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LIGHT

THE TREES AND THE BELLS OF THE PROCESSION HOW LIGHT THE AIR IS AND THE EARTH CHILDREN AND THE GRASS

“34

Like the wind in the trees and the bells
Of the procession—

How light the air is
And the earth,

Children and the grass
In the wind and the voices of men and women

To be carried about the sun forever

Among the beautiful particulars of the breezes
The papers blow about the sidewalks”

Oppen, George. “Of Being Numerous.” New Collected Poems. Edited by Michael Davidson and Eliot Weinberger. New York: New Directions, 2008. p. 184.

Catalog Record

New Directions Books

STUDENTS GATHER THE PUDDLES SHINE WITH THE SKY'S LIGHT A PUBLIC DEMONSTRATION STUDENTS GATHER IN THE

“THE STUDENTS GATHER

The puddles
Shine with the sky’s light

A Public Demonstration

Students gather in the square
Between two skies”

Oppen, George. “The Students Gather.” New Collected Poems. Edited by Michael Davidson and Eliot Weinberger. New York: New Directions, 2008. p. 296.

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New Directions Books

HAVING OUR VISION OF GOLD SILVER SILKEN LIQUID LIGHT FLOWED FROM OUR EYES CARESSING ALL AROUND

“Everyone
we the people having our
vision of
gold & silver & silken liquid
light flowed
from our eyes & caressing
all around all the
walls.”

Notley, Alice. “I the People.” Grave of Light: New and Selected Poems, 1970-2005. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2008. p. 171.

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Poetry Foundation

BLACK AND BLUE AND GRAY THERE IS THE CAVE OF LIGHT AHEAD IT IS ROUND AND FULL OF GOLD GOLDEN LIGHT

“as much is the same folded leaves a bud I was suddenly in a damp cave and could smell the damp and could hear the water dripping dark and gray black and blue and gray there is the cave of light ahead it is round and full of gold golden light…”

Notley, Alice. “Grave of Light.” Grave of Light: New and Selected Poems, 1970-2005. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2008. p. 289.

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HFS Books

AS COLOR SHAPE DENSITY HARDNESS OR SOFTNESS LIGHT OR DARKNESS MOTION OR REST DESIGNATE THE STUFF

“In this sense, universals seem to designate the ‘stuff' of the world:
‘We may perhaps define the ‘stuff’ of the world as what is designated by words which, when correctly used, occur as subjects of predicates or terms of relations. In that sense, I should say that the stuff of the world consists of things like whiteness, rather than of objects having the property of being white.’”

Russell, Bertrand, "My Philosophical Development." In One-Dimensional Man by Herbert Marcuse, 216. London: Routledge, 2002.

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Routledge

HIDDEN COLORS BUT REVELATORY LIGHT THAT IS NO LIGHT THE UNENDING LIGHT OF THE REALIZATION THAT NO

“not ultraviolet light
revealing hidden colors
but revelatory light that is no light
the unending light of the realization
that no light will ever light your bodily presence again

Now your poems’ light is all
the unending light of your presence
in the living light of your voice”

Low, Jackson Mac. “32nd Light Poem: In Memoriam Paul Blackburn 9-10 October 1971.” 22 Light Poems. Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1968.

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thing.net

CAR LIGHT WELCOMING KITCHEN LIGHT BUT TO BLACK LIGHT OF ABSENCE NOT ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT REVEALING HIDDEN

“led thru dreadful amber light
not to enter friendly car light
& welcoming kitchen light

but to black light of absence
not ultraviolet light
revealing hidden colors”

Low, Jackson Mac. “32nd Light Poem: In Memoriam Paul Blackburn 9-10 October 1971.” 22 Light Poems. Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1968.

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thing.net

SUCH A MANNER ABOUT IT THO OPAL LIGHT AND OLD LIGHT AND MARSH LIGHT AND MOONLIGHT AND THAT OF THE

“neither
old light nor owl-light
makes it have such a manner about it
tho opal light & old light & marsh light & moonlight
& that of the whole world”

Low, Jackson Mac. “2nd Light Poem: For Diane Wakoski—10 JUNE 1962.” 22 Light Poems. Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1968. p. 10.

