Windows/walls/yard/ways 0876859228, 9780876859223

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BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY

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by Larry Eigner Poems (1941) From The Sustaining Air (1953) LOOK AT THE PARK (1958) ON MY EYES (1960) THE MUSIC, THE ROOMS

(1965)

SIX POEMS (1967)

another time in fragments (1967) THE- / TOWARDS AUTUMN (1967) air / the trees (1968)

The breath of once Live Things in the field with Poe (1968) A LINE THAT MAY BE CUT (1968)

Clouding (1968) (1969 and corrected edition 1980) Farther North (1969) Valleys / branches (1969) Circuits—A MICROBOOK (1971) looks like / nothing / the shadow / through air (1972) Selected Poems (1972) words touching / ground under (1972) FLAT AND ROUND

WHAT YOU HEAR (1972)

shape / shadow/ elements / move (1973) THINGS STIRRING / TOGETHER / OR FAR AWAY ANYTHING / ON ITS SIDE (1974)

(1974)

suddenly / it gets light / and dark in the street (1975) MY GOD THE PROVERBIAL (1975) the music variety (1976) watching / how or why (1977) THE WORLD AND ITS STREETS, PLACES

(1977)

cloud, invisible air (1978) Flagpole / Riding (1978) COUNTRY / HARBOR / QUIET / ACT / AROUND—selected prose (1978) HEAT SIMMERS COLD & (1978) lined

up bulk

senses (1979)

time / details / of a tree (1979) now there’s / a morning / hulk of the sky (1981) earth / birds (1981) WATERS / PLACES / A TIME (1983) areas / lights / heights—critical writings (1989) A Count Of Some Things (1991) WINDOWS / WALLS / YARD / WAYS (1994)

Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from China-America Digital Academic Library (CADAL)

https://archive.org/details/windowswallsyardOOeign

LARRY E WINDOWS/ WALLS/ YARD/ WAYS (lines squares paths worlds backwards sight

Edited by ROBERT GRENIER

Slack Sparrow Press

Santa Rosa

1994

WINDOWS / WALLS / YARD / WAYS. Copyright © 1994 by Larry Eigner. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address Black Sparrow Press, 24 Tenth Street, Santa Rosa, CA 95401.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks to the editors and publishers of the following magazines and monographs: Magazines: Acts, African Golfer, Avec, Bezoar, Bluefish, Brief, Chicago Review, Curtains, Damascus Road, Earth Ship, Friction, Hills, Imago, Imprint, Issue, Jimmy and Lucy’s House of “K,” Kaleidoscope, Kudos, La-Bas, Malthus, Maps, Moving Letters, 0*blek, Panjandrum, Pearl, Poetry (Chicago), Poetry Now, Poetry U.S.A., 100 Posters, Potpourri, Pyramid, Resuscitator, Roof, Sailing The Road Clear, Second Aeon, Shadow/Play, Shearsman, Shell, Sink, Splash, Star- Web Paper, Sulfur, Sun & Moon, Talisman, Tel-Let, Text, The, The Berkeley Review Of Books, The Difficulties, The Ear In A Wheatfield, The Lampeter Muse, The Open Letter, The Paris Review, The South Florida Poetry Journal, The WordSmith, The Worm In The Rain, This, To, Work, Zuk. Anthologies: Best Minds (a festschrift for Allen Ginsberg on his 50th birthday), Epitaphs for Lorine, The Desert Review Anthology, Thunderbolts Of Peace And Liberation. Previous Collections: A Count Of Some Things (Score Publications: 1991), Areas/Lights/Heights (Roof Books: 1989), Flagpole/Riding (Stingy Artist: 1978), My God The Proverbial (L Publications: 1975), The Music Variety (Roxbury Poetry Enterprises: 1976), Suddenly /It Gets Light /And Dark In The Street (Green Horse Press: 1975). Black Sparrow Press books are printed on acid-free paper. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Eigner, Larry, 1927WINDOWS / WALLS / YARD / WAYS

/ Larry Eigner ; edited by Robert Grenier.

p. cm. Poetry. ISBN 0-87685-921-X (cloth trade ed.) : $25.00. - ISBN 0-87685-920-1 (paper ed.) : $13.00 — ISBN 0-87685-922-8 (signed cloth ed.) : $30.00. Grenier, Robert. II. Title. PS3509.147W55 1994 811’.54—dc20 93-46410 CIP

In vivid living memory of my mother, B. P. Eigner (May 30, 1900-January 23, 1993), who those many years we were together, worried so about me and, feeling such responsibility for me, she kept on doing me good so much (too too bent on it, her mind I guess no less a fist than my left hand), she was unable to take anything from, could only give to me, nor could she glimpse how much I did take to what she found in life to teach, couldn’t, likewise, imagine how I wanted to cheer, give her good things and cheer her up, make life less wearisome and happier for her; in memory of my father too—Israel, “Esau,” “E.”—who also did what he could; in memory of Maishe Polansky; and in love and gratitude to my brothers Richie and Joe and their wives (and kids) and all the others who have helped and help me out health and stillness to us all, as much as can be

Table of Contents

How I Read Larry Eigner, Robert Grenier A Note On The Text

15 17

I. Swampscott “the window opening ...” GETTING OLD “the shade leaf ...” painting “Homer playing ...” “and here comes a . . .” “the wind / an ocean ...” “moth night ...” “quiet thing ...” “what is / life ...” “the blue can the ...” “turning to the wall ...” “bright moon sky ...” “Whitman’s cry at starvation ...” “the loudest wind of the year ...” “a long tongue the kite ...” “stairway leading to nowhere ...” “among various hills ...” “When the snow comes down ...” “the movie turned ...” “at the beach I saw ...” “one little ...” “lookout / place ...” “intersections of forms ...” “imagine you see rain ...” “The statue ...” “I ride I . . .” “fog/ cloud through ...” “birds / a good distance from ...” “the needle getting stuck Radio ...” “the star-lover an . . .” “here and there . . .” “the wind stirs up . . .” “A white / house . . .” “steam / pipes ...” “gliding a moment ...” “trying to see ...” “reflect / world corners ...” “wheels / familiar ...”

23 24 25 25 26 27 28 28 29 29 30 30 31 32 33 34 34 35 35 36 36 37 37 38 38 39 39 40 40 41 41 42 42 43 44 44 45 45 46

“A full life ...” “glass / by glass ...” “Drive you ...” “the tree / in the slight wind ...” “bird top ...” “arms / in a waltz ...” Aboxofrrtracks “the sun far ...” “the tv circus from norway ...” “the moon / bright enough ...” Dordogne poetry “no past . . .” “light / Spring ...” “know how ...” various sleep / seasons BEAUX TEMPS MONTGOMERY ET BASHO horizons in holland “end of a story , the ground ...” made “the light various ...” “heat up and make spread fast ...” “the mind . . .” partly enclosed FIRE AIR EARTH AND WATER “what a beautiful sidewall truck ...” “Ya bingo! . . .” “one of these walls ...” “Tongue-tied and ...” “the sun shining ...” “what precautions ...” “Out in the yard ...” “the wind that rustles ...” “the wood of the headboard ...” Doorknobs “sun / walls ...” “roadside / squirrel ...” “shadow has my head ...” “some leaves ...” “places / dark ...” “round red ...”

47 48 49 49 50 50 51 52 52 52 53 53 53 54 54 55 56 57 57 58 58 59 59 60 60 61 61 62 62 63 63 64 65 66 67 68 68 69 69 70 70

II. Winter “the fleering snow ...” “planes grounded ...” “politics ...”

72 72 72

“bowels / brewing ...” “snow / blinding ...” “pages and pages ...” “From Tago-no-ura ...” “Ohh love how . . .”

