Rough Breathing

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by Harry Gilonis


  69

  …how and whether the Being of animals is constituted by some kind of ‘time’…

  …how and where the Being of animals is constituted by some kind of ‘time’…

  the curlew held level with our eyes in the headwind on Yellow Rigg

  the wrens fucking in the Dentdale hedgerow

  70

  how and whether the animals of Being are constituted by any kindness whatsoever…

  quarried limepits filled and dumped in—chewed shrewhead on the threshold:

  71

  shew forth pitiful & busily unkind

  we ofttimes do: & yes

  the grassblade purposes

  beyond our bodies’ crushing it

  72

  sweet vernal, to unfold again & come

  upon the lawns that hold whatever is

  this loveliness you press me to

  73

  bittersweet, separated & entangled

  what laws we hold each other to;

  once in spring light inside you on a fellside

  74

  (or twice in night’s shade

  the full moon on Moel Eilio)

  75

  Hell’s Mouth lies behind Butlin’s

  rubble piled up by the storm we call progress

  76

  ketchup-stained panels smashed

  all at sea, sea-

  beat enough more

  and more’s not enough

  77

  adrift in an ecliptic

  Mécanique Céleste (Clough

  wood waves shifts blue sky &

  bells in flower rippling

  78

  bob up & down, eight-

  man made hares, spheres, beers

  overhearing “is it here

  they still ring the curfew?”

  79

  or here the curlew

  sings from knoll

  a passing day

  80

  leaves the world

  peeps

  through to darkness

  & forest coleoptera

  81

  spring is late & delays

  the parson’s mackerel w / gooseberries

  cultivation is the root

  82

  taps the wild

  thorn’s fruit

  & bindweed

  clings against the gardener

  83

  convulsed, eyes a

  gape in no agape

  my cat & her husband:

  what a barbed thing that arrow is

  84

  through-shot & in throes of

  hills greenish sheen

  eating what we are in full

  colour detail of a treatment works

  85

  Spurned and standing into danger

  the great tankers float by

  the coyote pisses on the Wall Street Journal

  86

  acid strips the eyes’

  lights burning

  a stock of words we cannot hold / be held

  by, why

  John Deth you be not still –

  87

  [arm del.] [grasp del.] [clasp del.]

  [hand del.] [shoulder del.]

  [knee del.] [form del.] [smile del.]

  in the forests

  of the night

  88

  oubutts dermestes

  unsheltered in the day’s

  blaze skinned to crisps

  89

  “even bishops are 80 % water”

  the burn untouched by seed-head stars

  we trace its restless calligraphy

  cross-rolling skewed & varicose

  90

  written / on the sky / i cardellini

  shivered windbells / off thistlescruff

  high Peak fields / not Central Park

  91

  stalk a skeletal wisp

  dry a little prickly

  expel superfluous melancholy

  under Saturn and Mars

  & a jaundiced quarter-moon

  92

  too soon gone

  under cloud the particular

  people I fear the loss of

  clarity to say it to watch a moth slap

  half the window, this furious

  slow shrinkage

  93

  we learn not to live with,

  learning to move

  under grave trees

  jagged and incomplete

  94

  systems crash: one dies, another

  dies about my ears —

  a dustbin

  fires ashflakes on the air, the sense

  unfinished, of conversations hanging in mid-air

  95

  “time for a dog’s-nose?”

  “– high time.” – and nothing more to say,

  just to walk across a moor at sunset,

  crepuscule with Nellie and John –

  96

  hammering the keyboard into silences

  between fought-for notes, ploughed bright & light

  across the April fells

  97

  brightness falls

  and the lark’s shadow moves

  searching for me, blindly,

  across the hills

  98

  solo

  above no

  man’s land

  99

  one bright harebell in flower

  one person facing another

  100

  committed to ebb

  the shadow

  your sweet mouth

  still clings to

  The Matter of Britain

  for Richard Caddel

  Natrolite

  Opal

  Ilmenite

  Dunstone

  Edingtonite

  Alstonite

  Serpentine

  Barytes

  Umangite

  Toadstone

  Ilvaite

  Nadorite

  Tourmaline

  Haematite

  Idocrase

  Nepheline

  Gypsum

  Sphalerite

  Win(s)ter Songs

  1.

