Sean Howard
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SHADOW GRAPH 129: THE BEHAVIOR OF THE DEEP
(poetry detected in jerome friedman’s nobel physics lecture, 1990)
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pranks, parties, prizes – ‘the behavior of the deep.’ (‘vast numbers’: jerome a factor
in the equation?) religion, science, ‘the dependence remaining unchanged.’ (waiting
on godot…) ghetto – ‘the world on the same page.’ pedagogy? tried & tested, make
work programme. (trip – the light elastic…) atom; melting pot. (pure moth.) angler-
saxons. poetry, differential elations. (braille teaching the sighted to feel!) ‘new waves’:
reggae in vienna… ‘emerging’ – models from the deep? after the operation, a choice of
new features… the bear shitting the woods. men spinning their grave. (at least until…;
‘the incredibly strong final states.’) nuclear waste: 1968, ‘all summer in the lab.’ c bree-
ze in the interior. the stilts in the cell. (war, different camps?) school & state, the wooden
rulers. physics; ripping yarns… (‘momentum as a function of plot.’) bullshit in the lab-
yrinth. (message parlors.) the public’s crucial/frame of deference. scaling the majestic
data-ranges… (‘back down?’ our ascent now complete/all that’s left is the peak!) square
wasps. quantum kabbalah: smearing god’s name... jung on dreams, ‘the sea has been
strangely neglected.’ (landlubber, the thinking man’s self!) ‘final product’ – glue from
horses… (science; art history?) ‘liberated’ – figures, emerging from the picture…
GRACE NOTES (JAZZ TRIPTYCH)
live after death (for art pepper)
ovid on alto,
jailbird to
cat
outlaw (for eric dolphy)
form as energy,
structure as agency –
sound politics,
new physics,
‘anarchy,
not art!’
flyer (for miles)
‘exquisite’ –
mouth blown,
hand cut
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About the Writer
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Sean Howard is the author of Local Calls (CBU Press, 2009), Incitements (Gaspereau Press,
2011) and The Photographer’s Last Picture (Gaspereau Press, 2016). His poetry has been widely
published in Canada and elsewhere, and featured in The Best Canadian Poetry in English
(Tightrope, 2011; 2014) and The Best of the Best Canadian Poetry in English (Tightrope,
2017). Sean is adjunct professor of political science at Cape Breton University, researching
nuclear disarmament and the politics and culture of war commemoration.
Contents
Poetry
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-- Sonnet VII: Grandfather’s Oranges
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-- Sonnet XXVI: What to Buy in a HK Metro Station
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-- Girls, Girls, Girls Dancing on Tables, Eating Octopus
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-- To the Person(s) Who Stole My Bicycle
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-- Sometimes My Mother is a Child
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-- shadowgraph 129: the behavior of the deep
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-- grace notes (jazz triptych)
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Artwork
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Prose
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Reviews