![Detail of Astronomical Halo, from Le Livre des Sept Ages du Monde, by Simon Marmion [c.1460]](https://xineann.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/simon_marmion_astron_halo.jpg?w=450)
Prefix: Finding the measure
Finding the measure is finding the mantram,
is finding the moon, as index of measure,
is finding the moon’s source;
if that source
is Sun, finding the measure is finding
the natural articulation of ideas.
The organism
of the macrocosm, the organism of language,
the organism of I combine in ceaseless naturing
to propagate a fourth,
the poem,
from their trinity.
Style is death. Finding the measure is finding
a freedom from that death, a way out, a movement
forward.
Finding the measure is finding the
specific music of the hour,
the synchronous
consequence of the motion of the whole world.
~Robert Kelly
Sam Hamill first showed me this poem at Kenneth Rexroth’s house in Montecito. It is still my favorite.
Art: Detail of Astronomical Halo, from Le Livre des Sept Ages du Monde, by Simon Marmion [c.1460]
