tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21128451830429951862024-02-20T18:13:40.674+08:00August 1, 2013Martin Stannardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14829046311187324914noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2112845183042995186.post-78607957067572258712013-08-01T10:21:00.003+08:002013-08-20T06:00:51.974+08:00<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">On July 1<sup>st</sup> I
invited a number of poets whose work I admire to contribute one of their poems
to what would be a one-off online publication to go "live" on August
1<sup>st</sup>. I also asked them to pass on the same invitation to a poet or
poets they knew and admired. My plan was for the resulting collection of poems
to be entirely chosen by the poets themselves, and for there to be threads of
friendship and mutual admiration linking the work. I've done no editing or
selecting. Poems arrived, and they are here to read.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">It was also my (probably
futile) intention to kind of take poetry publishing back to recapture something
of the spirit of the mimeo age, which is where I began some 35 years ago: quick
and simple publications that concentrated on the poem because the means of
production gave you almost no alternative. Sometimes it's a relief to leave the
flashy sophistications of state of the art websites behind, isn’t it? (Please
feel free to disagree and/or to point out the paradox of saying all this here
online.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Anyway, what you have
before you is the result. No frills, just the poetry - not even notes on the
contributors. (You can Google them if you're desperate.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I'd like to thank all
the contributors for their support, and I hope you enjoy the poems.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Martin Stannard</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Zhuhai, China</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">August 1, 2013</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span></h2>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span></h2>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span></h2>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Sonnet
exercise # 5: The Devotional Poem</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">There are airs and graces, graces, airs and lines</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">that dance, or at least seem to, until they fall.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">There is music and that which music can’t mitigate.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">There is shattered capitalism gradually undressing</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">to expose the ruins of its crumbling nudity,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">while the poet, bent on refining defined experience, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">writes repeatedly how it was the bird alit,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">with fluttery
poise, like an inkling, invisibly cradled</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">by under-scorings
of sky</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> and so on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">for the crux: though you pour libations to the gods</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">who keep outrageous hours and behave</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">like animals, teenagers, the sundry dissolute,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">still you will lift up your eyes to the skinny guy</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">suspended uncomfortably there in fickle daylight.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">C. J. Allen<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">poem from “A New
Geography of Romanticism’</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Inviting
an embarrassing compassion </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">According
to this you’re on your back in long grasses</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Prayer
roots deep in the soaking lungs</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Not
all coastal plants are made of communion wafer</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Insular
yet enormous plus conceptually hissing</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Dust
obstinate guest absurd and/or bored</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Wheelie
bin reeking of dance in mono </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Pass
Go then return to Basic Principals Square</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">On
automatic pilot judging from your face</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Post
resurrection he was cranky and irritable</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Sponge
limbic Ponge rib-poke provocation</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">This
says you resigned from a strong position</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Tim Allen</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Air Scatters</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the initial
question is place</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">but also
position</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">within that
place</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">is it safe</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">can we speak</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">but then</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">events
intervene</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the air
scatters</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">you gather a
few remnants</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">you renounce
those</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">who have
opposed you</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">some of them</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">still around</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the air is
muddied</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">you no
longer listen</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">into
separate places</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">you have
closed your mind</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">there is
nothing else</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I can say to
you </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">so much air</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Clark Allison</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Breezeway</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Someone said we needed a
breezeway</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">to bark down remnants of
super storm Elias jugularly.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Alas it wasn't my call.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I didn't have a call or
anything resembling one.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">You see I have always
been a rather dull-spirited winch.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The days go by and I go
with them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">A breeze falls from a
nearby tower</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">finds no breezeway, goes
away</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">along a mission to
supersize red shutters.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Alas if that were only
all.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">There's the children's
belongings to be looked to</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">if only one can find the
direction needed</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">and stuff like that.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I said we were all
homers not homos</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">but my voice dwindled in
the roar of Hurricane Edsel.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">We have to live out our
precise experimentation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Otherwise there's no
dying for anybody,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">no crisp rewards.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Batman came out and
clubbed me.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">He never did get along
with my view of the universe</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">except you know
existential threads</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">from the time of the
peace beaters and more.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">He patted his dog Pastor
Fido.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">There was still so much
to be learned</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">and even more to be
researched.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">It was like a
goodbye.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why not accept it,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">anyhow?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The mission girls came through the woods</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">in their special suitings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was all whipped cream and baklava.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Is there a Batman
somewhere, who notices us</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">and promptly looks away,
at a new catalog, say,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">or another racing car
expletive</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">coming back at Him?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">John Ashbery</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Joseph Wright</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A lamp in a darkened room</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">picks out a folk memory</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I know where the the mills were,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and the ironworks, the union
banners,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">a river that runs underground now,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the labour of children</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">*</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Tax concessions and flexible labour</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">open up this town. The world is
waiting,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">crowded into Cromford Mills:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">building workers from Poland and
Croatia,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">maids from the Philippines,
competitive rates of pay.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Open up this town.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Arkwright, trailing smoke and
sparks,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">steps into Arcadia with engines and
workers,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">mills and ironworks, incidental
light</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">*</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Mechanics of perception,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">a white canvas, ghosts</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">stalking the geographical wonders,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the great coaching inns fetching
trade</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">along the routes of industry,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">a Grand National Trades Union</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">a layered perception flowing
underground, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">science of hope, mechanics</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">of a new society.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Somewhere, the notion of a better
life,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">a river, a town, its ghosts,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">a geography of common wealth,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">if we could only find it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I had a notion that</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">layered experience lay in this town,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">lamp in a darkened room.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">*</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A notion of light</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and mechanics of perception,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">layered geography, ghosts</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">of past masters, open up a route</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">through the Derwent valley,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">past the mills and forges</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">to landscapes of feeling,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">alchemy of craft and enlightened
views.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Under a dark outcrop an earthstopper</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">works by lamplight.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the library of a great house</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">a philosopher is giving "that
Lecture on the Orrery</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">in which a lamp is put in place of
the Sun"</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">to work the motion</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">of light, swaying</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">through the minds of the people,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and gravity, in perfect balance,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">energy, to pump the mills,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">coal, smoke, sparks</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">strange machines in the lit air</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">of Derby's workshops, in place</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">of handwork “these cotton mills,
seven</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">stories high and filled</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">with inhabitants, remind me</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">of a first-rate man of war,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and when they are lighted up</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">on a dark night look</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">most luminously beautiful”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">*</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Cars cross St. Mary's Bridge, office
workers</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">lie in the sun at lunchtime, the
mill</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">inhabits a silence, two girls</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">are dazzled by an ingot's glow</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The crags of Derbyshire darken,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">landowners pose for portraits, and
the friends</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">of a young artist, his writers and
poets,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">are young still, in perfect balance,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">with gravity, mechanics, the
construction</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">of strange machines</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">out of canvas and painted light,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">most luminously beautiful,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">first-rate, and filled with
inhabitants.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(<b>Note:</b> Joseph Wright<b> </b>of
Derby lived 1737-1797. The best collection of his paintings is in Derby Art
Gallery)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Alan Baker</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"></span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">(from Song of Chin ,
1972)</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>poem for pauline</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>chin</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>turned to me</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in her eyes</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>turned </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in her naked </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>arms<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 48.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Georgia; mso-hansi-font-family: Georgia;">楽</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 48.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">lè</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">music</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">as</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">into
her</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I
came</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">without
hesitation</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">thunder</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">settled
over the lake</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">tonight
this winter-moon</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">is
behind a cloud</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">animals
went with certainty</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>went to the water's edge</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>& over</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">without
the light</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">whose
shadow will</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">the
lake reflect</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Ed Baker</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"></span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Some Regrets That Will
Attend You When You May <br />
Have Kicked the Seat of The Patron In Front of You <br />
at the Movie Theater Too Often </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">A
sad milkman drops the milk</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">And
enters a strange basement</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">To
use the restroom. A repentant fox runs past,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Looking
transparent like a slide of fire.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">“A
hell of an out,” they say</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">In
