"Days of Rome" (Gerard Malanga)

"Days of Rome" 

(Gerard Malanga)

Days of nothingness 
Days of clear skies the temperature descending 
Days of no telephone calls or all the wrong ones 
Days of complete boredom and nothing 
is happening 
Days of 1967 coming to a close in the frigid condition of chest 
cold and cough 
drops 
Days of afternoons in the life of a young girl 
not being on time 
Days of daydreams exploding 
Days of utter frustration 
Days of my film being cursed and myself 
with the curse never lifting 
Days of closed windows to keep the cold 
out the livingroom warm 
Days of avoiding lunch for a phone-call 
with change of plans for the day 
Days of posting letters 
Days of no mail today 
Days of fatigue and amphetamine highs 
Days of Charles Edward Ives 
Days of the 4:00 pm doldrums 
Days of wonder drugs to challenge the common cold 
Days of utter frustration 
Days of forgetting

"Days of Rome" by Gerard Malanga, previously unpublished, appears in the 2001 collection No Respect: New & Selected Poems 1964-2000. Malanga's career encompasses his work with Andy Warhol, The Velvet Underground and the Exploding Plastic Inevitable multimedia presentations that accompanied their performances, as well as a continuing and distinguished career in photography. He began writing poetry at the age of fourteen. To interviewer Richard Marshall in 2003, Malanga commented “I've always thought of poetry as an introverted process whereas photography has always been an extroverted process. But they both involve the eye to a certain extent -- both the inner eye and the outer eye.” An interview with the poet, "The Poetry is Something," appears in the Summer 2004 online issue of RainTaxi. (Photo of Malanga with his cat Archie from RainTaxi by Asako.)