Jerome Rothenberg: From 'A Further Witness,' a poem in progress
AS THE SKY GOES BLACK
fixed in place
or running
half a man
& half
a crazed
machine
he feels himself
becoming
what he ran from
breaking free
of bones
& skin
a solitary
eye
that looks out
at a street
covered
with tiny birds
yammering
chirping
whose screams
call him
to life
& always birds (Han Shan)
my burden
more than
yours
a life
so poor
& pure
succumbing
to their
sounds
their wounds
will raise himself
by inches
sail aloft
the dream
is over
with our hands
we touch
the earth
beneath us
paw it
watch
in wonder
as the sky
goes black
25.iv.13
THE FLOW OF TIME
to pose
a question
& to answer
with a further
question
adding
one
on one
he finds
the choice
absurd
but cannot stop
the flow
of time* *of rhyme
which is
no flow
but all
exists
at once
the street
has trees
once small
now grown
beyond
his wildest
dreams
the waters
curbside
rushing
toward a hole
that lands him* * strands him
where
he started
childhood
past
& buried
count
the hours
shrunk
to minutes
as the universe
has laws
too easily
rebuked * rebuffed
where time
stands still
reversed
a sorry
instance* * instant
27.iv.13
A PERFECT CIRCLE
the protocol
of light
runs through
the dreamer’s
thoughts
I seize it
unmindful
call it
my own
a flash
redundant
burning
kings
of chaos
rising up
from front
to back
the colors
make
a perfect circle
particles
in flight
the forest
with its thousand
birds
no prototype
more real
an actuality
of hidden
life
a fantasy
of animals
like narcoleptic
mice (for John Solt)
& spiders
see
the sidewalk
rise
& strike you
dead
the way
the road
to paradise
recoils
& binds us
9.v.13
Poems and poetics