(POEM ENDING WITH A LINE BY MICHELANGELO) SPEAKING FOR ITSELF AND NOT RESTLESSNESS PER SE It can't be the imbalances Yet if it has to be--I'm not saying it has to but if AS LIVID WORLD The net balance: after the imbalances DEAFENING My endless banner spent. Covered Head to toe AS IN SNIPPING A THORN It isn't that those I represent Oweme anything, but the promise entailed INLAID WITH WASPS, FAINT THOUGH DISCERNIBLE A flatness A membrane including desire All things minus their outlines O FILLED As for scumbling THE SUMMER OF THE LONG NECK Some of them that do fish Will go for a midnight swim, yet Taking into view the soul's errant swim FROM NATCHEZ TO MOBILE Irremediably shadowed. East Is pragmatic, south the verging of Two phenomenologically pure states MORE STUNNED THAN APPEARANCE Another way of putting it Not merely the whole of the difficulty But the parts as well, and not in discrete sectors That have the effect of radiating logic Minus its fragrance--excluded from the corporeal Land mine GIVING My eyes the days, my heart the nights Next |
The East Village Poetry Web Charles North |