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SHADOWS

WHAT AND SHADOW OUT OF WHAT LIGHT DARTS SHADOWS BACK DEEPLY BUT LIGHT AND SHADOW ARE NOT

“Light is construed in the way of things out of
what and shadow out of what
Light darts shadows back deeply
But light and shadow are not things, they are
furtively ways of things (things slightly)”

Hejinian, Lyn. Slowly. Willitis and Berkeley, CA: Tuumba Press, 2002. p. 39.

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JSTOR

LONG WAY OFF HORIZONS SNAP INTO FOCUS WHILE SHADOWS ARE DISTENDED SMUDGED IT'S HAPPENING AGAIN

“The days are shorter,

but the light seems to stretch out,



to hark
from a long way off.



Horizons

snap into focus,


while shadows

are distended, smudged.



It’s happening again;

we take



discrepancies

for openings.”

Armantrout, Rae. "BORDER PERFECTION." Conjunctions, no. 54 (2010): 157. Accessed May 27, 2021.

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JSTOR

STAGGERED INTO PARCHED POOLS OF THEIR OWN SHADOWS FOREVER SPILLING DOWNHILL BEFORE THEM JUST

“They whispered it to each other as they staggered into parched pools of their own shadows, forever spilling downhill before them: Just one drink, brothers. Water. Cold water!”

Urrea, Luis Alberto. The Devil’s Highway : a True Story 1st ed. New York: Little, Brown, 2004.

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Little, Brown and Company

RISES WITH THE SUN WHEN WE WELCOME THE MOON SHADOWS WAVERING LIKE WIND BREATH SINGING THROUGH

“yes, black lives do matter, all life matters every day light rises
with the sun, when we welcome the moon, shadows
wavering like wind-breath singing through leaves of trees swelling
with symphonies, voices, beautiful, powerful as choruses of blues”

Troupe, Quincy. “A Dirge for Michael Brown, Tamir Rice & Trayvon Martin.” Seduction: New Poems, 2013-2018. Evanston, IL: TriQuarterly Books/Northwestern University Press, 2019. p. 31.

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Northwestern University Press

LIGHTED BY OUR HEADLIGHTS AND MORE IN THE SHADOWS AND BEYOND THE CURVES AHEAD SHOW THAT IT

“It seems certain, moreover, that there are many weapons dimly lighted by our headlights, and many more in the shadows and beyond the curves ahead. The results show that it is easier to destroy than it is to build by any techniques whatever.”

Urey, Harold C. "Technology: Peace or War." Social Science 21, no. 4 (1946): 277-8.

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JSTOR

ITS SHADOWS OR THE MOON'S BUT THEY CAST NO SHADOWS OF THEIR OWN THIS MOMENT THE NEXT THEY ARE

“they are standing each one beside a tree
under its shadows or the moon’s
but they cast no shadows of their own
this moment & the next they are pretending
to be rocks but who is fooled”

Rothenberg, Jerome. “Dibbukim (Dibbiks).” Khurbn & Other Poems. New York: New Directions, 1989. p. 13.

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New Directions Books

HAVE LOST TOUCH WITH EARTH THEY ARE WITHOUT SHADOWS IN THE SUNLIGHT THEREFORE THEY CRY LIKE YOUR

“there is a community of people there
who have lost touch with earth
they are without shadows in the sunlight
therefore they cry
like your mother’s other children”

Rothenberg, Jerome. “The Adventures of the Jew.” Vienna Blood & Other Poems. New York: J. Laughlin, 1980. pp. 8-9.

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New Directions Books

DISCS NOT LIKE THOSE GRAY SOULS THOSE GRAYER SHADOWS SLEEPING IN A CRYSTAL HOUSE ALONE TREMBLING

“…he smiles a smile
a child might,
who mimics gold inside
a yellow dream,
cling clang,
his eyes like ancient discs
not like those gray souls,
those grayer shadows,
sleeping in a crystal house,
alone & trembling, swinging
horsewhips underneath
a christmas moon…”

Rothenberg, Jerome. "The Lorca Variations: "Lunar Grapefruits"." Conjunctions, no. 18 (1992): 201. Accessed May 25, 2021.

