Sections I-XII of "Complete Thought" by Barrett Watten

COMPLETE THOUGHT

            I

The world is complete.

Books demand limits.

            II

Things fall down to create drama.

The materials are proof.

            III

Daylight accumulates in photos.

Bright hands substitute for sun.

            IV

Crumbling supports undermine houses.

Connoisseurs locate stress.

            V

Work breaks down to devices.

All features present.

            VI

Necessary commonplaces form a word.

The elements of art are fixed.

            VII

A mountain cannot be a picture.

Rapture stands in for style.

            VIII

Worn-out words are invented.

We read daylight in books.

            IX

Construction turns back in on itself.

Dogs have to be whipped.

            X

Eyes open wide to see spots.

Explanations are given on demand.

            XI

Brick buildings shut down in winter.

A monument works to change scale.

            XII

False notes work on a staircase.

The hammer is as large as the sun.

Source of the text – In the American Tree, edited by Ron Silliman.  Orono, ME: National Poetry Foundation, University of Maine at Orono, 1986, pp. 40-41.

TJB: Which is a complete thought: sentence, stanza, or poem? Juxtaposition thrives in these simple, flat-declarative, often-transitive sentences.