1 / 41

Text Flow The Poem: Diving into the wreckage

Text Flow The Poem: Diving into the wreckage. First having read the book of myths,. and loaded the camera. and checked the edge of the knife-blade,. I put on. the body-armor of black rubber. the absurd flippers. the grave and awkward mask. I am having to do this.

summer
Download Presentation

Text Flow The Poem: Diving into the wreckage

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Text Flow The Poem: Diving into the wreckage

  2. First having read the book of myths,

  3. and loaded the camera

  4. and checked the edge of the knife-blade,

  5. I put on

  6. the body-armor of black rubber

  7. the absurd flippers

  8. the grave and awkward mask.

  9. I am having to do this

  10. not like Cousteau with his

  11. assiduous team

  12. aboard the sun-flooded schooner

  13. but here alone.

  14. There is a ladder.

  15. The ladder is always there

  16. hanging innocently

  17. close to the side of the schooner.

  18. We know what it is for,

  19. we who have used it.

  20. Otherwise

  21. it is a piece of maritime floss

  22. some sundry equipment.

  23. I go down.

  24. The blue light • Rung after rung and still • the oxygen immerses me • the clear atoms

  25. I crawl like an insect down the ladder • of our human air. • My flippers cripple me, • I go down.

  26. and there is no one • to tell me when the ocean

  27. it is bluer and then green and then • First the air is blue and then • black I am blacking out and yet • my mask is powerful

  28. it pumps my blood with power • the sea is another story • the sea is not a question of power • I have to learn alone

  29. to turn my body without force • in the deep element.

  30. And now: it is easy to forget • what I came for • among so many who have always • lived here

  31. swaying their crenellated fans • between the reefs • you breathe differently down here. • and besides

  32. I came to explore the wreck. • The words are purposes. • The words are maps.

  33. I came to see the damage that was done • and the treasures that prevail. • I stroke the beam of my lamp

  34. slowly along the flank • of something more permanent • than fish or weed

  35. the thing I came for: • the wreck and not the story of the wreck • the thing itself and not the myth • the drowned face always staring • toward the sun

  36. the evidence of damage • worn by salt and away into this threadbare beauty • the ribs of the disaster • curving their assertion • among the tentative haunters.

  37. This is the place. • And I am here, the mermaid whose dark hair • streams black, the merman in his armored body.

  38. We circle silently • about the wreck • I am she: I am he • we dive into the hold.

  39. whose drowned face sleeps with open eyes • whose breasts still bear the stress • whose silver, copper, vermeil cargo lies

  40. obscurely inside barrels • half-wedged and left to rot • we are the half-destroyed instruments • that once held to a course • the water-eaten log • the fouled compass

  41. We are, I am, you are • by cowardice or courage • the one who find our way • back to this scene • carrying a knife, a camera • a book of myths • in which • our names do not appear.

More Related