[Every time I say “ , ” it refers to you.” – Louise Glück] In the pause I wait for you, for you to say something other than silence in this dreadly-comma’d pause. … [Read more...]
“Thirst” / Memorable Fancies #1722
4 January, 2017 by Leave a Comment
[“I drank you and still felt a thirst” – Apollinaire] I thought it was thirst for more of you, that I could never have enough, that I would hunt and gain you or be tortured by unquenchable thirst. And I did all that – pursue and gain you, I mean. But the thirst – remained. … [Read more...]
“What I Said” / Memorable Fancies #1700
10 December, 2016 by Leave a Comment
[“...irreducibly multiple meanings which continuously determine each other.” – Judith Butler] When she repeated what I said, it didn’t sound at all like what I’d said. The words were pretty much the same, but the ugly voice – and the twisted face – and the mocking, the mocking... [Click ‘Random Post’ above – be astonished] … [Read more...]
“My Absence” / Memorable Fancies #1685
25 November, 2016 by Leave a Comment
[“The fiction of my absence” – Leonard Cohen] I make up stories about why you’ve gone away, why you’re not here, why you no longer listen to my own deep self-serving fictions,... [Click ‘Random Post’ above – be astonished] … [Read more...]
“Wounds Invisible” / Memorable Fancies #1666
4 November, 2016 by Leave a Comment
[“...the wounds invisible / That love’s keen arrows make” – Shakespeare] I’m looking for my invisible wounds, searching my body. I know they must be here somewhere. ... But if the wounds aren’t in me, they must be in – her. [Click ‘Random Post’ above – be astonished] … [Read more...]
“The Naming” / Memorable Fancies #1642
9 October, 2016 by Leave a Comment
[“Once your name was Therefore / then Rubble / then Ash” – Michael Palmer] Because her name was Always / then Forget It / then Go Away Ass Hole. [Click ‘Random Post’ above – be astonished] … [Read more...]
“Imaginary Love” / Memorable Fancies #1627
26 September, 2016 by Leave a Comment
[“‘You’ are eternally belated to the conversation with you that I am imagining.” – Lauren Berland] And finally when you show up there’s nothing left for me to tell you. I’ve already had my say, that final devastating confrontation that left imaginary-you without any possible response to imaginary-me. [Click ‘Random Post’ above – be astonished] … [Read more...]
“My Memory Problem” / Memorable Fancies #1585
25 July, 2016 by Leave a Comment
[“Stifling my memory lest it make a sound” – John Ashbery] I’ve seen physicians about my memory problem, read books on the subject, taken advice variously profound and silly. But my memory problem persists: I still remember her; I still remember her. [Click ‘Random Post’ above – be astonished] … [Read more...]
“‘I married a stranger'” / Memorable Fancies #1582
21 July, 2016 by Leave a Comment
“ I married a stranger,” she said. “Of course, you weren’t a stranger then – not then, anyway.” [Click ‘Random Post’ above – be astonished] … [Read more...]
“The Revival” / Memorable Fancies #1524
24 April, 2016 by Leave a Comment
We’ve revived the sacred old tradition, known to the Greeks, the Romans, and many other ancient peoples, of temple prostitutes. You can hear the parishioners at worship now, yelling “O GOD O GOD O GOD.” <END> Click on "Random Post" above - see something new. … [Read more...]
“Act of Love” / Memorable Fancies #1521
21 April, 2016 by Leave a Comment
[“...the strategic enumeration of the passions and the meetings.” – Alain Badiou, Rhapsody for the Theatre] I’ve numbered all the times when we’ve been passionate together, or when I’ve been, anyway, and you were at least complaisant. Sometimes, I thought you were just acting; always, I was. … [Read more...]
“Three’s a Crowd” / Memorable Fancies #1458
3 February, 2016 by Leave a Comment
[“...saying two is company when the third person is the person darkly spoken of” – Finnegan’s Wake] For an additional fee, our dating firm supplies third persons so that our clients can reflect positively on their twosomeness, their wish to be alone by themselves together. Many satisfied clients tell us it adds to their dating experience. We are also hiring third persons for part-time positions. Call this number now. <END> Buy it at amazon.com/author/terencekuch: For Anacreon, 30 … [Read more...]
