LOTHIAN
it was a great rush
to confront solidity
events planned to
coexist in drawings’ grace
gave way of breathing
properly, not be
too furiously injected
into others’ arguments
but delicate landscape’s
imagining an unreal,
shimmering
presence behind
tension, the desire
eventually, if noticed,
leads to paths
through marvelous
epochal hills
sheep where one’s
soul cries out
as elsewhere
great stones of
cathedrals
universities on
rocky coast subside
nature planted
long histories
that do not face
their music echo
geometric glass
then return
to cities
of races
mixed places
where
one moves
to interpret
change
in weather
rhythm
constant
hum is living
one knows the
tempo of, is
never short
EVENING LIED
A crack in the clouds, through which
The blue of Spring, and buds all around.
The waves keep lapping towards us,
Soon the sailboats will be departing.
Today, a sailor told a tale of how he
Handles storms, his pictures seem so
Calmly arranged, friezes of pleasure.
HADRIAN
| Publius Aelius Hadrianus | a shafted hunt |
| his paternal grandfather married Trajan’s aunt | heft |
| Trajan takes young Hadrian as his ward | a longing toward a loss |
| several times tribune | study and effect |
| accompanies Trajan to Rome | travel broadens |
| marries Vibia Sabina | but the blues |
| quaestor | pulls inward |
| staff-officer | to a point |
| archivist | a higher and higher |
| plebeian tribune | pushing |
| commander | an affect |
| praetor | and sudden |
| governor of Lower Pannonia | process |
| suffect consul | to thousands |
| member of priestly colleges | there are eyes |
| in 111 or 112 elected archon of Athens | and dead hands |
| governor of Syria | collective crash |
| Trajan dies in Cilicia on 8 August 117 | stick |
| on the 9th announced at Antioch | and the push |
| he’d adopted Hadrian as successor | ultimate |
| 11 August dies imperii | but it goes up |
| circumstances unfortunate, even ambiguous | a head |
| succession not a matter for armed contention | regardless of |
| Prompt abandoning of Trajan’s imperialist policy | thought |
| in the East | blown badness |
| Imperial Civil Service staffed by graded and salaried | intellect wrapped |
| knights or imperial consilium | expanded |
| Decides to go on a tour of the provinces | buzz tone |
| military organization | Hollywood |
| the need to recognize—and guide— | all goes to |
| provincial aspirations by showing himself as their | that old place |
| common symbol; his own desire | sex abounds |
| to learn provincial conditions especially | in a wall |
| in Hellenized areas advertises | on a border a catch |
| his policy by coins | a wilderness for loving |
| travels to Gaul, the Rhine, living | low as horizon took |
| the soldier’s life | grey miles accepted |
| Crosses from Holland to Britain in 121 | weighty statements |
| establishes the triple limes | proferred finally as text |
| frontier-wall of Roman Britain | known to do the job |
| 80 Roman Miles | of policing ideas |
| Wallsend-on-Tyne to Bowness-on-Solway | voluptuous sentiment |
| 10 feet thick and 15 feet high | they met by the canal |
| excluding battlements | every third minute |
| 20 feet thick at base and 12 feet high | and could see that places |
| a V-shaped ditch (27 feet wide and 15 feet deep) | opened how their bodies |
| patrols lie in attached mile-castles | could play upon one another |
| towered gates to north | and lights on water |
| intermediate turrets | there too a lonely instrument |
| as work progresses, changes come | and walking words powered |
| patrol-track runs along south side of the ditch | by a woman’s intellect |
| reached by causeways at the mile-castles | pushing to the capitol |
| public passages pierce both mounds | place where religion sits |
| crossed by ditch on a causeway | in politics’ skin ear |
| Returning to Gaul (commemorates Plotina’s death | settled in books and |
| by a temple at Nimes) reaches Spain by 122 | magazines of times and |
| sails from Spain, tours Asia, the Troad, | beliefs in cults |
| Poropontis, Phrygia | exorcism of wealth as |
| favoring communities, leaves for Greece | again turning left |
| returns to Rome via Sicily | belief system a real |
| next year visits Africa | attempt to drown |
| to revise land-tenure on imperial domain-lands | tedious 40 hours |
| After a few weeks in Rome, leaves to winter in | that sticking sound |
| Athens, dedicates the Olympieum, himself | founders on |
| Zeus Panhellenios, accepts title | history, one’s |
| ‘Olympius’ | and the nation’s |
| travels to Caria, Cilicia, Cappadocia, Syria | the picture allowed us |
| journeys up the Nile (there to lose Antinous, q.v.) | of crooked, realized sons |
| returns to Rome | that talent gone awry |
| Builds a shrine to Jupiter Capitolinus on site of | haywire instinct, fathoming |
| temple at Jerusalem | sick systems of remuneration |
| with or without prohibition of circumcision | the head falls in a pallet |
| this precipitates revolt | a bullet singing by the side |
| drawing Hadrian to Antioch | urgent singing, a stick |
| a siege of Jerusalem — widespread repressive | cast into a road by a |
| measures | horse crippled at rest |
| Judaea becomes Syria Palaestina | several seasons witness |
| to Christianity as such Hadrian’s attitude was | foreign intrusions dance |
| that of Trajan | with poetry smitten |
| Provincial extortion is rare | somber edict |
| conditions of slavery ameliorated | gangster rhythm now |
| in jurisdiction relative progress | centers accrete, slow |
| circuit-judges | vision recused allow |
| by 129, one code drawn up | turbulent inroad |
| Hadrian allows no treason charges | war taken to rest |
| Spanish-born and Greek-inspired, intellectual, | herded into taxis |
| critic and connoisseur, littérateur, | symbols in river son |
| accomplished musician and artist, ‘the mature | couldn’t exist simply |
| pleasures of peaceful life at Rome’ | but was simplicity |
| Government enlightened centralization | constructed as ever |
| plain debt to the gods | but as never interconnected |
| succession must be clear | glamour and architecture |
| especially if plotting begins | as memory or invitation |
| Hadrian adopts L. Aelius | beginning and end |
| turns to Antoninus Pius | synthesized |
| In 138, conmsumptive and dropsical, he dies | not far from home |
| aged sixty-three | existing at pattern |
| now-famous verses on his lips | fathoming difference |
| buried in Mausoleum he built | and seeing horizons |
| deified at length | dim at last |
| perhaps alienated, perhaps apathetic | a quiet sleep |
Vincent Katz curated an exhibition on Black Mountain College for the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid and is the editor of Black Mountain College: Experiment In Art (MIT, 2002; reprinted 2013). He is the author of the book of translations, The Complete Elegies Of Sextus Propertius (Princeton, 2004), winner of the 2005 National Translation Award from the American Literary Translators Association, and of Alcuni Telefonini, a book of poems done in collaboration with painter Francesco Clemente (Granary Books, 2008). Katz is the publisher of Libellum books. He curates the Readings in Contemporary Poetry Series at Dia Art Foundation in New York City.
Originally published in
Featuring interviews with John Ashbery, Charlemagne Palestine, Juan Isle, Giuliana Bruno, Lola Arias, Roxane Gay, Tania Bruguera, and Joe Sola.
Work that is just about the technical or conceptual, personal or political, is fine; it meets the world with what’s in fashion. But there’s something else bordering on magic, that brings an artwork home, makes it land and resonate. You can’t really teach that so much as conjure it.
Kara Walker
