Rough Breathing
Page 2
posit
ion,
posit
worlds
that
Fall
moving
into
place
cover versions
This is to be said That is right to say
(Deutsches Gedicht) (Poesia italiana)
fairly that I ate that I have eaten
the plums Plums
Those were in They were inside
icebox the icebox
and who is that
you probably probably you were
stored saving
to the breakfast for the first breakfast
me to forgive you pardon to me
which was so cold were therefore sweet
them köstliches and therefore
so sweet cold exquisite
and were so cold
• •
It is right to indicate That’s just to say
(Poème française) (Poema português)
that I ate that I ate
plums the plums
which were in Who were in
the cooler icebox
and which and that
you were probably you it was conserving
economy probably
for the breakfast for the small thus delicious lunch
Forgive me that pardons me
they were so soft that was thus cold
and so cold candy
delicious and thus delicious
• •
This is just to be said This is just to say
(Nederlands gedicht) (Poema català)
I have eaten I ate
The plums prunes
those were in who were in
They are freezing the fridge
and which and which ones
You probably were you are probably
Saving savings
for breakfast for perdona breakfast
Forgive me forget me
They were delicious were very sweet and delicious
so sweet
And so cold so cold
• •
Songbook 1
sound made
sound made
fairly hidden
(kind of) –
arrived at finally
he, she, it, that, these
on the island
in the river
for
the fine
the secluded
the
seeds and eggs,
bullets and shot –
good and superior
(indicates irony)
Consider it irregular
floating and variable
tall, long,
short –
left, right
left, right
flow, circulate
inferior, esteemed
for
the lovely,
the dark
the …
“in your waking
in your sleeping”
he (bracket
her) bracket
implore NOT
acquire NOT
can, may,
NOT be done;
awake,
asleep;
quiver, a dose
of medicine.
Far reaching and distant,
interrogative?
Anxious expletive –
to begin.
Turn half over, roll
on one side; turn
around, revolve,
turn back. Awry.
Consider it uneven
floating and variable
short, tall,
long –
left, right
left, right
variegated, bright
– one gathers.
For
the clear
the refined
the
dignified, numerous,
massive, dense –
grouped
together;
consider it a discrepancy
floating and variable
long, short,
tall –
left, right
left, right
selected (one gathers)
if you choose …
for
the obscure
the gentle
the
swelling music
to laugh at, take
pleasure in.
Final. Joy.
•
from a Hebridean notebook
a rabbit’s shoulder blade folded into the sand
two carnivore sonnets
1. Sympetrum sanguineum
rapt-
or spun
fila-
ment,
blood-
crimson
ruddy
darter dart-
s in shafts
of sun,
sits so briefly
‘black of
wing’ in clou-
-ded shade
2. Cordulegaster boltonii
sunshimmer, sweat-
haze, glint as of
zebra-stripe &
boltonii dances,
‘banded black’, in-
to and out of
field of vision
in the same half-in-
stant, buzz-saw hum
of course inaudible
&
light on blur of wings
only seen
after its vanishing
5 Latin Poems
i) moves
ale
late
ii) super
ore
more
late
viii) beat interest
ix) latent
graves
bonus
victor
xi) grave
age
there is from every thing
an ephemeral resonance
electrons dance behind the eyes
gold dust moves an ångstrÖm at a time
bow on stopped string
harmonic
wet finger on the rim
of a wet glass
dŵr clir a nos glir
falling upwards by stellated water
Orion
wheels over Llyn Peris
nothing there
but nothingness
and behind
the sound of the grass growing
Daruma
Daruma
“for good luck”
(•) one eye inked:
the wish ful
-filled, other
filled in (eye)
to see, be
stab(i)le:
symmetry.
remembering Paul Haines
the
tip
of the
small
pond
lit
by the
late
sun-
light
one is reminded
of nothing
Five Impromptus
bunched heads
-cow-
over the hedge
-parsley-
*
descending
forth
the whistle to her dog
a unison with birdsong
*
self-coloured:
tiny white fly / white pampas-grass
two crows / shadow
*
ZETTEL, 199
crinkled
on the
gravel
sweet
paper
butterfly
*
one
lone
blue
bell
in a
pride of
dande-
lions
liquid (Cona
coffee) bird
-call
distant radio
“breaking up /
&n
bsp; /making up”
clouds massing
morning
Two Poems from the English of the Wordsworths
1 When we were in the woods
beyond Gowborrow Park we
saw a few close by the waterside.
