Friday

Uncollected Poems (2005-2009)


Jack Ross: Newmarket (2006)


  1. from Roadworks: Auckland Geography (2006)
    1. Cruisy morning, eh? (8-19/8/03)
    2. We were Soldiers (20-21/4/02)
    3. Castor Bay (17-24/2/06)
    4. Such Manners (21-23/12/05)
    5. First Night (20-21/4/02)
    6. Cycle Couriers in Freyberg Place (17-25/2/06)
    7. The Kid Stays in the Picture (27-28/5/03)
    8. Every girl’s a babe (6-10/9/05)
  2. Noughts and Crosses (17/12/04-7/2/05)
  3. Sibylla (5/6-14/7/05)
  4. Wang Po’s Preface to Poems from the Pavilion of the Prince of T’eng (16/10-4/11/05)
  5. Funeral Sermon by the Shadow Spokesperson against PC (3-13/11/05)
  6. As Long (7/4/06)
  7. That hand (15-18/4/06)
  8. Easter Ferry to Rakiura (24/4-20/5/06)
  9. Eva (24/4-20/5/06)
  10. Xmas (21/11/06)
  11. Biggie Shark & Biggie Whale (14/2/07)
    1. Genesis (15/1/-8/2/07)
    2. Scripts (15/1/-8/2/07)
    3. Paisley (15/1-8/2/07)
    4. Kids at a Bus-stop (13/7-18/10/01)
  12. Heroes: 3 Takes
    1. Rita (19/7/07)
    2. Kickstarting Your Research Career (7-20/6/07)
    3. Miniatures (7/2; 8/11; 16/7-9/11/06)
  13. Volcanic Glass (3-13/3/08)
  14. Vainglory (3-13/3/08)
  15. from 31 Days (2009)
    1. One More Thing (3/4 & 8/9/09-22/7/10)
    2. Silhouette (4/4-18/6/09)
    3. Pale Star (K.M., 1923) (7/4-24/7/09)
    4. Foundry (8/4-20/9/09)
    5. Toys (China, 1908) (9/4-18/6/09)
    6. Memoirs from beyond the grave (13/4-15/11/09)
    7. Badges (15/4-15/11/09)
    8. Vampires (16/4/09, 8/9/09, 4/5/10-12/7/10)
    9. “Concern for Tony Veitch’s safety” (19/4/09)
    10. Orpheish (20/4-13/8/09)
    11. The Dada Lady of the Sonnets (21-23/4/09)
    12. Anzac Day (25/4-18/6/09)
    13. Argo (26/4-18/6/09)
    14. Before the Storm (29/4-15/11/09)




Jack Ross: Roadworks: Auckland Geography (2006)



Auckland Geography

(2006)

(For Anna Rugis)



The city is a map of the city
– Ciaran Carson, Belfast Confetti


  1. O Canada! (30-31/7/03)
  2. Cruisy morning, eh? (8-19/8/03)
  3. Tentacles of Destruction (14 & 20-27/5/04)
  4. Asbestos Hands of Dr. J. (7/10/04-26/1/06)
  5. We were Soldiers (20-21/4/02)
  6. Castor Bay (17-24/2/06)
  7. DEATH & BEYOND (2-5/6/03)
  8. Refrigerium (20-22/1/06)
  9. Birkenhead (21-22/11/03)
  10. A Sunday Walk (13-31/7/03)
  11. Such Manners (21-23/12/05)
  12. First Night (20-21/4/02)
  13. Cycle Couriers in Freyberg Place (17-25/2/06)
  14. This DVD contains everything you ever wanted to know … (13-15/9/05)
  15. The Kid Stays in the Picture (27-28/5/03)
  16. Every girl’s a babe (6-10/9/05)
  17. Newmarket (30/6-22/7/03)
  18. Unsuccessful Applicant for Neighbourhood Watch (29/9/05)
  19. Coromandel (26-28/7/03)
  20. Blinds (28/2-11/3/06)



•

The Auckland Game



  1. ALBANY VILLAGE
    2. O Canada!
  2. MASSEY CAMPUS
    3. Cruisy morning, eh?
  3. UPPER HARBOUR HIGHWAY
    4. Tentacles of Destruction
  4. MAIRANGI BAY
    5. Asbestos Hands of Dr. J.
  5. SUNNYNOOK
    6. We were Soldiers
  6. CASTOR BAY
    7. Castor Bay
  7. FORREST HILL
    8. DEATH & BEYOND
  8. RANGITOTO
    9. Refrigerium
  9. BIRKENHEAD
    10. Birkenhead
  10. DEVONPORT
    11. A Sunday Walk
  11. PONSONBY
    12. Such Manners
  12. EDEN CRESCENT
    13. First Night
  13. HIGH ST
    14. Cycle Couriers in Freyberg Place
  14. K RD
    15. This DVD contains …
  15. GRAFTON
    16. The Kid Stays in the Picture
  16. GREY LYNN
    17. Every girl’s a babe
  17. NEWMARKET
    18. Newmarket
  18. WESTERN SPRINGS
    19. Unsuccessful Applicant for Neighbourhood Watch
  19. COROMANDEL
    20. Coromandel
  20. ALBANY
    21. Blinds



