make your rickety / constructs strong with / unbending grids / of attention and wide- / open grates of let

Tags

2013, 7*, afternoon, attention, boundary, class, construction, defeat, defensive, dream, labour, letting go, lifetimes, living, morning, satisfaction, shift, silence, skill, speech, teaching, waking, water

                I woke saying “sit down”
                to a class who had
                been testing me like water

                moving silent against
                my every prescription
                demanded or presumed

                despite all the charm or
                cleverness I might use
                to a morning

                and then an afternoon
                of defeat and defence
                unable to use the skill

                and manoeuvre I have
                taught myself for
                lifetimes now

                all the shift and forming
                around the boundaries
                finding every fissure

                and fault just ahead
                of my every attempt
                to dam it all; what labour

                what want of satisfaction;
                let the water go
                where it will – it will

                all go there anyway – and
                make your rickety
                constructs strong with

                unbending grids
                of attention and wide-
                open grates of let

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

attention wormhole: divergent // direction
dream wormhole: wakeoutofadream
letting go wormhole: redundant
lifetimes wormhole: Salisbury Cathedral // suspended in everything
living wormhole: free
morning wormhole: windows // and balconies
silence & speech & water wormhole: the quiet whale
teaching wormhole: a nice grey woollen picnic blanket

 

need

Tags

2013, acceptance, allowing, beauty, being, career, defeat, doing, emptiness, identity, living, need, writing

 

 

 

                                                    I need to accept
                                               this emptiness
                                          not become it

                                I need to allow
                           this defeat
                      not fight it

                      I need to find my beauty and hide it
                      let it be seen and found as it will or not
                      but not because I have proffered it or

                                          worn it or
                                          dressed it
                                          in syllables

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

acceptance wormhole: because
allowing wormhole: opening
beauty & being & doing & identity & writing wormhole: the writing’s on the wall
career wormhole: bavardage
emptiness wormhole: no one – poewieview #24
living wormhole: 1968

 

Quiver of / Tiffany – poewieview #20

Tags

2016, abundance, atrophy, bitterness, Bowie, city, cross, curtains, decay, defeat, dockside, earth, gods, hatch, horizon, humanity, love, mortality, mountain, opening, pen, piles, plane, portal, privacy, rage, reverse, river, ruler, sphere, step, tears, wanting, waves

                                reverse
                of usual effulgent horizons opening like shallow waves
                                              logarithmically
                                wanting
                fall-to-knees mortality and tears over abundance, equally
                                              untenable
                                              atrophic

                                stepped to the earth
                                from the mountains
                                a god stood like a man

                                down by the docks, by
                                the piles, while a city grew
                                and festered all about

                                the river: hatch and cross,
                                pen and ruler, private
                                and bitter, sphere and

                                plane, all with woven
                                curtain pulled, defeated,
                                across every portal, and

                                no room for Quiver of
                                Tiffany, only a rage that
                                I cannot control, after all

 

through the lonely portals of The Supermen, 1970; Saviour Machine, 1970; Running Gun Blues, 1970

Read the collected movements in David Bowie: Movements in Suite Major

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

Bowie wormhole: my // shell – poewieview #19
city wormhole: gotcha
curtains wormhole: the art of sit and follow
horizon wormhole: stacked
love wormhole: where the goblins leered – poewieview #14
river wormhole: the silent night of the Batman
tears wormhole: dear clown’s face
waves wormhole: thick thick fog

 

tag cloud poem V – draft-ness

Tags

1960s, 1970s, 2014, abandonment, America, being, Dad, dancing, Daredevil, dark, daughter, dawn, death, dedication, defeat, democracy, depression, desert, dialectic, discipline, disempowerment, distraction, divorce, dog, doing, doors, doubt, dream, dress, drips, dust, dwelling, identity, individualism, love, politics, poverty, tag cloud poem, wind, world

 

 

 

                                                                                                                Dad dancing daredevil
                                                                                                dark daughter dawn
                                                                                                                           DC death dedication

 

                                                                                 defeat democracy depression
                                                                                 desert dialectic discipline
                           disempowerment distraction divorce

