The Midnite Show

The Midnite Show

By Jonathan Williams 1929–2008 Jonathan Williams
Red-Wigglers, Night-Crawlers
& Other Worms
look out
into the crapulous moonlight:
 
figures of women cascading through the Sunday night;
 
no beer in sight.
 
I remember the Night-blooming
Cereus by Dr. Thornton, Engraver, Blake’s
patron, it
hangs in the hall outside the bedroom
swaying hungrily like these
giant white goddesses of the dark grotto…
 
there are touring cars
and men with large guns
singing through the woods
 
behind us.
 


Jonathan Williams, "The Midnite Show" from Jubilant Thicket: New & Selected Poems. Copyright © 2005 by Jonathan Williams.  Reprinted by permission of Copper Canyon Press.

Source: Jubilant Thicket: New & Selected Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 2005)

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Poet Jonathan Williams 1929–2008

POET’S REGION U.S., Southern

SCHOOL / PERIOD Black Mountain

Subjects Nature, Summer, Social Commentaries, Town & Country Life

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Biography

Founder of the Jargon Society and publisher of Jargon Press, Jonathan Williams was born in Asheville, North Carolina. He attended St. Albans School in Washington, DC, and then Princeton University before dropping out to attend the Chicago Institute of Design and Black Mountain College. A photographer and graphic artist, his books include An Ear in Bartram’s Tree: Selected Poems, 1957-1967 (1969), Strung Out with Elgar on a . . .

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Poems by Jonathan Williams

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SUBJECT Nature, Summer, Social Commentaries, Town & Country Life

POET’S REGION U.S., Southern

SCHOOL / PERIOD Black Mountain

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Originally appeared in Poetry magazine.

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