Rae Armantrout, Brand-New Pulitzer Prize Winner

(Heard this in class today, thought about Levinas and the Other. Enjoy!)

Intact
1

From what I don’t recall
I am able to infer
what didn’t happen
in a given setting

while you can’t or won’t

so that
I might have been behind you
in the boat
or you might have been alone
or accompanied by strangers.

Alternates persist
since they aren’t named as such.

On the other hand, I feel
the removal of one element
changes the event
so it must disappear

(intact)

2

If thunder clapped,

small flowers
at leaf joints

stared straight ahead
in silence.

Did rocks react?

Try to recall

http://jacketmagazine.com/12/arman.html