 

dog doing        doors
                                                                              doubt dream dress
                                                                                              drips dust dwelling

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

abandonment & Dad wormhole: the sounds the difficulty and the long long strands of liquorice
being & identity & wind wormhole: the en-gentled / end of a wan / writing retreat
dancing wormhole: Do Nothing Usually / Take Everything Regularly / Consider It All Clearly / And Step Aside It Waltzingly
Daredvil wormhole: Daredevil: Born Again (1987)
daughter wormhole: t w e n t y f i r s t c e n t u r y l i f e
dawn wormhole: the library, / you know …
dedication wormhole: let
depression wormhole: really
disempowerment wormhole: I don’t think I could do it anymore
distraction wormhole: may the supreme and precious jewel bodhichitta … // … take birth where it has not yet done so … // … where it has taken birth may it not decrease … // … but may it increase infinitely
divorce wormhole: what to do
dog wormhole: … still waving!
doing wormhole: ‘til death do us part
doors wormhole: multifarious: the Dark Knight Returns (1986)
doubt wormhole: transition
dream wormhole: the edges of my reach
love & politics wormhole: just saying, is all – III
tag cloud poem wormhole: tag cloud poem IV – C
world wormhole: my life is not your market

 

preee- / senting // en- / senting

Tags

2013, 6*, being, defeat, doing, growth, identity, isolation, others, pointlessness, recognition, superhero, zazen

 

 

 

                                                                                 preee-
                                                              senting

                                when I do
                                              anything
                just for myself
                                I audition myself straight into the part
                                              of Mark Redford – Tragedian
                                for a limited performance only
                tickets unavailable venue tbc
                                                              floorboard
                                creaks once echoes up among the gantries
                                              s-cough
                                the empty seats up
                the audience packed standing room only
                                              tough crowd
                                devastating
                without so much as a slight or an ignorance
                                                              quick
                                              draw the curtains

                                                                                 en-
                                                              senting

                                when I just do
                unspectacular to behold
                                              things just happen by themselves
                                because
                                                              I am just there
                                              doing nothing
                where I become the liquid engineering
                                              that makes your engine
                                run smoothly

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–
alone wormhole: and of course
being wormhole: ‘I wanted to write a poem’
doing & identity wormhole: the discovery of / leaving no trace
others wormhole: my life / of others
recognition wormhole: wrong
superhero wormhole: the writing’s / on the wall
zazen wormhole: when I sit I am the posture

 

plaintive // plaintiff? // but not precious

Tags

2012, 5*, defeat, identity, management, teaching, teaching art, teaching craft

 

 

 

                                   plaintive

                    why won’t you give me an environment
                                   that let’s me breathe
                                   and let’s me give
                                   what I will give
                    why won’t you see the whole of what I give
                                   before you
                                   scrutinise the detail
                    why won’t you listen to me
                                   because I can see the stems
                                   of what you say
                                   and you ain’t
                                   talking flowers

                                   plaintiff?

                    and why oh why do I still keep hoping
                                   that you will

                                   is it my lack and your loss
                                   or my loss and your lack

                                   but not precious

                                   either way
                                   I am crushed
                                   and you are bloated

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

identity wormhole: ‘I am the Riddler …’
management wormhole: tragedy
teaching wormhole: zagged
teaching craft wormhole: there is no / meritocracy

 

‘… for better or worse …’

Tags

2011, 4*, defeat, education, Joni Mitchell, life, teaching

 

 

 

                … for better or worse
                in good times and bad
                in sickness and in health
                for richer or poorer
                I am a teacher

                I celebrated my 24th anniversary
                by haemorrhaging from full-time work
                      ‘a defector from the petty wars
                      that shell-shock love away’*
                in order to devote my time
                to education

 

 

 

* Joni Mitchell, Hejira, Hejira (1976)

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

education wormhole: listen willya
Joni Mitchell wormhole: the receding / roads of Hejira
life wormhole: ‘I become better and better at sitting …’
teaching wormhole: I didn’t see it coming