Rochelle Owens early poems


Poems by Rochelle Owens

  • NOT BE ESSENCE THAT CANNOT BE

  • Selections from I AM THE BABE OF JOSEPH STALIN'S DAUGHTER

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    NOT BE ESSENCE THAT CANNOT BE

    
    
                         Yields
                   (Which see)
                                 Azzas
                   See which
                   Picker-tool
                   Azzas
                   Wielding
                   A a growing
                   Iso-
                   Lation
    
    
    
                   TWO
                   That for
                   Spec-
                   Ial sperm
                   Prodigal horse
                   Spechez
                   Luminus
                   Which after
                   Die.    Nine (nin)
                   Twists made in
                   Voles   water-
                   Ing
                   Juicy.
    
    

    
    
         Original copyright page:
    
         Cover Design by Bernal Nicoya.
    
    
    
    
         (C) Copyright 1961 by Rochelle Owens
    
    
    
    
    
                                                         for George
    
    
    
    
    
         trobar books are published by george economou &
         robert kelly at 606 west 116th street, new york
    
    

    
         BELONGED INTO SHEEPSHANK
    
    
                        Hunger
            It is luck too.  Hullabaloo Vishnu
         Knowledge birds liturgic liverwort dynamite ne-not
                      Hideous Munt Jak
                         Barbarous.
                           Rosy.
                   Like emblem on the teeth. Two, the best 
         I pray thee, the nose leaking, the indians, the words 
                      And songs
                         Nimble feeted.
                      Enlightened
                    Be a cold
                      Thing.
            The same time. Tied to no place
         Belonged into Sheepshank punjabi delusion
                       Unreal with no
                              Thing.
                              Lived.
                     Which my Pope. Bent over 
         Made pregnant ordained bursted the good 
                      Fat foreskin
                   After entombment
                 And carpfishes.
                          Tonkin
            Mere not Simon Magus. He was emptied 
         Before the man and animal mentally again and again 
                      Between the hole of the mouth 
                         And ass hole.
                       The base salty.
                Some matter. I emit
         I hold value and attached butter-fat love 
                        Good selfishness 
                           Burnt clay.
                     Unclearly christian
                   For a hump.
    
    

    
              UP UP ON THE DISORDERS OF THE HAIRS
         
    
              The least be be oaklike colorless. Or. Or the 
              Sweat ducts hither hither Come. Up the nostrils 
              Tangled incredible. On this genus brass. Yellow. 
              Being touched hither hither hither hither flat-
              Footedness, focus on this genus brass. Yellow. 
              Yellowish in the fe-male. In the huckleberry.  
              By the dry withdraw-al.
         
              Get out out the booms, fingers and toes, in the
              Arctic friiz of vigor middle finger. That on
              The Yucca horse and ass, zinc and male or like
              Jove, joyey cheek through the air METHINKS be-
              Comes suckling pigs down down on the prickli-
              Ness. Up Up on the disorders of the hairs.
              Give an eating oil.
         
    
    

    
    
      CALLED ALSO THE INSTANT
    
    
         Become limulus sounded minuted Gradual the silent lumps
      Worst silent Become limulus Which one which one Which
               Other divi-ded Magni-ficent Made spiry
                      The Maker The kind Judas six of Jul-ius 
      Receiving O mimicry Zarin pith deigned deigned without 
           Worst The foretelling Joseph Smith four feet 
      In answerable Called also The instant Also the trembling 
                      Umbel Tyrr Manx cat And forefoot 
       Of And profanation Two Kings shown two spheres reached 
          Placed And After Her Of it Tallow Tasmania con-verted 
                          Who Who in the fetter That 
      Is far less Other things The count-ry shrubs and trees
    
    
    
    

    
    
    
         (BOM) ONLY CHECKERBERRY
    
         (Pukist)
              Behold!
                        (Winter)
                        (Winter)
         Ned.
         Dog.  Nigra.  Boodle
         Dulia.  Pungent.  Pelidna dum
         Dum.  Work
         Mediterranean
         Mediterranean
         Gloominess
         (Pagouros)
         Crasy Shakespeares
         Midsummer
         Jynx
         Past and wrong
         (Bom) only checkerberry
         Yields shits (cucumis)
                            (Winter)
                                 (Winter)
         Spicy red berries (winter)
                                   (winter)
         Wart hog joy.
         
