10 the bacteria, rambllags,xvenger, orimiths—the tonsfigures, resough 5 appeared under the tile “Garbage” in The American Poetry Revcw, March/April 92 Pare 6 appeared under the ti Fall 199: ‘Radiant Days" in CrusRoad Pare 11 appeared under the tide her 1092 ing Place in Par, Decer My thanks to those assisting in these appearances.reopy lite creepers ae insinsatingly curling up my spine (vinging the messge) saying, Boy, are you writing that great poem the worlds waiting fr: doa'e you know you have an unaccomplished mission unaccomplished; someone somewhere may be at this very moment ying for the lac of what W. C, Williams says you could (or somebody could be giving: yesh? 10, these lee messengers say, what do you ‘mean teaching scool (aching pctry and pacry arising and wasting you time panting sober litle organic, meaning pictures) when values thought Tose (but only serambled into disengagement lie around demolished anid centerless because you tha’ me, bay) haven't elaborated everything in everybody's face, ye: on the other hand (say 10 myself, receiving the mestengers and cutting them dows) who as done anything or am I likely to do anything the world won’ twirl without: and since 88's enough money (I hope) to ive fom now on on in elegance an simplicity —or, maybe, jst simplicity —why shoulda’ L lt my age (6) concentrate on chucking the sudvancements an reheasing the sweetnsses of leisure, nonchalance, and small-time byways: couple sont ago, for example, I went ll the way from soy fakes (already roasted and presed anu in need of an hours simmering boil to be cooked) all dhe way to soybeans, the pure golden pearls themslves, 6 Ib dry: they have to be soaked overnight in water and they have tbe boiled slowly for sit hours—but they're welfare cheap ate a complete protein, more protein by weight than meat, more falciin than mail, more lecithin than eg, ana somewhere in there the ol hat smoothes Stools, a great virtue: I need time and verve to find out, now, about modicae/medicaid, rational osteoporosis week, gaabout tours, hearing loss, homesharing programs, and choosing ood nutrition! for starters! why should I be ying to write my Batrest poem, now, for whan, not for sel, for then? posh, 36 I have never std: Social Security can provide the beans, soys enough: my house, paid for for ‘meen yours, spd for: my young’ is rise: nothing one can pay cash for seems ‘very valuable: that reaches a igh enough Tenchmark for se—high enough that I woulda'e now wat to do with anything beyond that, no place t house it, park i, dock i let drift down to: elegance and simplicity: I wonder if we need chose celestial guidance systems ssriking mountaintops of if we need fuzzy philosophy’sabstrse failed ressonings isn't it simple and elegant enough to believe in ‘qualities, simplicity and elegance, pitch in = line courage and generosity, 2 touch of ‘commitment, enowgh asceticism to prevent fattening: moderation: elegant and simple moderation: trees defined themscves (nto various definitions) through a dynamics of struggle (ay, i che paver rapping, yer?) anid soit is a if there were 2 genetic ecoggition that a young tre would get up andthrough only through ten space (parental Space not yelling a all, either) and, farther: so, trunks, accommodated to rising, v0 reaching the high ight and decp water, were slender an fast moving, and this was okay because fone gon thing about dense competition is that if one succeeds with it one is butressed by ‘crowding competitors; that is there was like oom for branches, and just «tat of green possibilty a the Fares’ roof but, 20 take my yard maple—pu out in the free and open—bas ovengrowa, stunk split down from a high fork wind has ‘ited off the biggest, bottom branch there was, in fact, hardly any crowding and competition, tn the fat tee, unable to stop pouring it on, coverfd and overgrew and now, agin, ts skin's broken into and disease may find it and bores ‘of ane kind or another, and fangos: it just foes to show your moderation imposed is better than no moderation at all: we te into the lives of those we love and ou Hives, then, 0 as theirs go; heir pin we can’ shake off their choices, ofen harming to themselves, pour through our agitated sleep, swirl up as rovnes in our dreams; we rise several times in nigh to walk about; we rien the mori to a crusty world headed nowhere, doorless: . four chests burm with anxiety and a river of anguish defines rapids and stent in the pit of cour stomachs: how can we intercede and not Interfere: how can our love move more surtoundingly, b convincingly than ovr premonitory advicegarbage has tobe the poem of our time because farhage is spiritual, believable enough to get our attention, getting in the way, pling vp, stinkng, suring brooks brownish