Oyez!
by David Meltzer
Oyez, 1967
Tanka for David Meltzer
browsing kaballah
shazam! now I remember
I'm on a ladder
& the book i was looking for
missing, between 2 others
The Point
a translation of Edmond Jabès... a certain distance surveyed between
the book and
the book; between being titled, and absence of title; the moment when
its page is without any reassuring trace; when there are no longer any
traces for others nor for itself; when the white crossing is done within
blankness.
No shadows to enumerate; neither a boundary nor the least pebble,
near or far.
... except a point, on the tip of sight; not a mark but an enigma. A lone-
some point, floating upon an ocean of form, moving in the luminous
azure, and which my wish to explain, for a fraction of a second, renders
visible to the world.
To turn what wished only to be the detour of a fluctuating thought. To
girdle the abyss.
The circle is a circle only during its recurrence.
The greatest circle is function of the littlest.
Squeeze.
Buckle.
All writing is polarization of the point.
Edmond Jabès (1912-1991), a Jew born in Cairo, became a French poet under the tutelage of Max Jacob and the Surrealists.
