RONATHON! A Reading from book IV of the Umapine Tetralogy, FRAM

The final installment of Ronald H. Bayes recordings: selections from FRAM.

RONATHON! A reading from book III of the Umapine Tetralogy

Ron Bayes reads selections from TOKYO ANNEX, the third book in the Umapine Tetralogy. These recordings are compiled from the audio production, RON BAYES' HIT POETRY, available through the St. Andrews Press.

RONATHON! A reading from book II of the Umapine Tetralogy

Ronald H. Bayes reads from PORPOISE, the second volume of the Umapine Tetralogy. This recording appears on his audio cd, RON BAYES' GREATEST HITS, available through the St. Andrews Press.

RONATHON! Selections from HISTORY OF THE TURTLE

Ronald H. Bayes reads selections from The History of the Turtle on his audio cd, RON BAYES' GREATEST HITS.

RONATHON! The Recordings: RON BAYES' HIT POETRY

For the grand finale of RONATHON! A CELEBRATION OF THE POETRY OF RONALD H. BAYES, I give you readings of some of his most popular work. These recordings are from the audio publication, Ron Bayes' Hit Poetry, available through the St. Andrews Press.


The first, Going South, features a picture of Ron with Black Mountain poet Robert Creeley, wife Bobbie, their children, and poet Larry Goodell in Placitas, NM, circa 1960.

RONATHON! GUISES: A CHAINSONG FOR THE MUSE

Ronald H. Bayes' GUISES: A CHAINSONG FOR THE MUSE, NEW & SELECTED POEMS 1970-1990, was published 1992 by Northern Lights Press. The title poem was lauded by Carolyn Kizer as "...one of the best poems Bayes has ever written." Here it is in full.



GUISES: A CHAINSONG FOR THE MUSE
--To Joshu

I.

I am here
the fourth time,
16 years to the day since the last
I discover by calendar (not plan)
in my room in the Esja Hotel, Reykjavik,
not even built then!
27 years since the first: & in the 26th
year thereof, the first time in your arms
through that dearest one of three
even then your surrogates.

We are each always in a different guise,
but in this guise I've not by odds
as long to live again, by half, where
you we know eternal.

You lower your eyes.
Beautiful!

The drumbeat of the rain.
The mountain across and
the bay half hidden.

          Joash was seven years old
          when he began to reign, and
          he reigned forty years in
          Jerusalem. His mother's name also
          was Zibiah of Beersheba.

          And Joash did that which was
          right in the sight of the Lord all
          the days of Jehoiada the priest.
          And Jehoiada took for him
          two wives; and he begat sons and
          daughters.

          And it came to pass that after this
          Joash was minded to repair
          the house of the Lord.

          All time is in time.
          All time is out of time.

The bay half hidden.
Beautiful!

II.

The child is going
back to

RONATHON! A BEAST IN VIEW

1985 saw the publication of Ronald H. Bayes' A BEAST IN VIEW: SELECTED SHORTER POEMS 1970-1980.

Black Mountaineer Joel Oppenheimer wrote,

"the poetry of ron bayes has always been rich, perceptive, witty, moving. "A Beast In View" keeps extending the limits he deals with while maintaining the strengths. in other words there's always more to tell me about that i need to hear. i'm jealous and delighted at how real language, puns, and "lit'ry" merge, touch, shy away from each other to make this good music."



          GEOGRAPHIES OF THE MORAL BRUTE

Lawyer: Look, she's left hairpins all over the floor again.
Officer: So he has discovered the hairpins too.
                               --Strindberg: "A Dream Play"

I. (Northern Virginal)

"Kiss me
til I bleed,"
she said.

I did.
She bled.

II. (Southern Virginal)

She pled
"Hump me
til ah faint."

Ah trahd.
Ah kaint.

III. (Universal Virginal)

Our only health
is our disease?

Heaven help us to the
Sulpha, please.




          THAT DAY IN THE SHADOW OF APOLLO

Yukio, you in the garden were

RONATHON! The Umapine Tetralogy: FRAM

The final installment in Ron Bayes' Umapine Tetralogy is FRAM (Pynyon Press, 1979).


PASSUS I

          Riddled,
          We are all changed
          & our loves changed too,
          but we are not.

          Kilter,
          coulter,
          plough & furrow.
          I riddle you so.



PASSUS X

          1.

          Ten at night:
          "The bundle heart, he said.
          Was he asleep?

          2.

          "When the hats come down," he said.
          Was I awake?
          It was 4 a.m. when I could see the watch.



PASSUS XI

          Wild one tucked into my arm,
          I know who wins,
          I know who wins.

          This dance-athon,
          this

RONATHON! The Umapine Tetralogy: TOKYO ANNEX

The third book in Ronald H. Bayes' Umapine Tetralogy is TOKYO ANNEX (St. Andrews Press, 1977).


PASSUS 11

"Only one teacher ever had much interest in me
before, when I was a student @ the academy
in Albuquerque & was just a tough
ornery little bastard. He thought I had some
ideas," sd Les Porter
on our way to the Pendleton airport.
"He was a young poet, too, I
don't remember his name,
I
wonder if he made it."

BY ANY CHANCE HAVE ONE EYE? "Yes."
WEAR A BEARD? "Yes."


1957-8
1964-Now.                (...7 days later, Creeley