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I Am Not a Clock.

And Three More Poems.

By LUKE EMMETT.

.

 

I am Not a Clock.

A promise
to the newly wed,

with each wave
he breathes brine,
and gulps then twists.
__I saved a life!
__High up here I see

__him swim, listen
__to the jungle hum
__as if to me.
__A Cedar stirs, confetti

in the sun. I have sung
these women
as they bathed and

think of time.

A Schizo-dramatica: language is meaning.

————————————————–Any
history of poetry tends toward meaning more
than the visual arts did. But conceptual poetry, being no more concerned with meaning: is no less formalist an innovation!
So, maybe the “noise” (loss of meaningfulness not sense of sound alone) of conceptual poetry
leaves something out..
How does poetry decompose the world of things (separation) into language? The world’s metonym is:

————-1. effects as reality
(integrated world of post-modernism)
2. an essence: causes as reality
(fragmented world of late modernism)
—————-—————————————————————————-3. its effects as ideas
(integrated processes of language poetics)
——————————————————4. or, an essence: causes as ideas
—-(fragmented processes of surrealism)!

Sat by a table…

his thoughts of
himself, set into the tension
of his ache (left blank, to fill),
__as a wren unnoticed
skips against the glass and stops,
___________to dart
again, to sunlight.

Drinking.

I pull at a sore
on my hand,
—–tear
—–frustrated

at the label and think of
kissing her,
no splint,
as, eager,
______________my flesh
_rips._________A couple
pass, almost in love
with its small
victory. ____A plaster

will unstick:
instead I tape a
crimson mitten

____________to the wound.


Luke Emmett writes: “I have just completed a MA in creative writing from Lancaster, and have had supporting correspondence from a number of poets, including Prynne and Silliman. My reflective work was closest to Olson, but I’m inspired by Zukofsky, and hope to move forward in a study of the sound of words.”  This is his first appearance in The Fortnightly Review.

 

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