these parts, referring to the green caterpillar</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">With
brown spikes found exploring the chef’s salad</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">On
two separate occasions, despite</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
guardianship of saltines, and referring, too,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">to
the Galaxy that fell off its wheels</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Inconveniently.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">At
the movies</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">You
are disappointed at your failure </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">To
stop kicking the seat</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Of
the person in front of you,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">And
take your leg outside, where it continues</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Its
protest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The bath mat in your backpack</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Is
a lamentable gift</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">For
your true love, a contrite ghost who has gotten</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Lost
in the dark, a guilty river that</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Follows
the concrete, a dejected sneeze</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Gone
free. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
man who breaks dirty dishes</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">And
buys new ones is as mournful</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">As
were bewailed the happy campers</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Who
threw their smug song up our penitent noses.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">But
when Brenda Lee’s record falls,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">When
Brenda Lee’s record falls,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">She
is commissar of sorry.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Angela Ball</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Portrait of
Edith Murtone, fiction writer </span></h1>
<h1>
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Scarlet nail polish and lipstick.</span></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Plastic
surgery on her once-prominent nose.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Edith
summers in Cornwall,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">winters
in Athens.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Her
latest novel is selling well.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
cook and the gardener</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">will
each receive a Christmas bonus,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">compensation
for enduring </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Edith’s
moods and temper</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">when
she finds living</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">harder
than writing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Characters
like Clarissa and Harold</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">appear
to her</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">as
she drives, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">as
she walks along the river.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Clarissa,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">eldest
of two daughters,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">an
amateur botanist and watercolourist, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">infatuated
with her piano tutor.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Harold,
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">a
neighbour’s only son,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">asthmatic,
excused from sport.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Interested
in astronomy</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">and
the treasure underneath Clarissa’s skirt.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Desire,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">the
primary emotion that moves plot and pen,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">stirs
the serpents in the garden,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">coiled
in the shade of the family tree.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Images
crafted into words,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">words
crafted into images.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Truth
and fiction,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">lying
down in the same bed,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">entwined,
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">no
longer strangers</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">to
each other.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
white heat of writing—</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">thoughts,
visions</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">becoming
words,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">lifting
the writer and the reader</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">beyond
the page,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">to
where the self is seen,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">an
ant</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">struggling
with crumbs,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">one
day to be crushed </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">beneath
a wind-blown twig.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">On
a good day, five thousand words.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">On
a bad day, the snapping in half of pencils—</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">the
study mirror reflecting</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Edith
asleep on the sofa,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">one
shoe missing, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">an
empty brandy bottle</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">in
her lap.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Edith
waking</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">with
hangover—</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">legs
of straw on which</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">to
inch and tilt</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">towards
the horizon</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">of
the kitchen sink,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">a
much-needed glass of water.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Edith
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">straightening
cushions on the sofa,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">lighting
the day’s first cigarette,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">asking
the walls</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">what
post-war England could be </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">if
Nigel’s plane hadn’t been </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">shot
down over Berlin.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
roulette wheels spins,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">the
white ball</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">comes
to rest on zero.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Not
every player </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">will
risk as much again.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Edith
alone</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">with
her characters.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Maybe
in the next book,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Harold,
through his telescope</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">will
view the flare and fall of a comet,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">an
arc of light that once scarred the heavens,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">now
reduced to a photo, data in a journal.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Clarissa
will disturb his ordered world</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">by
becoming pregnant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
characters’ world changed by </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">a
birth,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">a
wavering allegiance,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">an
affair revealed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">All
that threatens and excites,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">asks
us to consider again </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">human
nature</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">as
it slithers away</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">from
definition,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Edith
will examine</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">in
her next book.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Already
she knows its title,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">writes
it out neatly</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">on
a fresh sheet of paper.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Tomorrow
will be a good writing day.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="gd"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Peter Bakowski</span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Highlands Blowback </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">The you
recedes</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">And now I’m
not sure who the you is</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">But as far as
poetry goes</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Who cares
about that</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Maybe even
makes the work better</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Carried away</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Yes, me I eat
miles like air</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">With a
Super-Saver advance return or</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Two singles</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">It depends on
which is cheaper</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Though that
can’t be right surely?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">No, it was
the highest road we took</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Remember, we
rolled in the heather stoned</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">By a loch /
Or at least</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">By some other
large expanse of water</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">This can’t
have been forgotten </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">I got such
bad sun-burn</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Richard Barrett</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The Long Time<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">It
was a long </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What day </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">was
it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">didn’t
know.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">O
little while, while </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">you
last,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">as
somebody </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">who
doesn’t know meets</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">somebody
who does,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">and
the rooms’ </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">crack
of wind</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">tinted
glass </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">across
from the </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">stone-piled
well into </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">the
church’s field:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">to
grip the telephone</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">with
my neck,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">over
a light</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I
loved you</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Don Berger</span></b></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Professor Dobrowski</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Professor Dobrowski's fingers</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">made no mistakes upon the keys,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">not in June, July or December.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Michael Blackburn</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Lines on a Luggage Label</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">punter</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">leaning
on the bus </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">in
the supermarket</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">makes
it laugh</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">sunned</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">crocuses
daffodils </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">viburnum</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">unfurl</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">bisecting</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">shaven
campus grass</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">return
hay</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">meadow</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">perfect
egg </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">lightly
poised </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">in
the middle </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">of
the carriageway</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">untouched</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">by
traffic</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">petrified</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">the
pastels of</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">winter</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">just
so</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">a
line suggests</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">itself</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">entwined
in</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">one’s
own</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">rhetoric</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">universe</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">and
fiscal sense</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">conjecture</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">we
need</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">nine
mice that are</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">broken</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">music</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">is
all prime </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">numbers</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">jounce</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">the
poem pops</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">reminders</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">unstrings</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Tilla Brading</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Tomatoes</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So here I am</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">some morning in the future</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">buying tomatoes</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">& picking each one up</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">to examine it</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">to see if this one is for me</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">as meanwhile people die</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">in terrible car crashes on the M6</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">& the people who run the world</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">rub their hands</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">while I'm buying tomatoes</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">wishing you'd come up behind me</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">or if I went down the escalator</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">you'd be on the way up</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Brendan Cleary</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Glow-worm</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">After
your mother died</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I
shuffled around the kitchen in her slippers</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">boiling
water</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>for sips of instant coffee<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>cactus tongue.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">You
told me that when you were 12 you sucked ice cubes</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">so
your tongue would feel </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>like someone else’s.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I
keep thinking your mother is in the bathroom mirror</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">or
has organised </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">the
cutlery drawer and the spice cupboard –</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>I can’t find anything.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Meredith Collins</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Feast</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">That evening, a gull stepped up to
my table</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">on the roof terrace of Riyad el
Medina,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">as if to speak, but bent its neck
instead</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and began to peck from a bowl of green
olives</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">set beside a bottle of wine from
Meknes</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">before stepping off again and taking
to air</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">as if it was its emperor, millennia</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">turning in the clock of its wings</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">wheeling high in jet stream winds</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">peeling back the surface of the