72 73 73 73 73 III. Berkeley

“the cat / dumb ...” “oh it’s pretty windy outside ...” Moments “electric shaver fanatically ...” busyhour “Spring winds ...” “Phonebook where ...” “Wow! . . .” “everything like ...” “what time is . . .” moreandmore the unimaginable “same book ...” “only at night ...” “lower the level some a little ...” “phone / pole ...” “the phone all ...” “November like summer ...” “sounds / great ...” “what distance ...” thefastandslow “the itch is the itch is the itch is the itch ...” “spraying down still solid car ...” r o 1 1 a n d world without end Animates “roofs / leveled ...” “car window ...” “the / interesting bad news ...” H o t D a y Aug.. “how was did ...” “car stuck / horn ...” “cool near ...” H U M AN CND IT N “the view changes ...” enough “spontaneous gravity ...” O Jerusalem

77 77 77 78 78 79 79 79 80 81 81 81 82 83 84 84 85 85 86 87 87 88 89 00 90 01 01 02 92 03 03 04 04 05 95 06 07 08 08

planets bigeaves “football / crowded ...” “planet / close ...” “absolutes are nothing ...” aches and pains “the cat all wet . . .” “busy daylight ...” “Which dog is that sneezing. . . ” “birds like leaves on bare twigs ...” “Change of life? ah . . .” “suddenly / a day ...” a tree “triangle shadow ...” torrents “the wind / over the garage roof ...” “so much stuff . . .” view of moments quite a ways from the sky “bird flight ...” real long (macro) window washing “a time it’s whoop...” “words / split ...” “I forget what ...” futility, futurity, posterity Big on playback “still the holy bible ? . . .” “it’s just a . . .” crazy opportunity “what’s / what makes that happen . . .” “8 minutes ago the sun . . .” “the air a bath you look ...” “seen it . . .” Going “animals / when pets ...” Bookshelf sudden fairly long “flat unroofed body . . .” “breathing invisible smoke ...” a dot “in re complacent people ...” “What’s that cooking . . .” “down a long way . . .” “ ‘I want to go home’ Woke . . .”

99 99 100 101 101 102 102 102 103 103 104 104 105 105 105 106 106 107 108 108 108 109 110 110 110 Ill 111 112 112 113 114 114 115 115 116 116 117 117 118 118 119 119 120 120 121 121 122

“window lights ...” “there now here. . . “cat outline ...” “just a few floors ...” “an echo of . . .” blanket intact “at / the window ...” memory Hayfever anytime stay putt “the rain ...” “happy chicken ...” “walnut walnut loquat ...” “train / going by . . .” “clouds / windy ...” “tdamping down ...” “so many / cross ...” end History about like / any point “Sunday / plane ...” “feathery sky ...” Legislator bodhisattva “cloud the wind ...” one of two nickels “unbroken cloud ...” “clouds farther away ...” a big oblong box a little a radio ad “ ‘riding / the clouds of his belief’ ...” “humpty dumpty ...” Intimations “The Bible ...” Daylight at 8 pm the windows “build-up pileup ...” “the eave end ...” “big / big . . .” motorcyclists! a knife wound “rustle / emptiness ...” “such a different scene ...” “farther past now ...” “my own thoughts and visions then ...” gale under the hedge

123 124 125 125 126 126 127 127 127 128 129 130 130 130 131 131 132 132 133 other 133 134 134 135 135 136 136 136 137 137 137 138 138 139 139 140 140 141 141 142 142 143 144 145 145 146 146

“Your garden . . “to look out ...” moment of now there’s ice and snow big sleep “ ‘everyplace a center’ ...” Out back in the blackout “corner store roses on . . .” “what size s . . .” “birds / up in the air . . .” “near/far and wide ...” “morning dark sea air cover smoke ...” ROM REM how sunlit fog old film “a / height . . .” been over and over again “you don’t know ...” “suddenly boatyard ...” “so much heard feel ...” the cat “bathwater / nextdoor ...” “painting below ...” metamorphosis soundhorizon big wind in the treetops “corner / stop-sign . . .” “news through the head ...” “some muscle’s sore . . .” “up and down with lungs ...” wide-ranging “penny wise but ...” “feel like going off ...” sundry times “SPinoza / wanted to go out ...” here I go again puttering around puzzle Cat roll detecting O n “wavering sight ...” plane “the universe ...” platform

146 147 147 147 148 148 149 149 150 151 151 152 153 154 154 155 155 156 157 157 158 158 159 159 160 160 161 161 161 162 162 162 163 163 163 164 164 164 165 165 165 166 166 167 167 168 168

the woods A party outlines again and again / pretty “water splashes ...” “sun-filled / street stilled ...” different voices, the “ah, so, yes ...” starry figures powerhouse in the sky “trees / up in the air ...” “footsteps a dog bark ...” cat bright / afternoon car pen t er “All my life ...” “A long life (/history) ...” As Thoreau might say “scary then now worrisome ...” “freedom aging ...” “photos of / poets ...” “beautiful books ...” “tree / phonepole ...” SALVATION ARMY LUNCH “big religious differences ...” “a rider pedalling ...” “the moon’s risen ...” “I was able to . . .” “Everything you can’t have ...” a 3-year old still / slight “popovers / bread ...” the silence “a fly free ...” Gluttony Through a small window, “mirror window beside ...” “when to / get some ...” the neighbors “pruning the tree ...” TASTING this / day’s eye IN THE MAW Rvrbrance no more poetry ! “I suddenly shifted position and ...” Now again

soon

yes

168 169 169 169 170 170 171 171 172 173 173 174 174 174 175 175 176 176 176 177 177 177 178 178 179 179 180 180 180 181 181 181 182 182 183 183 183 184 184 184 185 185 185 186 188 188 189

“morning / again ...” Going Out Good still Good Food trees and “shadowy tail ...” “shadow / motion ...”

189 189 190 190 191 191 192 192

HOW I READ LARRY EIGNER (for David Bromige)

no past no future

music wake up in the head

“Music is human in the event” (of the poem?) it says somewhere in one of the so-many (‘Beethoven’?) poems Larry Eigner, a man of range & capacity, has written with right index finger on his [Remington] or his old Royal portable in which “thinking with the things as they exist” (Zukofsky) on the typewriter—while remembering that “only the Imagination is real” (WCW)— hereabouts using his eyes & ears—has been allowed to exist. Exists. The truth of that is the music in this book, among others— think of the poems this man has written (a short list of books may be found toward the beginning of this volume) ! ! The moral being that WE could do ‘more’—‘more’ being (move being), as L.E. frequently points out (‘speak, Beloved!’), not necessarily ‘better’!—but meaning ourselves equal & collaborative/collaboring with more-other-stranger-truer evident Other happening every day ‘right outside your window’ and (continue to live) ‘inside your brain’ and IN VERSE (‘take responsibility for your lives’) (‘think & look around you’) ‘on the page’ or whatever via your ‘activity ’ in ‘medium’ {typewriter spacing) while talking a (slow) blue streak to everything & someone {& calling them up on the phone!) in the late p.m. that listens & moves—(‘means’) lives the world in its {& Its Streets, Places) (‘my’) (‘our’) morning writing—all the better for having big ears! For the Age of Beethoven has oared (‘past’) by—there are no more ‘superstars’—nor barely humans. (But each of us humans, given world enough & time . . . for our benefit . . . might . . .) Just old Larry Eigner—banging away at the base board of the refrigerator—on the keyboard, making our poems—

15

(after know how blooming

more and more

O n i t s u r a

plums cherries open

nose and mind 2-legged bird white

4-limbed beast

to see the camelia 60th year out big bending an ear flowers hold to the winds silence mountains and plains, a wonder pain in the neck

—Robert Grenier Bolinas, CA August 7, 1992

16

A NOTE ON THE TEXT As the discerning reader will already have glimpsed perhaps, this book collects 322 poems written between August 1959 and April 1992, a 321/2-pfo*s-year period. Of these, some 88 were written in Swampscott, Massachusetts in the years from 1959 through February 1978, and the bulk (comprising the third section) were written in the interim between April 1979 and April 1992, following the author’s relocation to Berkeley, California. The selection of poems to be included is almost exclusively the author’s, the editor having (for better or worse!) excised some and introduced a very few others; when the arrangement of poems is not chronological, that arrangement is the editor’s— except that designation of first and last poems is the author’s. It is difficult to suppress the inclination to remark that there is something improvisatorially ‘Eastern’ about these verses, which may have to do with that coast of Massachusetts’ long-standing ‘interest’ in the Far East (e.g., Hawthorne’s post at the CustomHouse, the Peabody Museum in Salem, “Bowditch,” etc.)—see the eight poems, for instance, forming the interlude of section two; but, it’s throughout—EXPLAINS the move west! Too, a considerable polyphrastic ought properly to be appended here, as regards Larry Eigner’s use—and admirable traditional/developmental carrying on!—of the modus of the typewriter page as a physical (sound/sight) locus (‘mosaic’) for the poet’s ‘ride’ on the wild horse of the Imagination ‘chained to ’/‘drawn by’ Thirst for humans and the actual (‘fate’) (‘God’)—that notion of the page as a ‘force field’ animated by ‘vectors’ which is put forth most persuasively by Charles Olson in his 1950 essay, “Projective Verse”—an individual whose principal domicile lay a mere fifteen miles to the north and east\!—but such is most fittingly the labor of others. In closing, it may be well to observe that the text of each of the poems included in windows / walls/ yard/ ways has been established by virtue of a painstaking process of collaborative endeavor between author and editor and may be taken, by novice and litteratus alike—insofar as such may be hoped for in contemporary realms—to be the poem in question.

