Otherwise Poems by Oscar Mandel -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

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Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Table of Contents Foreword ONE: PLACES

An espresso at the ‘Number Six’ (London 1956) The Fountain of Trevi Breakfast and jukebox on Piazza Trasimeno (Rome 1960) Cameras Robbers Morning at Chiavari (Liguria) Two views Genius (Lucerne) Col du Grand Saint Bernard Morning in Chamonix Colonel Pluchot chats with Madame Duchesne A child at the seaside On the beach Low tide and high tide in Normandy (Houlgate) Dawn at the manor of Cerisy-la-Salle One minute before noon The radical visits La Baule The clock in the Amsterdam flea market Flight 065 From Chihuahua to the border Camp Gordon (Georgia 1953) Rainy season in barracks (Camp Fuji 1954) In a democracy Empty house The astronaut ate a piece of consecrated bread on the moon (1969) Let us dream (1) Let us dream (2)

TWO: BUSY EROS

Fever Falling Plenitude Young Pan hauls Methodists away Song The twenty-sixth of April Four hands whisper and do A banker sobbing on his typist My love answers my love After Herrick The garden No more poems The romantic materialist The jail The journey Lover’s maxim Unsafe I reply Thwarted lover Repine, repine Wounded philosopher The egg the Mother threw Others are more important Foul mood Brute English Sullen Myrmidons (1) Sullen Myrmidons (2)

THREE: NAMES

“The great lack of our time is that we have no commanding myth to which we can give allegiance” Immortality Empedocles War ditty (1) The life and death of Hannibal To Ovid, from army barracks Holy books On re-reading the New Testament The vision of Jesus of Nazareth concerning Johann Sebastian Bach The atheist A ditty sung by a choir of aging poets (among them Sophocles, Shakespeare and Goethe) Iago The infantryman and Baudelaire The conceptions of the intellect War ditty (2) Robert Frost: “I’d as soon make love in Lover’s Lane as write for Little Magazines” Meditation on Wallace Stevens’ “The imperfect is our paradise” Do not place your trust in babies Robinson Jeffers: “Come peace or war, the progress of Europe and America becomes a long process of deterioration” Words for John Strachey’s “On the Prevention of War” On the assassination of President Kennedy How did Sam Beckett die? “Late Frost” by Suzuhiko Kawasaki Bad choices

FOUR: POEMS WITH ANIMALS

Insect A fly a fly and I Motion I am a little snail After Li Po Garden idyll Crow Slanted bird Pigeon fly When does why end? Homeric simile Dead rats Impatience A visit to the zoo The young man who is blind

FIVE: TENEBRAE

The kidneys laugh at Plato Adriana in surgery Open letter to God The schoolyard Old man in love To Blaise Pascal Me for soft floors The tree Marching song Godless on Christmas day Forgive me The prisoner’s ballad Memorial Day One day, after lunch My father: 1978 Dejection It

SIX: TORPORS AND DIMINUTIONS

Professor Oscar Mandel Man is what animal? The swimmer with the long cigar The lodger in the floating room The proofreader’s lament Easter Sunday in my 28th year On my 29th birthday The ecstasy of Brother Giles Poor Augustulus Song of boredom Always almost Triplets

SEVEN: THE POET

Where is the light? Sir Toby Belch against Shakespeare The poet grows old, in four movements The poet in a foul mood The poet in a heavenly mood The poet becomes an assistant professor A fellow poet is received at the White House Various poets The poet feeling small The poet wanting fame The poet neither Guibelline nor Guelf The poet gives up

EIGHT: POEMS IN FRENCH

Le fou rêve de l’amoureux Houlgate L’autobus à Paris (le 25 juin 2004) Oui, vous aimez la nature Si je pouvais Notre cathédrale Les morts ont peur Ce qui est arrivé La misère Sans titre

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