March 22 
At the party I saw Daphne Merkin
for the first time since her piece
in The New Yorker about liking
to be spanked also Nan Graham
of Scribner and Barbara Grossman
of Viking I told Phoebe Hoban
I put her in a poem it starts
"when happiness falls" that's
Rilke she said you're right I
said Robert Polito was in a glow
of elation he had won the prize
I told Kristine I like your earrings
Kristine said I like your vest
I gave Mary Karr my card and she
reciprocated with a deposit slip
with her phone number on it
& lets have lunch in Ithaca
Robert said I should deposit some
money in her account as an earnest
of my interest but how would she
know it's from me I replied seeing
her hand out a deposit slip to Carlin
Romano and it was still raining when
we went to Sardinia to celebrate Robert
April 24
Six professors from Toyota
University are slurping their soup
while I eat my sashimi and read
the Post my horoscope ("don't
be a sourpuss") lends credence
to the rest of the paper my
last class at Columbia was today
I read them an Ashbery poem,
"Myrtle," not saying it was by
Ashbery, and one of them said it sounded
like an imitator of Ashbery
and I said if you could write
"Lycidas" today without knowing
Milton's poem it would be
a superior achievement then back
to my room I went and no messages
were waiting for me good old radio
you always come to the rescue
with a trumpet and piano duet
and here's the tenor sax Joe
Henderson whose birthday it is
to prevent me from being a sourpuss
May 1
May Day meaning "help me"
puts April out of its misery
the morning rings Mary Beth
has a migraine and can't come
to Erica's cabaret but Bill Wadsworth
and Jaye invite me to dinner
at Cafe Loup and Hamilton Cain
is happy the cover art looks
great a Jane Freilicher still life
Glen and Lynn aren't so
happy about tearing down a wall
in the new unbought loft
I however reread my recent poems
and think the guy who wrote
these is happy and has the voice
of Chet Baker in his mind
singing I fall in love too easily
I fall in love too fast
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