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FACING
MIRRORS
by
Robert Fossum & Sy Kahn
Twowindows
Press
Berkeley, 1980
A
book of poems printed letterpress
with Baskerville & Hadriano types
on Mohawk Superfine neutral ph paper
and Smyth sewn in wrappers.
From the 1980 Afterward:
"Robert Fossum and Sy Kahn are both in their mid-fifties and
have been friends for a quarter century. Colleagues in the English
Department at Beloit College during the 1950's, they both currently
teach in California, Fossum at Claremont Men's College and Kahn
at University of the Pacific. They have both held Fulbright professorships
in American literature at the University of Vienna. It seems fitting
that they have now collaborated on a book of poems.
Although not by calculated design, their parallel careers and experiences
have inevitably led them to treat similar subjects in their poems.
Yet each man brings his own voice, his own perspective and attitudes,
his own mode of poetic expression to these subjects."
The
sample poem from this book, shown below,
may not be reproduced without permission.
© Sy Kahn.
| SONG
OF THE BEAR
by Sy Kahn
When
hibernation is in season,
I m in or out of reason.
When other bears for honey roam,
I have nightmares at high noon.
Most bears follow destined cycles
From cubhood to their mating ground,
Prowl in spring, bask in summer,
Over hulk of shoulder notice autumn,
Seek a cave in which to smolder
Thru their winter daze.
My clock runs counter,
Out of time and out of season.
I seem to live by different reason,
Not by berry, not by snow
But only what I seem to know,
Signals from interior weather.
To all bears who have not been caught
And live according to their seasons,
Rimed and reasoned with their time.
I send them friendly greeting.
They are naturally sublime.
And my regrets I also send
To bears on bikes in circus tents,
To bears who pace within their cages,
To bears who dance for meager wages
And roar, on cue, in histrionic rages.
I am a bear to bare for thorns,
Must have honey, must have air
When bears sleep fat within their lair.
I may be shot quite out of season.
Lair makes no liar of me,
Liar no lair.
I am not
I am not
I am not your ordinary bear.
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FURTHER
REFLECTIONS
by
Robert Fossum & Sy Kahn
Paradigm Press
Providence,
2005
This edition was designed
by the Carlotta Institute
and printed in 11 point Garamond
in Providence, R.I. in a run of 400 copies.
From
the 2005 Foreward:
"Twenty-five years ago Robert Fossum and Sy Kahn published
a book of their poems under the title Facing Mirrors. The
book, in iteself, was a testimony to an abiding friendship that
began in 1955, when they both taught at Beloit College, and prevails
to this day, fifty years later.
As
did the earlier book, this collection suggest in its title that
our lives have been lived in parallels, too often to be merely coincidental.
Nevertheless, these latter poems report and speculate on individual
and often parallel experiences which indeed bind our friendship.
It seems natural to us to present our poems together -- quite likely
for the final time, and that these poems would reveal the autumn
colors of our lives and experiences."
The
sample poem from this book, shown below,
may not be reproduced without permission.
© Sy Kahn.
| The
Big Boo-Hoo:
Night Song on a Cold Corner
by Sy Kahn
Oh
my mother and my father,
My sister and my brother,
My
grandpa and my grandma too.
And I am here, and they are there,
Gone underground or up the flue.
And I am left with the big boo-hoo,
I'm left with the big boo-hoo.
From
out of the air they came to despair
To live, laugh and love, my dears.
But time warped their journey
That ended on a gurney
To the tune of the big boo-hoo,
The tune of the big boo-hoo.
No
longer here, they are there,
And I stand here alone, boo-hoo.
And who shall say if there
Is
here, or here is there
In the circle of grand despair,
The circle of grand despair.
Oh
they danced their dance
Up and down the stair,
'Til they tripped and fell, boo-hoo.
I stood at the bottom
But I could not catch them!
They fell flat and still, boo-hoo,
Flat and still, boo-hoo.
So
it's good-bye mother, and good-bye sister,
And father and brother too,
And it's good-bye aunties and also great uncle,
And grandma and grandpa too.
But on the stage of my mind,
They pass in a grand review, boo-hoo,
They pass in a grand review.
Because
they were here, so I am here,
For better or worse, boo-hoo.
But there, my dears, may be nowhere
Except the theatre of the mind, boo-hoo,
Where
they play out their roles, boo-hoo, boo-hoo,
Their roles play out, boo-hoo.
Now
I'm ex-son, and ex-brother,
Ex-grandson and ex-nephew too,
And I am here, and they are there,
And I'm left with the big boo-hoo,
I'm left with the big boo-hoo. |
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C
0 N T E N T S:
by
Sy Kahn
Fish
In a Tall Wind
Generous Fall
Adrift
Ceremony
A Little Simple Music, Please
The Woman in the Bottle
The Accident
Lament
Modern Abstract
Bed-Check Charlie
In the Writing Room of the American Colony Hotel, Jerusalem
Compute Me Not
Song of the Bear
From a Cool Shade
Abortions
Psychedelic Ain't Idylic
Tranxene and Valium Be Damned
Confessions
Passing by in Silence
Worshipping Agape
Earth Song
by Robert Fossum
The
Days of Division
Genesis
Laguna Shore
Old Movie Quiz
Midwestern Boys
HomeComings and Goings
Florence
When She Was Small
Son and Lover
Daughter
St. James's Park
Crisis
Dachau
Leonhardstrasse
The Van Gogh Museum
Christmas in Hamburg
Lost Generation Gap
Lament for Obsolescent Sinners
Professor Cranston
Coronary Case
Revival Meeting
Morning Glory |
C
0 N T E N T S:
LAMENTS
In Defense of Stillness
Visiting Hours
While Reading Obituaries
Responses
Apples Descending
The Big Boo Hoo: Night Song on a Cold Corner
STREET
SCENES
The Men on Mortimer Street, London: February 1982
The Crows of Vienna
European Cemetery
Sabbatical
Un-Aided
Old Union Wharf, Port Townsend: 1995
Interstate 5, South
From a Patio on Cliff Drive
FAMILY
MATTERS
Grandson
Requiem for my Grandfather
Carnival, 1937
REVERBERATIONS
Recollections of War
I. Consequences
II. Guard Duty, Cape Gloucester, New Britain, 1944
III. The Burning Man
As Breezes Move
On the Boardwalk
BOYHOOD/YOUTH
Wisconsin Seasons
The Arc
Friday Afternoons
The Contract
SHORT
TAKES
The Fall
Behind Green Shades
Point of Views
SHARED
LIVES
Giraffes
Metaphor
Mission
Mouse?
Nemo
In the Zoo
Two Butterflies
Elegy for a Neighbor's Cat
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