and creamy white: what else deflets us from the eros of our illsionary way, nora tempetion to trashlssnes, hat is too far off and anyway, unimaginable, unrealistic: Tm a hole puncher of hole plugger sik a finger inthe dame (dam, dart, dike), hold back the ise of creativity’s ood, the fortheoming, fruit, the origins feeding trash: dom by Ls i Florida where flatlnd’s geen and gift, mounds of diposal rise (fr if you dug sormething up to make room for something to put in, what about the something dg up, a5 with graves) the garbage trucks cr as iin obeisance bs if up viggorats toward the high places gulls and garbage keep alive olerings to the gods of garbage, of retribution, of realistic downed up in macadam pools by spring ruins, moisten ‘ut whie in day oF so and, round spots, Jook like sputum oF creamy-rich broken-up cold dams if his not the hes poem of the century, can i be about the worse poem of the fenmry it comes, atlas, coward the end, 0 2 long tracing of bad stuff can swell fender ts measure: but thereon the heights sal smoke wafs the strifcal bounty ‘and night 0 layer the sky brown, shut us inco a ded ete, the everlasting these acresdeep of tendance keep: « eterng of a crippled plastic ches ‘out sports out: a hill-myna ined with ely how to write this ‘small popping of the trail and recovering ie self ou, illstations exlors, clothes or intensify into statement, ones any corpus p rurround, or should i be nothingar all ules it ind tse the poem, Uthich is about the pre-socrai idea of the ispositional axis from stone to wind, wind to mone (with my elaborations, if any) is complete before it begin, so I need’t ‘myself hurry into breve, though a weary reader snighe briefly be done: the axis will be clear tnough daubed here and there with a Hil ik ‘or fined out into every shade and form of es revelation: this is a selene poem, sserting that nacure models values, that we have invented lise copied), reflections of possibilities already here, chis where we came fo and how we cane: a priewlydirecoe behind the black-chuffing dozer leans che gleanings and reads the bins, millions of loners circling 4 common height, sighting to the meaty streaks ane puffy sffins (pias? there is a mound, tox, in the poet’ mind dead language is hauled fff wo and burned down on, the energy held and shaped into new turns and clusters, the mind Strengthened by what i stengthens: for where but inthe very asshole of comedown is Tedemprtion: as where but brought low, where bt inthe grief of failure, los, eror do we ddscer the stvageafictons that tur us around where but inthe arrangements love crawls us through, nota thing lel in ourself splay unhumilisted, do we find the sweet seed of Dew routes but we are natural: nature, ive Hse 10 us we are not, hough, though ual, divorced rom higher, finer conigurtions and holograms of energy circulate in 3d sek and find representations of themselves 15 50 that we can participate in sons high and know reaches of feeling and thought that penetrate (relly te) fr, far beyond these our we ells, up past our stores, the planets, snoons, Ie bodies locally tothe other end of phere mate’ forms difse and all means to express itself except ob yes, in che abiding where hing else sides, the eternal,ult rors into another pear or suis that momentary glint ia the fisheye having been there so long, coming and going, i's cerniy’s glint fall wraps back round, ino and out of form, palpable and impalpable and in one phase, the ane of grief and love, wwe know the other, where evelastingness comes 10 hay, okay and smooth the heaven we mostly want though is thin jetchoweed hel ack, fRemen's dancing assole: one mst write and reverie til ome writes i ight ifm in touch, she sad then Te gor an edge: what the hell kind tli that T ean believe Tin merely an old person: whose mother is dead, whose father is gone and many of whose THiends and associates have wended away to the round, which i only heavy wind, or to ashes, gine breeze but i was all quite frankly to be expected and not looked forward to: even ‘ld eee, remember some of them, where they ased to stand: pictures taken by some of them tna old dogs specially one imperial back one, quad dogs wit their hierarchies (anther erbie) tne suceeding another, the barking an 1g another, the barking and romping Alding wy like sides from a projector: what were they then that are what they are now:platitade and sweet semblance ease each nation frck into its comfort or despair: global ees romote interationlist getings-togeher v 8 Problems the best procedure, whether they be in dhe pos wap whose energy mst be found and et Nk oo the high windings of ular doi: F say co my writing stadenss—prize your faws defecs, behold your accidents, engage your rcsmsthese are the materials