Elektra

Tags

1986, 2015, architecture, being, Bill Sienkiewicz, blue, breeze, creation, Elektra, fall, father, Frank Miller, green, grey, grin, growth, guru, identity, infrastructure, inheritance, institution, life, mother, shame, skin, slate, smile, sound, thought, woman, world

 

 

 

                                                                                    Elektra

                                spidery fronds shidder in the
                                green breeze; the father is shot

                                impotent on his own boat the
                                mother is shot to birth; this is

                                important; looking strangely
                                like my creator I inherit the

                                shame of the father’s life, I
                                inherit the life of my mother;

                                responsible to neither, formed
                                by both; I have inherited

                                nothing, grown to reconcile
                                in a hundred different ways

                we

                                are institutionalised to the
                                very skin of our being by

                                the grin of care that keeps
                                us innocent and pure; that

                                paternal smile that gives no
                                light or warmth, rictus-like

                                everywhere in the infrastructure
                                and architecture (you took care

                                out from me, poppa,
                                and I never really spoke again)

                                stuck in the slate-grey
                                world of green and sickly

                                blue; I learn that I need to grow
                                and I find someone who

                                beats the father and the
                                mother from me with a stick –

                                it hurts, but it finally breaks me
                                when I learn to just
                                                         fall
                                                         by
                                                         my
                                                         self
                                                         with
                                                         no
                                                         safe
                                                         ty, no
                                                         iden
                                                         tity

 

from the 1st issue of Elektra: Assassin, 1986, by Frank Miller & Bill Sienkiewicz

 

 

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

being wormhole: substance
blue & grey wormhole: El Palacio, 1946
breeze & green & mother & sound & thought wormhole: Lapping Reflections [Deep Within Waters] by Mark L. Redford – moment
father wormhole: 1968
identity wormhole: ashramas
life wormhole: the figure “46” / in frosted glass
smile wormhole: between thoughts
woman wormhole: Hotel Room, 1931
world wormhole: the / bright yellow / world

 

Hotel Room, 1931

Tags

1931, 2015, books, Edward Hopper, evening, hotel, identity, life, lifetimes, light, night, time, wind, woman, years

 

 

 

                                but then it was a further
                                two years until she found

                                herself half dressed between
                                lifetimes marked between the

                                pages of a book found in the
                                Hotel Room, in 1931, so long

                                since the promise of the evening
                                wind ten years earlier when she

                                could stand to have the lights
                                out

 

third of a triptych (1. Automat, 1927 – held, 2. Chop Suey, 1929) tucked quietly within an anterior quadriptych

 

 

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

books wormhole: com- / mute
Edward Hopper & light & time & years wormhole: Chop Suey, 1929
evening wormhole: Automat, 1927 – held
hotel wormhole: the endless acts of life
identity wormhole: grrr
life wormhole: we play / the game
lifetimes wormhole: de Boeddha // of light
night wormhole: sit
wind wormhole: Le Pont des Arts, 1907
woman wormhole: Compartment C, Car 193, 1938

 

Compartment C, Car 193, 1938

Tags

'scape, 1938, 2015, awareness, bridge, Edward Hopper, light, reading, river, sunset, train, travelling, woman, years

 

 

 

                      Compartment C, Car 193, 1938

                                the woman reading
                                in the compartment
                                was a student of pivot
                                and cross-reference;

                                while the trajectory
                                paralleled the river,
                                it bisected the bridge
                                at sunset: the light

                                to read came not
                                from the lamp but
                                the heightened pers-
                                pective of traverse

 

 

 

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

awareness wormhole: I survived
bridge & light & reading & train & woman wormhole: com- / mute
Edward Hopper & river wormhole: Le Pont des Arts, 1907
travelling wormhole: sit / and move
years wormhole: Le Pont des Arts, 1907

 

com- / mute

Tags

'scape, 2013, blue, books, bridge, buildings, clouds, coffee, communication, crane, East Croydon, Euston, eyes, horizon, houses, light, London, London Bridge, marble, movement, music, others, passing, people, piano, rainbow, reading, shadow, sky, sleep, sound, sun, train, travelling, trees, Uckfield-London line, windows, winter, woman

 

 

 

