a letter to god

came across kenneth patchen's poems when browsing poetry section at chapters. (i've been doing that a lot lately.) he's an american poet/visual artist whos work ranged from reading poetry to jazz accompaniment, to his late experiments with visual poetry (which he called his "picture poems"). He also collaborated with John Cage (sound art guy) and Charles Mingus. His work is pretty crazy hard to understand - kind of dadaist/surrealist poetry. According to Devendra Banhart, Patchen's work consists of "far-out poetry, rhythmic numinous prose, facetious fables, and jazzy drawings." Here's an example of his poetry.

because to understand
one must start somewhere

john edgar dawdle married a little chicken
and went to live in a hatbox
which stood near the castlewall; but
at five o' clock the king came and
wanted to give them a thousand buttered rolls-royces,
eighty barrels of turpentine-mellowed trout, a flute
which he claimed had belonged to a w.r. mozart,
and a glass of rounded ale.
so, not wishing to appear rude or ungrateful,
they restrung his tennis racket, subscribed to
all his magazines, and each wrote PEACE
on his behind; for he'd hurried over
without bothering to dress. oh he was fine!
and they all stayed there...except him,
and dawdle, and the pretty little chicken.

where?

there's a place the man always say
come in here, child
no cause you should weep
wolf never catch the rabbit
golden hair never turn white with grief
come in here, child
no cause you should moan
brother never hurt his brother
nobody here ever wander without a home
there must be some such place somewhere
but i never heard of it.