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ISBN 978-0-9754990-4-7 / $16

 

 

 

 

Stigmata Errata Etcetera
poetry by Bill Knott
artwork by Star Black
introduction by Mark Doty

The third in Saturnalia Books Poet/Artist Collaboration Series

$16


"Excellent new poems by prolific surrealist, grouchy comic, underground hero and oddball formal virtuoso Bill Knott ("One of my pores creaks/ when I pass through it/.../ soon for the last time") join haunting, humorous collages by poet and artist Star Black..."
—Publisher's Weekly

"Still pure, his new poems are ice—refined, crystalline and sharp."
—Brooklyn Rail

"...Knott is one of the best poets writing in English... The poems here form thoughtful patterns."

—John Cotter, Open Letters Monthly

"This book is not to be read—it’s to be experienced."

—Rigoberto Gonzalez, harriet: a blog from the poetry foundation

 

POEM

when the balloon bursts
where does all the air
that was inside go
is it bound together briefly
by the moisture
of the human mouth
that birthed it
poor pouch of breath
long expulsion of nothing you
must dissipate too
nor remain intact
no matter how pantingly
against the outer atmosphere
you might try to secure your
whoosh-hold
and what an effort
what heave and heft-work
what strain of frame what rib-rift
to have to lift to shift around
all that oof and uff
why strive and huff just
to stave off death
to survive
to be a substance a stuff
to live live as a pocket
a cluster
a cloud
to maintain your interior
mode
I can understand
that having once been
contained in bouyance
you'd want to retain
that rare coherence
you'd pray to stay a one
to remain a unity an
entity a whole in
this unencased heaven
but smatter of ghost
how can you persist
or save yourself
when all us others disperse
dissolve in draft
little whistlestuff
pathetic kisspuff
flimsiest flak

up into the sky goes
two lungs worth
of earth
unstrung
unloosed
the exhaled
soul of a boy a girl
alloonaloft
aloftalloon
lost

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Last Update: November 29, 2007