Atlantic</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and where those stones fell lies
karma,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">a dark stain spreading through a
single</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">sheet of paper folded into the book
of life,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the one that has your name running
through</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">it like a well-dressed fugitive, and
me</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">waking late with my face in the
fountain</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and head full of music, gut strings</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">occupied by touch and vibration,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">costume jewellery that sticks to the
skin,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">our spirits disputed like the weight</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">of our luggage and the limits of
knowledge,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the clicks and knocks that live
inside doors</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and the wings of seabirds swinging
like padlocks</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">in a universe without keys, or
universal laws.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I attend to the wind intoxicating
itself</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">in stairwells and windows and the
wings</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">of sea birds spreading themselves
around</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the world as we do to hide and seek
each other</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Tim Cumming</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">On The Road Ode</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">In
the Ocala Red Roof Inn, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">next
to the ‘free Continental breakfast bar,’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">a
TV makes of the disparate, One.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">“And now, on Wall Street
yesterday, the Dow—”</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Mouths
spit bits of bacon, calling</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">for
seconds, “with coffee”; & a biker</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">in
chaps & a Hawaiian shirt recites</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">some
sort of mantra over his eggs.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">“At Fenway, the Yanks
rally in the ninth—”</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Near
a rack of real estate pamphlets,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">a
mother in a flowered pajama top</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">spreads
cream cheese on a bagel,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">while
some tourists from Syracuse</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">stack
their trays at the same time,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">&
an Appalachian man—</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">smoker,
long hair short at his ears—</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">gazes
shyly at a wife made</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">weary
by all his good times;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">their
burr-headed son, ten, chews</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">his
corn flakes with a thoughtful look …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">“The recall of tainted
fish sticks has spread—”</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Jim Cummins</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Downsides</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">--for
Samantha Brick</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Seems
I can’t go anywhere without some dude</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">trying
to get inside my frontal lobe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just once
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I’d
like to go to a hotel bar without hearing, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">“Nice
brain stem! Can I buy it a drink?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Or
“Did anyone ever tell your cerebellum </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">it
could be a model?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whenever I pass </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">a
construction site, the hardhats </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">whistle
at my bouncy left and right hemispheres.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">As
I scurry away, I get, “Stuck up, neocortex!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">At
work, Mr. Smith ogles my limbic system</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">and
the administrative assistants with small brains</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">ignore
me in the lunch room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I guess it’s true—</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I
flaunt my high IQ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can be a tease</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">when
it comes to anagrams and spatial reasoning.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">But,
hey, don’t we all use whatever we have?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Unlike
most women, I’m actually looking forward </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">to
senility, so everyone will stop seeing </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">only
my brain and except me for who I truly am.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Denise Duhamel</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Does this poem pay its
way?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The UK Government's Culture
Secretary Maria Miller said the arts world must make the case for public
funding by focusing on its economic, not artistic, value (BBC News 24/4/13)</span></i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">While reading or listening to
this poem you should decide </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">if it gives you value for
money.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Please tick or indicate all
that apply.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Does it:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">a) reap the reward of your
reading investment time?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">b) merit further reading
investment?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">b) make you want to read the
poet's new collection?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">c) persuade you to investigate
the poet's back catalogue?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">d) stimulate the wider literary
economy through purchase of:</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">tickets for readings</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">CD recordings</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">poetry apps</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">library memberships (only
available to purchase)</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">works of criticism</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">stationery items</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">visits to writers' houses</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">computer hardware</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">office furniture or back
supports</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">magazine subscriptions</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">competition entry fees</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">a shed to write in</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">a writing retreat/holiday</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">editorial support</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">copying, printing or binding
facilities</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">the services of an amanuensis</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">a waste paper bin?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 18.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Sue
Dymoke</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Wild Dog</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">My dog was wild – not quite the wolf</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">chained up under Uncle Clyde’s porch
in that town</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">where you had to collect water from
a pump and</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">shit in an outhouse the local boys
would push</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">over whilst you were performing –
but it was</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">obvious the day I got home and found
my tamed</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">red squirrel torn to pieces. So it
was time to let</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the dog go, doing unto another like
that unacceptable</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">even in my childlike take on the
rights and wrongs</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">of things [and a double tragedy in
such a concurrent</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">loss] but it was around a week later
when the farmer</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">returning its lead said <i>his</i>
dog now was chasing sheep</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and running free and living a life
that eviscerating my</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">other pet was just the manifestation
of what should be.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Mike Ferguson</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Under the Lime Trees</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">All
that glitters </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">is
not glass, but lots and lots</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">of
it is, mused </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">the
helmeted cyclist … o you fast-</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">spinning
tyres, so delicately ridged, so like the scales </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">of
a young crocodile – avoid </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">whatever
sparkles, and that </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">straggle-haired
woman weaving </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">her
way briskly against the traffic, her hands </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">a
jiving blur as she belts</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">out
snatches of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">We’re just </i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">two little girls from
Little Rock … the one who broke </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">my heart … </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">in Little Rock …</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> Are these </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I
spy the deserving </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">poor,
fully adrift, or breast-fed bohemians (weird</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">thought
of the day!) jostling on a street corner beside </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">an
all but emptied rack </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">of
Boris bikes? Wolves</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">living
on wind, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sur le Noël, morte</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">saison …</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>we do not feel</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">the
speck of dust that alights </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">on
our shoulder, nor </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">its
fatal cousin, the germ we inhale, unknowing, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">and
cannot spit out. It slides</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">through
the unmapped city </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">within.
Responsive </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">cells
divide or move, suddenly </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">restless,
alert, driving, dragging</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">from
the abyss an image </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">of
myself cowboy-hatted, aged three, proudly astride </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">an
East African zebra. The spongy marrow </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">buried
in our bones </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">enriches
the blood that unites, as it flows, nerve </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">and
muscle, tissue and tendon, propelling </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">all
smoothly forward like a river swirling </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 120.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">over its unseen bed; while every</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">active
capillary, if challenged, or opposed, or howsoever</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">aroused,
dilates</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">in
bold defiance, in outright </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">scorn
of the cold footsteps creeping like mist …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 5;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>blink, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">and
click your heels one-two-three, and the yellow </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">brick
road is thigh-</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">deep
in nettles and willowherb. Even </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">when
it’s invisible the sun </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">flings
into space its gassy flames, each day </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">enthrones
itself, and we, too, must purge our minds of the inert </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">and
confining, dwell </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">in
thoughts that breathe, and words that burn, or shine </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">brightly
as a falling </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">guillotine
… blink</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">again
and the fantastical </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">flow
of money </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">and
data bursts like a blood vessel, scattering </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">the
crowds gathered beneath the weeping </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">limes.
It happened </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I
fell in with one kicking wildly </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">at
piles of sticky, heart-shaped leaves – his cheeks were furrowed</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">with
scars, and his left ear seemed torn: ‘Follow,’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">he
confided, ‘the scent to the vixens’ lair … take up</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">your
broken bicycle, and with both hands hurl it as far … as far …’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Mark Ford</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Talking to Patrick
Heron</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">At a random gathering</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">you throw amusing quotes, ‘roughly, sea from the
balcony </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">window’ to yourself even when things wrong stare back</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">like ‘Japanese moons kept in mind’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">shuffling up a Cornish field</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">waiting to paint late </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>as you said in
the Tate that day</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">with your tiny camera </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">snapping away at your own work baffled by my careless</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">observations.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Your toy-box of colours, floating arms, hands and
wrists </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">in front of an audience you’re an expressionist</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">showing erudition, important when</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">embraced by just about everyone, so </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I want to follow</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">in your footsteps</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>charge at my canvas</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">be fresh, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">spontaneous, dreamlike</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>make </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>tremolo
shapes from old poems</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>shaded</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">as wind </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>wall-like in themselves</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>mapped</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>never to wear thin</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">as lines of a railway bridge, as three hallways on</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">three floors of any St. Ives hotel.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Rhythmic patterns of carpets</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">against the glare</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">of over-used doors.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Back-to-back</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">everyone wants a blend of history and art,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">a montage in at least seven colour ways</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">your sporadic insomnia must be an end-life crisis, not
forcing</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">the talk</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>not
a colour out of place</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">but</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>arriving at
