from POETRY || Peter Ganick

where is found content for removal from assertion?
the content is an arrangement
while the assertion is its undoing.
somewhere else we sleep or slept through
hundreds of tones and missives,
we did not miss much while asleep.
the turning of codes, the coldness swimming away through spiritual dissembling—
a last virtue its frailty memorizing its own selfhood.

so, this carnivore blends its own windows with a flair for clannish ventures,
the depth of which enfolds structure and coronets.


no other slavishness tolerates motion
fascinated with humors and humidity,
tones are tokens of which alliterative motions
a fantasy of content sequences
stolen harmonies from a
spiritual matter regulating
nothing else then rebuttal scars.

agreeable to nonce? yet in stride?
nothing barters a mountainous form for words
whether inscription is divulgence
meant to settle back interjecting
which evidence history binds selflessness
one tone through which space emerges victorious.


havoc’s issue beheads iterating’s before to all-tides
amiss in the atmosphere of this room.

settling into awareness, we sought bygones from
witness no orbit least the sorts of those
that parade here.

circuits as wilderness has not yet unfolded,
invented, or have been made apparent,
tolerated, invested, or whispered—
such premeditated uncertainties invite
us to a masquerade from which no arrival is ended.

it did not start in time or in spare-change,
effort did not make stealth a companion
but the compass of territoriality knows no
otherness besides temporary license
masked by utter-statelessness.


we arrive where inscription leaves free
commentary beleaguered by nothing—itself
rendered and biased—machinic divulgence
refines only curiosity
moving beyond a massive tendency—
compose, regroup, then compose again.

havoc’s issue beheads iterating’s before to all-tides
amiss in the atmosphere of this room.

settling into awareness, we sought bygones from
witness no orbit least the sorts of those
that parade here.


it’s a heard tension in the voice
whatever announcers those publicans remake
understood droll bargain settlers those

wait compensation wave through small cars
first. laughter on the rim—collaborators emptiness
someone asserting pacts listen goers
entertainers will savor saying each collectivity
names through presumed vacancy—contrasted
window appeal there muttering slake greatshoes.