Ekphrasis

“How To Read” — R.B. Kitaj

Militant leather

No-frills soldiers stand at the ready while

Children repeat the alphabet in unison –

A, B, C –

See the letters and sound them out

Shape the words in your mouth and

Follow the grammar rules to piece

The puzzle together.

Screen-print the strokes onto your mind,

Exact, strong, harsh,

At times less than clear.

Language is just a hard collection of sounds

p-r-o-l-e-g-o-m-e-n-a

prolegomena

this is the introduction to reading.

Real language isn’t one color

Same way sans-serif language is

Just the shape of the letters without

The “Spirit of Romance Part”

What part? the first? the tenth?

Or does language part meanings the way

A painting of a book parts the

Image from the words and the

Words from their definitions?

According to Ezra,

Good writing is intentional,

Clean and clear and humble.
Letters are “petals

On a wet, black bough.”

Though reading is intentionally

Like peeling back layers of an onion

And trying not to cry.

But, Mr. Pound,

I think the rules are irrelevant.