1. In Search of Space

    Matt Borruso, In Search of Space, cut paper collage, 2011

    IN SEARCH OF SPACE
    - for Cynthia Mitchell  

    first we looked north

    beneath the mountains, was there space?

    was there space under the winter?

    would the apparatus take the river?

    all through the fall there had been camping

    all through the autumn leaves were falling

    all through the fall, sleeping among ourselves

    all through the autumn we fed one another

    history was spiraling, we sank into history

    now we were spinning

    credit grew scarce, the people multiplied

    now we were surrounded

    all through the fall we posed these questions

    was this point further than that one?

    how far were we willing?

    what was a body, was this?

    who did we want and what could we not desire? 

    what was a limit, a break, a passage?

    what was a refusal? a commonplace?

    what could we do, and what was a century?

    we were looking north, in search of space

    wind was blowing from the east, toward the open

    this had been happening for centuries

    now the air was pressing back, we were turning to the river

    this had been an easy landscape

    how taken, how measured, how photographed

    all through the fall we were whispering

    all through the autumn, we told ourselves

    now we were turning amid one another, and apart

    now it was solstice and we were writing

    all through the autumn we were struggling

    all through the fall, preoccupied

    all through the autumn, our bodies turning

    all through the fall we were bleeding

    all through the autumn, waiting

    among one another, we were speaking

    among history, something breaking

    all through the summer the city was ending

    for a long time, Paris in ruins

    all through the summer the nineteenth century, finished

    all through the summer the twentieth century, finished

    all through the summer we were filming, we were thinking

    all through the summer the death of Europe

    we were gathering

    now we were learning how to end

    with Europe, with summer, with centuries, with autumn

    we were in search of space

    we were looking under mountains

    we were looking under winter

    was there an opening?

    would the river be there?

    we were looking north in search of space

    learning how to end, and looking

    through summer

    through autumn

    nothing was beginning

    we were learning how to end

    how to gather around the ending

    how to precipitate the ending

    how to care for the ending

    how to speak after the ending

    how to touch what was ending

    how to gather what was ending

    how to lean into the ending

    all through the fall, there were bodies

    all through the autumn there was ending

    we were among this

    now there is duration

    now there is duration

    this is an opening of time

    we are in search of space

    2. —
    21 Dec 2011   1 note