  in airslurry,

  in halfhail

  & the

  mountain is,

  sign and sight

  streams

  flow

  -ers

  thin out

  as you get

  higher

  2.

  clouds pulse

  and clear (sky)

  shadows flicker

  (as) eyelids close

  3.

  a bag

  (poly-

  thene) snap

  -ped from a roll

  to hold ‘snap’, a

  roll

  off each

  booted foot, the

  road’s camber

  4.

  rain in

  the neck, into

  another –

  each drip drops

  through strata

  to touch –

  5.

  water’s

  sough,

  rain

  ’s sign

  bows

  over

  rain too

  over the

  roof-ridge

  in tune

  6.

  drop drupe

  on twig quickens

  to brightness

  silverquick

  from arborescence:

  7.

  nimbus.

  shouting

  at nothing, spats

  of rain

  go, slowly

  all is less than true

  8.

  the old term, frankly:

  pea-soup,

  misty mornings,

  simple motion, the old

  tune, the

  air

  9.

  foot

  de-

  press

  -ed

  on the />
  ground,

  daily

  grind,

  not

  across a field

  10.

  hill figures

  prefigured

  dust

  in the throat

  the word ‘water’

  thirst

  for the word

  the word

  yes

  merely spoken

  this morning

  11.

  cloud

  across

  land,

  pleats

  folded

  on

  folds

  valley

  streams

  away

  for Tony, Liz & Liam

  three, plus a distant relation

  in direct spring light

  the dust is slightly cooler

  where the hooves have been

  •

  such thirst conjured up

  by slick dark green bramble leaves

  weighed with cuckoo-spit

  •

  birch scrub burnt off &

  downwind air freighted with dust

  smelling of nutmeg

  • •

  a stumble

  shifts a rock

  putting the beck

  out of tune

  content1 fitting

  form2:

  hares

  at a field’s

  edge

  content3 fitting

  form4:

  hares

  at a field’s

  edge

  Concise Oxford Dictionary

  1: content1 n. 3 constituent elements of a conception: opp. form

  2: form1 n. 4 mode in which thing exists or manifests itself: cf. CONTENT1

  3: content2 n. contented state, satisfaction

  4: form1 n. 14 hare’s lair

  Learning the Warblers

  1

  grasshopper warbler (Locustella naevia)

  pit . pitt . pitt pitt . whitt .

  chik . tchick . twhitt . twitt .

  tschek tschek .

  2

  sedge warbler (Acrocephalus schoenobaenus)

  tuc . tucc . tuck . tuctuctuctuc .

  tsrr . trr . trrr . karr .

  tsek .

  3

  marsh warbler (Acrocephalus palustris)

  tac . tschak . tuc . tchuc . chuck .

  twitt . vit . tweek . tic-tirric .

  zawee . za-wee . churr .

  st-t-t . ziCHEH Zi-CHEH . stit .

  4

  reed warbler (Acrocephalus scirpaceus)

  kra .

  vit .

  crik-crik-crik . chara-chara-chara . jag-jag-jag .

  chirruc-chirruc . chirruc-chirruc-chirruc . churuc-churuc-churuc-jag-jag-jag .

  skurr . tchar . churr . churr-churr-churr . churrur-churruu .

  trett trett trett tirri tirri tirri trü trü .

  tere-tere-tere-cheerk-cheerk-tsair-tsair-twee-twee-twee .

  5

  dartford warbler (Sylvia undata)

  tchurr . churr . chirrr . tchirr . tchirrr . tchir-r .

  cherrr-tk . tchir-r-tuc-tuc . chaihrr-er . jer-jit .

  gee-ee-ip .

  tuk . tuc . chuck .

  tak .

  6

  lesser whitethroat (Sylvia curruca)

  tellellellellellellell . tac-tac . tac . tacc-tacc . tacc . tak . tack .

  chek . tchurr . chr-r-r-r . charr . chikka-chikka-chikka .

  chay-de-de-de . chakakakakaka .

  tett .