final words</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">for the day, still with the ability to laugh …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘do
you have the capacity to break out of your routine?’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">back at the beach where they’re all sitting down</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">your reach is sugar minus salt plus flesh,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">rounded gestures live, feet let go.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Freed out of blankness, your sea is purple-black,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">your ground is green-black, a page</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">is dropped into air.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Peter
Gillies</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">All Said</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><br />
<br />
All said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Knowny known.<br />
Ovvious, so ovvious, it’s all so ovvious:<br />
<br />
mutabilitude, mortalitude – <br />
<br />
houses of ash<br />
towers of toothpicks and paste<br />
manuscrip-manuscrude-manuscraps in your closet<br />
Pulitzer puff pastries staled in the bragbox<br />
spotty sunken oldsters once very presentable<br />
now wobble toward dementia or a busted hip<br />
dozens of lemonade trucks from decades back<br />
now entoiled with ferns beside the airport garage<br />
um hum mutabilitude mortalitude ovvious<br />
all said all knowny known<br />
<br />
so then – so now – now what – <br />
humiliated silence?<br />
<br />
Somehow that won’t do;<br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the day <br />
replete with Beckettish crazed persistence<br />
grief memoriousness fantasy<br />
beauty in tight jeans<br />
email from someone stirringly wishful<br />
earnestness of Chris Hayes<br />
disguised outrage of Stephen Colbert<br />
Republican greed in bald or sly forms <br />
injustice in New Orleans Thailand Syria Chicago<br />
Florida Bangladesh the next town over<br />
brave optimism of strollers in Washington Square <br />
a quietly serious Korean movie<br />
the comic-desperate yowling of Kim Shattuck<br />
all the flick-fly-fine stuff you care about<br />
memory of dancing with Marcia to “Party Doll” <br />
<br />
demands reply . . .<br />
So I will confect new-ish ways to say<br />
yesterday’s gone and we’re all going to die!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Better trite than
self-surrenderedly stifled</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> – <br />
though that’s not quite the credo<br />
I ran up my secret flagpole<br />
in my decades of Keats-n-me castle hunger.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Mark Halliday</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The Answers To The
Questions</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">For that rainy day reading at</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>the bookstore in the mall</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Where do you get your
ideas</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">From
a guy named Howie in Philadelphia.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 36.0pt 72.0pt 108.0pt 144.0pt 180.0pt 216.0pt 252.0pt 288.0pt 324.0pt 358.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">They’re $19.95 a dozen,
less if they’ve been used.<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I
used to get some from my family’s horrible holiday</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">dinners,
but they won’t let me in the house anymore</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Who are your influences?</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Any
number of colorful obscurities whose </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">names
you feel bad about not knowing</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">and
this is because </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I
am inventing them as I speak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">And
Frank O’Hara.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">You
always have to say Frank O’Hara.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">When do you put in the
hidden meaning?</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I
usually write that first, then cover it up</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">with
mud and leaves so that it’s totally</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">obscured,
then I forget where I put it so</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">your
guess is as good as mine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">bring
your own meaning and just slather it on.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Can you stay for the
open reading?</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I’d
like to stay, I really want to stay</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I’d
do anything in the world to stay</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I’ve
dreamed of staying, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I
would have definitely stayed but</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">now
I’ve fallen into past tense so </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I’m
afraid it’s impossible to climb out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">And
I think there’s a terrible storm coming.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">What is that buzzing
sound?<span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I
wonder if I’ll get home faster if</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I
get on Route 80 and take the bridge.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I
see myself speeding down a deserted highway</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">What
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is </i>that annoying sound?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">It’s
me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I seem to be reading. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I
wondered why they turned the music off.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Robert Hershon</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="BodyA">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Joe’s Barber Shop</span></b></div>
<div class="BodyA">
<br /></div>
<div class="BodyA">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>after
a photograph by George Tice</span></div>
<div class="BodyA">
<br /></div>
<div class="BodyA">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">There’s
a Christmas Santa Claus holding a holiday reef in the center of Joe’s Barber
Shop window in Paterson and the light outside slants to the Linoleum from a
smaller side window and the shadows of the words “Joe’s Barber Shop” can be
seen spelled out instead of reversed on the glass. It is a cold sunlight and
the shadow of the smaller window frame makes a cross on the floor above his
name. What can be seen outside through the window is a truck and a couple of
stores and a car.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It could be winter,
but there is no snow and no people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Joe’s is empty, a newspaper lies folded on the table next to the waiting
chair in front of the window by the porcelain sink. An apron hangs from a hook
by the smaller window.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can’t make out
the month or year on the wall calendar or the date on the newspaper, but I know
it is decades ago, and the floor is free of hair and a barber towel drapes over
the arm of the old porcelain base swivel barber chair with a cracked leather
seat and porcelain arms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few bottles
of after shave and tonic line the counter in front of the chair in front of the
mirror.</span></div>
<div class="BodyA">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I
wonder where Joe the barber is?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is he
standing somewhere inside, or did he leave?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It looks deserted. It looks as if he left and never came back, as if he
just got in his car and started driving one day to escape having to stand all
day cutting men’s hair.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And like the
rest of us who wake not wanting to go to in because we can’t stand going back
to what we do, wouldn’t it be nice to say “fuck it” and leave forever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know what it feels like to have my hair cut
by an old barber.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve been getting my
hair cut this way all my life and the barbers were always old men, mostly
Italian from the old country who would whip the apron and snap it in the air
like a matador snaps a cape and twist tie it tight like a noose around my neck,
and I would listen to them talk because what else was there to do. And you can
learn a lot from listening to people and I imagine Joe had a lot to say and
talked to every customer about his life, his son who left home and joined the
army and never returned and the wife who got sick and died and how hard it was
to make a living cutting hair.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I
wish I could ask him what was the strangest thing that ever happened to him
with the customers that walked in and asked to get their hair cut.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The odd exchanges, the boring ones, the sad,
the funny.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And did he ever give a bad
hair cut and did a customer ever refuse to pay or walk out?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know I got some bad hair cuts when my
mother took me to the barber to get crew cuts and the barber put me in the toy
car and I cried when I was six because I hated my naked head and now at sixty
not really caring about hair seeing how bald I am and trying not to care
anymore because the scariest thing in the world is seeing yourself from behind
the way someone else sees you as if you could be a stranger to yourself and
step outside of who you are for a moment as if you could give yourself a hair
cut which I do now anyway standing at the mirror with an electric buzz cutter
and wonder who that old man is in the mirror who is always standing there in
front of me and I try to push him out of the way.</span></div>
<div class="BodyA">
<br /></div>
<div class="BodyA">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Mark Hillringhouse</span></b></div>
<div class="BodyA">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Petrarch
Sonnet 188</span></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">S'una fede amorosa, un cor non finto</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">if I can keep my head while all around</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">lovers lunge at each other’s attributes</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">queue up for more Q8 chrysanthemums</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">& gift wrap inventive new vibrators</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">& if a face can launch a thousand ships</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">then why does she insist on sinking mine</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">not to mention her habit of snipping</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">through the strings of my acrobatic kite</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">if I were a carpenter I’d knock up</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">a wooden horse to park in your garden</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">& if I can’t have you I don’t want no</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">if I were a boy I’d do it again</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I swear I wouldn’t be a better man</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">if you’re happy & you know it fuck off</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Peter Hughes</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 67.5pt; text-indent: -67.5pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Third Ear</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">after Stelarc</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I’m
an unborn mouse</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">curled
on the side of your face</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">suckling
on sound waves</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Father
pinned his ear </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">to
my dress like a corsage</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">when
my boyfriend called</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">strange
listening fold</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">lift
me: I drop from your cheek –</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">soft
pink telephone</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Sarah Jackson</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Stone Of Destiny</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Conor </i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Stone of Destiny, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">y’ know? My granddad </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">smashed the portraits of</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">his enemy’s ancestors </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">& burned them in the ol’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Faerie Ring. <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Blasphemy of a level you </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">cannot understand. We’ll go </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">to the Hill of Tara, you’ll see</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">yourself. You’re my first Jewess. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Okay to call you that? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A Jewess— </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">that’s what my granddad </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">called them, a man</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">who never met one, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">was from a small town </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">& married his cousin. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In return, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">you’ll cook me some </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">chicken soup, so. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">II. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Alisha </i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Unsurprisingly, it’s a rainy </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">night when I walk home on </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Merrion Row, not knowing </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Conor will never take me </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">to the Hill of Tara. As I pass </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">an old man, he sets his eyes </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">upon me & he warns, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Beware of the Jew! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Excuse me? I say.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The dew, he says,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Beware of the dew.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Alisha Kaplan</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">MAGNIFY, O MY SOUL</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I am part of the governing body which
consults with the professional regulator on the closure of your advisory panel,
but in its official role your advisory panel counsels my governing body on the
burgeoning malpractice of the professional regulator and I haven’t slept in
forty days. There is something I have done which I feel guilty about,
completely unrelated and in a different time-zone; the recollection bounces
from conscience to storage with a dull report. My self-disgust in an ember.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I am part of the Krispy Kreme
doughnut which accompanies the strong black coffee on your closed laptop, but
in your eagerness to counter her claims of malpractice you spring open your
laptop like a jack in the box and Jennifer is too scalded to accept your
apology and a tiny cliff-face-shaped fragment of white chocolate falls down
your suit, bouncing twice against your leg and landing in your oversized shoe,
reduced almost immediately to a liquid. Here he comes with his dull report. The
health inspector doesn’t remember.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I am Zart of the Intergalactic Munitions
Association and we regret to inform you that your Star Glider X3-20 has been
towed by an inter-planetary advisory committee to counsel the League of Species
on the rampant corruption in communications between the reporting structures
established under 7.2 (b). But you cannot support your family without it and
our new policy cannot locate your savings account. Your life is a wing-nut
fumbled by a distracted mechanic suspended above a strip-mined cavern,
currently bouncing from girder to rock, and escaping into genre fiction offers
little-to-no comfort. Your first instalment is due in December.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I am a barely a fart in a windsock
to the west of an abandoned runway. I am playing back the notes I made on my
Dictaphone: <i>self-deprecation … dyspepsia … easy enemies … despair</i>. I
mean saxophone. Something has been lost in transubstantiation, or an erratum
slip flying from the pages of the completist’s terrible joke book, I mean who
cares? Jargon, syrup and fly. I’m sorry I’m like this.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I am Stuart, vocalist for a
post-punk band called Trip Hazard. This is a name we thought would be funny, we
explain to the tech support as he gaffer tapes the mic lead to the dusty floor.
I hate oppositional art because I have too much empathy. In a horror film I am
the victim, in a game of chess I am the piece which rolls off the stone table
and gets picked up by an off-the-leash jack russell. Therefore in oppositional
art I am that which is opposed. But, says the drummer, have you considered that
oppositional art such as the punk movement was and is actually opposing the <i>bullies</i>
in the equation you posit? But punks used to spit in old lady’s faces, I tell
him. In this equation I will always be an old lady’s face.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">My date has lost her wallet, her
phone and her keys and is still bravely trying to enjoy the evening. This is
pretty funny because the slogan on my t-shirt is <i>YOU’VE LOST YOUR WALLET,
YOUR PHONE AND YOUR KEYS! </i>– the title of Trip Hazard’s post-reunion album.
