The Ghent Review Vol 1 number 2 | Page 3

David Hayden
Be / not be / BE
Seemingly / everything as if / on the verge ( so to speak ) / of itself So speak / speak again / if only to yourself Dialogue of one / from silence to spoken / borderland figure and experience Shoreline mind / depth and surface are one ?/ one is always one Or so it seems Also a verge / as if sand and sea were meeting Now there is only the recitation / even if crude and coarse Like a bird unable to sing its song or singing some deformed version / ( we have heard these versions many times ) Would you have it otherwise ? / you would and you wouldn ’ t Walk the shoreline / cast stones at the tide / seemingly a verge But no seemingly / everything on the verge / of becoming Becoming so as to be itself / ( surely it is thus and not other ?) Everything itself and other / ( let some recital anoint that with meaning ) Itself / define that according to the verge Do not / do not move from the ledge / sand the sea washes / a footprint As if / that might be spoken unto yourself / as other to yourself Which is and will be / where A is not necessarily A Think that through / true / a monologue / now Now is ever / ever is infinity / infinity begins in the now of ever ( think on that my sweet ones / think ) Be / ( or )/ not being as be / but being Was and will be / seemingly / if is is as was Being and non-being / how not be yet know it ? We and it / cannot / in the same moment Be If strings are silent / what music / how respond to absence ?