Damion Searls

MOXOMENON

Joseph Moxon, Mechanick Exercises. Vol. 2 (1683–84), the first known manual of printing

I.

J. M. begins his book,
Every thought taken up from the block with a roll
Of the ball and inked on the form,
A Craft of the Hand which cannot be taught by Words:
“I thought to have given these Exercises
The title of Doctrine of Handy-Crafts but when I considered
The true meaning of the word I found the Doctrine
Would not bear it, therefore I shall not undertake
That with the bare reading any shall be able to …”
Is it not plain we cannot be taught
Anything but knowledge? he writes, I use to write
With Pen and Ink lest afterwards
I might be troubled with recollections,
But who knows the theory and practice which best please
God as far as words are concerned.

II.

I was a hospitable reader in those days,And I accepted everythingWith providential and enthusiastic resignation.I believed everything, even errataAnd poor illustrations,Luxuriesced in the private and useless,The unreclaimable as accomplishment or vocation.I had dreams where Mary would talk about the denhth—“Go around the denhth,” she cried—that wordIs what I remember best from the dream. I look it upAnd find a quote in the dictionary from Chaucer,A couplet rhyming “brethren” with “endenhther,”Maybe “endenhtherèd”? and a note: “NoteHow well Chaucer uses the word!” or somethingAlong those lines, there’s definitely a!, and whenI wake up I don’t remember what “denhth” means but it’s something to doWith hedges or the layout of the house, like “curtilage,” “windrows,” it was a very spatial dream.Moxon writes like that. Like squares in the sand forMeno’s slave—an omen of memory, not instruction.Reading him is like watching someone read,You can stand it only when watching a lover, then ’re the oneTo get antsy and make you stop when you could happilyWatch them all day! the tip of their nose, their adorable downturned face.People are so complicated if you think about them, soUncomplicated if you don’t. Is it thinking’s faultThen? That doesn’t bode well, whatever boding is.