•



    8.00 am - START
  1. 8.30 am - ALBANY VILLAGEcar starts
  2. 9.00 am - MASSEY CAMPUScomputer double
  3. 6.00 pm - U H HIGHWAYcar accident
  4. 10.00 am - FERRY RIDE
  5. 9.30 am - MAIRANGI BAYbus in
  6. 11.00 am - SUNNYNOOKone more movie
  7. 4.30 pm - CASTOR BAYbus / walk
  8. 10.30 am - FORREST HILLstall at the lights
  9. 12.30 pm - MISS THE BUS
  10. 5.00 pm - RANGITOTOferry back
  11. 4.00 pm - BIRKENHEADkilling time
  12. 2.00 pm - DEVONPORTferry across
  13. 2.30 pm - PONSONBYtime for a coffee
  14. 3.00 pm - WALK IN THE PARK
  15. 6.30 pm - EDEN CRESCENT
  16. 1.00 pm - HIGH STtime for lunch
  17. 3.30 pm - K RDbuying shirts
  18. 11.30 am - GRAFTONwalk down
  19. 5.30 pm - CAR ACCIDENT
  20. 12.00 noon - GREY LYNNmoving house
  21. 1.30 pm - NEWMARKETwalk up
  22. 7.00 pm - WESTERN SPRINGSparty
  23. 7.30 pm - COROMANDELcar stops
  24. 8.00 pm - STOP


Throw a single die to start.



•








Keep playing till you’ve had enough.






White haze above the hills
    of Albany

“pools of fir”
    (H.D.)

or “sooty altars”
    (Curnow)

cracker stuff
    I like the crosses, man

sparrows bob
    across the cobbles

high heels click to class


(8-19/8/03)

Publications:



•




    not me I wasn’t
actor
    in other men’s wars

Tonight I took the car out
    for a spin
in moonlight
    starting at shadows

Today I stayed at home 
    alone at home
same’s true
    of yesterday

Tomorrow?
    Off to hunt
the foxes
    from their holes


(20-21/4/02)

Publications:



•





The day your driver stopped
not halfway home

to say another bus had crashed
in Takapuna

& he’d been told
to turn around

pick up the passengers
but you got out instead

thinking it might be quicker
to walk home

only to see his tail-lights
receding

before you got halfway there
your feet started to hurt

in those damned sandals
until you tried

that one surefire shortcut
that took so much longer

& you felt
not so much alive

as if you ought to feel


something like that


(17-24/2/06)

Publications:



•




“Such manners …”
    with the emphasis
of early afternoon

Medusa
    waiting for your friend
to come (she’s late)

whisper whisper
    from the little girl
“You’d like to stay here”

water baby
    with a coke bottle
clear dishes

Merry
    Xmas!
traffic’s already

starting to build up


(21-23/12/05)

Publications:



•




Incorrigibly punctual
    talk to me
        forgive me

in the park
    I suddenly thought
        shit

you’re on tonight
    he told me
        it was all

one thing
    looking forward
        to a cognac

since this morning
    me a wine
        the others

to a scream


(20-21/4/02)

Publications:



•





a mirror hit him from behind

up the back orifice

where was that

he rings me up and goes

yeah blah blah blah

what was it

he was fucken doing?


(17-25/2/06)

Publications:



•




Don’t want to just be intellectual
The way I feel is sexual
    – MORE FM


Twisting my rubber arm
    bronze    blue
VALISÈRE

Mocha almond
    Jellytip
Cookies & cream

OUR ALLEGIANCE
    IS NOT TO A CREED
NOT TO A BOOK

NOT TO A CHURCH
    BUT TO THE GREAT
SPIRIT OF LIFE

Oh shit    oh shucks


(27-28/5/03)

Publications:



•




in Jackworld
Soraya’s mother

pilloried on 12 o’clock TV
not answering the door

We’ve had her up before
she’ll keep on doing it

until    unspoken
feral old man

tethered in the yard
titanic mounds

of garbage    They’re afraid
of dinging up their cars

They always stop
comforting me

when I stalked out of Poetry
Live    a good kind woman

turned into the butt
of media mikes

& yet    the squalor
freaked me out

that dark reporter …


(6-10/9/05)

Publications:



•





My name is …

John Carter, Warlord of Barsoom  X

I live in …

The Fortress of Solitude  X

My father is …

a barbarian chieftain from the Plains of Leng  X

My mother is …

a slavegirl from the Mongolian steppes  X

I have 100 sisters and no  brothers

save for the heads impaled atop my tent  X

This summer I …

set out to pillage all the known world  X

It was …

very easy  X

My teacher is …

a dog whose last words will be screams of pain  X !!

My best friend is …

my mighty two-handed battle-axe  X

My classmates are …

dust beneath my chariot-wheels  X

I like to …

ride like the wind on my 8-legged steed Thorondor  X

When I grow up I want to be …

a vengeful ghost  X


                     0
                12   This silly work is becoming increasingly
                           typical of you, I’m afraid. You know you 
                           could do far better if you tried.


