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Overview
Real events, occurring in real time, are transformed in the act of writing them as perceived rather than interpreted. Phrases repeat, conjoin, break apart, and return in this challenging and innovative work, as Scalapino moves toward a "new time" wherein there is no 'inner' — one's illusion that is "the adamant social being / is inner" and "the body is a new form."
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780819563569 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Wesleyan University Press |
| Publication date: | 05/03/1999 |
| Series: | Wesleyan Poetry Series |
| Edition description: | New Edition |
| Pages: | 100 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.25(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
New Time
there's still on the rim of night (having been in it) which is (in night) there as his horizontal lying rest in snow — breathing in breath 'at' the light day
overwhelming the mark being 'by' his 'action' — there — only. one's — only breathing in breath — not night or day.
past cold, the man kneeling in snow — outside, one — which is horizontal waiting — in 'falling snow' overwhelming of the mark, the other being in it — only. as being the only overwhelming of rim.
that he's — 'running' — by being forward 'lying' which is waiting (outside): 'by' — on the ground in rim of snow dropping on sky and floor only.
* * *
him — having an — action — snowing falling itself as the only overwhelming the rim — flowing on it:
night's dropping — 'there:' as itself overrunning horizontal lying resting itself. his (this other person's) overrunning is at rim — only — not 'fighting' as: freezing snowing in it — only.
* * *
structure in reverse is the black sky — inside
defining (as, one) — blue destroying — not — gap — where is figures — is dawn
being the reduction of the sky by (one's) structure not seen after merely but in being after only.
* * *
interpretative — blue destroying — itself — their — structure in being after only
'it's itself interpreting' — reordering only — as it
* * *
the pressure is violent cumulation of series, in earlier youth (now, which isn't it) — isn't it, is caused by it (?) (series)
at that present
rain: falling in sheets at the time. sitting floating (not in it) (fictive there while occurring)
* * *
they think (of it, this) knowledge is of one — inner. only. woman carried can see inner. this is some don't hate everyone. this is being. people need the thought of comfort. there's no comfort.
the physical body has comfort
sometimes
* * *
(enervated)
whereas this doesn't
enervated — extended not itself the physical body has comfort — this is inner
people don't hate everyone is to the physical body's inner
* * *
peace has been cumulative there, in the cubicles in light, outside of which is the river through the meadows.
they're clear. (haven't been in war for some time.)
* * *
cubicles, of only city, from high up where people live — separated by a river with a vast meadow on either side, people fishing at a far distance on it — unknown how one makes a living or anything, as there are no connections, while there are companies — people 'communicate' only to people
the physical body is only on that of cubicles
* * *
(the neck cut out — and being the earlier life — is the inner.) fighting. made up. yet the sole movement is fighting from one throughout. at present.
others, one can't stand the existence — and fight to have existence.
there's no relation, of one to being and the inner —
* * *
The movement in the frame (of one's) throughout years, in youth — not imposed, so it's sole — yet accumulation as that even, and so heavily weighed — have no images
mud, the mind in heavy cumulated series — so 'mud' is a relief to have in 'the neck being taken out' to make the earlier start/ 'earlier life', while at this time (later) — and to have only the relation to real as only death of one's frame — moves
* * *
pressure that's on rim of surface running over it — almost crying — as (at) have no images
the 'mud' as a 'favorable' near clear in the cumulated weight — that's not in one's frame in movement (that's) in youth, rather than now, but caused by it or is it — so that its relation to seeing real (death of frame as law) is clear pressure
clear pressure (only 'having' to — and so without images, though 'mud' as the mind is one) as a law
* * *
not (at) one's frame, or at existing, while (though) pressure is in it, is it (the physical frame) only
* * *
there's nothing outside — man kneeling horizontal lying in snowing outside — for oneself kneeling in intense action. he's only overflowing on rim as sky not snowing
where sky's snowing overflowing
* * *
