Finding the measure is finding the mantram, is finding the moon, as index of measure, is finding the moon's source; if that source is Sun, finding the measure is finding the natural articulation of ideas. The organism of the macrocosm, the organism of language, the organism of I combine in ceaseless naturing to propagate a fourth, the poem, from their trinity. Style is death. Finding the measure is finding a freedom from that death, a way out, a movement forward. Finding the measure is finding the specific music of the hour, the synchronous consequence of the motion of the whole world.
From Red Actions: Selected Poems 1960-1993. Copyright © 1995 by Robert Kelly. Used by permission of the author.