“I Saw You Everywhere” / Memorable Fancies #1439
15 January, 2016 by Leave a Comment
[“At first, I saw you everywhere.” – Louise Glück] But those others weren’t you. Finally I realized that you weren’t you, either. <END> Buy it at amazon.com/author/terencekuch: For Anacreon, 30 poems of love and life from the ancient Greek poet (originally published as a chapbook by Silkworms Ink). … [Read more...]
“Little House” / Memorable Fancies #1434
10 January, 2016 by Leave a Comment
[“lady will you come with me into / the extremely little house of / my mind.” – e.e.cummings] There’s not much to see here, but there’s no hidden furniture, either. <END> Buy it at amazon.com/author/terencekuch: For Anacreon, 30 poems of love and life from the ancient Greek poet (originally published as a chapbook by Silkworms Ink). … [Read more...]
“Please Don’t!” / Memorable Fancies #1407
14 December, 2015 by Leave a Comment
[“Don’t / (for)Please(tnights, ... eternal pleasedon’t; /” – e.e.cummings] I can’t forget the pleasedon’ts and then what I didanyway and how I wanted it toend except I can’t ever forget the pleasedon’ts and how it all keeps happeninganyway <END> Buy it at amazon.com/author/terencekuch: For Anacreon, 30 poems of love and life from the ancient Greek poet (originally published as a chapbook by Silkworms Ink). … [Read more...]
“Cul-de-Sac” / Memorable Fancies #1394
1 December, 2015 by Leave a Comment
[“It is best to meet in a cul-de-sac” – Sylvia Plath] because we have to leave by the same exit, and we will not be separate for at least that moment -- no matter how separate we were before, together. <END> Buy it at amazon.com/author/terencekuch: Everything Wants to Happen, the first thousand Memorable Fancies from this blog, revised and updated. … [Read more...]
“The Darkness” / Memorable Fancies #1392
29 November, 2015 by Leave a Comment
[“Show me you are not the light I called to / but the blackness behind it.” – Louise Glück] Was that first rush of madness hers, or mine? Yours, she says; now I’m just like you. But how could I love you if I had not answered your call, that first time, your invitation to share the calling darkness of your mind? <END> Buy it at amazon.com/author/terencekuch: For Anacreon, 30 poems of love and life from the ancient Greek poet (originally published as a chapbook by Silkworms Ink). … [Read more...]
“Recognizing Her” / Memorable Fancies #1370
7 November, 2015 by Leave a Comment
[“Years later, I recognized her walk a block away.” – Ron Silliman] but not her face. I guess I never looked at it much. <END> The writer at One More Page Books, Arlington, Virginia … [Read more...]
“I want to be your past, or, What are you doing last year?” / Memorable Fancies #1365
2 November, 2015 by Leave a Comment
[“Are you my now?” – Stacy Doris] Let’s just cut to the chase here: I want to be your past, so you can wonder where I went, what I might be doing now, without the nuisance of having to live through all that crap with me again for the first time. <END> Buy it at amazon.com/author/terencekuch: For Anacreon, 30 poems of love and life from the ancient Greek poet (originally published as a chapbook by Silkworms Ink). … [Read more...]
“Love That Sofa” / Memorable Fancies #1162
5 April, 2015 by Leave a Comment
[“4. What type of relationship would you rather have with furniture?” – question from a Survey Monkey survey, March, 2015.] Dear Monkey: I have a problem with my current relationship with furniture. Usually it’s just walking-into, or banging-knees-on, but more recently, as I age, it’s inability-to-get-up-from-without-a-lot-of-effort, or sleeping-all-night-on-when-I-just-wanted-a-nap. The relationship I really want is for me to be the boss: my furniture does what I want it to, and … [Read more...]
“Analogy of Love” / Memorable Fancies #1123
24 February, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The doctor waits for the patient. The patient waits for the doctor. There is an issue here, as neither is willing to not-wait for the other. It’s a standoff: the doctor pratices no medicine, and the patient is not cured. “See,” my friend said to me one day, “that’s how she treats me, like the doctor who waits, waits, while I do the same.” <END> Buy it on Amazon: For Anacreon, 30 poems of love and life based on the ancient Greek poet. … [Read more...]
