‘Can’t’ is ‘Night’

Leslie Scalapino

My text is for June Watanabe, Pauline Oliveros, Anshin Uchida, Toyoji Tomita,Shoko Hikage, and Philip Gelb in a collaboration with their dance and music.

[To hear Leslie Scalapino reading this work on Rob Holloway’s London radio program Up For Air, please return to the previous index page and download the sound file.]

 

(1) re — separation of character and
    night.
               ‘no language’ ‘with it’ — movement or language, here
   
   
(2) the real-time event (occurring) is the only thing there is/ ‘was’
  they’ve destroyed language so we have to destroy it in it not
   
                  movement
     
 
night exists at day — but is not the same night so
 
   night is not-existing then then is open to the senses
  she (someone) says our language is to remove boundless character of
 
night,
  
  that’s terror. when?
  their ‘lie’ — as that one’s  
  is to substitute for night, hers night ‘terror’ — say how ______. to
  reverse ‘their’ reverse of the boundless character of night can’t be
said
  
or moved either
  
  even though outside
  blues can’t exist outside either — as separation of character and
night.
  
 
so it’s separation of character and night 2
  
     
(3) our prisoner  
  was found on the ground outside standing before Bagram U.S.  
  military prison in Afghanistan which we’ve decimated, lie to, for
  something they didn’t do —
  the U.S. military take him in
  beat him to death, prisoners who interrogated chained hang while
    ‘our’ marines beat them to keep them
  awake if they fall asleep when hanging there
  present —blues can’t exist outside — or in character
  no night being — as woman who
  says ‘our’ language is to reverse
    night’s
  being — without edge — any night
    terror
  he’d committed no crime standing outside might
    be
  terrorist
  her separation of ‘our’ language from any real-
    time night
  order

 

 

 

 

 

(4) Major Elizabeth Rouse, pathologist, checked the homicide box
  to say he was murdered by U.S. military—events don’t fit
  in, at all — aren’t in language either — Major Elizabeth Rouse
  told the truth
  blues can’t exist outside now for
  night is not-existing then then is open to the senses to
  newspapers say (their corpses) one Iraqi man walks
  walks forward holds his AK47
  above his head, he defies our huge army somehow to walk to it
  what’s he thinking? as our soldiers kill him in movement he
  can't do

 

 

 

 

 

(5) says
  after the person’s attack on one in his
  saying one’s motion — is fixed, fixing it — where its
  intent
  is to have no place its motion is its theory
  he
  says the motion is one’s fixed self, which, if one speaks, one
  he says ‘imagines’ attack of his
  on one, that is
  that (is his reverse of one and others)
  he says one is self-centered in seeing it — not one is seeing his
  actions outside in fact — so, there is no event, no real-time
  — at all in that their/his language changes it always — is then
‘only’
  
  not its past action — or occurrence now
  separation of thinking and being
  the same is occurring outside ‘from’ war they make saying to them
  it’s liberating them not attacking
  before, our language is only coercion, in every conversation reverse
  event — any except
  themselves in ‘our’ language
  — in space at all — language is then

 

 

(6) since
  an event’s — not language — separation of character
  and
  night — is outside movement’s — separation of character and
  night 2
  day. as. bud ‘dis-placing’ is
  lineage. — both. (both the bud and ‘dis-placing’) single is ‘tree’s’
  buds
  there
  day. “we dropped a few civilians, but what do you do?” the sniper
  says “1 Iraqi soldier and 25 women and children, I didn’t take the
  shot,
  but 1 Iraqi soldier standing among 2 or 3 civilians,”
  sharp-shooter Sergeant Schrumpf remembering the
  woman going down — “the chick was in the way”
  events are against movement can’t be in
  one’s movement  
  ‘dis-placing’ terror by killing. not movement dis-placing language
  the Kurds just move in that space
  waves on a line across it (‘we’ve’) courted to fight and
  dropped them to be, were, slaughtered again court
  to have them attack on the lands
  where they’re slaughtered then wave on lines on one side in
  space ‘we’
  label them freedom fighters on the line’s other side the same
  ones ‘we’ label terror
  ists
  as words labels space—one— is there difference between the
  ‘basic space of
  phenomena’
  and
  the space of planets
  moon
  outside
  movement?

