Nocturne Small specks at night Made light of all our thoughts Which grew, in wonder, And burned the flesh that knew them And found the first thoughts, the controlled desires, the boxed fires the thrusting shields. And spoke behind the pauses, And thought between the brain-tissues, And swarmed through infinite cells, And crowded out the millions And burned […]
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Communication He handled his language as he fried his eggs: There was tension between the respective softnesses Of his egg and the cooking fat – Dependent on extreme alternation of heat and cold, Confinement in shell melting out of shape Solid outside the skin flesh, fluid only within, Only under the flame Pricks the shape in itself, the […]
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Scorpion I touched a scorpion; it struck. It was my fault; I had been warned – But for one split second Its beauty-fascination wrenched me From reason’s ice. I don’t think anyone could find a scorpion ugly, They shine too. Writhing and smarting from the sting I lashed out, struck on something soft I could not see. […]
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Antarctic Depths An ice-roofed stratosphere, clear liquid space And nerve-legged spiders Crack fans of anchor ice To mend all seals Here it is coddled by the final killer, Will it be toppled by comfort’s rays?
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Connections Sheen caps ground rails Soaking harsh sleepers To rattle mud-flounced trains. Drizzle dusts, Grinding against itself, Sparking the tracks’ sheen With casual exasperation; Blinding the gravel Kicking in panic Against the basalt of its being. The lifeline Brine polishes ground cliffs, Moss-padded in their cavities, The waves of muscle buffet, Abrade the penciled rocks, Cowl […]
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Ever River Prime time, swallowed whole Could the universe, just once Have poured itself into a molecule So that, thereafter, Nothing could flow? Never to suckle a broken circuit For sparking life; Never split by caesarean pangs Of primal punctures. Black hole never thinned to liquid Boiling mud foundation pustules Turning all to gas. All words now […]
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In Transit Unemployed’s tube journey: For those safe, definable few minutes there is the duality Of oneself and the comfort of the seat – the circle; Seal; it chops perfectly, crossing the antilinear. It induces connexity; the most complete awareness of the toil and monotony which went into making the tube, and the seat inside the train inside […]
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Ritual Roots Trains: Stringing, ringing, lifting, Breathing meringues, with pores distended at the termini Contraction is needed for piercing of bars And holing of tickets. The breaking of one deadlock only Institutes another, more firm, In the hand and in the basket. More futile by far than any old bird’s weak flight Through a Church, a hall […]
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Mid-Life So much happened; So much didn’t – So nice to remember; So painful to recall Now nothing is all, The power to recall Is an anaesthetic – Past strength Is pathetic. In the middle, What’s kept still here What was and is gone, What never was – All levelled. All comes to ground, abrades, That’s […]
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As a new generation of writers confronts global warming, a new book genre has emerged: “climate fiction”, or “cli-fi”. Russell: “In my secret heart, I hope that all these books that are now talking about climate change will help to move public opinion.” That’s Canadian novelist Craig Russell. In his recent book, Fragment, a shockwave sends a massive Antarctic ice […]
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