Poetry of Joel Bettridge > Woodland Pattern Book Center

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Joel Bettridge

Joel Bettridge is author of That Abrupt Here (Cultural Society, 2007). Joel is currently editing a collection of essays on Ronald Johnson for the National Poetry Foundation's Life and Work series. He lives in Portland.

For All Appearance

Joel Bettridge

Impressed to affection
after all
the kind of talk we
come to expect to hear from
elected officials and

bedfellows
for example
To make palatable

my choices of
formal organization
a problem of
your neckline and what it
suggests of what I'm sure

are any

number of

personal qualities
The dilemma of using
pathology

for bedding

As if
I could repent of
my wish for my need of

repentance
Indecorous

a one type of
allusion standing

in for another
something like
to cite an instance
Bets placed on
naming

indiscernible parts of speech

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