Jerome Rothenberg with Arie Galles

TO DREAM INFINITY

from A Book of Circles

1/

 To dream

infinity

& know the time

draws nigh

never more near

than now

 

2/

the far look

of an ancient

god

his hands

ready to bring us

down

 

3/

there is

no end to it

the universe

escapes us

& another universe

takes shape

 

4/

open & shut

absent

a god

whose malice

holds us

ever too close

 

5/

 still to be

free & clear

the deeper

image

out of our beck

& call

 

6/

seeing the others

fallen

entering the pitch

& blackness

figments of an endless

mindless world

 

7/

the beauty

of the never-

ending

freezes us

more spectral

than a dream

 

8/

 how many circles

make up a universe

if only the eye

allows it?

nothing the mind

can know or tell

 

CODA

one

two

three

four

five

six

seven

eight

wild circles