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The Exquisite Corpse - A Journal of Letters and Life
Edited by Andrei Codrescu
ec chair poetick kultur anti-amthropomorphism
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the corpse reads classics letters the book of revelations and epiphanies
the making and unmaking of person
The New Economics of Late Capitalism

The Zoo On Fire
by Michael Ricciardi

   How I proceeded:
                         orderly and linear
                         to extricate
                         to create delight

                                                  one quantum of energy
                                                  always consists of
                                                  first of all time
                                                  and attraction

                         strange
                         a world defined
                         builds a chaotic system:

I. Two forms of the god are both shown

                               the written word
                               identified with the message they carry
                               has nothing to do with price

    If this affirmation proves to be false,
    it was very nearly true

II. How swarms form
    where they do
    at unusually rational moments
    alchemical moments

                                                  falling bodies manifest a uniform power
                         fell for it
                         for the earth is good
                         being the direct creator
                         of result
                         of what they have done in the past

III. By their light thou shall throw them
with all manner of discipline
                                                  revived

                                                                   Outrun the lion
                                                  perfect at this

                         the highest peak
                         of revolutionary momentum

                                                  forgotten


                                                      MATERIA

WHy       does it happen  (stop)     0 know!
Happen like this? Like this.   (always like this;)

The answer
Not forthcominghometome

           such compl X city -- I am awash with IT!

wondering about the matricks, the magikal [re]birth, the MORPH oh! Gene[sis]
of thinkings;(#%#^&^%#$%);sum ergo cogito ergo sum, after all

true! He says, but what of the unredeemable programming; the cost of Christ's computation
via logoso-logical-loga-rhythms (A^3sub[O + 1] ?

POINT! And counter it you cannot (";"), lest thee thyself and thou plunge backwards upon (w/ a 1 & 1/2 gainer in the pike posit.)
          the very matrix from which you were sprung
                    (as the sung was sung!)

;.and with such denial-spitting-out-poison
as though it were not your own bloody goodness, which is to say your mother's fluescence brought forth (never third) as the anti-dope to her pain which is to say "you"
;as you know;
                      Iamyouandyouaremeandweareoneandoneisall

Is all that I belie (fin?)

Chaos and dark quanta no matter to me
For the least of its energy is the most of what's free
(kizawa-kuma-lamaketa*)

the song, you see, is still singing
the matrix never stops (stop) 0 No never
giving birth bringing forth
                                     (#%^&%#%) happening like this
like THIS
            (;always like this;)

*I will undo these chains


1993


Logistical Confusion [1995]

{seed:}

Map is not the territory
What is not forbidden, is compulsory

{automatism:}

though I am lost in orbit/when I see the severing lines/the crossings/am I not convinced of my direction?/{draw a distinction, a universe comes into being}/so I must be going/these lines pull me so/give me motion/

              >Definition: vector: direction and speed of a mediated force>

vector>>invisible line in motion's sight/seducing my path/directing my outcome/Euclidean illusion conceived/believed/how can I keep from following?/what is not forbidden is compulsory/so you see/I must be going/

the plan is old/grafted onto forms unreal/neat planes stripped of native curvature/so customary an eye con/we no longer see the incongruity/of where we stand/of how we move/these lines only confuse/what side must I choose?

              <The value of a crossing made again is not the value of the crossing,               which is to say, for any boundary, to re-cross is not to cross<

eliminate a distinction/ take away an existence/what is not allowed is forbidden/ by lines I am driven/the trick: given/taking me in/rounding equators/trampling the tropics/looping all latitudes/arch angel of arcs and angles/only never quite tangent/never quite in touch/the physical field/the foot trod dust/of where I stand now/I am beyond it somehow/at play with the spinning axis/gravital merry-go-round/crazy circa of criss-crossed lines/that demark the space/but never quite add up to being there/

              Saith the sage: >what is there is also here<> what is not >here< is nowhere{}

To re-cross is not to cross/am I lost?/forbidden territories/compulsive cartographies/no apologies/if neurons ignite must not thought follow through/the lines of logic directed by thought?/but where is there to follow where lines lead everywhere?/south by east by northwest by god/boundaries and borders/on a globe/finite but unbounded/map is not/no matter/illusion/these lines demand motion/though I am lost in orbit/the vectors beckon me/so I must be going/but not without unknowing/

>this territory/not compulsory/<
>this map/not forbidden/<




I n Y o u r H e a d

Going
            the places, the covert destinations
            your thinking's geometry
            construed at oblique angles
            to your world as lived
            your poised abode

Going
            dreams replaced by voices, directives from the airwaves
            unaccountable patterns
            sublime the impulse to believe
            a misdirection by opposing wills
            disengages your clutch
            free-spins the mechanism of your footing

Gone
            forth and back
            your homing device, that circuitous logic
            for remaining fixed in place:
            ever bridging two lands
            and you the engineer
            bracing the odd forces
            longing for sleep




Economic Equation

Often I think / that We The People / are the medium of exchange for money / facilitators
for capital regeneration / couriers of currency / transacting between banks;

I betrayed my alien cosmos
            in the way that I looked at him

So he says: Hey kid, money makes the world go 'round;
No, I said, gravity makes the world go round--money makes your world go 'round;

We stared at each other
            his face flushed red
            quickly I said:
            but perhaps gravity and money are one and the same;

He raised an eyebrow
            so to test my hypothesis
            I removed the legally tendered note from my pocket
            tossed it to the ground
            and stepped away

And I did indeed see him
            spin
            and orbit
            and converge
            with the earth

We both smiled then

            each of us
            the richer



S P A C E J U N K
{A Tale of Two Odysseys}

Thirty-thousand objects   and growing
they're all up there   waiting
a great orbiting space-fill
trapped in gravity's belt
when suddenly, one near-earth orbit decays
free-falls
friction co-efficient passes critical
bursts into fire ball
breaks up in a blossom of hot tentacles
showers molten debris down
into a receptive blue-green sea
the fizzling hisses of snuffed out heat in salty waves
the only sound heard by the only sentient presence:
a lone humpback rolling over on its back, eyes skyward, its perfect idle interrupted
while further below the surface a hungry grouper gulps
at descending carbonized flakes   then regurgitates
and the ever-disintegrating specks
continue their free-fall in liquid space
joining the silent radiolarian rain
on their way to the abyss

Or perhaps
some random shard of hard ware
escapes the incinerating fall
lands with unremarkable impact
upon a seldom tread equatorial beach
an island, possibly, formerly untouched by global disposability
and some sole survivor or wondering out-caste
scouring for tinder to feed his needed fire
finds the titanium transistor
amongst the dried-up dulce, driftwood, and sand

and turning it over in his hand
perplexed by its function
a vision of its fantastic origin flits through his mind
then dissolves away in useless reverie
and salted thirst

he pauses there    at the upper tidal mark
lifts a makeshift flask to his lips   drinks reverently
eyes close   open to a sinking sun's ray
glinting off the shining bauble
bejeweled upon his palm like an infant star
and he walks out onto the rocks
threading a husk-fiber string with a shark tooth hook
through the center of the thing
and casts it into a provident sea

 

 

 

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