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| ISBN-13: | 9781775581239 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Auckland University Press |
| Publication date: | 11/01/2013 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 112 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Milk & Honey
By Michele Leggott
Auckland University Press
Copyright © 2005 Michele LeggottAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-77558-123-9
CHAPTER 1
to open the eyes
so far
on the first day of October
in a city without hot water
the temperature climbs to 31 degrees
and I
in a room with full-length mirrors
wash like an odalisque petalled self
on the tiled floor, diffuse light
as of jalousies or halogen
keeping the frescoes chalky
2 spruiking
for love's boy on a pavement
covered by fallen blossom
victorious armour
washed away in the night
endless headlights bearing
one avenue to another
three thousand solar showers
have been purchased
since the explosion
3 the fire-eater juggles
torches knives an iron ball
five teeth missing by the river
his bride sings a cappella
veils tied to a balcony railing
fructus ventris fructus sanctus
white laburnum on the river path
warble on a bike
who will enter the shadows
under the bridge at noon?
4 the tests are successful
and service may be resumed
sooner than expected
I live like Utnapishtim in the distance
six floors up in a confluence
where Burnton meets Jolimont
that is how we got here
the trains wake me before dawn
each day is a bird in another place
5 Ingres fingers on the sidewalk
was she done, his shrieking Medusa
before the rain in the night?
bookstores stay open coffee is cheap
light falls in the Shrine of Remembrance
as if one body lay sleeping
on the cumulus of another
champagne sustains the wait
as urns are sent from kitchen to tub
elevators groan and whirr
6 it was a translation I brought back
nothing but guesses with expensive names
at wrist and throat I gained
two hours of sunlight
clouds of words
dispersed at the edge of space
a kiss disappearing off the page
I will never print again
7 days of purification
signs in the sky
pretty mountain rites
rigmarole of the hours
you were lucky
I was very lucky
a feral girl without hands
a green flame
before the invasion
loving till it hurt
8 I smiled at the poet
and bought lunch in the white cafe
his new book lay on the table
he talked of past and future works
and of the device he would carry
for one other's call
farewell poet
may you never be alone or unhappy
may your archives download safely
into tomorrow
9 John Lennon is 59
IMAGINE – somebody
encountered this week
could become one of the most
important people in your life
over the next two months
don't reject new contacts
just because they don't meet
your normal standards
take that feather off the scale
of expanded light
10 there's been a lot
in the news and in the movies
about the threat to Earth
from asteroids and comets
the idea that we're at risk
from a cosmic collision
was first dreamed up
by the science fiction writer
H G Wells now the astronomers
have followed suit
your day is the operatic condition
of the world
11 birds wake me
wind and moonlight
surf driven high on the beaches
a church bell later on
those raptors
released over upturned
faces the gloved hand
jesses strafing the ground
little mouse carpe
carpe diem
no singing will ever
bring you back
12 commanded
to pray between
two crystal trees
candelabra of the soul
darkened, waiting
not a dream
but a gallery where I
unlace the huntsman's
boots praying
another nature will
survive the skin
13 let's be clear
I am the huntress
you desired
cleaning a flesh wound
also designated
for you are the hunter
of heaven
am I one of twelve
labours
or is the circle
twenty four?
will you step out
of the trees
when I call you
to the game?
14 past midnight
lights lighting
in the high branches
deep reaches
far festivals lighting
lights in the branches
high overhead
15 minutes
of an ecstatic literature
in collapse o o o
experimentation lyricism wit
all three angels all
double deleting the record
setting the circuits ablaze
checking the alternate settings
the unreleased versions
campfires of footsteps leaving
for the end of time all night
all night long deadly snakes
in the desert boots and all
leaving no trace
16 the platoon hops along
in rubber suits carrying its flippers
and singing endorsements
that was yesterday
now the release forms include
hill work where they return
for the exhausted one
can you run can you run can you
keep him in the middle
wipe away the tears
pick up the suitcases and
continue wiring safe to sound
with the green flame
17 Psyche before her sin
is a dilettante
To read to listen to study
to gaze was all part of being
loved without loving
a pleasure previous to any trial
or pain of seeking the beloved
The light must be tried
Psyche must doubt and seek to know
reading must become life and writing
and all go wrong
There is no way but Psyche's search
the creative work of a union
in knowledge and experience
At the end there is a new Eros
a new Master over Love
Eros, like Osiris
or Lucifer (if He be the Prince
of Light whom the Gnostics believe
scattered in sparks throughout
the darkness of what is matter)
is a Lord over us in spirit
who is dispersed everywhere
to our senses
We are drawn to Him, but we must
also gather Him to be
We cannot
in the early stages locate Him
but He finds us out
Seized by His orders we fall in love
in order that He be
and in His duration the powers
of Eros are boundless
We are struck by His presence
and in becoming lovers we become
something other than ourselves
subjects of a daemonic force
previous to our humanity
18 horse on the hillside
horse climbing the hunter's belt
horse of dust and hot stars
embedded in dust
horse on a field of heaven
almost dawn almost
not leaving the ground
almost not there at the door
leaving the ground
19 sweeps and may queens
sweet beaumes-de-venise
pools deeper than orange groves
now I have to kick away
do it all, the invitations
the chance meetings the
eidolon encountered walking out
buds and fruit I will patiently
reinvent your foment
20 door to door
Captain January's maple sugar
corroborates impurities
of purpose, stitches one side of paradise
to all the others, how to
fly over celebrations with a star map
torn out of the voice recording
heartbreak and joyous guard
She wrote:
She wrote:
21 on wings, on springs
on sails, on gales, on this
hommage à piazzolla
look forward and leave behind
the sad paper flowers
a violin in the dark
22 let's take
a holiday
in other places
23 boldly bodily
soft ophidian
I'm counting countries
every day of my life
I'm forgetting refractions
who was a beloved
24 bathing in the soft water
rain just gone from the window
air and water and orangeries
an ivory lace of the mind
refusing gifts go from me
go where I cannot see you
rescinding what's left
25 drums
every other morning
drums
where the sun lifts
drums
against the new green
drums
practising immolation
drums
of the whirring soul
drums
in the flowering tree
26 lunar shadows
crashed on the mountain
errors of judgement
a comedy a love
immaterial wandering
just this
and this
27 if he is all heart
coming in to some body
on the other side of the universe
the moon the room the valley
where messages from gods
are pegged on the blue
and every night is an education
28 ophis you are
soft in my hand
wild orchids
wouldn't keep me
out of your hair
29 Ofi-Okos a man
holding a snake
Ofi-Okos helping
a snake to swim
a serpent of stars
a cinema of narrative
engulfing
the naked eye
30 Cup, wake –
tip you out
on me dark
waves
frequent me
sun beyond
visible sun
dark
filaments
31 here they come
scorpion horseboy
seagoat waterbearer
two fish ram bull
and heaven's horse
when I look north
believing
* * *
* *
*
serpent of stars
cinema of narrative
theatre of love
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Milk & Honey by Michele Leggott. Copyright © 2005 Michele Leggott. Excerpted by permission of Auckland University Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
wilderness,1 to open the eyes,
So far,
faith and rage,
tonight I am sad,
milk of almonds / white magnolia,
cairo vessel 1,
cairo vessel 2,
2 milk and honey,
milk and honey taken far far away,
words beyond light,
certain pockets of resistance,
angels and oracles,
festival junction,
3 fado,
poetics of exile,
cirque velo,
Eurydice' red car,
her songs,
a lost eclogue,
manna beans,
ports of the archipelago,
salto, salto, where are your shoes?,
I dreamed your book was written ...,
future song,
wild light,