Rough Breathing

by Harry Gilonis

  pictured landscape

  rain fall falls river

  birds move empty air

  deluged in willows

  (in) hidden (cigarette-smoke) mist

  Jinling landscape

  rain shadows rain falls falls lateral stalks

  quantitative as-if dream: larks sang (air)

  suspended fair field within

  riuer narrows walls of a city borrowed light

  quite a way after Yu Hsüan-chi (AD 844–869)

  poem responding

  the crowds the people the noise the glare

  quietly sitting set apart

  not looking for company nor even an elegant phrase

  finding a mot juste in a moated village

  for your simple flowers I’m grateful

  rusticated, learning my -ologies

  so full of affection that I need no-one

  one living in mountains … pines

  poem responding (remix)

  flung amid an accident of noise

  silence banishes mandolins

  work a jewel bound on my finger

  distilling the propounded word

  clematis – denotes – result

  held – aloof – to learn

  symptoms of affection perception

  pine heedless fellow of mountains

  quite a way after Ch’ien Ch’i (AD 722–780)

  abandoned person

  two yellow birds through woods

  overcast (at dawn) overcast

  flower bells exhausted

  rain among water-willows

  warm sun specific

  cherished (with both hands)

  poems still not wanted

  hair white, face & future blank

  gift accepted

  bright birds blur woodland

  shady city outskirts

  flower-clocks sounding patterns

  willows parting long water

  electric roadways divide

  elder blossom held in mind

  poems met with offers

  such readiness / magnificent

  quite a way after Li Po (AD 701–762)

  wasted visit

  dog sound water bark

  rain heavy blossoms

  trees deep with deer

  beck hears no bell

  bamboo split mist

  water hangs from peaks

  where is ‘here’ no-one knows

  pine on pine on

  no way

  ((water)) (dog) within (bark) ((sound))

  peach blossoms distil the dew

  deer // deep woods // appear

  above the stream [ ] unheard

  ((blue)) (bamboo) divides (bamboo) ((mist))

  springs wing from green cliffs

  not-to-have / not-to-know / just to go

  still weary pines twice, thrice

  quite a way after Li Shang-yin (AD 813–858), again

  no title

  exquisite zither’s fifteen strings

  fretfully bridge time lost & spent

  (butterfly dreams shivering scales,

  cuckold-cuckoo sings in spring;

  these pearls that were moons tears

  from a long way off, smoky-grey)

  how hold lost time immaterial

  gone in a flash amidst bewilderment

  That harp…

  That harp – sounds – feathering the air

  fretting / trembling / the flowery mountain

  racket for the contemporary moment

  springs amorous (‘… pretty … … warbles…’) blurred

  travelling blues going in your direction

  step into not knowing “the summits again”

  with a feeling cadences ring through memory

  merely spatio-temporal, perplexed and lost

  an epithalamy, or ballad

  love is put to the test – Wittgenstein

  calm the day, and bright;

  constructed space and time

  altering surroundings;

  below skies

  water-encircled

  in the lee of the land,

  larks sang matutinal

  in sunlit air, that mote

  your mind delight …

  – ordered nature

  transfigures itself

  to ordered world –

  a place and a purpose

  intangible but simple,

  long-looked-for joy …

  now is it time

  commitment calling

  through scatterd light,

  love manifest

  ut tenax hedera

  arborem implicat

  now is time unfolding,

  minute accumulations

  in the texture of air:

  – such knowledge fragmentary

  until unconcealment,

  minutes accumulating …

  a purpose and a place

  for solace and happiness: truth

  is there too, in calm and quiet

  paired magpies fly;

  light through cloud, then

  wind through reeds –

  all things established

  in graceful dance

  where rest and peace are found,

  glad affection

  deliberate and resolved

  through sweet consent:

  may suns strengthen

  and winds caress:

  we’re wishing good luck in all things.

