#195 The Spring Tide

The pre-
diction of
tides on an
a priori basis
is not possible.
Local conditions
apply. One works
from charts & tables—
how far the fall between
high & low, the positioning
of rocks, the shape of the sky.
What the weather is doing. Are
the Moon & Sun colinear with the
Earth? Do clouds collide with bells?

#194 The Poet Recompensed

Implied self-
praise, inflated
self-worth. Used
dragon imagery
in his poetry—the
dragon guardian
of gold, & gold,
believed the poet,
was suitable
recompense
for all his work. For-
got the bit about
fire-breath & flame.
The dragon didn't.

Just out from Bill Allegrezza's Moria Books,

a second selection from Series Magritte.



Available as a free downloadable pdf from here (about halfway down the page).

Available for purchase in print form from here.

#193 La Plaine de l'air

Cellulose
per se
has a slow
metabolic
rate of
decay
so that
a leaf
separated
from the
tree will
still hold
its form, &
a fallen leaf
still vert or
held vert-
ically in
an unseen
web or by
the earth
creates a
tree in
space.

#192 Le mariage de minuit

All questions have
been abolished
since no-one
is certain of the
answers anymore. The
Oscar winner weds
her boyfriend under
a candy-striped
tent somewhere
in the tames of
Alaska. He has
left parts of him-
self—his wig, his
face—on the table
back at the New
Mexico ranch. She
is annoyed, tears
out trees & plunges
the branches into
the earth where the
roots used to be. No
blindness like snow
blindness. He says
"I do." Still five &
a half months to
go before Spring
rolls around. You
may kiss the bride.

#191 Les muscles célestes

The cavity in the
skull over-
flows with
the training routines
of Italian body-
builders. But where
is its zenith in
relation to the observer?

#190 Titanic Days

Torn from Picasso, &
further torn—bather
from sea, or mother

from baby. The clothes
torn from her. Then
ravaged. About to be.

Victim & aggressor. A
classic dialectic. Shadow
given substance, form

taken on. Is classical.
Modern. Zeus in a
business suit? No

less likely than white
bull, white swan, a
shower of gold. He

falls across her, he falls
upon her. One outline.
The form taken on is

taken from Goya, Kronos
devouring one of his
children. Titanic days.

#189 The Use of Speech

"A nondescript
form can often
replace the
image of an
object." &. "Some-
times the name
of an object
can replace an
image." Linnaeus
double-coded.
A personal
taxonomy.

#188 The Betrayal of Images (2)

               for Michel Foucault
          There is this
          treacherous space
          between the image
          & the text that
          many have misread &
          fallen into. I stand
          well back, let others
          with more sure footing
          describe it to me.
 

#187 The Famous Man

Inset in velvet in-
side a box, the
bilboquet morphs. Chess
pieces, skittles perhaps. The
tower is de Chirico. The fourth
wall of the theater is partially
open. The back wall
is night. All around
an Escher frame.
A wounded bison
has been painted on the
wall just around a slight
curve in the cave. Long
ago. Cannot be seen.
Water drips, has dripped
through the roof ever
since, maybe before
the bison, after it
was seen, was
captured. A city
has grown up. The
man is stalactite. Per-
haps bat. Either way
is famous. Not as
famous as the bison.

#186 The False Mirror (2)

Given a list
of words. Asked
to repeat them
back. A test
for veridical
memory. Eye,
reflection, looking-
& cheval-glass,
sky. Alice. All
synonyms of. Or.
Associated with.
Not included. Her
initial answer. The
thought made
visible. Mirror.