RENT WEB

I swim in summer
up to the neck in icy blue –
lazy cats watch us

__hills a hazy distance
__hear the seagulls cry

Tyne Bridge softens –
single pale pebble
moon heavy on the water

__slipping into sleep
__dreams of other lives

how to choose
long straws, short straws, a breeze?
hey, you there

__leaves disintegrate underfoot
__wood smoke my perfume

veiled sodium lamp
empty car park, a rent web
the window shut at night now

__flung pan clang into metal sink
__a bell in the calm

words have no meaning –
is sorry so hard to say?
perhaps not

__love coughs a seed –
__a plum stone in the throat

gush of wild
honey wild gush
of the tongue

__dinner on our knees
__a dismembered torso on the tele

after
you unravel the sheet
scour until the liquid runs clear

__haunt the hill tops
__freezing sunsets are best

worsted mitts
pictured on cognac
‘The Retreat from Moscow’

__you crawl
__out of the soutterain

there’s no maths to it
to know how far clouds are
all day people fly

__into the light
__colours go everywhere

Iris waves
yellow flags
for Cornucopia’s National Day

__a butterfly waits
__and should it stay?

a nijuuin renga in Summer
BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead
9 August, 2003

Participants
Ira Lightman (master)
Alec Finlay (host)
David Alton
Kathy Atkinson
Mary Atkinson
Trevelyan Beyer
Andy Hodson
Ness Kennedy
Irene Leake
Linda Martin
Matthew Poole
Florence Ridley
Mike Smith
Tracey Tofield
Tamatha Weisser