negative ei ton your engoing-—from these places you imagine find, or make the ways back to all of us, the Figure Leeping the aberrant periphery worked clear so the central current may shift or show or rouse adjusting to the neesary dynamic: in ou error the defining energies of eure Crrancy finds suffering otherwises: but no use linger ever beauty or simple ff: this is jue a poem with a jb to do: and that is to declare, however roundabout, sidewa to meanderingly (or in thse ways) the perfec scientific and materialistic notion of the spindle of energy: when energy is gross, ocklike, it resembles the gross, and when fine i mists away into mystical refinements, sometimes passes right out of material recognzablty and becomes, what, motion, spirit all forme translated into energy, as at the bottom of Dante's hel all motion is tzanlated into form: so, in value sptems, physical systems, arise systems, always this same disposition from the hemy to the light, tnd then the retums from the light downward to the staid gros: stone to wind, wind to stone: there is no need for “outside,” hegem Aervations of vale: nothing need be invented or imposed: the aesthei, seni, moral are organized like 4 mu along this pine night ae well relax hus, che jb done, the mind having found its way theough and marked out the course, the intellect can be put by ‘one can turn to tongue, crotch, boob, nave, smpit, rock, slit, reste reaend andconsider the perfameries of slick exchange, heaving breath slouch mouth, the mixed neans by which we say attentive and keep the round of our ongoing: you wake up thrown away and accommodation becomes the name of yout fame: getting back, back inco the structure ‘of protection, caring, warmth, numbers: one tnd many, singles and groups, disensios and cooperation, takings and givings—the dynamic ‘of suriva till the same but why thrown cur in he fist place Because while the prodigal stamps off and returns, the father goes from ion directives that drove the on away to rejoicing teas at his return: the safe world of community, not safe, stil needs Teclrs sent ou to text che environment, to bring back news or no ews; the central mower, the huge river, neds, 0, to bend and the son sent away is doubly welcomed home: Ive deprive ourselves of, renounce, safety to seek greater safety: but if we forish a divine Sanction of theology to the disposition, we most not think when the divine sanction shifs that there ie any alteration inthe disposition: the new’s an angle of emphasis on te old new religions ae surfaces, bli che shadows of images tying to construe what needs no belief only bom di, and if something is boom or ne, then that isnot it that fs not the it the it sche indifference of all the Aitferences, the nothingnes ofall the poised somethings, the finest sue of energy in which boulders and dead stars float: for what if it were otherwise and the i turned out to be something, damaing and demanding, strict and Fierce, preventing and seizing: what range of choice would be given up then and what value could our partial, remnant choices aoqite then: with 2 high whine the garbage rack slowly Sreling the pyramid rising intone the morning and atop the mounds plateau bieds citing hear and ri alive in srinkings of wings denser chan windy forest shelves: and meanwbile 1 cuck already arived sill ts goods fomthe back hatch andthe birds sin a single comparer- foraned net plunge in celebration, balleljahs of eejoieng: the driver get out of hi ruck Sind wanders over tothe elif on the spill and looks off fom the high point ito the rosy-fine ‘Shing of day, she ai pure, the wings of the bins white and clean as angel-food cake: holy, holy holy, the diver cries and fiks his igarete in a spivinal swoop that floats and Moats before fe touches grounds here, the diver knows, where the consuinmations gather, where the disposal ows out of form, where the last translations cast away their ianmutable bits and saps, Sts of steel, shivers of bottle and tumbler, here isthe gateway to beginning, here the portal fof renewing change, the birdshit, even, melding nvichingly in with debris a loam for che roots fof placenta: ob, nature, the man on the ed of the cardboard-laced eliff exclaims, that there ould bea straightaway fom the toxic past into the fasion etches of a coming time! our sing ate so many, here heaped, shapes given to false mater, hamburger mea left outscientists plange into mater looking forthe hatter bt the matter lesens and, looked t00 fae ino, expands ava: it was insubstana ll slong, thats, boulders bes; they are “alive” with motion and ypace: there isa idling realty where veal hands grasp each ‘other in the maff but tomaed both extremes the realty wears out, wens thin, becomes 3 reality scealtyles”: this