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nights since - volume two

by Igor Brezhnev

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1.
night thirty four before the twilight, hills beforested, fogset, on and on, loom sad. these dark nights, shadows fire-cast, melt on walls of my regret. the nightlight flickers— it is a trick of tired eyes— no near open flame, electric light is steady unlike my tired hand and sight. i am unready for the next soon upheaval, an unrested rook. had i wings they would sadly droop lacking flight and courage. i am unready it is a trick of tired eyes before the twilight. had i wings they would sadly melt on walls of my regret. portland, oregon / 2.20.2019
2.
night thirty five the last bus again, a well-met friend for a stop, for a word or two— this town can from time to time be a village greeting-filled. some cold nights contain pats on the back, hugs sincere, tired smiling faces, and music, always music, what would we do without that? what would we be if not for shared conversation, if not for our warmth? how could i tell you the worth of potato chips to life? i dream for you, dream for me, dream for us to thrive despite the winter, despite the rich and their greed, despite the hurt in our hearts. i dream for you, dream a well-met friend for a stop, your smiling faces, and music, always music, dream for us a better life. portland, oregon / 2.21.2019
3.
night thirty six shoes with mouths, infinite task lists, dirty laundry— eternal thing, that's my life. poverty and poetry are made with same letters, but poverty takes a v. and switching letters, i'm sure someone has noticed this fact at some prior time. what does this v stand for: vandal's victory via vindictive violence, or, perhaps, it is a violet viola vacillating vague ventures very vibrantly? what's in it? i remember korben dallas telling leeloo that there are some very good words starting with "v", like valiant and vulnerable and very beautiful, maybe that's what poets put in poverty to make ends meet: valiant very beautiful vulnerability. vroom, our voice, vroom indeed. so long as we don't find war. portland, oregon / 2.22.2019
4.
night thirty seven this heart is apparently not very rain proofed. always a last flood. this heart is also not taking well to sun screen. something about toxic metals. it is allergic to sharp and cruel, so like humanity it exists in the narrow habitable zone of deserts or rainforests or it burns, or is soaking wet, ashes and water, stilling itself clarity, still somehow it measures time, still likes pizza, still wanders, still greets strangers. what beat can i play for you says this heart earnest. portland, oregon / 2.23.2019
5.
night thirty eight safety in numbers. i woke up thirty eight times under a roof. safe. thirty eight times and three more mornings are predictable. this old heart made one billion seven hundred four million two hundred sixty eight thousand and eight hundred beats. and keeps beating. safety in numbers. i woke up fourteen thousand and seven hundred ninety four times on this rock. i keep waking up. somewhere. this new heart will count out more beats. my metronome may have skipped a few times, may have wanted a break, but it keeps beating, reckless. safety in numbers. if my mind is counting nights it doesn't keep a count of my friends who do not wake, or times i didn't want to wake. this human heart beats no matter where it is put, a silly muscle, it does not know home or math, or those other human things. safety in numbers. if you are counting with me, it is almost like we are together in this, like we can multiply nights. these all human hearts eighty beats per minute songs, seven and a half billion songs, just think of it, seven and a half billion. safety in numbers. another night tallied up, these two hundred and seventy nine syllables in this one poem. counted. portland, oregon / 2.24.2019
6.
night thirty nine i drank the background chatter of the coffee shops mixed with my bitter, you can find the ocean here indifferent waves lapping. all i did today is stare at the computer, trying to make things, shuffling text and images, life within an illusion. i miss the ocean, miss warmth of coastal summer, it seems far away. unreachable from winter. how can i ever make plans? how can i believe my own crooning promises of technicolor futures, when i am two steps away from black and white edge? portland, oregon / 2.25.2019
7.
night forty 01:02
night forty enough nights to chase ghosts away from a place, enough nights to take something whole down from a mountain, enough nights for a desert, enough nights for some temptations, i am as grainy as ever, better in black and white photographs, a tattered book, dog-eared pages of me ask for fire, there is snow instead. i am a place, i am a mountain, i am a desert , i am a temptation, i am a night, i am snow. it's a cold fortieth night. portland, oregon / 2.26.2019
8.
