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for Stan Brakhage
by Steve Dalachinsky“…..the equivalent of many behaviors…” - Brakhage
( a poem in one long take based in part on the words of Stan Brakhage from the 1975 interview The Seen published by Zephyrus Press )
the seen urgently enough a personal state slumped foward like a long day
out the watery window a milky anticipation moves thru accelerated nite
( …like a train …. )
myth of text soundless paint & its equivalents breath of friend & lover
rain that is not wet summer’s never coming & spring
hasn’t arrived
all day long wind pushes watery window east moving clouds toward another eventuality
as the sky passes thru my hand jerkily as the motion of a tripping lens
random memory one frame for example blinded clicking waiting
the child’s face as big as a SUN sucks @ evening’s breast
descending crystal of everchanging SHADOW & LIGHT
falls like the breakage of wind upon the climber’s back
falls like a tray of ash upon a field of stars & dogs & barely audible men
Men who have just begun to speak speak in volumes but have little to say
barely having acquired the ALEPH of Life sound & limitation
quivering dancing glass
they speak listening to their own hearts but barely hearing
skin pounding in the ear like the drum of the world a final scream
but who there to absorb it? we listen to ourselves too much & not
enough symbol there like name merciless insistence
reforming habits of EGOS
the MUSIC is in the silence & the movement exhausted & standing in the way of MYSELF
metaphored the images expand & change & all things cycle again
& the sky shifts again
& the climber’s limbs grow heavy
as the words come gentler
& the symphony ends
titles appear squiggled the film disappears
what will last is this not moonlight but mystery poetry & instruction
the name disappears
& what will last is…………………blurred
steve dalachinsky nyc 5/03
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