   ***********************************
   *                                 *
   *          9 LIGHT POEMS          *
   *                                 *
   *               by                *
   *                                 *
   *         JACKSON MAC LOW         *
   *                                 *
   ***********************************


1ST LIGHT POEM: FOR IRIS -- 10 JUNE 1962

     The light of a student-lamp
     sapphire light
     shimmer
     the light of a smoking-lamp

     Light from the Magellanic Clouds
     the light of a Nernst lamp
     the light of a naphtha-lamp
     light from meteorites

     Evanescent light
     ether
     the light of an electric lamp
     extra light

     Citrine light
     kineographic light
     the light of a Kitson lamp
     kindly light

     Ice light
     irradiation
     ignition
     altar light
     
     The light of a spotlight
     a sunbeam
     sunrise
     solar light

     Mustard-oil light
     maroon light
     the light of a magnesium flare
     light from a meteor
     
     Evanescent light
     ether
     light from an electric lamp
     an extra light

     Light from a student-lamp
     sapphire light
     a shimmer
     smoking-lamp light

     Ordinary light
     orgone lumination
     light from a lamp burning olive oil
     opal light

     Actinism
     atom-bomb light
     the light of an alcohol lamp
     the light of a lamp burning anda-oil






2ND LIGHT POEM: FOR DIANE WAKOSKI -- 10 JUNE 1962


           I.

 Old light and owl-light
 may be opal light
 in the small
 orifice
 where old light
 & the will-o'-the-wisp
 make no announcement of waning
 light

 but with direct directions
 & the winking light of the will-o'-the-wisp's accoutrements
 & lilac light
 a delightful phenomenon
 a delightful phenomenon of lucence & lucidity needing no
   announcement
 even of lilac light
 my present activities may be seen in the old light of my accoutrements
 as a project in owl-light


                II.

 A bulky, space-suited figure
 from the whole cloth of my present activities
 with a taste for mythology in opal light
 & _such a manner_

 in the old light from some being outside

 as if this being's old light cd have brought such a manner
 to a bulky, space-suited figure
 from the whole world of my present activities
 at this time
 when my grief gives owl-light
 only
 not an opal light
 & not a very old light

 neither
 old light nor owl-light
 makes it have such a manner about it
 tho opal light & old light & marsh light & moonlight
 & that of the whole world
 to which the light of meteors is marsh light
 all light it
 no it's
 an emerald light
 in the light form the eyes that are making it whole from the whole
    cloth
 with no announcement this time.


          III.


 What is extra light?
 A delightful phenomenon.
 A delightful phenomenon having no announcement?
 No more than the emerald light has.
 Is that the will-o'-the-wisp?
 No, it's the waning light of my grief.
 Is it a winking light?
 No more than it is the will-o'-the-wisp.
 Is it old light?
 The oldest in the whole world.
 Why do you speak in such a manner?
 I suppose, because of the owl-light.
 Is it a kind of opal light?
 No, I said it was old light.
 Is it a cold light?
 More like a chemical light with the usual accoutrements.
 Like the carmine light produced by my present activities?
 More of a cold light than that.
 Like what might fall on a bulky, space-suited figure?
 Well, it's neither red light nor reflected light.
 Are you making this up out of whole cloth?
 No, I'm trying to give you direct directions.
 For avoiding a bulky, space-suited figure?
 No, for getting light from a rhodochrosite.

_________________________________________________________________
Note: A rhodochrosite is a vitreous rose-red or variously colored
gem-stone having a hardness of 4.5 & a density of 3.8 and
consisting of manganous carbonate (MnCO3) crystallized in the
rhombohedral system.
-----------------------------------------------------------------


                   IV.

 This time I'm going to talk about red light.
 First of all, it's not very much like emerald light.
 Nevertheless, there's still some of it in Pittsburgh.
 It adds to the light from eyes an extra light.
 This is also true of emerald light.
 But red light better suits those with a taste for mythology.
 As reflected light it is often paler than the light from a rhodochrosite.
 Such a red light might fall on a bulky, space-suited figure.
 In just such a manner might this being be illuminated during a time
    gambol.





    5TH LIGHT POEM AND 2ND PIECE FOR GEORGE BRECHT TO PERFORM 
THO OTHERS MAY ALSO UNLESS HE DOESN'T WANT THEM TO -- 13 JUNE 1962


     George Brecht   
     in a white light
     sits on a white
     wooden chair.
     
     He wears a
     white tee shirt
     white cotton trousers
     white socks &
     white tennis
     shoes.

     He throws white roses
     from a white vase
     into a white waste-
     basket placed
     at a challenging distance from the chair.
     
     Around & between
     George's chair
     & the wastebasket
     he has placed
     sources of some kinds of light
     & emblems of the possibility of others.

