Pont de Normandie
6 abandoned attempts, 792 words no surrender to language poetry
6 abandoned attempts, 792 words no surrender to language poetry
ONE:
River Channel
ships
sail from Monet’s rising sun blurred on rippled water
brazen runway roadway
cruel sandstone
vast spider’s web
of steel mist--
spars in silver
dazzle (cannot be outstared)--
the bridge cuts stretched arms landscape
curve over honeygold waterway; lovers too like everyone else
will cross
Spars slant from arch
to slope as love’s sounding bell tinkling cymbal
engine
music
wheels
they too will cross
clouds hypnotic fleece
sky mindshifts
blanched leaves, buds green
roadscape hub bridge
circling
car after car
procession of speed
motionless
spokes
Pont de Normandie
hub of an Oval Wheel its curve
suspends vehicle-wheels
lovers
clear-eyed
mount the slope passing poles, spin this mill wheel
oval Ferris wheel dripping water: road is not moving
and the light entered Einstein’s eyes Spokes so fast
they are two spokes:
cycle of amorous piety Moulin du Monde two wheels twinned two loves
upwards
wheel, long oared
propeller— a half-shaft spinning.
***
TWO:
She walked late,
cotton sheets drape night’s sleep he followed--
loins veiled finger-pulse magnetic to her naked arm
& proud nippled breasts: Tarot Card.
laughter of lovers at dawn, true--
passports keyboards, screens
frontier kiosks guns policedogs, newsprintscreens
fundamentalists
killing above below
for their angry God
who will strike--
her hand drops warm coins of silver the toll plaza
rimmed wasteland
fringes
zone industriel astride the Route Nationale
24/7
service at the Aire rainshower
gales gently shake
trees
pink and white apple blossom swirl
stick confetti to the green body
& car windscreen road signs, forests, castles castellated walls
manoirs
shelf of motorway slopes
reclines straightens
Eden plains the goat, the horse, lamb speckled fields
‘Exit’ to narrow roads
muffs of mistletoe
in lime trees
coppiced belvedere, wizened stumps shooting wands of growth
giant hedgehog thatched houses
Le Vieux-Port
chateaux, musky trees, gargoyles stone birds real doves fly out from quills, eaves
iris blades green spikes of blue
along the housetops silent village, fading sunflower
streetlights
bearded man, two winebottles stone scroll of names
Mort pour la Patrie
lank flag furled
red, white, blue
***
THREE:
Surfers of clouds
South of Honfleur
ribbon of Seine,
traffic waspish shark sure percussion
roundabouts
the meaning of meaning of meaning her hand, his free hand Pont-Audemer
art of glazed tartines:
O peach O apricot
O apple fingernail halfmoon rhubarb of wellbeing
Croisset: dormer windows, house by river
backed in chalk-cliff rock absorbed despair
becomes endless form history bombs Rouen
Pont de l’Arche, Saillon
Giverny kitchen
stultifying for work fauns tranced apres midi water lilies crafted garden aspires
opals of water platelike polished leaves
***
FOUR:
Dormer room, triangle beams shadows drapes depict vines
hooting spirit-voiced owls
tv screen: light box muted
world must not intrude
oyster shells
lime lemon cut
rainbow trout frizzled pineapple corona, crocodile skin
red onion rings snake cheese knife olive stones
bitten chocolate
wine
bulbous
glasses
candlelit
mirror doubling scene
in another world wall ceiling shadows
night made flesh, flesh made day ceremony for
extraction of pain
unguents her hair
ointment, silk bathrobe--
her wrists chains of flowers
his ankles
wings
fallen to earth fall
bridges
Seine nightglow
towns
linking lit roads
outer darkness of land
***
FIVE:
Lovers sleep coils yet--
jet whose engines
(oops!) craft sailing firebird music
discordant— river’s delta song
other time, place
seeking a bridge below
thump down
full force
the rolling strip sleepers jolt awake
reaches one tingling finger, digitus naked lover
cabin window needles of
threading rain
wing in dull wetness
wheeling out of shadow sunshine dazzles
glassy goose-bump welts of rain on paint (as if)
drying to highest gloss shaft of colour through rainwater
***
SIX:
longing beyond
bridge swinging shadow--
Spars
forks the electric sky apparitions of lost clouds, peaks above city scape
rivers spill
earthward deluged ships
dullcolour sprawls
capitalist malls
(oops a rhyme!) oases of desolate vehicles
parked alone all night
Alps: tunnels echo of traffic
Mont Blanc conifer hills
higher frozen avalanche spiked rock peaks
ice flaking majesty
layered below sky
whitesnow peace blue sky, laced erotic fleecy clouds
more blue dreaming
Venice sinking: striped poles aslant in water
parked water taxis bobbing the tide wet washed steps
wharf stakes unpainted plucked trees treewood pencils without their leads
black ebony swan gondola woman’s hand held, head on his shoulder, satin cushions, silks, their legs entwined, disappearing
bridges of darkness
broken shells of popcorn silver grid of escalator
multi storey cylindrical carpark shadowing Chartres gothic
button dial backlit
elevator opens side-mirrors empty of people
who go in
alert--
doors move to close
slower than earth axis spinning, sleepless lovers crossing
to lie in stupor, sleep
of the sea
blue flowers
which sea which flower edged
in water-blue— couples, singles, clusters humans in no actual
size
Taken up
sprinkled
gone, going scattered
gathered
lives
and the Real pursued
Unreal pulls towards pont de l’abysse
River Channel
ships
sail from Monet’s rising sun blurred on rippled water
brazen runway roadway
cruel sandstone
vast spider’s web
of steel mist--
spars in silver
dazzle (cannot be outstared)--
the bridge cuts stretched arms landscape
curve over honeygold waterway; lovers too like everyone else
will cross
Spars slant from arch
to slope as love’s sounding bell tinkling cymbal
engine
music
wheels
they too will cross
clouds hypnotic fleece
sky mindshifts
blanched leaves, buds green
roadscape hub bridge
circling
car after car
procession of speed
motionless
spokes
Pont de Normandie
hub of an Oval Wheel its curve
suspends vehicle-wheels
lovers
clear-eyed
mount the slope passing poles, spin this mill wheel
oval Ferris wheel dripping water: road is not moving
and the light entered Einstein’s eyes Spokes so fast
they are two spokes:
cycle of amorous piety Moulin du Monde two wheels twinned two loves
upwards
wheel, long oared
propeller— a half-shaft spinning.
