from Round 12 of Bout

i.

So say you were going to stay on a mountain stay in mountains in color in a color in one color each day a color another one and each night a color too a color of night through thin of tent you would sleep underneath each night a color another one not as other as the next color the next day was other than the color of the day before the next day supposing primary colors as the day colors but secondary too you were going to stay more than three days your red your blue your yellow green a good guess maybe white color not color but colors and the nights the tentbellied nights a color of the tent’s underbellied burrowed into by you black not black not quite just about slate near black gray of fainting the moment before completely fainted near black or a color moonblued in eerie freshness unnamable as air a crickety color the color of what crickets sound long like if they can stand even summer mountains in the west not the smoothed ones of the east the night colors different that way too a color of a crevasse a color of high scrub pines and you were going to wake up first in the tent and then outside the tent in the sky if you looked up first and then or else in the pines needles trunks a color and then or else down brown needled dirt the same every morning waking range of directions for looking inside the tent and outside the tent every waking another color a lot or a little other color and then another and another as you looked up or down or down and up or straight ahead with your head in erect posture the way you make it so every morning in or not in or on mountains or could have been in the same order every waking if not the color the sound of it if not the sound then the order of the looking as same as the names of calendars unless it rained or something sudden, but then you couldn’t

ii.

All the shuttings and openings all the leavings-ajar and tamperings all the pushings and glowings the shovings and shorings all the rappings and lookings the knockings and ringings all the heavings and landings the beckonings and foregoings the nearings and farings all the retreatings and haltings the pausings and holdings all the pairings and cleavings the parings and agglutinatings all the graspings and lettings-go all the elbowings and turnings-back the resurgings and inquirings all the checkings and pointings the pourings and ascendings the shapings and polishings the takings-up and arrangings the pressings and implementings all the gapings and withholdings all the servings and stillings all the findings and resortings all the beddings and traversings all the returnings and calmings the drawings-to and cuppings the forkings and instigatings all the perambulatings and declinings the cranings and limpings all the sniffings and rollings the duckwalkings and havings all the tearings and meanderings the proppings and closings the cradlings and brushings the leanings and tricklings the recoilings and flavorings the concatenatings and steepings all the frontings and absorbings the dosings and assignings the forsakings and robings the enshrinings and shoeings all the jumpings and creasings all the alleviatings and creatings all the passings and raisings the lickings and siftings the speculumings and endearings all the meetings and dopings the molderings and satisfyings the fragmentings and intubatings the clearings-off and mortarings all the chillings and piquings the zoomings and appropriatings the maximizings and yellowings the deepenings and thrillings the ladlings and dryings the goings and reducings the gainings and fracturings the zippings and directings the nudgings and phalanxings the pettings and diggings, all the reachings and ravelings the replacings and rattings all the catchings and drivings the caromings and marchings the facings and the dyings

v.

That Thing She Does

Well it gives her something a name for I don’t know or isn’t one I don’t ask suppose fear or won’t understand the words of there is no name for it where the soul is unasked what goes on unasked what is the limit unasked the sound unasked or if it’s sounds unasked and so a harmony unasked or else a dysphony unasked or a combination in alternation thereof unasked or a capitalized light unasked or more a vision unasked perhaps a visioning unasked though most likely not an envisioning unasked the body tiring unasked at once unasked or by degrees unasked to say nothing of the mind unasked the location of the mind unasked the condition of the mind unasked the achievement of that uncanny stillness unasked the method of the achievement unasked the acquisition of the method unasked the degree to which the achievement and the effects correlate unasked the effects unasked whether saying effects is appropriate in the present case unasked whether saying case may be offensive unasked though certainly present is eminently so meaning appropriate not offensive unasked whether and if so to what degree the present is sensed if sensed is the right term unasked whether to what degree is different for each instancing unasked whether to what degree is a variable or is fixed within a given instancing unasked whether the uncanny stillness chanced upon by me is constant throughout a given instancing unasked whether the uncanny stillness if it is constant within a given instancing is replicable or indeed replicated or progresses toward some greater stillness whether steadily progressing or intermittently so as in so-called fits and starts or varies without any perception of overall progress unasked whether the presence or absence of change in either or any direction within and longitudinally across a given or a set of given or a given set of or a given set of given or random instancing or instancings correlates in any way with whatever if any effect or effects unasked and would it be OK if I asked unasked

Steve Timm lives in southern Wisconsin. A chapbook, Averrage, appeared in 2004 from Answer Tag Home Press. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Notre Dame Review, Word/For Word, Antennae, Gam, Bird Dog, Sidereality, and Moria, among others. He teaches English as a second language at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A short film of him performing a sound poem was shown at the 2004 Wisconsin Film Festival.