J 3

o ryan 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10 charles

olson WHlTE RABBJT PRESS

Copyright 1965 by Charles Olson

O'RYAN 1

Overall, mover of the unnumbered

who did twelve labors, rose at 4 AM. And when I complained that I could not do as much, she turned it on me this way, that if he went to bed at 2 and rose at 4, you rise at 2 and go to bed at 4. I thinking, how neat. And necessary, we who don't have God to encourage us, at least that aim in the business. Or think women as much as those did who had God We love em, we do not do without em our necks are bent, we do see the reflection, we do know who's who, how what we ride rides us, how there are twelve houses to be got through: what one are you at, fellow fellow? My purpose

is to invoke you, not at all any muse. Or at least none

that you are beholden to, that you know by taking sight, by merely looking up. No zodiac neither the one which comes after pleasure, nor that one after labors. The cincture now, the emblem of the championship, is care -by your mother's fire. And sleep- sometime sodden sleep.

I don't read your face. Or you mine. By looking up or down. Neither the light nor the dark do we brawn by. We do it all, I take it, my fellow.

Will you join me in one on the house?

Shall we drink to the ladies?

O'RYAN 2

Tell me something, tell me how you got that way

how'dya lose your what stuck you in the pants

why did they ask you to take on so much

Tell me something, tell me what made you do it

why did you buy so much shit

how come you got so far off the rail

tell me, where are you nowadays, what makes you

look so warm in the eye, who told you your flesh is

as rosy as your baby's, as rosy as

Rosy, as, your moth-er's, as who got you up

in the morning in the morning

Tell me: how'dya get up? how did you

stand up after all that lying down

what took that look off

your face, how come you shine, no shine

at all, all white and lookip.g all over

hey, bruiser: tell me

something

O'RYAN 3

I heard they got you on a rape charge

I

Or was it mugging Or just minding

your own business, that you looked too much like your fellow men?

was it they burned you on the yellow tree?

O'RYAN 4

The story starts. It's cinema

Mah Or chuck, chuck, I'll play with your rosy

Kate's the.girl for a sail-

or for a

bosun, a gunner, a­merican (heave me a

sigh, he said, I lost her, I lost her

by saying too much by opening my mouth

And who comes along but a sly guy, a guy

who doesn't do anything but sigh - and of course

she was his, of course

We couldn't love you if we didn't love you

with our mouth shut

O'RYAN 5

In other words there ain't no villain in this ,piece, none at all.

There isn't any, anyway. You find me one.

who isn't some stinking sonofabitch of a man

O'RYAN 6

Your mother's. Your mother's like they say

in a Chinese novel, to be as straight about it as a sign can

As a sign in a can

We begin, that way.

Virgin. OK.

And let her rest, let her if you can give it to her

if you can give it to her soul, if you can find out what you owe her, what peace

a woman is, how you are all there or you ain't, you haven't

slaked her thirst, you haven't What a man has to do, he has to

meet his mother in hell

O'RYAN 7

Woman is a man's all cause

A man don't have no other

He can look, he's got plenty, it's a short

he's got all the sky to get up into, to get off his

But a woman is a man's . yes

yes yes

O'RYAN 8

He was all lit up like a pinball machine

a son of the working classes

He came down on her in the middle of the road

he belted her, he pinned his shoulders to her

And he scowled right through his back

O'RYAN 9

It's that way that's all whether you like it or not

even if you can get it all prettied up

Or you're that damned fool literate you buy store bought clothes

Don't fool yourself Underneath all them poems

it's night

you got a hard on

and it's

to be made

O'RYAN 10

He loved a girl And her name was Woods.

He wooed her in the Maytime, he wooed her in the fall

He wooed her after all the others, he wooed her in his shoes, he wooed her in the creases between his rotten toes

He wooed her even though she threw the book at him he ran as fast as he could run to keep his first look at her bum

She knew her business like the smartest one, a female as the poems say she got him and she slew him, he was that far gone· he couldn't leave off, she was so much his poison so much his dish, he'd turn on a dime to give her her wish

But the thing they didn't know who didn't know him, was he knew how she looked when she looked at him

And now you can see, there's a moral here. It happened in Crete. Or if you're discreet,

I can tell you more: it's no different, just down the street

Edition of 1000 copies, plus 26 copies hard-bound and lettered A-Z, printed and designed by Graham Mackin­tosh at the White Rabbit Press, September 1965. The cover by Jess is taken from the original edition of 0' Ryan 2-4-6-8-10 which was published by Joe Dunn at the White Rabbit Press in an edition of 300 copies. September 1958.

z4 ALLEN ST. SAN FRANCISCO