17

WINDOWS / WALLS / YARD / WAYS

SWAMPSCOTT (August 1959-November 1977)

June 19-September 9 90 the window opening no, opened already nothing but the wind

the window opening no,

already opened nothing but the wind up

23

August 59 GETTING OLD

poems about fences and vines on earth, while the sky holds the quiet fantastic dimensions masses and bits through which the sun might glare the attempt at standing still to show nothing is worth the final deliberation the motors and islands scattered to infinity we had a thunderstorm here yesterday and today’s expected again pleasant In August the leaves turn out to a slow wind

24

May 21 64

the shade leaf inside like a bird over the edge a flight partly through the glass on the window it fades with the sun a cloud coming into view slower than the wind where it foots the vine

July 25 64

painting the aspect of cloud seen • through the window more and more follows blows trees cars at the corner of the house the sun sinks there is no abruptness

25

December 11-2 64 Homer playing violin as he could have, anachronism some idea a picture with a man’s name time is

when light seems blind

presence a mind tending upon a window since a few clouds are somewhere, or more gathering perceptibly the slow

more

hands take the right shade there’s always a corner space become enough to grope about the wind leaves a sound may turn the wood who knows the singing the potential realized is instrumentation like the precision deriving from light blind amorphous water passes the empty ocean a large glass, simple corners he had a voice

July 8-10 65

and here comes a washboard on a radio, borne down to the beach the erratic, expense burning lights the dial compact handier diffuse black thoughts what depth sort of a pigeon steers the street actual space humid in day sparrows cry out on the tree a dog sudden look in your eyes bound up on the door he hasn’t barked a ghost for the dog days

27

August 7 65 the wind an ocean so the trees make it fire ages of burning in sight it’s a huge globe light down in the sand to the grass each leaf silence from one to others

August 7 65 moth night butterfly mornings beyond the birds the sea sounds the bays

28

August 16 65 quiet thing quiet thing walk in my eyes death in the certain distance how many go on I live not far away over the horizon still

August 16 65 what is life now

or who

may you be wonder this place the rotary good a time

29

August 18 65 the blue can the lengthy out of sight large part of time the garbage pail which smelt

the

gull in the clear sky above the bird, brown about green ground level the house paint gleams out

October 16 65 turning to the wall putting my head against it as many trees as standing free in the street

30

June 29 66

bright moon

sky

the city darkens lights up where are we going the cars oscillate

the clouds way over round bobbing visible change was at our speed we have the direction or the manage of the wind surfaces the heights

deep outside

some light

is the fog sea

31

April 7f 66 Whitman’s cry at starvation in a land of plenty prison camps the mean South six ways of saying it the big problem is consumption and conservation and population population consumption conservation conservation population consumption population conservation consumption or what about bringing others in conservation consumption population consumption population conservation I could have watched for a week the able horsemen with no nonsense put the sick with the strong eighty thousand to a hundred thousand of the wounded and sick critical cases I generally watched all night was with many from the border states bedded down in the openwork of branches and stars must not and should not be written perhaps

32

marrow of the tragedy one vast central hospital with fighting on the flanges in the fleshhow much of importance is buried in the grave in eternal darkness

November 4 65 the loudest wind of the year there are still some apples on the tree time is a question leaves blowing around and the street, what papers are produced maples creak ,

vine ,

trellis

33

July 6 66 a long tongue the kite to lick the clouds gods of the sky to reveal to,people are thirsty night

day

in the Chinese playground how many fires on earth whirling eyes

July 6 66 stairway leading to nowhere once a flat shadows on various roof-tops bring them up the motion there, the idea so slow

34

August 6f 66 among various hills parallels verticals wires

straight light past the church, building the words, gathering traffic through goods

windows

store banks massing to the side, large back of you green grown up the air crooked the end of the street

March 15 67 When the snow comes down near or far fast and slow cloud neighborhood it stops in time white here there’s blue sky

35

September 22 67 the movie turned walls sudden blackness some future whose lives thick surface station park runway

September 23 67 at the beach I saw the mountain far away island of cloud

36

(after A k a h i t o

February 16 69

one little thin saturn spiritual rin g in the big life circus sin dig

down

some other planets beyond the pale

March 5-6 70

lookout

for place Jonathan spirit

Williams tachons energy, info., could travel faster if it begins with what small weight

37

April 12 70

intersections of forms areal the world’s parts move a magical shape in

out

of

all so cloudy is change fog is gone leaving the ground rain drops the sun penetrates certain things though some slide off

April 18 70

imagine you see rain dark place and wind on a bright day

38

June 19 70 The statue resounds and men thrive in earth

June 30-July 2 70 I ride I don’t believe in planes what purpose there is various principles tremendous craft until my end the surface gets easy infinite air circuits merging clouds like our wing out the lined window maximum length every light spreads

39

July 9 70

fog/ cloud through the 40th story another one,

incomplete

in the streets plenty too on a dull day

July 11-2 70

birds a good distance from the trees lying down fresh somewhere else an old wind

uphill paths clothed yellow green

40

March 18 71

the needle getting stuck Radio The waves miles are enormous

April 1 71

the star-lover an end to the telescope what right or wrong world artifact

41

August 19 71 here and there the sky buildings leaves of a region stone out-of-the-way corners wagons centuries morning or afternoon or evening light travels the stars shift

January 11 73 the wind stirs up shadows on a bush the fading sunlight fills

42

October 22 71 A white house and others how many trucks have gone by shapes kids dance there are fewer fences anywhere in the street

trees like flying up wards you can’t see growing

leaves

sunk in

someone a sound birds restless or not the wind

43

November 14 71 steam pipes coil familiar corners overnight first snow eaves the car pulls away the plane

November 30 71 gliding a moment as on some other planet in the mind come to a tree with falling leaves

and short and swift

44

December 1 71 trying to see what do you see

December 19 71 reflect world

corners

mountains ride and wind among branches leaves different lengths a wave bends moments what purpose sights sounds visions the earth goes round

45

June 23-6 72 wheels familiar turned light front roots streets a kitten stretching in the grass sun off

dirt

you can’t see stars wires kept running in places distance gives out moving the sea so many circles you leave traces birds that pass

46

imagine the wind through green leaves the sky brought near open

full

silent branches crossed

December 19-21 71 A full life taken little by little not all at once you gain time the pieces

wholes

47

August 21-3 72 glass by glass also wood you look out light and metal crossings up wind head-on for years the streets were lonely always some death in them now what ever there is so many thoughts to accept

48

August 18 73 Drive you up the wall is right but it all seems to be windows and doors on top too

August 17 73 the tree in the slight wind perfect stillness the ways beyond it and clouds in the clear sky

49

August 21-2 73 bird top the tree line part way

to the sky

all bright morning

September 23-5 73 arms in a waltz at the piano Eubie heh longer and longer punctuate

92 going on

50

November 27 73 A

box

of

r

r

tracks

crane garage

pump

mover shoes a whole horse iron then steel paving the way here to there vagueness games beautiful canals in hundreds the numbers of stars Bridgewater conveying goods

l

X The Duke of Bridgewater was the first to build a canal in England, to float coal from a mine he owned to market in Manchester, on barges I I

51

February 22 74 the sun far minutes replaces itself all over different directions

July 2 65-August 24 74 the tv circus from norway once seen, all in time shadow, tandem, lightly first one on this street

