Multiple Meanings of Words in LF

Hi all. It's Kate Litterer here. I'm doing a 2nd, closer reading of The Lichtenberg Figures and I've just chipped away at something in the page 3 poem.

I know that Lerner is depositing high diction throughout the poems (alongside and sometimes pushed up against or agitating "lower" or more colloquial language), but in Wiki-ing (I know, I should be OED-ing instead) I found 3 meanings for "valence" (line 12):

i. in Chemistry, a binding sight for atoms
ii. in Linguistics, the number of arguments a verb can have (like "it rains" has one; verb does one thing)
iii. in Psychology, a one-dimensional value to an object, idea, situation, etc; usually negative or positive (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/valence)

Because the "valences assumed" "baleful forms" (baleful=ominous), I thought that Lerner was possibly using example iii. and that the characters' valences are their judgments, which are ominous. These same characters are immediately addressed by the speaker: "My people, are you not // horrified of how these verbs decline-- [...]" (lines 12-13). On first reading, I thought that "decline" might mean go down in number, symbolizing a loss of action, which might somehow connect to the idea of stagnancy/inaction ("Like a blouse, the most elegant crimes were left undone" line 9). But when I Wiki-ed it, I found that decline can also mean to list inflected forms of nouns for case and number (like Ablative, Genitive, Nominative, etc. and single/plural) (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/decline#Verb).

So, now, if I think that Lerner is using "decline" to think of the ways that verbs act in regards to numbers, I wonder if "valences" might instead have dealt with ii. the number of arguments a verb can have. If that were true, then the tone of "baleful forms" may be multiplied significantly, and that the "winter light" may then increase coldness or bleakness.

And then I thought, Ben Lerner, your entire selection is confronting writing. Your first poem discusses "glyphs," your second discusses "substance [receiving] the shape of the instrument with which it's cut" (perhaps poetry=substance; the cutter is the poet, instrument is the diction?). Now, on page three, you discuss the "baleful forms" that arguments can have (which, I assume, can be quite negative and multiple). Just the fact that Lerner is using words with multiple meanings and applications suggests that he's making obvious the ambiguous number of ways of reading a poem; he's making obvious his handiwork as a writer, as the being who wields the instrument that cuts and impresses. Could poem three also be investigating the act of writing poetry? I think that it might, but I could be totally off the mark, and now I've got my eagle eyes out to look for multiple meanings in more poems.

If anyone has feelings about this or sees it in other poems, respond!

Thanks, Kate