21.
NECROMANCY
[Stephen Ellis]
.
.
The human ear is in shape
of a question mark, and cannot
turn against us as long as we
.
continue hearing natural
sounds with answer enclosed,
as so we live in accordance
.
with also the dictation that
comes with the 'aural signals'
from Madame Blavatsky, who
.
lives within [what, something]
that can do us no harm, just as
not following instructions will
.
get us to the pinnacle down deep
to the point at the 'bottom' [or
maybe it's the top, or off to one
.
side'] of the conch shell that is
found along the deserted beach
littered with quartz on the way
.
to Eden which is in north while
walking south around the tip [of]
what is more than a spit of sand
.
on the other side of, is the ferry
dock and its flag loyalties, but
no money for the fare except to
.
know that lightning across horizon
lines indicates that Cary Grant with
Grace Kelly are having an elegant
.
lunch including twelve raw oysters
in aftermath of sherry and expresso
just up and over my shoulder in
.
Stone Harbor. It has always been
good to agree with what Hermes
discloses, that those appearing to
.
be my mother and father, are actually on
vacation from nowhere, and that these
adults are the parents of someone else.
.
.
.
*
NECROMANCY
[Stephen Ellis]
.
.
The human ear is in shape
of a question mark, and cannot
turn against us as long as we
.
continue hearing natural
sounds with answer enclosed,
as so we live in accordance
.
with also the dictation that
comes with the 'aural signals'
from Madame Blavatsky, who
.
lives within [what, something]
that can do us no harm, just as
not following instructions will
.
get us to the pinnacle down deep
to the point at the 'bottom' [or
maybe it's the top, or off to one
.
side'] of the conch shell that is
found along the deserted beach
littered with quartz on the way
.
to Eden which is in north while
walking south around the tip [of]
what is more than a spit of sand
.
on the other side of, is the ferry
dock and its flag loyalties, but
no money for the fare except to
.
know that lightning across horizon
lines indicates that Cary Grant with
Grace Kelly are having an elegant
.
lunch including twelve raw oysters
in aftermath of sherry and expresso
just up and over my shoulder in
.
Stone Harbor. It has always been
good to agree with what Hermes
discloses, that those appearing to
.
be my mother and father, are actually on
vacation from nowhere, and that these
adults are the parents of someone else.
.
.
.
*
22.
EARLY OCTOBER EVE
[Gali-Dana Singer]
Groping for the way out
from that labyrinthine ear
that stays seemingly not listening
yet hears every single breath
be it ever so light or so heavy
that no one can bear it whatever
^
the case may be, keep in mind
that the nacreous twilight
faithfully promises something
no mother-of-pearl is able to fulfil,
so the seasickness of dusk
will lull you into a true sense of security.
^
Follow it thoroughly if you wish
to take of in earnest or forget it
going on your own and yet ruled
by this tremulous dimness,
just don’t take the way through
for a sought-after road.
.
.
.
*
.
.
*
23.
ATHOMING OF SCORED PHENOMENA CAN NEVER BE BROKEN
[Stephen Ellis]
.
.
No paradoxical, contradictive,
di-polar, contrasting, circular,
complementary means of thought
.
can get you to the mode that is
not a temple, but a means to get
you where you hear the first sound
.
realized in one's being forever to be
trained to hear always voices upon
the air that will not follow or supply
.
with the means of hearing them, not
in manner of interpretation, but clear
sound of what all fear: Immanence,
.
incipience regarding what is just around
every corner. The stream is the sound
of itself as a single flow that cannot
.
turn back on itself in an intellectual
board game. You cannot take back
what can be heard only as a steady
.
stream of overt actuality, for metaphors
too, are the things they are that ought
not be made too much of. To find one's
.
way lost in a deep wood is simple: Follow
the stream that can never qualify as
'a literary device,' of which are none, but
.
as merely useful to some 'end.' Forget
what a 'thing' is, yet somehow make
always words the same 'thing' as things.
24.