How sweet to escape from the duties and responsibilities of work, domestic
maintenance and family via a costly and distracting legal battle. The
established pattern has fallen apart and only the typos were deliberate and/or
I only respect monks and they don’t want it. Preferred it when I thought it was
that. The jack-lead was accidentally plugged into your speech-centre, now I can
remember, now I can remember. May you never lose you timbre.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Luke Kennard</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Becoming</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> double
sonnet</span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: -45.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The Jealousy Box says, “I am
jealous of humans with both</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: -45.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Dicks<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and twots.” I say, I am jealous of humans</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: -45.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">With neither dicks nor twots. I am
jealous</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: -45.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Of ghosts, shadows, clouds. There
is a without me</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: -45.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Within me. It is immaterial
(Buddhist joke).</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: -45.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Sonny Berman was a hell of a
trumpet player.</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: -45.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Just listen to “Woodchopper’s
Holiday.”</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: -45.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Neither dicks nor jokes. Hey, I’m
just a dude, devalued.</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: -45.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I am jealous of this and that and
them and those, ghosts,</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: -45.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Shadows, clouds. Now it is Les
Brown & His Band of Renown,</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: -45.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I Got the Sun in the Morning,” vocal by
Doris Day.</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: -45.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">It gives me the Milky
Way. I am jealous of the Milky Way, and</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: -45.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The Multiwavelength
Milky Way, Sampsonia Way, and Niobe Way.</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: -45.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Who has been studying
the social and emotional development of </span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: -45.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Girls and boys for over
two decades, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">hashtag</i> dicks and twots.</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: -45.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">And I remember John
Davies and Brian Way, English professors,</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: -45.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Blind as bats, so drunk
at the Royal St David’s hotel in Harlech,</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: -45.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Planning the scholarly
article competition they would manufacture</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: -45.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Between themselves
regarding <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Moby Dick</i>, published in </span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: -45.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The Critical Quarterly,
just for the hell of it.</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: -45.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">And I remember Channing
Way in Berkeley where Andrea and I</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: -45.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Lived for four months in
1974 at the Rapa Nui apartment building,<br />
Almost getting evicted for swimming naked in the pool at night,</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: -45.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Before we moved up to
Jane Saunders’ house in Kensington, with</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: -45.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Tom Fogerty living next
door and the miracle of cable TV in the bedroom.</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: -45.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Yes, sometimes there are
miracles in the bedroom, but</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: -45.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">No, not when I am
around. When I am around there are reverse sexual</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: -45.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Epiphanies and Dadaist
jokes…</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: -45.0pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Doug Lang</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The Laffer Curve</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">On
the back of a restaurant napkin he composed</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">the
definitive exposition of the theory </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">that
the economy is driven or decisively </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">restrained
by the federal income tax rate,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">and
a lot of people went along with that, because <br />
it was in their interest to do so but also because</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">he
made the argument so casually and lent his apt name<br />
to the diagram describing a direct ratio</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">between
tax rates and the rate of unemployment.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">That
was an economist named Laffer, Arthur Laffer.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">But
I heard the news on the radio and in my mind</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">there
was a curve that a mathematician had devised</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">to
measure the success or failure of a comic endeavor</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">with
highest honors awarded to practical jokes</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">that
turn out to have a major influence on history</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">despite
their intent to be just funny, a harmless<br />
diversion, demonstrating that the last laugh, <br />
whether bitter or hollow or even downright mirthless, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">is
always at the expense of the losers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">David Lehman</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 67.5pt; text-indent: -67.5pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 67.5pt; text-indent: -67.5pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 67.5pt; text-indent: -67.5pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Magicians</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 67.5pt; text-indent: -67.5pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 67.5pt; text-indent: -67.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">We are walking through
windows,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 67.5pt; text-indent: -67.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">we are playing with air.
We are</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 67.5pt; text-indent: -67.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">heating it up, but
learning</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 67.5pt; text-indent: -67.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">to cool it all down. We
are practicing wisdom</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 67.5pt; text-indent: -67.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">on a ten inch screen in
a bolted room, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 67.5pt; text-indent: -67.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">and sending a message to
God</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 67.5pt; text-indent: -67.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">and his heavens: we can
no longer believe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 67.5pt; text-indent: -67.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">We are herding millions
of other magicians</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 67.5pt; text-indent: -67.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">into the schoolrooms to
learn to be better.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 67.5pt; text-indent: -67.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">And giving them tests,
and carefully</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 67.5pt; text-indent: -67.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">making our judgments. We
are passing by</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 67.5pt; text-indent: -67.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">the graveyard gardens,
where every year more <span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 67.5pt; text-indent: -67.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">stones appear. But we’re
inscribing the morals:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 67.5pt; text-indent: -67.5pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">A meaningful life, a life of adventure</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 67.5pt; text-indent: -67.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">We are eating our ice
creams, examining our bellies,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 67.5pt; text-indent: -67.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">and wearing contraptions
to hide all that flesh.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 67.5pt; text-indent: -67.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">We are disappearing—but
oh very slowly—until one day</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 67.5pt; text-indent: -67.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">we are hurtling through
windows: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Please</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 67.5pt; text-indent: -67.5pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">hold my hand, it is all I have left. <span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span></span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 67.5pt; text-indent: -67.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">We are moments. Then
we’re not.—<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Was that</i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 67.5pt; text-indent: -67.5pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">blood on those pages</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">? Never mind—we</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 67.5pt; text-indent: -67.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">are scattered.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 67.5pt; text-indent: -67.5pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 67.5pt; text-indent: -67.5pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Kathryn Levy</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 67.5pt; text-indent: -67.5pt;">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The Museum Of Drowning<br />
</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><br />
It’s difficult keeping<br />
your head above water,<br />
harder to not use cliché.<br />
<br />
I surface occasionally<br />
from paperwork and marking<br />
at the end of another year.<br />
<br />
Orange rooms above<br />
purple and blue water;<br />
a pineapple island<br />
<br />
with boats on the lake:<br />
the first time for<br />
several centuries.<br />
<br />
Two inches of water<br />
are enough to drown in<br />
if you lie face down;<br />
<br />
a hundred essays<br />
can trigger anxiety<br />
and problems breathing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Rupert Loydell</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Six Windows Of Waste</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">We meet</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">eye to eye</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">many years after</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">our ripe lives turned to tomato soup
–</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">the colour of your finger nails, </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">the veins in my feet -</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">for what forensic evidence in our
neurology</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">remains of then? </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">What can we recoup</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">from a sandbagged cerebral cortex,</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">save the twitch </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">from holding onto an opening too
long?</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">And what of you?</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">All hair and heels</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">to hats and Kipling bags;</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">from skinny dips to varicose;</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">from seaside one-liners </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">to frowns ploughed deep?</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I want to sleep.</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">We meet</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">for a meal</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">a lifetime later,</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">cold plaice and a cold potato.</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I talk of my Mediterranean stomach,</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">you, your new tropical hips.</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I long for chips.</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">My faecal smear is in the post.</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">You twist your head</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">And forty years evaporate</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">For a nano-second of testosterone</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">To just before Nan’s corset broke</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Against a reversing milk float.</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">But hey, six little windows of waste
are in the post.</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Rupert Mallin</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Assemblage, Moeity,
Propinquity</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">A
boy and a girl, both violet-eyed, insouciant, with incipient wings, sitting by
a chimney.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
girl with violet eyes and incipient wings, in love with a beleaguered, brooding
boy with carved-rock cheekbones.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
brooding boy with carved-rock cheekbones — lissome, sweet, summery — in love
with a girl penumbral in color, mellow and super happy in a bungalow.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
mellow girl penumbral in color, in love with a bucolic boy who lithely jumped
off a bus after a young gazelle and got hit with a tranq bullet.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
bucolic boy who, after recovering from getting hit with the tranq bullet, fell
in love with a fetching ingenue — umbrella haircut, eyes chatoyant — who strode
unhindered in opulence toward a perfect good.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
fetching ingenue who strode in opulence toward a perfect good because she was in