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JSTOR

THE CHARCOAL HE SPOKE AND POINTED TO MOON SHADOWS CLOSE AND FAR SAYING THESE YOU WILL BECOME

“And all the while he ground the
charcoal, he spoke of and pointed
to moon shadows close and far
saying, ‘These you will become,
part of but separate, merging
like day into night, season
into season, back and
forth a running rhythm…”

Blue Cloud, Peter/Aroniawenrate. From Back Then Tomorrow. In Symposium of the Whole: A Range of Discourse toward an Ethnopoetics, edited by Jerome and Diane Rothenberg, 437. Berkeley; Los Angeles; London: University of California Press, 1983.

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University of California Press

ANCESTORS THE OLD FORMS ARE NO MORE THAN SHADOWS ON THE HORIZON WHOSE FASCINATION WE CAN

“We have lost the world of living magic, in which we absorbed and shared the experience of our ancestors. The old forms are no more than shadows on the horizon, whose fascination we can guess at but not feel.”

Frobenius, Leo. From Translation in Eike Haberland (ed.) Leo Frobenius: An Anthology. In Symposium of the Whole: A Range of Discourse toward an Ethnopoetics, edited by Jerome and Diane Rothenberg, 39. Berkeley; Los Angeles; London: University of California Press, 1983.

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University of California Press

FORM A SINGLE OBJECT DELINEATED FROM THE SHADOWS OF LEAVES AROUND IT BUT VISION SCIENTISTS FREQUENTLY

“Your brain glues the ‘dog’ splotches together to form a single object that is clearly delineated from the shadows of leaves around it. This is well known, but vision scientists frequently overlook the fact that successful grouping feels good.

Ramachandran, V. S. The Tell-tale Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Quest for What Makes Us Human. New York: W.W. Norton, 2011. pp. 201-2.

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W.W. Norton

STANDS STILL A THING OF BEAUTY THE STOPPED SHADOWS DEVELOP MORAL OVERTONES AND THESE ARE WHAT

“Private tongues multiply barely
Audible pleasures. On the books
The sun stands still, a thing
Of beauty. The stopped shadows
Develop moral overtones and these
are what gets put into circulation.”

Perelman, Bob. “History.” Primer. Oakland, CA: This Press, 1981. pp. 65-6.

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Internet Archive

EVEN THE WORDS FLOATING IN AIR MAKE BLUE SHADOWS IF IT TASTES GOOD WE EAT IT THE LEAVES ARE FALLING

“Coats in the window hung up on hooks; question marks
where the heads would normally be.

Even the words floating in air make blue shadows.

If it tastes good we eat it.

The leaves are falling. Point things out.”

Perelman, Bob. “China.” Primer. Oakland, CA: This Press, 1981. p. 61.

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Internet Archive

INTERLACING AMONG DELICATE GRAY AND PURPLE SHADOWS EVER FORMING AND DISSOLVING WORN BY FRICTION

“Toward the top of the fall you see groups of booming, comet-like masses, their solid, white heads separate, their tails tike combed silk interlacing among delicate gray and purple shadows, ever forming and dissolving, worn out by friction in their rush through the air.”

Muir, John. The Writings of John Muir: Sierra Edition. Vol. II. The Mountains of California. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1917. pp. 280-1.

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Internet Archive

OF EMANCIPATION THE SIGNS OF FREEDOM WERE SHADOWS SO VAGUE AND SO DISTANT THAT ONE STRAINED

After eight long decades of ‘emancipation,’ the signs of freedom were shadows so vague and so distant that one strained and squinted to get a glimpse of them.”

Davis, Angela. Women, Race & Class. New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1983.

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