Glenn Bach

2 POEMS

JUNIPERO, FROM BURBANK COURT TO CARROLL PARK (PART 2)

                    torque,
                 a force that tends to turn or rotate things
                    force multiplied by distance

                                   the planetary gearset
                    limits redline,
          compounds rotations

               the sun
               the planet
               the ring

                         gears slotted for input, output, or stationary

                                    a solar system of teeth
                                                    that lock together in various embraces

          their orbits or stilled motion
                                    inspired by the flywheel
                                        spinning ratios (one to one in third)
    through U-joints, driveshaft, and differentials—


            —in a manual transmission
                    the clutch disconnects the engine
               from the transmission,
                     the layshaft,
                            locked with the flywheel,
                            turns the gears placed by the collar
                    on the driveshaft,

                            dogteeth
                                    seeking their resting holes

                                                            a reverberation of circles
                                    from overlapping pebbled ponds.


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CARROLL PARK NORTH (PART 3)

A car idles. A car idles in the distance, this air both fresh and burned.
The rattling of the engine as the car idles. This sound also carries
across the expanse of streets and structures.

The main jet operates in the same simple float-bowl, passes through
the idle well into an idle mixture. This idle well, this idle feed,
is usually inside a precision restrictor.

When the vacuum creates a low bleed well past an idle air,
it "pulls" this idle air, mixes metered air.

When the emulsified idle transfer, a separate passage connected
to the idle-mixture screw, travels past the throttle blade
and back down into the idle discharge port.

When the lean-best is introduced into the upstream.

The tailor below, the easiest one.

How rich or lean the idle circuit, open slightly.

The smaller idle air bleed, a larger air bleed,
leans it out slightly, enriches the circuit.

The bottom of the idle well.

The primary source.

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These two pieces are excerpts from a longer work-in-progress, "Atlas Peripatetic (song for a morning walk)." Inspired by a soundwalk along the route of my morning commute, each chapter corresponds to a segment of the walk and takes as its starting point one, or several, of over 1200 sounds logged during a six-month period.

For my research I'm looking at watershed aesthetics, Gary Snyder, Rebecca Solnit, Lucy Lippard, Lawrence Buell, Guy Debord, Richard Long, various histories of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and more. I also use maps and diagrams quite a bit.