over two decades in the making.
a timeshifting autobiographical poetry collage w/photography.
a diaristic, nearly "daily writing" (ad)venture.
new pieces are posted most days..
**new and in progress** --
recordings of each poem are being added.
these are read by the author & posted to each poem's page.
--Del Ray Cross (contact delraycross at gmail)
I am reading ever so slowly towards the end of Wobble by the beloved Rae Armantrout. How many times I say her name just to say it, write it just to type it and to show case a hero
of mine and this time, today, while seemingly staring down the same page for days (for days!). At the same page of spare and precisely placed words. To commem orate, I take a photo for my guy, the lover I have yet to touch, even after all but two entire years, lifetimes, as it were, thanks to lives lived in separate hemispheres and a human war with a virus, I snap a photo just for him of me reading slowly towards the end of Wobble. For whatever reason, and/ but of course, the photo that comes of the event shows what appears to be a mini ature version, a wee me, read ing a gargantuan- sized version of her book. An app ropriate illusion if ever there was one. I zap the photo to the other hemi sphere, as we do, and I immediately get a call from him, a video call. He calls me because I have asked him to call. But only him. At present, while I slowly and slower still work my way toward the end of this wonderful book, I will only accept his call, no other. So I answer his call, happily, and read him two of the poems from this wonderful, seem ingly gigantic book, one that certainly has dwarfed me in a simple photograph, and quite hilariously, adding here and there to the words from the two poems I have chosen randomly and urgently to read to him, adding my own words, for worse, rather than better, of course, as if there is need to explain anything (there never is with the Lady Armantrout) but I giddily explain and re-explain, att empting to show a few of the many facets of a short few of the brief stanzas or sections. First I read “Instuctions,” and as it floats down
its single page while
flying like a supersonic
jet through our brains
while gaining impossible speed, yet slowly and stead fastly floating, the words, as they do, down that singular dizzying path, all the
way to that hard stop right at the bottom, as the jets in our brains have spun out of control, maddeningly, and yet quietly, landing us both somewhere looking at the same map of London, a map with two exits out
of the metropolis, one in red, the other in blue. A precocious baby has died in the arms of a mother who may have given birth to her the day before, an ogre of a man has shot off un remembered words filled with such condescension that indicate he blames the mother for the baby’s sudden death, words that loom like the supersonic explosions we cannot get out of our heads as we stare quietly at the map and wonder which exit is to be ours. Kaboom. Second, I reading “Trick” which reveals quite assuredly the great riddle of how you don’t have it unless you’ve got it... or can get
it, that is. But how? I excitedly
tell him about my poem in response, in which I’ve so proudly, I think at first, turned the riddle back onto the poem. But then it hits me, and I’m so excited I can barely give emotion to my thoughts, much less actual words, which have, as it turns out, been done irrevocably and quite already for me. And you. And my guy. In explaining how clever I am, I realize I’ve been duped – as no riddles linger – every answer is right here, and succinctly, on the page. The sphinx has let out her dirty little secret for all to hear and know and rue. It is a fait accomplis. What need, therefore, is any add itional accomplice? Zilcho. Nada. None. The Secret’s out. It’s been delivered directly by the poet. She had it all along. Played with it right in front of us, and then finished it so that the secret exists no more. She knows this because we know it, too. She can’t take it back. And my paltry attempt to juggle her well-worn baubles of verity for a tiny giddy moment, thinking that I was in any way adding or even replying or fancifully retorting to her brilliant words, were nothing but a fraud, an attempt to impress my love with a juggling act; it lasts for maybe a moment or two, but for what, because,
the secret exists no longer, there’s no need for a show, no need for tell, no need for frippery, not even for any engagement of any kind. And while he does indeed care for me, he cares not a jot for jugglery. The show’s over, the juggling’s done, and even in my embarrassment, I’m elated to have been there, to have been so intimate with the words and with my love, perhaps such intimacy that I have never even known, with the palatable hope, or rather the sheer knowledge, the fact, that there will be more and more
Now is perhaps when I should relay Over to You Very fine folks that to keep a little personal promise, an Exercise if you will, on goal, I have written and somehow Managed to post a whole Bunch of poems (That’s, at last count, I believe, Eleven, plus this one?) in a period of time shorter than the last two days. Wait, Really the 2-day total with the one final poem coming shortly will be sixteen. WowI
An Acrostic Poem for Ms. Cleta Hoffman, My 4th Grade Teacher
As it turns out, I am a Cross, and to be more thorough, I’m Del Ray Cross Of the Small town of Charleston, Arkansas, which is Tucked Into my state’s namesake River Valley around about the Ozark Foothills. It was in Charleston that Cleta Hoffman, my 4th Grade Teacher, submitted a poem I wrote while taking her Serendipitous class—it was a goofy sonnet entitled “Math”—into a statewide competition,
That like most all of the other poems “submitted,” no doubt WON, by Henceforth being published with all of the other winners into A Not very tiny tome, but rather, in a compendium, a King-sized magazine: a magazine of poetry!
