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.