July 6 65-August 24 74 the moon bright enough the sky still some blue and maybe rain besides how many times it falls

52

August 28-September 2 74 Dordogne airy weights moved home sun cave clouds skies

November 26 74 poetry for

Jane

assessments Creighton immediacies one calculus in the world

December 11-2 74 no past no future

music wake up in the head

53

December 18 74 (like light

Buson

said

Spring dark old candle smell

December 18-21 74 (after know how blooming

more and more

Onitsura

plums cherries open

nose and mind 2-legged bird white

4-limbed beast

to see the camelia 60th year out big bending an ear flowers hold to the winds silence mountains and plains, a wonder pain in the neck

54

January 1 75

various

sleep

seasons

the lark tilts up the sky nobody

a

brief enough song I from Ampu (late 18th century X

so much snow nowhere to grasp it going with all eyes J Anonymous (late 18th century X

summer

dark

cloud the moon runs over X Ranko (1726-99 X

55

everyone around in and out of bloom everywhere I Chora (1729-81 I

Ah well, Spring passes anew whenever it comes each year I Gekkyo (?-1824

\

February 12-6 75 BEAUX TEMPS MONTGOMERY ET BASHO

whop, lost in the dark, old pond a frog welcomes

56

February 16-9 75 horizons

in

ho Hand

in a few miles how many

birds winds thistles

March 19 75 end of a story , the ground is real time however much the future of death can be

57

February 23 75 made

uniformly time dashboard parts gear along miles roads gone

the curve

. here and there woods birds and skies

the light various through the distance covered the stars and the seeing joined the blind distinct worlds the moving around thick black in mirroring selves

58

II These occasioned by Jacob Bronowski’s explaining in re Einstein, in his Ascent of Man, VI, seen on tv, that different systems vary to conform to the velocity of light, and by subsequent recollections of relativity theory, Doppler, A N Whitehead, lasers and Black Holes 11

March 12-3 75 II Occasioned by some of Bronowski’s remarks in The Ascent of Man, IX, and Victor Weisskopf’s in the brief interview following it on PBS II heat up and make spread fast manifold to build again elsewhere places are vague there’s only existence whatever thought feeds

the mind a clearer branching of light reaches out and is full gloom an emotion

II Occasioned by things Bronowski said in his 9th program—the one on Bohr et al.— about astrophysics, as well as by thoughts of Rbt Duncan’s work and his concern for the imaginative life II

turns as much as joy seeing the black holes

59

March 25 75 partly

enclosed

extends he adds uprights birds fly past there’s a ladder by the tree the front corner clouds hide the sun

April 5-6 75

FIRE AIR EARTH AND WATER his dreams and waking hour the appearance of dawn

60

June 26 75 what a beautiful sidewall truck you know enough about the water system and sunlight and they go together of course then

big english letters

June 30-July 26 75 Ya bingo! Imagination all compact running away like a looming train what would Emily Dickinson think the chances she can wake now and anyway you have those who sit or here came more civilization like SS creation and destruction somewhat Hindu with a vengeance the tragic later too much to stand its own weight

(for Bob Perelman

is there travel light and fast and living the life out

61

August 26 75 one of these walls around so many windows

crickets foundations bushes

January 10 76 Tongue-tied and muscle bound

years or the seasons leaves and snow

62

May 1-4 76 the sun shining briefly at first after brief rain

and drops persist for a while

space and a few points

May 8 76 what precautions sleep earth shakes tidal foam flats mountain dust ripples

63

July 18 76 Out in the yard the kids play at the party

Why not

think they enjoy it better for them

And the adults

less serious

now and then was as will be sun moon stars sky a blue cloud sea

sound

various lost birds

Whatever’s wanted comes to the head old-style school-desk to sit with

full

of new missiles

fighter

passenger planes

The birthday boy

gets up possibilities of sharp hunger, say from the garage

to bring back

open

most of the cake

or has there been

more than one 7 yrs old “Hi Marv”

yellow

up front with

64

cartoon duck immobilized some fancy confined woods briefly enough always someone works a noisemaker horn on his bike

I B M javelins heaved with a few wings

June 29 the wind that rustles everything instants turned to cloth on damp sunny days close echoing birds earth with light fast a few vague clouds

June 23-4 76 the wood of the headboard the wood of the closet lean

what the place is I’ve been in daily my life

distances

names

positions worlds

the sky goes dark light comes

effort

motionless wind blows

caves trees strings the sea full parts dimensions ride

66

July 25-7 76 Doorknobs

about all there is two at right angles needing some drinks so my bladder’s ok clear whatever things look like maybe years I’m not thirsty a back tooth extra this month nice long clouds the side of the sky affleet held patterns light rain never be counted out certain ways to go driving a fund up rounded many pennies afloat unwarranted endorsements one piece of the news is mild put it crazy enough then washing broadcast distinct the sea as never around the clock gulls

67

August 18 76 sun

sun some

walls years now

walls white now years

August 19 76 roadside squirrel down shadow cast from high the opposite

68

October 18 77 shadow has my head together with the wire a bird there just now

October 25 77 some leaves dangling air drop a nearby tree from the street up and down a bird faster nothing doing better going a flag pulled aside at a door where there’s no stir

69

November 12 77 places dark gradual

abrupt

and distant enough and eyes close right through on around going times cloud still

storm stir

June 9 76 round red toy on the roof is a sun at the start of night

70

II WINTER (January / February 1978)

January 20 78 the fleering snow off the eaves of the garage

January 20-5 78 planes grounded around the world no flight paths

February 8 78 politics suspended in snow

January 28 78 bowels brewing j’ai 50 ans

72

January 26 78 snow blinding cold

January 26 78 pages and pages brief

things

January 30 78 From Tago-no-ura going out here see so pure white all on topmost Fuji snow reared fallen is

January 30 78 Ohh love how when I go hunting for her the winter night’s traveling air’s so cold the shore birds are crying

73

Ill BERKELEY (April 1979-April 1992)

April 24 79 the cat looking

dumb

dumb

looking I wonder

move in on a tree

April 28 79 oh it’s pretty windy outside I see and here’s the sun as the clouds move

April 28 79 Moments

daylight at rest the cat grows in

77

July 26-August 1 79 electric shaver fanatically electric grazer wind in the tree up against the wall glass levered apartments clouds over the house after this much time getting dog-eared

August 2-3 79 busy

hour

wherever you come in everyone driving around something in the head bikes a matter of the day and people enough walking

78

August 3 79 Spring winds how far seasons the globe

August 13-17 79 Phonebook where

sizeable

traffic

stores

wood growing on and on everyman’s birthday with others sharing some faraway sounds

January 3 80 Wow! Everything there is there is and all

79

January 20-1 80 everything like time

out

walk around down the street if it should end ever eternity another word

I think we’re doomed like they say one day how it all counts there’s a rumbling fine in the air traffic

song

or the earth

a constant thing

80

January 21 80

what time is it

of course the

middle of the night the train

whistle

never expected moves

away

February 4 80

more

and

more

days the cherry blocks the window sun and rain

May 2180

the

unimaginable

power of the beast to feel the dark

81

August 14-5 80 same book (for

Steve

a different page Benson look once opens up as world goes heights enough

some family in a shoe

what a dream is huge ad by someone

giant colorful tome lettering

82

map index real thick

names

November 2-3 80 only at night still-life of the street little glass busted a tree

near

that roof

different chimney

none smoke

the cloud stays new cars shining even without rain supplies in the store, plumbing earth moves daylight to the window shaft flowerbed bank

83

September 18 81 lower the level some a little jitter bug leg a bath to much tickle grows itch

November 17 80 phone pole whistle lengths track always as far you can tell crossings shadows roofs bush trees

