[X]
a time of unbend a time of expend
a time for inhale a time for exhale
a time of insane a time of explain
a time to secrete a time to excrete
a time to withdraw a time to explore
a time for homestyle a time for exile
a time to revolt a time to exalt
a time of accept a time of except
a time to repress a time to express
a time of meagre a time of extra
a time for bedroom a time for exhume
a time to forget a time to expect
a time for efforts a time for exits
a time to retract a time to exact
His thoughts about her, her thoughts about him
as much a mystery as anything said
bitchin’ in the kitchen, together in bed
intoning on phones, taking life for a spin
minutes days years lost to Biography
as the best of times lives behind closed doors
not even hid in a subordinate clause -
all that writing still forever Plan B.
Inexplicable,
their very presence
their friends
their secrets their hither and yon
earliest
memories, latest diversions
their voices
their faces the so-called essence
the happily
ever after the once upon -
all Biography’s
but the Beta version.
Yes is the start of possibilities new talking
new walking a face
you look at again anew & faces anew words crossing forced borders
that change boundaries untick fences ways of being that do not have
not worked a long while put aside with yes memories generations
of how that way did not work that by asking for new ways
is yes saying Y of a seedling the Y of
together possibilities
bless into being listen to the hundred you &
me tongues change
death places into ‘deadly’ places meeting in
a word start to replace
No is going to get you nowhere maybe you
like going nowhere
a place where you don’t need to know
anything much at all
as if you will learn something & find
yourself agreeing with yes
no is not seeing the landscape in front of
you not listening
not seeing others not hearing them just
other names N of blank
N of fence from here to horizon dead no
time to listen
[Z]
Z is for Folly. Z is for Blindness.
The president who acts thus plays the Fool.
His walk-on has Kyiv in its sights, like cool.
A walk gone zigzag, stranger to kindness.
Laugh at him, he’ll shoot you out of the skies,
a streak of Z flames for no good reason.
You question his script? So, what’s your poison?
All in the delivery, zillions of lies.
Z too, was class clown turned president
inheritor of the oblast Wormwood
inventor of the stunt where he dams the gash
knows it’s for keeps, infinite incidents
go nowhere fast as only farces could
stare at the end, the Z, the dead, the crash.
Image: ST(Z)P WAR. Graffiti in Shoreditch High Street, London, made by Matt Brown and posted here at The Londonist: https://londonist.com/london/art-and-photography/ukraine-street-art
The, The Table of
English vocabulary
each object placed
there in all seriousness
The Very Definition
of Veryness
The Be-All of Given,
End-All of the Ordinary
The Trumpet of Terms,
tongue’s tone most timely
inaudible almost
amidst consonant currents
genderless bender of
converse’s torrents.
Everything stops for
tea, then starts with the.
Shall I compare the
to a summer’s day?
The’s reliable, the
is The Genuine Article
able for The Holiday
and The Catastrophe
autumn’s survivor,
winter’s thorny stay
spring’s eternal
surprise each every particle.
So long as we can
breathe lives, so long, the.
Only water writes what’s writ in water
shadowing swimming suddenly shifting
sverdrup by sverdrup the sea’s heavy
lifting
heaves up to the sun and drowns every quarter
…
water speaks these words the air turns nature
syllabic singing satisfied subtle
sentence by sentence stuck in the middle
something anything that speaks as creature
symphonic surly saturnine saintly …
still water runs leaps brooks no argument
showers signatures itself addressing
sonorous salt-free singular salty
simplest sign where is rainbow and serpent
sunshine and moonpull … supplying blessing
Saturday night’s fever
party had soul
Sunday’s mind redefined
flower power
Monday went to water,
glassfuls an hour
Tuesday’s torso was shake,
rattle and roll
I took the test, the rat
was negative
my eardrums The Future
Sound of London
I lived on toast, reading
gone sheer humdrum
trams are covid-on-wheels,
it’s suggestive
Wednesday’s landscapes
survived on panadol
Thursday’s dreams were
Hieronymus Bosch
Friday’s rat was another
universe
with T for Test yes and
yes C, Control
Saturday’s words will be
golly and gosh
Sunday isolation, like
life in reverse.
We skipped on skirtings, rushed
hardwood seats
man with ear to horses, matchbox
wireless
Venetian slats let scenery
repeat
Preston, St. Kilda,
Footscray, Glen Iris.
Corner clang, screeching
curve and wobbly bogie
the gabardine crowd stood
back to make room,
schoolgirls
(gloved), daywear queens, dishevelled fogey
took
opposite ends of the green saloon.
Double-tugged
the cord, time to go, all clear
the
conductor cut the ticket with suns,
our
tipsy trip to town dreamt no idea
of
drunken midnight last depot runs.
The
trucks all halted and no car dared pass
as
Melburnians alighted from their W-Class.
[D]
d.
1631 John Donne, Dean of St. Paul’s London
subtle
conceits and rugged rhythms recklessness
of
style and harshness of metre he caused an urn
to
be carved its quaint affectation, its appalling
earnestness
recalls the very mind of the man himself
once
seen, is not easily forgotten the long, gaunt
upright
figure of a man, wrapped close in a shroud a face
wan,
worn, almost ghastly, with the eyes closed as in death
d.
1889 J. B. Lightfoot, Bishop of Durham, writes further
though
his ashes are mingled with western dust
looks
towards Him whose name is the Orient
it
speaks of a death, a resurrection, a saving as by fire
what
penitence, what tears, what merits of his own could
wash
out the stains which such a life as his was imbrued?
Found
poem: ‘Donne, the poet-preacher’ by J. B. Lightfoot, in ‘Historical Essays’, Macmillan,
1895, pp. 221-245.
[F]
Fanfare
for f: flaming f fire fierce of face
funky
faffing f famous for feeling for flow
fortunate
fabulous frenetic f friend of fact festive
flip-top
freeform free-feed.
Foxtrot
for f: foreign f familiar f funny-ha-ha f
funiculi
funiculà ffs f wtf f stfu f
freudian
fat fig f foxy fancy fruity fair-enough
figurative
fantasies fancied.
Fugue
for f: fiddle f-hole filigree floating
fluting
fingertips forming fountains facades
fervent
fans forever of f fast fading faint f.
Finale
for f: feet fail finally friday futile forlorn
formal
face funeral for f forms follow functions
filing
fleeting fleeing fling forgotten f farewell.
