A Tonalist Poetry Feature

Jesse Seldess

from «Which Is Exhibited»

If I let the ending
Wishes in the air

If I let the ending

If I left the ending

If I let the ending continue
Which is in the air
What you wished for

Which is desire

If I let the ending continue
Which is entire in the air

If I left impending continue

If I left the end to you
Which is regenerating your sleep


Which is longing to be misspelled

Wishes belonging to be misspelled

Which is unequivocally misspelled

A part of the tissue
The tissue being looked at


If I let understanding which is belonging to me

If I left understanding to you
The part of the issue

If I let understanding
Which is belonging to me
Not only in my dreams

If I let understanding
Wishes belonging to me

If I let understanding variously
Withstand

If I let understanding variously
Which is belonging to me
Withstand indirect
Wishes belonging to me

Exhibited not only through dreams


That gets understanding variously

Exhibited wishes belonging to me


If we let the ending

I let the end continue
So that which is misspelled
In your regenerative sleep


If I let the end continue
Misspelled which is being notated

If I let the ending continue
Which is misspelled by being notated

I let the ending continue
Which is belonging to the rotation

Which is misspelled by being rotated

If I left the ending for you
Which is belonging

If I left understanding to you
Which is misspelled by your dreams

Which is expelled from your dreams

Which is misspelled dreams

If I left understanding to you
Which is unequivocal

If I left understanding to you
Part of the issue misspelled

If I let the ending
If I let the ending continue
If I left impending continue
If I left the end to you
We can meet in this place





And we can look at objects

If I let the ending
Which is the air you wished for



We can look at the map of the city


We can look at the floorplan
And find the map of the city


We look at the floorplan
Demarcating the time


We look at the map of the city


We look at the floorplan
Demarcating

Regenerative time that we share

Aspects of the museum

And there’s no way out of the museum
Without passing them


Which doesn’t preclude
The possibility to not talk about
How we see it






I don’t know you
But they belong to us



They are on exhibit
I don’t know you

But we are meeting here



They are on exhibit
They exhibit us
They belong to us
They belong on exhibit
They are no exit

Have no exit
They are no exhibit


But they belong on exhibit
They exhibit us
But they belong to us
They belong on exhibit
But they exhibit us
But they belong




We can meet in this place
And we can look


We can meet in this place
And we can look at objects

With their properties
With their explanations



They are on exhibit
But they belong to us


In fact there’s no way
Into the rest of the space
Without looking at them



And ask why

We still have to look at them

Jesse Seldess lives in Karlsruhe, Germany with his wife, the artist Leonie Weber. He edits Antennae, a journal of experimental writing and language-based music and performance scores at http://www.antennae-journal.com/, and is the author of two books of poems, Who Opens and On Condition of the Others Being Present (Kenning Editions, 2006 and forthcoming). “Which Is Exhibited” appears in full in An Instance, a chapbook sampler on Instance Press.