November 4 80 the phone all the places people live terraces

in

book

the

spread

buildings events

sun moves

the times of life geared powers

November 20 80 November like summer lumbering plane over

the air distances the outer planets and what of the stars in time

85

December 16 80 sounds

X great

news of derailments quite a few months back |

places to go goods back and forth whistles and the wind blows earth and sky

the stars

steady before dawn and they disappear

again

no break yet what a world

sleepy but too much of one thing and you’re nowhere

the moon dead cold the sun can get you, the light the huge cloud dims

86

December 24-8 80 what distance house

and lean-to

the cat walks on the big roof to look ahead? jumps the

tree

there’s area the whole block

May 16 81 the

fast

and

slow

to see the world how old can you get the healing taste of sleep

87

March 23-9 81 the itch is the itch is the itch is the itch heh uh toenails scratch

stretch reflect sex reflex

what a view point down the garage shimmering lake floor lift stairs

upstairs a plane flying now

a further weight somewhere across

roof scape sea

88

city

tunnel

cloud

April 9-22 81 spraying down still solid car yellow and it glistens

so it’s spring too now

the street with plums out how much

time

the bark growth will drive away sound

cat in back and forth window less of a tail

a bike under clouds rain

89

April 17-22 81 roll

and

Rock rock rock all over Berkeley stars, sky for but what’s to be seen Susan trees, yes, hills, light Wilkins window reflection air wavering more nights stars and you push out the light this something new a piano somewhere maybe over the town like a church bell once

May 16 81 world

without

and the back yard phonepole branches sky transformer

90

end

May 23 81

Animates

squirrels and phone wires and birds how many roads distance the hills

May 30-June 6 81 roofs leveled skyline wires shadow moves frond pane mystery noise wave wind in the morning pipes

91

June 4-6 81 car window last seen big dog leave wide gap we’re off again

looking

es la vida if he came from the wild anyway never thought he’d like to return there you go but for further millions of heads whatever’s inside shapes and too sizes

June 14-9 81 the interesting bad news ( getting rotten? how many philosophers out in the west

92

June 15 81 Hot

Day 0

Boy

Expansion

swinging the arm

June 12 81

Aug.. for

Bernard

moon full as it was 2 Hemensley 3 nights I was too trying to figure how day length was changing with the latitude ( summer and winter ) no way to make sense? like up and down the Nile Valley or, say, the coast of this subdivision of the world

and like phone or street numbers a while random may always come round made of familiar bits

93

June 14 81 how was did it rain last night puddle walk beside grassblades reflecting like a national park and a sparrow sipping away locale is the sky partly mirror sure yes new thing wild contradiction without any cloud what a view long as it stays though the trees move and is there some division the phonepole next door to the chimney sizable too

June 20 81 car stuck horn fine hour gone fast keeping things up with scenes from every place one big sport is enough countless horizons green because of hills, trees, the wind has a slowness as it seems not too often it’s a temperate zone and again i saw the west or wailing wall pulling a switch sleep all these sol d VWs you can’t really track years

94

September 15-October 19 81 cool near the window the climate

that’s

now it’s night the lamp and a mirror is all it takes for time up the wall the other side is the next room there’s air maybe infinite outdoors where the stars are

September 15-8 81 HU

M AN

CND

IT N

pure blind monolog J. Witness do something mean something

95

August 15-October 19 81 the view changes windows the same silence cars a mass resting earth backyard clumps a block everyday mysteries a while a gas leak

to do nothing is it death? no consider it newspaper real needed

shadows and firebreaks bushes button the hills

96

tracks pipes fences extrusions baskets

September 21 81 enough voluntary remark well, thank you anyway a pretty warm day out the window distributing leaflets blue car’s driver behind trees funny how things appear if there’s no whatever time

97

September 23-October 2 81 spontaneous gravity up imagine that soup razor

switch

older the better serve

September 28 81 O

Jerusalem

fighting for a waterhole is one thing a dispute over a graveyard is something foolish

98

October 10 81 planets how could anyone see the rings except at a distance in mind privileged years slow

all these apartment shells windows light up come (to)

night

and it’s hilly or level trees

hedge fence

leaves

November 9 81 big

eaves

almost walking in the rain and it gets harder

99

November 15-6 81 football crowded window signs some businesses named

man’s

different from whatever part of the phonebook there’s the size of the spectrum of all together the degrees and dimensions waves on dockside walls brushed where you going out flat and low garish eye colors “adult bookstore’s nothing much” while there’s more than one now is the time the radio says people like to feel horny? yes and no For Rbt Kocik, Ron. . Johnson, and Dawn

100

December 17-8 81 planet close up with star groups all that gas and all packing in you can’t tell

December 17-9 81 absolutes are nothing like the sky an illusion there are clouds, houses, stars the air’s wet streets

roofs

hills in mist branches shining

101

December 21-6 81 aches

and

pains

the dog’s right there cloud inches the window

February 15 82 the cat all wet stepping around the middle

distance

enlarged it’s raining over and over

February 17 82 busy

daylight

licking

the whole cat and/or tail I call but then it walks off

102

February 26-March 3 82 Which dog is that

sneezing

the tree wires shadows slopes built nest cracks in the road daily’s the squirrel now cat’s outline mailbox sparrow and farther a plane alike red in the sun blinding glass

March 1 82 birds like leaves on bare twigs countless I see now some moving off in the wind near there the others look small, buds

103

March 1 82 Change of life? ah Living changes

ah

the dark rain the dark rain against the dull trees against the dull trees

March 17-9 82 suddenly a day that makes you sleepy it’s wind rattling glass thunder in this town hills enough night minutes

dark and/or rain

a roof not so much walls

104

March 8-15 82 a

tree some bird calls where else raining slightly as it does seem

March 21 82 triangle shadow that’s our house on the opposite wall

March 29 82 torrents and then birds on out through the air

loop hook-ups like trolleys wires the rain’s slant

hills

105

March 28 82 the wind over the garage roof level branches

June 4-6 82 so much stuff and enough is enough and a car parks shadow of the tree mailtruck passes door open and nothing yet lost drops out it hasn’t stopped though there’s the corner just here that’s its tree dull green ok soaking the sun up while the moon’s out in the sky

106

July 30 82

view

of

moments

the street gets busy through traffic pedestrian cars

I see through a window and then a door both at once open and a tree’s on the wave above things at the corner quiet

what are

these cats

the blue light is filtered out a direction towards night so they wake up

in motorcycles

grass

dust

107

June 6 82 quite

a

ways

from

the

sky

and even the window as the dove rattles the ashcan top Is that flight?

June 17 82

bird flight the wire and its shadow across the street

August 1-5 82 real avid reading I forget above my head so I talk through my hat

nobody knows what anyone’s missing

108

December 6-8 82 long

(macro)

traffic passing I

was

the upper window onto

Bob

a hill slant

half in the basement

room

sights lowered

gusts enough another day

to start out

steady rattling

I’ll never get to math off far as the dark is

in

here

under

109

December 82 window

washing

musical glass

December 82 a time it’s

whoop

chalked on a spare tire cover a straight flat strip

February 26-7 83 words split seconds how instantaneous is the same time in actual thought

110

April 2 83 I forget what I forgot oh night

oh night

and here’s the sun as it was the moon mild

an eye

March 18 83 futility,

futurity,

if we see a head we don’t stop

o r

that’s life for you instant present there too

posterity

inertia on complicated scale the

Kathleen there’s the weather patterns on the screen from the middle of the air, from Venus a 11 the places changing every day too long or too short

111

March 25 83 Big

on

playback

I’m a primate it’s tickling the ear

March 20-5 83 still the holy bible ? on the shelf ? cooped up without a clock but big buildings here and all around motor tires gears horns various past a view is barely what you see your toilet too of a substandard size if you go and fly the sky becomes the ocean great potato smell I guess one lump is enough

March 17-April 8 83

it’s just a car going by plays up the whole big room or part way

then fades

to not even clock ticks but short dripping somewhere what sounds and sights given time ways down you look now you see now you don’t heads and tails

113

April 23 83 crazy

opportunity daily around

April 11-5 83 what’s what makes that happen something from in the past impinging on the sight and is pulling ahead don’t scratch,

No,

the upholstery’s needed stretch out is all right here sure a resonant crowd the animals mum about always or pets enough to roam variously fed rooftops and all headlights

114

there goes the wind you think around the corner you can hear heavy in back life till it levels out

April 24 83 8 minutes ago the sun now it’s raining in the dark all over town again

April 7 83 the air a bath you look away to the hill trees under the blue edge of the sky then there’s wind but still no cloud

115

May 7 83 seen it in your hand gleaming coffee

between biting the lip and the tongue what is there?