    
    

    
    
         NOT BE ESSENCE THAT CANNOT BE
    
    
         ME Agonizes.  It it's Brown ME 
         Which treads, changes, Agonizes.  This 
             Desmodium Venturous.  Than the other 
                           (From a tick).  Infinite Not Be.  
         Not Be essence That cannot be escaped.  ME 
         It's brown carnivorous Burrowing Is the like 
         Beyond Beyond.  Illimitable.  Outrageous.  Known.
         Mediocre Mediocre.
    
    
    
    

    
    
              SAY OLD ENGLISH WISHE ME
    
    
                          th th 
                 twease my paws My voice her tits 
              was loafs of bread just dadabeeyah 
                 sap south-pole jipa savejoy 
                   three bladders say old english 
                          wishe me
                          sweet-loss
                   suck lent drool
                           infallible
                           meat broke
                 scab lip lips whistling
                       with the nose
                        beget rejib      horrible in th
                         th th
                   pencil wish me twitch
                 sea raven
                           just
                                dadabeeyah
    
    
    
    
    
    MA NIP (GO AWAY) my bullet ma be a good gel MA KISS FLAGRANTLY Ma nip (go away) slightly nebuLOUSEly miMICKing like a shadow (butcher) coMINGing on Shekinah carving the Slovaks man nananimal man nananimal Slaz the harvest fly's hard meat HARD 'nd harmless ma I'm natural (but) Ma nip (go away) slightly

    
    
              LOST TENDING TO ICCHEN YICCHEN
    
    
              He
              Heads
              Tiger Eye,
              Hawse hole,
              Name enclosed in
              Cob nut,
              Sir Henry in Habana
              Cuba.  Suckblood.
              The stems and stalks,
              Them human heat lighters
              Heart land.  Health Eaters.
    
              Make
              Of Georgians
              Holy piss of the
              Caucasus
              Formula . . Is Atomic
              Suborders
              In urine and india rubber,
              Affected in anger, Family gu-blow
              The same other number 2 shit
              In indigo and kindness
              We unnerve not offensive.
              
              Culture,
              Milk,
              Soil, serum,
              Vatican Councils,
              Three bones
              In organik
              Enos, penos, muscle
              By intimation
              Free mercy wholly
              Inmeshed, Loco and chiefly
              Lawful.
              
              Any genus
              Misty mastered.
              Go send Mishnayoth
              His wrong minus semi
              Parasitic American
              Pipefish,
              Sharp point charges,
              Money shevism pinchcock,
              Trees spurious flow fluids.
              Common likened (Hypopitys)
              Not significant and genuine.
              
              Fertilization
              Wife,
              Fenugreek,
              Sugarman with water inch
              Identical (poison ivy).  Jack
              It's fictitious
              Ithun Ithun.  Lost tending to
              Icchen Yicchen body of
              Eboris Myrna that object
              Of ginseng saturation,
              The fruit mulberry yellow-wood.
              
              An
              Jaloos
              No-Ah.  Like radical
              Kangaroo Hence time
              On the balls Jackass
              Neck feathers
              Reversed forming
              Bright blue and
              Naught ropes, wire
              2 minerals
              Jad Jad Devotees.
    
              Origin
              Of Zebedee.
              Myth.  Pal.  Serving the
              Shape mixture of Japonia, 
              (Native knuckle over the front
              Double fist)
              Obsequious young latex
              Scriptures,
              Udders,
              Midst
              Soldiers, Arms, (Mimosa).
              
