MICHAEL BENEDIKT

Benedikt's revolutionary work first exploded onto the poetry scene in the 1960s. I first encountered his poetry during junior high school, in the anthology The Contemporary American Poets: American Poetry since 1940, editor, Mark Strand (Mentor Books, 1969). I was so impressed with his poem, Litanies that I scrawled a big star beside it some thirty years ago. Needless to say, I was bowled over when Mr. Benedikt emailed recently to query about contributing poems to Thermopylae.

Benedikt's verse will appeal to all visitors to this site, including those of you who generally find contemporary poetry to be out of touch with real life. Benedikt's work speaks directly and plainly about issues few poets have the nerve to address. His artistic courage has made it difficult for him--particularly with his recent work--to find public forums courageous enough to allow the free dissemination of controversial ideas. (He reports that he hasn't seen fit to send out a book-length poetry manuscript for circa 15 years.) THERMOPYLAE is honored to support his work.

Michael Benedikt Michael Benedikt has published five collections of poetry: The Badminton at Great Barrington; or, Gustave Mahler & The Chattanooga Choo-Choo (University of Pittsburgh Press, l980); and also Night Cries (l976), Mole Notes (l971), Sky (l970), and The Body (l968), all from Wesleyan University Press. He has edited The Prose Poem: An International Anthology (Dell/Laurel, l976) and The Poetry of Surrealism (Little Brown, l974). Benedikt has also edited anthologies of plays (--including three volumes of European drama co-edited with George Wellwarth: Modern French Theatre: The Avant-Garde, Dada, & Surrealism (E.P. Dutton, l964), Post-War German Theatre (Dutton, l967), and Modern Spanish Theatre (Dutton, l969). He is also the editor of Theatre Experiment: American Plays (Doubleday, l967).

Benedikt is a former Associate Editor of Art News and Art International and a former Poetry Editor of The Paris Review. His grants and awards include an NEA Fellowship, a NY State Council On The Arts Grant, and a Guggenheim Grant. He has taught Literature and Creative Writing as Visiting Professor at Bennington, Sarah Lawrence, Hampshire, and Vassar College/s, and at Boston University.

NOTE:

American Vibrations was previously published, in an earlier version, in Lips. and is part of Benedikt's manuscript-in-progress entitled Transitions. An earlier version of "Of Debauchery" appeared in Minnesota Review, and is in another manuscript-in-progress, titled Of: . The poems appear here with his permission.

AMERICAN VIBRATIONS:

OR, OF A TOO-OFTEN OVERLOOKED ASPECT OF THE PIONEER AMERICAN PAST

In Memory, the so-called "Good Old Days": those misty days which once held sway,
long years before 'personal vibrators' were sold in many drugstores throughout America

1. Generations of practical American women, at their
mixing bowls, so often at their mixing bowls,
In kitchens, with ceramic mortars, pestles, & wooden objects, too,
Of miscellaneous shapes & sizes--plus ladles, forks, & spoons;
& Of course all kinds of rolling-pins (some parti-colored, even!)

--Useful certainly, then, in kitchens
& God knows where else; & for just what else, too!

2. & Always those alternative uses were a deep, dark secret, too--
delicately kept, even after tired husbands staggered home from "business,"
Meaning planting, or ploughing; or cracking rocks, or cracking heads, whatever,
To demand only dinners & then silence, in the merciful darkness,
as their reward;

--For often, "Woman's Work" was much like "Man's Work," too:
practical, exhausting, & useful to a fault
& Dictated solely by the sad, hard ways,
Of a world obdurate, & inert; yet relentlessly demanding.

3. For after all, wasn't it all, for the most part, just a wee bit Gross,
That so-called "boldly adventurous," "rough-&-ready," pioneer life?
--The work "Epic," & "Heroic"; & massive & laborious: that is,
most often klutzy & klunky
& Involving all the historic, yet even today somehow still all-too-familiar,
still all-too-consuming anguishes
Of tedious manual, or else menial labor; & ordinary manufacturing,
or else run-of-the mill manipulating.

4. Poor things! Poor things those old-time wives; & their husbands, too
--the latter with those hands
Callused so constantly from crapulous tools;
& hands, & fingers & (worse yet!) minds, sometimes,
coarsened so hopelessly from the daily grind
Of beating the competition out of so many pennies.

5. --Oh, those generations of practical American women, at their mixing bowls,
so often at their mixing bowls,
In kitchens, with ceramic mortars, pestles & wooden objects, too,
Of miscellaneous shapes & sizes--plus ladles, forks, & spoons;
& Of course all kinds of rolling-pins (some parti-colored, even!)
Whipping up the stuff of mere Survival, mainly
--With, in the meantime only the possibility, primarily,
Of children & more children to look forward to, & to come along
& change things
By adding mostly tension after tension, to the passing years.

6. --Even their hard-earned balances in beat-up bankbooks
Sinking, always sinking, like worn-out goose-down mattresses going flatter
than ever
As dollar-bill after dollar-bill, flew out of them like moths

--Like the Romance we all long for, & like even Life itself,
Flying, in the end, straight out of the window...

