| which is
a pause which is
which waiting, a breath
roses dampen the earth petals
sweetening the air
sun petals
a perfume or
rhythm pauses
falls
petals beading
a texture established by opposition
(he) falls an opening
a line a crushed flower
petals dampen
her skin
sweetening (she
falls and does not
pause on petals crushed
memory scores a line
in opposition petaled memory
opening or establishing a
line (the play of a scent
under her
tongue a fine beading
a pause or breath
which is not
waiting over her skin
petals, he a
scored breath
there is no opposition in this
waiting defers an established rhythm
(he
inhales a scent of crushed petals
flesh which is
memory
(his tongue cannot alliterate these pleasures)
a pause or flower which
opens memory
which is
hers a taste for
heat the sun a fine beading over her skin
a pause (petaled
which is which
falls
is a petaled rhythm
alliterates desire
longing which is memory folded
1
pathed markets
turnings beneath window boxes herb
and flower
lemons depend upon the walled
parterre
roses twining the air
out of the kitchen door a child's
cry "fruit"
wild
succulence of water cress,
longing which is memory folded
2
beneath window flowers and
lemons
a walled
longing
the rising of kitchen
music par terre
pathed terr-
itory
into the wilderness of herb
and air a cry
depends
upon abandon
succulence of fruit
a child roses memory
3
longing which is
a wilderness
folded -
lemons a pathed
desire
or walled territory
a music composed of
shade water
or a child
this rising or turning that wakes us
succulence of
desire
she speaks a rose into abandon
a flower calculus
Lilith (1)
Of which I understand nothing
sleepily
--Mina Loy, "Three Moments in Paris"
understand sleepily
nothing
(carved in
relief)
vertical channel
a necessity of which
I
nothing vertical
stands
a sign or surface
sleeping
a glyph
a preference for names
understanding necessity
collapses
relief (sleepily)
she understands
such glyphs of god
a channel worn by
his desire
but she has
put away such things for now
consorting with
necessity
Lilith (2)
The book is as old as water and fire.
--Edmond Jabès
Telling of tales without words
And lies of no consequence
--Mina Loy, "Three Moments in Paris"
consorting with necessity
in relief
layering there
lies, surface
of water and fire
surety, book
or sign
without words
sleep transforms necessity
taletail of desire
collapses in an
"halfhour of being a woman"
consorting
with demons
glyphs of longing
a mere
groove or
channel, necessarily sleeping
lies form a
surface of relief
a beautiful halfhour
demons
also beautiful
architecture of fire and water
Lilith (3)
Having surprised a gesture that is ultimately intimate
-Mina Loy, "Three Moments in Paris"
a preference for necessity
for fire and water, heat of her lovers beneath her
a preference for tales
mirrors and infant abductions
a preference for surprise
for a gestural vocabulary
a preference for deception
for the illusion of a green earth spreading before her hennaed feet
a preference for empathy
for eyes spilling thorns and petals, fragrance of suffering
a preference for angels as well as demons
sharp angled ache of a scimitar
a preference for laughter
for obscene gestures and filed teeth
a preference for fantasms
for her daughters' 1000 shimmering skirts lifted over their lovers
a preference for mourners heedlessly keening their grief against
Samarkand's gold and green mosaic walls
a preference for ambiguity
for the mystery of the hermaphrodite and the bloodied earth
a preference for exuberance
for brilliant crimson and curcurmin embroideries, damasked cloth
a preference for secrecy and texts
the halfhour gesturing toward itself
a preference for doubt and honor
for hot sugared tea burning her mouth
a preference for defiance
a woman clothed in a 1000 shimmering skirts
Taking on speech
A compass, a means of composing a moment. As if it were
possible (a means of articulating). What suffices. Blue silk washes
over her hips (water), or what alludes to water. The faint grace
of silk where she lifts her face to the light. (A compass). The
sky given over to blue. The precise ordering of fine, blue threads,
or particles of frozen water. Blue. A thin line of cloud moves away
from her. Where she opens her mouth as if to speak
Vanishing point. Intersection of two lines (lives), a compass notating
their retreat. Lines on paper. The precise point where she arrives
on paper (entering a discourse). What she will or will not say.
She gathers the crinkled folds of silk into her palms and presses
the blue into her skin. Discursive transgression. The second time
she appears to speak, blue silk spills from her mouth. What suffices
Water. There is no precision in this. What was said, or ought to
have been (compression of molecules of air, beating in her throat).
Air moving at a higher velocity well above the layer of cloud. What
seemed to be silk or the motion of water heard (palimpsest), embrasure
of a word playing itself into existence. Fine threads of cloud or
breath
Palimpsest (the movement of air as discrete particles over her skin)
the discreet movement of air over her tongue. Discursive acts, a
digression. Do not be misled, the two lives (spoken and unspoken)
move in parallel. A curtain of silk faille points at the misdirection.