              That ore
              Nor vegetable old,
              Mine mals sights, mass 
              Phases only old world 
              And the seeds remote.
              5 devine offspring ale-wife, 
              (Peace Esox Grinus) Holy place 
              Spoilt.
              Peely head developed
              Chirp buttercups poagrass
              Daringly bountiful.
              
    
    
    

    
    
              ZU ZU MIDDAY I'M NARCOTIC
              
    
              Endlong skirmish lump
              I am gallant, greek
              Nightingale, zu zu
              Midday I'm narcotic,
              Light, ball-flowered
              Fly, ku ku ven-emous
              Beyond wood luring
              Stick, polled, over
    
              My mucous, meaning
              Many me's hot-short
              Poor snakemouth I
              Sence eels sneering
              My forward voo doo
              To and fro, seven
              puffs, to and fro
              ME, white-colored
              
              YOU muck luck dope
              A evil drink, top
              Of a wapiti poyo,
              YOU goo me bloodshot
              YOU whacky fop, O Oph
              Elia you milk the
              Pocket-knife poko
              On holidays in the sun
    
    
              
    

    
    
            ME HOGGISH (HOD)
    
    
            Be -                      Me either uva
            Loved                     Of bean door-keeper
            Oligocene                 Depend ikik
            Dump                      Of axis
             O                         O
            Ducs ME hog               Nian
            Gish                      Ab hallowed
            (Hod)                     Conopodium
            Knuckling                 Hotch Potch
            To two untied             Tera
            Object balls              Or alight
            Psammos sand              On the water
            Guatemala                 Ab dead
               Siccus group           Yaymen
            Preside                   Heil wood
               (Siccus)               Marked fop
            At the bitter             Head fruit
            Tupi frondosa             Not lay by with
            Watermain                 Splashed
            Annu Is-sue               Splashed
            Target marquesas          7 stomachs
            Pig-Soil                  Cuckoo'd,
            Uzbek                     Sun drying.
            Rare UZBEG 
    
    
    
    

    
    
                I'LL STILL HAVE
    
    
                      be jeered at
                    spot brown
                   on me
                 & harass
                          i'm putrid
                       i'm lowest
                        (i suffer meanly)
                   of them with the symbol
                          alway
                     & my nose is inflamed
                                   roasted meat
                      lap the drippings      
                       (i should not)
               have the              brown
                            on me
                              O openly
                        nocuous
                  not ever kiss
                      & give up
                          buzzing away
                (speaking distinctly)
                   to the bare ear
                 (O my long tai1)
                               i'll still
               have       i'I1 have
                      Nizam
                & jaw & nose
                   my gut wall
               one foot Iong
                
    
    
    

    
    
                  DRIPPING THING FOUR LEGS
         
    
                  Till she's dead, cult-
                  Ivated (zool zool) lady's
                  Finger upon her, waiting
                  Forming sweet bacteria
                  Dripping Thing Four
                  Legs between Needed
                  Four legs Great Maria
           
                  Insanity.  And the alco-
                  Holic Not satiable high
                  Ner-vous hindiihideous
                  Cr-ime, exaggerated.
                  Woman.  In ripening no
                  Accomplishment Head with-
                  Out Urine Harsh absol-
                  
                  Ute.  Yupun cedar Crotch.
                  Of a human being Actively
                  Cool.  Risen piggishly Conk-
                  Ed Supported jeered, involv-
                  Ing knotgrass branches as
                  Come out two serpents kill-
                  Ing.  With pipes.  Pink and
                  
                  Stinking Forth.  Below.  Mam-
                  Mals Either lick of a group
                  Side of bad female propagated
                  With a war-m day of spring Afri-
                  Cans unfeeling-ly think of fo-
                  Od Meat dried hard.  Eat-en
                  By men and women Hook the shank.
                  
