crzay mirror the funny fellow of nelson street with straw hat and beat-up shoes self-proclaimed ‘poet of birds’ and ‘lord of snails’ is walking to the shops, a wife and two cats whose faces change worryingly one into the other behind the screen door his bank card with a square hole in it the size…
Month: January 2016
first meeting
first meeting* based on Reiner Stach’s description of Franz Kafka’s first meeting with Felice Bauer (see page 100, ‘Kafka The Decisive Year’s by Reiner Stach, translated by Shelley Frisch) only a few words yet enough to put you out to sea silly boy you liked her to the ‘point of sighing’ you spilled out to…
Love’s Cold Wind
Then when it was done I stood and cried, and the easterly – always the bloody easterly – tore at my face and the tears were just salt streaks, and I saw her red coat recede, saw her shapely legs snap forward – almost a sashay – and the coat blow and lift and her hair riffle,…
death and after
Those weeks alone in her flat were difficult. It was cold and I got sick after the funeral. I had sat on a plane for hours, straight and by the time I wound the tortuous roads in- land to up-stream Latium, I had been on the road, for about 40 hours. It was good to…
the duke asleep
the duke asleep to David Bowie R.I.P. even to you, good duke, the night has come that shadow of the wall over the green, the blue one of your eyes lowered them into darkness stolen you in song 11 january 2016
Sestina for Insomnia
Intruding through the pane, the neighbour’s floodlights throw beams through the fig tree flinging between half drawn curtains patterns like some Japanese wood-cut a panel on the dark wall in a slab of yellow. Pittosporum tree forms a face in a restless mind eyes of street lights winking through eye sockets of branches… the…
Receding Day
The light is fleeing to the night All that is left are the bones of trees A skulking fenceline, The faint breath of the moon, Receding pastels of a summer day. The hill beyond has turned its shoulder; It slumbers, humped and heavy, a faint line. Let it stop now so that the cherry will…
The Position Taken Among Matters
I don’t count, every day, the strides from door to car, wondering: Philosophy, before it became religionized—key in the hole, foot lightly feeding fuel to the ignition process: I do think: philosophy, limited, by transport over mountain pass, the winters before internet and jet, before the engine search, instantaneous gov’ment, loaded with itself— Religion:…
from: The Alcohalted Bobble-headed 20’s
did a big pooh in the morning, firm, bit dry, needed a push, but long & clean, not much aftercare, and I hoped it wasn’ the highlight of my day. I had a job interview, I was going to miss the appointment, I had to get off the bus half way because I only had…
Glasses of Wine
We live a vestal existence To walk through an endless dim corridor Glasses of wine, The ring of your glass, Circles the conversation, As it matches your finger, Stolen from the mirror that keeps time, I find it hard to tell you, Trying to recall an old passport, The sadness with hopes, Disparage our angels love,…
the Sabine town
I had wanted to say more before about the sounds on the winding streets of the little Sabine town at this time of the evening; the fumbling voices carried high by the big acoustics, interspersed by the fired exclamation – the careless drawl of high Latium, the meaning of which lies in the delivery, not…
Within: the longest Day.
Within: the longest Day. Philip Tayler 18-11-2015 At the end of the final, long day; much is due the question arises – who am I? who are you? The seers and mystics; I believe they speak true They honestly, compassionately, endlessly say the false self, the ego; is crucial to Slay. Destroy the persistent, yet…