Poems and Poetics: Rochelle Owens: Beloved the Aardvark, Part Three
[The third & concluding section of Owens’s major opus]
Evolution is smart
clean clear and simple gaps
in the sequence of
events laid down and eroded away
hungry or thirsty
eat or drink body of data
data of body
audible inaudible
the rhythm the rhythm of
spontaneous change
letters spell out
o b l i t e r a t e
a jaw opens and closes
carnal/spiritual
vigilant the babe sucking
*
On a giant computer
screen vibrating subatomic
particles shape
the contours of a skull
and in your
mammalian brain tendons
and nerves pulsate
craving licking
burning chunks rupturing flesh
cinnamon cumin and honey
five lambs
slaughtered for the feast
carnal/spiritual 2
*
Under an occult sky
of greens and yellows the tattoo
artist bites into an apple
chewing and swallowing
moisture and nutrients flow in
the tattoo artist’s brain
seized with jittery energy
chewing and swallowing
inhaling exhaling a layer of skin
the skin
a montage of bite marks
chewing and swallowing
inhaling exhaling the breath blowing
kisses along the digestive tract
spirals of veins
pulsate from mouth to rectum
blood in blood out
seized with jittery energy
chewing and swallowing
inhaling exhaling drawing zigzags
of black lines
a layer of skin the skin
the canvas absorbing sunlight
inhaling exhaling
drawing zigzags
of black lines drawing a fetal skull
sprouting tooth buds
the universe
contains everything that exists
letters that spell out 3
r u i n s c a p e
*
After waking
and lying down trust your
instinctual senses
disturbingly informative
tears mucus
albumen a goat smile
on your lips
*
Long ago
an hour ago only a minute
in the here and now
in the zone
diverging from a course
of events
spirals of wind and fire
layers of brown dust
*
Out of an ant hill
curved like an embrace
a waft of air
and morning
to evening and evening
to morning
audible inaudible
an unknown word letters
that spell out
A m f a t t e h r
* 4
The bones that form
the Aardvark Venus rays of light
penetrate your fingers
drawing black lines
spirals of muscles blood vessels
a long cylindrical tongue
biomorphic geomorphic
polymorphic corkscrews of white
smoke
slashes slashes of solar light
*
Long ago an hour ago
only a minute a black line
shapes itself
an image on a rock
subatomic particles pulsate
the universe contracts
e x p a n d s
*
The warmest of mothers
moves in circles massive her claws
digging searching
body of data data
of body the Aardvark Venus
her rabbitlike ears
heating to the
temperature of human skin
a long cylindrical tongue
work is a binding obligation
blood in blood out
her breast vein as thick as a finger
mounds of sand appear
disappear
lines of ants appear disappear
a hissing sound
suffer the Aardvark children
*
Listening to Willie Nelson
you witness a lovely desert sunset
a goat smile on your lips
mounds of sand appear
disappear and morning to evening
evening to morning
9 breakfasts 5 lunches 6 dinners
white the summer blossoms
a girl in your arms hungry or thirsty
eat and drink
*
On the wall of a cave
in the Sahara in a zone diverging
from a course of events
disease famine torture war
in a sacred refuge or a tomb
Behold! the Aardvark Venus
luminous the overlapping
charcoal drawings charcoal fed
with wind and fire
charcoal fed with blood and sunlight
*
Earth Air Fire Water
hormonal forces evoke
the rhythm of spontaneous change 6
inhaling exhaling
moisture and nutrients
flow through your mammalian brain
inhaling exhaling
the universe contracts e x p a n d s
seized with jittery energy
inhaling exhaling
flexing contracting evoking
the rhythm
the rhythm of spontaneous change
disease famine torture war
rays of light
penetrate your vulva scrotum
sphincter
illuminate your heart
your hand cupping the little god
mounds of sand appear
disappear
out of an ant hill curved
like an embrace
Earth Air Fire Water
– Rochelle Owens
[author’s comment: “To look at the image of an Aardvark is to take a cosmic Rorschach test, and like a cubist mural is both a microcosm and macrocosm. You understand
Intuitively – a Cartesian resolution of body and spirit. The poem presented here is the third of a series of poems titled ‘Beloved the Aardvark,’ related I suppose to the poem ‘Devour Not the Elephant’ that appeared earlier in Poems and Poetics.” (Rochelle Owens).
Intuitively – a Cartesian resolution of body and spirit. The poem presented here is the third of a series of poems titled ‘Beloved the Aardvark,’ related I suppose to the poem ‘Devour Not the Elephant’ that appeared earlier in Poems and Poetics.” (Rochelle Owens).
And Marjorie Perloff on the unique power & pitch of Owens’ exploratory work, from the 1960s to the present: ‘Rochelle Owens’ writing … is sui generis. She is, in many ways, a proto-language poet, her marked ellipses, syntactic oddities, and dense and clashing verbal surfaces recalling the long poems of Bruce Andrews and Ron Silliman. But Owens is angrier, more energetic, and more assertive than most of her Language counterparts, male and female, and she presents herself as curiously non-introspective.”
Part One of Beloved the Aardvark can be found here on Poems and Poetics, and Part Two can be found here.]
Source: Poems and Poetics: Rochelle Owens: Beloved the Aardvark, Part Three
word pond 
glad to be introduced to rochelle’s writing thanks d.f.
welcome, dirk!