Criticism Overt
Murked in his t oo offennedness, inw
are only, if that, Poem
lingled lamefully intrue underestness.
Criticism watched from afar, nervous, for
this was his first time as more than an
offstage guide. He'd been charged
to pluraphrase the scene for anyone
besides Poem who stumbled into it.
He was nervous because he felt intrusive.
He also feared he'd interrupt and/or
over-analyze the text into something
that would scare everyone away from it.
Not entirely a rational fear since
the poem existed in its uncritiqued state,
and always would.
He worried that he'd sound stupid, too. He
had his orders, though, so went ahead, beginning with
an analysis of the poem's first three lines.
Their foreburden was no problem for him: a simple
declaration that Poem was depressed--
in his "off-eness," as he too often was.
He was aware of his interior only, if that.
He was lingering singly ("lingling"--which,
Criticism thought, suggested "lingo," or
being in words only, although that was a
stretch), and his lingling was bringing him to
"underestness," or a state of maximal "under-ness"--
something lower than "rest." Criticism wasn'
t sure what the break in "inware" was doing other
than fracturing the text in parallel with
Poem's fragmentedness. Ditto the "t oo." The
use of "intrue" for "into" didn't make much sense
to him, either, except as a dissonance intended
to brighten into happier relief the lines
few concords, such as the alliterative l's in
the final line, and the two long o's above it.
The use of the noun, "murk," as a verb seemed
effective to Criticism, if perhaps over-typical
of the poem's author.
Tiring already, he parenthesized only through
the rest of the poem.
The craternal (cavern-like, eternal) just-audible billow of
the near-sightedness of the rocCKks
(the "rocCKks"--their nature emphasized by
the addition of the "CK" are personified as having
a kind of sight, and therefore consciousness; their
"near-sightedness" is metaphorically given materiality,
and likened to a sail billowing out in the wind--
to put Poem--in effect--inside rocks, to
increase the underestness of his mood) above him
had no e ff ect (another isolated doubling of letters,
to perhaps suggest "off" but also to continue
the dissonancing of the scene away
from expectations, as well as the sense of
fragmentedness) on him, nor
did the fiersh ("fierce" plus "fresh") odors
of the pre-skyed grass, weeds and flowers
("pre-skyed because still
underground) more than blink a mome
(to possibly hint of "mote," as well as
do the other things the poem's fragmented words
are doing) nt (another negative--"not"--
to add to the darness of the scene)
or two into his nea rr owing,
(The last word, split in three, is
a misspelling of "narrowing" to suggest
constrictedness, or being "all-near," and
"owing," with the growly two r's carrying
on the design whimsy of isolated doubled
letters.) colorle ss ingly. (Another set of
isolated doubled letters in a coinage
apparently intended to suggest the
oppositing of the participle, "coloring."
So far, the text is simply an
envirative of depression.)
Alorst something unslacked a small crease in his inwa
(A strange variation on "at last" begins the above line;
something has loosened a small crease, or made an opening, in
Poem's inwardness.)
reness. It had a howl's bulk at
(It sounded like a howl, with Ginsberg's poem of that
name clearly alluded to.)
first but soon got close en
ough for him to see it was too high-literate
and constrained along its spine
to be a howl or even a yaw
p, frictifyingly rough-edged though it was in spots.
(But it wasn't a howl or even a "yawp,"
like Whitman's poetry, in Whitman's view,
although it had some rough edges that
provided friction, fertility. . . .)
He muttered. It was .cte ,ecnelis htiw pu thgil ot
syawla gnilggurts eciov. It was he.
(He, from the first Poem poem, which ends
with a mirror image of the backwards-written
passage above. Poem has met his double.)
He muttered much more angrily when he
noticed the absence of genitals.
(A typical sardonic punchline to end the poem:
Poem's double, and thus he, is sexless.
Criticism forgot to give his final
verdict on the poem, caught up in
questions about the value of his own
contribution to it, and whether
a third party would do to
his comments what he'd just
done to the poem.)
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