either an ode

1

*

either an ode or else an iteration,

stop me, listen to me, or stop: position

then determines which of us two will divvy

out the appearance,

*

sequentially abstracted. how much clearer

is the eye that you focus on me with, then,

than your terms that limpidly speak, deciding:

send us this image

*

straight to the eyes! who's tracked by what goes on here

in the lee of this forehead, right? the thought will

explicate us, they will occur for sure, what

words do when any

*

gesture suffices. o caress my side in

lieu of following useless flights of mind at

tentively, what whets our arousal makes us

wait for the pauses

*

o and the beauty of the shapes will lift us

up, i guess, and we'll settle on the portions

to determine which takes on what assignment,

rolling and playing

*

serious. crazy lying quilts will tell us

rules will follow beheaded thoughts and thickly

calming difficulties in thinking, vaguely

senses us falling

*

short of objection. sentences that question

unconditionally, as time goes by, us

waking with the dead, and the stance is, we will

take it from here, dude.

*

*

*

2

*

do you want to catch on really? give me a theme!

mathematic'ly drawn, proport'nally construed

words break e'en in my hands,

values sound like we're sinking fast.

*

am i 'magining this? follow the scheme, my dear!

what flows into the lines must through the cracks escape

distance breaks any dam and

looks uncertainly for a fix.

*

children's laughter, it sets words like a pebble, like

someone's stick figures. oh heck, what a donkey i

am out looking for places

where in silence the thistles bloom.

*

am i reckoning that what shoots ahead in spring

now lies buried in roots? what? does it multiply

by itself? why such bullshit

only happens when sparrows think.

*

under the difference, everyone's telling me,

lies in hiding the same thing that comprises them,

sums ring true just so long as

no one counts them together. thus

*

they're symbolic'ly joined. metamorphosis-like

sentence, axiom change into extremely odd

conversations: set forth then

from the very first principles,

*

exposition, they chirp, theme and development,

enigmatic, hermetic, but don't overstep

lines! the denominator

tallies scores for the numerate.

*

*

*

3

*

then nothing more will test, have we gone to far

into the woods, midway, and will concentrate

the trespasses that touched it and will

clear up the breaks in the bark at last

*

the lists of names, numeric relationships

that finite fractions rat'nally generate

to fill what has been missing from the

sheen of the whole, and is festering

*

in circles as if wittingly they would form

something like blinds. no longer can it be found

out there – whom had it been expecting? -

others, continue to share in me

*

the hope that something will correspond to how

they move in numbers freely, and leave behind

the rules of who should switch with whom, for

heaven and hell are a children's game.

*

translated from German by Ann Cotten

an abc of positions

an abc of positions

(epigrams)

1.

when he fessed up his stand, she swallowed him,

when it burst, she owned it up to stand for him.

2.

members she arranges to fit in, determined by gender,

make up their mind, step by step, on what gives, what takes,

grasp so well the heat, she has remembered.

3.

with a gush parts shoot into the form of the whole,

young shoots spread in numbers and in lines.

4.

a natural flow until up against an artificial dam,

that, which digs its own bed, reproduces in the silt.

5.

curved as the course may be, as flux gets under way,

dashing through this cane, lust is an upright moment.

6.

this very ear, it oftentimes is closed,

when her influence, in mid-flight, wilts and fades.

7.

a song, a mouth, the close circling motion of lips,

that, which waits, makes way, has nothing to prove.

8.

a song, how hard, swelling up, thresholds overcome,

chapped wounds, cracking, swelling membership.

9.

down this crevice waves break into parts

under the rule of slips of tongue erected.

10.

Winded up be her to ride the waves,

undressed he has set out to show her up,

she has, prior to melting, sponged on him.

11.

with a crooked crook, there’s no precaution she must take,

when his hat is high, though, she begs even his rage and fury.

12.

heavy though their clothes may be, naked can be done,

what habit is likely to change through understanding.

13.

transformation beheads the body with this axe,

a dear thing to him, it reaches for the other side.

14.

a movement, how smooth a stimulus fits into being pointed out,

keep on with it, until stepping in will capture distances.

15.

barely here, you are gone, I haven’t walked it yet,

haven’t quenched the call of desire for you.

16.

how he feels the swelling, cheeks tender to offer,

when bangs whistle, teeth sink into the back of a neck.

17.

immune against the power to wield words

by mouth, unable to please what keeps in step.

18.

when she comes out from below, there’s his agreement to be mounted,

with him marking what’s what from behind, she scales up his beat and rub.

19.

when two cross their paths by way of just two holes,

on all fours attraction unfolds, fans out.

20.

to stand face to face, to hand, and blow,

what shoots out wildly, will softly let off with a thrust.

21.

in the middles that the laying head will claim,

the tongue comes up to that, which lips can hold.

22.

how they swing and sway and bob around inside a moment,

put in a nutshell that turns on its side, what separates.

23.

how great a leap will come of one in happiness,

other items, in one sentence, remain on their own.

24.

penetrating, a discharge that engenders evidence of him

enclosed, making it, the juice, when she bends to break.

25.

dying out, what has slipped in as a token

of his crush on her, she waits for his retreat.

26.

when up to them, how it rushes its own way,

aiming at positions, what has set itself to lines.

translated from German by Matthias Goldmann

silence, a shining

– uu – u – u – u – u

– u – uu – u – u – u

– u – u – uu – u – u

– uu – u

silence, a shining in a quiet look lies,

holding out, given up in these ideas,

how without the rhythm of words more gently

could it remind you

actions thought out dictate that viewing them should

act and give, waiting for the indications

towards intimate and familiar shaping,

until they give up,

make a confession, longing to be lucid,

how always holding back has the effect of

misinterpreting this for that, still closer

to words, accuse them,

they fix the structure to improve themselves and

do not give deeper insight, where they spring from,

forgetting, locked out and having offended,

what they break up on.

how it lives on, frothing up experience,

cresting its knowing, the feeling to crack up,

reflecting the way for lips and how they break,

and what they float on .

to words, accuse them of turning, losing their way,

drawn to signs in the distance, stearing through the

sea of the rough and rowdy elements they

are sure to drown in.

giving them up, when they shape new horizons,

smiling in broken tracks, and then you head off

the intent to wreck those around which swirls the

returning, ending.

could the ancestors, those anticipated,

breathe all life into outlooks that trail away,

until out of remains the signs occur to

give us a quiet look.

translated from German by Niall Brooks & Benedikt Ledebur