Torsade Literary Space Comfortingly (poem)
Comfortingly Why, sun in sky, heart on fire Chimneying throat to brain Befogging vision, bothering the rain Belting diphthongs, oohs for blues Or why do fools Set their hair aflame Be the wick-end of a honeycomb taper A little eco-chico a moth won’t pay for Scorns its enticer for this brief […]
Edwytha’s Plait: Eighth Tattersby
The Folly Tattersby Edwytha’s Plait Terror, when it comes, warms the night Fallen close and hard of breath like a parachute’s muffling silk and chill Night Borne opaque the face of pity Mirrored in the watcher’s eye The plain below Sinking to the cataract Emerging hidden under rock Mimicking Edwytha’s […]
Dougal Inskip’s Lonely Vigil: Seventh Tattersby
The Folly Tattersby Dougal Inskip’s Lonely Vigil When she had been Fiona Medwin Long about the jaw, but fair enough to a man Content to break even on a steady-goer No desire for a flash in the pan Women, though, Dougal says to himself Flash will get them, even the […]
Sacred Science (poem)
Sacred Science The Light is the Light It is thus, New Ones, cherished Flowers of the Sun The This The Instrument of Inner Tunefulness Our Helmsman, He our Earth-Names denote Father-Sage He Whom the Light Awakened Is the Helmsman Whom the Light Awakened As the Ultra of the Nebula Pulsahria Ordained And […]
As Lightning Might: Sixth Tattersby
The Folly Tattersby As Lightning Might Their leader is not unwell. No, not harmed. Please leave off, dear. Curious, no more. A nuisance. Please don’t trouble. All over now. When she’d shaken out her jacket One flew a spiral And died in the fire Its wings by then had… …caked […]
Familiar: Fifth Tattersby
The Folly Tattersby Familiar All these ordinary things are giving way Times of late, like the dead wrapped their winding sheets Familiar in outline still But disintegrating into melt and worm beneath He feels infected with the guest’s unhappy mood Uses the word, not having spoken with de Clieux He […]
The Lay of the Land: Fourth Tattersby
The Folly Tattersby The Lay of the Land ‘I imagine…I will not say admit…the possibility of cordial relations— You see what he’s done here.’ The tenant of Wisham’s Hill Cottage has got the field-gate closed to traffic For good, more or less…for the time being Put a sinister trip-wire run […]
Swallowtail: Third Tattersby
The Folly Tattersby Swallowtail You’ve never sat, doing your work …if you had been me, on a stool upstairs Made dumb by the green walls of Lippard’s laboratory Looking down, as directed, through the lens at the wing he’d razored along the vein Some of the colours are not pigments, […]
A Conduit: Second Tattersby
The Folly Tattersby A Conduit On this day when fire could not be thought of A sooty pall stains stucco shaded by the mantelpiece But under this Winks a brilliant blue and does persistently …this Morse Code going on since yesterday Refusing glances dart away And none feels safe to […]
Romans: First Tattersby
The Folly Tattersby Romans We thought they were not men They, beardless, most, but for their slaves Vaunted trophies keeping costumed show That in all weathers tell their vanquished homes Came by war-engine attended Came regaliaed steed, foreguard of chariot Wheeled cage of sacrificial beast Gentled by their magic; all […]