Shearsman 54: Aidan Semmens

Shearsman 54

Aidan Semmens

In Passing
(Thou shalt not oppress a stranger)

weird August, end of the dry monsoon
in a pot-bellied tramp steamer we speculate on Kandinsky
the cultural attaché & I, deliberate in mufti

culture is always a convenient prostitute
goddess of darkness, mutability & death
unsunned, corpse-white body alluring, not for sale

conical green mountains rise from a coastal plain
full of shadowplay, grotesqueries & lurid colour
smell of foetid bodies in Capricorn heat

Durga with a torn bodice, appellant
delicate flakes of dandruff on a clerical pate
colonial as pipesmoke

**

darkness of the ward at night
the urgent declivity of dreams
amber & jade

a cathedral stillness
tropical torpor
stone haloes & conical hats

fragrant scrub reclaiming the site of a wayside shrine
a cricket chafing song by a patch of oil on gravel
the rhythmic ching of the coppersmith bird

Durga, Uma, Kali; Time & Sleep –
don't jump to any conclusions about this
a candle in an airless empty room

**

her firm white body by him on the bed
remembered shock of the first touch
that alabaster flesh

lights of the valley strung from here to there
a liner lit up on the evening tide
suspicion of music, laughter on the breeze

the boy is abstract
in reflection in the lake
broken up with houses, trees, sky & a votive god

in this political climate
we make our bed & lie –
a difficult berth

**

passion awakes passion
the urgency of sleep in liquid heat
distant noise of engines

rapid eye movements take in the covered market
snow in surprising places
the earnest colloquy of bright brass & leather

wayang voices chatter things you'll never understand
things that should be recalled from dreams
shadows thrown by a kerosene lamp on a screen

to widows leaning on balconies
the endgame is unendurable closure
with a sweep of the hand the dying man

**

in junks & sampans on an inland sea
in strident tones on unseen televisions
idols on the verge of death lay down law

where passing showers of envy snick the skin
puppets of gods are traded at a snack-stop
to leap electrically into possibility

waking with monsters, adult in a child's room
muscular formations of weather beyond the window
reverberate with Thou Shalt Not

the travelling salesman sweeps the cellar steps
blood in newsprint, observation & invention mingled
lub-dub, lub-dub, lub-dub, lub-dub, lub-dub

Aidan Semmens succeeded Peter Robinson as chairman of the Cambridge Poetry Society, co-edited three issues of Perfect Bound with him in 1977-78, and won the 1978 Chancellor's Medal for an English Poem (which can be found on the Jacket website as part of a sample of writing from Perfect Bound). Aidan was published in a number of magazines in the 70s and 80s, including Figs, Pages, Folded Sheets, Two-Fold and Palantir, had small books out from Lobby in 1978 and Pig Press in 1987, both long out of print, and has only just returned to poetry after a 15-year silence. There some poems currently on the Stride Magazine and Great Works websites. He has been a journalist since 1978 and has a website on medieval churches.