Aesthetics arrived like an envelope laced with anthrax, not a wrench
bequeathed to the apprentice by a master plumber. Assembling language
does not involve torque, does not turn knots and bolts. One bends
both knees, towards the ancient mites on the rugged floor, efforts at
frenchkissing.
A day Arkaye Kierulf queried, “Do you think it was necessary to quote?”
(as in the body of a poem) We were talking about Jorie Graham
and Ann Lauterbach’s The Night Sky which I just bought. Perusing
over her treatise is like staring on a bowl of water
with a glimpse of the future, in her case, ten years late
We wake and find ourselves on a stair.
Stairs winding: rising and sliding. Nadir and zenith disappearing from sight.
A coffer disembarking from the First World. Lauterbach’s stash of souvenirs.
Contravening
at the bounties of yes-dogs and sycophants.
For instance,
drop the words quotidian (quote?) and obsidian (obscene?) anywhere
in the text and dazzle like a luminary in a masquerade fête.
I find it ominous. I find it
tongue in cheek. Dire
beauty is in the knowing. Lacquer finish.
I celebrate myself and sing myself. Ako ang daigdig.
One morning, when the drizzle faded, I walked in the pavement and saw a
tree with leaves just about the size and shape of my palms. Just as when
a sunup came along.
The tree, whatsitsname
leaves flaunting inimitable gestures with the blustery weather
As if to differentiate:
swallow/swallow
(verb) from (bird)
As in a poem. A gathering of filthy spree colliding within the vortex of a whirlpool.
Looking at rosy-fingered commas as somewhat
dots dots dots
Blotches and spots. Objects etched on sacred spaces such as *, †, ‡, §, ‖, ¶ or marginalia
as one had scrawled, “Do not stand at my grave and weep
“I am not there.”
on an epitaph
not there in the chips of stones
in pigments and substrates
not there in your breath
silver lining’s nonappearance
ultraviolet’s omnioccurrence
while the sky is horde & heavy with
clouds [a regalia
a mosaic tapestry (travesty) of historicity enigma meaning: consecration and desecration]
Mahmoud Darwish had said, "I have learned and dismantled all the words
in order to draw from them a single word: Home."”
Always go back to the center of the circle. As it spirals. Memory’s reunion.
As efficient as inhalants. Tenacious and obscene. Hypoxia.
For instance, when a poet mentions the word ‘incantatory’, winged shivers spiral out
in outlandish curves of our body. Then notice the effect when we see Incantatory ringetted.
Think of toilet bowls / milk cans / shape of a gaffer’s mouth thrilled with glassblowing.
Dipthong. Tongue. Moisty. Squishy. Spores cusp in fur, hide, or wool, or anthrax
in flight.
