Issue 19 – Winter 2011 – Gerry Loose

Gerry Loose

 

from fault line
XVI

we took turns making tea 
for each other 
insurgents 
in the woods 
spore & stone 
& song engines

commentary:

paired crows 
in the bare ash 
tree

 

XVII

I have planted tansy 
& angelica 
thoughts may be taken 
in at the eyes 
it can’t be said 
we were sleeping 
we saw the 
machines arrive

commentary:

crows in 
one line 
bowing 
to ice 
the exegesis

 

XVIII

old men greet me 
a nod & a smile 
in Helensburgh 
the chandler 
of Rhu is an old friend 
of an old friend 
we think 
they cannot know 
my heart

commentary:

now water under 
thin scabs ice crusts 
fox & I look 
for retreat 
neither able 
to walk on water 
any longer 
fox walks 
through wood 
crows sit on 
ice floating rocks 
tilt heads in contemplation 
sip running water 
one of the pleasures 
turning on water 
turning 
on water

XX

travel with ghosts 
accompany spectres 
the sign here reads 
report anything suspicious 
oak 
birch 
fern 
hazel 
be vigilant 

commentary:

one just 
one maybe 
the last just 
one long 
look 
ice quelling 
water’s flows 
no other crescent 
moon tides 
only

 

XXI

the ocean’s oracle 
trident

commentary:

unspilling to under 
this firth bridge 
starling clouds 
together dispersing night 
after night after 
seasons’ years 
again 
treatise worlded

 

XXII

to have loved 
to continue loving 

to have loved enough 
to have loved

to continue love 
to have loving

commentary:

one time 
log on riverflow 
against tide 
modulation 
an otter

 

XXIII

no leaf soars like that 
if you skin something 
it dies

or is dead

commentary:

where raw im 
permanence stands 
the familiar is 
not 
but ah forget 
my fate

 

XXIV

maybe a small zeus 
crying out 
until the hills shake 
these days 
any old developer 
or military 
cuts his oaks 
assassins in the bushes

commentary:

past the base gate 
due south 
rattling heavy 
along steel rails 
engines 
at each end 
Cerberus 
the name plate 
no passengers 
quotidian driver 
barriers 
at the crossing

 

XXV

hunting mushrooms again 
in woods by the sea 
only black ships slipping 
silent through unspeaking water

commentary:

today now we vote 
war lords or 
incubi 
lines to cross

Hill of Dun 
tracked with 
who we are 
flowering gorse

 

XXVI

Ruairidh trod 
the young lavender down 
we forgive children anything 
sometimes they become men 
in marching boots

commentary:

on water 
turning 
caroming on water 
one of the pleasures 
the bird’s 
three notes 
one two three 
one

 

XXVII

the petals fall 
nothing can stop them

the petals fall 
there is nothing to stop them

the petals fall 
the rose broken

she rises broken hearted 
so we change

commentary:

hammered wedge of geese 
cleaving sky through 
which leaps as blue split 
kindling from my axe

 

XXVIII

a philosophic stance 
to despise landowners 
here’s one 
fencing in rosebay willow herb 
& warheads 
to keep the berries 
from touching ground 
we laid them on straw 
went at dusk 
for the mushrooms

commentary:

hands wide apart 
skein unravelled 
what’s in mind

 

 

Gerry Loose lives on a boat close to the Royal Navy’s nuclear submarine weapons base at Faslane in Gare Loch, on the Highland Fault Line in Scotland. He’s currently writing about the flora, fauna, language, geology, human ecology & politics of that area. He’s the author of various books of poetry, the latest being that person himself (Shearsman 2009). ( www.gerryloose.com & http://saariseasons.blogspot.com )

 

 

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