                                com-
                                mute

                      low cloud
                      covering the sun in blue sky
                      keeping pace with the train over
                      commuterland people waiting

                      to start their day in houses
                      casting variously rhomboid
                      from the sun as the clouds drift I
                      close my eyes from the sun

                      intense flick through membrane
                      colouring the whole spectrum some
                      tie-dyed and contrasted
                      through bare trees

                      at East Croydon tower-blocks
                      distance-high stand
                      still on various unknown horizons flanked
                      with light and shadow

                      the train fills some stand
                      still and yawn by the door all look
                      down unless asleep
                      one sits next to me reading a book for women

                      leading people at London Bridge
                      I lose the thread amid marble frontage
                      and high filigree window and cranes
                      at Euston a court of coffee

                      and circular chords
                      suggesting upward spirals
                      at the bridge and occasional
                      piano plinks            possibly

 

 

 

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

blue wormhole: hungry for a thread or two
books & music wormhole: sit
bridge wormhole: Le Pont des Arts, 1907
buildings & passing & sky & sun wormhole: 2 pm
clouds & trees wormhole: all along the blue sky
coffee wormhole: ‘filtered coffee …’
communication & shadow wormhole: Western Motel, 1957
crane wormhole: … back to the outbreath
eyes wormhole: mauve / night
horizon wormhole: sooner or later
houses wormhole: Sunday afternoon
light & London & sound & windowswormhole: south horizon
others wormhole: [s]
people wormhole: New York Movie, 1939
piano wormhole: bass and piano
reading wormhole: like butterflies on / buddleia
sleep wormhole: Morning in a City, 1944
train wormhole: the continental stride of trains
travelling wormhole: training the mind
Uckfield-London line wormhole: Eridge – Cowden
winter wormhole: ‘in the midst of winter …’

 

Western Motel, 1957

Tags

1957, 2015, branches, communication, Edward Hopper, feet, landscape, motel, shadow, shoulders, speech, sun, woman, years

 

 

 

                      Western Motel, 1957

                      she turned, shoulder-frozen
                      and foot-crippled, ‘what, now?’,

                      as the setting sun reached
                      the bare tree branch across

                      a mesa landscape
                                no
                                ne
                                ed
                                to
                                an
                                sw
                                er,

                      the shadows are set
                      square and boxed

 

 

 

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

branches & shadow & speech wormhole: sit
communication wormhole: Totnes
Edward Hopper & woman & years wormhole: New York Movie, 1939
feet wormhole: let’s have some ice creams
sun wormhole: the continental stride of trains

 

New York Movie, 1939

Tags

1939, 2015, Bowie, cinema, columns, Edward Hopper, film, horizon, meaning, people, pointlessness, woman, years

 

 

 

                           New York Movie, 1939

                           the column must be carved and grandiose-
                           enough to hold the height of proscenium
                           despite the worried contemplations of the

                           usherette that it is colossal-enough for the
                           lost horizons washed grainy across the screen
                           for she has watched it ten times or more

 

 

 

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

Bowie & horizon wormhole: south horizon
Edward Hopper & years wormhole: Office in a Small City, 1953
film wormhole: The Godfather III: // AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHHHH …
meaning wormhole: Detective Comics #345
people wormhole: mauve / night
pointlessness wormhole: recovered
woman wormhole: zok! and pow!

 

zok! and pow!

Tags

1960s, 2014, Batman, battle of the sexes, evening, identity, obsession, sound, streets, woman

 

 

 

                                oh, he fell alright
                just as craze had founded woman all

                pointy-toed and hands on hips
                and I-don’t-know-what-you-think-you’re-looking-at

                blinded by the depth
                he plunged hands-downward protecting his sight

                swung into the lobby
                and through revolving door to the evening street with

                all manner of clatter and shoe-scrape
                to all manner of zok! and pow!

 

 

 

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

Batman wormhole: Detective Comics #345
evening & streets wormhole: purple and mauve
identity wormhole: Eridge – Cowden
sound wormhole: now, the verticals go down as well as they go up
woman wormhole: [start where you are III] – delve

 

[start where you are III] – delve

Tags

2014, being, books, breathing, compassion, detail, emptiness, eyebrow, eyes, faces, feet, fingers, green, hair, hills, identity, laptop, legs, letting go, Lewes, library, lime, looking, mouth, muse, phone, portrait, profile, reading, settling, sitting, sound, speech, stretch, sun, Sylvia Plath, table, talking to myself, thinking, time, travelling, windows, woman, world

 

 

 

