James Joyce

Once upon the fragments of a world
and the very growth it was -
he spilt the inkbottle of art
not yet blooming in each fabulous word
Strange smatterings blots on paper,
we are what we were:
- oblique idioms in sunlight
- cobwebs on language
- a truth re-written between heaven and child
In deepened dusk, we are a slow dark birth
A mustering affection, a life half known
A relinquishment to another earth...

But nouns loose in the pot
Pause.
If he was suddenly someone else
No god of signposts in gentle sweet air
Flower by gold writing...
Deepsounding
Crimson. Verbs.
An epithalamium. O. That now and then!
Love is the cause of ripening
and
Yes, evening passing now
Why not endless till farthest star?
No one is anything
-Perhaps

In myth, half open, Metropolis, voice through
nightspawn and nightbreach, with piety
           Diddledum and dreaming
                Diddledee
                     Gave
                           yes. Perhaps!

but wake, you nattlebruins
allforabit of purpose, pastiche n'pun
allbook above allbooks, etsitaraw,
Spiritus mundi
and toomuchness wombfruit to understand rawality
Ah!
soft night, not a mistsound, falling, hearsomeness...
Aw! The whispering silence of.
scriptsigns, nameforms, macro-a-bet, so so
goolden, silv. First breath
Figure it! The part implies the whole
Onon.
Onon.
O holy logos
such me such we such everybody is
a man a life alone awaits a

More About Paul Kloppenborg:

Paul Kloppenborg works as a librarian in Melbourne, Australia. He is widely published in both print and electronic journals. His first anthology (along with 6 other international poets) was published by Two Dog Press in 1998. A second anthology was published by Funky Dog Press, Detroit in 1999. Paul's first chapbook "Poetic Confectionery"(2002) is available from the Canadian publisher CNV was 2002. Paul's concrete poetry chapbook "Confetti" is due for publication in early 2005. He is also Administrator of the online poetry network, The Muse.

You can email Paul at paul.kloppenborg@rmit.edu.au.