“Pretend” / Memorable Fancies #1114
14 February, 2015 by 1 Comment
[“Can I pretend that I don’t know and you tell me all over again?” – Alan Bennett] So then you pretend to tell me and I pretend to listen. Is it always the same words, those words you say to me, the words I almost hear? <END> Buy it on Amazon: For Anacreon, 30 poems of love and life based on the ancient Greek poet. … [Read more...]
“The Conversation” / Memorable Fancies #1109
9 February, 2015 by Leave a Comment
[“So I assumed a double part, and cried / And heard another's voice cry” – Eliot, Little Gidding] It was a typical conversation between her and me: she was out somewhere and I spoke for her as well as for myself: the condemnations, the excuses, the lies. I accomplished quite a bit of relationship-building this way, over the weeks and months. But one day she didn’t return. And so the conversation continued, more corrosive and pleasing than ever. <END> Buy it on Amazon: … [Read more...]
“Leaving” / Memorable Fancies #788
30 July, 2014 by 1 Comment
[“Sometimes I forget which is my shadow and which is your shadow” – Roberto Bolaño] Our shadows merge when I embrace you. I’ve always noticed this with pleasure, even remarked on it a few times. You didn’t seem to find it romantic or even amusing, but I did. One day when we were together I saw your shadow leaving. <END> THE WEDNESDAY PITCH If you liked this post, please tell your friends and share a comment here, in Facebook, or on other social … [Read more...]
“Last Night” / Memorable Fancies #624
24 February, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Last night, after thunder and downpour woke me, after I thought to make coffee but fell asleep again instead – Last night I had you with me, just as I had dreamed before: once more my fingers traced the edges of your lips and circumnavigated your narrow breasts again, as I dreamed I would, again. <END> THE MONDAY PITCH If you liked this post, please tell your friends and share a comment here or in StumbleUpon, Reddit, Facebook, or other social websites. COMING … [Read more...]
“the lover” / Memorable Fancies #560
26 December, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Where is your lover? She's gone. Is there nothing left, at all? Rushing to fill the vacuum, remembered touch. <END> If you liked this post, please tell your friends and share a comment here or in StumbleUpon, Reddit, Facebook, or other social websites. Subscriptions to this blog are available at www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch or at www.bit.ly/Fancies. – or you can just Follow this blog. You can also buy one or both of my commercially published novels on … [Read more...]
“Paths” / Memorable Fancies #539
5 December, 2013 by Leave a Comment
I’m watching her face The path her tears would make But she kept them to herself Like a miser’s hoard. <END> If you liked this post, please tell your friends and share a comment here or in StumbleUpon, Reddit, Facebook, or other social websites. Subscriptions to this blog are available at www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch or at www.bit.ly/Fancies. – or you can just Follow this blog. You can also buy one or both of my commercially published novels on Amazon. For … [Read more...]
“About Face” / Memorable Fancies #531
27 November, 2013 by Leave a Comment
[“The face of love, to her, / is the face turning away.” – Louise Glück] Turning away he said something I didn’t catch, and then he wouldn’t repeat it when I asked. “You know,” he said, “what I said.” “I know,” I said, “what you said,” imagining everything unreal I could, instead. He was better in profile, anyway. <END> If you liked this post, please tell your friends and share a comment here or in StumbleUpon, Reddit, Facebook, or other social websites. … [Read more...]
“The Anatomy Lesson” / Memorable Fancies #529
24 November, 2013 by Leave a Comment
I recited the taxonomy of her parts, thought to touch each one as if she were Rembrandt’s Anatomy Lesson, students peering at her spectacular form, fumbling in their texts to find cold type for each warm part. But I, I touched no parts at all but only her spectacular form, entire. <END> If you liked this post, please tell your friends and share a comment here or in StumbleUpon, Reddit, Facebook, or other social websites. Subscriptions to this blog are … [Read more...]