                                prologue:

                                start where you are
                                envelopped in the world

                                so do I pry open the locale
                                to see how I am found

                                but careful not to crack the world
                                to see where I am located

                                … no, that’s not it

                                not prying open
                                but you don’t become stuck

                                in matter or location (and neither
                                become lost in daydream or script)

                                rather

                                you look where you are and
                                receive it with compassion and all the detail

                                flowing in without resistance and
                                whenever I evince judgement – ‘thinking’ –

                                let it sink back into view like
                                brushed paint onto a second coat

                                never located
                                always travelling

                                scene 1:

                                three women in the quieter
                                study area of the library

                                              delve

                                a cough when I sat to join the table
                                an ‘excuse me’ a look up a wink –
                                was that a wink? – she reads lime highlights
                                and Evian, arms crossed prop the book like
                                a lap top over the edge of the table
                                a book on museum ethics awaiting
                                her right eyebrow crooked naturally to read

                                unplugged, but she has a good hour
                                on the central table, she plinks and
                                brinks open and sits still as a hill range
                                receding only the corner of her mouth
                                and lip-emote and deft at the text
                                the clear green eyes flick and decide
                                at the corrections to be made

                                legs crossed ankle boots
                                foot pointing circling retrieving
                                boot cuffs clapping slightly behind
                                while reading, then stopped when editing
                                round chin profile, raggedy hair
                                spun in constant bun brow raise –
                                mess of poised fingers work the keyboard

                                interlude:

                                I delved awhile into ‘Stars Over
                                The Dordogne’ – falling
                                presentiment – and looked up

                                scene II:

                                my boot-circler was gone, just gone –
                                I didn’t see her leave – was she even there?

                                but the sun had moved window-
                                tinted across their faces

                                one had shiny hair and breathed
                                regularly head-collapsed

                                the other placed her book flat on the table
                                keep the sun off her face on her ponytail

                                scene III:

                                during ‘The Rival’ unplugged was called
                                she had to go to Nero’s to check her link

                                (library censorship – smirk in her lilt)
                                she stretched long and distant …

                                … then gathered and left

                                dénouement:

                                I wrote the scenes I checked the dictionaries
                                time to go, ‘oh’ she said tapping her phone

                                ‘time flies …’ I said, ‘yes, but I feel I haven’t
                                got anywhere’; ‘but you’ve been here all along;

                                all four of us’
                                I didn’t say …

 

already, there is a sequel in post-production, coming to a post near you soon: all the distance I have travelled!

 

 

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

being & emptiness & identity & letting go wormhole: fall
books & travelling wormhole: Desolation Angels
breathing & settling wormhole: … back to the outbreath
compassion & faces & lime & speech wormhole: Brugges April 2015 – looking lost
eyes wormhole: gazing at the night / as my eyes passed the jagged hole / my head disappeared
feet & table wormhole: gold wedding band
green wormhole: “King …”
hair wormhole: sight / seeing
hills wormhole: the poppies / of van Gogh
looking & sitting & sound wormhole: prologue-ing
mouth wormhole: new year’s eve 2014; train up to London to / walk the bridges across the Thames, and / listen to the voices say it is, and was, like, / but get back home before the fireworks / obliterate it all in the emptying twilight
muse wormhole: oh,
reading & Sylvia Plath wormhole: on the raised patio reading Plath
sun & windows wormhole: heirloom – break / after heavy shower
talking to myself wormhole: really old
thinking wormhole: relapse
time wormhole: time proceeds
woman wormhole: End Israeli / Apartheid
world wormhole: mass

 

End Israeli / Apartheid

Tags

2012, London, police, portrait, speech, woman

 

 

 

                                          End Israeli
                                          Apartheid

                                the woman in the wheelchair unfurling
                                her hand-painted banner with difficulty
                                inserting the canes all the while …

                                “I will have to tell you again, Madam,”
                                          … for the fourth time now
                                “you must be in the pen to open the banner”

 

 

 

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

London wormhole: stranger / if we met
speech wormhole: not fact
woman wormhole: as I pass

 

as I pass

Tags

2011, 3*, passing, portrait, woman

 

 

 

                           driving up towards
                           the bus stop

                           trousered leg forward she
                           flicks something three
                           four times from her
                           wide-open lapel
                           slight shudder

                           as I pass

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–
passing wormhole: train journey
woman wormhole: not a word