    
    

    
    
             AB BRANCHES OF TREES
    
    
                 Udo Udo sto-
             Ut, wilted
                     Vital snot
             (In the urine, eyelashes)
             (In the sack, big rnonoto-
                Nous snot, again)
             
                Unsegmented, we croak
               Wax cylinder to remember
             Us by Hebdomadal fuck you
                        Lame as a game dog 
             (In a woman's shape) 
             (Contains eternal tick fever 
                  Thuja.  Bear it)
             
                  Croak you ag-
               Ain seasons, ab bran-
             Ches of trees, noose
                         Fastened, unkempt
             Swinging (In a organism, gray white
             Goose-fit)
             
    
    

    
    
         HERA HERA HERA
    
    
               You Ye; The bee's jail, Puck workhouse 
         YOU YE zealous spongy devoting to 
                     Fucking logic, bath-ing in the
                                Stream, giggling.  Laying pros
                                      Titutes lowly, Mary Eddy
                            Lengthwise, Mahatma the beholder,
         Relieving trickiness above one leap year
         Eating cucumber.  Opposed to the crotch crotch
                                   Hucking honeybee
                                   Boiling the ruuts
                      The hognut lower down mewing 
                          Screwing, The giant ragweed, 
         And feeling the loneliness
                                    Staining
               Yellow green.
                              Crookneck with bark whorish 
                                                Europe bones divide 
                   Mad shame and kissing
                          Sweetmeats.  My lord very good
                               In the mind
                                   You Ye whose
                                       Crack open
         After after after sap drain, stealth, Hera Hera
                                       Hera
         
    
    

    
    
         O WAFERSH TASHTE GOOD
    
    
                            o 6) o glutinous 
                            o glot of glory 
                            do an earthquake 
                            o shockhead (50ft) 
                            piss backward b 
                            o special friend 
                            twice o chrissakes, 
                            b o natural man
         (again in confession o wafersh tashte good)
                            shlike new, sho pleashe! 
                            fixsh my marriagesh 
                            everyshling allright 
                            shknock shknock help! 
                            shling shling 
                            a brigadier shcould 
                            it, itsh sho bad 
                            o engineershz fixsh
         (fluk hurricane was bad weather shtoilet shlike)
                            it itsh shzown shthe 
                            MY FLUSH, stush 
                            hung mush (Mrs) agony 
                            cooed o bridesmad 
                            crosh a fem and o 
                            monthly maN is bad 
                            o thief o shush 
                            (Mrs) agony hung
         (an animal pick worthy pick jist in jail breath)
                            out skullcap breed
                            o agony cooed
                               (Mrs)
    
    
         
    

    
    
       BRUISE YOU NOT HONEYCOMB
    
    
                     By you I ting
               the thing make tree kang 
                   aroo,  for,  three 
                         muscle
                           in
       wheatworm, mary-josher, papIo reversionary.  Be eating
                             and sore big
                               son-sin
                               sin-son
                                  g
                                       day of a babylonia
                            bag in coptifity, bacteria caught everybody
                        to contrary me
                    Gas, bruise you bruise you 
               not honeycomb or mama not-Czech 
                      Oslop oslop 0 shove
                         with a pang in
       Kings and the queens baby wagging their three vomits
                          and spice wet
                             fin-gers
                              tut-oo-war
                                 f                     
                                  novaskoshia and eleven bones 
                            not a shrub sick and all likeable and naked 
                      contemplative with skrotums
                Billy-america sit on ground plum
          peeling a pleasant shit socking the fresh water
                      Oos Osoos soo
                          or suffering
       for the mango language matter of innocence around the trunk
                             of the tree
                               phaglagala
                                  merry-and-big
                                     h
       
    
    
    
    _________________________________________________________________________
    
    
    
    Not Be Essence That Cannot Be was Rochelle Owens' first book of poems. Long out of print, it is presented here complete.
    
