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"from the waist–so that, turned the bulb that's oneself (thorax)..."

By Leslie Scalapino 1947–2010 Leslie Scalapino

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 volup-

tuous 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...?

Source: New Time (Wesleyan University Press, 1999)

Biography

An experimental writer associated with the West Coast Language poets, Leslie Scalapino attended Reed College and received an MA in English from the University of California at Berkeley. Scalapino’s writing often blurs the distinctions between poetry, prose, and even the visual arts—her book Crowd and not evening or light (1992) includes photographs with handwritten notes. Her collections include Considering how exaggerated music . . .

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