Tanka Prose
The
Carmody-Blight Dialogues, 1-3
1
CARMODY: We need
a map, that’s all I’m saying. We go this way and we go that,
but we never get anywhere.
BLIGHT: Why aren’t we making a map?
The speaker searched for a metaphor to explain society—how
we come together and how we diverge. His point was that the
same features that make us into a social whole also serve to
keep us apart. Up on the screen he projected a close-up
photograph of an aboriginal woven-cedar-bark basket. “E
pluribus unum,” he said.
they
named him Zeus
this boy born in Fresno
his father worked
in the cotton fields, pruned grapes
had higher expectations
what time is it
on the antique Bulova
both hands at two
where the universe rubs
against itself at the edge
my life’s story
undergoes retelling
with each failure
switches tracks each derailing
eyes on the horizon
2
CARMODY: I think
the world has to be coming to an end. Look at it!
BLIGHT: I can’t bear to look at it.
When we’re starting out, any serious writing seems
difficult. The young student can be heard to complain, “None
of this makes any sense to me.” But, as the intellect
matures, it becomes clear that not everything is simple and
hard things are hard to talk about. With study, the mind
comes to appreciate deeper thought, to read difficult
writing—something, say, by Kant.
logical
flaws
reproducing mutations
scratched matrices
mistakes made manifest
in later generations
dialectics
turn questions and answers
into progress
a soft hand in a hard place
moves us to the next level
after today
what happens cannot be
known. The future
is always empty and just
out in front a little way
3
CARMODY: “Wasn’t
it true,” Plato asked, “that the body has less of truth and
essence than the soul?”
BLIGHT : [aside] He’s going somewhere with this. It doesn’t
just stop here.
What other people say and do around us help form our social
persona. On our own, we are little more than protoplasm,
but, raised up in the circumstances of our social
connections, we are formed as human beings. How does it
happen that so many people emerge from this social alembic
merely self-serving and greedy?
sails in
the wind
swell and blow in the idea
of push and shove
the shapes the canvas takes
surfaces, lines, and the air
the absolute
encompasses everything
all the details
cancel out, the common good
where your best interest lies
kids on the street
some Arab, some Mexican
fumble English
vowels, miss their esses
as they try to fit in
