voice plummets down.
___________________________________________________
THE EXTERIOR DISTANCE
A bacterium sneezing upon
film magnified a thousand times
shows a bacterium sneezing upon
a distance between trees.
That a bacterium may sneeze
is God's wish, & God's wish
a thousand times is what a
bacterium, magnified, may know.
I, on the other hand, wish
for more than vengeance, a pack
of cigarettes, perhaps, when I don't
have one, or a thousand
& one nights of opium, which I never
have had, but as
for bacteria: may we do each other
great good from great distances.
___________________________________________________
WE PAY AS WE GO
doorbells buzz,
& eviction notices appear.
mosquitoes go deaf
in the squalid brazilian sky.
reindeer slosh down snow.
the whole world crashes
into the horizon.
___________________________________________________
HIS WAY
coming from space,
he discovered
the refrigerator
to be grounded.
the tv looked like
an ice cube some god
had dropped,
a male ego,
when he wasn't looking.
the floors trembled a little,
as did the walls.
some clouds passed over
in their routine way--blue
at the top, a little yellow
at the bottom.
but as they crashed
through the roof, male egos
on parade, they flashed
bright crimson.
he was amused:
he had
a male ego.
it was always
in the way.
he was
from space.
___________________________________________________
THE GLASS
words fill
the tiny glass
if you look at it
closely
it is a very large
glass
made from liquid paper
& liquid paper brought as close
as Brezhnev to Sadat
caught in an elevator
during one of those
New York blackouts.
___________________________________________________
TV BRAINS
1.
The turn on
is sharp
& clear.
2.
The eye revolves.
The antenna revolves.
The hot dog revolves.
The revolution itself
revolves.
3.
The corner
of Treat
& Clap Streets.
That's as far
as it goes.
4.
Our regularly scheduled
world will return
in a moment.
5.
After the revolution,
Darrell Gray is
Comrade Santa Claus;
St Skratz the Doomed
is Pope Comrade I.
Volkswagens grow fins.
6.
Is this
the knob?
No, that's
the knob.
O, I see:
that
makes the difference.
7.
1610
TRS-80
JVC-4400
Panasonic 9500
9200
hike!
8.
Channel Zero,
the ultimate perfume.
9.
No time out.
No barriers
to speak of.
No speech
to bar.
Tops float
off heads.
Eyes glaze.
Donuts are made.
10.
God made TV.
He got his cock caught
in the component.
That hurt
like the Milky Way.
11.
Etching lines.
Video lines.
Pluto.
___________________________________________________
ACTUALISM
Actualism in The News.
& again the dread question:
"What is it? What is
Actualism?"
Eyewitnesses differ:
"a light, slender boat
with pointed ends,
propelled by paddles"
"a visible body of fine
water droplets or ice
particles in the earth's
atmosphere:
"to whatever place"
"a slap on the buttocks"
"praise for what
causes sleep"
"militant advocacy
of an obsession without object"
IT IS WE ON THE STAGE & YOU
IN THE AUDIENCE. IT IS YOU
ON THE STAGE & WE IN THE AUDIENCE.
IT IS THE CONSTANT
SITTING DOWN & GETTING UP OF IT ALL.
G. P. Skratz and
Darrell Gray