24 NEW YORKERS
In the first, a poem
By Victoria Amelina (1986-2023)
A Ukrainian poet and war-crimes researcher
Who died from injuries sustained
In a Russian missile attack on Kramatorsk. Read more
Only Disconnect
“ I sought a theme and sought for it in vain.”
So as a consequence I proceeded, lacking one,
Occasionally inserting titles as signposts.
The Past
Of course this is the paradox
with the James Webb telescope: Read more
A Compleynt
An adjective separated from its noun
For no good reason. There seems to be
Suddenly in the 21st century acres of awful
Line-breaks, and it is not pleasant. Read more
In Praise of Chretien de Troyes and Endless Invention
In those days in the golden past
When Arthur came, at Pentacost
To Carlisle Castle deep in Wales,
Men did not fear to love. For then
Love's anguish and delights were real,
And many tales were born of it
And borne by it in memory's veins
Down to this very day. But now,
Now love is merely pleasantries, alas,
An empty form, a clouded looking-glass. Read more
Loosely following the version by Henri de Valenciennes
Old Aristotle is the tutor of the king
And seeks to advise him on every thing.
He observes the king (named Alexander)
Is, in his view, inclined to philander,
Spending too much time with his mistress, Phyllis. Read more
My motivation in attempting this exercise was entirely to participate in Miss Austen’s supreme inventions. Every one of her six novels contains narrative innovation of the highest order. One might think of Sir Bertram returning to find Lovers’ Vows in rehearsal, or Maria slipping through the locked gate into the dangerous world with Henry Crawford, in Mansfield Park. A schoolgirl friend objected to Pride and Prejudice because “nothing happens, it’s all talk”; we were amused since nothing could be further from the truth.
A limerick is primed in the Air
Yet the Rhyme may be lost on the Stair.
Aubrey’s Lives are like flowers
Overbrimming their Bowers
While Digression at sea sets all Fair. Read more
Colloquium on Kleist’s The Marquise of O-
Being notes taken by Phoebe L- and Bronwyn K-, to which are added sundry inventions
by them, all for the amusement of their friend, Francesca Z-, traveller, who leaves
only a trail of forwarding addresses.
I.m. William Maidment
Francesca of Patagonia, Gotland or Southern Armenia,
Where are you now? Are you travelling by raft Read more
A reply to Peter Kirkpatrick’s Asterisms
Dear Peter
Your letter came with rain,
A mushroom-cloud of tedium outside,
Hydrangeas bent and buffeted in turn. Read more
1980
Introduction
The renga is a Japanese literary form of great antiquity. Several writers collaborate in a sequence of poems, each developing variations on themes established by another. Strict conventions and an elaborate decorum govern its advancement by successive writers.
In 1969 four poets (Paz, Roubaud, Sanguineti, Tomlinson) met in Paris - in the Hotel Saint-Simon - to revive this communal art.
The Book of Clouds takes as its starting point this moment in historical time, and draws its initial energy from it.
THOMAS HARDY'S ABSENT-MINDEDNESS IN A PARISH CHOIR
There was Nicholas Puddingcome, first fiddle,
And Timothy Thomas on the bass viol:
The tenor fiddle was the shrill John Biles
While Robert Dowdle doodled on the clarionet.
Old Mr Nicks was the prodigious oboist
And Daniel Hornhead brandished the serpent.
This was the formidable Longpuddle Band. Read more
OVERVIEWS OF THE PRESENT IMPASSE
Poem on his Birthday
“Out! Out! Spenser and Wyatt.
We would prefer to start a riot”
“Incoherence is Trumps”
It was my eighty-eighth year to Heaven
And in the light of increasing disorder
In all the arts and international politics Read more
Francesco Petrarca
(1304 – 1375)
Lonely and pensive, I am a traveller
Through empty fields, with heavy, slowing steps.
I do not want to meet, or face the stare
Of other humans in my bleak landscapes. Read more
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