National Poetry Month : R. Kolewe,

On Certainty: three fragments

285.

I wrote down secrets no one has

because I wanted to know for certain

if someone is looking for something and

I doubted

did not ask

read

believes that what he is looking for is there

532.

like an old man

who is always mislaying

something: now

his spectacles,

now his keys

394.

I don’t remember how I felt I felt

lost. This is one of the things I cannot doubt.

As if feeling could be replaced

saying this must —

I wanted to listen.

There are letters but they don’t say much

remain legible nevertheless read silently

all new forgotten as if

there was a beginning when all there will be

handwriting and stillness and blame and

cannot see clearly what has been lost.

What do I do with this thought?

Making use of Denis Paul and G.E.M. Anscombe’s translation of Wittgenstein’s book of the same title.

R. Kolewe lives in Toronto. He has published two books of poetry, Afterletters (BookThug 2014) and Inspecting Nostalgia (Talon Books 2017) as well as two chapbooks, Silence, then (Knife | Fork | Book 2019) and Like the noises alive people wear (above/ground press 2019).