"/ The universe in fact is monstrously indifferent to the presence of man /"
~ from "Fuck / Time" by Inua Ellams (p. 121)
Poetry, May 2020, Volume 216, Number 2
~~~
The lines before this line / ring clear with awareness / describe the true nature / hidden within a song / within an adventure / within an encounter/ ephemeral the voice / of a shaman who sings / within the flow of time //
united with the sky / the dream of passing time / the presence of presence / now a musician wants / now a musician wants / now a musician wants / indeed demands requests / to repeat the moment / reiterate the song / verse for verse line for line / the melody is all / all the musician wants / ephemeral the voice / united with the sky / the sun the clouds the birds / riddled by the difference / the musician faces / the task of memory / simply put Mozart hears / and Mozart remembers / line for line note for note / encountering genius / is not the point at all / the musician wants time //
in the vast savannah / where the antelope trot / as quickly as they came / nothing the shaman sings / is ever quite the same / as time itself changes //
for the musician wants / what the musician wants / what the musician lost / as time passed without him / him rushing to catch time / time never standing still / clashing in attitudes / without ever meeting / two musicians focus / together separately / with full concentration / on what is important //
important to the one / is our presence in time / fleeting in description / second in importance / is the other person / rushing to hear a song //
monstrously the poet / describes the universe / in a word indifferent / only the eye beholds / what the mind longs to see / neither arbitrator / nor advocate for one / nor the other person / the poet writes his thoughts / streaming across the page / until we encounter / his own commentary / to explain in ideas / no longer in events / the pinball machine tilts / rivers in Botswana / flow with shamanic songs / never staying for long / only the poet knows / how to end a poem / for him commentary / unlike a summary / art lost in abstraction / he becomes pedantic / suffering the reader / to indulge to forgive / the lesson as teacher / leaving behind the two / no longer two but one / one moment encountered / yesterday tomorrow / the music of presence / is a song in movements //
if another poet / enters his universe / parallel to our own / noting the melody / of the two musicians / in their one encounter / deaf to meter rhythm / the beat between two breaths / again clashing cultures / indeed never meeting / when no one reads her work / who could see past her mind / for I am she writer / poet and essayist / forgotten like Samsa / for better or for worse / wedded to the blank page / each line follows the last / exactly thus she writes / not to improve nor find / fault in the poet's words / resting in the beauty / of the words on the page / like the shaman who sings / encountering the world / everyday in repose / describing what passes / notating in a rush / in the heat of passion / found within a moment / the poet encounters / the poet the shaman / and the musician lost //
the poet writes her words / within her own mind cave / within a library / only the books scattered / in stacks without reason / within her empty nest //
the chicks have flown away / all imaginary / barren a man-woman / how the poet counters / another poet's words / inviting encounter / ephemeral the clouds / the sun the antelope / far off in Botswana //
perhaps she seeks to find / as the musician wants / he hungers after sound / relinquish to behold / as the shaman beholds / the universe complete / encounter each moment / as it rises and falls / each moment in itself / simply put our presence / is presence with nature / whether or not we hear / ephemeral music / sung by a lone shaman / far off in Botswana / not alone the shaman / solitary in mind / singular in focus / concentrating on time / and what is beyond time / the nature of music / even the musician / Yo-Yo Ma cannot stop / the next song that follows //
only this fairy tale / Inua Ellams wrote / majestic in beauty / forges past description / beyond the encounter / whether real or fiction //
marvelling at the words / she cannot imagine / writing her own poem / as Czesław Miłosz wrote / of his own encounter / with time passing in time / nothing to stop the breath / this life in a moment / disappears into death //
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