for Louis Zukofsky, a hundred years on
the
substance
else devoted,
I am shadow
changing thoughts
then this
let me look
on that shadow,
come,
take this
shadow
up,
unseeing
eyes
35 stanzas from unHealed
poems in English long after the old Welsh of the Canu Heledd
Coalition cannon dappled grey:
They want a thrust though it pierce heads;
toxic chemicals spread over Derah.
Coalition cannon dappled brown:
the gist of language, burning bodies,
they have taken Derah, a desolate town.
Coalition shelling over the boundary:
chain-guns, co-ax, the armies
captured Derah, a town with no fathers.
Coalition rifles open fire:
chain-guns, hesh, the soldiers
captured Derah, no-one left alive.
Coalition cannon moving haphazardly
into the tumult of battle,
cannon, cannonade, carnage.
•
Nothing mollifies tonight,
outside on hard rock.
No-one, no people.
Dark and sad tonight –
no fire and no books.
Tears erode the cheeks.
Dark and sad, tonight –
no fire, no household.
Crying at nightfall.
It breaks me to see –
no shelter, no fire.
Pools of destruction.
Desolate tonight;
after the soldiers,
faces are altered.
•
eagle erne ‘golden’ tonight
white-tailed glides grouped bespattered
eye whirling trees longing yearly
eagle ’f el-Huir all gleaming higher
bloodstained young nests boreal
eye whirling trees hunt grief
eagle erne oppressive hunting
different mid-air tonight
dark brownish long rain gliding
eagle erne estuaries seas
name threat plumage in eaglet
game-birds sees old woods grey
eagle erne flies cliffs hunting
carrion eyes feasting
all larger lighter heads’ violence
•
The driftpin finds a dinar
it hefts, yells – victor.
The quiet of dawn drifts in gear.
The driftpin isn’t different –
law and order not worth a gourmand’s cat.
The garrison nigh dying.
The driftpin drank, drained the throat white.
Oud, gnawed, aches, urgent, torn. In debit the gut
each noon-tide echoed.
•
Moving in parallel the Euphrates
and by trenches the Tigris
and there are torsoes in the Khabur.
Moving in parallel the two rivers Zab
and by ditches the Diyala
and there’s gore in the Uzaym.
•
watcher wearied in tabu ringed
a herd bend in hate
grown wrong chant
watcher wearied in tabu ringed
a chant be in retch
grown wrong duty
wrath gadgetry threw way edgy
a wrath eddy a wind ode
wage idly war
•
Law views better are vital,
conquest, coalition, campaign,
is assure true, troops destruction.
No shadow wealth are new coalition:
not through deliver with.
No vital a free fear look.
Better aim benefit any falls,
a develops forces while oil.
Of from an event oil.
Better am benefit a too do regime.
Vital aim forward access get.
•
Sargon Hammurabi Cyrus Antiochus
Hormizd Harun al-Rashid Faisal
the Administrators of the Coalition Provisi onal Authority
•
Amputation blackened flies fire.
Parts blast shards heads crowd.
Gutted metal smoking toppled blast stump.
Amputation blackened flies fire.
Parts blast shards limbs wounded.
Gutted metal smoking toppled shrapnel.
Amputation blackened flies fire. Blackened
flies flames legs wreckage.
Guts blast smoke toppling congealed.
•
fully field programmable
with in-flight re-targeting
to cover the whole kill chain
with sensor-to-shooter capability
for effects-based engagement
and an integral good-faith report
and a situational awareness
of integrity and trust
to achieve the desired lethal effects
•
Misan Block 4 Majnoon Block 9
Khabbaz Rafidan Rumaila Jambur
Luhais Safwan Safiya Qurna
•
•
•
Processions written inside chivalry
Even as bush, odd as
light
For how long can they be an
extravagance beyond their regular call?
A kind of people
This sleep bears no relation to
chart, east, heart, angel
There is that procession like the
heat driving the windows
Here is a bird, a
home, a prison, storms for an assault
They are sunny and
scornful of anything that is
victorious
Plumed as time,
torrid as town
“I know wizard-fingers”,
they cry, until they
are naked
Want a trifle
They have no air
Here there are
convictions
Such esteem bears no
relation to loss, extremity, creature, tree
“Harry Gilonis”
Blair’s Grave
Opening The Grave, a poem bid
to paint air to judgement
Blake’s television yonder
Horrid apparition British prime
amidst skulls screened
in mild repose depicted
the renovated social man
wreaked order
rich and visible
with lies as appointed
the science of being wrong
superficial but deep
Blair outreach’d wandered heedless on
Soul exhilarated by leadership
he happily Britain
Quite by glory task
intoxicated by dreams eternal
theologians hovering
with harps under arms
issues of trust or integrity over
intelligence was remotely
Peace mistakes have been made
everyone is happy hugely
the virtuous own the banks
thrones and chemicals
•
errors were made on our side and face
sword happen’d
the wrong weapons traded into the hands
good war more happily our good
my fervent global threat
screened to confusion air to shreds
the world over
preparing for futures
•
Newsnight insignia mended his song
I never anticipated spending time on irony
let’s be clear once this row dies
I don’t do Hell
slime made of men
others’ the abyss the horror not mine
Blood thick sooty gross
never us
heaving righteousness becalmed
gross slow moving
“we strove hard for the strong”
•
past buried country
banners folly disastrous
Black cloud the moral air
ethical cleansing
logistical nightmare democracies
privatise the doing
Fedex the coffins
pile dead pride
immortality is up
exploring futures doleful black
•
the eglantine smell’d of science
blossoms hampering the shipment of food
the virtuous own the banks
thrones and chemicals
dark as war
ragged English legacy
made of epitaphs
riding beneath the crows
to meet nothing but flame
sword in the shiver, on the hid
How calm his exit!
