from Willed Determinism
Francis Raven
We structure to begin (repetitive and unconscious):
a wolf mimics what it cannot see
(empires unite
their stones
threaten
to divide).
*****
We explain from within;
our actions are within (reappropriation's absent formalism).
What allows their expression?
Some principle, we are probing for that principle
of human action.
We thought it was unusual: "the example was already set."
*****
Cost effectiveness can also be measured
By simply calculating
The ratio of
HOW MUCH WHAT WE DO IS
DESTROYING HOW MUCH OF WHAT THEY DO
Or, more accurately,
DESTROYING HOW MUCH OF WHAT THEY DO
HOW MUCH WHAT WE DO IS
But that's very difficult to read.
*****
It was a battle for symbols, but the symbols were real;
you could pick them up;
you could break things with them
because they weren't just symbols
as if a forced agreement
to not agree
counted
as an ideology:
our own false breath
appears as truth;
our own skepticism
does not make us
gulp for air:
we point at others
when asked about
our own beliefs.*
*Belief is the way you hold a spoon, the way you dig into a heart, not what you say, what you mumble.
~~~~~
Francis Raven’s books include Provisions (Interbirth, 2009), 5-Haifun: Of Being Divisible (Blue Lion Books, 2008), Shifting the Question More Complicated (Otoliths, 2007), Taste: Gastronomic Poems (Blazevox 2005) and the novel, Inverted Curvatures (Spuyten Duyvil, 2005). Francis lives in Washington DC; you can check out more of his work at his website: http://ravensaesthetica.blogspot.com/.