  7

  whitethroat (Sylvia communis)

  dji-do ji-do ji-do ji-do ji-do . vit vit vit .

  wheet . whit . whett-whett-whett . whit-whit-whit . hwett-hwett-wit-wit .

  charr . churr . tcharr . tchurr . chairr . churrr . churrit .

  tschek . tschack . check . tacc .

  chuck .

  8

  garden warbler (Sylvia borin)

  ooit . whit .

  churr . tchurr-r-r . chur chur chur chur chur . tsharr .

  check . check, check . check-check . chek-chek-chek . tacc-tacc tacc . tack .

  CHUCK-a-ro-CHE, CHUCK-a-ro .

  chuck .

  9

  blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla)

  deedeedee . deela-deela-deela .

  tau-tau . tett-ett-ett-ett .

  churr .

  tak . tack . tac, tac . tac-tac . tzek .

  10

  wood warbler (Phylloscopus sibilatrix)

  diuhdiuhdiuhdiuh . dee-ur . dee-you . duuh .

  whit, whit, whit . vitvitvit . whit-whit-whit . stip-stip-stip . whit .

  pip-pip-pip .

  sip-sip-sip-sipsiprrrrr .

  stip, stip, stip, stip-stip-stip-shreeee .

  peeoo . pee-ou . peu . pew . piu . püü . pew-pew-pew-pew .

  piu piu piu piu piu piu piu piu piu piu piu piu piu piu piu piu piu piu piu piu .

  sip .

  11

  chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita)

  houeet . hoot . hweet .

  zip-zap . siff-siff-siff . tsiff-tsiff-tsiff .

  chiff . chaff . chiff, chiff, chaff, chiff, chaff . chiff-chaff .

  chiff chaff chaff chip chap chiff chep .

  chirr-chirr . churr .

  teet-teu . twit .

  12

  willow warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus)

  hooeet . hoo-eet . too-eet .

  titi-dje-djoo-dooee-dooi-djoo .

  sooee . sooeet-sooeetoo .

  13

  goldcrest (Regulus regulus)

  see . tsee . tsee-tsee . tsee-tsee-tsee . see-see-see . see-see-see-see . zi-zi-zi . zee-zee-zee .

  see-see-see-see-sississi-sip .

  stit-it-stir-te . sree-sree-sree-sree .

  zi-zi-zi-zeee-zeee-zeee-zi-zi .

  zi-zi-zi-zeee-zeee-zeee-zeee-zi-zi .

  sise sisee sisee sesee seritete .

  seeter-seeter-seeter .

  cedar-cedar-cedar-cedar-sissu-pee .

  zi .

  14

  firecrest (Regulus ignicapillus)

  zit . zit-zit . peep . peep-peep .

  seeseeseeseeseeseesirrr .

  si-si .

  tsee .

  for P.C. Fencott

  Some Horatian Ingredients

  (for Erica and Simon)

  plenty of

  garlic,

  a few

  words

  •

  (for Geoffrey and Valerie)

  some white

  space

  with bay

  leaves

  set in

  it

  •

  northern ghazal

  clear sky, no moon,

  and Orion shining like a son-of-a-bitch.

  hare’s breath.

  hair’s breadth.

  spicules of frost

  on the Deschampsia flexuosa.

  some (of forty) fungi

  field mushroom (Agaricus campestris)

  “let’s go buy some real ones”

  – there’s no need,

  the sloping field

  where we found

  the sheep’s skull by

  sweet Hesleyside

  is alive

  with skully lumps

  each bone-white

  & slippery

  with dew

  penny bun (Boletus edulis)

  “wolf’s onion”:

  – swyne rotteth them vppe –

  stem robust, cylindrical, pallid,

  with slightly raised veins;

  bulbous clod

  mycorrhizal

  w / spruce:

  flesh flushed

  dirty straw,

  or vinaceous

  chanterelle (Cantharellus cibarius)

  girolles, abri-

  côte – sheltered

  on the hill’s

  side

  :

  eschew

  the decay,

 
& chew;

  wat’ry-yellow

  peppery

  quality,

  hot in an om’-

  -lette, cold

  tomato fold-

  ed in

  velvet shank (Flammulina velutipes)

  by Watch Crags,

  out of the teeth

  of a north-easter,

  snow crescents

  in the boot-tops

  and sleet sat

  in the eyebrows

 

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