***
TWO:
She walked late,
cotton sheets drape night’s sleep he followed--
loins veiled finger-pulse magnetic to her naked arm
& proud nippled breasts: Tarot Card.
laughter of lovers at dawn, true--
passports keyboards, screens
frontier kiosks guns policedogs, newsprintscreens
fundamentalists
killing above below
for their angry God
who will strike--
her hand drops warm coins of silver the toll plaza
rimmed wasteland
fringes
zone industriel astride the Route Nationale
24/7
service at the Aire rainshower
gales gently shake
trees
pink and white apple blossom swirl
stick confetti to the green body
& car windscreen road signs, forests, castles castellated walls
manoirs
shelf of motorway slopes
reclines straightens
Eden plains the goat, the horse, lamb speckled fields
‘Exit’ to narrow roads
muffs of mistletoe
in lime trees
coppiced belvedere, wizened stumps shooting wands of growth
giant hedgehog thatched houses
Le Vieux-Port
chateaux, musky trees, gargoyles stone birds real doves fly out from quills, eaves
iris blades green spikes of blue
along the housetops silent village, fading sunflower
streetlights
bearded man, two winebottles stone scroll of names
Mort pour la Patrie
lank flag furled
red, white, blue
***
THREE:
Surfers of clouds
South of Honfleur
ribbon of Seine,
traffic waspish shark sure percussion
roundabouts
the meaning of meaning of meaning her hand, his free hand Pont-Audemer
art of glazed tartines:
O peach O apricot
O apple fingernail halfmoon rhubarb of wellbeing
Croisset: dormer windows, house by river
backed in chalk-cliff rock absorbed despair
becomes endless form history bombs Rouen
Pont de l’Arche, Saillon
Giverny kitchen
stultifying for work fauns tranced apres midi water lilies crafted garden aspires
opals of water platelike polished leaves
***
FOUR:
Dormer room, triangle beams shadows drapes depict vines
hooting spirit-voiced owls
tv screen: light box muted
world must not intrude
oyster shells
lime lemon cut
rainbow trout frizzled pineapple corona, crocodile skin
red onion rings snake cheese knife olive stones
bitten chocolate
wine
bulbous
glasses
candlelit
mirror doubling scene
in another world wall ceiling shadows
night made flesh, flesh made day ceremony for
extraction of pain
unguents her hair
ointment, silk bathrobe--
her wrists chains of flowers
his ankles
wings
fallen to earth fall
bridges
Seine nightglow
towns
linking lit roads
outer darkness of land
***
FIVE:
Lovers sleep coils yet--
jet whose engines
(oops!) craft sailing firebird music
discordant— river’s delta song
other time, place
seeking a bridge below
thump down
full force
the rolling strip sleepers jolt awake
reaches one tingling finger, digitus naked lover
cabin window needles of
threading rain
wing in dull wetness
wheeling out of shadow sunshine dazzles
glassy goose-bump welts of rain on paint (as if)
drying to highest gloss shaft of colour through rainwater
***
SIX:
longing beyond
bridge swinging shadow--
Spars
forks the electric sky apparitions of lost clouds, peaks above city scape
rivers spill
earthward deluged ships
dullcolour sprawls
capitalist malls
(oops a rhyme!) oases of desolate vehicles
parked alone all night
Alps: tunnels echo of traffic
Mont Blanc conifer hills
higher frozen avalanche spiked rock peaks
ice flaking majesty
layered below sky
whitesnow peace blue sky, laced erotic fleecy clouds
more blue dreaming
Venice sinking: striped poles aslant in water
parked water taxis bobbing the tide wet washed steps
wharf stakes unpainted plucked trees treewood pencils without their leads
black ebony swan gondola woman’s hand held, head on his shoulder, satin cushions, silks, their legs entwined, disappearing
bridges of darkness
broken shells of popcorn silver grid of escalator
multi storey cylindrical carpark shadowing Chartres gothic
button dial backlit
elevator opens side-mirrors empty of people
who go in
alert--
doors move to close
slower than earth axis spinning, sleepless lovers crossing
to lie in stupor, sleep
of the sea
blue flowers
which sea which flower edged
in water-blue— couples, singles, clusters humans in no actual
size
Taken up
sprinkled
gone, going scattered
gathered
lives
and the Real pursued
Unreal pulls towards pont de l’abysse
