Poem: Beginning with Two Lines from Rexroth

Ray Gonzalez’s prose poem “Beginning with Two Lines from Rexroth” begins with the opening line:

I see the unwritten books, the unrecorded experiments, the unpainted pictures, the interrupted lives, a staircase leading to a guarantee, the glowing frame of wisdom protecting me from harm after I escape the questions of a lifetime.

There’s an urgency to these lines that remind me of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl.” Also, there is a strong collision of abstract ideas and images as in the following line:

There is no agony and waste, only the steps into the frontier where it is easy to hide.

There’s an interview with Ray Gonzalez on Bombsite where he discussed who he crafts line and prose poems.