Michael Palmer Poems

As if by saying "morning" on January 8th
the light would be set forward
along the megalophonous shore
...

Those who have lived here since before
time are gone while the ones who must
replace them have not yet arrived.
...

He stopped part way across the field to
sit down and rest. An eagle
descended from the sky and an angel with the face of death
...

(for two voices)


Let's see, how could you describe this to a listener? How can I describe this to our listeners? My head is in a steel vise I have been on a long voyage—a sea voyage—I have been travelling, sailing in a white ship, the
...

The limit of the song is this
prelude to a journey to
the outer islands, the generative
sentence, waltz project, forms,
...

[Let a be taken as . . .]
a liquid line beneath the skin
and b where the blue tiles meet
body and the body's bridge
...

Plan of the City of O. The great square
curves down toward the cathedral. The
water runs out into night where the patron
saint still maintains his loft. He enters
...

The Logic of Contradictions
A logical principle is said to be an empty
or formal proposition because it can add
nothing to the premises of the argument it
...

The voice, because of its austerity, will often cause dust to rise.

The voice, because of its austerity, will sometimes attempt the representation of dust.

Someone will say, I can't breathe—as if choking on dust.
...

(for Sarah when she's older)
The round and sad-eyed man puffed cigars as if
he were alive. Gillyflowers
to the left of the apple, purple bells to the right
...