Quick "Close/Closet Read" of j/j hastain poming:

That’s a bang-bang dang nice piece/poem, bit of poming you sent me in e-mail the other day, by the way. Was just revisiting it again a minute ago – and able to give it good concentration, j/j hastain:

A piece I composed yesterday for the sake of--




like lavender being poured over a section of purring

rice.

globules emerging. something like a hymen

being reborn

through dreams of being lifted in rare ways.

these messages of dark through dark.

these cleanlinesses that result from and rely on

rogue.

Snagged at “purring” but then delighted when, following “sneaky” line break there, you delivered “rice” (making “purring” an adjective, after all, AND keeping it as “mind’s eye” noun/meaning at the same time. Very long lead into it, and one begins sensing discomfort that one will be a little bit disappointed (as purring, so utterly ethereal and “Romantic” (re: Pound, or maybe it was Williams, what’s it all matter, anyhow, the uninformed don’t get it and the rulers of Poetry Cosmos use the last names like badges of high ranks) railing against “fuzzy,” NOT “hard, cold” more “objective” language, Imagists ) contrasted with hard, cold “fact” of “lavender” made the end of the line appear, MOMENTARILY, excessively dreamy, vague, too soft, “fuzzy,” but then – and standing all alone for emphasis, set off with its own single line – there’s “rice.” And one (can) proceed as “curious as ever” to see what lays ahead – as it turns out, more good and UNIQUE, thoroughly substantial, non-transparent (but also NOT SO “opaque” as to be meaninglessly indeterminate) poming.