Contents
Americanski Odes
Ode on Fire
Ode on My Prison
Ode on My Mother’s Lingo
Ode on the Funny Papers
Ode on My Grandmother the Mohel
Ode on Departed Slang
Ode on the Diner
Ode to Dime Stores and Their Lunch Counters, Bins of Penny Candy, and Pretty Lipsticks All in a Row
Ode to Laundromats
Ode on Words for Parties (American Edition)
Ode on Spring, Spontaneous Bang Requests, Dance Scenes in Movies
Ode on Being Backwards and Inside Out and in a Wreck with Myself
Ode to the Last Peach of Summer
Ode to Driving on Venice Boulevard with Emily Dickinson
Ontological Odes
Ode to Marivaudage, Ratiocination, and Blahblahblah
Ode on My Nightingale
Ode to My Younger Self
Ode to the DNA Cocktail (Shake That Baby, Oh Yeah)
Ode on Anger, the Dalai Lama, and Elliot’s Red Boots
Ode on My Blindness
Ode on Following My Mind
Ode to My Green Gloves
Ode to Yiddish, Gratitude, and the Feeling You Have for Someone You Once Loved but Love No More
Ode on the Moon, Pontormo, and Losing My Mind
Ode on the End of the World
Ode to the Middle of the Night
Ode to the Sacred Heart of Everyone, Including You and You and You
My Holoholo Odes
Ode on Going Holoholo and Getting Lost
Ode on Killing Sadness
Ode on Gauguin, Russia, Arles, and Consciousness
Ode to San Giorgio of the Gorgeous Brassieres
Ode on the Brides of India
Ode to Words for Smell
Ode to Words for Sounds
Ode on Things I Cannot See
Ode to the Dogs of Valparaiso
Ode to Neruda’s Hats in Isla Negra
Ode on Girlfriends, the Brain, and Those Little Cookies You Dip in Wine
Ode to Drawing Donatello’s David Again
Ode to Poets in Paris with Oysters and Lies
Notes
Acknowledgments