satisfactory, providing permanent movesaent and saying, providing the seatun essential with an essential air, the poles thick and thin, dhe midds, at interchange: the spreader rakes furrow open and lights a 1 priestly plume rises, signal, smoke like fies intermediatng between orange peel tnd buzzing hr: i poem about garbage garbage ‘or wil sis abstract, hollow junk seem beatiful i Ghd necessary as just another offering 1 the high assinilaions (hat means wp on top where the smoke i; the incineration of sn, corruption, miseonsraction passthrough the prification of flame: old deck chairs, ppeccaces ae «rippled aluminum lawn chars, lemon crates / with busted slats or hinges, strollers with | whacking o spinningly idle wheels stub ends of houdogs: clumps go ou; sain sulls deep coals wind slams fickers so at they lose the upstanding of updraft and stile to white Hingo—but oh oh in a sense and in an intention, the huraing’s forever, O eternal flame, principle ofthe universe, without which ‘gray rust prevail dance rere heaviness a peoplng the centers and distances, the faraway flaeic srs even, luminescence, plasmas ‘hose burs, the same principle: bat here on the heights, tems and fies avoid the closet precincts of fame, the erifing transformations, the diseppearances of anything of interest, morsel, gobbet, truce of maple syrop, fat worms aling intensity atthe center where only special clothes and designated oie lly the risk, the pure center: but down, down on the lowest appropinguatons, the laborsome, loaded veaels whine ke sails inoo much wind up dhe long ledges, he whines harmony, singing away the end of the work surrounding of cor spelling iti, 2 monsrovs 39 aceriag.-the putrid, dhe sto, the used, the mucked up-—allatving for final assessment for dhe toting up in tonnage, the separations of wet and dry, returnable and gone for good: the sanctification, the buen-througts, at ee merely a permanent ewang of light a dwelling seni remaiing: how to be blessed are mechanisas roca da carry sich changes the rope cer ge fh out and approaches the ire: he stares into it sino Teetny che burning edge of begining and ending, the catalyst of going and becoming, smd all dhoughts of his paycheck and beerbely even all choughts of his house and family and ‘he Tong way’ he has come to be worthy of his swatch, fll away, and he stands in dhe presence Urehe momentarily everlasting, the air about him sacrosanct, purged ofthe exnwling vines ind dense veyetation of desire, nothing berween perception and eonsequence here; the atti tems move avay ftom the still machine and lighe sks their wings in round, a Autering a whirling rose of wings, and it seems that terns slender wings and finely-tipped tails look so ary and yet so capable that they rust have been designed afer angels or angel gels afer them dhe lizard family produced man in ‘he winged ait! man as what he might be or might night have been, neuter, gulls, feathery hymn the bulldozer man picks up a eel hotle that turns purple and green in the light and pours cut afew drops of stale wine, and yellowjckets tbr in che bol, sung drunk, the singing ‘not even puzzled wien he tosses the bole way down the slopes, the stil ar being flown in fn the bot even asthe bole dives through the sit! the bulldozer man thinks about that concdes that everything is marvelous, what should conclude and what everything i on deep ops, he ele, he ight the bore wil, ever the weds hungeches, unharme hain ena o wine ee ov ofthe nel 2s the sun's all sone, one al: com his bildoner halla: he gens back up : and shaking his locks backs the olldowet dow shacers into svulets on crunched cellophane as the nowy-searted bulldozer jars 4 farrow off the mest, smoothing and packing down: Aatening, the way combers break fat into speed wp the strand: unpleasant fod stings down the slopes and ra" hae tals whinl whacking trash: I don't know anything much about garbage dumps I mean, Pve never climbed one: I know abour the smells: do masks mask oF there a deodorzing mask: the sioner of Sanitation in a bug-black Cady Jong glisters creepy up the riggurst at op his chauffeur pops aut and opens the door for him: be goes over afew fect Psa sil, salute and to hie forehead ys the distances in all depths. the jows lace his white sleeve: he is tes asa liking zephyr from the 1 sale-shelf of scent he approves: he fm in salute wo the nosy dover's praves back and forth canceling ut to speak, re-beholds Florida'sJongest vistas, gets hack into the big Doxey aeutrans opal the windows, rapping, though, a nuisance of fies (or, would he have run fhe windows down: or would anyone else have ot out ther: strike that) righ at doy rte, like a benediction, sets on the ambiance: ll is proceeding: funding wil be Continued: this work wil ot be