 

 

 

 

 

(7) “I expected them to surrender I thought they would all capitulate.”
  in the 3 days that followed,
  they did not. — many of the Iraqis, Sergeant Redmond
  said, attacked headlong into the cutting fire of tanks
 

and Bradley fighting vehicles

 

“I wouldn't call it bravery,” he

   
 

said. “I'd call it stupidity. we value a

  soldier's life so much more than they
  do. an AK47 isn't going to do
 

nothing against a Bradley”

  since we're to reverse with ‘our' language — boundless
 

characteristic of night

  as

day order

  Iraqis are fighting

tanks, aircraft, artillery, prison camps, torture

 

Sergeant Redmond thinks that's stupid. for him relation

  of language to movement: is
 

none?

  the relation of language to movement is: ‘none' in order to make
  that relation — there
  the only chance they have is
  at all
  night

 

 

 

 

(8) the phrase
 

‘the basic space of phenomena' is different from night space?

 

night's in

  event is ‘the basic space of phenomena' before occurrence
 

of the phenomena

  ‘we're' ‘our'
 

language is to reverse the boundless characteristic of night,

 

she (someone) says,

to reverse night's

  night is everywhere fierce fighting in Kut the south where
 

desperate

  Iraqis armed with rifles charged tanks in suicide
  raid. ‘we'
  mowed them down
  says Lt. Col. B.P. McCoy — tracer rounds lit night
   sky
  there
 

the battalion arrived after dark and settled

 

down for the night

  night is in the newspaper page only

 

 

(9) with no
  warning shot, fire killing
 

family of fifteen — or they fight ‘ our ' tanks with AK47s

  from pick-up trucks ‘ours' say those others are only lied to, not
 
brave
in ‘our' movement
(10) there is no way (‘reason') to live, following the day. I thought.
  ‘ our ' language is to (she says) reverse —
  the ‘basic space of phenomena' (phrase) and the space of planets moon's
 

not outside

 

 

(11) he characterizes ‘our' enemy, Iraqis, as murderers,
 

cowards, thugs — and he praises the U.S. force

  for their kindness and goodness. their Iraqi bodies lay
 

along the road. living these are all across night, they cross night, are

  not
  its
 

character

 

to reverse trees

  marines came and Iraqis left so quickly left cooking fires alight
 

and their guns they need them

  Baghdad plunges into darkness — can't be .
  ‘our' war everywhere — isn't/is — in ‘our' language
 

in movement of

 

one

 

 

 

(12)

has made living impossible. any way. ‘they'

 

destroy

 

language. destroy

 

night

 

fight with your hands

  they exhorted  
 

the Kurds just move in that space

  waves on a line across it (‘we've') courted to fight and
  dropped them to be, were, slaughtered again
 

‘ we ' have nowhere ahead — either —any way.

  she says ‘our' language is to reverse the bound
  less characteristic of night
 

to

 

destroy night to — without language — in it — two — outside

 

 

(13) destroy that language
 

for that

  night
   
 

there

 

 

(14)

this isn't about suffering we'd be suffering if ‘we' were

 

happy

  she (someone) says ‘our' language is reverse of the bound
 

less that's terrorist

 

terror characteristic of night's everything

  in my language / is ‘ours' only — to enter the boundless
  night
  night's
 

without language any

 

basic space of phenomena's not outside or in — is it there

  also?
  a man (someone) says a (this) syntax is a state of being
 

insanity — but it's attention only — to itself

 

I thought attention, and as its subject, cannot be insane? or

  may be breaking ‘his' reason this now
  phenomena
  ‘our' being ‘happy' (emotion that's convention) is ‘ours'
  not
 

in events outside is insane

  the outside and the inside cannot be there
  in ‘our' character? if it is uncompounded
 

or re — in attention (one cannot be regarding), either —

 

that

  separation of character and
 

night

  night cannot be seen
  regarding is separation of one from others only
  here not-regarding
 

collective now — having driven the Iraqis insane

  attention now is insane — is dependent on the separation
 

of character and night 2, not in movement— either — them

 

in ‘our' thought, language, ‘our' movement is before

 

(language) and later.

 

the civilians had to be killed on the road

  fleeing Baghdad because they were there as
    ‘we're' (invading)
  — is not ‘our' movement in that it has occurred already —

 

 

(15) the breaking of reason not inside movement of
  one's
  —

moon and movement — of one's or

 

at all (and moon) — is the breaking of reason.

