A Poem by Heller Levinson

in the wilderness of knife

cut → cut-throat → cut-out → cut-away → cutlery → cultivate → cultivation → cultural

slash

early instrument/tool

enabling entry ∆ entrails, eatery

passage passageway ∆ Prussia prudence puckish

from sharpening this edge

sharpness: an essential survival tool

: the knife edge is sharpened to facilitate invading an other edge

dullness: an extinction mechanism?

blade: a facilitator,

a primitive -- credit card ?

a cut, an edit, -- the choice of incision, that decision, itself, being a sharpness, acumen, to keen in, knife-like, to pen e trate

the geography of penetration

the first knife

the first man to hold a knife – a cut above,

cutting edge = advantage

being advantageous = being penetrative incisive sharp creative

insert incise inscribe enscript embed en-formation in-formation

the information the knife delivers/releases → upon the blade, misting from the blade [knife & know-how]

smelling knife

smelling blade

information releasing aromatic lily foam

knife extract

Knife: “A gift that allows you to extract the gifts from nature.” – Eagle Heart

sharpness a privilege

the ability to delve deeper, cut cleaner

(in field dressing the animal

take care not to puncture the intestines)

truism ://: blade ://: fornication

blades provide feed

the fed-upon no longer fornicate

the look of the animal struck = quittance

the look of the striker = ?

there is romance to blade

a sexy slippery sin-u-osity the

substantiality of slip(ping) InTo

(en-try try trial trench → trust

. . . trickery

I propose that if you are alone in the forest, your most important/valuable tool would be the survival knife. The knife will offer comfort, companionship, a support, equivalent to none. It will offer a sense of completeness. Void of knife, -- denudement.

The knife appears, then, as appendage: --

As the big tooth of the hand.

“As the big tooth of the mind.” -- Eagle Heart

Note:

“from sharpening this edge,” 7th line from top, appears on page 47 of from stone this running (Black Widow Press, 2011)

 

Heller Levinson lives in NYC where he studies animal behavior. He has published in over a hundred journals and magazines including Alligatorzine, The Cartier Street Review, Counterexample Poetics, ditch poetry, First Literary Review-East, Hunger, Jacket,The Jivin’ Ladybug, Mad Hatters’ Review, Mad Swirl, Mid-June, Moria, Omega, Otoliths, Poets for Living Water, Skidrow Penthouse, Street Cake Magazine, Sugar Mule, Sulfur, Talisman, Tears In The Fence, The Wandering Hermit, The Toronto Quarterly, A Trunk Full of Delirium, Venereal Kittens, and Wood Coin. His publication, Smelling Mary (Howling Dog Press, 2008), was nominated for both the Pulitzer Prize and the Griffin Prize. Additionally, he is the originator of Hinge Theory.
His latest book publication, January 2012, is from stone this running, Black Widow Press, order from www.blackwidowpress.com,

Or Amazon.