Saturday, September 27, 2014

He Hears Particular Voices Among the Concert, the Slightest Rustle in the Undertones, Rehearsing a Nervous Aptitude Yet to Prove *His*



Was cleaning up my email yesterday morning, got my monthly email from Rams Head Tavern in Annapolis, I use it to remind me to check for concerts I might want to see. Nothing coming to Rams Head I want to see. The email also has a link to 930, scroll down, scroll down, nothing, scroll down, December 5, wait, Yo La Tengo Turns 30 with opening act Lambchop?

Wait, Yo La Tengo?




 
with opening act Lambchop?











A LITTLE LANGUAGE

Robert Duncan

I know a little language of my cat, though Dante says   
that animals have no need of speech and Nature   
abhors the superfluous.   My cat is fluent.   He   
converses when he wants with me.   To speak

is natural.   And whales and wolves I’ve heard   
in choral soundings of the sea and air
know harmony and have an eloquence that stirs   
my mind and heart—they touch the soul.   Here

Dante’s religion that would set Man apart   
damns the effluence of our life from us   
to build therein its powerhouse.

It’s in his animal communication Man is   
      true, immediate, and   
in immediacy, Man is all animal.

His senses quicken in the thick of the symphony,
      old circuits of animal rapture and alarm,
attentions and arousals in which an identity rearrives.
      He hears
particular voices among
      the concert, the slightest   
rustle in the undertones,
      rehearsing a nervous aptitude   
yet to prove his. He sees the flick
      of significant red within the rushing mass
of ruddy wilderness and catches the glow
      of a green shirt
to delite him in a glowing field of green
      —it speaks to him—
and in the arc of the spectrum color   
      speaks to color.
The rainbow articulates
      a promise he remembers   
he but imitates
      in noises that he makes,

this speech in every sense   
the world surrounding him.
He picks up on the fugitive tang of mace
      amidst the savory mass,
and taste in evolution is an everlasting key.
      There is a pun of scents in what makes sense.

      Myrrh it may have been,
the odor of the announcement that filld the house.

      He wakes from deepest sleep   

upon a distant signal and waits   

      as if crouching, springs

      to life.



3 comments:

  1. really enjoyed the kurt wagner video - started it again, in fact

    speaking of viewing a complete sci-fi tv series, this weekend spouse and self are having a "firefly" marathon (courtesy of our friends at mcpl) - i have a request in for the movie but that may not arrive in the next couple of days

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  2. The neoliberal period of capital in all its fetid glory.

    "It has instead become easier for them to cut their losses and abandon public schooling altogether."

    George Carlin said it all, back in the 90s.

    But there’s a reason. There’s a reason. There’s a reason for this, there’s a reason education SUCKS, and it’s the same reason it will never, ever, EVER be fixed.

    It’s never going to get any better, don’t look for it, be happy with what you’ve got.

    Because the owners, the owners of this country don't want that.
    ---------
    ~

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. decades ago, when my experience was limited and underfed, i thought george carlin exaggerated for humorous effect - now i understand that he was just describing what he saw

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