reality moving in unison with a furtive, comely boy twerking it to the future
between two moonlit lagoons.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
comely boy who, while twerking it to the future between the two lagoons, became
inured to an imbroglio involving alien cyborgs in the offing and his life-long
nemesis: a boy sporting a gossamer ‘fro of mysterious abilities and cheeks
efflorescent with joy<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>— his secret
cynosure.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
boy whose cheeks are efflorescent with joy because he is beside his beloved
girl-cousin Dalliance as she chooses, with forbearance, from a plethora of
magical tools and talismans, one of which — The Shield of Desuetude — she must
use to dissemble an evil, ineffable destiny.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
girl named Dalliance who experiences an epiphany and chooses correctly The
Shield of Desuetude and so produces a boon for humanity, and then, as part of
the panacea, asks a demure boy named Halcyon (his burlap-y dreadlocks wafting
an evocative petrichor and swinging like rope around his shoulders), “What is
the felicity of this harbinger Earth, this redolent green seraglio moored in
the stars, and of the Moon which lilts the air like a sussurous evanescence, so
soon to unravel, and with what stars has God imbued this night, and why?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
demure boy with dreadlocks who trails a length of diaphanous petunias tucked
into his underpants, at the end of which sits his pet fungal onion Susquehanna,
in love with a tiny pony with a vestigial head hanging languorously from its
neck, a head that is, in reality the woebegone ghost of some erstwhile
Surrealist.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">And
the woebegone ghost of this erstwhile Surrealist, in a previous life one
ingredient in a bitter elixir but in this one nothing more than a fugacious
mote, the least scintilla of a long-lost palimpsest, but whose mote-love is the
emollient ripple in the ether that suspires a wish in the heart of all things
to bring the violet-eyed boy and a girl, insouciant, with incipient wings, to
configure in miraculous imbrication by a chimney.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">*
* *</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">A note about the poem: I
was recently accused of writing "ugly" poetry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This poem contains a selection of the
"fifty most beautiful words in the English language" (according to,
you know ... someone).</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Sharon Mesmer</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Snow
Rescuers in Their Own Words</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">"It seems strange
in the 21st century that we're still at this type of game." </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>– Red Cross volunteer,
quoted by BBC NI news, March 2013</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Belshaw came to the rescue of a couple
who had been snowed in for five days.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">‘The wind's blowing and it's burying lambs and ewes.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">It's just putting the tin hat on it.’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">It's just putting the tin hat on it. ‘</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">We’ve also used helicopters. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Nothing works. It's hard to even walk
in it.’ </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The weight of the snow.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">‘The weight of the snow took the
trees down</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">and the trees came down over the
lines and that took the lines down.’ </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">We put snow in buckets.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">‘We put snow in buckets and let them
lick it.’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Belshaw came to the rescue,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">and McCullough opened the road to a
dairy farm in Carnalbanagh.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="gd"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Martin Mooney</span></b></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Crooked Spire</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Are
you giving me the come on?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">you, beckoning like that –</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">misplaced
apostrophe</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">above
the town – </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">and
leaning,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">leaning
over everything:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">the Smirnoff-Ice sky,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">weather
in slow motion,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">trees
like children’s drawings</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">of
themselves</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">and
all the girls I used to be</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">queuing at Riley’s</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">for
the night ahead,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">the
snowflakes falling </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">through
them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Helen Mort</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">(Com)modify with Me</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Tree
house splinters seam heaven-and-hell</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">within
in the infant </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">psyche,
trebled by incessant</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">lack
of rest.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">One
leg of the restitution</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">journey
segues into</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">marginal
relief, unless<br />
“you, too, can perform like</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Helen
Bitters, the renown</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">acrobat
who (y)earned</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">(st)ripe
old (st)age</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">fright
in her (c)lean</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">way
living in tan</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">dem
with one’s own</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">(s)mall
mown freshness </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">again(st)
the (g)rain of daylight.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Sheila E. Murphy<a href="http://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Ladybird</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Up</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">UP</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">UP!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><br />
the loft, detritus</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I
used to be so small</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">as
a boy I used to be</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">so
like a boy</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Ladybird
Learnabout the world</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">technology
was pre-science fiction</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">except
the Doctor Reverend Dobbs</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">his
simple electronics</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">flip-flop</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">flop-flip</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">M.E.S
bulb holder, capacitor mounting</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">in
worlds of science</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">we
have the electronic organ</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">mountable
on three pieces of wood</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">mountable
on loft beams </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">hanging
pendant fittings</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">amateur
hour in the house Jack built</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">the
house Jack re-wired</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Ladybird,
Ladybird</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">fly
fast<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">your
children Ladybird</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">they’re
calling you</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Martin Myers</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The Pounding Rabbit</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After a clock design by
Neya Churyoku (1897-1987)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">If
you know the Japanese folk tale</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">about
the rabbit that ended up</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">on
the moon, you will not be puzzled</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">by
a table clock depicting a rabbit</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">pounding
rice cakes on the moon,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">but
if you do not know this story</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">you
will look at the clock and pound</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">your
own head in disbelief,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">as
if to knock from it the spirit</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">you
wish to offer to the gods</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">who
munch the rice cakes</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">and
never turn to say thank you</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">except
by sending down the genius</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">to
create such a clock, such a rabbit.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Ron Padgett</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Stay There So You
Remember</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">1.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Stay
there so you remember</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Blinded
on the roof</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Caught
in the accretion</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Stay
calm and wild</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">And
hot and blind</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Haunting
in your lover</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Haunted
on the roof</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Stay
there so you remember</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
night we nearly came</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">A
night caught in a bottle</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">All
ether hazed protruding</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Availing
an existence</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Of
two relating dues</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Where-when
the lovers love </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
claim is always two</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">2.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">It’s
summer </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Here
again</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
wind shakes </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Up
the path </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">It
goes so </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">You’ll
remember</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
night we</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Nearly
came</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">It
stays and </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">It
remembers</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">It’s
shaking up the path</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">And
it is caught</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">And
wild and </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">It
stays warm</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">And
blind</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">3.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">He
says summer without Julia</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I
say summer without Mark</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Two
names approximate the other</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Like
in two mirrors of two sides</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I
say Mark and it is through my edge </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Not
with but through the mouth</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I
do not want to sleep</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Until
we are together Friday</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">It’s
summer here again</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">In
the summer without Julia</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">And
in the summer without Mark</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="gd"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Julia Pello</span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Valentine<br />
</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><br />
This morning I could taste blood<br />
in my mouth. Toothpaste,<br />
I thought, or the flavour<br />
of the freshly risen.<br />
<br />
But when I spat<br />
my spit was valentine red,<br />
landing on the ground like a surprise,<br />
throwing me off guard.<br />
<br />
I spat again<br />
and once more the watery<br />
warning sign slap-landed<br />
on the pavement.<br />
<br />
Of course I instantly thought of Keats,<br />
coming home late that night with curdling lungs.<br />
Then the image of bed-sheets<br />
drenched in claret,<br />
<br />
soaking in the kitchen sink.<br />
I spat again and again,<br />
and each time the spit<br />
became more and more orange,<br />
<br />
like the sunrise, I thought, strangely.<br />
Though I could feel no sickness<br />
in my body, I only just stilled<br />
the butterflies, and it made me wonder<br />
<br />
how young John Keats<br />
must have felt,<br />
first feeling the saliva rise<br />
in his mouth,<br />
<br />
raising a hand up to signal<br />
pardon to a friend,<br />
spitting love's colour<br />
on to lush green blades.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Matthew Rice</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Lounge Ghazal</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I miss the excess of youth. So deep I used to
drink of it—</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Love till dawn, all night long, the double-cream
stink of it.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The blues is just a skin too small for our flesh</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">But lately there are days when I’m past the
brink of it.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Love also has its anthems and its flag:</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The sepia and red and the pink of it.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">More than the kick of liquor, more than the wiry
taste,</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I like the toast and the clink of it.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Did you do something so human you can’t even
tell a friend?</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Well, you can always tell your shrink of it.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Don’t get trapped in your past, Zack,</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Not for a second, don’t you even think of it.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Zack Rogow</span></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Creatures</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There was a mottled snake which made
its home under our kitchen sink. If it was venomous, I would have to kill it.