night forty one outside, wind has changed, it is colder and faster, shaking pines for green boughs, an eastern wind, bandit wind, blowing straight to the bone. maybe we should name this cold wind? don't we name things? maybe carol or bob or sweet-baby-jesus? then we could talk to it, yeah? talk it down like some failed banker off the high ledge, call them by their name, tell them speed kills, mostly us, tell them, slow down, have a cup. but they are a wind, perceptible natural movement of the air, current with a direction, anthropomorphism won't work. we could hide, like we hide from problems we can't solve, talk about wind in hushed tones, wait them out, drink tea, get busy with something else. i will imagine that i am some relative of mary poppins, pack my carpet bags word-full, ride the umbrella elsewhere. portland, oregon / 2.27.2019
9.
night forty two 42 is everything. 42 is the big answer. 42 is a yes in chinese. 42 is dying in japanese. 42 is a wildcard and a star. 42 is the street in new york. 42 gallons of oil make a barrel. 42 questions answered and a cat will make you a bright star in heavens. 42 will create a universe in the hands of a vengeful god according to a book. 42 will only be seen on a baseball field of the major league on april fifteenth, jackie robinson day. 42 is the number of dollars in all my accounts and pockets, i am still richer then some i see in sleeping bag coffins tucked away in recesses of the street. "oh dear! I shall never get to twenty at that rate!" dear alice, i got to night 42. does that make me a wildcard, a star, a dying thing? should i talk more with cats? should i know the price of oil? should i play baseball at least once before i expire? should i read at that library? should i know the number with which the vengeful god destroys? i have said goodbyes to mount tabor, thankful it kept me whole for a while, no visible transfiguration took place, maybe i am just a little too old for it, or maybe that's continent specific. i have said hello to the adventure land, its walls artful, echoes of music singing me to sleep. hey, my dearest reader, in the evening church, i fell a little in love, just for five or six songs, after all, this poetry is of confessional nature, then i remembered i'm a little too old for that, maybe. see, life goes on, each night. forty two. keep singing odes to beds and cats. portland, oregon / 2.28.2019
10.
night forty three how do i... let me count the... one day my memory will skip the most beautiful words, not today, not this night, but i hope you would remind me, then, of every word i would forget, that is why we make books, isn't it, friends, yes? so when dreaded day comes and our faculties fail we could pick up elizabeth's sonnets and read to each other as if for the first time, as if love is still first-sighted, as if all we ever need is breath to love. portland, oregon / 3.1.2019
11.
night forty four it was a day like so many others. wake up, have a list of things to do, get through that list, maybe, then go to sleep when all is said and done. but. it was also a day of friends saying good morning before the rest of the world ever laid claim on my time. it was a day of a sip of coffee saved by the same friends and given—how can a day start with such gifts. it was a day where the sun came out and made the sky the kind of blue that is not sad, that cerulean joy of possible flight. it was a day when poets spoke words into the sunset and the sun heard. it was a day that had two slices of cold pizza in the last act, what luck is to have friends who feed you, who give onto you smiles, what luck of night to have lived to night forty four, it's four elevens, you know by now my obsession with repetitive number patterns. what luck to have shared this day with so many who keep burning their pain to light up a path for that improbable wondrous tomorrow, what luck, indeed, to know i might see these faces again as i'd see the sun. portland, oregon / 3.2.2019
12.
night forty five melancholy settles on my shoulders with all its weight, i jib, but it reins so well and i am a broken-in ride. we trot on. i should sleep, but there is much to still do and so very little time. i hide from sadness in all this work. is it worth it? is there worth? a good hiding place is this time. time. my day is random sardines and sun briefly on cigarette breaks, i haven't looked well in mirrors for a while, could be a sort of blindness, or the melancholy looking through my eyes eager to find spurs. i don't know how it would feel to be a freed horse. portland, oregon / 3.3.2019
13.
night forty six time has a peculiar quality of quickening as its count rises. my six year old weeks were long, forty year old weeks—lightnings, the last grains of sand seem to fall at more rapid pace then the first ones. i am counting nights under different roofs, these poems seem closer together now, sunsets and sunrises blurring in one long time-lapse motion, paused somewhere around midnight, for a moment, then gaining speed, more speed, more, emotions are stars now, streaks superluminal in my eyes closing, sleep claiming its dues for one more night. portland, oregon / 3.4.2019
14.
