As language. . .

Louis Dudek
From:   "En Mexico". Collected Poetry. Montreal: Delta Canada, 1971.

As language. . .Silence is also a language.
When there is no order in heaven
we make what we make
by luck, or strength,
or the composition of desire.
Power grows
          like vegetation,
and there are no preferences under heaven.

I do not know why a leaf should be of less worth
                    than a Vatican,
or why builders care.
The mathematical stones recite their logic
of cruelty and despair­­
we arose to gratify some searchless reason
shaping the empty air.

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