Form Follows Function¹

Each Form is its own Unlocking!²
Form is the ceremonial dress code.³
Fain would we dwell on Form, fain, fain!⁴

The hand searching the 
Page first touches Form.⁵
An Artist, and one with the 
Most scrupulous eye for Form, 
Superintends all these arrangements.⁶

This Form gulps after Formlessness—⁷
The creator of form must suffer Formlessness!⁸
Forms exist independent of earthly embodiment
And perhaps beyond any mortal comprehension—⁹
The urge toward Form is the urge toward God:
Perfection of either unhinged, unutterable …¹⁰


¹ Louis Henry Sullivan, The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered
² Tishani Doshi, Conversation with Timothy Green June 17, 2021
³ Jack Underwood, On Poetry and Uncertain Subjects
⁴ William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
⁵ Susan Griffin, To the Far Corners of a Fractured World
⁶ Edgar Allan Poe, Mitzengerstein
⁷ Wallace Stevens, The Auroras of Autumn
⁸ Iris Murdoch, The Black Prince
⁹ James Miller, Examined Lives
¹⁰ Charles Wright, Scar Tissue