To the End of Ezra Pound

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by Nicholas A. DeBoer

V. The Example

I take it as my task, to shift from Pound’s difficult and untenable position of usura to that of the spectacle in my own work.  To further this, here is an example of my process.  Here are the opening lines from Canto 116:

 

          Came Neptunus
                his mind leaping
                       like dolphins,
          These concepts the human mind has attained.
          To make Cosmos -
          To achieve the possible -
          Muss., wrecked for an error,
          But the record
                  the palimpsest -
          a little light
                  in great darkness -
          cuniculi                             [canals]
          An old “crank” dead in Virginia.
          Unprepared young burdened with records,
          The vision of Madonna
                  above the cigar butts
                          and over the portal.

 

The ‘image-notes’ that I gleaned from these opening lines are as follows:

“water leaps → have attained → make world, achieve → wrecked for an error → palimpsest → moon, great darkness → canals, big footprint → unprepared youth have history burden → beauty over cigar butts → portal.”

It’s through these notes that I composed this rough draft:

 

           the waters have
                  leapt into attainment:
 
                  as if there was
                           achieve wrecked for an
  error: palimpsest.
                                   the moon on the edge of
 
                                         a
                                         great
                                         darkness, near the sun
           the canals
                  in there big foot print
 
                                    the unprepared youth
                                         have the
                                                burden of history,
           beauty is above cigar butts.
 
                                         this quiet portal

 

And here is my final appreciation of this work, in the completed section thereof, entitled Plate Glass,

Tarantula Canto:

 

          → →
          tart and acidic
            corrosion    deluge over riverbanks
              contained by lazuli    roll over heedless grass blades ← ←
                           plates of glass:
         the mooring land    leapt    tenses
             soil as a mask
 
                         in the stomach pit    gyre of ocean felt
                         heavy ropes stir in its image    to float
                         on the force of hydrothermal vents
 
         blush
         down
         miles             far below lunar shine
                          along crisp edges of canals
                             thru abyssal plains
                             to deepest city )(libertatia)(at rest
 
         pressure etches
         pounds about the oceanic portal
                and in   law: white flag and no violation of the articles
                    mission    not lit forever
                        clever stitchwork held long   heals nothing
                                           nor the poem

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