 

one's is ‘theirs'

 

 

(01) it's ‘not repeated' — ‘to produce' —that is:
  ‘be-dualistic’ — at all
  is night’s space
  even — not
  their — that’s outside — despair is one’s physical
  movement bud’s
  lineage
  outside
  at once
  on one night

 

 

(02) to reverse
  ‘our’ language’s reverse of nights night-boundless-
  ness or movement
  of/in
  one’s — disintegrating also —
  skin that’s movement only then
    ‘can’t’
    is
    ‘night’

 

 

(16) their despair is one’s physical movement (not).
  language is
  crushed.
  “2 Iraqis sat in despair.” after their dead
  coincide with night after
  (and after night’s over). the breaking of reason — a
  man seeing.

 

 

(17) as if by favoring war
  is meant its reverse
  reverse trees
  night characteristic
  I can’t see/comprehend it’s (before night) ‘the basic
  space of phenomena’
  phrase
  he’s been reversed in language — ‘we’re’ ‘killing as its
  reverse’
  ‘our’ character is even in night_________ say how?

 

 

(18) the breaking of reason
  is silent seeing movement (of one’s)
  language
  since these ’re in utter isolation only, that is
  everyone
    is
  as language as social/and dawn.
  their despair is one’s physical movement (not).

 

 

(19) long movement (single) does not repeat
  the outside
  ‘isn’t’/ ‘is’ the same as ‘his’ night crushing language
  of one — night’s
  space even?
  he/someone else intends actual
  sky even to reverse its night/as language/one not —
  while (one) dawn-waking actually (‘at’ dawn yet one there
  also)
  dawn in the same space
  as one is.
  someone/it’s not possible for him to do any thing even
  without attacking someone else first, he
  can’t,
  he’s never done so. defensive
  is
  be-dualistic
  he can’t stand (in front of others) without first
  attacking someone what is
  this space (in front of others)?
  he can’t sustain
  others because he
  will not. ‘then’
  present.
  isn’t reason — reason is insane
  movement of one’s
  is theirs
  their despair
  already it?
  that space/social even and not dualistic isn’t
  even
  because that would be dualistic,
  it night sky would . ‘be-dualistic'
  in

nights not mirror

  and: ‘our' tyrant makes/‘is' the war expanding in
  an outside the outside breaking reason
  is —
 

‘isn't'/ ‘is' — the same as ‘his' night crushing language

 

of one — night's

  space even. long movement (single)
 

sky even to reverse its night/as language/‘one not' —

  while (one) dawn-waking actually (‘at'
 

dawn yet one there dawn also

(22) A wave is sucked into sleep then
 

the forest is completely separate from the

  people always —

outside and

 

separate from the war

  though
 

the forest destroyed or growing

 

is in the war

 

the forest is balanced on the night and

  then balanced on the day
 

at the same time. after — is the same time later

  the forest wave if the trees
 

are still even on night

 

is one wave moving on day

  that's war whether day
  appears still. day is in war. separate from the forest
  day still appears. the forest
 

is black at night black

 

fire goes away at night though night's still

 

the dark gangly sleek moose come out and shy

 

away

  vertically
  though one moves
  across night for long distances wave of
  forest

 

 

(23) immense light on the endless lake at
  night black
  the ducks fly across it
  night vertically
 

the dark gangly sleek moose roam at

 

will in the forest

 

wave on the endless still lake

  never black
  then
  the endless lake moves night
 

black

 

 

 

(24) the forest rushes to the road
 

push

  steel rumpled thunderous clouds are
 

at the road at

  the forest meeting ahead — at one's side
  forest wave rushing horizontally
  to
  the rumpled steel clouds everywhere ver-
  tically
  race to the endless lake steel light in it
 

sky of rain descends everywhere vertically

 

then

  black bear rambles gracefully in the sheets
 

rain-vertical-grass

  in day separating night horizontally
  above

 

 

 

(25) occurrence in structure unseen
  words on a sign “owl rafting” the
 

dark mist separates morning from night so the

  forest wave
 

begins

  to rush
 

but the forest moved at night

  unseen by one rafting
  the night rafting the owl, unseen by one, the
 

forest rafting

  the owl
 

rafting the night forest — one rafting

  only and unseen owl-night
  at forest-wave
  there

 

(26) — woman saying our language is to reverse
  night — is ‘for' that — not producing —
  night uncontrolled
  is occurrence in structure unseen
  at all
  not producing at all — one's seeing —
  but the forest moved
  at
 

night rafting

 

NOTE: With thanks to Belladonna* Books, New York. Originally published in pamphlet form in November 2003 by Belladonna*: please check their website for details, or contact belladonnaseries@yahoo.com

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