Formal Terms

And the storm
Like a stone
Saying only this
From the past
Hangs the stars

I’m still Chinese
Stuck in spell
Soul for soul
Teeter or bow
Heresy, only heresy
In this way



1.Formal Terms

(The perfect fitness of the world
And the exorbitant claims it makes on you,
Sheer physicality
& the branching streams
Never a question entirely of doctrine...)
And the storm



2.My Cases

(What I heard matched my cases;
Interesting cases, illustrative
Of something shocking in the human condition
Once unzipped, voiding their contents
To inundate the collapsing detachments....)
Like a stone



3.All Her Clothing

(It becomes you like all
Those things that once stood still
Then were cancelled
By themselves. Young man in black, fascinated,
Watches the talking machine...)
Saying only this



4.Sweet Tune of Mine

(Can’t remember that I’m talking
To you, me, tiny pin-prick gap
That floods the alphabet’s not apparent
Though it enjambs all my protocols,
Engine of my motion-sickness...)
From the past



5.Our Hero

(You fell from heaven convincingly, a serial
Betrayal, a blast, a thought
Ah the measure of it, sheer tower
Of what you felt, so futilely defeated,
Beleaguered by your own weight...)
Hangs the stars



6.Like a Song

(My last words, measure of myself
How I felt about it, that, her, it, it, that
What I did or thought or said, grasped
Finally for all it was worth or thought
It was worth, so said, thought... )
I’m still Chinese



7.The Usual

(How hard can it be
To be broken as is common
And would be all the more were I not so doubtful
Of my actual condition, its name,
The gears & pulleys that make it go....)
Stuck in spell



8.Universal Trade

(Everything reminds me of everything, something
Else, not one will stay as it is, was meant to be
Not one not collapsing as it's built, falls
Like a ton of bricks, some bare bodkin
Barter, not well thought through...)
Soul for soul



9.More Landscapes

(Whats this plain, this much without
Taste or call for it, not that even
A dust mote can complain within these
Stirrups, these little modest ladders
That connect the levels with liquid cement...)
Teeter or bow



10.In My Youth

(Anyway words are doubtful not so much as
Fish that so much move in concert, sum of interaction;
Where's emotion when the claw withdraws
And why was I always
So damnably stubborn about it...)
Heresy, only heresy



11.Views of a Subject

(Inside the poem there must be flowers
Skies, small furry creatures, anything to
Relieve the tension completely coating
This sphere’s vulnerable airy shell
Not so where there’s music, or time passing...)
In this way