  Bass adds Bass

  for Dom Lash and his bass

  Bass adds

  bass, wrap-

  -ping round

  a line,

  taking

  it for

  a walk:

  stand-

  -up

  up-

  right

  holding im-

  -mediacy,

  no abstract

  nothing

  a dis-

  -ruption

  into

  form,

  force

  expend-

  -ed to

  an end

  strong, ac-

  -tive and

  voracious

  charac-

  -terised by

  abun-

  dance and

  excess,

  dance of

  power

  and weight,

  a firm

  & fast

  footing

  and harm-

  -onious

  devel-

  -opment

  hand o-

  -ver hand

  so add a

  little bass,

  a low wave

  become audible

  under

  the song,

  deter-

  -minedly

  indeter-

  -minate

  :

  mechanisms

  of affinity

  closely

  modelled

  … brushed, dragged

  and smeared, simul-

  -taneously tangled;

  scraped, wiped

  and scratched …

  bringing objects

  before the mind

  in de-

  -finite thought:

  change the

  phrase, change

  the phase

  the process ac-

  -centuated;

  – whence

  the bass, nearly

  black, dark & impure –

  brim-full of content,

  translated to

  immediacy

  (a soft boom,

  a hoarse roar)

  suspended

  in difference,

  indifference

  suspended:

  setting the

  rhythm,

  minute,

  particular

  pure apper-

  -ception

  looking out

  for the beat

  the straight

  line and

&
nbsp; the curve

  knotted and

  projecting

  capacity

  & power,

  practical

  builder of

  elegant

  convergences:

  the sound

  brightens

  time and

  possibility,

  abstract,

  unfettered:

  in the beginning

  what was there?

  in the first place,

  start from being

  the end not

  identical with

  the object

  thus, after

  the beat,

  thrum and pulse:

  it’s a ba-

  ba-

  ba-

  ba-

  ba-

  bass –

  Georg Trakl fails to write a Christmas poem

  white sky. black jackdaws. grey forest.

  white treetops. black sky. grey jackdaws.

  white forest. black treetops. grey sky.

  white jackdaws. black forest. grey treetops.

  •

  red branches.

  red snowfall.

  red nights.

  red darkness.

  •

  purple snow, purple wine.

  purple midnight. purple wine.

  blue snow, blue wine.

  blue midnight. blue wine.

  silver snow, silver wine.

  silver midnight. silver wine.

  David Davis’s bone density

  beyond the startling

  calyx of teeth

  […] asylum (Trevor Joyce)

  wanting to see

  genuine children

  brought in

  carried along

  on a tide

  of emotion

  a well-grown 2-year-old

  may be mistaken

  for older

  formerly judgemental

  of physical appearance

  and demeanour

  people need to have

  confidence in moving

  to dental checks

  milking it

  temporary replaced

  by permanent

  teeth at the

  corners of this 4-

  year-old mouth

  influenced by

  nutrition and

  the environment

  past their peak

  when 9 to 10

  years of age

  we need to be quite

  hard-nosed here

  people are desperate

  there is a

  terrible intelligence

  working inside

  the mouth

  opened by

  powerful hands

  eyes expressionless

  with tears in

  mesh-link fencing

  callous

  written

  on the heart

  the scream continues

  builds

  abruptly stops

  a spokesman said

  we can’t satisfy

  what you want

  knowledge

  and informed

  consent

  is it safe

  is it safe

  is it safe

  inappropriate and

  unethical when

  of no benefits

  The Matter of Ireland

  for Billy Mills

  Turquoise

  Hornblende

  Epidote

  Pitchstone

  Rhodonite

  Obsidian

  Pyroxene

  Erinite

  Rutile

  Topaz

  Iron

  Epistilbite

  Sapphire

  Olivine

  Felspar

  Selenite

  Tin

  Onyx

  Nickel

  Emerald

  Revisions (after Roy Fisher)

  ut varias usus meditando extunderet artia (Georgics I. 133)

  Virgil

  taking hours over it losing them

  into a poised gleam

  a single light

  •

  Coping Batter

  for Tom Raworth

  chip and block

  cleavage footing

  bed chain

  wedge runner

  head joint

  face jumper

  crown grit

  tie spar

  flag course

  stoop through

  rag pinnings

  buck and doe

  a breath of air

  branches like trees,

  lighting

  small increments of change;

  heard sound

  climbs

  as song ramifies,

  and, speaking, sees:

  part

  and apart,

  as music strives,

  doing, saying

  finely

  by hand, for us –

  ranging, now, high to low,

  patterns dying

  that don’t give satisfaction.

