30 november 2003 what is poetry?
two poems by Alan Sondheim
this tree which cannot read
i am standing in storm and in sunlight.
i am the writing for this tree.
i am standing here day and am standing here night.
i am standing in storm and in sunlight.
i am standing in snow and in fog and in thaw.
i have never seen the other side of the hill.
i have no idea what is on the other side.
i can't see into the ground unless a squirrel digs a very wide hole.
i can't move to escape the squirrel who is busy with me.
i can't move closer to hear anything on the other side of the hill.
since i am blind perhaps there is no hill.
perhaps there is no squirrel.
when the great winds come i cannot protect myself.
i can only hope and can only hope when the great fires come.
when i lose a part of myself i do not lose the whole.
i am not sure when i lose a part of myself but i am sometimes
strengthened.
i cannot tell what is happening around me nor avoid the axe.
i cannot huddle or mourn and cannot tell you about my children.
if any of them should live. i cannot speak.
i am writing this gift for my friend the tree which is outside my window.
my friend cannot hear me and cannot see me.
these many years. my friend has not known me.
i am writing for my tree which cannot read.
[A poem published yesterday by Alan Sondheim - some of whose other poems (partly composed automatically by computer*) I cannot yet perceive as poetry. With thanks for this one!]
[*here is the computer poem that accompanied it:
(it's not as it was because I've begun to put it into Times Roman not the email script in which it appeared in a poetics discussion list... what's happened to this text - a shifting left margin and an absorbion of a standard footnote into the poem - is beyond me as I do not fully understand the computer code in which it's written. In this respect I am like the tree!)]
the mess of reinsertion
grep: spam: No such file
or directory rm: spam: No such file or
directory remove
/net/u/6/s/sondheim/.procmail/log? y k18% k18%
ls GoogleSearch.wsdl note Mail phoenix.hlp News
phoenix.irc a spam lisp tf looply.pl tf-lib
lynx_bookmarks.html tiny.world mail venom.irc
mod volt.irc ng k19% k19% ^L ksh: : not found
k20 k32% ksh: phoenix.irc: not found k33% Usage:
./tf [-L
] [-f[]] [-c] [-nlq]
[] ./tf [-L] [-f[]] [-c]
Options:
the mess of reinsertion grep: spam: No such file
or directory rm: spam: No such file or
directory remove
/net/u/6/s/sondheim/.procmail/log? y k18% k18%
ls GoogleSearch.wsdl note Mail phoenix.hlp News
phoenix.irc a spam lisp tf looply.pl tf-lib
lynx_bookmarks.html tiny.world mail venom.irc
mod volt.irc ng k19% k19% ^L ksh: : not found
k20 k32% ksh: phoenix.irc: not found k33% Usage:
./tf [-L
] [-f[]] [-c] [-nlq]
[] ./tf [-L] [-f[]] [-c]
Options:
grep: spam: No such file or directory rm:
spam: No such file or directory remove
/net/u/6/s/sondheim/.procmail/log? y k18% k18%
ls GoogleSearch.wsdl note Mail phoenix.hlp News
phoenix.irc a spam lisp tf looply.pl tf-lib
lynx_bookmarks.html tiny.world mail venom.irc
mod volt.irc ng k19% k19% ^L ksh: : not found
k20 k32% ksh: phoenix.irc: not found k33% Usage:
./tf [-L
] [-f[]] [-c] [-nlq]
[]
./tf [-L] [-f[]] [-c]
Options:
-L use as library directory
(%TFLIBDIR)
-f don't load personal config file (.tfrc)
-f load instead of config file
-c execute after loading config
file
-n no automatic first connection
-l no automatic login/password
-q quiet login
-v no automatic visual mode Arguments:
hostname or IP address
port number or name
connect to defined by
addworld() k34% ksh: venom.irc: not found k35%
ksh: 21: not found
you can't go back there.
nothing works in the wrong place.
in this place your orders fall on deaf ears.
take them elsewhere.
with thanks to alan sondheim for permission to reproduce his poems
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