night forty seven just take the fucking cigarette! and how much gentle can you put in those words, rumbling volcano asleep, my people are the ones who can't stand any bird caged, my people say true things and simple ones, my people greet the night with a damn hug, my people read poems in pool halls aloud, my people say goodbye in fifteen languages and always mean hello. my people give me hope on the daily. give songs and they mean love. portland, oregon / 3.5.2019
15.
night forty eight there are days when i am slinging poetry–loud fishmonger, smelly, gut-blood-covered: here’s your poetry, twenty five bucks per pound, fresh caught! look, this one is still alive, shaking! pick it up by the gills, look into its alien eyes, think on how you’ll cook it later in your gefilte fish or some poem stew, maybe dry it on the line, look, i will kill it for you, so you do not have to, bash it on its head, filet the meat of it, weigh it, wrap it in newsprint, give to you a goldfish to take home. let it go, wish for a better poem, wish for some candy-poet, clean, who’d feed you eclairs, all chocolate and cream, but tell me, what the fuck were you doing at the docks, looking for a baked dream? portland, oregon / 3.6.2019
16.
night forty nine when people hand me money. i take it. say thank you very much. see, i left my pride somewhere in LA, in a giant pot full of hostel spaghetti, or, maybe, earlier in some kitchen, or, bit by bit left it on some road, tell myself maybe one day i get to give as i get, maybe i can give the world an embrace, or a string of words which, in mind is too an embrace, maybe, i could do a little something with this life that's worth a buck or two, worth waking up, worth all these gifts, worth this belief in someone's mind that i will make it a bit longer, that i might one day know a home — throw open the doors and cook a meal fall asleep in a garden chair, most content to hold that shrapnel next to my heart for enough time to hear more of your songs. portland, oregon / 3.7.2019
17.
night fifty 02:24
night fifty sometimes my mind races to all the dark places and i count seconds one after another: one mississippi, two alligator, three hippopotamus, four keep counting, six pistols and roses, seven lucky strikes, eight its infinity, nine cat’s lives, ten, damn, i forgot the five, now more seconds elapsed, where do i pick up the count. stop. start again. actors are deceiving beautifully and i wonder, do they count too? counting steps down this street, counting years and counting nights, counting the six impossible things and counting cigarettes left in the pack, counting money, always counting, counting, counting, counting all… stop. you forgot something. start over. one thousand. thou art sand. thou art. then i see the sand in the glass which is also sand and sand is art too, colors swept, momentary, passing. stop. you forgot something. what was it? fifty nights lived? fifty mornings met? do i dare count more? should i count in french? if this stranger could read my thoughts would they count along or would they run away? count heartbeats, count them, stop. start over. no. stop. get some sleep, count sheep. portland, oregon / 3.8.2019
18.
night fifty one there are topics for which i have not discovered right words. parents. crimean question. the ugliness of the traditional russian values en masse, nationalism of any kind, grown-ass adults who tell boys not to cry. teachers who hit their students. teachers who do not like what they teach. that’s just fucking silly, yet it occurs daily worldwide. i haven’t found the words that would tell of genocides: past, present and future deaths. how religions killed, are killing and will kill so many more earth’s children. how a dog looks into your eyes even though this dog doesn’t know you, telling you: i would be your friend and it is a fine day for a walk in the park and i will protect you, when the mailman shows up, would that we look like that at each other once in a while strangers who might become friends who walk in the parks, i will keep looking for those few words in the folds of the kairos that is upon us again and again. portland, oregon / 3.9.2019
19.
night fifty two i walked through the cemetery today with a poet seeking the sun. there is peace here and stories. mainly about some hope for an afterlife. ukrainian row opposite russian row. no arguments now. same god-poetry marble-etched. see, we are all the same in this place. the birds like it here among pines, squirrels errand from grave to grave. yellow tulips just there, it is worth to have a plot for that gift alone. almost. for a moment i recall marina, her gentle word—"i too was, passerby! passerby, stop." i would have, marina, yes, i too laugh from my belly walking through cemeteries, i too would have spoken from tombs to strangers would i have a loan of wind's clever tongue. portland, oregon / 3.10.2019
20.
night fifty three all these nights are color-coded survival, the stench of making it, the cold scent of another twenty-four hours grasping the rungs of this jacob’s ladder, everything has an admission price, each night takes something away, a payment for day’s occupation, one more night for this reason, one more night for another, this night for the music, that night for a poem, this one for a friend, that one to prove i can still stand. how tempting to unclench exhausted hand and just fall. portland, oregon / 3.11.2019
21.
night fifty four it is raining and night fifty four sounds much like nineteen fifty four, i read about bikini atoll and castle bravo. i read about the start of war in guatemala. i read of marilyn monroe and joe di maggio. trying to connect the dots, not to write another poem about portland rain, my mind might as well be an unsolved rubic’s cube—fifty four squares of colors scrambled waiting for clever fingers. there go those sixes and nines again, i am under a roof. i am in a bed. i have eaten rather well today. i give thanks. what do the poorest people do when superheroes in tights save the world? get on with it? how many poets could see their words in print for a price of one super-duper luxury yacht? how many soup kitchens and how many beds, can fit in that house at sixteen hundred pennsylvania avenue? portland, oregon / 3.12.2019
22.
night fifty five night, my night, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍sing me a lullaby, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍an ancient comfort, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍am i not yours to sing, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍made of late highways, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍am i not a mad moonbeam, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍peering through thunderstorms, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍are we not tied in a gordian knot, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍one that every morning tried to cut, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍aren’t we listening to the same cats, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍sinuous movement in our own shade, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍do we not worship the same dying lights, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍arranged in a pattern akin to our bodies, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍do i not offer my sacrifice of bright sand, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍its gravity punctuating every grain’s fall, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍would we not both yearn for jasmine, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍sweet pronouncement of your time, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍would i not burn in your silk-folds, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍tangled moth, eyes on its wings, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍sang i not you blue nocturnes, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍iridescent sings of my love, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍do i not sit wake for stars, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍my heart cold-fusion engine, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍haven’t we startled songbirds, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍those cries waking day-dwellers, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍haven’t we closed flowers gentle, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍to save for the next twilight parade, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍do we not cherish pitter-patter of rain, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍cloud children come to sit on our roofs, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍aren’t we a danube waltz into the streets, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍our one-two-three—rivers of headlights, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍would you not bury me under elm trees, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍a little ash here, a little bone there, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍would you not cover me in velvet, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍in bright red nosebleed vertigoes ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍would i not be your neon sign, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍lettercurve flicker welcoming, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍am i not your true magician, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍locked under your waters, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍aren’t we beautiful trash, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍picked before sunrise, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍aren’t we tall waves, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍amplitude modulated, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍aren’t we a cigarette, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍forgotten aspiration, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍isn’t our stride matched, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍with the old lady luck, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍am i not a mad moonbeam, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍peering through thunderstorms, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍am i not yours to sing, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍made of late highways, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍sing me a lullaby, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍an ancient comfort, ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍night, my night, fifty five. portland, oregon / 3.13.2019