“Speak” / Memorable Fancies #525
20 November, 2013 by Leave a Comment
“I think if I speak long enough / I will answer that question,…” -- Louise Glück, Poems Just tell me why, he said, as I went on and on. Yes or no, he said, did you or didn’t you, as my words reached out to him in all their truth and confusion. <END> If you liked this post, please tell your friends and share a comment here or in StumbleUpon, Reddit, Facebook, or other social websites. Subscriptions to this blog are available at www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch or at … [Read more...]
“The Two” / Memorable Fancies #524
19 November, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Two people combine their memories so that both have experienced what each has. This is a difficult and ancient technique from the Far East that takes many years to learn. It is supposed to bind the two together in love. But it never quite works out that way. <END> If you liked this post, please tell your friends and share a comment here or in StumbleUpon, Reddit, Facebook, or other social websites. Subscriptions to this blog are available at … [Read more...]
“Bonds” / Memorable Fancies #433
18 August, 2013 by Leave a Comment
We had business to discuss, you and I, something about investment-grade bonds: their maturities, their interest and risk. But all the time we talked I watched your eyes, your lips – their slow and measured movement when you speak. We’re showing our age, you and I, not surprising after all these years, but age – age graces you. It’s difficult for me to talk about investment-grade bonds right now, because your eyes are moving to your sweet supple speech as they have since … [Read more...]
“Three Memories of Love” / A Memorable Fancy / Dark and Unexpected Fiction #369
11 June, 2013 by Leave a Comment
[“I have dreamed so much of you that you are losing your reality.” – Robert Desnos] 1. I don’t remember falling in love with you. I don’t remember when it happened, or what I was thinking of just then, or what I said before or what you said after, or perhaps nothing at all was said; but somehow it – just was. 2. Every memory of you, every time I think of – us, removes that time from my mind; it’s excised scrape by scrape. I remember that I used to have memories of us. I remember that … [Read more...]
“An Answer” / A Memorable Fancy #295
29 March, 2013 by Leave a Comment
[“Just when a man needs his sleep!” – Tirez sur le pianist] The question of love comes up again just when she has me at a disadvantage, warm and sleepy and touching her soft skin and willing to say just about anything to get some sleep. She asks again and what can I say? So perhaps I don’t quite say it. As if “I love you” could be an answer. … [Read more...]
“Original Face” / A Memorable Fancy #279
13 March, 2013 by Leave a Comment
When he met her for the first time, he had memorized her face and voice, how she moved, not her appearance itself but how these features meant to him, if he thought her face pretty or striking or out of proportion, her voice high or low – because he knew that with time and accustoming he would not see her face, hear her voice in the same way, could not recapture his original thought of her unless now he noted and remembered. Much later, he is trying to recapture that memory of her from … [Read more...]
“The Two-Dimensional Lover” / A Memorable Fancy #038
15 January, 2013 by Leave a Comment
“No, not that way. Turn to the right ... just a little ... there!” To his eyes, now, she is only an edge, a line. She doesn’t look right if he sees her straight on. At some angles she almost disappears. He likes her that way. He smiles. … [Read more...]
“The Forgettery” / Memorable Fancies #208
14 January, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Today I visited the Forgettery and paid them so that I would forget about – a woman, I think – what was her name? I remember that it was a big effort to forget about her and it took the specialists more than a day or two, but it must have been worth it, right? Or I wouldn’t have done it, wouldn’t have paid the Forgettery so much. But now I’m free of her. If we were to meet at a party, now, I wouldn’t recognize her. But I might be attracted to her again – might go through the same – whatever … [Read more...]
“Crazy in Love” / A Memorable Fancy #198
25 December, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Crazy in love; that’s what I told myself it was, But words are the lies we use when there’s nothing else to say. … [Read more...]
“Dreams of Love” / A Memorable Fancy #175
29 November, 2012 by Leave a Comment
What has she dreamed about you? Yes, that’s right, where you have no control, where you might have done – horrible things your conscious life forbids. Would she tell you what you did in her dreams? Not the horrible things; maybe not even the good things. Or she’s saving the horrible things for just the right time to relate, perhaps at a party with you cringing beside her and turning red. But what if she never dreamed of you at all? In all those years? Wouldn’t a few horrible things … [Read more...]
Memorable Fancies 