•
from NORTH HILLS
‘faithless’ translations of classical Chinese poetry (presented here in paired versions)
quite a way after Li Shang-yin (AD 813–858)
inlaid harp
patterned zither not carry five ten strings
one string one fret consider magnificent years
Chuang Tzu day dream confused butterfly butterfly
Wang Emperor youthful heart entrust restrict cuckoo
green sea moon bright beads are tears
blue field sun warm white grow smoke
this situation able stay become pursue remember
merely is being when stop desolate thus
bright strings
bright strings handled
gut, peg … thought
bewilderment flutters by
night jars transformed
clear understanding
on an indigo field
a problem pursued
at the time right
quite a way after Po Chü-I (AD 772–846)
as grass
leaves leaves prairie grasses
here once gone once
fire consumes fire weed
head-high in spring-wind
fragrant invasion by roads
bright extension by walls
prince of friends leaving / luxuriant
‘flamingo feathers’ waving him off …
grasses primer
grasses leave, leave barren plains
in a year flourish, within it wither
tundra fires never quite burn grass off
new spring brings new life to meadows
smell of green crosses the old road
sight of green enters the old town
when my old friend Timothy leaves
I’m bent, I’m lorn, I’m down – it’s hard …
quite a way after Tai Shu-lun (AD 732–789)
old friend
autumn pours us full
night levels towns cities
chanced meeting beyond geography
flitting about time time
wind moves magpie / words
Spider-web flutters clear night
travellers with wine constant
kept mutual in looped days
old friend
fall moon fills us
in night-doubled cities
balanced accounts within histories
translating doubts every time
dark winds measured words
insects crawl // in the white-out
travellers with wine constant
kept mutual at azimuth
quite a way after T’ao Ch’ien (c. AD 365–427)
drinking wine [no. 5 of a sequence]
home amid great works
noise of communication traffic
ask about paying cash
breakdown of partial sincerity
(doesn’t match any documents)
mountain walking genre poem
beautiful painless night signals
rhythmic propulsion birds roost
work progress meaning mystifying
link posts neglect speech
drinking wine [no. 5 of a sequence]
a house shaped near folk, but not too near
no noise of traffic on the roadways
how so? how so? how? so.
mind & heart distanced self inclines to place
see: fuchsia fuchsias interlace the hedgerows
Galtymore a line of thin pale russet
(the beauty of mountain air at dusk)
birds move to roost together:
this. here. true. clear. meaning?
(distant) petalled by memory (echo)
quite a way after Ts’ui Hao (AD 704–754)
brown crane
a yellow crane left
yellow crane tower right
looked for in vain
… centuries of clouds …
clear sky streams trees
through the plain of grasses
day(s) end(s) going home
mist / waves / river
crane (version)
1. lifted by crane to heaven
2. subordinated earth left empty
3 (not) repeated (not) duplicated
4. sky loaded with clouds (folded thousands)
5. river, trees, positively bright (experience, experience)
6. plumed birds, grasses (luxuriant, luxuriant)
7. sunset uncertainty (where are the bureaucrats?)
8. roll-up smoke signals across the water
quite a way after Ts’ui Shu (c. AD 704–749)
elevated station
how imperious this vantage
from which to assess the day
cloud peeks at each cardinal point
the news is ‘rain’ from along the valley
closing the passes off from view
here among old banks and slaughter-houses
how unexpected to find poets
and enthusiasts for chrysanths and antiques
nine clouds
high masts of the imperium
watch the weather becoming dawn
anvil clouds heading north
… rain in from Yosemite …
One never knows, do one?
whirling matters dervish-style
leave it to poets o nombreux officiers
to ruminate cloud-types and flowers
quite a way after Tu Fu (AD 712–770)
moonlight night
tonight under foreign moon
the room watches alone
distant pity tiny few
can’t explain won’t remember
hair fragrant cloud(-top)
clear pure bright armed
what when relied on
ears dried brightness shared
night moon
exiled moon tonight
she watches alone
far family sorrow
remembering not here
sweet cloud hair missed
clear light flesh called
empty casement time
tears dried together
quite a way after Tu Mu (c. AD 803–852)
southern spring
calling / birds / reflect (off /on) river
water, village, mountain, ramparts, flags, wind …
many, many (many many) temples
pavilions (in) mist (in) rain
southern spring
foliage, blossom, orioles
mountains and rivers and pubs and banners
facing south, morning
architecture & unfrozen rain
quite a way after ‘Tzü Yeh’ (fl. AD 3rd–4th centuries)
attributed song 1.0
long night no sleep
moon shine bright bright
thought I heard quiet voice
&nbs
p; said “you” to no-one, no-where
attributed song 1.1
night blank particles of sleep
moon embeds brilliance redoubled
voice blankly scatters
emptiness affirmatively
quite a way after Wang Wei (c. AD 700–760)
deer park (poem 5 from Wheel River)
no change on the hollow hills
sole solo voice duplicated
flickering light through trees
falls on blue lichen
deer enclosure (poem 5 from Wheel River)
wild sky | HILLS | unseeing people
still conversation sounding
brightness moves into deep woods
again shines again onto green moss
quite a way after Wei Chuang (AD 836– 910)