"Presence of Mind"

i think i will call this form tawang, which is Pashto for 'basket'.

I was reading a Blok poem, or sequence of poems, in which some of the endwords repeated across poems; & though it was an unrhymed translation of what was surely a rhymed original, the effect pleased me & i wanted to utilize the form in a sequence of my own. Accordingly, i took the approximate dimensions of Blok’s sequence (five 16-line poems of four stanzas each), &
determined that a “super-sestina” of nine endwords would fill 81 lines (one stray line left over)--in which each 16-line unit would have 7 endwords repeating & 9 not. The first step was to find or construct a Latin square, i.e. a matrix of nine rows of the digits 1 through 9, in which no row or column repeated a number. I could have easily found one on the internet, but i decided to construct my own. First, i took the sequence 1-9-2-8-3-7-4-6-5 as the base i would use, & after writing out this square:

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9
9-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8
8-9-1-2-3-4-5-6-7
7-8-9-1-2-3-4-5-6
6-7-8-9-1-2-3-4-5
5-6-7-8-9-1-2-3-4
4-5-6-7-8-9-1-2-3
3-4-5-6-7-8-9-1-2
2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-1

i reordered the rows according to my base (slightly disarranged):

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9
2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-1
9-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8
3-4-5-6-7-8-9-1-2
8-9-1-2-3-4-5-6-7
4-5-6-7-8-9-1-2-3
7-8-9-1-2-3-4-5-6
5-6-7-8-9-1-2-3-4
6-7-8-9-1-2-3-4-5

& then the columns:

1-9-2-8-3-7-4-6-5
2-1-3-9-4-8-5-7-6
9-8-1-7-2-6-3-5-4
3-2-4-1-5-9-6-8-7
8-7-9-6-1-5-2-4-3
4-3-5-2-6-1-7-9-8
7-6-8-5-9-4-1-3-2
5-4-6-3-7-2-8-1-9
6-5-7-4-8-3-9-2-1

which gives me my final matrix. What words to use? I scanned my Gmatria lists--

56 light, Marx, will, radix, ghoti, zebub, Odinn, Karnak, sigil, this, iron, Latin, Denebola, udjat, Agharta, ether, shit, hobbit, qoph, Isis, daimon, cannibal, lgorab, abort, term, poet,
comet, wolf

57 ions, suq, Lapis, Apsu, Banus, Cipango, vugg, grackle, Gemini, rose, cipher, moon, hylic, callais, aether, Ziv, sleep, wood, steal, lingo

58 science, night, Kakkabu, Cathay, ullage, smegma, emerald, thing, star, fragile, glass, calendar, zodiac, rune, indigo, Marfik, Aldebaran, guano, Schedar, Amerika, arts, upadana,
reading, drive, hazard

& picked out:
will
light
this
cipher
steal
sleep
glass
thing
indigo

which become my endwords 1 through 9. Now all i have to do is write these poems:

will-indigo-light-thing/this-glass-cipher-sleep/steal-light-will-this/indigo-cipher-thing-steal

glass-sleep-indigo-thing/will-glass-light-sleep/this-steal-cipher-this/light-cipher-will-steal

indigo-sleep-thing-glass/thing-glass-indigo-sleep/will-steal-light-cipher/this-cipher-this-steal

light-sleep-will-glass/indigo-thing-glass-sleep/thing-steal-indigo-cipher/will-this-light-steal

cipher-sleep-this-glass/light-thing-will-indigo/sleep-steal-glass-cipher/thing-this-indigo-light

will. I will probably use "snowflakes"...

I.

our night of repairs the will
does not change, pellucid indigo
no longer the light
to divide gray thing from barely grayer thing

silken this
regard of nacreous glass
pure cipher
returning as marrows filled not sleep

another redundant door outside where steal
away the blown light
the ashen stars of a final will
sleepwalker to this

utter army indigo
obeisance any flash or flicker cipher
purblind thing
rains before dawn steal

II.

in the burning glass
there is never any sleep
& the tremulous shadows of indigo
enfold, soundlessly, each broken thing

let free will
in the house of glass
scatter no more hazard light
let the mother of mutterings sleep

who, pursuing the procurator since this
very steal
& beginning to be legible cipher
have not required this

crystal mutiny peace light
binary stroke & fragrant cipher
say what will
be will be say svelte drogulus steal

III.

burning indigo
Titan's sleep
path of crushed snails questioned thing
quadrangular immovable oneway glass

the juicy murder trial thing
still picking out glass
whose ghastly hope spoke of indigo
desert sleep

crystal do them desert woke with the same will
someday soon will steal
slag from light
in the haunted burgundy cipher

spasmodic eyes siphon this
cellcam ban phlogiston sleepwalker cipher
avalanche lungfish fetch this
star you cannot steal

IV.

the gyring, pustulent light
invades our hearts' sleep
in Normandies of terrible will
not to be singled out on the plain of glass

indigo
the last thing
to ask in the proffered glass
all shaven each craven at witch sleep

this policy was now an adopted thing
dark die bitter steal
tanks in the street of draped indigo
the driver's face a cipher

soft freezing rain will
follow this
burden or flutter mysteriously light
as the winners steal

V.

Aldebaran you cipher
so as not to sleep
& you give yourself to that despair or this
myth tentacular, monarchist glass

locusts light
on your hands a funest thing
take day left rim receive bleed to will
sea to indigo

ungainly visitors flood & swarm your sleep
witness steal
terminal moraine where glass
in the haunted burgundy cipher

the last thing
sleepwalker to this
& the tremulous shadows of indigo
vend their own sick astonishing light

so where will you go now destitute of will?

07 09 04