May 2 83 Going sirens somewhere and bikes in the street and clouds overhead

occasional plane out of San Francisco

April 24 83 animals when pets grow prominent roaming at will

April 11-3 83 Bookshelf is this biomass ? where’s it raining bins sliding around o here’s a different slant the sun on a puddle in the street now it’s morning again the wall has extra room

117

May 6 83 u d d e n sight of Willie spending his day the kitten’s growing up quickly I forgot what a place to park that big crane nothing building it’s doing nothing well, where’s it come from don’t

scratch s o loud a small car in the grass between sidewalk and street

July 15 83 fairly

long

legs hanging down as it walks and then even when it stops

118

July 12 83 4, •

flat

unroofed body

a white truck longer than a house is wide delivering goods radios and radio lights and the motor going 1 box spilled 3 or 4 jars and picked up in the noonday sun learning manage this big thing

July 13-5 83 breathing invisible smoke such as a cat is if you can much as any old day I’d be willing to go along bush

flower

on

and tree

119

July 15 83 a

dot

a glimpse is space a time is a long thing to see

September 15 83 in re

complacent people

I My mother wrote me my aunt’s second mala prop husband, absentminded, slow and through the stratosphere dreamy as he looks and all, who went the world, cloudy, blind again with her up to Dartmouth College Chapel weather to for the high holidays, “is a Levy,” so “the Rabbi vertical heights, miles, yes there always gives him an honor Jcalls him up to read air frm the Pentateuch Scroll^ which makes them very happy.” J understanding passes imagination

120

September 15 83 What’s that cooking cd smell it all the way in the bathtub

the light from downstairs makes the ramp ruddy faintly like sunset but then brighter and brighter as darkness arrives

September 16 83 down a long way the valley water falls silent splash the rock hilt the air spray hear the wind the birds move the trees the fire cracks up wood look at the glory

121

September 22-4 83 “I want to go home” Woke up or something dozed middle of the film there 3 pm the nursing retirement place having plenty of space even without pictures on the walls where they were like broad high windows lush big hills nearby

the

as the world goes, sun, California and on the screen up North spread snow just now, wild, what air they were watching,

Quiet they said

huge loud dogs barking N a n o o k

from the great catch when need there was that time, the feast we can’t hear the narration what do you want a home is limited time

you

have to make it back before dark and then sleep

122

Sections

square

a boat

Alaska

H. Bay

distance

wiped out

What’s

a significant number in all this room even that fly is too quick for me N

ending

starvation not eaten by a bear

Is there sweat in your sleep?

March 17-8 84 window lights searching eyes o but that’s the moon behind and a tree

123

September 27-October 6 83 there now here the overlap of 8 minutes splitsecond sunshine off the walk and an hour of cloudless sky a million years from the center to the surface gas float out when we can’t see 1.3 sec.s the moon’s distances level years all directions the pileup of stars pushed away pulled in mostly pairs

124

March 7-8 84 cat outline still under the window above the cellar someplace here not quite asleep

March 16-7 84 just a few floors shelving a taller building is an elevator dizzying heights of the outdoors pretty soon lost

as

a tree grows and clouds pass over the tiredness from them is all right you sleep on the ground there is no mind a short way down there’s some cellar window arrangements in the dark you come in when it rains

125

March 18 84 an echo of your old self day following day another turn

August 84 blanket the O lym pi c system’s becoming persuasive imagine now soviet

sports

a long list of confusing yjings not Chinese especially more and more people I’m trying to hear while the trees around the back yard lead you up to the blue sky the same air moving the clouds words vaporize as you try to see all through them

126

September 26 84 intact there are both memories and moments there have been

September 29 84 at the window snow flurrying the blind world parts of a chimney smoke little enough lost where

October 6 84 memory the sky more open and clouds passing because of the dead tree there was in close to the eaves and the hours they took to cut it down

127

May 11-23 81 Hayfever

overwhelmed with onions looks like a clear sky between buildings

so much

lot

comfortable big garage grease can sales school flying flag kids parochial so many and enough trees too growing apace you get conscious interest don’t fool around

a compact whole cat complex nerve system under the lamppost let alone the moon

128

October 22-5 84 anytime slow

poking around the bush

1 1 the animals so a cat, yes, may be more to talk to than the walls no matter who’s on the other side of the earth the chair leg a cinder up through branches no a jet’s two wing lights as it soon appears quiet as yet head-on not a few people to fly there are trees behind the houses across the street a huge wall of leaves space , windows is there too much of the sky

129

January 31-February 22 85 stay

putt

there are big windows a way from the bed you can isolate clouds and a tree in the wind all day long the wires going through now and then the loning sound of planes

February 7-8 85 the rain the cat watching the street narrowly times from the porch not out of the wind

February 22 85 happy chicken in life must be tasting so good

130

February 14-23 85 walnut

walnut

loquat

love what tree a squirrel every day against level hills

February 26 85 train going by bedroom dinette kitchen whistle aside from cars stop and start by poles birds and trees cats dogs and squirrels

131

March 6 85 clouds windy street below the hills a uniformed man on the way bound for somewhere

March 2-7 85 tdamping down a volcano with a good amount of seawater so iceland is an island geothermal bathtubs how many days firemen from the university of the capital none of it a sure thing

132

March 7 85 so many cross pieces

variety satiety

March 8-17 85 end

History

any

other

about

like

point

the line between “psychic numbing” and sense enough to knock you flat getting thinner and thinner vanished a while back

I think

whatever you want in sight ( Geographic doesn’t right now blink chemical dumps a battlefield night

day

. . armies

133

March 17 85 Sunday plane faraway is peace

a crowd inside provisioned

veers right

it comes closer faster

May 10 85 feathery sky in one place barely moving off three sit on a wire eyes into the sun or the quick breeze

134

May 15 85 Legislator

I Based on a talk by Senator Jake Garn of Utah at the National Press Club, Washington D.C. J

bodhisattva

the greatest machine in the world to get up there transit over Iran look down sadly invisible bounds

dust

smoke

May 16 85 cloud

the wind

separate branches birds

leaves

a couple of squirrels

up edging the wire again the helicopter turns around a roar in the sea footsteps

time marches all over

135

May 25 85 one

of

two

nickels

a fly walking the rim makes it flicker, shine

May 28 85 unbroken cloud bird path masses ground

sill

air

wire squirrel a roof branches

tree

May 29 85 clouds farther away slower and slower the horizon still and, upward, the sky

136

June 11 85 a

big

oblong

box

a goodwill truck realizes space whatever’s inside

June 18-9 85 a

little

real oblivious bird taking a few drinks on the sidewalk reflecting the deep blue sky

June 23 85 a

radio

ad

invite in german nice to spot , get a few words

137

June 23-5 85 “riding/ the clouds of his belief”

in flight before sputnik Chagall

mother

kept him going

though never mind pain/ting she said baking all the bread warm as blake keats as 1 day he was born was the sun shining because of man 2 or 3 centuries odd enough how much Earth might heat say people, cats walking the roofs the streets snowy up to number 9 before and after the bomb till death must come your eyes peered open for love some sharp and blurred faces

July 12 85 humpty dumpty For Allen the baby world there’s no nursery the postman says Hey, Budd, how you doin and that’s all where you can stay

138

July 14-29 85 Intimations

child in the drive blue sky blank ages 12 million years in the mind as much as next week and at some point the sun will gulp up the whole earth

July 19-22 85 The Bible hammering it in, on over tv like the good news sports, the weather you get totebags in bookstores

I’d still like to try one at my back filled with various layers, thicknesses, of the Sunday paper.