So, to
Ms. Hoffman, educator of dreamers, lover of poetry and teacher of
Screwy 4th graders, my Heart and gratitude goes out to you wherever you may be:
Thank you for pouring a little bit of poetry into my soul.
“Vedral was in the military?” I entreat or Exclaim, suddenly not certain. I hear “Alzheimer’s,” Thinking yes, that was Ved, but the rest nod off as i f in prayer. “Hey, Eddie!!” I’m shaken. He knew the payout, knows the prayer by Rote. “But he was MY UNCLE!!” I shake And stutter the words everywhere. “Not so, Ray.!” It’s Irv, of course. Thinks he knows it all. “Says here Great Uncle.”
As if there’s a difference? I Fluctuate between lost and finally seeing who Uncle Vedral was. Between Finding myself securely and then getting lost in the confusion And the clatter, or whatever noise you call that made by Industrial strength styrofoam plates overfilled with gravy and almost nothing else. “Ray...” beckons Aunt Pearl! I cut her off, and the room, which I Slice with my machete into enough pieces for everyone to take home some of their own.
“You think I didn’t know about the affairs?? Everybody knew about Ved
“It’s a colossal little motor within such a tiny device,” he said, as if deeply interested. And then he inhaled from it, blowing a fog of smoke that drenched the entire San Francisco block for what seemed an eternity to each of his omnipresently bleached-out pals.
Del, Everyone, good People, Rotten ones, Everybody. Get Stoned! You probably heard correctly, that’s right. I said Stoned!! Engage with the ganja, get Done up, blazed, crunked and/or zaded
If that’s your pleasure. And if it’s generally not, but you’re generally Sad? Well, this formerly paranoid, once persnickity,
Not-so-fierce advocate of being chopped, faded or generally Obliterated suggests you might just get chopped, faded or obliterated. And Then maybe even huggied (?). I
Say This with some newfound experience. So try on some quasi-pseudo-antidisestablishmentarian Obliteration; get steeched, chonged or otherwise blowed one down-and-out Night or one down-and-out day, or hey, maybe even a whole super-low year. I’ve yet to
Embark upon an entire year, I will admit, but I’ve known some long-term yatsdenots, and they
At (during, pending, poking, prodding) the verity of Riding the surfless, unwet waves with the unemployed from
Back at the start of the pandemic to beyond the foreseeable future, I have survived via checks that have been Thusly labeled “unemployment” and/or “pandemicable,” etc., and so now, having Reasonably (?) survived some nearly two years of same, I’ve decided to hone up on Arbitrary-speak and give a polish to the old pity papers. I trust you know precisely what I mean, Right? It goes something like “Riddledy?” “Ah, piddledee-dee!” and so on from Ye to thee and then sometimes, somehow all the way back to the as yet unjobbable me.
For heaven’s sake, our Lady’s called It, and quite at Pin Point! Everyone can agree, so Down to it, shall we? Let’s get
Petty with our pottery, our poops, our pity-parties and, Oh, our pumas and pompons. The entire Lot of it! This Year’s mostest- Hearted is already an Erstwhile Death-on-arrival, am I Right? Of course, I am. Now, what to do about it?
(Oh, come on, Us! We Tight-lipped, - Overly tarty Faux pas in waiting gotta - Dance just like all the ’Oity t ’Oity types, am I Right? (Once again, I am!) And that about S)ums it up from me. Over & out.
Excoriated (I could still try XXX—if it’s even a thing?)
