After Scott

By Joan Guenther

the core block

Preface: On Avoidance / 7

the theme of the book is the fact of my mouth (whose mouth) so the text is the objective correlative of the lips of the parasite of metaphors the palate, the epiglottis an evocation of a tongue in a knot

blowing against resistance

Valsalvas / 11

Valsalvas are structured

there are overtures in this case “Some will not”

repeated in each instance of the forced expiration there is a question—here—about what does not exist in text necessarily because bounded by silence

there are paragraphs of phonemes all fricative breath and breathlessness, disordered cascades

there are words thick with meaning yet knife-like mingling

(words that mingle or/then cleave in sequences and sentences imperatives and lists as images or notions a rolling antelope a nibbled scapula entice the reader say this next and panic)

there are trivial accidents and significant accidents extended ambiguities and brief

anticipatory stressors

Valsalvas / 30

it
repeats prolongs pauses
makes everything anti-semantic

scan for it
the speed of the first word
the next sound position
the vocal cords are ancient systems
breathe between them

practise the art of continuous change
be vigilant
conceal avoid
swallow

there’s a throat above the breast
in unison
alone
singing

how thought depends on delay

Valsalvas / 41

oh wait wait
on page 17—
in accompaniment wait
marked by the lower jaw wait
the city was already Greek wait
wait for the opportunity the promise wait and see
lapse alarm motion in only one direction
for arms lifted or swung a rigid fulcrum
oh wait one loose bone an eyespot
light coming through
this bootless text—

oh sonorant open or closed
oh vowels oh pitch
oh thrown fruit oh low cloud oh many mysterious bones
I cater
I regret
you are held hoarded cached
be expectant be ready