(17/12/04-7/2/05)

Publications:

Notes:
  • The reference to Andromache's baby Astyanax being frightened by his father Hector's plume is from Homer's Iliad [Bk 6, ll.466-502].


•




        Mounted
    all funky
on your fine horse

        Now
    stripped
to essential womanhood

        Wounded
    beauty
with your big eyes

        What should I do?
    Decide not to be
a queen

        A queen never walks
    & yet you are
walking

then she takes his hand


(5/6-14/7/05)

Publications:

Notes:
  • The reference to Andromache's baby Astyanax being frightened by his father Hector's plume is from Homer's Iliad [Bk 6, ll.466-502].


•




[675 AD] 


Our Commander has no ordinary reputation
    he has carried his standard here
the new Governor is a paragon of virtue
    he has travelled a thousand li
like soaring dragons and ascending birds
    are the works of Academician Meng

Now is the ninth month
    the season Autumn
the waters have receded
    the lake is clear
we have come to the riverbank
    and entered the lofty portals

Evening songs from the fishing boats
    resound over Lake P’eng-Li
geese numbed by the cold
    choke on their cries
unfettered rapture
    soars into the sky

The four excellent conditions
    are present
the two rarities
    have come together
heaven is high
    the earth immense

the succession of opposites
obeys one inscrutable law


(16/10-4/11/05)

Publications:

Notes:
  • Portions of this poem were extracted from the text included in Inscribed Landscapes: Travel Writing from Imperial China, trans. Richard E. Strassburg (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994) pp. 105-9.


•




Dr Mapp said he would be issuing a paper on eradicating 
political correctness.
     – NZ Herald (1/11/05)


The face is starting to dissolve
    from too many
pictures    Lose
    the cotton wadding
& the teeth    Just
    stuff the fucker
underground
    Cocksucker
Fucking im-
    migrants    Tell me
arsehole    Who
    got here first?
You    yes    You
    I’m talking to you
You talking to me?
    Are you
talking to    If you
can’t stand the heat
    then stay out of the
Fuck you		
        Fuck you
    Fuck you
very much


(3-13/11/05)

Publications:

Notes:
  • The reference to Andromache's baby Astyanax being frightened by his father Hector's plume is from Homer's Iliad [Bk 6, ll.466-502].


•




As long as I get these essays marked
    humanity will forge
            – vast herds of wildebeest –
    towards the dawn

As long as my car starts
    the space race
            will end in triumph
    freedom’s banner flourish
            on the plains of Mars

As long as this pen keeps moving
    the glaciers will recede    mankind
            forgive their debtors
    peace and love prevail
            the lion and the lamb
    – you know – 
            & as for me

I might wake up


(7/4/06)

Publications:

Notes:
  • The reference to Andromache's baby Astyanax being frightened by his father Hector's plume is from Homer's Iliad [Bk 6, ll.466-502].


•




waving out of a car
window, a slight
hand pirouetting in the light
rain, an hour from evening

This afternoon, that girl
sock-footed, in her uniform
beside the supermarket fence
face fixed to her phone

I used to think
such things would all add up
transform into a paradise
life well lost for this

I could not love thee dear so much
loved I not    never quite
had the nerve to try that
on    with Marianne
            with Chantal, Rachel    no

but listening to Olivia Newton
John sing Xanadu
as Coleridge stumbled through
a neon-garish London

I felt sure … It may not be Art
but I like it    you have to get
your kicks in strange ways
these days 
           even from a hand


(15-18/4/06)

Publications:

Notes:
  • The reference to Andromache's baby Astyanax being frightened by his father Hector's plume is from Homer's Iliad [Bk 6, ll.466-502].


•




The final year
                            I was in Christchurch
they asked me to bodypaint
                            a model
I found this girl
                            It took me 11 hours
I gave her pinstripe trousers
                            & a tie
She stood there glaring
                            looking like a man
It’s a guy – no
                            it’s a girl!
There’s a photo
                            of some people
staring at her boobs
                            & one of them was Brett
For quite a while
                            he came to my shows
I to his
                            It was as if
we were moving in circles
                            around each other
which is
                            kinda sad


(24/4-20/5/06)

Publications:

Notes:
  • The reference to Andromache's baby Astyanax being frightened by his father Hector's plume is from Homer's Iliad [Bk 6, ll.466-502].


•




    insouciant
twisting up her mouth
    likes to disagree
with everything I say

    in her arctic cloak
propped by the lifebelt
    staring at the waves
heave up & down

    ‘the infinite hatability
of strangers’ (John Dolan)
    or, by contrast,
lovability

    last seen
receding on the deck
    of a water-taxi
off to Ulva Island


(24/4-20/5/06)

Publications:

Notes:
  • The reference to Andromache's baby Astyanax being frightened by his father Hector's plume is from Homer's Iliad [Bk 6, ll.466-502].


