I'll sweep the pine grove
By the harbour of Mitsu
Of Otomo,
And then stand and wait for you –
Quickly return, my lord!

[Yamanoue no Okura]1

 

. . . and the physical ear is too hard of hearing to discover eternity's repetition.
[Kierkegaard]

it
starts
with
the
image
of
a
rake
drawling

the distant grate
behind
the skulking speed of light
over
whelmed

the sparrow hawk
which the child thought
might be the falcon that lived in his garden

the
summer
holiday
in
france
which
he
confused
with
greek
cake

pastry
in
the
pâtisserie
orange
essence

the smell of lilac
woven
around

piano
sustained

the hollow tapping of wood

the single chorus of night
descending
decibel
by
decibel

the image
of
a rake drawling
behind that grate
of
light

 

fragment 2

Through the jet-black night
The moon no longer sails the sky;
Its dark eclipse is bitter with regret.

[Kakinomoto no Asomi Hitomaro] 3

memories of pleasure counter sunk –
mould on the rind –
the varnish of light on an empty beach –

verbatim accounts of pillow talk
          wedged between lovers
                    on several different occasions

those many
reflections of sex on festivals –
respect for the law
& other ethical considerations stretched to no obvious advantage

word-splintered-mantras
like the gift of salt
& the prophecy of cards removed –

tunnels leading into spindles of earth –

the callipers of god
and the skin of the child grown old from hunger –

repetition of questions
          & fraudulent answers honed to perfection –

the fist of a generation
blights the angle of redemption –
the circumference of the hand
carved into the portal of a gate –
the grin of the gable
the mask chased into led

fragment 4

Have a care for your health, my brother!

[Ishikawa no Iratsume] 4

 

ramifications of greed –
bliss –
shards of starlight streaking the heavens –

corolla hemina hemlock & call –

cassiopeia the goddess of poetry –

saturns dissent from the orthodox doxology –
the memory of exile and the illusion of sacrifice –

children stood under the sarsenet gaze
the burning tower and the hangmans cord –

crown of babylon and babylonian whore –

the school of night dissolved –
neptunes wing –
the fast flowing stream
the fission of energy revealed –

mountains removed –

ishikawas song lost in the valley

the sacred dance at midnight
the fragile surface of clouds

the slow leaking of light

 

fragment 7

If their words should hurt,
Come with me to the stone fort
On Mount Hatsuse;
Let us hide together there –
Do not pine, my love.

[folk song] 5

 

the last remnants of stone
& the single error of concordance –

the table by the bed
adjacent to the desk that was broken –

the blood stained carpet
& the fragments of glass –

lost the gifts of anger
and the curse of his love –

corbels of death etched out of mud –

white
granules of pearl –
mirrors –

the curtain drawn
by the gaze of her eye described –

the taint of an epithet –
milk carved into ink

 

Notes

1 Edwin Cranston, A Waka Anthology. Volume 1: The Gem-Glistening Cup, Stanford University Press, Stanford 1993, p. 366
2 Works of Love, edited & translated by Howard V. & Edna H. Hong, Princeton University Press, Princeton 1995, p.385
3 Cranston, op. cit. page 210 4 ibid. page 533 5 ibid. page 132

Copyright © philip kuhn, 2006.

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philip kuhn is a poet historian photographer bookbinder and audio artist currently living and working on dartmoor. recent audio & visual works include talking books, gibbous and a walk along bowden leat. recent historical works include 'Romancing with a wealth of detail': Ernest Jones's 1906 trial for indecent assault (Studies in Gender & Sexuality 2002), and No Stone Unturned: Letters from Bamberg 1938-1941. recent poetry includes his contribution to In the Presence of Sharks (Phlebas, forthcoming) & how to read radical leaflets (itinerant press, forthcoming).