Flamenco Blues / Statement of poetics (two poems by Icarus Jonson)

FLAMENCO BLUES

Check the jails and the morgues
for my soul

¡Ay, madre!  

Check the bars
bars and hospitals
for it

¡Niña de mi corazón!

Check my usual places
haunts and homes
for my body

¡Ay, madre,
niña de mi corazón!  


***


STATEMENT OF POETICS FOR A NEVER-PUBLISHED ANTHOLOGY

There are few things on earth--softer

than--a hard-boiled egg--

if you think about it--

my heart--too--is soft--

underneath this hard shell--

my impregnable--poems.

Given Name

I had to fight for my name

though I was given it

[with little right: Pa warn't no Daedalus

though handy with the jigsaw and the chainsaw

{¡Bulging Muscles! though saw the wild look to my eyes

and shirked away (then I knew I was crazier than Jesus






Icarus Jonson founded the hard-boiled school of American poetry sometime in the late 40s. He is known for his unconventional and expressive punctuation and unsentimental view of life, as well as his feuds with Jack Cashberg and Valance Fullerton. Biographical details are sketchy.