Issue 42 - Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art

unrevealed, some so stable that they are caught in acts of persistent
coherent revelation. Where structure forms on the LFP page
is a stabilizing area (page refers to the primary residence [home
base] of a poem or any of its components at any specified
mOInent and is not liInited to paper - a poem is able to travel,
even if it doesn't [seem to]). Where structure decays on the LFP
page is a destabilizing area fertile for reformation. Stanzas can
begin out of stabilizing gestures, and may progress in stability or
may deteriorate, warp, or transform as sOInething from the surrounding
flux (the substance out of which structure forms, the
ingredient pool) interacts with the stabilizing (or decaying)
structure. It Inay not be obvious whether a perceptible structure
is stabilizing or decaying as a similar fonn may occur in either
structural state. Structure may attempt to take shape in multiple
locations (rooms) of the house of the poem, and any number of
these attempts Inay take on enough structure to become perceptible
in part or whole, perhaps causing competing zones of influence
which may merge into one structure or may lead to one or
more quick or gradual demises. Or the stability of the poem's
structure may be so intense that it delays the stabilizing (of other
locations perhaps for so long, the delay mimics prevention), so
that nothing else (at that time) is visible.
A poem as print object documents the dynamic activity that
caused the poeIn to take on perceptible structure, which, like all
structure, is subject to further change, such as revision of a print
object and interpretations of a print object each time it is encountered.
The complete dynamic signature of a poem includes all
subsystems of the components of a poem (the published form a
magnification of one of the branches in the complete dynamic signature)
which include all drafts, all dead ends, all revisions and
interpretations (by writer and experiencers of the poem), all contributing
thoughts, forming a kind of evolutionary tree of the
poeIn, each branch, when examined closely (magnified, that is, or
considered on some intensified scale), full of other branches of
thought and connection. It is through the (so far) ceaseless movement
(transformation perceived and actual) of dynan1ic systems
that all becomes linked into one fabric of reality that is so faceted,
the saIne territory can reveal something different each time the
lens is shifted or changed. Depth in LFP becomes a way to refer
to that which is unexplored, for once encountered, that which is
encountered becomes the surface of that encounter. The surface is
hardly superficial but is where interactions between boundaries
occur. Surface after surface is scratched, layer after layer is peeled
back, and then there's that rosy resemblance. That elm.
Because poetry is a dynamic system, poems may be understood
as failed efforts to capture flux, as attempts to cause awareness
of something that may no longer exist (in that exact form)
by the time a poem is experienced (even during the writing of
the first line). LFP approaches desired capture of a poem as chase
only, so expects to capture only partialities of partialities. The
totality in which all apparently takes place can't easily (if at all)
be seen as totality from within it. The most that might be possible
is exquisite failure, and most poems fall short of that elm of
failure, some compellingly. II
The Culture of Reena and the Bear
Before the Bear: derived from a theory of gravy
(The neckline and hem of Reena's gown
were trimmed with real hummingbirds
[just a few tiny pins in the outspread wings
- she could feel the racing unison
that the tiny hearts fell into] and actual orchids.
The beak closest to it tried to extract nectar
from the small cleft - the suprasternal notch ­
at the bottom of her perfumed throat)
(Bees drew near; live jewels from the garden.)
She still had her eyes and others too
on a tray: unpitted olives
coated with a thin layer of meringue
as vitreous humor substitute
Breakfast Before the Bear: ocular effects