Theodore Enslin
The Work Proposed
(Kyoto, Japan: Origin Press, 1958)
[7.25" tall x 5" wide | 250 copies]
[his first book]

Theodore Enslin -- "The Work Proposed"
[the first poem -- the title poem -- in his first book]

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Of wave wavelength in freshened breeze
along the longest length of breadth the waves
long comb of waves     or chop of rising seas
the waves     the longest     climbing over length     to
tumble down     a freshening     remaking of the breeze
is wavelength freshening     as a breeze is length
in breadth the combers     waves that tumble
down     around the chop of rising seas     so fresh
the breeze     the rising wave in length to rise
to tumble combers     breadth as length remaking
wavelength freshened in the breeze     a length of wave
long and chop on seas     the rising     let them tumble
down in climbing     combers of the sea     its wavelength
chop in rising as the waves are rising from the sea
in wave wavelength to freshen in the breeze
all length and breadth will rise to tumble down
along the longest length of them and breadth
wavelength freshening along the breeze to tumble
down     as down remembers longest length of wave.

    -- Theodore Enslin
    from NINE (Orono, Maine: National Poetry Foundation, 2004)
    [collects poems from 1993 to 2003]

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