So that I could mark it, the continuance of
quality could in some way be that, the timeof accord. For us, as beneath the falling water
we draw breath,
look at the sky.
Talking to the man hitching a lift back
from the hospital, I was incautious in sympathy:
will she be back soon I was wishing to
encourage his will to suppose. I can hardly
expect her back he said and the water
fell again, there was this sheet, as the time
lag yawned, and quality
became the name you have,
like some anthem to the absent forces of nature.
Ethnic loyalty, breathe as you like we in fact
draw it out differently, our breath is gas
in the mind. That awful image of choking.
The present American government has
challenged the latent ecumenicism in
every honest and inquiring heart, to
recoil into denial of both qualities.
At this, it is said to have succeed-
ed; but how hollowly, how transitor-
ily does that intimidating edict a-
chieve our hearing, given the dial-
ect of the voices which give this
verdict. It is not of the languages
of our continent -- French, Swahili,
Sioux, Spanish, Dutch, German, Gael-
ic, Italian -- but of our illiterate
merchants of obliteration as revenge.
We do not risk choking on the breath
of our descent, but on its aliena-
tion from others who would comprise
ourselves.
J.H. Prynne
The White Stones
Concerning Quality, Again
first verse
New York Review Books, 2016©
Carlo Scarpa
Olivetti
Venice
Ivan Terestchenko
Beach fire
No comments:
Post a Comment