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| Hyakuin
Renga |
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Through
the market stalls
an autumn gust
rattling the dream catchers
__the roof strained
the rain
__that fell in the
night
up early
surprising the half moon
in the river
__yellow leaves stitch
__a skin over the
water
the alphabet
and home sweet home
in an old frame
__remains of floral
wallpaper
__an abandoned house
on the machar
crossing the peat bog —
three figures, an empty jar
and one brown trout
__ smoking
legally on the beach
__among a cluster
of shells
for preference things
dotted about
drinking, the men wait
__boring her only
comment
__as she flicks channels
face in blue twilight
that had held colours I had
never seen before
__she pulled over
the car to photograph
__the fox dead on
the road
it took a long time
satisfied or sacrificed
weakly unhappy
__nothing is left
on the cloth
__but breadcrumbs
and wine-stains
all rise
rearing with one clawed paw
golden-tummied
__vomiting pale liquid
__into a neighbour's
privet hedge
winter winds
the boiler repair man
says we need a new pump
__if you can imagine
__fourteen thousand
tons of ice
the queues
for Titanic stretch
all the way round the block
__manic morality
consciousness
__the body glorifies
enchantments
tongue eyes heart
through the nave
plainsong rising
__for now he can
leave the dough
__to its own devices
automata dancing
when Ada learned to spell control
she fell in love
__she waited for
it
__she heard something
go go
6p a minute
for as little as that means
in the yellow pool house
__on the gay beach,
the private one, nude
__outside the sands
a little hot
an ice-cream seller
points out the way to me
with an ice-cream
__another illusion
__a cheap sugary
rush
foot tapping
to the rhythm of blues
who will take me home tonight?
__two weeks away
– a buddleia
__has rooted on the
side of the van
on the first of april
another rumour
from a distant war
__above the gun carriages
__the snow line recedes
a naked insect
hanging in the spelt air
my woodcut character
__voting with inky
fingers
__the print union
walks out
they struck and struck
transferring offshore
glacial deposits
__the icy path home
__from the I.V.F
clinic
seeding honesty
the waning moon reflected
in his glasses
__the brambles have
lost their sheen
__and their sweetness
so I pine and I need
to pine for pine, like jaybird
dips branches, follows me ahead
__how long a line
__to plumb the fore-running
butterbur are pink
like sea anemones
not yellow like butter
__not knowing what
will thrive hurts me
__not knowing what
will thrive
trellis ears?
yells barber at patch ready
for the years bluntings
__cutting through
it all
__the vixen screams
for a mate
out of the fog
a beautiful young woman
slowly appears
__red fly agaric
__beneath white birch
stems
shavings in a white saucer
the pencil was blunt
from writing about the moon
__a long night
__incarcerated in
separate couchettes
neither of us slept
she says and womanhandles in
a pregnant therefore
__her open mouth
__full of dead butterflies
door ajar behind him
he pisses
a round hole in the snow
__measure of depth
__and vulnerabilty
Y.H.A 10th floor
woken by an earthquake in Berkeley
lousy weak building
__I had to hack to
the door
__the hedge was so
high on my return
neighbours cast sidelong glances
at his fairy tales
his happy garden-endings
__they shrink in
greenhouses
__lost among pettifers
and spider webs
lace is a map
of the maker's contentment
all islands and ocean
__you get here
__by canoe
sliced plantain
I fry it
to the sound of thunder
__the carnival queen's
dress
__becomes see-through
in the rain
dead snake
on the hill-path
eyes clouded over
__chainmail
__for fingers
the tethered dog
refuses to give up
yelping and snapping
__Sisyphus wins British
citizenship
__on appeal
in a letter
read by moonlight
the messages are mixed
__the bishop's mistress
__twizzles her sparkler
relief to be
taking the air alone – see them
pat they come: mushrooms
__tiptoe
__through
the old hills of home
unexpectedly foreign
viewed from the city
__the tracheotomy
didn't work then –
__a lunchtime discussion
separate by degrees
the flaw was being brokered
across the networks
__fire in the roots
__burnt fiercest
what if all we are
is our voices? then
our platform is a chatroom
__everything there
is to say
__saltmarsh wind
glottal stop of the mud
pulling out her boot
waves at parting
__choosing the freshest
bladderwrack
__to dye the wool
moss
in the hollows of the boulder
it slows down time
__gold lacquer behind
her eyelids
__a trick of the
night
after a first frost
coming down the spiral ramp
intertextual
__his clarinet becomes
the moon
__becomes the river
a huge crowd gathers
on Leicester's 'Golden Mile' –
Diwali
__begin the burn
through darkness
__within our separate
lights
human figures
above us
climbing
__the goat in her
__wants sky, gentians
wispy clouds
passing across the dome
of a jelly fish
__incensed
__indoors
you can't go out
without putting on the heavy jumper
I made you
__iced-over cardboard
boxes
__a head emerges
winter aconite winter barley
winter cherry winter clover
wintergreen
__tête-à-tête
with the moon this Halloween's
__overcast, your
cancer's waned
this time of year
skins get thinner
let in what light there is
__a branch break
sounds
__over the membrane
of a drum
barbarian
you wake me
in a language you don't speak
__if in doubt
__run a bath
lavender drops float candles
as the soap circumnavigates
my knees
__life on the space
station
__brings its own
problems
night looses slowly
this one sun
spring lambed
__sticky and tight,
about
__to unclench
sorrel leaves
first tasted
by a slug
there is something in this soup
we all want.
a hyakuin renga in Autumn
BALTIC: The Centre for Contemporary Art
Saturday 18 October – Sunday 19th October
(noon–noon)
Renga schema: Martin Lucas
Twelve Poets
Bruce Bamber
John Cayley
Ken Cockburn
Paul Conneally
Anne-Marie Culhane
Alec Finlay
Linda France
Harry Gilonis
Elizabeth James
Ira Lightman
Gerry Loose
Martin Lucas
With thanks to Elliot, Pauline, Alison, Gavin,
Jude, Judy, Emma, Tamsin and Eileen.
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