*********************************** * * * 9 LIGHT POEMS * * * * by * * * * JACKSON MAC LOW * * * *********************************** 1ST LIGHT POEM: FOR IRIS -- 10 JUNE 1962 The light of a student-lamp sapphire light shimmer the light of a smoking-lamp Light from the Magellanic Clouds the light of a Nernst lamp the light of a naphtha-lamp light from meteorites Evanescent light ether the light of an electric lamp extra light Citrine light kineographic light the light of a Kitson lamp kindly light Ice light irradiation ignition altar light The light of a spotlight a sunbeam sunrise solar light Mustard-oil light maroon light the light of a magnesium flare light from a meteor Evanescent light ether light from an electric lamp an extra light Light from a student-lamp sapphire light a shimmer smoking-lamp light Ordinary light orgone lumination light from a lamp burning olive oil opal light Actinism atom-bomb light the light of an alcohol lamp the light of a lamp burning anda-oil 2ND LIGHT POEM: FOR DIANE WAKOSKI -- 10 JUNE 1962 I. Old light and owl-light may be opal light in the small orifice where old light & the will-o'-the-wisp make no announcement of waning light but with direct directions & the winking light of the will-o'-the-wisp's accoutrements & lilac light a delightful phenomenon a delightful phenomenon of lucence & lucidity needing no announcement even of lilac light my present activities may be seen in the old light of my accoutrements as a project in owl-light II. A bulky, space-suited figure from the whole cloth of my present activities with a taste for mythology in opal light & _such a manner_ in the old light from some being outside as if this being's old light cd have brought such a manner to a bulky, space-suited figure from the whole world of my present activities at this time when my grief gives owl-light only not an opal light & not a very old light neither old light nor owl-light makes it have such a manner about it tho opal light & old light & marsh light & moonlight & that of the whole world to which the light of meteors is marsh light all light it no it's an emerald light in the light form the eyes that are making it whole from the whole cloth with no announcement this time. III. What is extra light? A delightful phenomenon. A delightful phenomenon having no announcement? No more than the emerald light has. Is that the will-o'-the-wisp? No, it's the waning light of my grief. Is it a winking light? No more than it is the will-o'-the-wisp. Is it old light? The oldest in the whole world. Why do you speak in such a manner? I suppose, because of the owl-light. Is it a kind of opal light? No, I said it was old light. Is it a cold light? More like a chemical light with the usual accoutrements. Like the carmine light produced by my present activities? More of a cold light than that. Like what might fall on a bulky, space-suited figure? Well, it's neither red light nor reflected light. Are you making this up out of whole cloth? No, I'm trying to give you direct directions. For avoiding a bulky, space-suited figure? No, for getting light from a rhodochrosite. _________________________________________________________________ Note: A rhodochrosite is a vitreous rose-red or variously colored gem-stone having a hardness of 4.5 & a density of 3.8 and consisting of manganous carbonate (MnCO3) crystallized in the rhombohedral system. ----------------------------------------------------------------- IV. This time I'm going to talk about red light. First of all, it's not very much like emerald light. Nevertheless, there's still some of it in Pittsburgh. It adds to the light from eyes an extra light. This is also true of emerald light. But red light better suits those with a taste for mythology. As reflected light it is often paler than the light from a rhodochrosite. Such a red light might fall on a bulky, space-suited figure. In just such a manner might this being be illuminated during a time gambol. 