"I wanted to read or hear the narrative of someone else – a woman and a poet – who has gone here and been there." (Eavan Boland 1944-2020)
Weaving and Web-making
Sing Let choirs make frosty nights sing, let them tell stories of shepherds caring for sheep, a stable, a donkey, a star in the east, while you remember the road to the church in the woods, the battened door, timber trusses, peeling paint and plaster that fell like snow on the christening font and harmonium, [...]
Trade An assortment of crooked and straight arrows for the crest of a bulbul or a handful of sesame Uncut turquoise for juices of scorpions and glow worms A dozen poisons for an embroidered collar/ a pinch of saffron/ abalone knob Spotted eggs for knotted shoes Peacock feathers for beet sugar How much fur will [...]
Sound is a shell Sound is a shell An ear Curves of sound Vibrating and condensing air Echoes in a curved space An ocean in the shell of sound Pearls Things that stand in for other things The Witches Pouches Bags of velvet black Nets entangling objects Bones of birds The insides of shells Spells [...]
scene 1: the goldberg variations a kiosk at the end of a dark train in an abandoned travelyard: two shadowmen ravel orange round about their nothing much the magician in his moth coat appears in a vaudeville flourish. your piano balcony is high above the narrow stone street, your piano plays the rescued Goldberg, [...]
Poemín This poem Will be Exquisitely short And Dinkily dedicated To you. Popularity, Personified Smugness was her scarf, Inked pinkly, cerisely, She stroked it smugly. Smugness was her scarf. Idleness was her chignon, Gleaming, burnished, shiny She fondled it idly. Idleness was her chignon. Cuteness was her weapon, [...]
