Jerome & Diane Rothenberg

A BOOK OF THE BOOK

                                    a gathering of fragments for Steve Clay’s 70th birthday

8.ix.2021

 

A book in movement

never stands still.

 

*

 

And in the mind

a book

rewrites itself

letter by letter.

 

*

 

The eyes, looking inward,

ready for dying.

 

*

 

Is what I see or don’t

the book you gave me?

 

*

 

I feel my way by touch

to turn a leaf

until the book falls shut.

 

*

 

A book for which I haven’t written anything

but which I claim to be my own.                          (Juan Luis Martínez)

 

*

 

A book of myths

in which

our names do not appear.                                       (Adrienne Rich)

 

*

 

Your heart a book of paintings

a book about impermanence.

 

*

 

Angels sit on clouds

some dance

each one holds up a book

or writes in it.

 

*

 

I try writing in a book

in which the words

are volatile

& vanish

as I write them.

 

*

 

When we leave the world

behind

a book reflects our voices

in a book

 

*

 

Within the book worlds came together.

 

*

 

A burnt book

that remains

a book.

 

*

 

The book is ending

where the book

began.

 

[N.B. For my earlier full tribute to Steve Clay, see Steve Clay's Granary Books: A Tribute, first published in 2006.  He was of course my co-editor / co-author on A Book of the Book: Some Works & Projections about the Book & Writing, published by Granary Books in 2000.   And as the publisher of Granary Books over the last 35 years, his contribution to our literature has been enormous. (j.r.)]