Friday 15 July 2011

Benjamin Sonnet #44 by Clint Burnham


                      X L I V


in focus men in uninformed uniforms
not so much uniform but unformal
become an island hence without
a peninsula or permanent bridge
of land, of metal, of human construction
he said, as he walked off my
porch, an earphone wearing
cop
who gets you from here
to there on lines
stew would make anyone
vegan


one-unit immobile
shoulders

      2 VI 07


Clint Burnham, The Benjamin Sonnets (Toronto: Book Thug, 2009), 54.

Sunday 3 July 2011

The Outsider Ape by Roberto Bolaño

Remember the Triumph of Alexander the Great, by Gustave Moreau?
The beauty and terror, the crystal moment when
All breathing stops. But you wouldn’t stand still under that dome
in dim shadows, under that dome lit by ferocious
rays of harmony. And it didn’t take your breath away.
You walked like a tireless ape among the gods,
For you knew—or maybe not—that the Triumph was unfurling
its weapons inside Plato’s cavern: images,
shadows without substance, sovereignty of emptiness. You wanted
to reach the tree and the bird, the leftovers
from a humble backyard fiesta, the desert land
watered with blood, the scene of the crime where
statues of photographers and police are grazing, and the hostility of life
outdoors. Ah, the hostility of life outdoors!


Roberto Bolaño, The Romantic Dogs, trans. by Laura Healy (London: Picador, 2011), 39.

Day Bleeding Rain by Roberto Bolaño


DAY BLEEDING RAIN

Oh day, bleeding rain,
what are you doing in the soul of the abandoned,
day bleeding volition only barely glimpsed:
behind the reed curtain, in the mire,
with your toes sized up in pain
like a small shivering animal:
but you’re not small and you’re shivering from pleasure,
day cloaked in the might of volition,
frozen stiff in a mire that’s maybe not
of this world, barefoot in the middle of the dream that works its way
from our hearts toward our necessities,
from fury towards desire: curtain of reeds
that opens itself and dirties us and embraces us.


Roberto Bolaño, The Romantic Dogs, trans. by Laura Healy (London: Picador, 2011), 15.

Resurrection by Roberto Bolaño


RESURRECTION

Poetry slips into dreams
like a diver in a lake.
Poetry, braver than anyone,
slips in and sinks
like lead
through a lake infinite as Loch Ness
or tragic and turbid as Lake Balatón.
Consider it from below:
a diver
innocent
covered in feathers
of will.
Poetry slips into dreams
like a diver who’s dead
in the eyes of God.


Roberto Bolaño, The Romantic Dogs, trans. by Laura Healy (London: Picador, 2011), 7.

With the Flies by Roberto Bolaño


WITH THE FLIES

Poets of Troy
Nothing that could have been yours
Exists anymore

Not temples not gardens
Not poetry

You are free
Admirable poets of Troy


Roberto Bolaño, The Romantic Dogs, trans. by Laura Healy (London: Picador, 2011), 143.

Saturday 2 July 2011

“Only the Herd” (undated) by Carl Andre

O N L Y  T H E  H E R D
I S  A L O U D  A N D
O N L Y  T H E  H E A R D
I S  A L L O W E D


Carl Andre, Cuts: Texts 1959-2004, ed. by James Meyer (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2005), 278.

“Leverwords” (1966) by Carl Andre


beam
clay beam
edge clay beam
grid edge clay beam
bond grid edge clay beam
path bond grid edge clay beam

reef
slab reef
wall slab reef
bead wall slab reef
cell bead wall slab reef
rock cell bead wall slab reef

root
heel root
line heel root
rate line heel root
dike rate line heel root
sill dike rate line heel root

room
time room
hill time room
inch hill time room
rack inch hill time room
mass rack inch hill time room


Carl Andre, Cuts: Texts 1959-2004, ed. by James Meyer (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2005), 232.

Friday 1 July 2011

[I am going from one side to the other] by Vito Acconci


I am going from one side to the other.
am
going
from
one
side
to
the
other.


Vito Acconci, LANGUAGE TO COVER A PAGE: The Early Writings of Vito Acconci, ed. by Craig Dworkin (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2006), 69.

[This is an example of a voice speaking now on Academy Street....] by Vito Acconci


This is an example of a voice speaking now on Academy Street,
between Seaman Street and Cooper Street.
This is an example of a voice speaking now on Bank Street,
between Washington Street and Greenwich Street.
This is an example of a voice speaking now on Wadsworth Avenue,
between West 177th Street and West 178th Street.
This is an example of a voice speaking now on Delancey Street,
between Allen Street and Orchard Street.
This is an example of a voice speaking now on East 3rd Street,
between Avenue A and Avenue B.
This is an example of a voice speaking now on St. Nicholas
Avenue, between West 155th Street and West 156th Street.
This is an example of a voice speaking now on Gansvoort Street,
between Greenwich Street and Hudson Street.
This is an example of a voice speaking now on Catherine Street,
between Madison Street and Henry Street.
This is an example of a voice speaking now on West 45th Street,
between Broadway and Eighth Avenue.
This is an example of a voice speaking now on Ninth Avenue,
between West 218th Street and West 219th Street.


Vito Acconci, LANGUAGE TO COVER A PAGE: The Early Writings of Vito Acconci, ed. by Craig Dworkin (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2006), 399.