land partition was launched at the 11th cambridge conference of contemporary poetry (cccp), in the fitzwilliam museum, April 25, 2001, and at collected works bookstore, in melbourne, september 16, 2001.

LOUIS ARMAND from LAND PARTITION & IN ARCADIA EGO when we confine our attention to any one form, we are deprived of the weighty arguments derived from the nature of the affinities which connect together whole groups of organisms—their geographical distribution in past & present times, & their geological succession. the homological structure, embryological development, & rudimentary organs of a species remain to be considered, whether it be man or any other animal, to which our attention may be directed—charles darwin it rises again & again, long after the quarantine buildings stripped of their purpose; the sea’s scraping at the closed-off shore, lined with rubble—it is to give no quarter or they found it imperative to turn away (for lack of a better term), distrusting their motives & cynicism—the wizened visage fading out “look, oh, long as the night” but what did the walls held fast, pinioned by the rock have left to say? the fearful crew, the two hundred steps inclined to level ground—the evangelist, muttering about the tides, folding his wet arms (flesh drying coldly just below): here a shadow re- defines the intrusion, to trick it out—there is a name, loosely applied in such circumstances: it consists of an exact number of propositions (the smell of artifice), multiple & mysterious re-births—the customs officials have made enquiries, are continuing to make enquiries, will “go on” making enquiries—the question: to stay hidden, or be revealed? in so much time room could not be found, without the prescribed form a lifeless bloody hole as prefatory to removal, incarceration, as the de-commissioned meatworks bellowing in the storm: each one is echoed in the body of the other—or the noise remains as distant & factual as before, & evokes nothing (c) louis armand, 2001