A Wheel of Changes
After Bacharach's "A Poem for the Sefirot as a Wheel of Light"
The Image
Take it: splines of lettering
light upon light.
Bacharach saw it as a wheel, orbit
around dark ring,
ten spokes, seraphs:
Hebrew lettering, ten tenterhooks
promising: sefirot
synonym for names,
sapphires, crowns, intangible
goodnesses: tsimtsum
contraction, lateral
obliques of limbs configured,
chariot wheels within wheels,
trails: Bereshith
beginnings, the absent
dark star: Ein-Sof
a residue of endlessness
spun fine.
The Rim
Look hard and catch its contrails
in the night. Perhaps in love or "orbit,"
the eyes turn. The lake ripples
up, illusive. Look,
boats outside my window tacking
into dock, harbor lights
deepening,
look, "world," you pristine
surfaces in movement–
you were.
Crown
Meaninglessness gathers in the eye.
"Light from light.
Extreme light."
The em quad of the lie is the width of two zeros
light times light.
The literal thickness of its stroke.
Wisdom
Grandmother is dead.
I mourn her not.
Grandfather is dead.
I mourn his not.
Sister is deadened for
twenty four years
(Talk to me, for God’s
sake say something.)
in the whiteness of uniforms:
"splendor from splendor
hidden light."
Understanding
"Sparkle from sparkle
sparkling light." The nuts
on the table wobble. Here,
the shine of cleanliness
weighs down assorted papers.
I lift fingertips in
roseate, rank
desire. Black
dust settles,
pathos ivy
points curled shoots.
Here, I know:
a small ring of salt
below the grinder.
Greatness
What we give up we control:
"pure light.
Splendor from splendor."
Goodbye, cruel word.
Power
Take light from language.
Grind it.
Take light from chrome.
Bottle it.
Take light from text.
Skin it.
Take light from utterance.
Scream it.
Take light from vowels,
Suck it.
Take light from words.
Purify it.
"Light from splendor
of light pure."
Beauty
"Sparkle from light
light shining"
could.
Victory
"Light from sparkle
light, refined."
Shells of nuts wobble
on the table, O’s of sex
still in the sheets.
Yesterday, the window
washer cracked a pane.
The small, still voices
of acension wait for
their chance
below unopened
mail.
Majesty
"Splendor from sparkle
light bright," making things
from light. Out of sight,
making things with Lite Brite.
Memories hiss. Bars and tones
hum. The resolution
duller than its picture,
listlessness from drivel,
stupidity/economy riding
on frequencies below light:
the late show. Good morning,
drool world. Hello.
Foundation
"Sparkle from splendor:"
explosion/implosion,
time for change."Purer
light" is available
for a short time only....
"pure"
(cast away your burdens, slave
burn your people's story)
"pure"
Kingdom:
"Most precious." The cracked
pane creaks. Of course it’s
not most precious light is
shining. Goodbye
Omar and Amir,
teenage friendship from scarab beetle
Goodbye piano player Julia
and car library
Goodbye dreaded Sabbaths,
and legend of David dying,
Goodbye smashed nuts on the table
and heart-shaped ivy growing,
Goodbye refracted harbor lights
your slush-dulled winter coming
Goodbye seraphed wheel
and rim and splines.
My voice rides the changes
in the ring of blackness
ten phrases
in the song of Bacharach:
light from light
wheel from wheel.
Hello "most precious precious
shining light"
Hello most majestic majestic
shining light
you flame into splendor
you "is."
"A Wheel of Changes" appeared in the 1991 issue of Private Arts.
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