Friday, January 13, 2006

volition

exists in vestments: motion, shadows:
fulfillment the wings I guess

to think that a being resists anyone
in space or on a cliff


to think that a being resists
the tower one reading in a book
'they shall whisper the end and...'

the etymology: will, well, wealth;
voluptuous, voluptuary;
gallop, wallop;
nothing about flying

so you say, ok, I'm going to a well


or you place the epigraph here, for example:
where it's easier to see

(it's harder to argue
with that)

and next(‘time,’ ‘unseen’,
even though
we have ways
of saying it
we will not
go down into it
we will not scour it, not bite more off of it
than we can)

(still the ears hear things)

when I held you up to it and I

(stared)

(stared at it)

and I said hush
hush I said

(hush)
(hush)

don't even breathe

*

to be
breathless, exacting

demand
yr heels:throw
sparks

to think that you’ll insist

on that burst

yr sense for breaking
into the words
is what’s
true most

unsosinpleasant, insincere sitting ontopof the
mechanicalhoodno

and when i said

I didn’t mean it
I didn't have to

say such things as 'I was'
'you are'
'be the light,' 'stroke
it the light do
it'

(described me I mean)

(the thirsty sinner)who was(‘up close’
the wrong way
in the car
and yet the mirror was

right behind you)

*

for out of the boulevard (at night, light froths, so meticulous,
sometimes)

and I could be a ping
in your motor

that close

could be

a signal
of yr demise

this makes a difference

believe me

and you

you could forgive it (with footsteps
and I would be happy)

and I,
I would be the one who

(fell in)
(yes,
the next time

although I'd do it
I'd do it better
I'd will you to
feel
something)

*

flecked with suspense

or thoroughly
unbecoming
an unseen
brushstroke

a fanatic
begging to be described as the one who

(what only happened to me once was
I got to the center and

you missed it and)

this fanatical being was there this one angel who
could do something who
could swat the world with his wing

and he did it
one time
and the world said
'oh god'

get up
get up

and it was terrifying

the way
it divided you

and
divided me

*

for I have stood

a long time

under the circle

watching you
a long time
(wrestling)
my mouth away
from it

from the shape
the light
the confession

and the things
you were
became famous
in my mind

and I have stood
a long time
under the

circles       that were there
and all the dirty mirrors

and who you were
and who I was
and what we both knew and had to say

although it wasn't what we said
not what we said

4 comments:

JC said...

good one , david. enjoyed this all the way through.

AnnMarie Eldon said...

read it so quickly as couldn't get enough of it - it's very beautiful and poignant and then blogger was slow, too slow last night for me to leave a comment
the look of it really really works - but then it would have to - given what this is about
very well crafted

nancy said...

this was great! i'm not generally attracted to this type of poem merely because it's overused to "fill up negative space" and all that poetic's "stuff", but your use of space was not only enhancing but necessary to make this poem all it could be, and was. lovely job.

peace,
nancy.

David said...

hi, thanks everyone.

sorry i am just now getting back over here.

--D