Tony TOST

from 1001 Sentences




81-90

One cannot go looking for mysteries.
The castrato opens the door.
Every sentence that I place in this poem is intended to be poetic.
There is always the possibility that what one is not writing is poetry.
I do not think there is a sentence that can be introduced to this poem that would alter the poetic space that must be assumed for the poem to exist.
It is not very interesting that some words look more like a giraffe than the word giraffe.
I can say that many words are more mysterious than the word mystery but this would be of little interest.
Intent is not translated; it is real.
Since this sentence is in a poem I do not have to worry about it being correct, or interesting—it need only to be poetic.
This is not to say that my thinking is poetic.

91-100

"Although the caribou has completely disappeared from Southern Canada, this fact did not at all worry the members of the clan named after it."
Our little group is the goat's guts.
Nursing the imago.
Sentences in this poem point not only at meaning and intention but also at the states of affairs that could possibly generate the above.
The tribe borrowed the mouth of the shaman.
The sentences in this poem all arise out of one reality; they continually describe the possibilities of this reality.
The mystery is not in the sentence, nor is it in the connections between sentences.
That which falls into the statement is a mystery, needle finding its groove.
This is not to say I desire a poetic life.
This could be a way of taking myself by the throat.



101-110

Totemism implies a diminished reality.
I have since revised this sentence.
Not everyone is raised to believe that their lives were preceded by love.
No one laughed when I asked Mr. Rothenberg not to squeeze the shaman.
The number of emotions always exceeds the number of effects.
The poet in America is often happy.
My vocabulary will never be innocent.
May this poem be fertile and possess a vegetal vigilance.
Seduction is deceit if something more is promised.
Yes, but it is still sexy.




111-120

There is an image of masculinity hidden behind the vocabularies of my poem.
One sentence completes a thought and the next one incompletes it.
I'm not yet at the point where I don't rewrite.
The kitten befriended the bunny.
There will be an audience for this poem (if it exists one day).
I must become more aware of the things that go without saying.
Repetition, being essentially imaginary, is not exhausting.
The wolf becomes a little boy.
This is a primitive poem.
I am writing about my life.




back