EVIL STANZAS"No spirit seek here rest." —Stephen Spender
I
.
Breath defines line length
As does notebook shape / size
Yesterday afternoon hearing
Yesterday afternoon hearing
Archie Shepp play
.
.
full breath, rich-toned
saxophone chords
think language too
can do this /
.
.
make feeling evidence
sound can evil stanzas
.
.
As one sufferer said:
unto us denied blessings
.
.
Make characteristic failure
our tautness—a trance
.
.
II
.
"after Juan Sánchez Peláez"
.
.
If snow falls now
on a street without course
nor sign,
.
myriad shades inquire
from the foyer
if our errantry is fleeting,
will it last or not and they point toward
the actual path
always attentive or dressed
in night cloth
.
.
thus
from what north or south
from what east or west
these prompt shadows arrive
or amble
.
through fields
in stables and cottages,
.
.
no one knows
save at dusk’s thin beam
when we can glimpse the absent
when our big hands
talking alone
open toward the other cold.
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