Adieu to Norman, Bon Jour to Joan and…

It is 12:10 in New York and I am wondering

if I will finish this in time to meet Norman for lunch

ah lunch! I think I am going crazy

what with my terrible hangover and the weekend coming up

at excitement-prone Kenneth Koch's

I wish I were staying in town and working on my poems

at Joan's studio for a new book by Grove Press

which they will probably not print

but it is good to be several floors up in the dead of night

wondering whether you are any good or not

and the only decision you can make is that you did it

yesterday I looked up the rue Frémicourt on a map

and was happy to find it like a bird

flying over Paris et ses environs

which unfortunately did not include Seine-et-Oise

which I don't know

as well as a number of other things

and Allen is back talking about god a lot

and Peter is back not talking very much

and Joe has a cold and is not coming to Kenneth's

although he is coming to lunch with Norman

I suspect he is making a distinction

well, who isn't

I wish I were reeling around Paris

instead of reeling around New York

I wish I weren't reeling at all

it is Spring the ice has melted the Ricard is being poured

we are all happy and young and toothless

it is the same as old age

the only thing to do is simply continue

is that simple

yes, it is simple because it is the only thing to do

can you do it

yes, you can because it is the only thing to do

blue light over the Bois de Boulogne it continues

the Seine continues

the Louvre stays open it continues it hardly closes at all

the Bar Américain continues to be French

de Gaulle continues to be Algerian as does Camus

Shirley Goldfarb continues to be Shirley Goldfarb

and Jane Hazan continues to be Jane Freilicher (I think!)

and Irving Sandler continues to be the balayeur des artistes

and so do I (sometimes I think I'm "in love" with painting)

and surely the Piscine Deligny continues to have water in it

and the Flore continues to have tables and newspapers

and people under them

and surely we shall not continue to be unhappy

we shall be happy

but we shall continue to be ourselves everything

continues to be possible

René Char, Pierre Reverdy, Samuel Beckett it is possible isn't it

I love Reverdy for saying yes, though I don't believe it

Source: Lunch Poems (City Lights Books, 2014)