To begin ...

As the twentieth century fades out
the nineteenth begins
.......................................again
it is as if nothing happened
though those who lived it thought
that everything was happening
enough to name a world for & a time
to hold it in your hand
unlimited.......the last delusion
like the perfect mask of death

Saturday, January 30, 2016

Michael McClure: Songheavy (Last Breath Poem)

SONGHEAVY
    
LAST BREATH POEM

After watching human
efforts to save the self-beached
pilot whale at Rockport.
Many times the large dolphin
reversed their efforts and
returned to the strand.

TWO TON QUALIA-BEING:

globe head

SPIKE TEETH

all being-receptors

RECEPTORS
CONCEIVED
BY
QUALIA
a
l
i
v
e

LIVING

resonation

*x~X~X~x*

MEAT

RED-BLACK

inside
is

every where

RESONATING

slick black
on
sea edge 

;;;';;;';''';;

MOEBIUS
BULK
BREATHING
HULK

this way

OF
LIFE

CEDING

IS
IT

the way

CON
SCIOUS
NESS

VAST

HEART

ALL BODY

SHAPE

songheavy

VOICE

to imagine

self-spired

SPOUTED

i
n
s
p
i
r
e
d

death-self

(DEATH SELF)

FREE

to swim
in
non-ever
FOR
EVER
all
bright

AFIRE

five trillion per nanosecond

neuron linking


in the POD

WHAT THREAT --

OR FEAR
--OR
DISEASE
--OR
? ?

LEADS   NO   WAY

to
follow

we laugh
together in the torch

of wetwave darkness

nothing

NOTHING NESS

needs
this
LIFE

and
now

we are gone

A
TOOTHED
SMILE

SMILE

IN
THE

WAVE
LAP

________
________

THIS
PROUD

RED AND BLACK

MEAT
LOVE

HEARING-VOICE

TREMBLING


TO GO


[N.B.  A poem, above, that recalls another, “For the Death of 100 Whales,” performed some sixty years ago at the famed Gallery Six reading in San Francisco – a continuation & advance by a poet still at the height of his powers. J.R.]

No comments: