Two Poems
Carleen Tibbetts
schizolingue
an erasure of Paul de Man’s “Intentional Structure of the Romantic Language,” 1960
the poet’s loyalty toward language is
the downfall of poetic defiance
one hardly ever escapes attractions of existence
an erasure of Louis Zukofsky’s “A Statement for Poetry,” 1958
poetry may be defined as
whoever makes it
has envied
its fineness of intricacies
keeps a world tangible
perhaps poetry is dimensions in space
true or not
ritual and pleasure feast
so-called pure music
(which incidentally poems never reach)
that permits anybody to “tune in”
to the human tradition
one hardly ever escapes
no verse is “free”
inevitably words falsify
attractions of existence
a poem should never be inflicted on the reader
Carleen Tibbetts is the author of the chapbooks “a starving music will come to eat the body” (FiveQuarterly, 2014) and “to exosk(elle), the last sugar” (Zoo Cake Press, 2015). Recent work appears or is forthcoming in Cloud Rodeo, Powder Keg, Fact-Simile, The Journal Petra, glitterMOB, TYPO, Datableed, Small Po[r]tions and The Laurel Review.
