the intricate evasions of as
selected poems1980-2010 (part one)
vassilis zambaras
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This endlessly elaborating poem
Displays the theory of poetry,
As the life of poetry. A more severe,
More harassing master would extemporize
Subtler, more urgent proof that the theory
Of poetry is the theory of life,
As it is, in the intricate evasions of as,
In things seen and unseen, created from nothingness,
The heavens, the hells, the worlds, the longed-for lands.
Wallace Stevens,
“An Ordinary Evening in New Haven”
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table of contents
1. What Is Not White
2. The Origin of Species
3. Terminal Disease
4. “unbelievable white”
5. Cliché
6. Prehensile
7. The Spiritual Nature of Anticipation
8. Bookmark, “Selected Poems,” William Carlos Williams
9. Vigilance
10. Song of No Rhyme, No Reason
11. Aurora
12. If Light Were Like A Void
13. “solitary white”
14. Cowards Don’t Leave Suicide Notes
15. Sorrow Is
16. Advent of Winter
17. “delicate sculpture”
18. Driven
19. “white shoulders”
20. Untitled
21. “ship/wrecks”
22. New Found Land
23. Depression in Ft. Atkinson, Wisconsin
24. The Presentiment
25. Heirloom
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1.
WHAT IS NOT WHITE
white comes from afar
as far as what longing
for forever brings for whatever
reason
closing
in
.
we think
the world is not
white we think it is
.
(what is)
white we know,
what white we know
white will never know
we know
.
Let us go.
2.
THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES
On top of poems are written
Other poems, thus
The destruction of the world’s
Perfected.
3.
TERMINAL DISEASE
Unworthy the ink
ejaculating
octopus spits
out black pus.
4.
unbelievable white
lies behind it
5.
CLICHÉ
Broad daylight. Strange
coming
to terms with it, as if
it were something
out of the ordinary
out of the blue
nothingness.
6.
PREHENSILE
Grasping, but not man-
Handling the language,
As if the poem were,
So to speak, a glass
Mandible.
7.
THE SPIRITUAL NATURE OF ANTICIPATION
Anxious, a-
spiring
to be heard,
as an
embryo’s heart-
beat
hard to grasp,
to see
the next leaf
over-
head breaking
away,
to Fall.
8.
BOOKMARK, SELECTED POEMS,
WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS
From dry fragile still
fragrant yellow-
green stalks & leaves placed
between the descent
of winter & the locust tree
in flower stems
the scent of spring.
9.
VIGILANCE
Vigilance is in sighting
The lance
Being thrust into air,
Watching it, following
Its arc
Ever watchful of gravity
Inscribing your signature
Indelibly there.
10.
SONG OF NO RHYME, NO REASON
here,
there—
a
non
se-
quit-
ur
ci-
ca-
da
wind-
ing
up
in air.
11.
AURORA
i.m. Robert Lax (1915-2000)
mystical
morning
donning
mystical
light,
mystical
ritual
unfolding
calling
mystic
mythical
flight.
12.
IF LIGHT WERE LIKE A VOID
It would be like leaping
Out of the blue in
To nothinglikeness.
13.
solitary white
chapel’s calling
sea’s bluff
14.
COWARDS DON’T LEAVE SUICIDE NOTES
So sorry
I couldn’t
Say goodbye.
15.
SORROW IS
a lone flashing
oar down the river of no
return.
16.
ADVENT OF WINTER
snow
white
barbed
wire
neck-
lace
hanging
throat-
less
song
bird.
17.
delicate
sculpture
across your
face, snow
flakes
18.
DRIVEN
edge of the ice
red
of the flower
blade
of the knife
of the road
the turning
harrow of
snow
19.
white shoulders
the dream
ploughs
through
20.
UNTITLED
seed pods bur sting
in cemeteries
21.
ship
wrecks
memories
harbor
22.
NEW FOUND LAND
to the old country
boy
pulling his small toy
boat across
the street the
seas aside
walk.
23.
DEPRESSION IN FT. ATKINSON, WISCONSIN
Remember our pale, blue
picket fence, Dad?
We painted it,
as good as new.
You stepped on the gas
instead of braking,
shot the Chevy thru.
24.
THE PRESENTIMENT
Verily we feel
Our bones shall follow
The wake,
To wake
In the dark
Of the morrow,
To find the glow-
Worm’s glimmer,
Its spineless undulating underbelly
Underpinning
Our very marrow.
25.
HEIRLOOM
Keep what I give you
a covenant
we shall inherit
the unimaginable
immaculate loneliness
of galaxies.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
Some of these poems first appeared in the following magazines and anthologies and I am grateful to their editors.
Magazines: Kater Murr’s Press (UK), Poetry Salzburg Review, Shearsman, Smoot Drive Press, The Southeastern Review (Greece).
Anthologies: How the Net Is Gripped: a selection of contemporary American Poetry, Stride (UK), 1992; Visiting Dr. Williams, Poems Inspired by the Life and Work of William Carlos Williams, University of Iowa Press, 2011.
A few of these poems were also published as In Credible Evidence, a small fold-out booklet by Bob Arnold at Longhouse Publishers, 2010.
Author’s Note: The Intricate Evasions of As is an unpublished four-part manuscript of 100 selected poems written between 1980—2010; each part is introduced by a segment taken from a passage by William Carlos Williams from his Prologue to Kora in Hell. Here is the segment in its entirety with slash marks indicating where it is divided. ”. . . . those inimitable particles/ of dissimilarity/ to all other things which are/ the peculiar perfections/ of the thing in question”
My thanks to John Mingay and facqueuesol books for making Part One of this too long labored over manuscript freely accessible at last.
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© Vassilis Zambaras 2020
a facqueuesol paperless book