bow encrusted trees — not snowing — man's horizontal lying while waiting, cold — (for oneself kneeling) — is sky being split, as: 'not' snowing his is overflowing rim of sky — in undercutting snowing sky
itself is overflowing — his is being 'inside'
* * *
it's enervating to 'unmake' sole connections apparently formed in one's (cubicles) by having to be in an other ground of them only — as one (only)
the physical body has nothing to do with this
* * *
interpretative is the 'fixing', and as such distortion of phenomenal activity (per se, not simply fixing the view of actions)
an 'outside' outwardly-articulating 'social' interpretation which qualitatively changes the object of its consideration — as does the inner 'warp', which warps in order to see its own reverberation — is there
* * *
he's/someone's not interested in anything, a corpse he doesn't die — he just lay on himself — while living (?) so there's not light life
* * *
a man having me over, a woman who's there whom he considers to have higher rank (than 'mine'), which conception flatters him
as a pair substantiating his social order which is arbitrary
* * *
not abandonment
The rib cage floating in the shock occurs later, not chronologically — so that concentrating one at first chooses a moon bounding floating — in sheets of pouring rain, as that occurs. A man clothed in black in the black, sneaking as feet placed side-by-side, like a big fox carrying a stick that floats out horizontal on his shoulder (dragged behind) with his wild eyeballs seen — our (my) wild eyeballs catch in the black
We're running outside tearing after him like bats on the boards a line — in bare feet by torrents of pouring snow in the sky — rather than the moon as chosen bounding. As one's sole movement's
* * *
silk black iris that's chest/thorax lifted off (set down; weighing) it doesn't come from them — is lifted off breathing, outside of one — that is, one — weighed: not in the air, it is in the air thorax black silk iris not image, breathing — in the air, yet weighed — weighed is it being lifted off (the frame weighed), it in the air
black of night isn't dependent
* * *
they appear — there
recurring
* * *
having to be ground under, socially — for nothing — hit on, as insignificant yet not to ridicule — being so, by them, when a woman say is carried (by them) never ridiculed so it is not of one —
people don't hate everyone. some while participating never did.
the physical body didn't ever
* * *
the place is always. what's coming is people attacking as sustaining their being in existence.
the one black oar parting the blue in fact — it is conditional on spring. I am.
* * *
bud — outside — but which is fully open — because outside of one as occurring lightly
a 'burst' that's from one being returned to oneself — after one being away (outside). the outside is one's awareness
* * *
The writing is not narrative 'telling' the story or stories of events. Rather, it is movements, a movement that was a 'real' event where all is fictional as phenomena. So history is scrutinized by phenomena, observed as minute, particular — and thus 'fictive' as haphazard moving.
Biography that is not 'completed/whole' 'a life', poems, fictions, not-illustrating, are not an early form, undeveloped narrative, but as mere movements are subject to scrutiny by phenomena, are 'the life's' construction per se.
The motions of a small poem, of a sole event, of whatever nature — social repression, yet as movement (as written) — are not events compared to each other or 'event'ually showing a whole construction — of themselves (even) — not imposed, but sole movements' 'fictive'
* * *
one thinks — (young) — living to endure poverty. starving people. because of that being the physical body, in fact.
there's no poverty of the physical frame of anyone.
* * *
so if there's any there's no basis (dying)
* * *
Why would they dismiss it because it's not the same?
It exists because it's not the same
* * *
running with bare feet, the snow falling, after the man clothed in black in the black sky — is the neck cut out
in their (other's) existence — one's neck cut out blossoms blossomed. in time.
* * *
'Undermining' this, by seeing its appearance — places the individual doing so in the light of aberration (viewed by others, but also increasingly in the act of aberration by seeing (its) appearance) which may be regarded by a 'viewer' — as merely 'personal', not theoretical (which, as interpretive, assessment, is at that moment 'authority' itself)
if there's no overriding structure, "There is no character-simulacrum for it to reside in."
* * *
economic poverty (not being special) of them, one, is that being the physical body, per se. throughout.
which isn't inner.
