Rough Breathing
Page 4
69
…how and whether the Being of animals is constituted by some kind of ‘time’…
…how and where the Being of animals is constituted by some kind of ‘time’…
the curlew held level with our eyes in the headwind on Yellow Rigg
the wrens fucking in the Dentdale hedgerow
70
how and whether the animals of Being are constituted by any kindness whatsoever…
quarried limepits filled and dumped in—chewed shrewhead on the threshold:
71
shew forth pitiful & busily unkind
we ofttimes do: & yes
the grassblade purposes
beyond our bodies’ crushing it
72
sweet vernal, to unfold again & come
upon the lawns that hold whatever is
this loveliness you press me to
73
bittersweet, separated & entangled
what laws we hold each other to;
once in spring light inside you on a fellside
74
(or twice in night’s shade
the full moon on Moel Eilio)
75
Hell’s Mouth lies behind Butlin’s
rubble piled up by the storm we call progress
76
ketchup-stained panels smashed
all at sea, sea-
beat enough more
and more’s not enough
77
adrift in an ecliptic
Mécanique Céleste (Clough
wood waves shifts blue sky &
bells in flower rippling
78
bob up & down, eight-
man made hares, spheres, beers
overhearing “is it here
they still ring the curfew?”
79
or here the curlew
sings from knoll
a passing day
80
leaves the world
peeps
through to darkness
& forest coleoptera
81
spring is late & delays
the parson’s mackerel w / gooseberries
cultivation is the root
82
taps the wild
thorn’s fruit
& bindweed
clings against the gardener
83
convulsed, eyes a
gape in no agape
my cat & her husband:
what a barbed thing that arrow is
84
through-shot & in throes of
hills greenish sheen
eating what we are in full
colour detail of a treatment works
85
Spurned and standing into danger
the great tankers float by
the coyote pisses on the Wall Street Journal
86
acid strips the eyes’
lights burning
a stock of words we cannot hold / be held
by, why
John Deth you be not still –
87
[arm del.] [grasp del.] [clasp del.]
[hand del.] [shoulder del.]
[knee del.] [form del.] [smile del.]
in the forests
of the night
88
oubutts dermestes
unsheltered in the day’s
blaze skinned to crisps
89
“even bishops are 80 % water”
the burn untouched by seed-head stars
we trace its restless calligraphy
cross-rolling skewed & varicose
90
written / on the sky / i cardellini
shivered windbells / off thistlescruff
high Peak fields / not Central Park
91
stalk a skeletal wisp
dry a little prickly
expel superfluous melancholy
under Saturn and Mars
& a jaundiced quarter-moon
92
too soon gone
under cloud the particular
people I fear the loss of
clarity to say it to watch a moth slap
half the window, this furious
slow shrinkage
93
we learn not to live with,
learning to move
under grave trees
jagged and incomplete
94
systems crash: one dies, another
dies about my ears —
a dustbin
fires ashflakes on the air, the sense
unfinished, of conversations hanging in mid-air
95
“time for a dog’s-nose?”
“– high time.” – and nothing more to say,
just to walk across a moor at sunset,
crepuscule with Nellie and John –
96
hammering the keyboard into silences
between fought-for notes, ploughed bright & light
across the April fells
97
brightness falls
and the lark’s shadow moves
searching for me, blindly,
across the hills
98
solo
above no
man’s land
99
one bright harebell in flower
one person facing another
100
committed to ebb
the shadow
your sweet mouth
still clings to
The Matter of Britain
for Richard Caddel
Natrolite
Opal
Ilmenite
Dunstone
Edingtonite
Alstonite
Serpentine
Barytes
Umangite
Toadstone
Ilvaite
Nadorite
Tourmaline
Haematite
Idocrase
Nepheline
Gypsum
Sphalerite
Win(s)ter Songs
1.
in airslurry,
in halfhail
& the
mountain is,
sign and sight
streams
flow
-ers
thin out
as you get
higher
2.
clouds pulse
and clear (sky)
shadows flicker
(as) eyelids close
3.
a bag
(poly-
thene) snap
-ped from a roll
to hold ‘snap’, a
roll
off each
booted foot, the
road’s camber
4.
rain in
the neck, into
another –
each drip drops
through strata
to touch –
5.
water’s
sough,
rain
’s sign
bows
over
rain too
over the
roof-ridge
in tune
6.
drop drupe
on twig quickens
to brightness
silverquick
from arborescence:
7.
nimbus.
shouting
at nothing, spats
of rain
go, slowly
all is less than true
8.
the old term, frankly:
pea-soup,
misty mornings,
simple motion, the old
tune, the
air
9.
foot
de-
press
-ed
on the
ground,
daily
grind,
not
across a field
10.
hill figures
prefigured
dust
in the throat
the word ‘water’
thirst
for the word
the word
yes
merely spoken
this morning
11.
cloud
across
land,
pleats
folded
on
folds
valley
streams
away
for Tony, Liz & Liam
three, plus a distant relation
in direct spring light
the dust is slightly cooler
where the hooves have been
•
such thirst conjured up
by slick dark green bramble leaves
weighed with cuckoo-spit
•
birch scrub burnt off &
downwind air freighted with dust
smelling of nutmeg
• •
a stumble
shifts a rock
putting the beck
out of tune
content1 fitting
form2:
hares
at a field’s
edge
content3 fitting
form4:
hares
at a field’s
edge
Concise Oxford Dictionary
1: content1 n. 3 constituent elements of a conception: opp. form
2: form1 n. 4 mode in which thing exists or manifests itself: cf. CONTENT1
3: content2 n. contented state, satisfaction
4: form1 n. 14 hare’s lair
Learning the Warblers
1
grasshopper warbler (Locustella naevia)
pit . pitt . pitt pitt . whitt .
chik . tchick . twhitt . twitt .
tschek tschek .
