Michael Basinski
Singing Alligators
Basinski, could you tell our readers who in the realm of the poem has been your greatest influence?
M. Pernelet, for sure, I mean his poem, “Singing Alligators.” It’s a masterpiece. You see, back in 1882, Pernelet gathered fourteen alligators from the Louisiana swamps and some of Sobek’s sweet crocodiles from ol’ Egypt’s hot Nile.
It cost him a soul’s fortune, an’ it was all his time and he could have been, you know, owned a pizza shop or worked for Mutual of Omaha. But day in and day out, he labored, himself for himself, like Odin in the tree, with nets and stuff he caught those leathery, logy lizards. It was a huge personal risk. But, so what, he had a vision, an’ come Hell or high water his ensemble of reptiles was gunna be The Rolling Stones of the animal kingdom.
So, Pernelet worked more than twenty years to mold the saurians into a chorus, like the Mormon Tabernacles. At first he could only get them to take food from his hands, which were covered in scars. But he never lost a hand like Lon Chaney Jr. in The Alligator People. But he did lose two of his fingers. O well, Keats and Poe were missing fingers, I think, at least or maybe it was Ginsberg?
Anyway, it was just a punishment for his falling in love, unrequited, and for his subsequent drinking. He felt he had to suffer for his sulky teenage passion insatiable ragging need. It cost him decades, agony, dragging the cross up the hill, and dipping his dick in acid but then: results.
He would get into the saurian tank with his fourteen reptiliforms and conduct his own compositions of choral beautiful discordant and blood curdling strange marvelous pure poetry. Here, let me offer this sample:
Yerp, YERP, yerp, deep growl, all GROWL, yerp erp, yerp, urp, deep growl, faaaaaaa, low boom, boom in B flat, a boom BOOM, BOOM, urp, yerp high pitch yerp, yerp, Boom boom boom boom, grunt, grunt, gruntyerp boomyerp yerp, croak, yerpcroak, hisssssssss, all HISSSSSSS, boom, deep growl, booming boom like a sonic boom, various tuba sounds, yerp, low boom, growl hissssss, all HisssSSSSSSS, cough, rumbling bellow, YERP, deep bellow, deep growl, growl echo and yodel, and various monster noises.*
*For solo, or better, choral performance. Realize the phrases in sound, sound words, soundy noise the score, sneak the word fuck into the composition if desired, and do onomatopoeia. Listen and orchestrate. Improvise. For variable duration.
People in general, critics and grad students thought that the gators and crocs were just roaring, that Pernelet’s music was an assault on their ears, and they shuddered and trembled. Some heard the word fuck in the poem and some went into a shock and threw themselves to the floor and writhed, and some left the auditorium, and they never bought Pernelet’s books of poetry. Later they just shook their heads after eating their Chinese food. Pernelet. knew that they based worth on the endless repetition of forms and, you know, same old, same old. He didn’t care. He was content in his own temple of lost love. And, then he died, laughing.
William Blake’s ghost sang:
“Come live and be merry, and join with me,
To sing the sweet chorus of ‘Ha, ha, he!’
The Hall of Bulls
For ensemble recitation. The ensemble is split in two and they face each other. They are in perpetual motion. Options: Variously solo and/or choral. Duration approximately five minutes. There is some silence. Respect other reciters. One of the bulls is louder than the rest. Moderate pace. Answering tone (as in answering a telephone). There is only one bear in the Hall of Bulls. Allow the bear to solo. Choose five questions and answer them. Choose another five questions and answer them. Continue this pattern until end.
Why do four black bulls dominate the frieze?
Why is there a long line of aurochs?
Why does the horse’s head and neck have a fuzzy mane?
Why is the unicorn mysterious?
What is hunting magic?
Why is red used so often?
How many aurochs are there?
Why is there only one bear?
Why are there fewer stags than bulls?
Why do they call it the Hall of Bulls?
Where are the bulls?
Where are the equines?
Why do six small deer rush by in the dusk?
Why are the bulls in motion?
Did the artists work deliberately?
Why is there only one unicorn?
Why does the only bear live in the belly of an auroch?
Why is there only one bear?
Why does the bear have no eyes?
Why is the bear the color of moon milk?
Does the hall refer to the fall of the year?
What past do the bulls tell us about?
What is our Paleolithic past?
What are the unknown uses of art?
What patterns are prominent?
What details are prominent?
What do bulls tell us about survival?
Was art important in 17,000 BCE?
Where are the bulls? Send in the bulls.
What did you saw?
How do you disembowel a bison?
Can you use a religious ritual?
Can you use a story?
Does size show scale?
What is the purpose of the Hall of Bulls?
Why is the largest bull almost 12 feet long?
Were the bulls on a common ground line?
Why do some bulls float?
Are there any bull clouds?
Are these bulls of the imagination?
What did the rhinoceros sound like in 15,000 BCE?
Why was the disemboweled bison disemboweled?
Was the wounded man a poet?
What do the two rows of three dots under the bison’s tail mean?
Why was the bison filled with bristling rage?
Why does the bird-faced man have only four fingers on his hands?
Why is the bird-faced man painted without detail?
Why does the man have explicit genitals?
Is he wounded?
Is he dead?
Is he leaning against a tree?
Do the staff and spear belong to him?
Was he injured by the bulls?
Do bulls imagine narratives?
Is the man a shaman?
How many bull spirits still reside in the cave?
What are the bulls running toward?
How often do you communicate with the spirts of bulls?
Did they know the word bull?
Why is there a long line of aurochs?
Are you there now?
Are you painted on the wall in a form of cave?
Why is a one horse headless?
Is the bear human?
Why is the stag so small?
Why is one grouping made of six bulls?
Why is there an procession of engraved black horses?
Why does one horse have a turned back foot?
Why do some horses have beards?
Do you like bulls?
Why is there a long line of horses in the Hall of the Bulls?