H e a r t S o n s & H e a r t D a u g h t e r s of A l l e n G i n s b e r g

N a p a l m H e a l t h S p a : R e p o r t 2 0 1 4 : A r c h i v e s E d i t i o n

RANDY ROARK

How to Compose

Q. Can I borrow the music

when I no longer hear it?

A. To write your way out of darkness is possible.

First, set yourself on fire.

Then, as whatever can be destroyed is burned away,

search for the spareness and brevity that remains,

the way moonlight pierces curtains.

Give up effort entirely,

languish, the way my fingers

radiate from my palm

yet remain embedded in my hand.

Or how without effort when I lift my hand

there remains an imprint,

an echo on the page

of something generated in another world.

[Originally published in NHS 2008, http://www.poetspath.com/napalm/nhs08/Randy_Roark.htm.]