{"id":721,"date":"2024-02-23T15:06:32","date_gmt":"2024-02-23T21:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rainmountainpress.com\/wordpress\/?post_type=product&#038;p=721"},"modified":"2025-09-05T12:16:57","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T17:16:57","slug":"graduating-from-eternity","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/rainmountainpress.com\/wordpress\/product\/graduating-from-eternity","title":{"rendered":"Graduating From Eternity"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>by John Goode<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<style>\r\n\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t#tab_container_720 {\r\n\toverflow:hidden;\r\n\tdisplay:block;\r\n\twidth:100%;\r\n\tborder:0px solid #ddd;\r\n\tmargin-bottom:30px;\r\n\t}\r\n\r\n#tab_container_720 .tab-content{\r\n\tpadding:20px;\r\n\tborder: 1px solid #e6e2cc !important;\r\n\tmargin-top: 0px;\r\n\tbackground-color:#fffbe5 !important;\r\n\tcolor: #000000 !important;\r\n\tfont-size:16px !important;\r\n\tfont-family: Open Sans !important;\r\n\t\r\n\t\tborder: 1px solid #e6e2cc !important;\r\n\t}\r\n#tab_container_720 .wpsm_nav-tabs {\r\n    border-bottom: 0px solid #ddd;\r\n}\r\n#tab_container_720 .wpsm_nav-tabs > li.active > a, #tab_container_720 .wpsm_nav-tabs > li.active > a:hover, #tab_container_720 .wpsm_nav-tabs > li.active > a:focus {\r\n\tcolor: #000000 !important;\r\n\tcursor: default;\r\n\tbackground-color: #fffbe5 !important;\r\n\tborder: 1px solid #e6e2cc !important;\r\n}\r\n\r\n#tab_container_720 .wpsm_nav-tabs > li > a {\r\n    margin-right: 0px !important; \r\n    line-height: 1.42857143 !important;\r\n    border: 1px solid #ece8d2 !important;\r\n    border-radius: 0px 0px 0 0 !important; \r\n\tbackground-color: #fffbe5 !important;\r\n\tcolor: #000000 !important;\r\n\tpadding: 15px 18px 15px 18px !important;\r\n\ttext-decoration: none !important;\r\n\tfont-size: 14px !important;\r\n\ttext-align:center !important;\r\n\tfont-family: Open Sans !important;\r\n}\r\n#tab_container_720 .wpsm_nav-tabs > li > a:focus {\r\noutline: 0px !important;\r\n}\r\n\r\n#tab_container_720 .wpsm_nav-tabs > li > a:before {\r\n\tdisplay:none !important;\r\n}\r\n#tab_container_720 .wpsm_nav-tabs > li > a:after {\r\n\tdisplay:none !important ;\r\n}\r\n#tab_container_720 .wpsm_nav-tabs > li{\r\npadding:0px !important ;\r\nmargin:0px;\r\n}\r\n\r\n#tab_container_720 .wpsm_nav-tabs > li > a:hover , #tab_container_720 .wpsm_nav-tabs > li > a:focus {\r\n    color: #000000 !important;\r\n    background-color: #fffbe5 !important;\r\n\tborder: 1px solid #ece8d2 !important;\r\n\t\r\n}\r\n#tab_container_720 .wpsm_nav-tabs > li > a .fa{\r\n\r\nmargin-right:5px !important;\r\n\r\nmargin-left:5px !important;\r\n\r\n\r\n}\r\n\r\n\t\t#tab_container_720 .wpsm_nav-tabs a{\r\n\t\t\tbackground-image: none;\r\n\t\t\tbackground-position: 0 0;\r\n\t\t\tbackground-repeat: repeat-x;\r\n\t\t}\r\n\t\t\t\r\n\r\n\r\n#tab_container_720 .wpsm_nav-tabs > li {\r\n    float: left;\r\n    margin-bottom: -1px !important;\r\n\tmargin-right:0px !important; \r\n}\r\n\r\n\r\n#tab_container_720 .tab-content{\r\noverflow:hidden !important;\r\n}\r\n\r\n\r\n@media (min-width: 769px) {\r\n\r\n\t#tab_container_720 .wpsm_nav-tabs > li{\r\n\t\tfloat:left !important ;\r\n\t\t\t\tmargin-right:-1px !important;\r\n\t\t\t\t\t}\r\n\t#tab_container_720 .wpsm_nav-tabs{\r\n\t\tfloat:none !important;\r\n\t\tmargin:0px !important;\r\n\t}\r\n\r\n\t#tab_container_720 .wpsm_nav-tabs > li {\r\n\t\t\t\t\r\n\t}\r\n\t#tab_container_720 .wpsm_nav{\r\n\t\t\t}\r\n\r\n}\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n@media (max-width: 768px) {\r\n\t#tab_container_720 .wpsm_nav-tabs > li {\r\n\t\t\t\t\r\n\t}\r\n\t#tab_container_720 .wpsm_nav{\r\n\t\t\t}\r\n}\r\n\r\n\r\n\t.wpsm_nav-tabs li:before{\r\n\t\tdisplay:none !important;\r\n\t}\r\n\r\n\t@media (max-width: 768px) {\r\n\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t.wpsm_nav-tabs{\r\n\t\t\tmargin-left:0px !important;\r\n\t\t\tmargin-right:0px !important; \r\n\t\t\t\r\n\t\t}\r\n\t\t\t\t#tab_container_720 .wpsm_nav-tabs > li{\r\n\t\t\tfloat:none !important;\r\n\t\t}\r\n\t\t\t\r\n\t}\t\t\t\t<\/style>\r\n\t\t\t\t<div id=\"tab_container_720\" >\r\n\t \r\n\t\t\t\t\t<ul class=\"wpsm_nav wpsm_nav-tabs\" role=\"tablist\" id=\"myTab_720\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li role=\"presentation\"  class=\"active\"  onclick=\"do_resize()\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"#tabs_desc_720_1\" aria-controls=\"tabs_desc_720_1\" role=\"tab\" data-toggle=\"tab\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span>Overview<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li role=\"presentation\"  onclick=\"do_resize()\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"#tabs_desc_720_2\" aria-controls=\"tabs_desc_720_2\" role=\"tab\" data-toggle=\"tab\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span>Excerpts<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/ul>\r\n\r\n\t\t\t\t\t  <!