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Threnody for the Letter M

The maker is blessed, though babble be the measure

of the necessary wood, that matter, the mind’s muttering

 

sounds, μὺ μῦ, a hum, a moan, a moon, the myth a mouth

is, making murmur into the intricate dust of the moth’s

 

fragile wing, muons & other charms, museums & music,

a syllable in the chaos, & how can it be what is, Par-

 

menides & Pythagoras, an is and is-not, & a letter that

might be a god, a god in the old sense, in which an elm

 

leaf is also a god, & so is a thief, &

blessed is the maker, though mumbling be the measure

 

of the inevitable self, begun when a letter begins, or just after,

a sound being no letter until suddenly it is, who made that happen?—

 

a mother did, or a memory—or Memory—mother of us all,

us blessed makers, making of ourselves the mouth that births us.