Table of Contents
Acknowledgments • Preface, Laura Vrana • Introduction, Aldon Lynn Nielsen • Poems 1963-2005 • EARLY CRIMES 1963-1966 • "The way Egyptians used to sit" • The Unnatural Life • One Never Knows, Do One • Negritude • Domestic Horror
Toil • Embarkation for Cythera • The Blond Sinner • Economics • How Can I Prove I Am Not Modigliani • Great Love Duets • Engagement • The Convention • Song • DRACULA • Dracula • THE BATHERS • Onion Bucket • Twelve Gates • Other Worlds • I Just Want To Reach Out And Bite You Baby • The Bathers • The Lion Is The Lamb • Anubis • FIT MUSIC • Fit Music: California Songs, 1970 • SLUM DAYS AFTER THE WAR • Wonders • Enlightenment • Survivors • Heavenly Bodies • Faith • The Heroin Of My Youth • Grandpa's Spells • Historiography • [Liner Notes] • Bother Me • Sea of Chance (A Sailor Song) • Sugar Hill • Fly Society • To Speak of Woe That Is In Marrakesh • Better Physics • While Madness Reigns • Serpent Guerillas • Work Song • Framing The Sunrise • Fātiha • EUPHEMYSTICISM • A Song For The Banana Tree Sleeping In My Yard • Cosmic Communion • Blues Cadet • Paul Laurence Dunbar Views The Sword Of Toussaint L'Ouverture, Chicago Exposition 1893 • Euphemysticism • Suicide Administration • Ancient Habits Or Customs • Mouthology • Hurricane Doris • Evry Mae • Sprucing Spring Up On Larkin Street • Another Poem In English • JAMBALAYA • Rhumba Negro • False Alarm • R&B • The Architecture of Devotion • Saint • Witches • High Hell Jesus • Collective Poems • Spiritual • House of Red Lights • Sounds of Joy • They'll Be Back • Le Zodico Ne Pas Seul • Jubilee • SOUND SCIENCE • A Native Guide • Pyramids • The New Borning • More Than Nothing • The Persuader • A Judge • Duds • My Calling • The Offering • Speak Low • Low Speech • Electricity On Earth • Arc In The Dark • Magnetism • The Universe • There's A Lot Of Wisdom Here • One More Chance • What I Would Prefer • We Are Beautiful African People • Protection • Look What You Done For Me • Possession • Obedience • Oil of Gladness • CHANCES ARE FEW • My Office • Inauguration • The Fine Clothes Of Year Before Last • Farting As Decency • Sugar Hill • Security • Personal Anthropology • Broadway-Lafayette • Espadrille • Euchre Bridge • Wheeling • Too Loud For Names • The Rule Of Thumb • The Leopard • They Never Lose • Too Much One Thing, Not Enough Somewhat Else • Choosing Metals • Guilt • Canzone • Sketches of Susan • Electricity Of Blossoms • Hiccups after Leon Damas • Instructions For Your New Osiris • Shake Hands With Your Bets, Friend • The Marvelous Land Of Indefinitions • When Dukardo Boarded The Astro-Jet, He Already Done Seen The Movie • Home XXI • MMDCCXIII 2 • An Excerpt From Big House Movies • Screen Test • Class Action • Hat Red • Clear Channel • Salt • Discovering America Again • Happy New Year • Summer Stock • Art For Nothing • Things Could Be Worse • The Gods' Own Privilege • Souvenir Of The Manassah Ball • Liquid City • DANCING ON MAIN STREET • Mister Anderson • The Kite And The Hawk • South St. Blues • Please, Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood • When If The Big Bands Come Back • Guerilla Girls • Displacement • Sentiment • Suburban Saturdays • Mourning Raga • The Audie Murphy Game • Destruction Of The Seated Man • Last Call • Excitation • Skunk Insulation • Grudge Match • Lifelong Learning • Otis • Spirits You All • Journey Of 1,000 Li • Tirade • Poem In Lieu Of The Marriage Of Andrew Zolem • The Sadness Of Space Exploration • Quiet Riot • Dumb Luck • The New South • Lights Out • No, Don't Get Up • The Failure Of Alchemy • Working-Class Hero • The Gambler • Knight To Queen's Pawn • An Old Hand • Pornography = Exploitation Of Men • Now You Can Worry • L'Argent • Thinking In Words • Like A Tree • Sightseeing In East Texas • Psalm • Back In The Day • Whale Song • Songs Without Shadows • The Marks Are Waiting • Dirge For Amadou Diallo • An Afternoon With Dr. Blumenbach • Dangerous Doubts • Lustre • Cameo In Sudden Light • Country Song • Multicultural • Low Rider • An Even-Tempered Girl Holds Her Breath • She Lived To Be 100 • A Kind Of Accounting • Cute Girl With A Toy Monkey • Flash Point • God Sends Love Disguised As Ordinary People • Magnetic Charms • Equinox • Back-Ordered Tears • ADDITIONAL POEMS • The Black Canaries Weep Over Gomorrha • South Afrika • A Tale of Two Cities • Grass • West • Political Science • Enuresis • Gilbert and Sullivan • The Conscience of Cole Porter • The Pornography • Linear Variation • Nichomachean Ethics • Chorus from an Unwritten Greek Play • The Color Section • The Judgment of Paris • The Fall of Paris • Robert Williams, Exiled in Cuba • Sonnet • Life on the Farm • Project Blues • Secrets of the Samba • Modern Plumbing Illustrated • The Subway Witnesses • Two One-Act Plays • Selena • From The Working Days • The Midnight Sun • Good Housekeeping • Five Empty Reams • Millenarian Joys Walking Vicksburg Blues • A Mingus Memory • Hollandaise Salsa • Diplomacy • Go to Bed Anyway • Nowhere Near Albuquerque • An Education • Downtown Boom • Ailerons&Elevators • An Arc Still Open • STATEMENTS • Statement for Jambalaya, 1975 • Statement for None of the Above, 1976 • Introduction to Chances Are Few, second edition, 2003
