a few words short of a haiku

U.E.A.

suppose a balloon
were the only way to fly
our wait suspended

held silent as time
a chariot for the mind
seeking a haven

italic landscape
the eye of Claude and Poussin
cast upon England

here on this hillside
pine blue the water distant
abide my muses

an Athenaion
iconography of stone
in aluminium

Giacometti

alone in the park
cast iron fences corroded
sad figured beauty

child

then, I could close off 
in that double glazed chamber
still behind my eyes.

strings

in our lives we dance
marionette each to each
on fine fragile strings

shoals

some have hidden depths
but upon your hidden shoals
have my hopes floundered

parted

vivid memory:
we were made for each other
in some other life.

blocked

a word mountain looms
on a thought frozen ice wall
one haiku slipping

rage

on troubled water,
should oil, burning bright as tears,
greater love inflame?

epitaph

what we had we gained,
what we gave, remembrance has, 
what we kept we lost.

may fly?

writing not working; 
working away, say nothing:
a muted parting:
what to say? away working;
working not writing.

loop

declare final year;
call writer; get type error;
thesis unfinished

phd

costing a mountain scaled:
lost companions,
selfish even toward oneself,
middle age in full view;
too weary for exhultation.

Se Mai Ritorna

Orfeo son io, che d'Euridice i passi...

Only once, one single shoreline walking,
Your sole hand speaking sought its pause in mine.
Barely held - a mute creature, paw resting,
Hungers not with material design;
By nose, least articulate of senses,
She seeks the limb and fabric of our world.
Of knowing then, now, of other tenses
I reweave harmonies I fear unfurled.

Thought needs no language, language is not thought
— Erde zu Erde, Aschen zu Aschen —
Address only living voices, for nought
Will be the audit of buried passion.

Prolepsis then; some novel hand in mine
May lead Orfeo and his fate divine.

Capriccio

(rhapsode)

Now put these words in any order
now put this word in any order
any any order
any order all
see how a rhythm tumble rumbles
a rumble tumbles any order
	(take an order very humble)
rumble order tumble order
	(standing order: orders tumble)
order words and let them rumble
	(order words and borders tumble)
any order tumbles order
any rumble tumbles order
	(at the order tumbrels rumble)
any rhythm orders rumble
tumble words in order all
	(who will care if who is counting
	 all the care of these words tumble)
orders tumble
rhythms rumble
any tumble all...

SR 983 937

Three black amoebæ cross the beach,
the twisted rock shatters
and eye, I in the hills,
one sand grain seen scuttering,
caught amid marram grass by spider wind:
my soul in this flesh, in this vision —
birds in painted skies
and rocks like churches.

Florescence

Year upon May-time year
 Green things growing
aspire to Mediterranean light;
  Throwing back the bright
   fluorescence flowing
    in new stems inclined
     to untouched heaven.

Grounded to the visible sense alone
No touch, no fragrance, nor the simple tone
 May grasp an image
  of the knowing seed,
   Describe the phantom
    that a mind conceive.

Transparency is forced through all matter.
 Sun without savour
  the Moon no baker
   Planets shall not ring
    nor Star ever sing
To phantasmagoric photons waving.

Fearing a path through the dark wood yet enclosing the field; we crave a linear world. A closed world of complete accounts. Not that we expect a single unbroken syllogism of cause and effect, but none the less linear; as computer programs are linear despite their loops, jumps and recursions. Whatever the practical difficulty of knowing every move, of keeping track, getting everything right. Because there is a reassurance in believing that if only we could, then it would be possible. At the critical moment a word or deed would be enough to switch tracks; events would take the correct turn , or at least a better path, through the maze of life.

The maze, the net, circular and reticulate, world without end. We crave also the diffuse and incomplete; not the epic but the quest. An eternal promise of tomorrow. Let nothing be lost forever on a single throw, but always another chance to repair and renew; stochastic, ergodic. Time's arrow and clinamen. Water upon stone. Words not of decision or command but influence, action by indeterminate pressure. The field: strong or weak, broad, green, campus, champaign, or plain. The rolling down. The other side of the hill.

Web, weave, spin line, wheel and loom, circular and reticulate. A vector and a cycle: the wave. The great ocean of possibility.

?

“The Answer is Yes, what is the Question”
So overheard at some other table
while silently dining with late estranged love.
So I thought
what is this silent question
that evades like the flame between;
seeking conversation at other tables
More engaging than our own.

Shakey Sonnets:

and will there be sonnet still for tea?

(for Annette)

Enough of toil,
Shrug off your oily jacket,
Put on the foil;
Tea's time to spend a packet.
Go on the razzle,
careen loose and merry,
fear not to frazzle:
sea green as gooseberry.

Come good mackerel take the floor,
you seek a dish
with whom to mate.
All good mackerel come ashore
to find a fish
upon a plate.

how to write a shakey sonnet

First you must know that in a real sonnet
the rhymes and stuff all work out properly.
Mr Shakes would have ten sylables I bet
for his metre is not all wobbly;
his counting feet to the last inch, first rate.
Will ends, right on time, at the fourteenth line,
marking a break with Kit-Kat after eight.
His closing couplet rings better than mine.

A shakey sonnet tries hard, really hard
to be, or not to be, as good as that;
but, you know how it is, being a bard,
sometimes you just fall short a bit - or flat.
You try one damm word and then another.
This writing thing is a lot of bother.

PS


I wrote to my printer in Postscript
The syntax of which is most strict
My page was belated
the machine constipated
The output as white as a Ghostscript

I had justified, kerned and selected
fonts with accent and leading perfected
I think what I meant
was wrote as was sent
But still my screed was rejected

I powered off and on
I booted and switched
swore Ð¡ñGÞ@†§ and kicked

and... pop went the stack!