•




the rolling whale’s-eye
of the Farmers’ Santa
in its transplanted state
Queen St / Victoria
    St corner

eyes fixed on your phone
– can I sit here?
– our bus is coming in 5 minutes, mate
– time to finish
    up my smoke

plugged in – the Asian girl
cocks her head to one side
as if listening for it
for what? invisible
    the sentence of her life


(21/11/06)

Publications:

Notes:
  • The reference to Andromache's baby Astyanax being frightened by his father Hector's plume is from Homer's Iliad [Bk 6, ll.466-502].


•

Biggie Shark & Biggie Whale









(15/1/-8/2/07)

Publications:

Notes:
  • The reference to Andromache's baby Astyanax being frightened by his father Hector's plume is from Homer's Iliad [Bk 6, ll.466-502].


•







(15/1/-8/2/07)

Publications:

Notes:
  • The reference to Andromache's baby Astyanax being frightened by his father Hector's plume is from Homer's Iliad [Bk 6, ll.466-502].


•







(15/1-8/2/07)

Publications:

Notes:
  • The reference to Andromache's baby Astyanax being frightened by his father Hector's plume is from Homer's Iliad [Bk 6, ll.466-502].


•







(13/7-18/10/01)

Publications:

Notes:
  • The reference to Andromache's baby Astyanax being frightened by his father Hector's plume is from Homer's Iliad [Bk 6, ll.466-502].


•

Heroes:
3 Takes






(for Bronwyn Lloyd)

Out of the box is where I live …
    – Battlestar Galactica


i – Conshie

Would you walk barefoot?
Yes
rather than work
in a rubber factory
said Rita Angus


ii – Jean

Don’t write to me again
from a launderette
she told her sister
The prison blocks
of your modernity


(19/7/07)

Publications:

Notes:
  • The reference to Andromache's baby Astyanax being frightened by his father Hector's plume is from Homer's Iliad [Bk 6, ll.466-502].


•




(for Cluny Macpherson)

Her heart was in perfect condition – in fact I have it over here …
    – C.S.I.


i – Spreading Yourself Around

I started to get involved
in cruising

How is it 
Filipino boys

work in the laundry
Dutchmen

on the bridge?
Ships plying

the Pacific
as the sun goes down

my page

 
ii – Entertaining the Visiting Professor

I took him to the zoo
he was bored

I took him to the museum
he was bored

we all took bets
as he nodded off

on whether his cigar ash
would set fire

to his crimpoline suit


(7-20/6/07)

Publications:

Notes:
  • The reference to Andromache's baby Astyanax being frightened by his father Hector's plume is from Homer's Iliad [Bk 6, ll.466-502].


•




(for Lisa Clements)

I like to ambush my brain before fear and reason can kick in …
    – Joan of Arcadia


OFF END OF LINES
the wine-shop sign

says
I watch Gaston

joshing with his buds
Out in the sun

all day    poor you!
ex-colleague

married to a Japanese
(Yuko, was it?)

does he recognise me?
probably

I him

 
•	

Are you getting popcorn
for all of us?

the kids shrill
I stand queuing

right behind them
harassed father

has no answer
I make sure

that I get served
no matter what

the upshot

•	

It’s always already
happened
		
that sharp blow
to the back of the head
	
throwing the pen
in the language students’
	
face
He’s having trouble at home
		
Lisa explained

 
•	

The redness
of red trousers
		
spied
in a shop

tried on
anxiously

debated
bought
	
tried out
in the park
	
holding hands
– with whom?

gossamer smile


(7/2; 8/11; 16/7-9/11/06)

Publications:

Notes:
  • The reference to Andromache's baby Astyanax being frightened by his father Hector's plume is from Homer's Iliad [Bk 6, ll.466-502].


•





Len Castle: Mountain to the Sea (2008)



That line on your thumb
white/ red
exuding blood

like David Hawkes’
obsidian
at school

clean lines of break
the signs of
manufacture

evident
immaculate
anti-

evolutionary
artefact
ruling out

an intervention
cutting
the subject

short


(3-13/3/08)

Publications:

Notes:
  • The reference to Andromache's baby Astyanax being frightened by his father Hector's plume is from Homer's Iliad [Bk 6, ll.466-502].


•




SH:   … I think that one reason there is so much ugly antipathy to 
      writers who are breaking form in any way is because people 
      know that language taps an unpredictable power source in all 
      of us. It’s not the same in the visual arts, where there are 
      many abstract or form-breaking visual artists who enjoy wide 
      popularity, are embraced by a critical establishment, and sell 
      their work for a tremendous amount of money. You will see their 
      work in museums and books about the work on large glass coffee 
      tables. Try the same thing, with language, certainly in this 
      culture, and you may find your writing lost. This is because 
      words are used as buoys, and if they start to break up …
EF:   If they’re stripped of their presumed meanings …
SH:   Right. Then everything goes because words connect us to life.
     – Edward Forster, Talisman Interview with Susan Howe (1990)



A monument being resolved upon
Dr. Donne
sent for a carver to make
the figure of an urn
charcoal fires being first made in his large study

& having put off all his clothes
winding-sheet in his hand
had this sheet put upon him
tied with knots at his head & feet
& his hands so placed as dead

Upon this Urn
he stood with his eyes
shut
& with so much of the sheet turned aside
as might show his lean pale face

When the picture was fully finished
he caused it to be set
by his bedside
where it continued
& became his hourly object …


(3-13/3/08)

Publications:

Notes:
  • The reference to Andromache's baby Astyanax being frightened by his father Hector's plume is from Homer's Iliad [Bk 6, ll.466-502].


