Charles Jensen | Writer

       No one is
Exquisite anymore.  The river is so small now

It will be hard to drown
In It.  And still this world’s a pretty one.

      What world.

— “Herculaneum”


Here is the maudlin petty bourgeoisie of ruin.

— “Basic Poem in a Basic Tongue”


I cannot tell you this, not now, not ever, even
In the letter I have written that is so epic

That if you were to open it, the pages would sail out
In the wind like confection moths being born

— “Self-Portrait with Her Hair on Fire”


              Let me list here the things I wish to bring with me,
For the life after this or that.  I will not go back the way I came

  — “The One Theme of Which Everything Else Is a Variation