-- Tab panes -->\r\n\t\t\t\t\t  <div class=\"tab-content\" id=\"tab-content_720\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div role=\"tabpanel\" class=\"tab-pane  in active \" id=\"tabs_desc_720_1\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p style=\"text-align: left\">Relentlessly, the images come to do what they have to do. At once, full of compassion without the pitiful face, then furious without commonplace madness. This work sits in front of and behind and to the side of itself, watching. This is not an easy task. To call it human underestimates it.\u00a0<em>Graduating from Eternity<\/em>\u00a0forces me to believe God happens, not God is.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: right\">\u2014Collin Bunting<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Cross a waterfall with a cave, and you get the poetry of John Goode. His poems occupy a turbulent landscape, ghosted with shadows, full of movement. They are dangerous, craggy, sensuous, and vulnerable. The cascade of his surreal images and wild juxtapositions are disorienting in the best possible way. They might carry you over the edge.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: right\">\u2014Nina Corwin, author of\u00a0<em>The Uncertainty of Maps<\/em><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Somewhere between post modernism and mystic realism is the poetry of John Goode. His rapid fire similes weave neon tapestries of urban social decay and heartbreak covering a dark wit and social commentary. One of the best of a new generation.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: right\">\u2014David Hargarten, publisher\u00a0<em>Exact Change Only<\/em><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">The caliber of John Goode's poems and images are so consistently high that not one stands out as the definition. This poet measures essences of truths, heavy, gritty and immense. Distinctly animal. Effortlessly male. The very blood of art graces these pages. Rampant, beautiful, and aware.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: right\">\u2014Dana Jerman<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-334 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/rainmountainpress.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/john-goode-headshot-draft-2.jpg\" alt=\"John Goode headshot\" width=\"200\" height=\"250\" \/>John Goode<\/strong> is a multiple Pushcart Prize nominee. His poems have appeared in a variety of journals including, <em>Rattle, Skidrow Penthouse, LIT, Mudfish, Slipstream, Axe Factory Review, Bottle of Smoke Press, Afterhours, Waiting for the Bus<\/em>, and <em>Arsenic Lobster<\/em>, among others. He was first runner up for the Neil Postman Award for Metaphor from <em>Rattle<\/em>. He lives and works in Chicago, where he has collaborated and performed with various musicians such as Grazyna Auguscick and Tim Haldeman on the albums <em>Man Behind the Sun<\/em> and <em>Open Water as a Child<\/em>\u00a0(for the Flint Michigan water crisis), and at venues such as The Chopin Theater, Sleeping Village, and The Museum of Contemporary Art.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div role=\"tabpanel\" class=\"tab-pane \" id=\"tabs_desc_720_2\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<P><strong>The Living City<\/strong><BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nThe church mouse moans.<BR>\r\nThe daffodil braces.<BR>\r\nThe sun spills like a drug into a thousand faces.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nThe rheumy-eyed gutter pigeon,<BR>\r\nthe jasmine-drunk caddis fly,<BR>\r\nsquare off like an argument of absolutes.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nA cuckolded swan skewers a leisure-minded toad<BR>\r\nand lifts his bald ass to the sky like an Aztec priest.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nWasps with belts of fire swarm the sweaty month of the ant.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nBeautiful black-limbed asbestos roaches with scalloped noses<BR>\r\nstomp like an army of one.