•





Grow quietly
If you listen carefully
You can hear the beautiful singing
– Sijie Zhou



I’m using my gift to search for luminosity
– Liu Si


  1. April Fool’s Day (1/4-18/6/09)
  2. Hiding the Lunch (2/4-6/8/09)
  3. One More Thing (3/4 & 8/9/09-22/7/10)
  4. Silhouette (4/4-18/6/09)
  5. “The archaeologist of the present day” (5/4-18/6//09)
  6. Three fits (6/4-16/7/10)
  7. Pale Star (K.M., 1923) (7/4-24/7/09)
  8. Foundry (8/4-20/9/09)
  9. Toys (China, 1908) (9/4-18/6/09)
  10. Legacy (10/4-15/11/09-24/1/11)
  11. New Zealand’s Next Top Model Speaks (11/4-18/6/09)
  12. Substitutes only need apply (12/4-18/6/09)
  13. Memoirs from beyond the grave (13/4-15/11/09)
  14. Two Falls (14/4-15/11/09-16/1/11)
  15. Badges (15/4-15/11/09)
  16. Vampires (16/4/09, 8/9/09, 4/5/10-12/7/10)
  17. Not everyone can get an 'A' (17/4-15/11/09-5/7/11)
  18. Dire Straits (18/4-15/11/09-18/1/11)
  19. “Concern for Tony Veitch’s safety” (19/4/09)
  20. Orpheish (20/4-13/8/09)
  21. The Dada Lady of the Sonnets (21-23/4/09)
  22. The Assassination Weapon (22/4-18/6/09)
  23. The Darkness (23/4-18/6/09)
  24. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (24/4-15/11/09)
  25. Anzac Day (25/4-18/6/09)
  26. Argo (26/4-18/6/09)
  27. Class Discourse (27/4-15/11/09-2/1/12)
  28. The Double (28/4-20/9/09-8/1/11)
  29. Before the Storm (29/4-15/11/09)
  30. Advice on Essay-writing (30/4-20/9/09-29/7/11)
  31. Mayday (1/5-18/6/09)






[after Virgil & James Fenton]


- for Alistair Paterson -



Una in praecelsâ consedit rupe Celæno,
Infelix vates, rupitque hanc pectore vocem.
    – Aeneid, iii: 245-6.
[Calæno alone took her seat on the brow of a high rock,
a prophetess of plagues, & from her heaving breast burst forth these words]:




H.O.D.:      We need to add semester, mode & web status


Fred & Helen
were going
to split up


SECRETARY:    I can’t add semester, mode or web-status
              as I don’t know what they are


Fred had some
local colour
to check out


LECTURER:    Sorry – Is there something wrong with my email?
             I replied the moment I received your request,
             to this effect …


After that –
straight back to work
You look troubled


TUTOR:       Oh, it’s web-enhanced all right
             I set up a website for the first run-through
             & am now building another
             as to mode of teaching, I’m agnostic …


said Helen
Wasn’t the trip good?
Oh, the trip was good


H.O.D.:     I have a problem
            with this course being offered internally
            I think the only way to attract sufficient
            students is through a block-course.
            I'm puzzled …


said Fred
When you’ve got
something


LECTURER:    We canvassed this extensively last year
             We’re anxious to retain one paper
             in internal mode
             & have had a most enthusiastic response
             from students


to think about
that’s good
I’d just like one more thing


LECTURER:    So if you’ve got no objection
             (being “agnostic”)
             I’d like to report that we’ve decided 
             to offer the paper internally next year


What sort of thing?
asked Helen
That’s it


LECTURER:    No reply to my email which I guess means
             that what you meant by “agnostic”
             is that you were happy to change the mode


I don’t know
One more thing
to round it


LECTURER:    If the class includes international students
             this is a compellingly better mode for them.


off


LECTURER:    Let me know


(3/4 & 8/9/09-22/7/10)

Publications:

Notes:
  • The reference to Andromache's baby Astyanax being frightened by his father Hector's plume is from Homer's Iliad [Bk 6, ll.466-502].


•




Is form your master or your slave?
Diane von Furstenberg’s aesthetic:
Lots of layers, flowy, elegant
Marlene Dietrich in 
A Foreign Affair
a spy, a glamour girl
Berlin, Shanghai …

I set the video rolling on longplay
halfway through the night before 
it nets up everything
for those six hours
Project Runway included
our Saturday morning ritual
over toast & jam

My taste is impeccable
Daniel’s pompous declaration 
earned him a braying laugh last week
from poster-girl Kenley
This time her skimpy dress
is “simply not enough”
to net the prize

No-one can layer prints like you do
Tim flatters
Diane accepts the tribute
as her due
The designers wet themselves
with glee to serve
such a big name

Is form your master or your slave?
I am an artist on the level
of Michelangelo or Van Gogh
thundered Santino
two years ago
Where is he now?
Designing quietly, one hopes

in Venice Beach
Supererogatory, yes
the insights
quasi-accidental
& yet I feel myself
debate the cut
fall for the sharpness

of a silhouette


(4/4-18/6/09)

Publications:

Notes:
  • The reference to Andromache's baby Astyanax being frightened by his father Hector's plume is from Homer's Iliad [Bk 6, ll.466-502].


