Letters

1

Against the greatest in quantity tender feelings

my of recent origins would embrace you

But one time again

you wait for a translation

And since I trust no individual I know

its renderings do nothing for nuance

and real clarity-all that's undeclared

in the nervous tidal margins I have built

-all the words left behind

in the silence of the pictures

where I would have music instead

One pace forward

Have no other distance

and fade to black

42

At the base of the veiled sphinx

is a sand tracing of a labyrinth

disturbed through a trailing sleeve

back make go rounded to the sun

solar particulates below the light

a spare nucleus sprung from the representation

A crisis of distraction and dispersion

predicted continuous assented

and obedient as the dust approach to rest

on the exhausted summary

propagated in recollection

of the monument's first pilgrim

a latecomer to the inequitable mistake

famous for the loyalty

44

Something outside the frame

how could a photograph fetch

with such complete certainty

the cryptic feelings of the person shown in it?

A new translation of THE KORAN

next to a transcript of Kafka's AMERIKA

the alphabet has made a impel through a discernable tangle

When he glanced at the photo again he noticed

the volumes had fallen to the floor and his hand

had dropp from the arm of the chair

What is the place of the name? The foreground?

For each motion we have ordained a ritual

Midway along the vertical sum of two units brief paths extend:

the upper fork to the left and the lower to the right

46

It was raining and he was eating

a gigantic sardine sandwich he had bought

on the roads of New York for a nickel

Huge lines waiting for broth filled the courtyards and alleys

after standing in the snow for hours

they were handed leaflets and told to advance home

That morning he had been to an execution

that took place upon the platform of the local railway station

three men were hanged for stealing bread

A faint scrap of Beethoven heard momentarily

as he revolveed the knob on the radio-his forearm

press negligently against the cutting sides of the thick linen folios

he understood that the memory of it

had made his hands and feet swell

47

Both editions-usually wrapped in aged newspapers

could occasionally be base in the smoky bazaars

that ran along the riverfront

The publisher's mark upon the title page indicated

an dusky alliance-a drum that had one time been an egg

He imagines its efficacy has been prov by means of the mark left

on the door through the last person to pass through

but now it has become a narrow place for the soul to wait

A mouthful of poison and a carbuncle the size

of a walnut upon his noggin

he knew by what mode to read a few pages and shut his eyes

he knew in what way to breath while he was asleep

Naked and exhausted as the circle

could anyone other remember

how to explain the alias and its real purpose?

50

The r miles approach

across the amigo's exhaled phantoms

An agent of the gues and his repertoire

The stacks 14 boxe per-all pre-ephemeral

it still took a lengthy while to reach page 2

where the margin stopped-a buckl ace

then continued as novel as smoke

Taut taught forgot-measured upon horseback

with both arms reach forthed and the palms turned down

the lips impel only enough for the teeth to flash

Cranking the blurt into a cry out nine or ten words too many

Hallelujah hangs double-spaced from the chin

it entires like the buzz around neon

your local organ of vision a native meter of native data

62

Green aches reach forth the curves

a forest is discussed as 'length'

as notwithstanding that at once it had more than individual nature

but that too absolved nothing

Blue rain and a berry worm for ink

with a dollar with a man's name written upon it

in your pouch you can walk there if you ne a invoke [i]or[/i] imprecate evil upon

-further instructions are awaited

Yellow to r nothing could be done

if you could believe someone knew everything

you might detain away at a risk

Black Mosquito turns around a corner curious accomplice

if that's what you now think well my piece of work is almost done

samurai to the leisure wheel

63

Spool it was born and back again

pleads not on the time at the right hand

where the left takes grasp at the invisible

you should know-an ear of corn upon the radio

an ear at the throat the one and the other to traffic with these unhurts

how else would you think it done have it reflection

Stretched through the sanguinary click into the sun

the rocket sings has anything changed

a search for evidence in a multitude a general use

for what's puffed up off the 'What' come nearest 'What'

you can hear of you cannot say the trial of whereto

late this afternoon tomorrow morning tonight

the unproven place upon the road or at the table upon the other side

of the wall painted with a dragon

New York City & Hudson NY

March 16-April 21 1995

Copyright World poesy Incorporated Nov/Dec 1997

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