5TH LIGHT POEM AND 2ND PIECE FOR GEORGE BRECHT TO PERFORM THO OTHERS MAY ALSO UNLESS HE DOESN'T WANT THEM TO -- 13 JUNE 1962 George Brecht in a white light sits on a white wooden chair. He wears a white tee shirt white cotton trousers white socks & white tennis shoes. He throws white roses from a white vase into a white waste- basket placed at a challenging distance from the chair. Around & between George's chair & the wastebasket he has placed sources of some kinds of light & emblems of the possibility of others. He continues throwing the roses into the wastebasket until he misses. Then he goes to the rose on the floor & carefully draws a line on the floor with white chalk from the bottom of the rose's stem to the petals & prolongs the line until he hits or nears a light source or emblem. After pocketing the chalk he retrieves the roses from the wastebasket counts them out loud & returns them & the one from the floor to the vase. He goes back to the white chair. As he sits the lights go out for as many time-units of his own choosing as there had been roses in the waste- basket. Then George produces a light by means of the source if the rose pointed to a light source & if it pointed to an emblem he makes the kind of light the emblem symbolizes visible. This kind of light remains visible for as many time-units (either one's the same as those that measured the darkness or different ones than those that measured the darkness) as there had been roses in the wastebasket. Among the kinds of light that might be seen now might be arc-light watch-light light jump-spark igniter light _Aufklarung_ lightning rays of light cold light moonlight naphtha-lamp light noontide light luminiferousness almandite light enameling-lamp light a nimbus meteor light Jack-o'-lantern light water lights jack-light light refracted light altar light Corona-cluster light magic lantern light ice-sky light clear grey light iridescence natural light infra-red light Reichsanstalt's lamplight exploding-starlight Saturn light Earthlight actinism sodium-vapor lamplight cloud light Coma-cluster light alcohol lamplight luster light of day &/or lamplight. One of these kinds of light might be seen now or some other kind of light. After a short darkness the white light goes on again & George on his white wooden chair throws the white roses into the white wastebasket until he misses. Then he does what he does again then more darkness then the kind of light pointed to by the rose on the floor then more darkness then George in a white light throwing roses & so on until he feels it beautiful to stop. 10TH LIGHT POEM: 2ND ONE FOR IRIS -- 19 JUNE - 2 JULY 1962 A useless plan proposed in acetylene light to a cheery visitor who carries a lamp that burns castanha-oil lit adding its castanha-oil light to the acetylene scene advancing ignition of the refusal of a loan despite long working hours stretching to the aurora & an exchange of possessions in winestones-oil lamplight or a need for stressing modernization &/or exploding starlight are merely petty annoyances but ether lamp light threatens an improvement of conditions despite a useless plan proposed in acetylene light & failing in ghost light. 15TH LIGHT POEM: FOR SUSAN WITLIN -- 11 AUGUST 1962 'In the middle of the road of our life' the attention advances & ignites the balance & the intuitive light alive in any baby not mere lucence of places & plants 22ND LIGHT POEM: FOR DAVID ANTIN & ELEANOR & BLAISE ANTIN -- 1 JULY 1968 Can the light of a dark lantern cause word division? Not when artificial light enforces complementary distribution. But in a vivid light an adverb may function as a call. Wd that require a kind of incandescence? Not in daylight. Wd anda-oil suffice? If the lamp were new enough. But what might be the effect of nova light? It would be a modifier. Wd it modify a word? Perhaps a noun. Wd a tantalum lamp do more? More than an ignis fatuus wd. Wd it ensure close juncture? Noonlight wd do that better. What about early light? Its lucence might provide a kind of punctuation. Better than electric light? Better than an azure exit light. But what wd make for rising terminal juncture? Only the light of noontide. Then what wd opalescent light provide? Rising terminal juncture. In what focal area? Any one that might be reached by rays of light. Even if only by those of a Berzelius lamp? Even a transition area lit by lightning. Cd a verb be made inactive by the aurora australis? If falling terminal juncture intervened. If light fell thru an iolite bluely what might it originate by analogy? Nothing in a nonlinguistic context. Not even an ignis fatuus in starlight? Not even a new verb. Is light from an electric lamp enough to do that? Not even enough for a novel noun-determiner. What about an annealing lamp? That sets my teeth on edge. What about a night light? That might. Comparatively speaking? That depends on the kind of word. Wd a tungsten lamp do better? If it cd affect articulation. That needs illucidation. Do it with a verb-phrase. Cdn't I do it with a nova? No, sir. 