•




(K.M., 1923)

[after Xu Zhimo]


Unintentionally imitating Chinese style
her hair was pitch black & straight

Her features seemed to me
like the purest Indian jade

or pristine snow in the Alps
Her brightly-coloured clothes

might have aroused some criticism
had they been worn by anyone else

on her they looked becoming
like green leaves on a flower

Her figure was so fragile
that a man standing beside her

felt his breathing to be too coarse


(7/4-24/7/09)

Publications:

Notes:
  • The reference to Andromache's baby Astyanax being frightened by his father Hector's plume is from Homer's Iliad [Bk 6, ll.466-502].


•





Gefunden

Ich ging im Walde
So für mich hin,
Und nichts zu suchen,
Das war mein Sinn.

Im Schatten sah ich
Ein Blümchen stehn,
Wie Sterne leuchtend
Wie Äuglein schön.

Ich wollt es brechen,
Da sagt' es fein:
Soll ich zum Welken,
Gebrochen sein?

Ich grubs mit allen
Den Würzeln aus,
Zum Garten trug ichs
Am hübschen Haus.

Und pflanzt es wieder
Am stillen Ort;
Nun zweigt es immer
Und blüht so fort.

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1813)



I went for a walk
in my lunch-hour
not looking for anything
in particular

I found a wild briar
undermining the wall
of an old foundry
bright as steel

I knelt down beside it
although it looked
as if it were saying
Why should I be plucked

just to wither for you?
but I broke off a shoot
& carried it back
replanted it

by the beat-up gate
to my backyard
which it’s spreading all over
like a noxious weed


(8/4-20/9/09)

Publications:

Notes:
  • The reference to Andromache's baby Astyanax being frightened by his father Hector's plume is from Homer's Iliad [Bk 6, ll.466-502].


•




(China, 1908)

[after Kathleen Pih-Chang]


I remember people seemed
to be quite friendly

with the missionaries
Once a robber broke

into their compound
& was executed

His head was put into 
a wooden cage

& hung up on a tree
I remember as a child

seeing such cages
with little heads inside

sold in shops for toys


(9/4-18/6/09)

Publications:

Notes:
  • The reference to Andromache's baby Astyanax being frightened by his father Hector's plume is from Homer's Iliad [Bk 6, ll.466-502].


•




[after Chateaubriand]


Not so much the doing as the having done
as David Howard said 
Jack has experiences
to write about them
I just live my life
trying on the tracksuits
one after another

I have crossed the seven seas
traversed the corners of the earth
slept in Arab tents
& Huron wigwams
in the ruins of Athens Carthage & Jerusalem
among the Greeks the Turks the Moors
in woods & ruins

dressed in skins among the savages
in silks among the Mamelukes,
suffered hunger    thirst
& want
sat down with kings & princes
festooned with ribbons
only to fall from grace

I’ve tramped the capitals of Europe
Cursed beggars in Indian bazaars
paddled a kayak
on the river Kwai
kissed the behinds of courtesans
stared up at inaccessible windows
from the snow-encrusted street

I’ve typed & sketched & scribbled 
hundreds of pages of notes
seen books with my name
on the spine
on the loftiest shelves
Swallow
I’ve made my nest

on the restless waves of the sea
my solitary poetic life
has walked alongside
this world’s realities
disaster noise disorder pain
with the girls of my dreams
Atala Amélie Velléda Cymodocée

From within & yet
adjacent to my century
I have exercised upon it
perhaps
by accident, unintentionally 
some influence
religious political

or literary


(13/4-15/11/09)

Publications:

Notes:
  • The reference to Andromache's baby Astyanax being frightened by his father Hector's plume is from Homer's Iliad [Bk 6, ll.466-502].


•




“We don’t need no steenking badges”
    – The Treasure of the Sierra Madre


In my dream last night I’d been arrested for some little thing. 
A group of us were on the back of a flatbed truck. As we got 
near the beach, one of the others suggested jumping off and 
making a break for it. I started to reach for my shoes, but 
didn’t dare for fear of alerting the guards.

When we got to the incarceration camp there was a complicated, 
jungle gym-like structure made of wood we had to climb across 
in order to get in. With what infinite precautions did I 
negotiate each rung! Helped (I must admit) by the guy whose 
escape I’d ruined. We were all innocent.

This morning dawned grey. The cat is agitated. The sore on my 
penis has started to leak again. A badge of dishonour? Hardly. 
Not serious, I hope – but not a badge of depravity either. 
I HAVEN’T DONE ANYTHING. Except nothing. That I've done, 
again & again.