What is said, or was itself. Itself is a digression. A faint motion
or current of blue
Neither cloud nor breath. Beating into existence, the fragility
of air at high altitudes. Is sufficient. She peels away the light
armor of silk (blue silk) embracing the cold air. (Embrace.) Lifts
her face into the light (a discourse) a compass of shaped air. The
way these (the precise point) letting go into the light, weave sound
a wave standing: live oak
aerial display, a wave or pattern of motion compresses and displaces
air. gray and wreathed by green, action of a branched body described
by currents of air. clustered over the earth. a wave upheld, pressure
and counter-pressure: refuge of blue jays and brown thrashers, their
calls another set of displacements. or waves. ferns and spanish
moss take hold, tossed as a wave standing, green against what seems
nothing at all. and is
a movement outward, twisting into the light (intersection of wave
forms), branching into the dark. atchafalaya silt a denser (alluvial)
medium, compressing and dampening wave motion. boughs bent back
upon a shifting (wave or succession of wave-like intensions): land.
half-pointed ovoid leaves clatter softly, one against another, pressure
of morning air rising before the heat of the sun
jade shapes, gray ( ) and wreathed by. wind, thrown up against air.
compression and oscillation of a branched body, its leaves clatter
(air in motion). motion of other bodies, wood thrushes and nuthatches.
wind-lifted wave, a movement outward, sound making its progress
(bird call, leaf clatter). "morning" displacements across
a medium which is motion (itself in). sounds shudder through the
soft draperies of live oaks and air. a wave
where a branch collapsed. (scar) wreathed by. action of wind birthed
in warm seas, (hurricane). melancholy water: waveform resembling
the curve of a parabola. motion or path. a shifting or succession
of intensions. deep-rooted, live oak a counter-pressure of its own.
branched into the alluvial earth. a sudden breathless compression
of air (boughs bending and giving way). survivor: ground orchids,
asters, st john's wort sheltered in that standing wave
a wave standing (2)
branched and gray, a wave
standing
a wave lifting itself into the sun
clustered in spheres, it's boughs
spheroid forms of live oak
glossy leaves
resilient
unburdened by
summer, or winter's
lack of light
a gray wave standing
glossy or
green
dark jade gloss of leaves
cluster laterally
into the light
within and above the
alluvial earth
gray wave standing
branched and spheroid
leaves glossy against the wrinkled
bark of the wave
form: (branched body lifting
and bent
over the earth)
a wave, or
motion
suspended above the ground
gentling the wind
:: wave
a wave standing (3)
a wave
standing over the house
a wave (its
shadows and light
sheltering us)
we
lift our sight into the
crush and
weight of its water)
wave
or tree
live oak
gentling
even us
(a wave) setting
in motion
pattern of light
and its absence
where we are washed
:: wave
honey song (shekinah)
"like a tent
stretched tight
around the ones who live
above"
(Meshullam the Great ben Kalonymos, Hebrew 10th century)
"who is daughter of light"
(Syriac / Greek ca. 200 AD, "The Maiden")
daughter of light
her earrings make
a tent of the sun
whisper against her skin
rubied
dwelling place
light's
amber reflection
leopard eating sapphires
she bards her table with wine
with bread and sweet
myrtle lemons
preserved in honey
(hers)
a garment
worn, a garment
or
garden
pitchers of sweet wine
and honey
garden's table
earthy
mouth of sapphires
kindling
between her thighs
wisdom
's daughter
tent hung with golden crowns
with sapphires
an earth
or leopard where she walks
letters tremble
like webs
daughter of wisdom
her
bangles light and
honeyed flowers
forms a garment
she welcomes him
the face of god
sweet
table, a garden
or garland
on whose back
he rides
mouth of sweet myrtle
her eyes
form among leaves
dwelling place
silvered letters
fish swimming into light
a woman
her body
crown inscribed with glyphs
face of
god
garlanded with myrtle
tasting bread
tasting
sweet wine
she welcomes him
sweet,
fish like
lanterns, a light that whispers
in the air of the tent
or her earrings
silver and
red, rubied
whispers at her shoulder
from her mouth
(garden)
he takes
daughter of light
gold spheres
myrtle
flowers
bangles lit by the sun
bronze
moons and drapes these
over her breasts
dwelling
place, text of
light
or silvered air
she bends her
hips against his mouth
letters falling like honey rain
whispers
silver light
over her skin
in the air of the tent (she)
where she couples
words
in Samarqand the face of god
is the sun, it
rides upon the leopard's back
|
