Jerome Rothenberg (poems) and Arie Galles (images)
'TO DREAM INFINITY' from 'A BOOK OF CIRCLES' in progress

To dream
infinity
& know the time
draws nigh
never more near
than now
2
the far look
of an ancient
god
his hands
ready to bring us
down
3
there is
no end to it
the universe
escapes us
& another universe
takes shape
4
open & shut
absent
a god
whose malice
holds us
ever too close
5
still to be
free & clear
the deeper
image
out of our beck
& call
6
seeing the others
fallen
entering the pitch
& blackness
figments of an endless
mindless world
7
the beauty
of the never-
ending
freezes us
more spectral
than a dream
8
how many circles
make up a universe
if only the eye
allows it?
nothing the mind
can know or tell
CODA
one
two
three
four
five
six
seven
eight
wild circles
Poems and poetics