Style by Howard Nemerov

by Laine Stranahan

Nemerov wanted to write a poem about
Flaubert wanting to write a novel about
Nothing. It was to have the subject
Of having no subject, and be sustained
Upon the sustenance of style alone,
Like an aerial photographer cruising above
The Holy Ghost cruising above
The abyss, or like animators sketching
The little animals in Disney cartoons
Who stand upon a branch that breaks
But do not fall till they look down,
But do not erase. He never wrote
That poem, and neither did he write
Another one that would have been called Gloria,
Or Horses, in which Patti Smith was,
Or was not.

Even so, for these two poems,
We thank the master, who thanks himself,
Who thanks us and thanks us again,
For they will be read,
Despite his attempts to write them;
Are not so wholly lost as those works
Which are thrown into words
Like shoes at the king. Moreover,
They are not formed by style,
That fire that eats that fire
That eats what it illuminates.