The Theory of the Multiverse
a portal through which everything
the electorate is said to
be concerned with inflation, not
the first few moments after
the big bang, but just
high gas prices, kitchen table
sorts of concerns but not
kitchen table poly, this kind
of concern is strictly monogamous –
but without inflation, the theory
of the multiverse couldn’t exist
and we wouldn’t know who’s
“connecting to audio,” the words
over a small thumbnail during
Steve Benson’s Zoom reading today,
the rest of the participants
now reduced to our names,
white words on black backgrounds,
the balletics of the ozone …
I always liked Benson’s writing
because it made me laugh
and did again today next
in the Grand Hotel series
Barry Watten whom I knew
a little later early eighties
in San Francisco another universe
come back to this moment
to where we always are
what is language poetry 2024
and what is its relation
to the poetry of presence?
back then I found them
snobbish too full of themselves
Alice Notley words aren’t language
and discourse of course is
completely out of the question
I’m trying to explain presentism
this moment not yet imagined
but it’s not really possible
to have “present” without “past”
thought alone gets us nowhere
block the movement of capital?
good luck with that one
we’re way beyond politics now
and the present space-time
does not admit those coordinates
the present has no brand
not a place of recline
the being in a position
that’s where they get you
“I’m into pain, degradation, humiliation
but let’s meet IRL first”
dating sites kitchen table poly
like confessional poetry the bad
old times Cal and Sylvia
as if we’re not now
in an age of dis-association
the words on the screen
or page not at all
signifying what’s going on which
can get a little confusing
what happened to the referent
a particle can be anywhere
and everywhere at once and
a cat can be alive
and dead until it’s observed
I live uptown I live
downtown I live all around
say goodbye to the mythopoeic
no more receiving holy orders
just remember to pay attention
spooky action at a distance
so is there no difference
between here and there cause
and effect inside and outside
even back then and now?
nitrous oxide at the dentist
first time in thirty years
“Rocketman … burning out his fuse
up here alone” classic rock
on the headphones more painful
than the needle next time
jazz or blues or silence
the Scarlet Witch plays sitar
in her universe George Harrison
a lot to answer for
I preferred his “be thankful
I don’t take it all”
and his “advice for those
who die declare the pennies
on your eyes” the present
has no brand “space-time
could bend, expand, rip, quiver,
and disappear into those bottomless
pits of nothingness … black holes”
Dennis Overbye in Times Science
can’t find the dream poem
I had intended to read
FBI raid Mar-a-Lago
August 8 also Nixon’s resignation
it’s time for a footnote
Every year on August 8,
an astrological event called the
Lion’s Gate Portal is opened
Sirius rises over the Nile
this centuries old celestial occurrence
Sirius combines Mars and Jupiter
the star’s heliacal rising associated
with the Nile’s annual flooding
onset of a new year
a good opportunity for manifestation”
good time for a poem
come back to this moment
I saw the figure five
in gold a poem by
Williams a painting by Hartley
but in a different universe
this poem has different numbers
of words for each line
and in another is measured
musical perfect rhyme and meter
“each universe would emerge with
its own laws of physics,
its own collection of particles,
its own arrangement of forces”
House of the Dragon episodes
more people dying at weddings
fake medievalism a little like
Thomas Chatterton in the 1770s
dead by his own hand
at seventeen the opposite of
Elizabeth who died in 1603
all these dynasties marriages consorts
what exactly is our inheritance
wayward souls distracted by the
merest breeze attracted to only
negative thinking deaths far away
or closer friends go crazy
family members lose their minds
mountain ash refuses to flower
there’s nothing to be done
no one can help this
messianic blossom blossom wrote Billie
come back to this moment
Breaking News on cable TV
“we shall not all die
but we shall be changed”
if information is never lost
words and their referents do
have some sort of relation
we can survive as holograms
obscured by dreams and desire
“so this is my vow –
all the gods must die”
Chris Hitchens at the multiplex
“the god butcher is coming”
I can’t say he’s unwelcome
I’m kinda on his side
trying to review a book
that dissolves in my hands
turns into an insect swarm
what if this is it
what if this blood clot
is thick enough to clog
all the important arterial pathways
have you reached a verdict
not enough love or care
when the topics of consideration
are quantum mechanics and relativity
mashups of sex and scholarship
presentations of Grand Piano authors
breaking news astronomers see a
dying star swell and absorb
a Jupiter-sized planet
earth in five billion years
come back to this moment
cartoons at the pearly gates
even for a lapsed Jew
the experience is an encounter
changing the nature of discourse
to include kindness and love
post-equinox back deck coffee
day and night never equal
warmth from the coffee cup
yin and yang shifting positions
in the murky alchemical beaker
a few more brilliant days
before the rains is it
a Native American summer now?
Sirius rising Karl Kerenyi’s Dionysus
language is speaking through me
a transformation of the numinous
it’s the unconscious within us
that’s changing said Jung my
cat steps out of dream
starts to whine for food
the liminal state is reached
if you look from outside
it’s the academy or entertainment
there’s one thing about poetry
it doesn’t stop or start
thanks to Will Alexander, Ted Pearson and Dennis Overbye
for letting me borrow some lines for this assemblage