TRAVELLING LIGHT
[Gali-Dana Singer]
No paradoxical, contradictive,
di-polar, contrasting, circular,
complementary means of thought
.
can get you to the mode that is
not a temple, but a means to get
you where you hear the first sound
.
realized in one's being forever to be
trained to hear always voices upon
the air that will not follow or supply
.
with the means of hearing them, not
in manner of interpretation, but clear
sound of what all fear: Immanence,
.
incipience regarding what is just around
every corner. The stream is the sound
of itself as a single flow that cannot
.
turn back on itself in an intellectual
board game. You cannot take back
what can be heard only as a steady
.
stream of overt actuality, for metaphors
too, are the things they are that ought
not be made too much of. To find one's
.
way lost in a deep wood is simple: Follow
the stream that can never qualify as
'a literary device,' of which are none, but
.
as merely useful to some 'end.' Forget
what a 'thing' is, yet somehow make
always words the same 'thing' as things.
.
.
.
*
.
.
*
24.
TRAVELLING LIGHT
[Gali-Dana Singer]
As things are words, so words are mostly things,
but not the same, the sameness being wrong
as any concept is, yet in the throng
^
of fellow beings, we can feel that way
misguidedly, of course, but under sway
of verbal forces can you see what swings
of verbal forces can you see what swings
^
the human thinking will at random take
from one mistake and to the oneness of mistake
^
while listening to unobtrusive inner hum
with trust complete as that of drunkards of Hafiz
his cordial companions at the feast
^
whose agitated minds can’t stay for god’s sake numb,
if only for an instant? As it is
an answer to a question never asked
^
let’s follow the weather forecast
[La Bocca della Verità keeps mum]
^
let us continue wandering unmasqued
through crystal ball or into smoky quartz
through depots, terminals and lifeless airports
^
in constant search for that unheard of voice
which will not leave us choice but to rejoice
that no one demands our passports.
25.
JUST NOW PERFECT
[Stephen Ellis]
.
.
In the lens that is all
the air that is, is of
perception that has
.
no seam-guide except
for mistakenly that
language is good for
.
mostly close-ups
and the random pattern
of crowd movements.
.
Everyone wants the same
thing, or everyone at
least wants the same
.
things to be true, as
a start to learning how
to be true, not to
.
the language that
suggests by analogy
what this ought to be,
.
this way, that way, all
ways, no way. Imported
foods keep us to politesse
.
and prim behaviour in
more primal circumstance.
'People are starving' is
.
in this class of observance.
I watched myself lose
23 kg in six months,
.
following cumulous clouds
billow out in opposition
and winter depart as
.
the last snowflake melts
on the black tongue of
an unusually slender
.
deer. These things
cannot be used to
confess about how
.
words in their relationship
to the things we are
and have no other way
.
to refer to is what, lacking
body heat, with few
clothes and even less
.
money is how one
manages to open mail
addressed to them
.
and 'do' read it. To
attend a fashion show
on foreign shores is
.
the only solution: humble
and haughty, as Hafiz, yeah,
'audibly awake.' Surgery will be
.
necessary. I paperclip
my passport to the outside
of my shirt pocket,
.
and in determined
tenderness, go always
as, I want, where you go.
.
.
.
*
.
.
*
26.
A LESSON IN THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIRDS
[Gali-Dana Singer]
Learning Polish for ‘these things’
and ‘those things’, notice
that the word for ‘things’
is basically the same
as the Russian one
for ‘words’ or ‘speech’
^
while fondly remembering all the time:
in Hebrew they are identical twins.
Are we rebuilding broken chains of lost wisdom,
restoring safety net of future freedom
(suffix ‘-dom’ falsely stating the fact of being)
or just holding time and tenderness
^
close together as in brewing a cup
of loose-leaf tea for a random evening
which will strain its countless sore eyes
into colourless dimness wishing
for nacreous light to glimmer forever
so it’ll reach at last the impaired vision?
27.
