from "Pythagorean Silence" by Susan Howe

from Pythagorean Silence

                          1.

age of earth and us all chattering

a sentence       or character
suddenly

steps out to seek for truth      fails
falls

into a stream of ink          Sequence
trails off

must go on

waving fables and faces        War
doings of the war

manoeuvering between points
between

any two points          which is
what we want     (issues at stake)

bearings and so

holes in a cloud    are minutes passing
which is

which
view      odds of images swept rag-tag

silver and grey
epitomes

seconds    forgeries engender
(are blue)       or blacker

flocks of words flying together      tense
as an order

cast off to crows




Source of the text: Pythagorean Silence by Susan Howe.  From In the American Tree, edited by Ron Silliman.  Orono, ME: The National Poetry Foundation, Inc., 1986, pp. 356-357.

TJB: Languagists of Avalon. Omniscient, firmly apposed, the poem claims myth & poetry are fleeting moments of order amid the human chatter-chaos.