     He continues throwing the roses into the wastebasket
     until he misses.

     Then he goes to the rose on the floor
     & carefully draws a line on the
     floor with 
     white chalk
     from the bottom of the rose's stem
     to the petals &
     prolongs the line until he hits
     or nears
     a light source or emblem.

     After pocketing the chalk
     he retrieves the roses from the wastebasket
     counts them out loud
     & returns them & the one from the floor
     to the vase.
     
     He goes back to the white chair.

     As he sits 
     the lights go out
     for as many time-units
     of his own choosing
     as there had been roses
     in the 
     waste-
     basket.

     Then George produces a light by means of the source
     if the rose pointed to a light source
     & if it pointed to an emblem
     he makes the kind of light the emblem symbolizes visible.

     This kind of light remains visible
     for as many time-units
     (either one's the same as those that measured the darkness
     or different ones than those that measured the darkness)
     as there had been roses in the wastebasket.

     Among the kinds of light that might be seen now
     might be
     arc-light
     watch-light light
     jump-spark igniter light
     _Aufklarung_
     lightning
     rays of light
     cold light
     moonlight
     naphtha-lamp light
     noontide light
     luminiferousness
     almandite light
     enameling-lamp light
     a nimbus
     meteor light
     Jack-o'-lantern light
     water lights
     jack-light light
     refracted light
     altar light
     Corona-cluster light
     magic lantern light
     ice-sky light
     clear grey light
     iridescence
     natural light
     infra-red light
     Reichsanstalt's lamplight
     exploding-starlight
     Saturn light
     Earthlight
     actinism
     sodium-vapor lamplight
     cloud light
     Coma-cluster light
     alcohol lamplight
     luster
     light of day &/or
     lamplight.
     
     One of these kinds of light might be seen now
     or
     some other kind of light.
     
     After a short darkness
     the white light goes on again
     & George
     on his white wooden chair
     throws the white roses into the white wastebasket
     until 
     he 
     misses.
     
     Then he does what he does again
     then more darkness
     then
     the kind of light
     pointed to
     by the rose on the floor
     then
     more
     darkness
     then George in a white light throwing roses
     & so on
     until he feels it beautiful to stop.
     




10TH LIGHT POEM: 2ND ONE FOR IRIS -- 19 JUNE - 2 JULY 1962


      A useless plan proposed in acetylene light   
      to a cheery visitor
      who carries a lamp that burns castanha-oil
      lit
      adding its castanha-oil
      light
      to the acetylene
      scene
      advancing ignition
      of
      the refusal of a loan
      despite long working hours
      stretching to the aurora
      & an exchange of possessions
      in winestones-oil
      lamplight
      or a need for stressing modernization
      &/or exploding starlight
      are merely petty annoyances
      but ether lamp light
      threatens
      an improvement of conditions
      despite
      a useless plan
      proposed
      in acetylene light
      & failing in
      ghost light.





15TH LIGHT POEM: FOR SUSAN WITLIN -- 11 AUGUST 1962


   'In the middle of the road of our life'
   the attention advances & ignites
   the balance
   & the intuitive light
   alive in any baby
                     not mere lucence
          of places
                    & plants





22ND LIGHT POEM: FOR DAVID ANTIN & ELEANOR & BLAISE ANTIN -- 1 JULY 1968

    
     Can the light of a dark lantern cause
     word division?

     Not when artificial light
     enforces complementary distribution.

     But in a vivid light
     an adverb
     may function as a call.

     Wd that require a kind of incandescence?

     Not in daylight.

     Wd anda-oil suffice?

     If the lamp were new enough.

     But what might be the effect
     of nova light?

     It would be a modifier.

     Wd it modify a word?

     Perhaps a noun.

     Wd a tantalum lamp do more?

     More than an ignis fatuus wd.

     Wd it ensure close juncture?

     Noonlight wd do that better.

     What about early light?

     Its lucence might provide
     a kind of punctuation.
 
     Better than electric light?

     Better than an azure exit light.

     But what wd make for rising terminal juncture?

     Only the light of noontide.

     Then what wd opalescent light provide?

     Rising terminal juncture.

     In what focal area?

     Any one
     that might be reached
     by rays of light.
    
     Even if only by those
     of a Berzelius lamp?

     Even a transition area
     lit by lightning.

     Cd a verb be made inactive
     by the aurora australis?

     If falling terminal juncture intervened.

     If light fell thru an iolite
     bluely
     what might it originate
     by analogy?

     Nothing in a nonlinguistic context.

     Not even an ignis fatuus in starlight?

     Not even a new verb.

     Is light from an electric lamp
     enough to do that?

