Thursday, January 29, 2009

The Origin of Species


On top of poems are written
Other poems, thus

The destruction of the world's
Perfected.



(from The Intricate Evasions of As)

5 comments:

  1. Or the preservation of the world! Consider the Archimedes Palimpsest....

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  2. I agree with Hutchinson. As does, implicitly, the poet who wrote "The Origin of the Species." The title is crucial. What survives? In the case of literature, as Hutchinson says, much is preserved, whereas with us creatures it is a different story.

    I love the final verb in the poem, "Perfected." A Zambaras irony, perfect destruction.

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  3. Another beautiful poem, layer upon layer upon layer.

    And yes, that Zambaras irony — each word its own telling, yet intricate evasion.

    Great link, Joe!

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  4. Thanks you three--incidentally, this is the first poem in the ms. And I second William's comment about the link--my wife had to scrape me off the site to save me!

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  5. I like it - like several people have stated in previous posts on your poems - this one cannot have a single word taken out without disrupting it's meaning.

    So short and so powerful.

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