The Theory of the Poem of Anne Carson
1
On occasion the thinkable
filters through the retaining walls
of language.
This occurs above all in the poem.
A form of stopping the leakage
is by inserting conditionals.
Conditionals are red.
This is the theory of the poem of A. Carson.
2
The color red is the color of cliché.
The color red is the color of italics.
Italics seduce thinking.
This is the theory of the poem of A. Carson.
3
Life is an immobile.
To give way to the sea is a property of immobiles.
My dog gives way to the sea.
If he always does.
4
A commentary of M. Black to the theory of A. Carson
If I say,
“if in the next five seconds
I throw a die, it will be four”
and I don’t throw it,
I don’t throw it,
therefore I can, correctly, say:
“You saw?”
5
If all the green of the spring were blue, and it is…
This is Wallace Stevens in his best moment.
He not only throws the antecedent of a conditional
but he also says it’s true.
Therefore.
Therefore Stevens believes that this
allows him to conclude anything.
Very well, and?
It’s like if Inti Garcia Santamaría were to say
his vision is an island
and truly it is. It is an island.
6
Perhaps the theory of the poem of A. Carson is not
a theory of the poem
after all.
If not before all. I want to say,
I don’t want you to ascend to the top
I don’t want haciendas at the top
what did you want to say?
The first is a banality.
The second is resistance against the capitalist
system.
7
If p then q.
This is the theory of the poem of A. Carson
but only if p is false.