My "Creeley Variations" is a series of rewritings of "I Know a Man" in the style of other poets. Sort of like Queneau's stylistic variations. Most didn't work out too well, but the Reverdy and Scalapino sections are presentable:

(Reverdy)

un oiseau

un ami
je lui ai parlé

Jean, j’ai dit

qui n’était
pas son nom

l’obscurité nous en-
toure

qu’est-ce qu’on peut lui faire?


quelque-chose d’autre
pourquoi pas?

acheter une voiture
énorme

la conduire

pour l’amour de dieu
a-t-il dit

fais attention!


(Scalapino)


The man taking me in the car, whom I hadn’t met before, though his name was not John I supposed him to be in the car, the other one having been in the garage--and not wanting to have intercourse at the moment.

_________


Otherwise not having had to make a decision, about what his name was, until I spoke to him. Defining him as a friend, though his name was not John as far as I could see. Other than that the sense was I was always talking--not having purchased the car from the want-ads.

_________


Having defined him as a friend and not calling him anything in particular--except when talking to him. That particular statement, since it was not dark outside, in an unusual context. Otherwise not having intercourse except in the car.


_________


The sense of being surrounded and defining darkness as a substance--in which to have intercourse. The peculiar inference derived from a way of saying goddamn--as though purchasing the car was the context. Otherwise his name could not be said to be John.

_________

Having been warned, talking about a car not yet purchased yet riding in another car--the sense of there being three cars or perhaps only one--if not having had intercourse is the context. Otherwise defining him as a friend named John but not listening to the warning.