James McCrary - West of Mass, Part II

WEST OF MASS

Part II

James McCrary

GRIST On-Line
P.O. Box 20805
Columbus Circle Station
New York, New York 10023

The complete West of Mass was previously published as a paperback book: West of Mass, 1992, Tansy Press, John Moritz, editor, 1031 Maine. Lawrence, KS, 66044; ISBN 1-881175-01-4, 72 pp., $8.00

from the book jacket:

"As Jim McCrary says

It's all in the fingers now trees grow on computers from the mind and eventually become "strange" this isn't just the way it is it is the way it is

I believe him, it is so. Actually it's a matter of `spelling'-- where (& how) the world materializes, in "the Mission", "Santa Fe", or down by "the river" (Kaw?), where it comes around/about by a "line of tone" or three

or is there only one river and I name it by sight

- a real hard wail from the river bottoms down/up both shores, for what benefit "Kansas Magic Realism" may offer this world!"

- Robert Grenier

WEST OF MASS

Part II

THE EFFECT OF SUN, LIGHT, SHADOW, COLD AND RAIN ON UPPER NOE VALLEY, SAN FRANCISCO, CA. WINTER 1989/90

All that

breaking

over

East

a day's

light

the Bay.

It's just

not right

across the

Mission

the sheen

it is

a bit

too

late I suppose

whatever

it becomes

the barrio

from here

reminds me

things go on

and

times past

when summer

light

was very

important.

Joined by the cat

(or so it seems)

in bored and

somnambulate

observation

of the shadow

running

on time

down to

24th.

With the fog

the only object

to throw

shadow

is the car

parked below.

"throw?"

All I know

now contained

and hopefully

aligned with whatever

is behind

the cloud

day like this

time like this

breath like this

it all adds up

maximum use

I say

to myself.

Again

what always

takes me is

how it all

runs down

to 24th.

It's not just

still light

it's just not

light enough.

Dusk on 24th.

Some things

come up

so quick

sky light

behind a great cliff

fog

through the

ripple

of glass

splintered

sun

across

a day

smooth

over

hard edge

and into

night

re collected

again by

some

un ruled

plane.

Some time there

is no light

okay

street light

street lights

street car lights

fog lights

fog light

from the

street

light.

Then the six year old

from below tells me

it's not

dark scary

night

it's just

one

big

shadow.

After all

a light rain

becomes

the block

reluctant cats

and

car sheen

gather along

the curb

a day

reflected

before the

wack

dawn.

SAUER GRAPES

(1)

There is beyond the window

a body of water

reflective

surrounded by a fence

which looks to be

in dis repair

and an egret not

on the fence but twice

you see on water

that a surface

collects

all of it

which strikes me.

Something noticed

a line

say barb fence

or wind row

how what it is

divides

comes up off

a difference

seen

not how it

feels to see

and what

that does.

(2)

Perhaps it is

landscape becomes

language

like an element

of a scene

raised up

hard enough

to work out

and put down

in words

of containment.

(3)

(There is no reason

for this to appear

coincidence a pen and

paper.)

(4)

Why is it that fence?

Is it all geometric

just lines

aligned

to what is

seen

and then a pattern

laid on it

sign

sound

line.

THE EARTH REALLY IS ROUND,
ISN'T IT?

To some adding another leaf is to spend

all season waiting

what falls is already done

where it lands is over before

gravity assumes any importance

what the stick drops

I pick up and never will

discover a reason

all of which points to

lives put down

the old solution

what to do with process

if it is all a matter of fact

then why bother trying to prove

anything ever is caught

riding a bus doesn't free the sight

we're all moving toward something

and if I can see straight

I'm just fooling myself.

There ain't no straight it's all flush.

READING NOTES

It's all in the fingers now

trees grow on computers

from the mind

and eventually become "strange"

this isn't just the way it is

it is the way it is

continuing

going out as big

as it can get

and that becomes

the same size

it always was.

So where do things lie

across the field of shape

and size does it mean nothing

now that we can find it all

or do we just

keep looking

Smaller or larger which was it

where did this begin

the word caught up in it

and if that goes on long enough

will it block out the white

or will the black just block out

Why try to lay words on anything

it's just a method of telling

the only result is smaller

nothing lasts long enough to be seen

the next line just falls around the last

of if Z2+C is punched up

that climbs around

the one above

until only shapes remain

What was that snyp

where was that line

what can anyone say

who says we can line it up

this is just one try

lock it up and print it out

see where it goes

Fold over again

turn 2 into 3

crumple it

try a line

fold it over again

reduce it to block

black block again

just find where

it will fit

then try

to lay it all out

but that doesn't work.

Can't lay anything down

there is no down left.

RIVER NOTES 4/4/91

Walking up the road to the house

left or what is left

uh right

now across the view

a head

okay youse guys out of this loop

please

it's Abbott and Costello jumping in at the

slightest reference

can't help the history held by

cells youse lose em and they come back

snypin and crackin like yard

dogs behind that fence I

try to track

along the tracks

You see it's gone

what comes up

left with a simple rightness

thought up by my neurons

nothing so simple as a view left

but that is direction

chosen by whatever means

to get into it - that is -

the lines out turned in

to bring them flush

(nothing straight)

where was I

vineyard in California

"...the road flamed (framed) in

full blown yellow..."

mustard waist high in rows

between the vines

more lines

A. Are straight lines more atomically active than curved?

B. Nothing is straight on earth.

A. Yeh - but - on the earth - viewed up the line - vine or

barbed?

B. Well electricity likes it that way - light seems to.

All this attraction to what

lines tried and retried

attempts to make it reel

why bother

if I've seen one river haven't I seen them all

or is there only one river and

I name it by sight

A. If I wait long enough what comes?

B. 6:50 Santa Fe - westbound and late.

A. That's it?

B. That's real.

A. Yeh but what about the clouds, for instance?

B. Ever see a cloud stop a GE 24000 hp diesel

doing 60 between Eudora and Lawrence.

A. You can't answer a question with a question. See

Bradshaw.

B. Bradshaw! The guy who put the art of mobile making

back 500 years?

A. You did it again.

B. What?

A. I give up.

B. Good start.

Consider this

"...the carp comes up to feed

perhaps successfully

leaves only rings and one less

gnat the former being what

remains to me..."

B. Not much there.

A. Your right.

B. Whatta ya gonna do with it?

A. It's the rings see - look back here

"...targets remain

"...the only rings left

"...hoops

It's how I stop for crissakes.

B. Don't watch the carp then.

A. I don't watch em - they just pop up.

B. So the river don't ring when your out of it.

A. That's it isn't it?

B. Could be.

A. What's left is no river?

B. Shore line.

A. Ahhh...lines.

B. Santa Fe horn.

A. A line of tone?

B. Could be.

A. I hear that.

B. Yeh...but can you write it?

If you look for something you'll never find it

If you stare at something long enough it will disappear

If you chip at something what's left

Why are the reflections so dull

Of all the sound why the train

I can only see so much then it

curves out of my sight

What goes by

silent comes from around the bend

Again all I want is in

front of me

I could begin a thousand times - lines.

Go to Poems of the Place by James McCrary
Go to An Introduction to James McCrary by John Fowler

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WEST OF MASS Part II