On Reading Robert Duncan
for Eric Mottram
He spoke of you
in that time when water
was a mile down hill
across ditches through fields
from the shrine
your name’s two feet
so hard to decline now that
nouns not often decline
from a glistening slate roof
in sunlight after rain
a gutter
one drip
quickly two more
before one dripped again
repeating in sequence
one drip two more
before one dripped again
in metrical sequence
sounds of separation
before one dripped again
in metrical sequence
sounds of separation
twelve feet between negation
between two sounds
drip splash
no sound of separation
no sound of door being locked
nails being tapped
no white sound just starched aprons
no sight of nurses just visions in blue
sitting at a bedside
waiting to administrate
no sound to measure
distance between things
pipe and rock
twelve feet between
in that temple made
by six rows of two columns
twelve feet high twelve feet deep
enclosing five conjugations
some voices, some moods
and in the center of that shrine
sitting beside two smaller columns
First Second and Third
High, Just-As-High, Third
three gods of first person three gods of second
sound waves spoking out
&
Robert Duncan said that:
Ezra Pound said:
Ezra Pound said:
“the study of literature is hero-worship”
Dick Russell
copyright © 2015
