Brancusi’s Golden Bird

         The toy

         become the aesthetic archetype

As if

         some patient peasant God

         had rubbed and rubbed

         the Alpha and Omega

         of Form

         into a lump of metal

         A naked orientation

         unwinged   unplumed

            —the ultimate rhythm

         has lopped the extremities

         of crest and claw

         from

         the nucleus of flight

         The absolute act

         of art

         conformed

         to continent sculpture

         —bare as the brow of Osiris—

         this breast of revelation

         an incandescent curve

         licked by chromatic flames

         in labyrinths of reflections

         This gong

         of polished hyperaesthesia

         shrills with brass

         as the aggressive light

         strikes

         its significance

         The immaculate

         conception

         of the inaudible bird

         occurs

         in gorgeous reticence  .  .  .