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thing.net

OF THE WILL-O-THE-WISP'S ACCOUTREMENTS LILAC LIGHT A DELIGHTFUL PHENOMENON A DELIGHTFUL PHENOMENON

“but with direct directions
& the winking light of the will-o’-the-wisp’s accoutrements
& lilac light
a delightful phenonmeon”

Low, Jackson Mac. “2nd Light Poem: For Diane Wakoski—10 JUNE 1962.” 22 Light Poems. Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1968. p. 10.

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thing.net

LAMP SAPPHIRE LIGHT A SHIMMER SMOKING-LAMP LIGHT ORDINARY LIGHT ORGONE LUMINATION LIGHT FROM

“Light from a student-lamp
sapphire light
a shimmer
smoking-lamp light

Ordinary light
orgone lumination
light from a lamp burning olive oil”

Low, Jackson Mac. “1st Light Poem: For Iris—10 June 1962.” 22 Light Poems. Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1968. p. 9.

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KINDLY LIGHT ICE LIGHT IRRADIATION IGNITION ALTAR LIGHT THE LIGHT OF A SPOTLIGHT A SUNBEAM SUNRISE SOLAR

“Citrine light
kineographic light
the light of a Kitson lamp
kindly light

Ice light
irradiation
ignition
altar light

The light of a spotlight
a sunbeam
sunrise
solar light”

Low, Jackson Mac. “1st Light Poem: For Iris—10 June 1962.” 22 Light Poems. Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1968. p. 9.

Catalog Record

 

LIGHT ETHER THE LIGHT OF AN ELECTRIC LAMP EXTRA LIGHT CITRINE LIGHT KINEOGRAPHIC LIGHT THE LIGHT OF

“Evanescent light
ether
the light of an electric lamp
extra light

Citrine light
kineographic light
the light of a Kitson lamp
kindly light

Ice light
irradiation
ignition
altar light

The light of a spotlight
a sunbeam
sunrise
solar light”

Low, Jackson Mac. “1st Light Poem: For Iris—10 June 1962.” 22 Light Poems. Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1968. p. 9.

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KNOWLEDGE A LAMP UNTO THEIR PEOPLE'S FEET AND A LIGHT UNTO THE PATH TOWARD FREEDOM BLACK PEOPLE

“They must have understood how urgently Black women needed to acquire knowledge—a lamp unto their people’s feet and a light unto the path toward freedom.”

Davis, Angela Y. Women, Race and Class. London: Penguin Books, 2019. p. 105.

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Internet Archive

ABOUT ME STILL SITTING IN THIS SMALL SPARE POOL OF LIGHT WATCHING THE LETTERS THE WORDS TRY TO SPEAK

“…enigma will soon arrive here and the loved one
centers all in her heavy sleeping arm out the
leg pushed down bedclothes this body unseen un-
known placed out there in night I can feel all
about me still sitting in this small spare pool of
light watching the letters the words try to speak.”

Creeley, Robert. “Helsinki Window.” Selected Poems of Robert Creeley. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1991.

Catalog Record

University of California Press

THE END OF ALL THESE DAYS BUT STILL THIS REGAL LIGHT TREES STRIPPED RATHER SHED OF LEAVES THE BLACK

“ *
Same roof, light’s gone
down back of it, behind
the crying end of day, ‘I
need something to do,’ it’s
been again those other
things what’s out there,
sodden edge of sea’s
bay, city’s graveyard, park
deserted, flattened aspect,
leaves gone colored fall
to sidewalk, street, the end
of all these days but
still this regal light.

*

Trees stripped, rather shed
of leaves, the black solid trunks up
to fibrous mesh of smaller
branches, it is weather’s window,
weather’s particular echo, here
as if this place had been once,
now vacant, a door that had had
hinges swung in air’s peculiar
emptiness, greyed, slumped elsewhere,
asphalt blank of sidewalks, line of
linearly absolute black metal fence.”

Creeley, Robert. “Helsinki Window.” Selected Poems of Robert Creeley. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1991. p. 346.

Catalog Record

University of California Press

HEATED THE ELEMENTS HAVE A FINGER PRINT SEEN WHEN LIGHT EMITTED FROM A SOURCE PASSES THROUGH A PRISM

“When heated, the elements turn out to have a kind of fingerprint, easily seen when light emitted from a source is passed through a prism.”

