Thursday, January 26, 2006

A non literary poem

Derrida says literature, that which illuminates textuality and referentiality, does not include poems. So here is a poem about the body of texts we signify as "belonging to" Derrida, that which he "signed" (qu'il a signe?), and yet this poem points to its own textuality.
So HA.
Ce ci n'est pas une texte


Have you ever seen yourself on a bus or subway or streetcorner
not just something like you, but you in all your problematic glory
and seen your own eyes reveal the despeartion you thought
your laughter hid?


the gasps come then
even as you open the mailbox
not from the lack of checks or possibility of bills
but because the past was present


Before the law, in front of and in a previous time to
prior to and the foundation of
the Law that makes us make sense of the swarm of la vie
the "il faut que" and the "interdit"
La loi est interdit: it is prohibition itself and is prohibted
It is behind us, we are before it, and cannot bow down
because we are outside it--all are outlaws qui est hors de la loi.


That guy with the dyed red hair thought he was
defying some law, but the law is not present
it is only re-presented by people, who are voices for a silent mark
If I could have deferred that moment, I would have.
He is desirable because he cannot ever be had; he represents desire.


Il faut que
we notice that faut and fault and fall are all alike
When we kill the father, he is more present
when we killed Jesus, he became holy
and only by being alive can we be dead, says Jacques
no violence in killing, for the dead are more present
but it hurts, and pain is the root of all ethics


If to end "ci falt" is to "finish although incomplete"
then the only completeness to be found
can be found in those that do not declare finis
All stories are prematurely ended.


It's turtles all the way down
it's desire of desire, to have the need to need
that I see in that girl with the sparkling eyes
his violet glasses are from 1999,
a reflection and defelction I wanted to pass through


There is nothing in between us but colored glass
I am before the you I've created for me
and cannot reach you through the layers of la glace
Je n'ai pas le droit to melt the ice
Je n'ai pas le fort to touch the sacred

1 comment:

Laura said...

As with most of your posts, I would understand better if I spoke french, but alas, I do not. Still quite funny and ingenius though. Love the title- the small amount of french I have learned by osmosis. Oh, I have ideas for your paper on Martyrs Mirror too. I'll email or call or you can.
It's turtles all the way down.