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nA mosquito with a shaved tongue and a small brass heart<BR>\r\nsuckles on her lover's cold silver ankle,<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nwhile a cricket bleeds fallopian oil into a bed<BR>\r\nof shuffling lint.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nButterflies with suitcases of pearl<BR>\r\ndescend on crumbling lilac.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nAnd the honey bee drops like a bomb its prescription of sugar.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nThe manna-filled city rat. Quixote invert. Lover of toenails.<BR>\r\nEgyptian-snouted prince of scullery corners.<BR>\r\nBlue-balled cocksman of the alleys of hair.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nThroat like a used tire.<BR>\r\nBell-shaped head ringing electricity.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nSkin as cold as a capital letter.<BR>\r\nStomach like a growling shoe.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nHungers for a chunk of discarded Polish deli sandwich<BR>\r\nhe spots half a block away.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nHis eyes, uncut diamonds, pulled from the lies of many stones.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nThe buzzing midsection of the yeast fizzes<BR>\r\nlike a stray dog's breast milk.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nHis lips like stove pipe shavings, curl.<BR>\r\nHis brain, a nimble casket circling death.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nAnd those ears, rising like aerials, fill<BR>\r\nwith taxicabs, sirens, and the wails of lonely animals.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nHe runs like love in the rain<BR>\r\nbled from an old wound.<\/P>\r\n\r\n<hr \/>\r\n\r\n<P><strong>The Possessed<\/strong><BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nShe was made of dice and black mascara,<BR>\r\nand she roamed the streets in a cocktail napkin.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nShe was no lover. She hated nearly everything:<BR>\r\nbillboards, strollers, iced tea, mutual funds.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nShe had a mouth like a sword fight,<BR>\r\nall curses and water and clashing teeth.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nWhen she pissed the electricity went out<BR>\r\nin three apartments.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nOn nights of extreme ecstasy<BR>\r\nshe was labeled a heretic by passing monks<BR>\r\nwho tortured pillowcases dreaming of her<BR>\r\nRabelaisian thighs.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nThe streetlights held her in staged awe<BR>\r\nand cars roared around her dripping oil.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nWhen she cut her hair<BR>\r\nfiends raided hospitals for signatures<BR>\r\nand young poets swore into their scarves.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nHer skin was like the breathing snow<BR>\r\nalley cats lick to slake their newspaper throats.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nShe worked as a waitress beneath the Republican<BR>\r\npenthouses that stalked the night with flat screen eyes.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nShe was in love with a man who sold the dimple in his chin<BR>\r\nand wore wristwatches with electric pentagrams inside.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nShe bartered for fruit in the farmer's market<BR>\r\nand her eyes suffered like starving bellies -<BR>\r\nI could see the ribcages in her mind.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nIt isn't easy, nothing ever is, she told me one day,<BR>\r\nas we shared a cigarette above the grenade hatchings.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nI could almost hear the seams in her delirium unsnapping,<BR>\r\nminute by minute, the way she hungered for a boat<BR>\r\nwas nearly obscene. Escape, escape, she whispered<BR>\r\nlike a litany.<\/P>\r\n\r\n<hr \/>\r\n\r\n<P><strong>Cleopatra in Traffic<\/strong><BR>\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<EM>for C.N.B.<\/EM><BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nI stared into the dead blue sex of her eyes.<BR>\r\nThey haunted catacombs.<BR>\r\nManiacal flowers grew giant bells of pollen.<BR>\r\nA tender savage followed her scent to the edge of a dried up ocean.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nI looked into the soundless milk of her skin.