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  • It Must Be Abstract
  • Gershon Maller

For Charles Altieri, finishing on a line from Wittgenstein

From form to shapeour world is partly wholeby seeing what thought feelsto see the sun not as it simply isbut by all we desire to see it asas if to fill a void of overwhelming lighther eye finds shapes in cloudbright cumuli amassing figuresby sense beyond the sensiblePhoebus in his car with diamond wheellost among the guffaw of the crowdas the artist might drawfrom silk the color redand clasp her as a lover to his heartor the poet who drawsa drop of blood from stoneare but modulations from a soundwhere shifting her split skirther voice and dance can flattereither verb or noun, her supplemoves borrowed from a tuneplayed on W's Steinwayto yield a self, a subject vibrantin the world of ordinary factlike sitting in a bar next to deathcrossing and uncrossing her legswhere all that is the case is trueobjects arching giant spinesacross space as time as we imagine it;not as we could know a self that isbut as it is: a whole cloud of philosophycondensed into a drop of grammar. [End Page 265]

Gershon Maller
Melbourne
Australia
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