* * *
from the waist — so that, turned the bulb that's oneself (thorax) — only — then — doesn't have any existence — turned (wherever one turns)
as conception — at waist of magnolia buds that exist in the day really
sewing the black silk irises — not when one turned at waist
sewing them, they have no shape literally except being that — from one's hand (being, in the air)
the irises only had existence in the black, before dawn, in fact
a man doesn't want me to become quiet again — go into ocean not weighed of before fighting — ever
formation of that of narrowed to no form in one — of black voluptuous lip — outside — voluptuous lips that (aren't) on black dawn, or before it when it's black.
There was no intention — being done — with their existing.
not weighed before fighting which is the black, weighed, air — not the lips which have no weight — isn't following
if one's not contending ... so the inner isn't contending either ...?
* * *
(at black dawn, in fact) — an ocean of black irises hanging in darkness of where one sits — so was sewing them; up, at 3:00 a.m., in silence, sewing — sew silk black irises that are that, the folds
we don't have words. the silk black iris (formation, later, but then — outside) of my chest/thorax lifted off one's haunches — is not the conception of the silk black iris (though was it, in lifting off), itself
that it's formed first. I'd have to not want it in writing. to give up living
* * *
if we're going to have to do this, it can't be done.
stand the existence. this functions as a joke.
in the midst of the earlier life — young — one thought (as resisting) of dying — because of death of frame as law.
* * *
there's no time to oneself is the dawn occurring — its rim
it has no rim
pressure so that the mind comes in to the social unit
it isn't done by people, there's no time to oneself (it's done by people only) — the night, the dawn, there
the constructed unit being no time to oneself — standing being completely alone ('standing,' as 'walking')
* * *
flowering trees float the sky — packed luminous sky of ocean (a sky that is an ocean)
the group, not having time for oneself, opens that one floated sky
sleep-deprived one
pressure so that the mind comes in to the social unit — only the flowering trees, that have nothing but swimming on sky
* * *
we can not speak as to concentrate on the constructed unit — nor sleep much and that 'causes' (?) an actual harmony, serial or it's there after a while, not based on the similarities of the people
the night is exhaustion rains
luminous night while running to the rise
that's dawn is when running to the rise, later the rise is the floating people
* * *
their existence. ones by being in existence (first).
a pair on the corpse (later).
in spring.
war weighs heavily on society
* * *
notion that it's possible to insert this later as 'chronology later' — is in the black thorax lifted off breathing — sewing the irises, later
not while sewing them, but in the silk black thorax lifted off later (iris) — as the physical body — then — occurs only
* * *
The small jobs don't break down the night (and) without touching it — inside, we don't see dawn, where making sounds — (saying sounds as a social unit is making the floating rise) — is being awake (only)
it's not different from the dawn occurring, seen after (after it occurs — so it's past) there's not time to oneself is the dawn occurring — its rim
it has no rim
* * *
(birds not on the land or mirrorless water)
flying not on the land or light lake — only
live as they is the exhaustion in the small jobs — which occurred
* * *
the body's so tired it doesn't make pictures of the city — the river running through it
'standing' is 'walking'
the body's flattened to be one, sensing holding it together (that is floats the sky) separating from the city
the picture-making that's sites in the mind comes from the city just making those sites then — not one
that's one dies in being young so there's just life for one as the physical body
* * *
the small jobs make the rise floating — of people — having no time to oneself
the city with the river dividing it, bridges crossing it — is outside the form (not called up) by the form of the unit people floating on rise withdrawn while in the city — it floats the packed bright sky
* * *
sleep-deprived one
fell on the mat, dreaming of being in a typhoon spray walking up a hill to school, not wanting to go back to being in school, as young when not, in a few moments of sleep — then struggling up (awake)
in a few moments of sleep, one time, dreaming struggling to rise from sleep which one did pinned in delusions, one's sister describes these delusions she's had — as one's — being ordinary from 'drugs' submerged that's in the dream
is the mind collapsing into the sky? — evening (voluminous) on the city with the river running through it (the river can't be seen) — later