<BR>\r\nRaw silk raced on curves of smoke.<BR>\r\nA militant country sought a ransom in scarves.<BR>\r\nHer legs became defiant outposts.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nI whispered into her eyes three weeks of courage.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nI longed to touch the gaunt drum of her stomach,<BR>\r\nto breathe the smoking column of her throat,<BR>\r\nthe succulent red bell her lips composed at the face of any language.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nIn each twisted ear I wanted to plant a tongue\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0with my name in brail<BR>\r\ncoaxing her toward me<BR>\r\nwhere her black hair might spread\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0like an orchestra of fertile spiders<BR>\r\nbiting my lips like anarchy.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nPillows.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nWhere she could gather like a mute cloud\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0ponderous and thick<BR>\r\nand swollen\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0her pale body vessel for a currency in lust.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nI stole for her\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0bracelets of wine<BR>\r\nand gaudy necklaces beaded with the slow fever of morphine.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nLong blank silences of nitrous enveloped her.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nThe street pawed her like a bad transmission<BR>\r\nand she captured it<BR>\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0in living orange.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nShe inhaled pharmacies.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nHer mouth opened on the ends of sentences like a heart-shaped bomb.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nCold green mountains stood up.<BR>\r\nThe wind wrote a letter in fire.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nTraffic swayed in agony at the temple of her hips.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nShe beat off brick.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nGlass drank her body like an open vein of water.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nShe broke codes behind the eyes of commuters.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nShe flirted with the thick mustache of gasoline<BR>\r\nand I chained myself to her waking.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nI stared into the starving calculus of her eyes<BR>\r\nwhere antiseptic numbers drummed for sleep<BR>\r\nand hospitals rolled like empty cars.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nI smelled rain.<BR>\r\nI smelled autumn burning.<BR>\r\nI smelled the wilderness that grew inside the animal of her mind<BR>\r\nwhere she dreamed hands without rings racing her skin like desultory winters.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nWhere she surrendered years of wisdom<BR>\r\nand opened her legs like the soft white teeth of a swimming pool,<BR>\r\nand painted a circle at the bottom<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nwhere her heart beat like a wild penny<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nand no one ever touched.<\/P>\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t \r\n\t\t\t\t <\/div>\r\n <script>\r\n\t\tjQuery(function () {\r\n\t\t\tjQuery('#myTab_720 a:first').tab('show')\r\n\t\t});\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(function(){\r\n\t\t\tvar b=\"fadeIn\";\r\n\t\t\tvar c;\r\n\t\t\tvar a;\r\n\t\t\td(jQuery(\"#myTab_720 a\"),jQuery(\"#tab-content_720\"));function d(e,f,g){\r\n\t\t\t\te.click(function(i){\r\n\t\t\t\t\ti.preventDefault();\r\n\t\t\t\t\tjQuery(this).tab(\"show\");\r\n\t\t\t\t\tvar h=jQuery(this).data(\"easein\");\r\n\t\t\t\t\tif(c){c.removeClass(a);}\r\n\t\t\t\t\tif(h){f.find(\"div.active\").addClass(\"animated \"+h);a=h;}\r\n\t\t\t\t\telse{if(g){f.find(\"div.active\").addClass(\"animated \"+g);a=g;}else{f.find(\"div.active\").addClass(\"animated \"+b);a=b;}}c=f.find(\"div.active\");\r\n\t\t\t\t});\r\n\t\t\t}\r\n\t\t});\r\n\t\t\r\n\r\n\t\tfunction do_resize(){\r\n\r\n\t\t\tvar width=jQuery( '.tab-content .tab-pane iframe' ).width();\r\n\t\t\tvar height=jQuery( '.tab-content .tab-pane iframe' ).height();\r\n\r\n\t\t\tvar toggleSize = true;\r\n\t\t\tjQuery('iframe').animate({\r\n\t\t\t    width: toggleSize ? 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