     Not even enough
     for a novel noun-determiner.

     What about an annealing lamp?

     That sets my teeth on edge.

     What about a night light?

     That might.

     Comparatively speaking?

     That depends on the kind of word.

     Wd a tungsten lamp do better?

     If it cd affect articulation.

     That needs illucidation.

     Do it with a verb-phrase.

     Cdn't I do it with a nova?

     No, sir.





32ND LIGHT POEM: _IN MEMORIAM_ PAUL BLACKBURN
             9 - 10 OCTOBER 1971


   Let me choose the kinds of light
   to light the passing of my friend
   Paul Blackburn          a poet
   
   A pale light like that of a winter dawn
   or twilight
   or phosphorescence
   
   is not enough to guide him in his passing
   but enough for us to see
   shadowily his last gaunt figure

   how he showed himself to us
   last July in Michigan
   when he made us think he was recovering

   knowing the carcinoma
   arrested in his esophagus
   had already spread to his bones

   How he led us on
   I spent so little time with him
   thinking he'd be with us now

   Amber light of regret
   stains my memories of our days
   at the poetry festival in Allendale Michigan

   How many times I hurried elsewhere
   rather than spending time with him
   in his room 3 doors from me

   I will regret it the rest of my life
   I must learn to live
   with the regret

   dwelling on the moments
   Paul & I shared
   in July as in years before

   tho amber light dim to umber
   & I can hardly see
   his brave emaciated face

   I see Paul standing in the umber light
   cast on his existence
   by his knowing that his death was fast approaching

   Lightning blasts the guilty dream
   & I see him
   reading in the little auditorium

   & hear him
   confidently reading
   careful of his timing

   anxious not to take
   more than his share of reading time
   filling our hearts with rejoicing

   seeing him alive
   doing the work he was here for
   seemingly among us now
   
   I for one was fooled
   thinking he was winning the battle
   so I wept that night for joy
   
   As I embraced him after he read
   I shook with relief & love
   I was so happy to hear you read again

   If there were a kind of black light
   that suddenly cd reveal to us
   each other's inwardness

   what wd I have seen that night
   as I embraced you
   with tears of joy

   I keep remembering the bolt of lightning
   that slashed the sky at twilight
   over the Gulf of St. Lawrence
   
   & turned an enchanted walk with Bici
   following Angus Willie's Brook
   thru mossy woods nearly to its mouth

   to a boot-filling scramble up thru thorn bush & spruce tangle
   Beatrice guided me & I was safe
   at the end of August on Cape Breton Island

   but when Jerry telephoned me of your death
   the lightning that destroyed
   the illusion you were safe
   
   led thru dreadful amber light
   not to friendly car light
   & welcoming kitchen light

   but to black light of absence
   not ultraviolet light
   revealing hidden colors
   
   but revelatory light that is _no_ light
   the unending light of the realization
   that no light will ever light your bodily presence again

   Now your poems' light is all
   the unending light of your presence
   in the living light of your voice

   
                                      12:33 AM Sun 10 Oct 1971
                                                     The Bronx





36TH LIGHT POEM: _IN MEMORIAM_ BUSTER KEATON --
      4:50-6:18 A.M. SAT 1 JAN. 1972


                    1

 As a mad scientist
 Buster lights a Bunsen-burner flame
 that starts a series of processes
 that eventually releases The Monster

 As an Undertaker
 Buster lights a Bunsen-burner flame
 that starts a series of processes
 that awakens a drunk who was about to be buried as a corpse

 As a Muscovite
 Buster lights a sisal wick in a sesame-seed-oil lamp
 that suddenly lights a mystical orgy
 officiated over by Rasputin

 As a boater
 Buster beats a cascade by floating out beyond its edge
 borne by a balloon
 lit by a wintry sun

 As an Unwilling Passenger on a Drifting Liner
 Buster the Millionaire & his rich Girl Friend
 learn to cope Alone Without Servants
 when forced to rely on the light of their Upper-Class Intellects

 As a Worker
 Buster arouses the Compassion of the Nation
 in whose light the Corporations
 sell themselves to their Workers

 As a Key Man
 Buster carries around with him
 an enormous bunch of keys
 lighting the way with a Keats lamp

 As a Beatnik
 Buster meditates in a Redwood forest
 seated where the Selenic light
 first falls at Moonrise

 As a Leaf-&-Feather Gatherer
 Buster Means Well but bugs everyone in the Park
 spearing the ladies' hats & the picnickers' salads
 in featureless Hollywood Light of the century's first quarter

 As William Butler Yeats
 Buster addresses an irate Irish crowd
 that thinks that Poetry makes Nothing Happen
 but lets itself be bathed by its Truthful Light