man is in fact 'scented' to have smoked cigarettes, others saying not to mention it, dreamed immediately next to it that it is then known and one other had corroborated it (she apologetically to him, who's revealed to have smoked)
one didn't know if the dream was real, or there'd been a dream — later — noticing
dream is later remembered, of man beginning to read a 'story' he says is written by myself (which isn't, implying making fun of me as it is intricate social fabric?) unfolding then 'as if' about another known man who has, outside the dream, betrayed and abandoned his wife — when, as the man is reading, known woman of same 'social which is physical appearance' as the wife, erupts from watchers, unfolding as powdery dusk muscle one fork of which has a penis, the thick forks float open with two heads so that it's seen in her violent 'heckling' that the man reading and the 'stand-in' of the wife are doing this together as public acknowledgment of cruelty being kindness to this wife's suffering — it is the social unit
in the setting where revelation of one's suffering is not healed as social
people don't hate everyone
* * *
sleep is to compress also rather than to release there's no release
is the mind (whether in sleep or out) collapsing into the sky (within) — there's no within
* * *
not struggling is not doing the small jobs one was swept in exhaustion — wave is the physical body ('transformed' by the exhaustion) — not them — people
* * *
the back holding the thorax is injured the ocean of the irises 'was' simply that, the ocean of irises
if it 'was' it's conception, yet lifted-off thorax that's free
(I'm 'speaking' really)
* * *
there is no work — relation to one or to the brown night — as 'this is wild'
dim brown night of city in which are embroiled clusters dependent on taxis that won't take one — in vast spaces based there on black marketing, no goods or place, no resting
so that exhaustion in the small jobs the reverse that is flattening of one
is not inner — city on dim brown
* * *
being in 'tradition' is not being a corpse (here), Kyoto with the river running through it
viewing is (in) the present — brown night that's dawn (it has no rim) — running to the rise of people (they are the rise —
who're running then viewing later)
* * *
— from birth — opposes — interiorily? no
swimming in heavy flood (wave) away —
* * *
their going into houses killing is the fact — the fact is delicate — in existence even
* * *
one sees 'this is wild' Moscow the social unit coming as the line of disintegration as an exact seeing
the small person (there is no effort, which had been voluptuous — is — where it exists)
* * *
if the nature of this is struggling wall of birds flying that (aren't) on their own. if we're not going to do this with people there isn't any existence.
I'm relieved by the wall of birds. one is (in fact) struggling and not with one's/their existence — it is a fact. this is a light relief.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "New Time"
by .
Copyright © 1999 Leslie Scalapino.
Excerpted by permission of Wesleyan University Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
What People are Saying About This
“Great writers-Blake, Whitman, Dickenson, Joyce, Stein, Zukofsky, Ginsberg, Keruac, even Pound-re-envision the present. Literally, the present tense. In our time, New Time, it is Leslie Scalapino who most fully articulates the constantly changing meaning(s) of now. This crystalline epic may be Scalapino’s most ‘accessible’ book yet, but its surfaces perpetually peel back to reveal a further that could never have existed before, nor in any other way. ‘This is eternity,’ Olson once wrote. You bet.”
"I find the whole work to be a deeply engaging preoccupation with, and articulation of, what life might be said, factually, to be. But not as a defined subject, nor even a defining one –– but as one being one. That is an heroic undertaking, or rather, place in which to work/write/live. Its formal authority is as brilliant as any I know." —Robert Creeley
"Great writers-Blake, Whitman, Dickenson, Joyce, Stein, Zukofsky, Ginsberg, Keruac, even Pound-re-envision the present. Literally, the present tense. In our time, New Time, it is Leslie Scalapino who most fully articulates the constantly changing meaning(s) of now. This crystalline epic may be Scalapino's most 'accessible' book yet, but its surfaces perpetually peel back to reveal a further that could never have existed before, nor in any other way. 'This is eternity,' Olson once wrote. You bet."—Ron Silliman
"I find the whole work to be a deeply engaging preoccupation with, and articulation of, what life might be said, factually, to be. But not as a defined subject, nor even a defining one -- but as one being one. That is an heroic undertaking, or rather, place in which to work/write/live. Its formal authority is as brilliant as any I know."