But it is not our wish to reproduce
ourselves through you
the reader,
nor to reassure you that these words are true
or where the line breaks there is a meaning
stabilized by that news
speech is assuring you
our plans are still the same
as when we met original in formal theory
by the fridge on the streetcar
beneath some baggage of your satisfactions.
Over this our patience supports you
beneath the topical tuck
which is basic
to a sand ruse for writing through
these intervals between
our disagreeable achievements
signed in the triplicate stage of the plainer style
moved on
(not much of it) to where
the shade from the ilex soaks
the officer in charge
by the octagon
in august
more or less.
Steve McCaffery, “Envoi” from Seven Pages Missing, Volume One: Selected Texts 1969-1999. Copyright © 2002 by Steve McCaffery. Reprinted by permission of Coach House Books.
Source:
Seven Pages Missing, Volume One: Selected Texts 1969-1999 (Coach House Press, 2002)
Poet Steve McCaffery was born in Sheffield, England, and earned a BA in English and philosophy from Hull University (England), an MA from York University (Toronto), and a PhD from the program in poetics, English, and comparative literature at SUNY Buffalo.
A critic, poet, and professor, McCaffery was part of the Canadian avant-garde poetry scene in the 1970s. His creative work has been marked by innovation and a move away from . . .
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