50. undecimal b:l:nc:s

in the presence of balancing
and balance (the peach of
the matter) the outlines
of body or rock carved by
shadow (the roundness
behind the eyelid) thick
root of thumb and what
holds us in place (ball of
foot and fulcrum and heel
that plants) cavity where
darkness is held and holds

provisions are made to
accept the tendons of the
arms and legs (mainstays
attach muscle to bone
and the shopworn body
can sail straight) it is the
ears that hold our lives
in balance (what word we
whisper into could steer
a person through) eyes
that see the way out or on

portions of a position of
being (as in a scent of
a place and keeping still)
crook of finger to buttress
against the ravages of
breeze (slow and filled
with sweetness) the cock
of the head and the ear
directed to a particular
opportunity for perception
(all around and all at once)

to regard the previous as
the only temptation
capable of forming the
shape of the present
(scallop of light out of
the face of the rock or
muscles of the body as
contours defining the
height of a shape) a
delicate adjustment de-
signed to keep it still

stillness as a process
swirling in accepted
order to make the lack
of moving mean and
set the mean (a plane
of pressure against
a stable plane) palm
set against palm to
trap shadow and
squeeze the color out
of it (sunlit shoulder)

considering progress
not in the measure of
distance but requiring
the extension of time
(in place or placed at
that place) conscious of
the slip of consciousness
out of a grasp (concentra-
tion deliberate beyond
deliberation) yet wakeful

that principle of balance
as a ball cupped between
rounded palms into a
single absence (the hole
that holds in place or
the hole that symbolizes
the whole) absence as a
sweet bitter substance
that throws the body off
(green in a vibrance
resembling no leaf)

porting the mind through
not space but time (the
breath held and secret)
thoughts secreted in
marginal bodily actions
(breath slipped out of
nostril or sweat rising
from between two fingers
or a soundless drop of a
single hair off a left
shoulder) rise and sing

stasis as purpose and
praxis (both as is and be
or as the being in place
as active motionlessness)
what doesn’t move is
what does (breath con-
strained or the hair on
a forearm and the muscle
that doesn’t move it)
spinning atoms of the
moveless person at one

particle of a stone’s heft
(the dragging weight of
a body as an expression
of gravity) the seriousness
that the body cares for
when the body’s broken by
that body given away (all
extensions of body in the
form of knowledge not
wanted or fact adjudged)
the tendency to fall away

balance as practice and a
practice as balance created
through practice (the sway
at what off-balances a
body or a heart) the simul-
taneity of awarenesses
separated by time (the
simple aloneness of self)
to atone (at one) in the
sense that everything
is broken and in place