7. Oh I can just see that Past, I think; or at least, imagine it
With all those brave & long-suffering--but also highly inventive,
full-of-"Yankee-Ingenuity" Pioneering American Women
Hostages to their own futures (& to our Future, too!)
Carving out wan joy, & yet finally--who knows?--perhaps some palpable, & personal,
& real reason for living
Determinedly, from a veritable forest of frustration; & a vast variety
of cunningly-shaped, cleverly-fashioned kitchen-objects...

8. --& Those few Husbands smart enough, finally, to somehow catch on to what was happening
Wondering, perhaps, what reason they could give
For taking those things away & hiding them (in some of the grimmer New England
Puritan locations, I once read somewhere,
The men actually did hide them,
To keep their wives safe from the harm of "The Devil's Arm," when those men weren't
home)

9. --& I can just see the would-be amorous Bachelors, fresh young "apprentices"
at the start, yet each & every day engrained with just that much more coarseness
Swearing to themselves that they'd never take on a wife who could work
one of those new-fangled sewing-machines
Which could produce, after all, so much more throbbingly lustful, dangerous Temptation,
Than their already suspiciously omnipresent spinning-wheels, even

--Just like the alluringly caressing curves, come to think of it,
On the saddle-seats of all their store-bought, brand-new bicycles!

10. --Examples of all of which we can of course still sometimes find, to this
very day, stored up for generation after generation
Hidden away behind huge trunks stacked up high in darkened, abandoned attics
--Together with mountains of dressmaker's dummies; & hobby-horses,
& countless rocking-chairs
Piled up almost to the ceiling!

OF 'DEBAUCHERY'

1.
Contrary to popular myth & belief, & the conventional use of
the term "Debauchery"
By self-styled "moralists" of a kind whom I, for one, suspect
are probably totally obsessed by sex
There is, in the world today, surely more than one kind of
"Debauchery."

2.
Obviously, as we can clearly see, there's a whole lot of
sexual Debauchery going on!
& Whether or not one whoops it up for it, or deplores it
It's present, like the weather, all around us.

3.
Yes, doubtless a whole lot of people, sexually speaking,
are really quite Debauched!
& Some of it, for all I know, may be quite enjoyable--& even healthy!

--Only, historically speaking, it's relatively rare of course
to find most sexually debauched people readily admitting it,
much less taking a stand in public in favor of it;
For example, I've sometimes wondered, with regard to some of the more
Conservative-seeming, vociferously pious, yet oddly-matched couples
whom I've met--& who seem, somehow, to give off sparks when interacting--

Just what goes on behind their closed doors!

4.
--But let's not be nosy, let us not pry, & waste our valuable time & energy
Speculating about things we haven't the right to ask about
& maybe, in at least some few instances, might not want to hear about
For theoretically at least, we might be quite shocked by just what goes on, right?

--But rather, let us concentrate here on the kinds of Debauchery,
which we can clearly see!

5.
Anyway, for better or worse, it seems that we can count on it:

Just like Death & Taxes--but also like festive Birthdays
& celebrative Anniversaries!--
Somewhere or other & somehow or other, somebody or other
is probably busy Debauching somebody else.

6.
Sexually speaking, most people, I guess (if point-blank you came right out &
asked them) would say that
They'd worry, & worry a whole lot, if they thought that there was
even the slightest possibility of their becoming even
mildly Debauched by anybody else;

--Yes, for the fully mature, adult prude
Even wearing a mildly daring lack of clothing,
even in bed or
boudoir; & even in the half-light & even at dark of
midnight--& even with a spouse!--
Could cause nervousness, & produce a fidget, I suppose

--And Virgins of legal age, I guess, especially,
Must sit around & bite their fingernails
all day long, & nighttimes, too
Their worry must be such about becoming even the slightest bit Debauched
(sexually speaking, at least) by anybody else
--Their very best friends included!

7.
--But as for me, I guess I just wouldn't know:

Because unlike most people, as far back as I can recall, or
rather care to remember,
In the sense mentioned above, at least,

So far I think, I've never been a Virgin!

8.
But seriously, folks--let's face it:

There is not just one kind of serious Debauchery that's possible
in this 'our great wide world'
But also the possibility of becoming Debauched in lots of other
ways, besides sexuality!

--Yes, in any "Highly Commercial & Technologically Advanced Society,"
there are surely lots & lots of options
re how a person may become virtually totally Debauched today
& Most of those, I believe, involve values--including Moral Values--
Every bit as serious, as so-called sexual "purity."

9.
For example, the purity of a person's Talent may, after all,
become really quite dreadfully Debauched
--One is either permanently Virginal in that sense, too, or else one isn't!

--& I'm not just referring to things like "Talent for Arts & Esthetics,"
But also the Talent for Doctoring & for Lawyering, & for Teaching & for Governing,
for example; & indeed, the Talent for Conducting Fair Business & Social Dealings
of any kind!
--Yes, & besides that, also the Talent for Living in General,
& for thinking clearly about things like the nature of "Moral Values"
Can become really quite dreadfully Debauched;

& Not just the Talent for "Making Love to Only Just One Person!"

