Place[meant] is a recurring series that explores identity beyond the geopolitical and physical parameters that have come to define our sense of place. From a train in Queens to the cuff of a bodily spell, the poems in this series navigate place as both material terrain and residual traces of one’s memory. Place[meant] delves into how migration, diaspora, borders, technologies of power and control, biopolitics, and historical violence shape our identities, the powers of which are anything but benign.
“from DIA L ETC”
R ( 말 , m a l ) = {
(coordinates, ), (directions, )
(data, ), (a wind, arrived), (blew the faces,
from
the trees), ( , ), (what requires,
what), (demands, obscurity), (shrouds,
a day), (& nothing, ), (left to claim)
{ (desire), (weather), (boundaries), (light),
(coordinates), (coordination), (nest/web), (what
on a body is excess, excretion), (said the river, said
the birches), (there were none, and no source),
(the body grew nails, grew),
(headless and clear, )
(the moon cracks, and something),
(slips out
{ (darkness), (weather), (calculations),
( s c a l e ) ,
(whalebone, 악/알), (vastness /
resonance), (like semi-opaque,
reflection / blitz / beaks), (we turned
over slabs, obliquities of code }
R(신, sheen)= {
{ (I’ve never seen the moon, only) (dealt
it, only) (drank its cream, I know) (the
moon when it is inside, when it is inside,
when I) (am pulling its cords)
(were the hounds lapping, did they lick your
haunches, were the hinds), (white, & flickering),
(like pixels in the dusk, were you), (waking, & was I a
tree), (watching, was a corona), (was flux and shell
(stem/utter, flicker/interference
(where the second person
appears, one (ponders the body
consisting of swarm
or mostly empty space.
(for I slept on four legs, animated and),
(estranged, each memory), ( of motion
r e p e a t e d
itself, as motion),
(was there a dim, skin), (were the rinds
growing, dusk
