Fractions (Sound Examined)
Squeeze the fractions from out of my heart the thirds and quarters leaving only wholeness
squeeze out language let sound replace gesture as the guiding principle
remembering that everything is abstraction at some level we build our own patterns to model the things that we believe in
a life even half-lived is a better life than one never lived at all we live out our partials as we search for completeness
as we search for complexity inside the “natural”
* * * * *
I am in a room inside a house sitting at a glass desk that reflects only what has angles to light sources I am searching for a certain state a certain stage where quietness is possible where the sound of traffic whispers past in a series of small crescendos
* * * * *
the sound of in-between is a pure white sound that dazzles as we search for color
the half-life of sound as a car dopplers past into declining frequency
outside birds flit between the denseness of magnolia and a feeder that is at some fraction of “full”
the sounds of the birds overlay the whiteness of noise the way a cardinal overlays the thickening of snow.
A Unified Theory of Flow
Theme taken as revelation as thread emerges from flow unaware of significance
uncovering the state at which meaning emerges from art at which suffering is revealed by meaning as words pile on words as slowly form reveals content and connotation becomes denotation
discuss the idea that implicit is preferable at all times to explicit discuss what pompous hauteur this is
shrinking from meaning but that is choice shrinking from the direct from the unambiguous reveling in the enigmatic
effusion movement into emptiness into space filling space with words taken as given taken as gift
at what point does art become psychology
the psychology of brain states as necessary for art versus the psychology of brain states as necessary for sport or in other words that flow is flow
the analytic is secondary
Paul Ilechko is the author of the chapbooks Bartok in Winter (Flutter Press, 2018) and Graph of Life (Finishing Line Press, 2018). His work has appeared in a variety of journals, including Manhattanville Review, formercactus, Sheila-Na-Gig, Marsh Hawk Review and Rockvale Review. He lives with his partner in Lambertville, NJ.