32ND LIGHT POEM: _IN MEMORIAM_ PAUL BLACKBURN 9 - 10 OCTOBER 1971 Let me choose the kinds of light to light the passing of my friend Paul Blackburn a poet A pale light like that of a winter dawn or twilight or phosphorescence is not enough to guide him in his passing but enough for us to see shadowily his last gaunt figure how he showed himself to us last July in Michigan when he made us think he was recovering knowing the carcinoma arrested in his esophagus had already spread to his bones How he led us on I spent so little time with him thinking he'd be with us now Amber light of regret stains my memories of our days at the poetry festival in Allendale Michigan How many times I hurried elsewhere rather than spending time with him in his room 3 doors from me I will regret it the rest of my life I must learn to live with the regret dwelling on the moments Paul & I shared in July as in years before tho amber light dim to umber & I can hardly see his brave emaciated face I see Paul standing in the umber light cast on his existence by his knowing that his death was fast approaching Lightning blasts the guilty dream & I see him reading in the little auditorium & hear him confidently reading careful of his timing anxious not to take more than his share of reading time filling our hearts with rejoicing seeing him alive doing the work he was here for seemingly among us now I for one was fooled thinking he was winning the battle so I wept that night for joy As I embraced him after he read I shook with relief & love I was so happy to hear you read again If there were a kind of black light that suddenly cd reveal to us each other's inwardness what wd I have seen that night as I embraced you with tears of joy I keep remembering the bolt of lightning that slashed the sky at twilight over the Gulf of St. Lawrence & turned an enchanted walk with Bici following Angus Willie's Brook thru mossy woods nearly to its mouth to a boot-filling scramble up thru thorn bush & spruce tangle Beatrice guided me & I was safe at the end of August on Cape Breton Island but when Jerry telephoned me of your death the lightning that destroyed the illusion you were safe led thru dreadful amber light not to friendly car light & welcoming kitchen light but to black light of absence not ultraviolet light revealing hidden colors but revelatory light that is _no_ light the unending light of the realization that no light will ever light your bodily presence again Now your poems' light is all the unending light of your presence in the living light of your voice 12:33 AM Sun 10 Oct 1971 The Bronx 36TH LIGHT POEM: _IN MEMORIAM_ BUSTER KEATON -- 4:50-6:18 A.M. SAT 1 JAN. 1972 1 As a mad scientist Buster lights a Bunsen-burner flame that starts a series of processes that eventually releases The Monster As an Undertaker Buster lights a Bunsen-burner flame that starts a series of processes that awakens a drunk who was about to be buried as a corpse As a Muscovite Buster lights a sisal wick in a sesame-seed-oil lamp that suddenly lights a mystical orgy officiated over by Rasputin As a boater Buster beats a cascade by floating out beyond its edge borne by a balloon lit by a wintry sun As an Unwilling Passenger on a Drifting Liner Buster the Millionaire & his rich Girl Friend learn to cope Alone Without Servants when forced to rely on the light of their Upper-Class Intellects As a Worker Buster arouses the Compassion of the Nation in whose light the Corporations sell themselves to their Workers As a Key Man Buster carries around with him an enormous bunch of keys lighting the way with a Keats lamp As a Beatnik Buster meditates in a Redwood forest seated where the Selenic light first falls at Moonrise As a Leaf-&-Feather Gatherer Buster Means Well but bugs everyone in the Park spearing the ladies' hats & the picnickers' salads in featureless Hollywood Light of the century's first quarter As William Butler Yeats Buster addresses an irate Irish crowd that thinks that Poetry makes Nothing Happen but lets itself be bathed by its Truthful Light As a Cannoneer Buster explodes his own ship's magazine treads water in Gunpowder Light at a safe distance & blushes in embarrassment at his Clumsiness As a Violinist Buster surpasses Paganini until Boston-Concert-Hall Light Poisons him with Love for a Proper Bostonian Maiden 2 Spirit of Buster Keaton if you survive as yourself receive Please our honor & praise you conscientious Workman Hard-working Buster Keaton when you arouse the laughter of