Le Nombre Des Ombres

By Andrew Joron b. 1955 Andrew Joron

The faster I travel

the slower the world dies

Inside the head of a flower

The sun’s

a swinging pendulum

—all Radiance is progress

Of a pre-existent stillness

Stone, inspired

To fluency

curves thought

toward the drinking of Its shadow

grail: grille: grid

The lines recursive to impalement

one point alone

sings cumulative, crowding negativity

My apparitions

distorted by star-tides

Fail to approximate zero

Where sensation’s tip

Crumbles to ash

Another

Radio-profile turns, edged with dark cries

objects unfounded

of medieval prophecy

The heavens too grow cold

Source: Trance Archive (City Lights Books, 2010)

Biography

Born in San Antonio, poet Andrew Joron was raised in Germany, Massachusetts, and Montana. He earned a BA in the philosophy of science at the University of California at Berkeley, where he studied with anarchist philosopher Paul Feyerabend.

Addressing the trajectory of his work in a 2010 interview with poetry blogger Christopher Nelson, Joron explained, "A fascination with sound, with syntax, and other properties of language . . .

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