Oscillations (iv)
If we were raised to incandescence,
passing through all stages of non-luminous
our darkness might then be defined as aether at rest,
our light as aether in motion.
Here waves issuing from uncounted centers cross,
coincide, oppose, and pass through each other,
without confusion or ultimate extinction.
The intolerable experienced, this incessant dissolution,
rereduce ourselves to the acceptance of motion.
Note: The text of the poem is collaged from “Fragments of Science,” by John Tyndall.
An Account From Which Skulls Were Taken (ii)
To preserve us this peril a fire was kept
and friends howled around it
to scare away demons—
better to have tied our bodies with rope,
passed the latter around neck and under the knees,
drawn up tight until we doubled
with little ceremony or grief.
Note: The text of the poem is collaged from “An introduction to the mortuary customs of the North American Indians,” by H. C. Yarrow.
Poet, translator, and filmmaker Francesco Levato is the author of three books of poetry: Elegy for Dead Languages; War Rug, a book length documentary poem: and Marginal State. He has translated into English the book s of Italian poets Triziano Fratus, Creaturuing, and Fabiano Alborghetti.,The Opposite Shore. His work has been published internationally in journals and anthologies, both in pring and online, including Drunken Boat, The Progressies, Versal and many others. His cinepoetry has been exhiftied in galleries and featured at film festivals in Berlin, Chicago, New York, and elsewhere. |
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