Timothy Lavenz: Lesson

Intervention by Bacco Artolini on ” La vocazione di S.Matteo” Caravaggio ( 1599-1600)

LESSON

Plague of the nameless? No—

fortified atrium for the aimless,

canopied by vervous space recouped

in silver timing’s ageless method,

that slow encroachment of Idea

upon history’s dawdling stage

laid to appearance-waste

by each small saying heartward

to meet the potential of light

in a coax of heightening quiet ,

warm as the ominous outside.

So if misfire is to none begrudged;

if the tonic is by ghosts chugged;

if each word ’ss deed is undone,

then let dawn the reign of instant’s fact

in one breadth, on e causeless

irradiation of caesuras, inhabitable,

surging purifications

staged into destined figures on the rise

in disguise of imperfect tract.

What a trade! That dynamic landing

shred into such distances, our bond

redeemed at last in latest stage

by a h airsbreadth of faith cinched down

and trembling understood.