Except somehow there seems to need to be a XXX or overextension or to at least have been an ex Cerpt (in any context) simply in Order to arrive at the anti- Rave. Have I even been to A rave, I sorta wonder (knowing full well That I’m always too Excluded to’ve been given a map by which to amble or Drive in order to even arrive at one of those)?
True Happiness? This Arrogant fool suspects Not. His head swirls in excess to Know the truth, though. And Sometimes, occasionally, a Gift comes In the guise of an ominous Vessel, and sometimes that oversized horse’s mouth, well, It deserves a big, fat foot in the equine Noggin’ if you ask this (and, rest assured, he’s more often gracious than not!) Gringo.
Thurlow B Cross (and his son & grandson, in memoriam)
The winter Grandpa died, he’d been out chopping wood until late morning, sat first on his recliner, got up, told Grandma Hazel where it hurt, covered his lungs with the palm of his hand then patted his chest, moved over to the sofa, she had run to get him some aspirin, and when she was back in the living room, he was on the sofa, on his
Back, lifeless, a heartattack. Dad had
Cancer, lymphoma, he was 57—the age I’ll be in 3 years—it had ravaged him, but he had seemed on the mend, went down fast in one short week, my brother, Gary, found him face-down in the driveway, he’d spit blood until he was completely spent, gone too soon. At 48, Gary—he and Dad shared the same middle name, Grandpa’s, Thurlow—fell asleep in his truck one hot night, never awoke.
ain’t that the truth! rad! (outtasite!) elvis lives. enjoy every moment.
me & you!
sweet dreams. super-duper (soopah-doopah)! under the moon. to the moon. on the moon. not a second goes by that i don’t think of you. heaven must have sent you. hey good lookin’. i’m all aswoon, over the moon. never a dull moment (nope, not even one). everybody dance now!
A photograph is a dead skin you shimmy out of. —Sarah Fran Wisby
frame this. the tart green bum of a pear in the foreground focus; pink, just ripe honeycrisp apples scattered among or against a blur of orange— wraithlike tangerines as it turns out—a conspicuous distance away, last year, the year before, i forget?
take another look next year and it’s going to be the same. every year, in fact, the fruit stay just as ripe, the color, the harmony, what one imagines the taste is or was, everything about the sanguine sight remains ) notwithstanding the various joys and tragedies befalling each ongoing spectator (
i was going to tell you all...ah...it’s nothing, really. today, like every day, i rose from my broken bed very much myself. i had a bowl of breakfast. or else i whistled, yes, whistled
to the tune of waking up. i’m out to lunch, aren’t i? darn it, yes i am! anyway, you all have a nice day !
jeez louise, do i feel overworked, exhausted! but i don't even have a job!
how horrible it is to be unemployed again, doing nothing day in and day out except ticking off open positions for which i've sent letters of interest, resumes, etc.! no money in either pocket. i guess i really am a poet.
build back better? is that where i find myself tonight, politics? well, i’m always trying new things: rutabaga, rutabaga, rutabaga; testing, one, two, three. if i say first thought best thought should i stick to my guns? will there be live ammunition? what an ungodly nation, am
i right? night falls over riverdale. archie and jughead twiddle their thumbs. “sometimes politics trips me out,” archie says, adding, “not to be rude, but you just wouldn’t understand.” (archie was bred for politics, you see) “correctamundo,” says jughead, “now let’s tweet about it in our undies until the cows come home.” riverdale’s like that, thinks everyone except
betty, who is thinking about love. love and scuba diving, that is.
plus, she thinks for a minute about archie; more precisely: “i wonder what sex would be like with archie.” “shut up! ew!” says the veronica in her head.
There’s gonna be goth bathroom readings. —Anselm Berrigan
templeton refused to hug elsa after her goodbye. recess excess. their sex had
gotten otherworldly. nano nano! also, she
berated him in front of everyone. but before things
got so out of hand, there had been tons of hugs. oodles of them.
because, abracadabra, those hugs, at least for Templeton, rocked so hard (the two became one and they were off to the moon), now he had to
rewrite everything. also, he just wanted to be dead. but he stayed alive. i told him that nothing ever goes exactly the way we want it to. “same here,” he said.
isn’t it always nice to see everyone so confidently running around in just their undergarments (if that), so ribaldly, here in the locker room of this ymca?