VERTIGO
I hate vertigo
fear it
entirely
wonder what
life should be
like
could it
be at all tolerable
if it
did not go
of own accord
consent to
leave me
and so I am
sensitive to
the world’s vertigo
the one
that mad philosopher
wrote of
the one where all
that was balanced
is lost
the tipping point
of fundamental energies
refusing reconcilement
in the words of the crazy one,
forever our fate,
determined to return.
MEASURE
measure that phrase
see what we might
distil from it
Oh the essence of that cadence
is elixir, to put it
plebian plainly
is music
to my ears
has a French know not what
syllabic ring to it
is pleasant of feel and
to the touch in exquisite extreme
would that I could write so:
be creature of delicate
supplement, careful balance
even as the world is shifting:
places where already breakneck
is even out-accelerating
and the page
the page
things seismic there, the text
spiking, falling, big fear is
cannot but
be flat-
lining somewhat shortly
as for the stage
much staggering incomprehension in respect
of beneath the boards all
tectonic plates
strike at the need to measure
but by then, of course,
too late too late
poems 2 die for