    ________________________________________________________________________
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
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    Selections from I AM THE BABE OF JOSEPH STALIN'S DAUGHTER

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                       POME FOR THE TERRIBLE MOTHER
    
      
                            Ma nip (go away)
                        my bullet ma be a good gal
                            MA KISS FLAGRANTLY
                       Ma nip (go away) slightly 
                     nebuLOUSEly miMICKing 
                        like a shadow (butcher) 
                      coMINGing on Shekinah
                           carving the Slovaks man nananimal
                                   man nananimal 
                              Slaz the harvest fly's 
                        hard meat HARD 'nd harmless 
                          ma I'm natural (but)
                        Ma nip (go away) slightly
    
    
    
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                              RADIANT HEAT
    
                                     for George
    
                              when two
                              bodies meet
                              it's alright
                              radiant heat--
                              understanding
                              what it is
    
                              that exploding
                              sound when
                              two can see
                              each other--
    
                              and
    
                              the line of
                              sight is not
                              obscured
                              
                              the surface
                              sees--
    
                              like a black
                              body
    
                              a
                              perfect radiator
                              a hot
                              object
                              
                              thru dust smoke
                              radiant heat
                              flo between
                              them
    
    
    
    
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                    A SONG FOR THE PASSOVER
    
                                            For the Swedes and
                                             the Brooklynites
    
    
                      i was brought out
                      of egypt i came out
                      of egypt i was brought
                      out of egypt i came out
                      of egypt i went to rome,
                      mainz, flatbush, New York
       I CAME OUT OF EGYPT. i went to babylon i came out of egypt
                                   & in egypt i
                      remember my slavery & how
                      jewels from Susan's navel
       is seduction
       for your fingers
       & eyes/
       it is good
       enough for a child
       but not for a woman
       or man.                                 O Yahweh
                           the highest God, Creator 
                           of all, i have never worshipped 
                           the sun or the moon or believed 
                           that all gods had been men & 
                           i have thought Pallas Athena 
                           a true pig eater/ not Esther 
                           the highest star! O Yahweh 
                           I have hated & despised 
                           the criminal pantheon of 
                           American crackpot idolatry!
    
       0 Yahweh
       my disturbing moments
       have been many/ 
               when i wanted 
       to be called deliverer 
       they called me mule-dog 
       i was pious
                           & their blasphemy shocked me!
                           O Yahweh, i can be prepared 
                           to skid on bloody wet flesh 
                           of martyred Canaanite Jews 
                           to sing thy name! I have glutted
                           on & i am fed up with unholy 
                           pagan bullshit/ I want a brief
       glimpse of King David 
       caressing the little
       Shulamite's flanks. Thanks!
       O Yahweh, I do a jig for thee!
       O I do a jig for thee!
       I was brought out of egypt
       for I came out of egypt
                                /out of the desert ye
                            brought me with a mighty arm!
    
    
    
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                        NEVER IN THIS WORLD YOU WILL
                            DROP A YELLOW SPONGE
    
                                      I
    
                         there's a yel-; low sponge
                         in my hand
                                   wiping up the sp-
                         illed wine
                                   from the asian steppes. 
                         tomor-;row is the 20th of Sept-
                         ember
                              I have not got one suit of 
                         new clothes to wear when I meet 
                         you at the Algonquin/
                                              I wanted
                                   a grey
                                    silk
                                        shirt with tiny boxes
                               I know that you would've 
                                           snagged 
                                       your wic-;ked finger 
                                                   nayl 
                                     in it when I tou-;ched 
                                             your 
                                         heart hello.
                                 hel-;lo
    
    
    
                                      II
    
                            This is the skim the top
                                       for you, Sophia of
                   purple ventricle
                                   I've stopped winning
                              the duels
                                       with john wayne
                          or karl marx
                                      or he a dead cat
                                  in algeria
    