abandoned this mound ean rise higher: things are in order tren eights are acknowledged the lows case ito place; the wives get back from the Iaundroma, the husbands hose down the hubeaps; and dhe scetingly blank presues of weekend cack ‘Seay our by hour in established ie: in your end is ay heyining the operator waves back the Comminioner, acknowledging his understanding and his submission to benign authority, and falls ae hiking of is wife, née Minne Furher, a worn of abrupe appetites and strict moras, & woman Coho anes what she wants legally, largely 25 function of her husband’ particulars: a closet fQucet Manic hides her cardboard, gold-filed to wearin parade about the house wh ys home: she so fat, fa peopl tobe near her and her husband loves it of her, every bite (hit) round enough uuh to ger wherever his dinky won't x won't reach, he finds cs that will I ent up the road his moming a ten to Pleasant Growe al of Teas ashes: those above those below don’ the sun was and che words of poems real! out down ike min nows ina shallows pent of lence and had their gape ied up and healed quiet: inno ent the iries and hand-holds of dr aw and shaw bring hich ay ote age ecognizable as what they lech a that, never th same thin ec the sii, dows edie Jaothing in an instant out oftime, not just the eternity in which it is not, pur docs death go on being death fr a ilion years this one fact pt down i po down Forever, i itor for forever, forever ro be a part of the changes aboot it witches inthe hres magnetic fed, asteroid ellison tectonic undesplays, to be molten and then not foolten,aguin and agtn: when does fact end wna does one do with this gup fom jst yesterday tr jst this morning to fiy-five billion years—to infinity: che spit was forever in i forever, the residual and informing nergy, bot here what concerns us i this is incredible favoring and ‘manifestation, chi man, hi building up of character and élat, gone, hough forever, in a moment only, 2 foal vent, infinitely unrepeatable: the song of the words subsides, the shallows dit away, the people tur to each other and away: motors Stor and the driveways clear, and the single faces left lone to itself to have its st ight under the stars but x be tere now for every sta that comes; we wo as ; re yo away who must, durselves come back, last to stay: tears wen we are helpless are our onl ur only joy: but while I was avay this morning, Mike, che young Alwers more like w rts led Sea ors cot ofthe front dich now 0 wet to mow, slashed! the dispositional asf not posconal ot supreme (how tedious) sn not ton (how even) but pl flows trough the Joy anda fact ike a)2 pin inthe knee or hip or warps and Teas in the leg muscles, even strange, binding twinges inthe fect ought to ease you so include In che Kis of posses tha cat the high arch in one of your fect has sipped, shortening jou shorlegged, your weight misdisibuted, ane iyo akendy had broken ach ia the other foot, then with both feet Hat, you Should notice considerable improvement of sors if you were longlegged in one leg Sud the foot ofthat leg went fla then you night be overwhelmed with improvement of ill nother kinds but, of course if then the short log shortened to lat foot, you'd be beck in dutch and puzzled by the consequences expecially if you knew nothing of the exes things are sostained by inteselations and satiety but when something goes wrong who ‘an isola the active envse, an active ingredient often riding in a complex of onvextul vectors: and nothing shor of 3 laboratory experiment in which controlled circumstances can be evaluated one at atime is likely co prove limiting clarifying: L seas coming ovt of Goldwin Smith Hall afer mail call on 2 nova-bright Ite May day, the blues ond greens outdoing each other, when dear & ssid, come and sce, its Ralph, he's in the ex, and thinking, I've never been asked vo come see Ralph before, I sid is anything the amatter, and she sid erminal cancer of che brain, and Isa, terminaleancer ofthe brain, and she sid, T found outa week ago, bu don't say anything co him: so, inthe glaring light, his window rolled down, I was talking with an old fiend 2 i the pat twenty-five years ofall hrce of us ‘colleagues had shifted out of reach: everything fs theater and eternity is nothing at all: yesterday, a man whore pitare just seen inthe local paper was going ino the basement of Lincoln Hall when Is, I saw that piece shout yo in the paper, snc that an ealy retirement: I'm 63 he Said: som I, Is:ny wife isn't wel, he sad, we want co travel, flo you think sbous retsings all the time, E said, but to what: depastments grow haired and blackaired und shade away into white and dome-shine ase 1p the dissolve moves through tenure, oF ajo elsewhere, par ime, retirement, death: there never