| |
A. Exegesis of the
First Words Spoken (Ishmael)
Scholar-on-waves, a water-gazer,
Call me
Ishmael. Re-enter my own life.
Waves: they murmur, babble, waves
Do not articulate what the ocean
Turning in its bed thinks: What must be said.
Sing above or sing
Below
The knot in the plank, the cursive
Pine-grain
Of my life in the bow and my life
Bay-less in the bowels
Of the bow.
I signed me on as myself
to become more so
myself—
A study, one volume of 36 signatures, 576 pages (9 blank
for notes),
And became dispossessed of all
but one mis-
spoken leaf—
Pro- and epilogue both. Sign your mark. I do
Find the escape
Clause titled in fine print, watermarked, on condition
Of being or becoming: me
Tar-dark, thumbless or thumbed,
Ocean eats the nib of pen
But a nub dipped in pitch
Sing above or sing below
The wave’s back
Broken by another wave
There is no air beside.
A nub dipped in pitch
Can’t help
But write, beneath the sea-hawk’s wing
The sea-hawk’s cry, Sign your mark
With a nail, a splinter, a harpoon
In the hand can’t help
But
Sing above and sing below
But write but
What song strides surface tension
Help but write
Thirst chokes and salt slakes
A contract for a name
Of being or becoming
Ink on the line, a name or a contract
For a name, a thumbprint, or I
Signed me on on my name alone: Now
Profit Now Leak Now Bury Now Speak.
|
|