"FROGPRINCE


Presence had its stay with me,
and even if only for a time
it came in the brief of love--

I used to whisper in her ear's
idyl. She was so treat, so could.
I mostly was worse. Now

the unkind years of peace
strand me here, where the lamp
studies pain with impunity.

The dust etched in its trance
seems a core the air can't share,
overwhelming the eye which

itself is plus-sulked with themes
of sight, beyond-borne. Imagine
a lilypad pregnant with eyelids,

lapping the light with its lashes.
Diffused to me the outward lies
as motes to the beam that bears

them. So what I see carries me
somehow, I cannot stand apart
subject and direct observer

though as always I desire to.
I prefer to view than act, and
reflect upon the pond I appear."

--Bill Knott, op cit






The palindrome IN GIRUM IMUS NOCTE ET CONSUMIMUR IGNI turns up among the lyrics of a song by German noise band Einstürzende Neubauten, on the second song of their 1993 album Interim.