                         a person named anybody
                                 a fly
                                      with
                              its claw
                                      clutching
                                 a nylon laundry
                                       bag
                                      of
                                the best eastern
                                       weeds in
                         the world
                                     hello I dropped a
                               yellow sponge chock full o'wine
                                                   on
                                          your miraculous
                                                 little feet
    
    
                                      III
    
                                the girl that I marry
                                    will have to be
                                           a singer of
                                                       can-
                                                            ta-
                                                                ta mel
                                                    ody
                                                        she'll laugh 
                            when we kiss our toes cool in the 
                         wine plump yellow sponge
                                                 I will explain
                   the myths of male/female
                                            relationships
                                    when we dig down deep our hearts 
                           in yel-;low sponge.
                                               We will both have 
                                       drunk too much light chicken 
                                 broth & then have felt awk/ 
                                                            ward
                                                o awk/
                                             ward
                                                  as we stood/
                                      together/ so quiet
                                   like yellow sponge
    
    
    
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                      LESSON IN SONGMAKING, SONG OF KIM
    
    
                                       I
    
                               i live in Yorkville
                                    i love Kim Novak. she says
                     the things that touch
                 just right.   she & I should
                                             set up house-keeping 
                                        together.
                           At night we finger
                                             the keys
                                        a long time
                                                    before we go in
                                             & make love.
                              We both think the same & she enjoys me,
                                      my name, the way I look 
                                             in my raincoat.  
                                My trenchcoat.   When I turn my back 
               the back of my head says the Jews cause unemployment.
    
                                         Kim Novak 
                                     agrees that pastry 
                                         is so good 
                                   hot cup of tea & Slovak 
                                       bourbon to wash 
                                         the threats
                                             down.
    
                   Hail Mary Full Of Grace Why Hide Thy Tender
                                       Fragile Face!
    
    
    
                                      II
    
                                   I would go
                                      down
                                  on Hong Kong
                                              to swing my ass 
                                   near Kims.
                   I stand in an elevator my mother is sleeping
         & doesn't know that I'm going up
                                         to the 9th floor
                              to see Kim
                                         Novak.
                Everytime she sees me she says, 'over here, Paul'
                                I look at her & say
                                   you win, Kim.
                                                She makes little
                  sexy sounds & we promise to use our heads
                                   every second.
                                                Tonight we're going
                         to kill some guy named Harry & steal 
                                                     the
                                                         money.
                                           Kim says, 'the loot'
                               She wears the highest heels & is so
                                                              blonde
                                         I hope she doesn't
                                                 break
                                                       my
                                                          heart.
                                             Tonight I waited for her
                                                             so
                                                                long.
    
    
    
    
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                              THE POET IS MAGICK
    
                                         for George
    
    
                             The holy prophet Isaiah 
                               loves me & all the old 
                                  gods of Greece
                                                & Guevera would
             love me if he ever saw me
                                      Karl Marx grandson
                               of Reb the fat
                                             would've
                       wanted me to flirt
                                         with the butcher 
                                    for the best spleen 
                                             in the west!
         Ah, the grape boycotters want me
                                         on their posters
                              instead of bunches
                    of grapes!
                              Here I come 'round the comer
                                      & Al Fatah begs me
                          for a favor
                                     Might I be the most
                        beautiful
                                 guerrila
                                         that ever threw
                                                     a
                                                       grenade!
          But I bow & flash an Islamic prayer
                                             & skip away 
                                   for the love of Zion!  
                     I bust up overstuffed middle-class bookstores 
                        & switch their pictures of Fidel 
                for their true heart's desire--a big banana split!
                                 Black revolutionists demand
                      that I teach them
                                       the method of my swagger!
         I jump jump jump away
                              The asian continent screams 
                   whyfore does Rochelle jump so high!
                       Is it because of the Buddha
                                        who loves her?
    
    
    
    
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    From I Am The Babe Of Josepf Stalin's Daughter, Poems 1961 - 1971. published by Kulchur Foundation, New York.

    © 1972 by Rochelle Owens

    
    
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