children as you live in Projector Light Your Karmic Residue dissolves in Joyous Shouts 58TH LIGHT POEM: FOR ANNE TARDOS -- 19 MARCH 1979 I know when I've fallen in love I start to write love songs Love's actinism turns nineteens to words & thoughts in love songs as your "A" & the date made "actinism" enter this love song Also I seem to start dropping punctuation My need for punctuation lessens like some people's need for sleep My need for sleep lessens too but later I fall on my face Lack of punctuation doesn't catch up with me like lack of sleep It doesn't make me fall on my face So bright the near noon light the toy photometer twirls in the sunlight slanting in from southeast thru the southwest window the stronger the light the faster the light motor turns diamond vanes' black sides absorb white sides radiate photons See it go A "42" draws the northern lights into the song as yesterday into the Taggart Light Poem twice they were drawn as "aurora borealis" & "aurora" by "A"'s & by numbers There they seemed eery & threatening Here they seem hopeful as they seemed when last I saw them over the Gulf of St. Lawrence cold euphoric after making love wondering at swirling curtains & sudden billows lighting the sky northwest I remember their evanescent light as neutral or bluish white I remember the possibility of yellow the improbability of red not like Bearsville's rose & blood sky twenty-five years before Now these memories mingled with pictures' descriptions' project on inward skies idiosyncratic northern lights that only exist while I'm writing these lines for Anne Even the next time I read them the lights they arouse will be different Nineteen sheds a tranquil light on our love song thru your "T" Our love's tranquil light revealed by 19 & by T is turned by 15 to an aureole tipping an "A" The "A" becomes your face The aureole grows Reducence from my face glows back on yours A telephone bell can deflect & dissipate my light The deflected light is lost to poem & person I turn my telephone off these days to help ordinary light breed poems The sun is so bright on my desk now except on the typewriter keys that there's no need for the light of the student lamp placed to shine on the paper But now five hours later the lamp's the only light & I begin the poem's "astrological" section II Acetylene light may be what Virgo needs to see the "pattern except that for him this is something" he will only acknowledge if it can be seen in natural light Can we gain new light from astrology that ubiquitous superstition You Sagittarius Woman Me Virgo Man What "can happen between them is a" mazing a dizzying a stupefying or dazing a crazing a great perplexing bewildering amazing forming a maze of something or making it intricate being bewildered wandering as in a maze What has happened between them is amazing What is happening between us is amazing more intense & vivid than electric arc light tremendous light brighter than acetylene light friendly as reading lamp light "But a young Sagit- tarian need have no qualms about taking on a man considerably her senior if he is a "Virgo" Rand's random digits underline our case in this lovely silly optimistic sentence We've been living I think in a kind of drowning light "He reaches the age of forty At anything less than that age he is not even a possible for a Sagittarius" Me Virgo Man You Sagittarius Woman Orgone radiation flimmers between us our curious safety light "What can happen between them is superb Something he has spent half his life dreaming about At last it has come true" O ingratiating astrological light may you never prove false even to one who has often decried you as no light but superstitious darkness natural light would dispel or the electric arc light of empirical science The way I'm writing this poem's like using trichromatic artificial radiance not as decorative light in place of ordinary solar radiation as you photographers do Before I was forty "not even a possible for a Sagittarius" now I'm sixteen over the line & safe with you "Her but a young Sagittarian need have" none "qualms" have no basis Are we dreaming Is this Virgo Man still dreaming as "he has spent half his life" they say "dreaming" "Sagittarian & Virgo" "The pattern is perfect" The poem is over 19-20 March 1979 New York ***************************************************************** from 22 LIGHT POEMS, Black Sparrow Press Copyright (C) 1968 by Jackson Mac Low and REPRESENTATIVE WORKS, Roof Books Copyright (C) 1986 by Jackson Mac Low