Churchland, Patricia. The Hornswoggle Problem. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 3, No. 5-6, 1996. p. 408.

Purdue University

MAGNETIC FIELDS ROTATE THE PLANE OF POLARIZATION OF LIGHT FOR THE PHYSICIST UNLIKE THE PHILOSOPHER THE

“Faraday's dense borosilicate glass, where magnetic fields rotate the plane of polarization of light. For the physicist, unlike the philosopher, the distinction between theoretical and phenomenological has nothing to do with what is observable and what is unobservable.”

Cartwright, Nancy. How the Laws of Physics Lie. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2010.

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Oxford University Press

THEMSELVES HAVE NO LIGHT THE SIGNIFIER OPERATES ON LIGHT AND WITH LIGHT BUT HAS NO LIGHT OF ITSELF OR ONLY

“The screen mortifies sight. Its terms are points of signification, chains of signifiers, that of themselves have no light. The signifier operates on light and with light, but has no light of itself, or only the light it borrows from my eye.”

Bryson, Norman. "The Gaze in the Expanded Field." In Vision and Visuality, edited by Hal Foster, 87-113. Dia Art Foundation: Discussions in Contemporary Culture, Number 2. Seattle: Dia Art Foundation and Bay Press, 1988. p. 92.

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Dia Art Foundation

THE SUBLIME THE SYSTEM OF SPACE THE SYSTEM OF LIGHT THE SYSTEM OF EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION AND INFORMATION

“In Turner's work the system of space, the system of light, the system of emotional expression, and the system of information seem to be exceptionally well attuned; what happens in one directly affects what happens in another.”

Bryson, Norman. "Enhancement and Displacement in Turner." Huntington Library Quarterly 49, no. 1 (1986): 47-65. doi:10.2307/3817191. p. 47.

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PUSHING THOSE APART TO MAKE WAY FOR ITSELF LIGHT IS PURE CONCENTRATED UNDILUTED BY MATTER ITS

“Light does not so much illuminate space, in the Turner, as interrupt it; the sunlight drives a wedge between the pockets of legible space on either side, pushing those apart to make way for itself. Light is pure, concentrated, undiluted by matter because its task is not to light up substance and carry information about substance to the eye; it is freed of that function because of the new informational order, where information comes in pockets, glyphs, ideograms.”

Bryson, Norman. "Enhancement and Displacement in Turner." Huntington Library Quarterly 49, no. 1 (1986): 47-65. doi:10.2307/3817191. p. 52.

Catalog Record

 

LIKE WIND OVER THE ROOF I HEAR THEM WHEN THE LIGHT STARTS TO DIE IN THE EYES OF THE BUILDINGS THEIR


“i hear them all night
going by in the dark like birds
whistling like wind over the roof
i hear them when the light starts to die in the eyes of the buildings
their shadows rise like smoke”




Antin, David, and Charles Bernstein. “constructions and discoveries.” A Conversation with David Antin. New York City, NY: Granary Books, 2002. p.23.

Catalog Record

University of Pennsylvania

CULTIVATED BY THE WIND AMONG WHITE PEBBLES IN A LIGHT RAIN WE CAST A SHADOW THAT MOVES OVER THE

“in a field of white stones
cultivated by the wind
among white pebbles in a light rain
we cast
a shadow
that moves over the ground
like the shadow of a bird”

Antin, David, and Charles Bernstein. “the passengers.” A Conversation with David Antin. New York City, NY: Granary Books, 2002. p. 30.

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University of Pennsylvania

HEART OF A MOLLUSC UNDER THE COVER OF NIGHT THE LIGHT CONGEALS TO A FRUIT THAT NO ONE DARES EAT THE

“the sun breathes on the beach in a dish
like the heart of a mollusc

under the cover of night
the light congeals to a fruit
that no one dares eat
the night is covered with snow and cut hands”

Antin, David, and Charles Bernstein. “constructions and discoveries.” A Conversation with David Antin. New York City, NY: Granary Books, 2002. p. 22.

Catalog Record

University of Pennsylvania