is a department really but a slaw flow you can step in twice on writing » poem-—you st vacant and elased (posible), your mind wandering freely, unengnged and in search of focus: you may sit his way for several minutes all he ‘void unsettes you a bic and you become impatient With the intrusion of an awareness of yourself ining wth » touch of wnsieloome exasperation fover a great blank: but you keep your mind open and on the move and eventually there is = ace of feling Tike a bit of mist on a backroad but then i reappears stronger and more central sell coming and going, so the mind can't gab ic and hold on to bet the mind begins formake an effor,t0 shed fom itself all wareness except that of going with the feeling, to relax and hod the feeling-the feeling ia beual burning, a rich, raw ch, caw urgency the mind knows that its nothing without the feeling, so conceateaing on the fei 7 ing, i dreams of imminent shapes, emergences, of lust abundances, of ee Aw, forms discernible, ‘material, concrete, shapes on the move, and then the mind gives way fom its tiger ay from its triggering, and the mechanisms of necessity fll into, grasping the ‘upheaval, dhe action of making the presence of presse appears, forces open a wy, the intensity heightens, groans of anguish and satisfaction brea from the depths of the bboy, and the sweet dream occurs, the work payloads, the fall-aeay slips through the body contrac and returns, ease lengthens dbroughout the byways, andthe mind picks up on the cavironment again, tums tothe practical policing of the scene, restores itself to normalcy and the objective world, the hody hitching itself up on the way: sie fire (and save matchessve wheeled down the long glide fom the mountains Into Wheeling: morning fog stoked away the tops of hills and a river (r 60) confluencing slashed Seross by scary iron bridges jammed the narrowed valley road, when the hig black mouth ofa tunael Neddenly opened out of fog in solid rock, all the i events at once happening inthe sakes: but then going Sa down Route 7 along the Ohio; mammoth standings of steam, way out of size, to solid to vanish, oozed ‘yp from the nuclear erates, so much so all that even I ‘on our side of the river the outsized opal shades ‘of steam broke across ws, shadowing us once and again: slows like fying by oF uying to drive to 4 mounsiin, the far ahead Lingering fr bebinds the freeway of refineries, chemical steams, the gross companies oughening the banks down by the banks ofthe O-hi-o ‘ae | isiall going tobe ik this: you wake up in the morning nd there is that the next morning, is something else, and none of ie rakes much sense and then one day the weight ‘whomps down and you jackspring onto 3 diferent floe oF the oad you were dong seventy ‘on rumbles of rans out of rot: rmeanwtile, baked potatoes ar sll fine, splie down the middle, buttered up, the owo white cakes steaming, the buter (or sour eream) oozing down and sex is iFany, good, and here's that time Therwean dawn al day then ile birds assert song whereas lin while later they're quiet at Ihunt or nest: and when during the drying owt afer ‘ins the trickle in che ditch bottom quivers bya ewig-bil strat, the wonder of i all returns, the separations, dhs ince? ra? a self, a se, being he where, here?, where's here, splits, slices alts quickeut, overlapping dialog; » series of Aeclining peaks; dwindings of «woman's bushy head aif eaughe in a brush ie:1 have sen the future; just went by, pat aways it advertises strokes, hip replacements insulin shots, pygmnomanometers or distal punches there is an end to delays and remedies, rogimens, and rehabs; another puthology interrupt following on pathology terrible descriptions of outcomes appear here dn there, and cutomes, around which, though, Ihumor gins or boundless guffaws rol comers we've wash, plensy wondrous should T want tosayin what the wonder consist: it satiny Aerial of light inthe mind har says "go 0 har’s what tsps tha’ al says ver “eg clear up ito foreows: the spear Tengthens sil sh can’ ouleap its accuracy: what fs fore Beyond what is most beyond must be seen ino love must be held ail « minute to see if anything cam be said ahout its if one negative will do, ‘will to negatives do more, more than two afrmatives Thal the lines continue to move a lle in sum longer ‘but flake can look glassy, ean’ a building: jt Tle piece of tanslocen, whitish light, ‘it wrigglesitis ike, say, one meaner, one whole ‘meander that came from nowhere and goes nowhere but it wriggles and guess what says: have I cjoled you lately that Fwantya: Tm nome too innersted in rogions because there's plenty of spelled-out cultural differentiation in isolationisns, and, anyhow, i's passing: Pm interested in the “fferentations of which there are now