Archive for February, 2007

Romans

Sunday, February 25th, 2007

their past was night

their future
a status quo
they had made
immortal

death rejoined
each of them
back with that dark

their light of day
dappled dazzle
like copper beech

blood was their shade
from the steel sun

Blackwells Oxford
24.2.2007

Public Service

Saturday, February 24th, 2007

“Public Service”

my father decided
people’s lives

I in turn
decided
people’s lives

my friends all decide
people’s lives

my wife used to decide
other people’s lives

I decide our child
won’t go deciding
other people’s lives

Osney Oxford
23.2.2007

S. Nicola in Carcere

Monday, February 5th, 2007

“S. Nicola in Carcere”

 

 

as Jacqueline

won’t be a-maying

this year

 

we went

Januarying

in Rome instead

 

taking with us

the bulb

in her womb

 

we went looking for

the roots of Spring

and found them

intermurally

beneath the temples

of Janus, Juno and Spes

 

down in Janus’

very January

 

whose doors

opened on war

and closed on peace

 

an emptyblue egg-shell churchincubatesJuno’s crypt

and the ossuary

of Hope itself

 

chapels

where people

divined their futures

instead of having scans

 

and archaeology

gets to be head-banging

knee and elbow-scraping

speleology

amongst niches

that once contained

safe deposit boxes

 

or low sudden pitfalls

onto Tarquin’s

veggie market

and its deflowered floor

 

something always

wants out

that tries to stay

hidden

 

even tiny

green and white tiles

that needed scrubbing

repeatedly

 

immured more

by the cornered dark

than by tufa

and brick arches

 

I felt certain

of your disclosure

baby to be born

in June

 

sure as we knew

we’d return back

into the sun

 

after an hour

in over two millennia

of man-made night

 

doors will open

on you this year

 

you will emerge

into the wet

and shaking light

 

our insurgent

from the pacified past

 

31.1.2007

Revised  26.10.2013

 

 

 

 

“S. Nicola in Carcere”

 

as Jacqueline

won’t be a-maying

this year

 

we went

Januarying

in Rome instead

 

taking along

with us the bulb

       in her womb

 

      we went looking for

the roots of Spring

 

and found them beneath

       the Temples of

       Janus Juno and Spes

       inter-murally

 

       down in Janus’

very January

 

whose doors

opened on war

and closed on peace

 

inside Juno’s crypt

and the ossuary

of Hope itself

 

      chapels where people

      imaged their futures

      instead of having scans

 

         an unbroken blue

         egg-shell church squats

         empty on their nest

         sealing them in

         on themselves

 

      archaeology gets to be

      head-banging knee

      and elbow-scraping

      speleology

 

amongst niches

that contained safe

deposit boxes

 

or low sudden

pitfalls onto

       Tarquin’s veggie

market and its

       deflowered floor

 

something always wants out

that tries to stay hidden

 

even tiny

green and white tiles

that need scrubbing

repeatedly

 

immured more by

the cornered dark

than by tufa

and brick arches

 

I felt certain

of your disclosure

 

baby to be

born in June

 

sure as we knew

we’d return back

into the sun

 

after an hour

in over two

millennia

of man-made night

 

doors will open

on you this year

 

you will emerge

into the wet

and shaking light

 

our insurgent

from the pacified past

 

31.1. 2007