︎

Norma Cole



Rainy Day
restricted extremities during thought flight
sensitive documents: the market, the fire

like weather balloons in gear
or a plate glass window in the pavement
monuments exist like moments

such as not not measuring the world
by measuring bananas, bankrolled
by measuring the madrigals, the vivid contests

that could have been avoided by
burrowing spiral galaxies, bananas or banners
each one measuring a dollar, a wish
fishing for exits, resting or resisting






Interludes*

with the affection
of days of undetermined
significance

vaguer than a throw of the
net or scrambled
eggs

a child of the blockade
in perpetuity is not, it’s
not

biography—substitution
and addition the modern
thrill

doesn’t explain partly collision
—howdy, where’s the
transport

the sun is trapped, puzzled
attached, attacked by its own
script

it all comes down
to this hangover of
escape


*“philosophy of acceptance,” Claudio Magris






Dream House Waffles

broadly speaking
when the sun is silent

self-contradicting
moves through paper

what keeps the trouble
accidents, resistance

with time
note for note

fell out
with the grappling hook

of a rage bound special
master, broadly speaking

delaying sleep
to survive

negative magnitudes
said the philosopher






The Matter

The chatter of the world is just a breath
–Dante, Purgatorio


Conditions in the moment
conditions in the present moment
conditions are melting in the present moment

loss in different tempi, a striking
concentration of them, in it and
of it, but when the state withdraws

from the social contract, a walking dream
the armature a striking concentration
removes system from sound

some day will mean these large scale
stained glass windows seem essential
to private time:  moon in Scorpio

fallen asleep but not where you
wake up:  can you place this photo
from the broken old bible? Tell us

the end and ruin everything, the pink
cloud, the ridgeline and everything
grassland, aspen groves, stand of

redwoods, trees make the light
sense of distance, prospect
everchanging feverish refraction

mind not inclined for the story’s
not found here



Norma Cole is a San Francisco poet, visual artist, and translator, whose most recent book of poetry is Fate News (Omnidawn, 2018). Other titles include Win These Posters and Other Unrelated Prizes Inside (Omnidawn, 2010 ), To Be at Music: Essays & Talks, Actualities, a collaboration with Marina Adams (Omnidawn, 2010), and Where Shadows Will: Selected Poems 1988—2008 (City Lights 2009).  Her visual work has been shown at the Miami University Art Museum, [2nd floor projects] in San Francisco, and the Berkeley Art Museum. She has translated works by French poets Danielle Collobert, Emmanuel Hocquard, Anne Portugal, and Jean Daive.



Founded in 2020, Three Fold is an independent quarterly based in Detroit that presents exploratory points of view on arts, culture, and society in addition to original works in various media, including visual art, literature, film and the performing arts. We solicit and commission contributions from artists, writers, and activists around the world. Three Fold is a publication of Trinosophes Projects, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization located in the historic Eastern Market neighborhood in downtown Detroit. Click here to check out Three Fold’s events page and view a schedule of the publication’s on-site activities.

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