ew thatthe whole globe can belong tor precasious abstraction will have to be the world’s feed fora longtime bere the line bits, so few, of concretion and worldwide specification begin to appear, but, tough scanty, growing and leading into a growing world, not one spent: globe-round— ‘one thinks, slapping down the lines, making time with etemiy, one will thrive heyond the brink but beyond the brink is no recollection but a wide ‘iing way into silver that filers farther away. fto nothing: ghosts haunt che fields and hills, ‘the moon-soaked woodpaths, che misty cata bogs the lites time, for they are atraeted to the light, he one a itl farther on, lite farceand the light pulls thes all away, and chen, who knows, ‘Decomes 4 rose wasted, perhaps on the backside of some barn, dhe suramary rose rambled unseen: have You stopped to think what existence i to be here rw where so much has heen or is yes to comne and fre isnss itself is ust she name of segment ‘of flow stop, thinks rillenna jiggle in your eyes fx night, the twinklrs, eye and star: the glistening ‘onthe eves when morning dew rans ele steaks that head into drops, nodding leaves: think how fine a motion sensation is, dati sweeps the nerves tn aligns the bodys every’ cell because another xis all the bets are off if fun i walking around the able cutting you or someone else up, or if poverty has worked its way tip ineo your knees or you ean get your eyes ry, cor a child is bruised or a woman comered for thrills and violence ent be distinguishes: then existence recall with relief that existence fend, that our windy houses crack ther frames and sil, that nothing, not even col ling bothers the stars twinkle, twinkle: jst a wonder 1 sy, globe-round selferpowerment ik tis could be dificule and, perhaps, dangerous in tv actual, but these ways of words merely trace out designs rany can split wp the filling in fT punched ‘opt Garbage tthe Hbrary and four tes sep the Serecn, only one, Garbage Feed seeming worth going onto; and that was about feeding swine right so I punched Garbage Dispos and the seen came blank—nothing! all those tes, row on row, of westem goodies, mostly swore than junk, but nota ward on Dispos: 1 should have looked, I suppose, under Waste Disposal but, who cares, Lacy got the point: £ know garbage is being “dnpored” of —but what wanted T ad gre, a dee space and pre edo np watered ths meats mos ofthe catalog mnt go, xo much that what is left will need no computer to be kept track of har: words area specialization on sound making kind of language: but there are many tot jase languages but kinds of language: the blues extensive vocabulary signals tatesof feling or being—alrm, exasperation, feeding, illeness—and the signal systems lay out the states fr the safety of sharing by others, alerting to danger, even sharing food sources: whales’ pod-songs keep inmate transactions fluid: horses neigh, whinny, and soufle (coach lephans nerwork even distant sit with sound waves too low for us to hear ‘oh, no: we are not alone in Language: we may | be alone in words, least, almost alone in speaking them, not alone (Koko) in understanding them, st leas reacting to them: we are nearly alone in words: but the words do for us what other languages do for others—they warn, inform, reassure, compare, present we may be alone in words but we are not singular in language have some respect for other speaker of being and for god’ sake drop allthis crap about words, Singulaiy, and dominion: ti 20 boring, ‘when Thea it hook of anger in my guts tears the lining: che world was the beginning ‘of the world; wonds are way of fending in the work: whole languages lie species, can disappear without dropping a gram of earth's weighs, and symbolic systems to a fare you well can be added withoue filling a ditch or thimble ‘oar cousin the birds talkin the morning: T ‘an tell the weatherby their voices before 1 open my eyes [know some oftheir “words” because Tow, share with them, thei sees ‘of being and feeling: my cousins the bins tug worms up fom the lawn and eat them tu that gives me a piee of conical reainy until I svar the hog in my bacon, admire the ‘highbone in my chicken: when the hens used to sing in the spring laying ino their ler, ‘he windy courtship time of mating and ‘esting, I can ear the singing now, the good times: I know the entire linguage of chickens, from rooster erows to hidiy cheeps it 8 language sufcient tothe forms and procedures ‘ature asigned to chiken-birds but a language, 4 competition goes, not sufficient to protect ‘hem from ne: our systems nowof feeling or being alarm, exasperation, Feeding, ileness—and the signal sysiems Jay out the states for the safety of sharing by other, alerting to danger, even sharing foot soures: whales pu-songs keep