Otherwise, we could keep it as a pet. </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There was a woman upstairs with
smoothest skin who lay naked in her bed at nights, but I wasn’t sure it was me
she was waiting for. </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Around the corner was a small store
no one went to anymore. I felt I must go there soon. I would buy a bottle of
wine and chat to the Indian owner the way I used to. But first I had to decide
upon the snake and the woman.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ian Seed</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></b></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Something That Was Not Fragmented </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
contemplate a part of <br />
your beauty that is <br />
like having a new key, or <br />
like holding a snake that <br />
has had its venom emasculated. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The battle
with that serpent is <br />
almost over, and the <br />
joys of the fruit will soon <br />
be settled. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You are the
designer of <br />
my limitations. You are the <br />
root of my fervour, and <br />
I am caught in your days. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I spent too
much time on <br />
the reckoning and not <br />
enough on the shoreline—or <br />
so it was mentioned to me.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You knew the
sea would <br />
cure me, though, but not <br />
for how long. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Jeffrey
Side</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Iliad</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Old age,
Tolstoy wrote, is the biggest surprise<br />
In a man's life. So true! Childhood hours<br />
In the ancient car I now recall, the hot months,<br />
Sox game on the radio, soporific Bob Elson<br />
Mumbling in the microphone, "Um, strike one,"<br />
And at bat Sherman Lollar, sloth-like catcher,</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Elson droning, "Ball four. It's a base on
balls," </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Henri
Bergson called this perceived duration,<br />
The sense of time as elastic phenomenon<br />
Stretched or compressed by stoic's fortitude<br />
Or child's impatience: "Are we there yet?"</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And this
is where the surprise comes in.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yes, my
good man, you have arrived <i>there</i>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yes, you
are <i>there</i> all right, ya big dummy.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In fact,
you've already been <i>there</i> for a while</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Except
"there" is not "where" or even "what"<br />
You would have imagined. "There" is "here,"<br />
Wherever you happen to be at the time.<br />
As the snail everywhere bears its shell, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You and
the destination are one now,<br />
Not where you're going but what you are.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But we
will grieve not, as Wordsworth wrote.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Or
perhaps we will grieve. Shall we? No matter,<br />
It doesn't really amount to a hill of beans.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">That's
just how the cookie crumbles, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">That was
the funeral of Hector.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="gd"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Mitch Sisskind</span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Rendezvous </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">At
the bus stop in front of the mall </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">but
there might be too many people there </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">it's
not a very good place to meet we might miss each other</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">but
it's easy to find the 69 bus runs every 13 minutes</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">the
first one being at 06.36 or 06.41 on Sundays</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">and
the 10A is every 16 minutes the first one is 06.25</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">seven
days a week but it goes the long way round.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Outside
the library if it's not raining I'll be </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">holding
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Consolation of Philosophy </i>I've
read it four times </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">now
I'm on my fifth Boethius was in prison when he wrote it </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">in
AD 524 mine is the Penguin edition it cost 30 yuan.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">In
Starbucks I'll try and get a couch </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">but
it's not always possible if I don't get </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">a
couch I'll be I don't know where I'll be how could I</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">know
Starbucks now has more than 750 stores</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">in
the People's Republic of China two years ago there</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">were
none in this city now we have three.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
lobby of the White House Hotel<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>you don't
need to </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">be
a guest to go inside a room there costs </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">from
around 800 yuan and up but it's cheaper </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">if
you book online there's a site I use all the time it's good</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">although
I don't trust the hotel reviews unless</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I
write them myself which sometimes I have done.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Round
the back of the Zhu Ying supermarket </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">where
they stack used cardboard from boxes </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">stuff
comes in nobody goes round there in the evening</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">it's
dark the girls especially steer clear but it's too near the bins </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I
saw a family of rats there last time it was a family of five</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">one
rat for each bin they were very well organized.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">At
the entrance to the cemetery a resting place for</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">at
the last count 972 souls partaking of glory.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Martin
Stannard</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">kiss</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">emu park, qld. </span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tonight, within this slab of sauna heat we </span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">sprawl like flattened toads on grass as warm </span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">as breath & eat. we feed each other
wide-hipped </span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">prawns from bowls hand-crafted by the children </span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">of xi’an. our fingers taste of brine &
lime, the syrup </span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">cloy of over-ripe mangoes. we hungrily kiss, </span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">devour our feast & then each other’s burning</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">skin. the beer we drink will cool our lips. we have</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">grown adept in silences, in naming constellations,</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">have learnt humility from the weight of their light. we</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">have conjured sunrise in far-off darkness; launched</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">prayers into this dome of sky & sung; each fragile note</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">or lyric swarm like billiard balls they kiss the glow of the</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">southern cross, careful trajectories guiding them home.</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Paul Summers</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Targets and systems, for morality<br />
<br />
</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Where is the breeding end of all
this talk, <br />
by a flickering, long dead monitor, <br />
crammed with insane systems, to plan and splurge<br />
tainted glories onto a savage class, <br />
which grasps and sleeps and stuffs and is not me. <br />
<br />
People become targets, assigned at night, <br />
when the emails arrive unasked between <br />
two waves, flint water hard as failure. <br />
<br />
Always he is punctual. The sound <br />
of his shoes, his showergel aroma. <br />
All the world to his child. Held, <br />
towel-warm and safe, under his chin. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">At work, one man crying, to another
-<br />
shameful such decline. Blame is important,<br />
I spent a year in Moscow, the basements <br />
of pain, ledgers with targets for slave camps. <br />
<br />
Alice Threadlee Brown, wrapped in her deadsheets, <br />
can garner evidence for damnation - <br />
she tiptoes into rooms as the air leaves, <br />
her accurate judgements based on nonsense. <br />
<br />
When I questioned the socialist zeal <br />
for measurement, I was canned with corn beef, <br />
reminded of centuries of turnips, <br />
matchgirls leaving their jaws at the altar. <br />
<br />
Often when I drive through these endless towns<br />
I hear a lonely family pray and sing,<br />
bird voices raised above the roar,<br />
just half understood, tears in the dawn;<br />
as I slept I had cried about something <br />
but forgot it all when I awoke.<br />
<br />
Though much is stolen, bits of it are left. <br />
But the place is unrecognizable -<br />
still and whatever, it is what it is:<br />
wrecked by targets and sadistic systems,<br />
the pure intellect abides in its cave,<br />
to think and know and see and hope to write.<br />
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Paul Sutton, 3rd July 2013</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">images become aspects of the real</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">which
burns the streets treats of itself white hot in love</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">lined
avenues beating red eyes downcast cigarette butts</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">cluttering
drains the head of purpose</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>explains
the system</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">works
by pressing levers into sockets till they hurt</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">no-one
except bare-back riders of bad news</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">or<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>when it stops</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>music
wrung out</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">for
every split second<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>changing course</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">you
are weeping<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>which seems irrelevant
but</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">sentiment’s
stuck at the heart of it</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>(all the fun of the fair)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">and
like you say<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>stumps bleeding off the
wheel</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">relax<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>who knows how fast we’re moving really</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Nathan Thompson</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Indian mystic</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Once in a dream an Indian swamiji</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">came to the bad daughter, arms
outstretched.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In actual fact the swamiji was dead</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">he’d had a heart attack </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">three weeks before she arrived at
the ashram,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">she couldn’t help but think </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">his death had something to do with
her, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the way her mere presence in the
family home </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">would cause her father’s horses</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">to come fourth or fall at the final
hurdle.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the dream the Indian mystic</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">wore an orange robe and smelled</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the way Sundays should smell, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">without the looming <a href="http://www.blogger.com/null" name="140075d93f1283fe__GoBack"></a>dread of Monday morning,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">like I say he approached with arms
outstretched</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">while she took hesitant steps
towards him</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">wondering what she’d have to give up</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">this time but when he folded his
arms around her</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">she lost nothing, nothing was sucked
from her,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">it was all give on the part of the
swamiji</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and the bad daughter let out such a
breath of relief</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">she was afraid she’d blow him clean
away.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But he held fast, not in a clingy or
desperate way,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">no, he held on and he kept giving,
it was a miracle,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">it was as if she actually deserved
all this love,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and she drank it all in although she
kept glancing</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">over her shoulder, waiting for the
catch,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">waiting for the waiter to sidle
up to her table</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and hand her the bill she’d never be
able to pay.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Lorna Thorpe</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Colloquium</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">you thought
that the</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">argument
could have got</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">out the
pattern edged</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">through the
gut punched</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">on both
fronts wanting</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">reconciliation
at the price</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">of
supplication took its </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">toll to
bespoke overtures</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">and
retrievals troubled</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">inequities
across a costed</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">bound to flip
a tense</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">bird macho
man</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">thought to
bury thought</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">to contest
whilst dis-</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">avowing ego
ignominy</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">attention
unfolded full</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">mediocrity in
the median</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">mode is not a
judgement</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">that
manipulated your</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">ambitions the
exact</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">opposite of
what you de-</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">clare to tamp
turned</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">out and over
ashes of</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">survival in a
crumb of</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">burned out
porcelain</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">simple sonnet
something</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">beyond the
pale could</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">not advance
your artificial</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">objectives to
have your</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">art and eat
it out</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Scott Thurston</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Eel</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Can’t / you believe she’s your
sister?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>“The Eel,” Eugenio
Montale, trans. David Young</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">A belt from
the sea,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">pure long
appetite.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Its kind
clusters in pits,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">darkened
glass, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">scale-less,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">all snout</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">but filled
with riches:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Cleopatra
unrolled from a rug</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">or lowered in
a stocking.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Or this one
is </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">slippery as
galoshes,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">slub skinned,
slick affidavit-bearing</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">absolute
lawyer of pliability,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">a lawyer’s
lawyer’s lawyer,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">a slippery
bait, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">a river
shriven and twisted,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">and recently
more likely found in ditches--</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">a tongue on
its own </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">that does not</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">respond to us</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">with sympathy</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">never will be</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">my sister.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Lee Upton</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Free Ache</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">fools pull </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">incomparable
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">pure hearts
from bridesmaids’ </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">warm breasts</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">trying to
break relations</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and weak and
magnificent</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">bleak
adventurers ramble </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">demonically</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">owners of
hearts remember</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the
indifference of</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">jeering
doves </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">who bring
peace</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">plain echoes
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">harshly
shatter silence </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and the rain
hides chasms </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">in every
