Nuvein Magazine | Poetry | Princeling: homage to J. Cornell by Christopher Mulrooney

princeling
homage to J. Cornell
by Christopher Mulrooney

what you look at or into
from the very momentary beginnings
at the old house
peaceably refined
bearing the scars of it all
breasting the waves like a Liberty ship
viewed by Seurat
it is a clean ship
departing from the lights
whether or not you care for it
the spiritual reality
it is a standard organism
the ostensible enigmas
a salesman's carryall
you can forget it
as if it were by Billy Harnett
the assiduous composer
the implacable objects
in the town at peace
the town you work in
"after what flourish your nature will"
whither are we going Master
where all have we been
you all will remember
from the very beginning
tall with skyscrapers the city
thrusting from its roots
to the very far limits
of all our portfolios
where you go very far
and wind up right here
as played ! by Ian Wolfe in shirt and sweater

I have written to you all these very things
the sleight of hand
the target practice
the isolated theme spots
the remarkable effluvia
the OK standard panjandrums of very misery
and the audiences thereof
where had we all even started
where had we all to end up
asking our several questions of a
princeling
the pharmacopúia of all desires
in the silken toolbox
where you go hard hunting
with a bleak escapade
you can actually fight this woe-burn
at home in the Pink Palace
you can not admit it
you can hear the music
the silent music silvery
the loud music or
the plaque on which Richard Wagner appears
at his hotel in Paris
the opening of the world
the serene Chardin
the capacity of portraits
do.
do.
the sea as applied to all techniques
and for that matter all astronomy
where you can stay in the mind
as long as necessary !
or as wished
to the end of time
or the beginning of time
or anywhere in between
as you can understand these things
back and forth
from the beginning of times
to the very last of things descried
the ones you had dreamed of

I had not thought of it before
let me assure you
the sculptures of all the gallery
the sylvan mementoes
how can you spectacular
imagine a better architecture
a better self-portrait
or family history
you can guess at it
somehow or other ("the flies of the past")
what if you were projected
onto a scrim
of the Globe Theatre
anywhere you will
absolutely anywhere at all
the bric-a-brac and memorabilia
that suggests a calm úuvre
you can't remember how hard we try whatever
it is a calm self-parody
say the critics
a more spectacular thing the rest of it
rack it up set it up settle it
mix it up all in a box it settles
right where yo! u want it right in a glass
as accurate in a thing as any could wish
in a technical sense
the sparkling movie stars
the trapeze artists
the musicologists
the Jews of a surrealist outlook
the vertical of all buildings
with the incanted statements of fiction
where haven't we been
just looking at things
over and over all again
from the very first to last things
eminently composed as friction
sidereally arranged as a diabolo
in a quiet neighborhood
the place where you live
the place where you all live here
or hereabouts looked at sincerely
as sincerely as you can
in these circumstances
in these very sincere circumstances
these hopeless conditions
the absence of position
the balk of sight
our world and its environs
last train out
last train in and out
the one you will remember
the last of all these things
whatever we have all seen