One section of this book, and it was actually originally
the final section of the book, was
titled after Jean Tinguely's kinetic art piece "Study
for the End of the World," which exploded
in Lake Jean, a stone's throw from the Nevada Testing
Site which was active during that time.
And so a lot in that section, I think
about ends in various ways, but particularly
sort of surrounding the idea of and the reality
of nuclear and atomic testing.
So this poem I'm going to read is
called "Incident Aboard the Lucky Dragon, March 1st, 1954,"
and it references an incident aboard the Lucky Dragon which
was a Japanese fishing boat which
was exposed to radiation in waters during a nuclear test.
And the last few lines include quotes
from the people that were aboard at the time
and witnessed the explosion.
"To name is to press what is into the shape of what also
is, the idea a perfect cylinder extending only so far and not
past.
As a hand reaches only so far, never past the
object that it grasps.
A contact across two distances forced into being,
not the difference, but through the slow accretion of the same.
Never anything but the result, the impossibility
of naming the there is, the there is.
For this reason, it is absolutely imperative
that language be general, that the act of nomination
should consume itself, indicating nothing.
That it be only its own description.
At first, a flash, a yellow light.
That it be a wondering what happened,
a jumping up from the bunk near the door,
running out onto the deck.
That it be astonished, be bridge, sky, and sea,
as each burst into view, painting in flaming colors
of a summer sun."