 As a Cannoneer
 Buster explodes his own ship's magazine
 treads water in Gunpowder Light at a safe distance
 & blushes in embarrassment at his Clumsiness

 As a Violinist
 Buster surpasses Paganini
 until Boston-Concert-Hall Light
 Poisons him with Love for a Proper Bostonian Maiden


                   2

 Spirit of Buster Keaton
 if you survive as yourself
 receive Please our honor & praise
 you conscientious Workman

 Hard-working Buster Keaton
 when you arouse the laughter of children
 as you live in Projector Light
 Your Karmic Residue dissolves in Joyous Shouts





    58TH LIGHT POEM: FOR ANNE TARDOS -- 19 MARCH 1979

                           
I know when I've fallen in love       I start to write love songs
Love's actinism turns nineteens to words & thoughts in love songs
as your "A" & the date made "actinism" enter this love song

Also I seem to start dropping punctuation
My need for punctuation lessens   like some people's need for sleep
My need for sleep lessens too   but later I fall on my face
Lack of punctuation doesn't catch up with me like lack of sleep
It doesn't make me fall on my face

So bright the near noon light   the toy photometer twirls   in
the sunlight slanting in from southeast thru the southwest window
the stronger the light the faster the light motor turns
diamond vanes' black sides absorb     white sides radiate photons
See it go

A "42" draws the northern lights into the song
as yesterday into the Taggart Light Poem twice they were drawn
as "aurora borealis" & "aurora"    by "A"'s & by numbers
There they seemed eery & threatening   Here they seem hopeful
as they seemed when last I saw them   over the Gulf of St. Lawrence
cold   euphoric after making love   wondering
at swirling curtains & sudden billows lighting the sky northwest

I remember their evanescent light as neutral or bluish white
I remember the possibility of yellow   the improbability of red
not like Bearsville's rose & blood sky twenty-five years before
Now these memories mingled with pictures'   descriptions'
project on inward skies   idiosyncratic northern lights
that only exist while I'm writing these lines for Anne
Even the next time I read them the lights they arouse will be different

Nineteen sheds a tranquil light on our love song thru your "T"
Our love's tranquil light   revealed by 19 & by T
is turned by 15 to an aureole tipping an "A"
The "A" becomes your face The aureole grows

Reducence from my face glows back on yours

A telephone bell can deflect & dissipate my light
The deflected light is lost to poem & person
I turn my telephone off these days to help ordinary light breed poems

The sun is so bright on my desk now   except on the typewriter keys
that there's no need for the light of the student lamp placed to
     shine on the paper

But now   five hours later   the lamp's      the only light
& I begin the poem's      "astrological"     section


                               II

Acetylene light may be what Virgo needs to see the "pattern
except that for him this is something" he will
only acknowledge if it can be seen in natural light

Can we gain new light from astrology   that ubiquitous superstition
You Sagittarius Woman   Me Virgo Man
What "can happen between them is a" mazing
a dizzying   a stupefying or dazing   a crazing
a great perplexing   bewildering   amazing
forming a maze of something or making it intricate
being bewildered   wandering as in a maze
What has happened between them is amazing

What is happening between us is amazing
more intense & vivid than electric arc light   tremendous light
brighter than acetylene light   friendly as reading lamp light

"But a young Sagit-
tarian need have no qualms about taking on a 
man considerably her senior if he is a "Virgo"
Rand's random digits underline our case
in this lovely silly optimistic sentence

We've been living   I think   in a kind of drowning light

"He reaches the age of forty   At anything less than that age
he is not even a possible   for a Sagittarius"
Me Virgo Man   You Sagittarius Woman
Orgone radiation flimmers between us
our curious safety light

"What can happen between them is    superb
Something he has spent half his life dreaming about
At last it has come true"    O ingratiating
astrological light may you never prove false
even to one who has often decried you as no light
but superstitious darkness natural light would dispel
or the electric arc light of empirical science

The way I'm writing this poem's like using
trichromatic artificial radiance
not as decorative light   in place of
ordinary solar radiation   as you photographers do

Before I was forty "not even a possible for a Sagittarius"
now I'm sixteen over the line & safe with you

"Her   but a young Sagittarian need have" none   "qualms" have no
       basis
Are we dreaming   Is this Virgo Man still dreaming
as "he has spent half his life"    they say    "dreaming"

"Sagittarian & Virgo"
"The pattern is perfect"
The poem is over


                                                19-20 March 1979
                                                        New York




*****************************************************************

        from 22 LIGHT POEMS, Black Sparrow Press 
         Copyright (C) 1968 by Jackson Mac Low
                         and
            REPRESENTATIVE WORKS, Roof Books
         Copyright (C) 1986 by Jackson Mac Low