2
sedge warbler (Acrocephalus schoenobaenus)
tuc . tucc . tuck . tuctuctuctuc .
tsrr . trr . trrr . karr .
tsek .
3
marsh warbler (Acrocephalus palustris)
tac . tschak . tuc . tchuc . chuck .
twitt . vit . tweek . tic-tirric .
zawee . za-wee . churr .
st-t-t . ziCHEH Zi-CHEH . stit .
4
reed warbler (Acrocephalus scirpaceus)
kra .
vit .
crik-crik-crik . chara-chara-chara . jag-jag-jag .
chirruc-chirruc . chirruc-chirruc-chirruc . churuc-churuc-churuc-jag-jag-jag .
skurr . tchar . churr . churr-churr-churr . churrur-churruu .
trett trett trett tirri tirri tirri trü trü .
tere-tere-tere-cheerk-cheerk-tsair-tsair-twee-twee-twee .
5
dartford warbler (Sylvia undata)
tchurr . churr . chirrr . tchirr . tchirrr . tchir-r .
cherrr-tk . tchir-r-tuc-tuc . chaihrr-er . jer-jit .
gee-ee-ip .
tuk . tuc . chuck .
tak .
6
lesser whitethroat (Sylvia curruca)
tellellellellellellell . tac-tac . tac . tacc-tacc . tacc . tak . tack .
chek . tchurr . chr-r-r-r . charr . chikka-chikka-chikka .
chay-de-de-de . chakakakakaka .
tett .
7
whitethroat (Sylvia communis)
dji-do ji-do ji-do ji-do ji-do . vit vit vit .
wheet . whit . whett-whett-whett . whit-whit-whit . hwett-hwett-wit-wit .
charr . churr . tcharr . tchurr . chairr . churrr . churrit .
tschek . tschack . check . tacc .
chuck .
8
garden warbler (Sylvia borin)
ooit . whit .
churr . tchurr-r-r . chur chur chur chur chur . tsharr .
check . check, check . check-check . chek-chek-chek . tacc-tacc tacc . tack .
CHUCK-a-ro-CHE, CHUCK-a-ro .
chuck .
9
blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla)
deedeedee . deela-deela-deela .
tau-tau . tett-ett-ett-ett .
churr .
tak . tack . tac, tac . tac-tac . tzek .
10
wood warbler (Phylloscopus sibilatrix)
diuhdiuhdiuhdiuh . dee-ur . dee-you . duuh .
whit, whit, whit . vitvitvit . whit-whit-whit . stip-stip-stip . whit .
pip-pip-pip .
sip-sip-sip-sipsiprrrrr .
stip, stip, stip, stip-stip-stip-shreeee .
peeoo . pee-ou . peu . pew . piu . püü . pew-pew-pew-pew .
piu piu piu piu piu piu piu piu piu piu piu piu piu piu piu piu piu piu piu piu .
sip .
11
chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita)
houeet . hoot . hweet .
zip-zap . siff-siff-siff . tsiff-tsiff-tsiff .
chiff . chaff . chiff, chiff, chaff, chiff, chaff . chiff-chaff .
chiff chaff chaff chip chap chiff chep .
chirr-chirr . churr .
teet-teu . twit .
12
willow warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus)
hooeet . hoo-eet . too-eet .
titi-dje-djoo-dooee-dooi-djoo .
sooee . sooeet-sooeetoo .
13
goldcrest (Regulus regulus)
see . tsee . tsee-tsee . tsee-tsee-tsee . see-see-see . see-see-see-see . zi-zi-zi . zee-zee-zee .
see-see-see-see-sississi-sip .
stit-it-stir-te . sree-sree-sree-sree .
zi-zi-zi-zeee-zeee-zeee-zi-zi .
zi-zi-zi-zeee-zeee-zeee-zeee-zi-zi .
sise sisee sisee sesee seritete .
seeter-seeter-seeter .
cedar-cedar-cedar-cedar-sissu-pee .
zi .
14
firecrest (Regulus ignicapillus)
zit . zit-zit . peep . peep-peep .
seeseeseeseeseeseesirrr .
si-si .
tsee .
for P.C. Fencott
Some Horatian Ingredients
(for Erica and Simon)
plenty of
garlic,
a few
words
•
(for Geoffrey and Valerie)
some white
space
with bay
leaves
set in
it
•
northern ghazal
clear sky, no moon,
and Orion shining like a son-of-a-bitch.
hare’s breath.
hair’s breadth.
spicules of frost
on the Deschampsia flexuosa.
some (of forty) fungi
field mushroom (Agaricus campestris)
“let’s go buy some real ones”
– there’s no need,
the sloping field
where we found
the sheep’s skull by
sweet Hesleyside
is alive
with skully lumps
each bone-white
& slippery
with dew
penny bun (Boletus edulis)
“wolf’s onion”:
– swyne rotteth them vppe –
stem robust, cylindrical, pallid,
with slightly raised veins;
bulbous clod
mycorrhizal
w / spruce:
flesh flushed
dirty straw,
or vinaceous
chanterelle (Cantharellus cibarius)
girolles, abri-
côte – sheltered
on the hill’s
side
:
eschew
the decay,
& chew;
wat’ry-yellow
peppery
quality,
hot in an om’-
-lette, cold
tomato fold-
ed in
velvet shank (Flammulina velutipes)
by Watch Crags,
out of the teeth
of a north-easter,
snow crescents
in the boot-tops
and sleet sat
in the eyebrows