April 12 1999
(mallarmé on th beach)
branches rub & squeak like calling birds, but
listen! waves rustle in th background & engage
th shore in bitterweet nothings. once in a while
a pebble rings as th day slumps back, ears open wide-
eyes are another matter: a question of motion set
off in dubious awareness, stumbling to light between
boundaries that test duration. th name for a sight
spins around to catch th hiding thing it came from-
it will not succeed. secure above clouds, th sky
weathers all storms…th world is shaken & refreshd
for an instant suspended out of measure, then withers
in th glare that made th life in moisture leap & shine.
th dry singsong of friction in th wind told us
th tree was dead before we reachd it. shrivelld
green fruit hang fast & thick on hollow branches-
their outline knots a tangld fan against th blue.
(vega baja, summer ‘85- ‘86?)
(th juiciest plum to ripen out of my…solipsistic formalism tendency?
-evidencing, to be perfectly honest, a fair amount of ‘99 revision work…
when i started th journal last summer, th first, nearly immediate shift
in attitude & focus i experienced as i sought to exercise th discipline of
regular
public address, was away from th concrete relationship to friends of very
diverse
background, character & tastes, & th contrived perspective of constituting
& regarding
them as a more or less ‘interactive’ ‘audience’ (th ‘kfeen 13′)
towards spelling/spinning/spilling out context to ground th particular
emotional place
i find myself in (…also to bring to th foreground- expose & engage- th
variety of
strengths & weaknesses i am all too aware of in my writing) in th actual
physical
environment i seem to return to again & again, exploring as thoroughly as
possible
its metaphorical possibilities, its ‘resonance’…?
risking th tightrope & temptation of solipsistic self-referentiality w/ th
consummate
grace of karl wallenda even as he fell to his death in th heart of th
tourism district,
surrounded by th condado hotels…w/ special regards to paco boyer &
heartfelt wishes
for th completion of his thesis & receiving his doctorate…
velo, d=(8{)>