  they were so clear,

  those first strophes,

  stating

  how heart, ears, interchange,

  move round:

  time’s

  sequence codifies

  all theories,

  art

  and non-art;

  jouissance contrived

  for those hearing

  truly –

  accretive, plus

  evolving, fast or slow –

  moments passing,

  distilled out of abstraction.

  to be prepared

  and know the keys,

  finding

  broken airs (tunes) exchanged;

  such ground

  rhymes

  feedback [specialised]

  and syntheses

  (thought

  and un-thought);

  hands re-derive

  right-brain thinking

  clearly –

  monoceros

  (no rustic chalumeau)

  embodying

  motor-movements’ exaction.

  the song can dare

  these clarities,

  shaping

  as modulations range:

  compound

  chimes

  materialise

  lancets, in threes,

  arch

  on curved arch;

  high-pitched, roof dives

  (red-tiled ceiling):

  roundly-

  drawn lines move, thus,

  describe a circle, so:

  curves, relieving –

  part of delight’s attraction.

  unfolding spare

  polyphonies

  shifting

  overtones re-arrange,

  expound:

  mind

  that’s active denies

  minds from bodies

  part

  – they can’t part,

  not while alive! –

  such conjoining

  wholly

  analogous,

  moving gemutató

  (demonstrating)

  de motu, ‘about motion’.

  from otherwhere

  rare densities

  making

  the familiar strange,

  new-found:

  lines

  cross, don’t cross, surprise

  by strategies;

  heart

  sings by heart

  how joy shapes lives –

  music, feeling

  singly

  brilliant corners –

  no frowns as flurries flow,

  snake, deciding

  it’s ‘instant composition’.

  accord connives

  (remir) seeing:

  plainly

  it’s marvellous,

  hurtling prestissimo –

  endings’re endings –

&n
bsp; scarce time for introspection.

  Acknowledgements & Annotations

  ‘And the light falls, remir’ – Ezra Pound

  Ever since Pound put the word remir (Provençal, ‘I gaze’) into his Canto xx, trusting the reader to unpack the reference (a highly-charged moment in a poem by Arnaut Daniel), it has been a risky, but licit, gambit in poetry to condense allusion as well as diction. (Basil Bunting told Pound he’d once encountered a German-Italian Dictionary that embedded the concept in a definition: ‘Dichten: condensare’.) There is, below, some information relevant to such unpacking of my poems herein. I’ve tried to leave it at that; as Charles Olson reminded Jonathan Williams, ‘a poem is a process, not a memoir’. The intent, then, is not to ‘explain’: as Bunting said, the reader is as clever as the poet, and, indeed, is also the co-maker of any reading. The poems are themselves, and would be so without any annotations. But why not be easy and democratic about such things?

  The poems appear in approximately chronological order, with some minor adjustments that made for a better grouping or pace. I have excluded from this book those of my translations where a conventional model of fidelity is intended (as, e.g., For British Workers: Versions of Vladimir Mayakovsky and others (London: Barque Press, 2017). An asterisk at the head of an entry below indicates that the poem is previously unpublished.

  * * *

  Catullus played Bach first appeared in Oasis magazine (1990) and in Richard Caddel’s ‘26 New British Poets’ supplement to New American Writing magazine (1991). The opening reverses a phrase in Louis Zukofsky’s long, Bach-obsessed poem “A”: ‘Bach read Catullus’. An aria from Bach’s Matthew Passion, ‘Erbarme dich…’, contains the phrase schaue hier, ‘look thou hither’; it has a famous obbligato violin part. There are some snippets from Leopold Mozart’s still-used treatise on violin-playing, found on my father’s bookshelves; arco is the musical Italian term for ‘[played with the] bow’. Prati ultimi flos is from Catullus, poem XI: ‘at the meadow’s edge a flower’.