intimate transactions id: horses neigh, whinny, and snufle (coach) elephanes nerwork even distant tir wth sound waves too low for ust hear oh, nor we are not alone i language: we may be alone in words at leas, almost alone in speaking them, not alone (Koko) in understanding them, at least reacting to them: we are nary lone in words: but the words do for us what other Tanguages do for others—they warn, inform, reassure, compare, present: we may be alone in Swords but we are aot singular in language: have some respect for other speakers of being and for go's sake drop allthis erap about words, singularity, and dominion: ts 50 boring, when [hear it hook of anger ia my guts tears the lining: the world was the beginning ofthe world; words area way offending inthe world: whole languages, like specie, ean appear without deopping a gram of earth's weight, and symbolic systems toa fare you well fan be added without filling a dtch or thimble: our cosine the bids a inthe morning: Gane the wether by thir ces bene Topen my eyes: I know some oftheir “word Because I know, share with them, thee sates of bing and feeling: mycosis the robin tug worms up from the lawn an! eat chem that gives me a pce of conical realty [savor the hog in my bacon, admire the jghbone in my chicken: when the hens used eo inte spring laying into their ladders windy courtship time of mating and ng, I can hear the singing now, the good iow the emtze language of chickens, tooster crows to biddycheeps: it a scent co the forms and procedres Assigned to chicken-binds but al anguage, tition goes, nots ent to protect EW: OUF Spsens nowchange their genes, thie forms and procedares, Fou them up in allie houses, ick theie ag laying wih aici days and nights language is something to write home about four language but i isnot the world: grooming does for baboons most of whae words do For us. sometimes old people sap back into hie for « steeakand start making plans, ridiculous, you know, when they will suddenly think of death agin and they will sce their coffins plunge upward like whales out ofthe refised depths of their sminds andthe change wil fel s0 shockingly Aifferent—from the warm movement of a posiilty to cold acknowledgment—they will sex not to understand for a minute: at other times with the expiration of plans and friends and reams and sith the assuls om all sides of relapees and pins, hey wil fel 3 sumllish ambition to creep int thie boxes at as and lid the light out and be gone, evermore, nevermore to see agai, let alone sce truble come on anyone agin: oh, yes there ate these mous and transitions, these bolt ‘recollections and these foolish fempeations and stratagems to distract chem from the course this is why dhey and we must keep our mind: on the god-solid, not on the vain silks and sweets of human dissipation, no, sree:\ Ny ‘unless ofcourse god is immanent in which ease | \ he may be eo some slight exent parc ofthe i sets god being in that case nothing more than or i fs much as energy at large, a hair of ic eaught } in candy: I just want you to know I'm perfectly Ki serious much ofthe ie: when [kid around rm tying to ge in positon to be serious: ny dalylilis are efforts to excuse the presumption of assumption, direct adres my Self presentation: Pm tying to mean what 1 mean w mean something: bes for that a kind fof matterof fat explctness about the facts best of al, facts of action: actions, actions, actions, una or atomic: dhese ations cut curves out in space, spizal up or in, turn and turn back, sll, whi: these are the motions wwe fear from, these are the central igues, this is the dance, here atitude and charter, precision and floundering ly out for us to see their several examples, comically wasteful as vvth clowns or young sqierelsplayfal at dak Ihre isthe real morality, the economy of ction an reaction, of diving ahead, of going slow, of walling the lin, the tightrope, here the narratives of motion tha rll the story the stories figure into Sati: les study the motions, are they slovenly, choppy, attenuating, high, meandering, wasteful we need nothing more, excep these fr those inattentive or too busily ose the spelling out of in the daily elaborations to prize the essential: (@) don’ complain—ils are sulicienly clear without reiterated description: (2) count your blessings, spelling them over and over imo sharp contemplation: (3) do what you can— take action: (2) move on, keep the mind allied with the Gguraions of ongoing: when. Twas a kid I always, ic seemed, had a point 1 coulda say o that no one could accept— [alvays sounded unconvincing; I lot the arguments: people became impatient and stuck to their own beliefs my explanations suck them as strange, unlikely: when [eared shout poetry, I inust have recognized a means