139

July 19 85 Daylight

at

8

pm

clouds moving east still patchwork houses and trees

July 26-7 85 the

windows

down

the streets, there, in traffic, houses and offices, branchings, boats, planes, . . . the world through maps, bright names , crowds of dots cast on different scales like lights, weights (?) — substance (massives) — transparencies in their number lined up to shut the eyes and act sometime

to see

effect lost infinity of horizons next day some more of something else as clouds, the earth, the sea on and on, on

140

July 23-31 85 build-up

pileup

maps digest the world on top of books it could be 19-year-old cat across the way poking along by the fence

August 13-6 85 the eave end through the window like a wing-tip hanging down and keeping abreast a short space where is earth going is as suddenly enough the sun up the day brightening the overcast sky

141

September 24-5 85 big big big big grab whole swallow

September 85 motorcyclists! a dozen blocks roaring like that two by two

planes crisscross later the jets up high

bolt sheet lightening

142

August 28-30 85 a

knife

wound

healing pain in his hide every once in a while I’ll bet periodically headlong

practically nowhere

down to the corner to round the block a couple of other dogs too though soon past pole red car mailbox cloud ranges like wave-packed sands what’s exercise enough thudding the beaches who lives here what happened then in the night who stabbed him even as the earth circles spinning

143

September 11-6 85 rustle emptiness a car goes through there’s a fence on the corner clouds moving away south streetlight in the sun 4 birds into the tree others sway to the wind a steep wall above roofs tracks to the back globe of the moon the cat wary along by the flue sound disappears down the block

144

October 4 85 such a different scene from the bed,

window,

porch,

between the trees

August 19-September 2 85 farther past now thinking a few scraps fragments like the shadows cast on the wall from cars slow through the street before dawn the way to work and back smokes cloud

smells tree

sky

product and by-product something you’ve cared about

went to sleep and forgot about it whatever worth

145

September 26-7 85 my own thoughts and visions then I wake up to moonlight like snow in the street so long ago at last

October 4 85 gale

under

the

hedge

is that dog merely messing ??

September 27 85 Your garden I On receiving from a small place James Weil his on the earth Houses Roses J outdoors however it goes whatever storms whatever is stilled one season and another

146

September 27 85 to look out at the world here

and there

crossing the street the neighbor allows the moon’s intent the dogs shut up for the night

October 4 85 moment

of

sound travelled miauww a car door creaks

October 20 85 now

there’s

ice

and

snow

stormy last night so much tumbling did you dream at all?

147

November 26 85 big

sleep walking around daily nonsense death like the universe everywhere beyond

November 29f 85 “everyplace a center” beginning of urge between the legs queer time like everyday nonsense and the microcosm macrocosm some kind of logic looping back on itself

148

December 1-2 85-January 5 86 4, •

Out

back

in

the

blackout

the trees wavering and the window vine walls flickering but the lights do come on in time enough

November 26f 85 corner store roses on sale “for Thanksgiving” street quiet sky blurring eye sparrow on the eave

149

December 19 85-January 6 86 what size s trucks come booming long past the horizon bulldoze by bikes not just in china cargos way off airports 19th-century houses stack rooms big plot and small one a million times blown away millions of stars

150

January 10-February 2 86 birds up in the air holding distance an edge closer along the wire what time is brief back from the street smoke mounts suddenly as it gets cool now there’ll be snow

October 7 85 near/far and wide east side and west some intermittent sound

for

Ted Pearson

151

January 29-February 3 86

morning

dark

raining clash

sea

air cover

smoke

and trees waver time goes

sun’s warmed the floor from infinite points in the sky earth moving

slow

children

die off suddenly now and then cross streets without an end timeless disappear enough bits, pieces spreading out vast abundant white

152

February 17-27 86

ROM

REM

take from mouth

various pigeon walk I This piece based on “Anthony Burgess’s Rome,” a half-hour of the tv series “Cities” on PBS—the last 3 lines are a direct quote from Burgess. I

stone

place

time spans ducks cascade circus arch deep garden now air open head (Mary on top of Minerva

153

March 14 86 how easy to bite the tongue in becoming

March 7-13 86 sunlit cloud pass house fast earth shadow

almost moving street beyond color across deepening enough sky change

154

February 24 86

fog spread up a way gone distant hill aside beyond cloud

March 15 86 old

ken irby and jack foley

film

(f 2 or 3 frames )

turn of the century horsedrawn Paris busses VIVE L’AMOUR crossing one another whichever ways headed Sunday or not and these horses that maybe died in the war

155

April 22-8 86

sea height

for

side in

Stan B r a k h a g

(from a couple of his films)

sticks others spray myself flash through patches a window inland how out close lanes up fan can dark you

steps get stars forest space a sky

156

April 19-26 86

been

over

and

over

again

pick between calling life jobs and lives and money tossed after money shot in the dark is taxes and you pass the buck to the school (system) the corner church not very big you get used to the news in ears and eyes close it does bear repeating

May 19-23 86

you don’t know how much (little) you want even at the end

157

May 12 86 suddenly boatyard scraping plenty putter with a plane roar in earth rattling or it’s just windows

May 21 86 so much heard quiet

feel

time’s long

or short

locate pain

before sleep there’s distance light

moon

or leaves

a strong

part of the sun or all the stars

visible

ways, your eyes on looking out here regions unseen

158

or

June 3-7 86 the

cat

let in the door mutely runs off and I imagine hunger while he has got a voice for use sometimes

May 8-22 86 bathwater nextdoor woof out front no kids here chimney up beside roof window smoking cigar green tree talk

159

June 18-July 20 86

painting below a plane above

cloudless

afterwards

trees back and forth

birds close up together

how long does the sun shine on a projecting white garage in an old board fence

there’s cloud there was one in the morning no weather report

July 10 86

metamorphosis the cat’s joints enough known

160

August 3-September 3 86 sound

horizon

a plane going on

August 14 86 big

wind

in

the

treetops

what shapes moving around the outside sound

May 18-22 86 corner stop-sign

STOP WA R organization of the cars arrowy traffic on the bigger road no clouds cross the sky space buildings windows

161

August 14 86 news through the head there’s no answer

August 14 86 some muscle’s sore in my numb shoulder

August 20 86 up and down with lungs bathwater containment

162

August 20 86 wide-ranging cloud over sunlit somewhere enough for a storm

August 20 86 penny wise but it’s a game

August 20-September 5 86 feel like going off in another direction still

163

August 20 86 sundry

times

run out

rub out

August 20-September 6-7 86 SPinoza wanted to go out justice (anger

shock

‘ denounce the crowd to its face’ but his host locked the door he might have been killed

August 20 86 here

I

go

again

what to make of the slightly exotic or the whole world for that matter

164

September 7 86 puttering

around

feels like stalling

odds and ends

September 8-12 86 uzzle

(puxxle?

poetry hope crosswords you like?

any old weather around the block

October 31 86 Cat

roll

imagine to feel lively in the tail

fresh fog morning outdoors

165

October 30-December 11 86 detecting

boredom in a degree some nitty gritty with no danger now it’s that important may come to the jitters, ah academic

next year

lying low letting things go

November 13-14 86 n stars earth lights roadway rabbit or dog across traffic

February 2 87 wavering sight I Schubert’s Winterreise — the concluding song in this cycle is “The Organ-Grinder” X

vanishing verge of like snow increasing through trees before spring finishing a winter trip

the organgrinder a petrified branch

May 22-June 30 87 plane

sound over the lot

for

the

piper

still there the echoing sky

167

May 24 87 the universe or erie or mechanicsville is enough and more

June 4 87 1

a

t

f

o

r

m

we all look taller as we get to the ceiling

September 21 86 the

woods

repair shop home clapboard shingles

classical piano playing

manufacturing bright

June 4 87 A

party

That’s the back door, yes, the voices spread out

June 22-3 87 outlines I put boxes together sometimes you get more space

June 24-July 10 87 again

and

pretty

again

soon too much of everything

should I write this down oh no then copy it up what’s this come next

169

July 22 87

water splashes At the surface and hits you whatever things may be or have been

May 14-July 31 87

sun-filled street stilled leaf space from the height

out

side four cars at length for then three

and one

a truck

C 1 a u d e motor across the sky R o yet-Journoud in a short time vertically a yard trafficking some nights

170

July 25 87 different

voices,

the

Billions, people (Millions, cats

September 1-5 87 ah, so, yes that’s where things leave you , full of abstractions animality chordatsm vertobrodoty mammaly primetcy

mer can jdeo crt ny c

171

August 9-15 87 starry

figures

nodes o p enwork

earthwork s

families

. in

, , the

, seas

tides

then ships crowding the channel and planets a narrow space in the galaxies a yugoslav newborn designated ( July ’87 ) our 5 billionth contemporary (promotion for the World University Games) then out of 12V2 quintillion less 2Vi billion 2-way daily exchanges how few (many) to slip by the rocks, avoid black holes (year of the faint hope again a how

film

supernova)

right now

seen

farmers reducing chemicals e.g. in 3 or 4 states for about these past ten years not only to save costs a sense of the world still 1,000 saved 2 million bucks (Pan-American Games starting in Indianapolis where the speedway is the day after my birthday Hiroshima day