10.
False Piety, I must come right out & say
(Which, I've noticed, seems to to run wild among wild-eyed moralists,
& most politicians & other preacher-types,
Whose personal lives when scrutinized even casually, often do not reflect their
claims of purity, & prove to be mixed in with a whole lot of Hypocrisy

Is something that--as far back as I can remember--
Has always really revolted & annoyed me;
--Perhaps because hyprocrisy, itself, looks at least to me,
like perhaps the most serious form of Debauchery

--Yes, I've always thought, & still think today, that False Piety
Is exactly the same sort of thing that (long before they themselves
were totally betrayed by it)
Jesus, & Moses, who obviously weren't Debauched at all,
Were always alert to the dangers of, & on the lookout for.

11.
For what truly Debauches, just like False Piety--& quite unlike Sexual Debauchery,
which tends to be short, & either sweet or not;
& which then, quite often, is completely over--
Involves a kind of overall, long-term selling-out of intellectual & other integrity
that's insidious & gradual & which apparently works this way:

(1) In its first phase, The Selling-Out starts out with a kind of unconscious
self-undermining, a kind of benign, garden-variety, passive adjustment to
thoughts & things third-rate--unconscious & benign, since a person just
beginning that kind of "Selling Out" usually isn't yet quite aware of it, or else,
can't admit even to himself or herself quite yet that he or she is doing it;
(2) In the second, or middle phase, the Sell-Out's fate hangs in the balance,
with a victim consciously contemplating caving in by completely abandoning
the capacity for decent, respectably clear thinking & subsequent, principled
actions, often still surviving against all social odds, within his or her own Very
Best Self;
& In (3), Its third & final phase, the Sell-Out ends with its willing victim not just
tolerating Mediocrity in others & worse yet, in himself or herself,
but, finally, with making common cause with it!

12.
--In short, What Truly Debauches I think is not, relatively
speaking, sudden, neat, & even quite as clean
As, say, a virgin in heat throwing herself semi-nude into a pit
while wearing only just a push-up bra
With ten dope-crazed bikers whom she realizes full well
have weak, scant, or otherwise faulty morals....

13.
--It's shocking, I know, to hear about things like that:

I mean, to hear of grown Men & Women of General Excellence--
& often of at least some Real Talent--
Abjectly selling out; & not even caring at all as they slip down,
without a squeak or a squawk

--Debauched by others, or by circumstances, or by any temptation
that they've found, finally, just too hard to resist
Usually involving lust for money, or greed for power,
& various other similarly unarcane & (I'd say)
all-too omnipresent phenomena
& Actually celebrating living a life that's slowly being tainted & poisoned
By veritable orgies of incipient dishonesties; & by all kinds of internal & external
Conflicts-of-Interest....

14.
But probably, last & least of all, have most such corrupted persons been
debauched because of temptations to Lust in the sexual sense

--Yes, I say least of all because of Lust, & last, because I've heard it
placed first, so often on the list
Of so-called immoral things--mostly by pious hypocrites!--

That it makes me want to vomit in my hat, to hear so many people
speaking out so passionately against Lust
All week long--& especially on Sunday mornings when the raving preachers
& pious politicians are up & about, displacing the far more
attractively logical words, & the far more alluringly lovely
& even downright erotic images
That I, for one, would like to encounter for a change--if only as a
liberating sort of weekend daytime treat!--

On Network Channels on my TV set.

15.
As for true temptations to lust (besides the temptation which, like most people,
I too naturally feel towards my
"True-Beloved-&-One-&-Only-Love")

Personally--perhaps due to the relative rarity of Sexual "Live Wires" among
members of the "Opposite Sex" whom I, for one, have chanced to
meet--
I've found them to be so relatively are in life
That any such come-ons usually strike me as really quite quaint, & goofy,
& are usually quite easily turned away by me

--So that the role such temptations play in my own life, for example, is really quite
minuscule
Compared to the numerous, detestable temptations that surround me
To participate in many far more outrageous, far more dangerous, types of
Debauchery,
& Other forms of the totally senseless General Greed & Swinishness

That I, for one, see all around us.

16.
--Yes, it's shocking, I know, to hear about things like that:

I mean, to hear of grown Men & Women of General Excellence--
& often of at least some real Talent--
Abjectly selling out; & not even caring at all as they slip down,
without a squeak or a squawk
Totally wrecked by others, or by circumstances; or by
any temptation towards the debauchery of their innermost selves
That they've found, finally, just too hard to resist;
& Celebrating, even, living a life that's slowly being tainted & poisoned
By veritable orgies of incipient dishonesties; & by all kinds of internal & external
Conflicts-of-Interest....

--People of Talent being slowly dragged down to Mental
& Moral Skid Row

& Going Down The Tubes Like A Ton of Bricks....

Care to read more of Michael Benedikt's work? You can read his Brief Prose Poems on the Web. You'll also find his complete biography and more links at Michael Benedikt--Early Poetry Books: The Body & Sky

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