Week #8--Improv

From John Berryman's "The Dream Songs"

1

Huffy Henry hid     the day,

unappeasable Henry sulked.

I see his point,—a trying to put things over.

It was the thought that they thought

they could do it made Henry wicked & away.

But he should have come out and talked.

All the world like a woolen lover

once did seem on Henry’s side.

Then came a departure.

Thereafter nothing fell out as it might or ought.

I don’t see how Henry, pried

open for all the world to see, survived.

What he has now to say is a long

wonder the world can bear & be.

Once in a sycamore I was glad

all at the top, and I sang.

Hard on the land wears the strong sea

and empty grows every bed.

My riff:

-1

Clepto Carrie caught    the time,

incorrigible Carrie lied,

I get her drift,—a ruse for running the show.

It was the dare that they dared

her to do that made Carrie greedy & unkind.

But she could have let go and tried.

All her dreams plush as a down pillow

used to float in Carrie’s head.

Then hit a tornado.

Subsequently everything got helter-skeltered.

It’s a miracle that Carrie, scattered

among so many, isn’t dead.

All she can manage now is to cry

quite loudly for more dreams to come.

Once on a golf course I barefoot leapt

across the green, and I got high.

Earth spins tight around mother sun

and time is all that can be kept.