The lake had floated
the seeds ashore.
As we went along there were more
and yet more; and at last, under
the boughs of the trees,
a long belt about the breadth
of a road. I never saw them
so beautiful. They grew
among the mossy stones:
some rested their heads,
the rest reeled and danced,
laughed with the wind;
there were stragglers
a few yards higher up
but so few as not
to disturb the simplicity.
15 April 1802
2 lonely
high
once
golden
beneath
and
continuous
and
stretched
along
a
dance
waves
sparkling
not
company:
but
show
I
vacant
inward
solitude
pleasure
dances
for Lorine Niedecker
reverse film:
see blade slide,
heal, seal lips
of fissure
to a fine line
dissection
in reverse:
restoring
wholeness, but
keeping the
clarity
, the seeing
clear
start
with what
you know:
or
at least,
how little –
nothing else
but the small nouns,
the particulars:
not to talk
distantly,
not betray those
who get made into crowds
but get at
that clarity:
not “thin,
thin”, but clean,
clean and clear –
a small eloquence, dry
like fenugreek
on the tongue;
saying
that “a half-line is
in the line, that
a growing stalk
is wheat”
not
to reduce the thing
to nothing;
for being is becoming
and I am
a verb,
a verb
buttressed
by things
to catch
the ‘grain’
of things,
the detail, not
mirage, of
seeing:
– a vermicelli scatter
of seedhusks
on whorled cow
-flop, purple gleam
on glume of wood
melick, lichen
on river rocks
reniform in sunlight –
to find
in such attention paid
a warranty
that the small
makes manifest
the whole
Song for Annie
Follow the clews
and you will arrive at
something
we are not isolate, moving
without purpose
but “in the world;
for use, therefore … worthwhile”
•
light through clouds
on the high hills
is not there
from or for our naming
but
will let us near
•
at the heart of it all
a quiet
•
a pause in the talk
a caesura in the lovemaking
and
my eye scans feet
body rests
the act of poetry,
not the art
•
and my song: take care, o
take
care
(from) Axioms
“cunning in music and the mathematics”
The Taming of the Shrew
I
lovely, or
lonely
moving
tentatively
wanting to describe
not explain
the cadences
are found
at the same time
the measure
and the thing
measured
the line is there
before we draw it,
dancing
mathematics;
not frozen
calculi
but the moving
edge
the ascent
of empty space
laying down
a path
a bell ringing
in the empty sky
the geography
has to be described
the movement
of the mechanism
successive
addition
notes
graced, enriched
fragile
elements;
so as to seek the laws
that cause the song:
“always it renewed
its clear tone; always
there was a fresh cut
from which the song
issued,
sap from a bough”
these notes
moved the stones
II
melody
affirmed and denied
disorder
flows
the changing noise
must have an effect
for what themes
have no point? and
what process is
knowing how to go on?
sticking to the bottom,
deep as you can get –
descriptions
are misleading:
‘the impression
of a picture-duck
incorporated in the song
implicit in the movement
you can almost hear it,
a duck calling your name’
[there are constant lapses
from description into explanation here;
and ‘understanding’ is
a vague enough concept]
miscalculating
is the key,
the song
a kind of irruption,
eruption,
interruption
caught
in this net of language
surprised
at the turns it takes
rapid,
gliding
IV
some kind of image
of an endless row
the axiom
of choice
you don’t understand
any more of a rule
than
you can explain
our disease
is wanting to explain
a description
the solution
of
the difficulty
“you cannot view a landscape
as a whole
moving in it
so slowly
you forget one part
when you come to another”
form
is what makes it graspable
the construction
compels acceptance
linked,
in a form
additive
process
changing
with every new proportion
is infinite:
the proof
is a path
an allusion
to something outside,
it does not
mention itself:
a long
sine-wave,
a song
sung on the border,