verse</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and stamps
on love letters</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">austere and
deafly red</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the earth
grows</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">while
singing trees</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">in clear profane
dreams</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">meekly
embrace swaggering vipers</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">sobbing </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">defiant the
hostage’s soul rises</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">in a free
ache</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Daniela
Voicu</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">American Coffee</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Dare I open my mouth to sing</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">wake to the sound of taxi cabs</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">something about weather<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>about</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">the smell of jazz art<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">you’re looking pretty tasty tonight</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">like bagels and lox<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>hold the mayo</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">always what’s not said<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>opportunity</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">no not that<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>it’s like everywhere</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">goes out the window<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>you’re sharp</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">in those jeans<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>as the Empire
State</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">holy as new penny<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>your smile</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">may be a dream of New York</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">knock me down with a<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>one day</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">I’ll be amased<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>feather in Manhatten</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">and probably not appropriate<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>like you</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Times Square</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">
shines in the movies</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">I’m always criminally shy<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Harlem </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">jitterbugs<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>head all musical affect</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">you’re probably not interested but</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Batman climbs the side of a building</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">I’m really not that kind of guy</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">in the rain<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>this will be swept away</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">but I can’t help notice<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and avert</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">(when the storm comes I wake up)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">my eyes from your chest<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>which is</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">let’s face it<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>lovely<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve never been</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">to New York<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>something appropriate</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">American coffee<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>hot dogs stands</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Steven Waling</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Clay Feet<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Yesterday,
when I was walking</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">as
exiled humans do, in clay feet,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">outside
the garden of the knowledge</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">of
good and evil in the cool of the evening,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">God
slipped into a pair of clay feet too.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">We
walked foot to foot for some time</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">and
being that close, I noticed that</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">God
is:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">More
earth than air.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">More
of here than of there.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 60.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: 48.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">And all of now.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Bounding
in and out of ifs.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Abiding
boundless</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 72.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">inside is.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Transcendent
most</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">in
immanence hiding</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 72.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in
nooks of creation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">He’s
as much of a she as a he</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">and
She is also we, and God </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 108.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">forgive
me, also me.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Creeds
cannot catch Him</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Nor
churches house Him.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">
He keeps no throne in Rome.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">He
has no test for us to pass.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">No
will for us to bow to.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">
He burns no hell.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">He
yawns when He hears “O God” intoned</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">by
preachers over the pews, but He </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 72.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">cups His ear when</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">someone
alone in the pews whispers</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">“O
God, help me</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: 48.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">
make it through the night.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: 48.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Listen
then and you may hear His hum of</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Nothing
to do but </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 72.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">be, dear.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> Nowhere
to go but </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 72.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">here, dear.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Michael Whelan</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Corset-Maker</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What do you want girl </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">between your breasts </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and jutting hips – a ravine, a
cutting, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">or a valley’s slopes? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Soft stays that work like muscle </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">or a harness made of steel,
bone? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jackie Wills</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Drunkonomics</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">The oceans
drink the rivers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">The smoke
replaces the sky. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Then the
gospels tell of the origin </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">of the birds
and how the birds flew</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">too close to
the cockpits and how</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">the planes
then crashed. And that</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">is how man
came to know about</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">the split
between nature and artifice.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">The dietary
laws are strict up here.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">They call for
men to dress in gigantic</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">black
overcoats when they are killing</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">something to
eat. Everyone lives</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">in a
settlement where the beautiful</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">maidens are
kept out of sight.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Whenever
there is violence, the precepts</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">recommend
that you riff on your horn.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Down below,
there are tinkers</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">hiding in the
forest. There are runaways</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">cooking dope
in the alleyways. It’s cool.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">It’s very
fucking cool, yo. The banks </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">are open for
business, burning your</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">credit rating
in a rusty oil drum. You could </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">fry a chicken
over that hot flame.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Terence Winch</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">On Death Condoms </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">after
Jean Genet</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">You
would look divine in a cape on a divan.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">(Just
maybe drool or purr or coo anon.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">We’re
songs on a gorge on a samsara veranda. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Oh
no. You can see where this is going.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">A
baby a professional a gulag Cassandra.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Souvenirs
can claim oh no & pathos & <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">veni
vidi vici</i>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Let’s
now soothe lemurs—or let lemurs soothe Lionel Richie. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
point shaking up the front the up shaking point the.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Hello—is
it me, the man too bizarre in the sun</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">or
him looking four-eyed from my tourist binoculars?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Save
these eyes, unruly piggies. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">A
musk escapes with you.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Cold
watering holes vs. solar holes, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Mouth
vs. anus, gauche vamp of ages.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Brrrrrrrrrrrr,
Heads of Unctuous Gauze,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">said
a post-it put on every big bank casket. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Any
dropped visage claims <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">l’aissez-passer</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">any
leap a lop-eared earthquake.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Ugh
the frisson of the crude mother without clothes</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">of
taboo scents in the mall, pantyhose a tone of baggage.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">What
a grand plunge she has sung—</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">what
muff, what loofah, what flotilla</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">A
person can kiss anywhere any time of the day.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">A
song can pass the evening in a balloon. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Yo,
matador. Yo, Pluto. For real please stop this. Ok.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
dreams of Monopoly cannot keep looking</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">&
claiming love anymore. Much more real: a moose</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">convincing
leaves of his majestic knife pontoon.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Elisabeth Workman</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________________</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In
The Cloak Room</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; font-variant: small-caps;">E</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">xcept to hang up our
coats in the morning</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">or to retrieve them when
school was over,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">the only time we went
into the cloak room</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">during Sister Maria
Rita’s sixth grade</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">was by her express
permission. “Cloak room”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">even back then was a
strange phrase, since</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">none of us wore cloaks,
and because the “room”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">wasn’t really a room at
all, but a huge closet</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">filled with hooks and
darkness. Perhaps</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">there was a ceiling
fixture there, but I</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">never remember seeing
light. One day</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I raised my hand and
asked to get something </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">that I had left in my
jacket, or maybe</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">it was simply an excuse
to remove myself</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">for a couple of minutes
from the tirades</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">of the nun who was
nicknamed “Monkey.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Her sallow skin was
horribly shriveled, and she</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">jerked her body about as
if strings were pulled</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">that made her move.
There I was in the cloak room</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">when some kind of freaky
feeling seized me,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">and I, always the Good
Boy, found myself</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">standing in the dark
among the coats and jackets</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">that hung like so many
disembodied children,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">all slightly
hunchbacked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I clawed the air,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">making my most horrible
monster face, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">my gestures timed to
parody the shrieking of the nun.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I must have thought that
if I could make physical</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">the ripped-up feeling
inside me, the feeling</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">of being shredded by the
hatchet of her voice,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I might wipe it out—the
screech like the sound</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">chalk sometimes made on
the blackboard.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Sister’s other nickname
was Captain Tiptoes:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">up she’d go on the balls
of her feet, unheard</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">by her next victim, only
to slam him unawares</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">into the top of a desk
or the side of a wall,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">or to smack him with her
pointer. And now,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">as I clawed and gnashed
at the black cloak room air,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I turned to see Monkey
heading for me, her spectacles</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">catching glints of light
as she moved in to grab me.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I don’t know what she
thought I was doing. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">didn’t know what I
thought I was doing. I don’t</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">even remember what she
did—maybe she shook me</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">to bring me to my
senses. But the thought</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">crosses my mind that
maybe, at that moment, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I was beginning to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">come</i> to my senses, to protest</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">in my crazy way the
daily insanity that all of us</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">were made to live
with—the rule of fear</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">and physical punishment
that hovered</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">like the statue</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">of the crucified Christ</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">in every room of the
school,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">as if from his own
cosmic hook</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">on the classroom walls. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Bill Zavatsky</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Inexorable </span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The tide goes out</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Revealing mud</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And amorphous shapes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Half-covered in mud.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A gull swings by</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">With a shell in its mouth—</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Clam or mussel—</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Then drops it from on high.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It splats </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and doesn't break.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The gull picks it up </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and drops it again.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And again.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Indefatigable.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The fine line between stubbornness</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And stupidity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Little air bubbles</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Signs of life</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">At your feet.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Your ankles, actually.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Larry Zirlin</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">___________________________________________</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">©The
copyright of everything published here remains the author's</span></div>
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Martin Stannardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14829046311187324914noreply@blogger.com