(15/4-15/11/09)

Publications:

Notes:
  • The reference to Andromache's baby Astyanax being frightened by his father Hector's plume is from Homer's Iliad [Bk 6, ll.466-502].


•




So bottled blood is just like bottled V
You can get high on it but you
can overdose as well
    – overheard on a bus



So my Mum asks me
Are you going for a run this morning?
I told her yes
then she comes in
It’s 8 am!
You’re obviously not going
I could have gone to work

I was, like
I’m just going now
But she didn’t tell me why
she needed to know
just asked me what
I was going
to do

•	

Chief Joseph:


I have carried a heavy load on my back ever since I was a boy

We were like deer
            They were like grizzly bears
We had a small country
            Their country was large
We were content to let things remain
            They were not
& would change the mountains and rivers
            if they did not suit them

You might as well expect all rivers to flow backwards
as that any man who was born a freeman
            should be contented
penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases


•	

My best friend lives at 106
I live at 6 on the same street
We’ve got almost exactly
the same phone number
Hers is 9
& mine is upside down
6

All the other numbers
are the same
so when I’m trying to think
of her phone number
all  I have to do
is think of mine
& sweet

•	

Richard F. Burton:


All pilgrims
do not enter
the Ka’abah

Those who tread
the hallowed floor
cannot

walk barefoot
pick up fire
in their fingers

or tell lies
(The list is
numerous

& meaningless)


•	

I highly recommend
living in a hotel
$150 for heating
& power
All you have to do
is pay
for your own food

A pool on the roof
& two gyms
lower down
& no travel costs to anywhere!
You can just walk out
to wherever
you want to go

•	

Douglas Mawson:


Up 8 am, it having been arranged
that we should go on at all cost

I leading and Xavier in his bag on the sledge
Just as I got out at 8 am I found Xavier

in a terrible state, having fouled his pants
I have a long job cleaning him up

then put him in the bag to warm up
I have to turn in again also to kill time & keep warm 

for I feel the cold very much now
I hold him down, then he becomes more peaceful

& I put him quietly in the bag
Death due to fever, weather exposure

& want of food


•	

I told him I wouldn’t be able
to do the vampire shoot
& he was like
Why not?
so I told him that I didn’t want
to do it now
& he was like

Whatever


(16/4/09, 8/9/09, 4/5/10-12/7/10)

Publications:

Notes:
  • The reference to Andromache's baby Astyanax being frightened by his father Hector's plume is from Homer's Iliad [Bk 6, ll.466-502].


•




Yes, I felt concerned
when he went missing yesterday
Tony had tried to do it twice before 
his lawyer said

(or was that his publicist?)
kill himself, that is
This time was far more serious
wandering around Ngaruawahia

on his own!
He could easily have been killed
crossing the road
Cynics said it had something to do

with Dame Susan Devoy
the former Queen of Squash
complaining of the misuse
of her testimonial

for a passport application
produced in court with 20 others
from “prominent New Zealanders”
in support of domestic abuse

When celebrities turn on their own
it’s never pretty
He has been fined & given 300 hours!
Oh right, it was his publicist

(call her a “media minder”)
who explained that the references
solicited from sporting stars
were alleged to be for a passport

because “the sentencing hearing
needed to be kept 
completely confidential”
I mean, what did they think?

That he was going to fuck 
off? It’s hard to get these things 
straight, easy to be fooled
by media bias. I mean

how many times
does a poor guy have to cry
on television before we accept
that it’s okay

to kick a stroppy bitch
down some concrete stairs
when she gets in your face?
It’s just not true that

he left her lying there for hours
with broken vertebrae
I mean, what kind of a man
do you take him for?

& all that namby-pamby
shutting up that she’s been doing
angling for sympathy, I call it
from women and pinkos and gays

the ones who’d turn on any
red-blooded guy
administering domestic correction
They were all over it from the beginning

It’s as if they had something to prove


(19/4/09)

Publications:

Notes:
  • The reference to Andromache's baby Astyanax being frightened by his father Hector's plume is from Homer's Iliad [Bk 6, ll.466-502].


•




[after Heinrich Heine]


Es gab den Dolch in deine Hand
Ein böser Dämon in der bösen Stunde –
Ich weiß nicht, wie der Dämon hieß –
Ich weiß nur, daß vergiftet war die Wunde.


There was a dagger in your hand
a demon in an idle hour
I never knew the demon’s name
I only felt his stabbing power

In stillen Nächten denk ich oft,
Du solltest mal dem Schattenreich entsteigen
Und lösen alle Rätsel mir
Und mich von deiner Unschuld überzeugen. 


On quiet nights I lie & think
you should come up from where you are
& answer all these doubts for me 
confirm to me you were a whore

Ich harre dein – o komme bald!
Und kommst du nicht, so steig ich selbst zur Hölle,
Daß ich alldort vor Satanas
Und allen Teufeln dich zur Rede stelle. 