23.
night fifty six to all those who perform you have climbed this tall mountain of a hard day, did a job of work again, emptied your pockets, ate your desperate, reached a ledge, swaying, stood there, the sun of you dim. hit your heart. start! you, old bastard! then stepped off into free fall of a microphone, you may crash and you know the pain of it, but you still step forward, hoping wind of their breath will pick you up on its current hoping you get to glide over canyons of your own dark, taking the last bits of you and throwing them out there: "here’s my joy, here are my nights, soar with me, i’m still burning, still taking you with me on a ride, one more time." portland, oregon / 3.14.2019
24.
night fifty seven the ducks in the pond seem satisfied with their life. feet unseen moving. i'm like a duck in this way, peaceful, but my frantic feet. my friend is happy, seeing the ducks in the pond. little things, my friend. my little thing today was your happiness in the sun. night fifty seven. after a very long day. this shortest story. the ducks, the sun, and my friend. how we find moments grateful. portland, oregon / 3.15.2019
25.
night fifty eight we dream. dream of some distant tomorrow. or maybe, some sweet yesterday. we fantasize and hide from daily nightmares, bad dreams, bad presents or bad presence or just the bad of it all, or maybe it is our mortality that flips that switch, lets us flow in times that aren’t now. i just know that people keep dying. i just know my friend brought me once to a forest and believed i was a totoro. my umbrella under trees, my feet in the canyon waters, my mind—ocean. i mean my mind undying. i mean my mind undead. i mean my mind… i mean my mind has always known flying… i mean the seagull kind of flying, not albatross, not the regret kind of mind, but the soul of lost. i’ve been always afraid, i would die without saying a proper goodbye to the ocean, that i would forget one day how to be a true friend, one that listens longer, stays for that one after last cigarette, so every time i go, i plant my feet in the sand, in the waters, and stare, and say, old friend, i’m glad to have known you, i’m glad to have felt you on my mind, all of your cold, thermodynamically relieving me of my hot anger. of my viscous sadness, that might as well be a syrup for all the saccharine tears smothered on the burnt toast of me, of my not so long, but getting longer years. we dream. we dream. that’s what nights are for. that’s what days can be, please keep dreaming for me, for us, for ocean, for those who can’t dream, please keep dreaming colors, please keep flying for them. portland, oregon / 3.16.2019
26.
night fifty nine very cranky poet. fucky-fuckedy-fuck! not enough minutes in my day, no, no-siree-bob, not nearly enough to get everything done. nope. not enough sleeping, not enough years in my remaining times, there’s not enough this and definitely not enough of that and that. how i look at bored people wondering, how the fuck do you manage this particular feat? can i please have all of your unspent time! pretty afucking please with a damn cherry on the very mountain top! then i take a deepest breath, hold it for a few seconds, exhale and get going again. portland, oregon / 3.17.2019
27.
night sixty 01:37
night sixty somewhere out there, there is a lost pocket knife. a thin slice of foldable metal, alone on cooling cement or dirt, this is what mental fatigue is like: useful tools get lost one by one, not enough emotional space, to mourn the loss, to know that something was lost until many hours later. you just keep moving until you lose some vital part. then you stop cold. cold is lost metal. this lost knife could be a metaphor for wanting to cut all the knots, the tangle of my life, but not wanting to hurt anyone by the sharp of it. maybe that is why i found another pen today. perhaps i will write my way out of this. maybe i will write our way out of this. maybe then our knives will become only things that cut apples to share with friends and strangers. portland, oregon / 3.18.2019
28.
night sixty one cornered dog anger rises snarling, its teeth bare say walk away now. but how unlike a dog is human, fury lit, simmers. do not yell at me, i say, do not yell at me, i can hear you fine, if not for this damn corner i would run somewhere quiet. i am calming this dog within, this maddened beast, in all the corners the world seems to have for me despite all the poking sticks. i long for places where i can finally rest, tell my dog—sleep now. you are safe here, it's quiet, you're free from corners and sticks. portland, oregon / 3.19.2019
