Three Poems by Ivan Jenson

Instructions

Encircle me
in a square room
draw a heart
with your lipstick
on the invisible walls
of this out-patient
asylum called
being single
renew my faith
in the subjective error
of consensual
objectivization
then whisper something
politically incorrect
while we privately protest
our right to believe
in that conspiracy theory
about ‘our’ song
and then let’s run
barefoot across
green fields
of red grapes
before heartbreak
figures out our
heartbeat algorithm

The thanks I get

Don’t suck up
to experience
or flatter reality
or put events
up on a pedestal
because praise
will not raise
your frequency
take it from me
I once exclaimed
to a glorious afternoon
what I thought
of her celestial light
and it didn’t stop
the oncoming darkness
of a restless, sleepless night

Your attention please

While I am talking
everyone is waiting
for their chance
to speak
or the moment to
take their leave
unless I draw them in
with a hook, line, and sinker
they sit there like 
Rodin’s thinker
unless I make them laugh
they raise their necks
and look over my shoulder
like craning giraffes
and if the subject
does not concern them
they feign a smile
and say “uh huh”
and that they
better “get goin”
in fact I have no
way of knowing
if you even got
to the end
of this poem

Ivan Jenson is a fine artist, novelist and popular contemporary poet. His artwork was featured in Art in America, Art News, and Interview Magazine and has sold at auction at Christie’s. Ivan was commissioned by Absolut Vodka to make a painting titled Absolut Jenson for the brand’s national ad campaign. His Absolut paintings are in the collection of the Spiritmusuem, the museum of spirits in Stockholm, Sweden.  

Jenson's painting of the “Marlboro Man” was collected by the Philip Morris corporation. Ivan was commissioned to paint the final portrait of the late Malcolm Forbes.  Ivan has written two novels, Dead Artist and Seeing Soriah, both of which illustrate the creative and often dramatic lives of artists. Jenson's poetry is widely published (with over 600 poems published in the US, UK and Europe) in a variety of literary media. A book of Ivan Jenson's poetry was recently published by Hen House Press titled Media Child and Other Poems, which can be acquired on Amazon. Two novels by Ivan Jenson entitled, Marketing Mia and Erotic Rights have been published hardcover. 

 

Ivan Jenson’s new thriller The Murderess is now available for preorder on Amazon US and Amazon UK and will be published June 1, 2021.