••• POETRY



from print edition

web exclusive









Caroline Crumpacker
Trans-Relational Love Poem
April 2004


The door is designed
for the repetition
of words.

The door is ajar.
The door is a thought

that will take you,

as a formal convention
as a peculiarity of our time,

in.

You are therefor
walking up the stairs
of a clear glass building.

When you reach the fourth floor, enter.
There is my boudoir en pleine aire.
There are my countless abilities
repeated.
There is the Ottoman Empire
throwing off of the Roman Empire.

So step up.

The architects are playing with your vertigo.
They are playing with your need to be inside.
They are playing with the idea that
one cannot rub one’s shoes
on a work of art.

And everywhere
the influence of the far-east:

open to the world even as apart from it.

How many of the senses are invoked?

Does it depend on the architecture

or

on the parfumerie of the lady of the house.

Perfumes are designed
for the repetition of sensation.
They play with our ideas
about love.

Is that the definition for love

that would take you,

in a tower of verbage
in story after story

furthest?

Playing with the order of sensation.
Playing with the sensation
vof order.
Playing on the glass floors
with my ballet shoes
visible through the quarter.

The peculiarity of home.

A valentine for the invisible:

hovering over the green country is my love
playing with the idea of the beloved

the likes of this building:
meaning height
not dependent
on the idea of height

but repeating it
in unlikely configurations.

Meaning

a friendly psychoanalysis
of its own powers,

is
another definition of love.

Out now:
Archives>>

The Rail invites you to a reading with Jason
Flores-Williams and Brian Carreira, along with musical
guest Steve Strunsky of the Lonesome Prairie Dogs.

Thurs., Sept. 22, 8:30 p.m.
Vox Pop--Flatbush, Brooklyn
www.voxpop.net

OFF THE RAIL FALL 2005 at the Central Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library - Grand Army Plaza
(718) 230-2100 in the 2nd Floor Auditorium

Tuesday, Sept. 13 from 7 till 9
John Ashbery
Leslie Scalapino

Tuesday, Oct. 18 from 7 till 9
Kenneth Bernard
Lynda Schor

Tuesday, Nov. 15 from 7 till 9
Diane Williams
Christine Schutt

Curated and hosted by the Rail's Fiction Editor Donald Breckenridge

The Independent Press Association-NY recently honored The Brooklyn Rail with the following awards:

1st place: Best article about Immigrant Issues or Racial Justice--Gabriel Thompson, "One Immigrant's Journey" (September 2004).

1st place: Best article about the Arts*--Amy Zimmer, "The Brownsville Rec. Center" (April 04)

2nd place: Best article about the Arts--Brian Carreira, "Harlem Arts: A Faux Renaissance" (Dec 03/Jan 04).

2nd place: Best editorial or commentary--T. Hamm, "The Issue is Free Speech" (Dec 03/Jan 04).

3rd Place: Best Investigative News Story--Marjory Garrison, "Minimum Matter of Survival" (May 04)

Honorable mention: Best Investigative News Story--Williams Cole, "Housing vs. the RNC" (June 04).

Honorable mention: Best Original Feature--Yvette Walton, "My Life in the NYPD" (Dec 03/Jan 04).
Come to the Brooklyn Waterfront Festival.




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