29.
night sixty two has this been done? a nocturne for the sun from the dark side of earth. how your photons, your gentle children play joyful, yesterday, in my memory, with cat's fur, with any prisms or clouds, how you give summer to that which tilts toward you generous with your fusion gifts. how you and i both are now middle-aged, you—a star, i—a mammal. how your core and my core later will run out of heart, but still will heat space, by some genius process far too difficult to explain, leave space for a piano part in this whimsical universe, soft light, maybe a little bit violin just above, a cello singing under it all. everything spins. round and round we go, nights and days, seasons and ages, remember that old flame red-haired, who smiled like the sun does yesterday. portland, oregon / 3.20.2019
30.
night sixty three walk through this town, this spring equinox fool, this criss-cross electric, illuminated sleeping saint, its moon-haloed sky above thirsty again for some rainfall, this town got drunk on the sun, a drunk shuffling some place, wants its oil spills on a cover of an art magazine, wants to give you a sloppy kiss, wants to light up a joint, wants a midnight drum solo in a real bad way, this town wants your everything, wants a little bit of help from its friends, wants a beer, a cigarette, wants to paint you with its streets, you, an urban madonna, holding what you conceive, you, the song walking the line, you, a winter blues in a raincoat, you, this town's very last hope for salvation, redemption, for some sort of indefinite love, you, a paradise bird flight, you, a demon dancing, this town wants you. wants to make you its bridge, its gut, wants to wrap its hands around you. wants to make you a heart origami from a lunch bag that glides up division street, serene paper in grease benediction, wants to hold you in light of its golden street lamps, wants to scream hallelujah to the stars in your tired, so very tired, late eyes. portland, oregon / 3.21.2019
31.
night sixty four midnight at baghdad, marvel of projected light, the make-believe life. these empty streets and rare cars, satellite shines up above. sixty-four, meaning: chessboard, new zealand, old age. random facts saved up. sixty-four nights that somehow become a single long tale. how quiet these feet, at the place i, for the lack of a better word, call home, at least for a while, how i learned invisible. how disconnected words seem when the mind is numb just enough to mark a place in this book, save for later an archive packed tight. portland, oregon / 3.22.2019
32.
night sixty five were i to hold my time in weary palms like thirst holds water, spilling precious find, like hunger covets each of fallen crumbs, would i be gentle with its feathers' flight? would i offer this living cup to your streetlights and wet your asphalt satisfied? would you, then, with tender smile, ask for more? would you, an ocean, ask the moon for tide? were you to hold my time, each day and night, like morning lovers hold one another, would you let it go out of your keen sight? would you, a city moon, my howls gather? were i to hold my time or you hold mine, would we still be subjects to spring sunshine? portland, oregon / 3.23.2019
33.
night sixty six the lamentations of never taken highways stare us down come night. in stale rooms we feel the wind on our faces, freedom lost. we trade the ocean for some quite important task without asking heart. it still beats but keeps its rhythm with ticking clocks, tides forgot. we save the kisses for a more convenient time. that hour does not come. our lips, afterthought cracked thirst, crave the water of mistakes. would that we take pause from our predetermined paths kiss the ocean deep, get in a car, drive farther than our wildest far desires. portland, oregon / 3.24.2019

about

"poetry of poverty, songs of survival.
i say, would you, a city moon,
my howls gather?

33 more nights
33 more poems"

This is an audio version of the second volume in the series of poems titled 'nights since'. Since January 18th, 2019 Igor has written a poem each night for 363 nights. These mostly raw and unedited poems are about life, all of it, as colored by being without a permanent home.

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released May 5, 2021

Recorded by Brian Bauer at Shady Pines Media in Portland, OR.
www.shadypinesmedia.com

Released with assistance from Lightship Press.
www.lightshippress.com

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Igor Brezhnev Portland, Oregon

Igor Brezhnev is a poet, an author and an artist, amongst his other sins. He has first-hand experience with confronting depression, homelessness, poverty, and xenophobia, as well as more common ailments like heartbreak and spilled coffee. Igor has authored three books: the book of possibilities (2012), dearest void (2016) and america is a dry cookie and other love stories (2018). ... more

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