I’m waiting now                
You’d better show
If you won’t come I’ll track you down
& there in front of everyone
conduct my cross-examination

Ich komme, und wie Orpheus einst
Trotz ich der Unterwelt mit ihren Schrecken –
Ich finde dich, und wolltest du
Im tiefsten Höllenpfuhle dich verstecken.


gliding like some bright Orpheus
across an underworld of fears
I’ll find you in the deepest ditch
dug out by centuries of tears

Hinunter jetzt ins Land der Qual,
Wo Händeringen nur und Zähneklappen –
Ich reiße dir die Larve ab,
Der angeprahlten Großmut Purpurlappen –


& in that land of tortured dreams
where sinners pay for what they did
I’ll cut off the last shreds of skin
the trappings of your girlish pride

Jetzt weiß ich, was ich wissen wollt,
Und gern, mein Mörder, will ich dir verzeihen;
Doch hindern kann ich nicht, daß jetzt
Schmachvoll die Teufel dir ins Antlitz speien. 


& when I’ve found out what I need to
I’d like to pardon you, you know
but how can I stop TV scum
from vomiting all over you?


(20/4-13/8/09)

Publications:

Notes:
  • The reference to Andromache's baby Astyanax being frightened by his father Hector's plume is from Homer's Iliad [Bk 6, ll.466-502].


•




[with Michele Leggott & Helen Sword]


purpose women’s amazeth object master-mistress
women’s rolling controlling pleasure a-doting
whereupon hast thy false woman’s me created
gilding adding nature’s but prick’d with nothing

thou than mine passion addition gentle one
eyes love wrought acquainted  treasure face as man
woman’s the thing gazeth thee much an thee
hue own for thou steals my woman fell bright

by in and painted by wert defeated of
and change shifting women’s thy nature and 
fashion with more but eye in not be men’s a
hand all use theirs a first love’s ‘hues’ their till

souls heart out she his since for a a of as
in she to and is the my false it less thee


(21-23/4/09)


•


Publications:

Notes:
  • The reference to Andromache's baby Astyanax being frightened by his father Hector's plume is from Homer's Iliad [Bk 6, ll.466-502].


•




Dans la nuit du lundi au mardi 6 avril,
on compta vingt-cinq assauts au plastic.
    – Georges Perec, La Disparition

[On Monday night, April 6th,
25 bomb-blasts burst out.]



What is
Hip-hop? Is it
just baggy outfits, bling?
Runway fuck-ups turn into a
stand-off with Tim Gunn &
Nina on our
D-day …

So what?
Wind is blowing
hard, rain slanting downwards
My Dad hauls in a bag of buns
& muffins for his birds’
daily dawn rit-
ual

Bronwyn
(looking guilty)
climbs backwards into mor-
ning – up at 4 a.m. – now nap-
ping till midday. I mooch
across to my
burrow

start to
think of Anzacs
Chunuk Bair, Malaya
lost in a void, our soaks & saints
How to honour, how to
lay such ghosts? Chill-
lax! Just

that?


(25/4-18/6/09)

Publications:

Notes:
  • The reference to Andromache's baby Astyanax being frightened by his father Hector's plume is from Homer's Iliad [Bk 6, ll.466-502].


•




A story’s
something told
by somebody
to someone
at some time
said Gertrude Stein
So is a lie

It begins with one
no doubt
though hard to say
when the desire
to transpose
creatively / enhance
the truth / gild

the pill comes
over you
No doubt
your childhood
was to blame
a deeper truth
behind the subterfuge

Look at me!
Notice me!
I’m here!
I matter!
More than they do, anyway
Don’t
prefer their blonde hair

blue eyes
perfect skin
& just because the details
are all false
needn’t mean
that it’s not true
in a deeper sense

You see that heap of lumber
over there?
This here’s the Argo
Every plank has been replaced
a dozen times (at least)
but it’s still here
That there’s the rubbish heap

we threw them on


(26/4-18/6/09)

Publications:

Notes:
  • The reference to Andromache's baby Astyanax being frightened by his father Hector's plume is from Homer's Iliad [Bk 6, ll.466-502].


•




Vor dem Sturm
by Theodor Fontane
 “The German War and Peace"
(apparently)
I picked it up in Edinburgh
& was immediately
beguiled

the heroine seemed real
Renate von Vitzewitz
stagey action
understated
like real life
her tragic early death
a psychic blow

The Pioneers
by James Fenimore Cooper
I had a plan to read them all
The Leatherstocking Novels
dutifully ploughed through
the first few
but this one

The drifting snow
of its opening pages
the meeting on the road
the little town
in the Big Woods
It all seemed true
or if not true

infinitely desirable
but why?
Then John Meade Falkner,
The Nebuly Coat
not one of his
most celebrated works
(Moonfleet

The Lost Stradivarius)
but this one had
the atmosphere
of strange but vital friendships
formed in musty towns
deep conversations
a world one longed to enter

Three times it's happened
– 3 obscure books –
I've never dared reread them
Would it happen again?
Do I want it to?
I wonder
It was comforting, entrancing, mystical

like waking on your own
                        in the blue room


(29/4-15/11/09)

Publications:

Notes:
  • The reference to Andromache's baby Astyanax being frightened by his father Hector's plume is from Homer's Iliad [Bk 6, ll.466-502].


•



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