{"id":175,"date":"2010-11-19T18:52:03","date_gmt":"2010-11-19T23:52:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/?p=175"},"modified":"2010-11-19T20:28:16","modified_gmt":"2010-11-20T01:28:16","slug":"c-k-williams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/2010\/175\/poems\/c-k-williams\/","title":{"rendered":"C. K. Williams – Marina"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

As I’m reading Tsvetayeva’s essays,
\n“Art in the Light of Conscience,”
\nstunning- “Art, a series of answers
\nto which there are no questions” –<\/em>
\na tiny insect I don’t recognize
\nis making its way across my table.
\nIt has lovely transparent wings
\nbut for some reason they drag behind
\nas it treks the expanse of formica,
\nand descends into a crack.<\/p>\n

“To each answer before it evaporates,
\nour question”<\/em>: composed in Paris
\nduring the difficult years of exile.
\nBut which of her years weren’t?
\nThis at least was before the husband,
\na spy, an assassin, went back,
\nthen she, too, with her son,
\nto the Soviet madhouse, back.
\n“This being outgalloped by answers
\nis inspiration.”<\/em> Outgalloped!<\/p>\n

Still lugging its filigreed train,
\nthe insect emerges: fragile, distracted,
\nit can’t even trace a straight line
\nbut it circumnavigates the table.
\nDoes it know it’s back where it began?<\/p>\n

Still, it perseveres, pushing
\ncourageously on, one inch, another.
\n“Art.. a kind of physical world
\nof the spiritual… A spiritual world
\nof the physical… almost flesh.”<\/em><\/p>\n

One daughter, dying, at three,
\nof hunger, the other daughter,
\nthat gift of a sugar-cube,
\nin her mouth, drenched in blood…
\n“A poet is an answer… not to the blow,
\nbut a quivering of the air.”<\/em>
\nThe years of wandering,
\nthe weary return, husband betrayed,
\narrested, daughter in a camp…
\n“The soul is our capacity for pain.”<\/em><\/p>\n

When I breathe across it,
\nthe bug squats, quakes, finally flies.
\nAnd couldn’t she have flown again,
\nagain have been flown? Couldnt she,
\nnoose in her hand, have proclaimed,
\n“I am Tsvetayeva,” and then not?
\nNo, no time now for “then not.”
\nBut “Above poet, more than poet…”<\/em>
\nshe’d already said it, already sung it:
\nAir finished. Firmament now.”<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I’m reading Tsvetayeva’s essays, “Art in the Light of Conscience,” stunning- “Art, a series of answers to which there are no questions” – a tiny insect I don’t recognize is making its way across my table. It has lovely transparent wings but for some reason they drag behind as it treks the expanse of […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poems","category-4-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions\/219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}