THE GLORY OF LOVE'S ENTRAILS
[Stephen Ellis]
.
.
And then the pursuit of,
well something is what is
And then the pursuit of,
well something is what is
.
'happening' over in how
staying clear of all but how
rime fits itself is what does
'happening' over in how
staying clear of all but how
rime fits itself is what does
.
well. Maybe it's better not to
give word of noticing anything
give word of noticing anything
.
much so not to be part of
overall ruin. Are there trees
in Poland? I only know
overall ruin. Are there trees
in Poland? I only know
.
that birds can see stars through
their eyelids: We are and am in
that birds can see stars through
their eyelids: We are and am in
time. And time is all the same
just as words as things and
the things that they refer to
are the same as not knowing
the difference. The equator is
.
determined by the accents of
the local and neighboring species
the local and neighboring species
.
of what comes next: Always and most
usually a lesson of some kind.
28.
NEITHER DAY NOR NIGHT
[Gali-Dana Singer]
of what comes next: Always and most
usually a lesson of some kind.
.
.
.
*
.
.
*
NEITHER DAY NOR NIGHT
[Gali-Dana Singer]
Hugin and Munin fly each day
over the spacious earth.
I fear for Hugin, that he come not back,
yet more anxious am I for Munin.
(Grímnismál, translated by Benjamin Thorpe)
^
Thinking and Remembering,
two ravens
covering the domain
in pursuit of data
^
may not return
and this prospect
makes their flight
all the more unforgettable
^
circling the world
with precision and care
round and round
the tree of knowledge
^
can they just leave
for the sake of blackness
turning their backs
on their nervous master?
^
What will they find
in a free cosmos?
Futureless life
or useless justice?
^
Less than one forever
will wait for them hiding
in the leafless crown
of the rootless kingdom.
^
Precious be the persistent hope
for the instant unending,
when all that is known
will fly out of orbit.
29.
INEVITABILITY
[Stephen Ellis]
.
.
No wonder our nerves
are stretched and thin,
good fortune abounds
.
in exhaustion through
which every nuance is
a light wind that removes
.
a few leaves from the tree
of knowledge so fresh
green from the tree of
.
life can be revealed
and disclose the true
color of love. What is
.
circling but a neurotic
obsession which must
be revealed under what
.
at best can be but
simulation of the life
that is sought. To feel
.
alive, one must light
in the full chaos in
the middle of it. Pursuit
.
of order is hindrance,
when all we need is
'pause' - the tree of life
.
must be embraced INSIDE
the tree of knowledge,
the necessity of which
.
will never give up hope
of having a love that
knowledge makes impossible.
.
The tree of knowledge
is made of images
and images are made of
.
referent words [images].
the whole of life in love
as poet through poetry
.
to the substance of
expression has to do
in poetics with words
.
as themselves among
things - some of which
are named by what are
.
called words [words being
substantial things] - has
to do with ceasing circling
.
simulacrum, and turning
our imaginations into the real
wood of living wood, or
.
to be unusually simple about
these matters is, that innocence
must always be experienced.
.
.
.
*
.
.
*
30.
TIRED LIGHT RULES THE WORLD
[Gali-Dana Singer]
‘Make this one as translatable as it can possibly be’,
came the thought out of nowhere.
‘Make this one as’ I repeat again and again.
‘Make’... but can it be made?
The answer is ‘no’, however, the thought
would not take ‘no’ for an answer.
^
Thoughts come out of no place,
then they do not expect to be
found out as commonplaces
by stealth, scheming and cunning.
Nothing is made of nothing
as nowhere is made of wariness
^
and complacency of evergreen platitudes
will bring us nowhere as a matter of course.
‘Can taking transatlantic flight to the right words
in the right order be the correct choice
of expression when you don’t know
what to say?’, asks another fleeting visitor
^
of the stuffy inner space in my head.
‘Never mind what you say
when you know how to say it’,
mutters the third one. Not being able
to agree less I keep silent
closing this poem with a dot.