172

“the most productive agricultural county in the East” (Nat’l Geographic, April ’84) where the Amish and Mennonites be near Three Mile Island in the piling-up continents

August 25 87 powerhouse

in

the

sky

the black hole of religion

October 1-December 21 87 trees up in the air darkness against hills below clouds hours before dawn the light night sky branches move over and the wind’s gone

173

October 16 87 footsteps a dog bark mostly it’s quiet wherever dawn’s come

December 19 87 cat always a bee-line

June 24 89

bright afternoon

a motorbike alone shadow

174

January 6 88 car

pen

t

er

ships above earth I From hearing on the radio John Alden Carpenter’s ballet “Skyscrapers”

skyscraper paints silenced wind

(1926) I

casings

1

9 2 6 walk a ways sand parallel smoke

June 23-4 89 All my life back and forth across a time

for Brian Mclnerney

175

August 15 89 A long life (/history) wherever you are in it a few things (poems) how many

August 15 89 As

Thoreau

might

say

cool it whoever can

October 24 89 scary

then

now

worrisome

wherever I’ll end up

176

October 25 89 freedom aging the air of this mountain

for

PH (and

D G )

October 25 89 photos of poets above strange tantalizing languages

October 25 89 beautiful books in the store like everything else

177

November 7 89 tree phonepole bird wire

November 20-2 89 SALVATION ARMY LUNCH

not (E. coli) flower but called cauliflower lettuce (meat rice peas bread the world all down the way time

178

December 27-8 89 big religious differences a new clean shirt how time still goes language stimulus imagination

January 4-13 90 rider pedalling straight hands clasped behind back the road level a dirigible as suddenly the first in years with all the other things the sky’s wall steep hardly wind or cloud a squirrel through the fence a green blanket the back yard

179

January 10 90

the moon’s risen quickly as it seems now

January 11 90

I was able to give something back when you heartened me as so many others So I remember day at night and when it returns

January 20 90

Everything you can’t have should you want some more fun as it puts you to sleep

180

for

Rick

January 27 90 a

3-year

old

screaming in a rush to reach the back seat taking a ride

January 27-8 90 still

slight the cat up the roof slope in under the pane reflecting the sun

January 29 90 popovers bread for in the stove Albert near the chimney

real good milk

oatmeal and apples for breakfast

181

May 16 90 the silence night then moving to day, day into night the sun and the stars go on and on

for Ben

F . .

milling round pressure

May 8-24 90 a fly free some time on the window a man looking out

I After the film Ecstasy (Ekstase, 1933, Czech) , some of it I

wind and sky, grain a woman mends socks, closed off gradation

space

days shifting enough at some point hills rolling brilliant white cloud a gate swinging back farther to let live

182

May 28 90 Gluttony

maybe my taste-buds growing young

June 23-July 15 90 Through

a

small

window, yes

the skies look friendly

(homes below cloud

June 23-July 15 90 I Bdroom in Hawthorne Hotel, Salem, Mass. I

mirror window beside it what stories down street pants

chair

duplex

bed

each room you might think ceiling red light bulb by the chandelier bath led off near closet to eyehole in blind door the corridor passes the bend

183

June 30 90

when to get some music or news or/and let time go by as it’s gone and is going to

June 30 90

the

neighbors

0 it’s ignition (sandpaper) 1 see it now not upstairs but outdoors

July 6 90

pruning the tree clearing the skies

184

September 3 90 TASTING the passage of time breakfast

November 9 90 this day’s so

eye

it’s vegetating flowering all flesh what grass is how )

ever

it is

November 30 90 IN THE MAW tasting forever like between meals

185

March 28-April 5 91

Rvrbrance in a small room tv’s large

I for J F and J M

i might’ve realized prior to the reverse

(how far back )

one world in the head

the window opened sometimes cloudless or there’s one cloud, say, in all of the sky familiar

another country few or many escape to

one day

while in the open air

and the weather continues bad 186

( music to hear for a change Haydn )

face to the sun spirit still ok

still as were you there when

feet on the ground, head up at cloud 4 or 5

Gospel

so hectic

of how much use it’s all in Time

half-lives squander pass

impossibles fade

(dwindle

though one is enough

187

there’s always dawn and sundown continuous forever?

east and west

shine give peace

May 20 91 no

more

poetry

! ?

out the window

May 20 91 I suddenly shifted position and

really have to go

188

May 27 91 Now

again

Mountain ice on the rocky path with the knockout view —I watch my step in time

June 4 91 morning again and again morning

June 19 91 Going

Out

all these small worlds

189

July 7 91 Good

I’ve had the bagel and I’ve eaten it too

November 5 91 still some darkness

sparrows the sky

dawn plane muttering distance

fly in the window

single time branch

190

November 25-6 91 Good

Food

( ambrosia manna from )

how to eat slowly

enough like down the beach digging to China forever (less and less from the bottom of the hole)

March 21 92 trees

and

cloud over back of the hills horizon to horizon and fog

cloud . . . trees

blown through with the wind

cloud over back of trees horizon to horizon and fog blown through with the wind

191

April 17-9 92 shadowy tail intent squirrel on the phone wire head for home

April 27 90 shadow motion ceiling streak sky

192

Y Printed March 1994 in Santa Barbara & Ann Arbor for the Black Sparrow Press by Mackintosh Typography & Edwards Brothers Inc. Text set in Century by Words Worth. Design by Barbara Martin. This edition is published in paper wrappers; there are 200 hardcover trade copies; 100 hardcover copies have been numbered & signed by the author; & 26 copies handbound in boards by Earle Gray are lettered & signed by the author.

Photo: Anna Kaminska

Larry Eigner’s first collection, of 10 poems, was proposed by Robert Creeley, who, then, published it in Mallorca in 1953, after vastly improving one piece, when Eigner was 26. 35 others have appeared since (plus solo numbers of 7 magazines), mostly booklets like the first one and the latest, A Count Of Some Things, Score Publications, Oakland, 1991. Though even today far from idleness or anyhow boredom, he’s never had to work for a living (this partly due to the cerebral palsy he got while being born), and seldom, less and less often thinks how much others may need jobs, able to see more forest than trees he keeps thinking people when/if there’s enough should share it, not produce more, take it easy inside the life-support system, as the biosphere is getting too hot. Quite possibly he talks too much and/or has written too much. Ok that enough is enough. Yet, “since feeling is first,” where to stop and put on brakes??? So far, in Berkeley where Eigner’s been the last 14 years, each day is a new one, like before on Massachusetts Bay. Eigner’s life’s a good way from being imperceptibly or negligibly different since the move to Berkeley where (beginning with December 1979, 15 months after coming west) he’s got a bedroom with 6 windows fronting a long long street instead of a 2-windowed bedroom (summer heat, winter cold, and snow, wind, springtime, Fall) overlooking backyard and porch with clothesreel in a closed-in while big enough neighborhood (sidestreet and 2 dead-end sidestreets, a path through woods, shortcut to the beach before the easterly one nearer the shore ended, after its joint with Eigner’s street at the foot of the hill much steeper than the one going down from the town’s main road, the cliff, high ground along the inland edge of the main road through town anyway sheltering .the place from the 1938 hurricane). Space in general in California seems more open than space back northeast somehow. And in this big Berkeley house so much going on, what with the (contrasting) quiet in past years, not lonesomeness but solitude, enough and after brothers left home, a pretty dead quiet between people such that for much of the time you could hear a pin should it drop. Otherwise, tv & radio—singing commercials, news, sports, weather and whodunits and fame shows. But always there could be orchestras, music. Easily brought in. Forever. Larry Eigner in 1984 got half the San Francisco State University Poetry Center’s prize for his 1983 collection, Waters / Places / A Time (Black Sparrow Press). A bibliography of Eigner was published in 1971 and another in 1989. A few translations, in French and German, have appeared.

September 16 92 so

years

been

passing

the road quiet still often enough night and then day light up in the sky behind a towering tree shadowed

dense

'

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