George Quasha: from “Speaking Animate” (preverbs) with a note on the poetics of preverbs

 

To unmask is to go silent. 
Language makes no promise to communicate.
 

Nowshe’sreadytodrawerosfromforeignbodies. 
Itstartsbyfocusingonthesoundsbeyondhearing,stillfelt.
 

BysheImeanwhospeakinganimateconfigures. 
Thisisthetimeofalternativeobscuritiestoseethrough.
 

Through thoroughly, as a word weighs.
 

 

Ineverletgoofherhandinmyotherworld.
 

TheysayancientIrishsawserpentswheretherearen’tany. 
IdescendfromtheretoherewhereIseewhatIsayeven 
              unsounding.
 

Fallingapartissyntactic. 
Writingattheedgeofcollapseissurrender.
 

             through.
 

A sacred grove takes refuge in the voice.
 

Gnoaxialpoetics,forwantofrightnaming,findspulsein               
              grammaticaldrift.
 

Nowtodowsethepoeticsofthepoemtocome. 
Weholdtheseprinciplestobeselfevident—inordertobeself 
              evidence.
 

Configurationisparthenogenetic. 
We’retalkingfatehere. 
Highflyingbiology.Biosmatinglogos. 
Flowering,percipientlyimaginarilyauto-eroticallyspeaking. 
Itseesandknowswhatit’sdoingnotamomentbefore.
 

Ourgroupgivesthedreamtime. 
Adate’schargebelongsathearttoanytime.
 

Learnfromthedogtodigupoldshame,thenburyitwhereyou 
              wantit. 
Ifyoufindaguy’spersonalitybesuretosenditback.
 

Meet you where we know each other.
 

Alsonoteparadisalmemesatthetipoftheslip.
 

What am I hearing with these other ears?
 

 

 

If a proverb is a statement of wisdom in a single verbal gesture, a preverbis a statement in wisdom-mode that due to alinguistic open middlenever arrives at wisdom as such but suspends reading in oscillatory mindful outcomes. Preverbs do not accumulate or progress but continuously return to zero point and are often syntactically variable; however, they do tend to swarm.

Speaking Animate (preverbs) is a poem series that I call a preverbs-complex. "Preverb," obviously a twist on proverb(related originally to Blake's "Proverbs of Hell" in Marriage of Heaven and Hell), refers to a single line, which is the basic formal unit in the work, limited by the line-length of a Word doc. "Preverbs" refers to the work in general but also to a "complex." A complex is an arrangement of lines in a larger unit: first, a numbered unit, like those here, in the given sequence, limited by the length of the page in a Word doc (double-spaced in my working but not here) and which has a kind of title--a name-like verbal unit at page-top after the number. This "title," however, is not a true title in that it does not necessarily relate specifically to the content of the page-complex; rather, it's a parallel language act like the single preverb or the page-complex that bears upon what follows in various ways. Second, preverbs may indicate a preverbs-complex as the assembly of page-length poems, in this case the sequence of 24 numbered units comprising Speaking Animate,from which you have this selection. Accordingly I can say "a preverbs" and mean either the page-unit or (most often) the larger sequence (preverbs-complex). Seven of these preverbs-complexes comprise a book; Speaking Animatebelongs to the unpublished book of 7 preverbs-complexes called Glossodelia Attract (preverbs). This is the 8th book of preverbs to date, each book consisting of 7 preverbs-complexes of a variable number of pages. 8 books = 56 preverbs complexes = something like 500+ pages. Only one book has been published to date: Verbal Paradise (preverbs) (Zasterle, 2012), but I'm also publishing preverbs-complexes as short books of which the first is Scorned Beauty Comes Up From Behind (preverbs)(Between Editions, 2012). Another is forthcoming.

 

Speaking Animate (preverbs) is dedicated to Robert Kelly.