M., Dreamtime Village, The Autonomous Republic of Qazingulaza
The Year is 2323 and there has been epic and quantum slippage of language and connotation that it has become impossible to have a 20th century style argument. The querulous brokers of logophilia are stumped.
Dear M,
The key is to migrate to an alternative quantum band. Best bet would be sector 3232-K-12. We have observed good outcomes in this sector. You will begin to see restoration of connotations and association word practices within the first decade; irony, sarcasm, and punning will begin to return after that. Do not attempt the ritual practice of logophilia – rhymes, unexpected word order, catachresis, satire – with your current 2323 sector; immediately abort any guerrilla operations of this kind. Once you are resituated in 3232-K-12, begin to create printed compilations of the work of fellow Querulousists. Do not attempt to circulate the pamphlets outside the circle, but keep the circle open to add participants one by one. Admit all who show interest or curiosity. Agents sent from Official Verse Culture should be welcome as they will quickly become tainted with Querulosity.
1. A poem is finished when you no longer understand what it means.
2. Write out of care for planet earth and its inhabitants, not to show you care.
3. To bring back the voices of the dead, listen to PennSound.
4. In the meantime: Listen for sounds of unalienated culture inside alien language; it will be an illusion, but a useful one. I know you can do that in “Dreamtime Village.”
Rx: Robert Creeley’s “The Plan Is the Body”
(1977, from Away); MP3
In honor of Creeley’s one hundredth birthday. From The Collected Poems:1945-1975 (University of California Press, 2006)
The plan is the body.
There is each moment a pattern.
There is each time something
for everyone.
The plan is the body.
The mind is in the head.
It’s a moment in time,
an instant, second.
The rhythm of one
and one, and one, and one.
The two, the three.
The plan is in the body.
Hold it an instant,
in the mind—hold it.
What was said you
said. The two, the three,
times in the body,
hands, feet, you remember—
I, I remember, I
speak it, speak it.
Me, me, remember, me
here, me wants to, me
am thinking of you.
The plan is the body.
The plan is the body.
The sky is the sky.
The mother, the father—
the plan is the body.
Who can read it.
Plan is the body. The mind
is the plan. I—
speaking. The memory
gathers like memory, plan,
I thought to remember,
thinking again, thinking.
The mind is the plan of the mind.
The plan is the body.
The plan is the body.
The plan is the body.
The plan is the body.
