If A Garden Of Numbers Poem by Cole Swensen

If a garden is the world counted
and found analogue in nature
One does not become two by ever ending
so the stairs must be uneven in number
and not exceed
thirteen without a pause
of two paces' width, which
for instance, the golden section
mitigates between abandon
and an orchestra just behind those trees,
gradations of green that take a stethoscope: we risk:
Length over width
to make the horizon run straight
equals
to make the pond an oval:
Width
over length minus the width
in which descending circles curl
into animals exact as a remainder.

Which means excess. The meaning of the real
always exceeds that of the ideal, said someone.
He was speaking of Vaux-le-Vicomte,
but it's equally true of parking, or hunting, or wishing you could take it back. He

who is Allen Weiss, actually said, "The meaning
of a plastic or pictorial construct always surpasses the ideal meaning of that work."
Which is something else entirely. Said
the axonometric
divided by
the anamorphic.
There is nothing that controls our thoughts
more than what we think we see,
which we label "we."