Catherine Walsh
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These poems will appear in Catherine Walsh’s forthcoming book Barbaric Tales.
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barbaric tales
x looking desire in the eye
xxxxeyeing desire eyeing desire
xxxxxxxxxin the eye
xxxxxxxxxxxof fine
xxxxeyes ide ides ore
xxxxxis a dor re
xxxxxxxxxxis i dor us
xxxxxis a dora ea
xxxxhis a
xxxxhe’s a
xxxxxxxxeyes a ‘S
xxbarbaric tales
skeptics looking through
articulate
xxxxmorass
xxtravesty tangling as
xstruggling these notions nations
exist their bigness small their
smallness a still silent in
the breadth of flight beyond
xxunderneath through this and
all or any refined concentrate glows and grows
light cellular compactations as particles
waves in crevices on cracks under motorways
x
§
x
in spans of striding bridges this energy
existing feeds repeats resumes beneath our
gaze out of above temporary horizon
lines fluctuating in time patterned ribboned
ululations wares of opaque air we are
there pleasure in this clearly hidden
lugar sound centrifuge of
spatiality humming hub con in
re di verse (transistor-amplified
vibrations set on top standard 60s’
freestanding cabinet as further amplifier)
(the notice of things)
(accumulated)
echelons The weeping! The laughing!
eclectic joys of which might
strum peace navigate superficies
of order resonate magnificently
till all known farthest tangents lay slightly
disordered bare approachable
to fend in the world
other becomes plaisír
as it is voices clarions nascent surge
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§
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and where you cannot look
to the sea you look to the
mountain flutter in the
montbresia passing by the
third day of mauve hydrangea
vased in black enamel
outside a council door repeat
a step the kerb depletes a necessary
force whistles or that bikes past she
with arms akimbo those white
in-ears wired up flourishes unaware
in the patternled stream
x
x
this courage to go
beyond let it be the measure
that we let this be the
measure that we let
be measure this that we
let this be the measure
that we let
binding explosive
sequestered interpretabilities
your fear the door closes as
its noise summons movement
change air light hefted
currents blighted
with human skin
mould lacerations
of joy poignant murmurs
of the hinge release
insensate reluctance
refusal’s life
this is your dear moment in
capacity motion towards its
beckoning strimming wide
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x
x
swathes aloud bee
glade dell hollowed by
wind stroking the palms
of justice bedrock
glacial implicatory
owl coiffed true
more janus will
ensue the tale of
the tall ships resuming
telling in order to
be some inspired version
yarn enigma how can this
be aimed true our very breaths a shift?
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§
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where viewing the stuck in
the possible stealth of evening
overtaking each
endeavour stale
want of more
being heard or being a spectacle
it’s all my eye lost ironic arcs
in trite thrall this
was voice voicing
this ah this was being
heard all my eye or not
replete phenomenological
repressivistic maelstrom of
what termed
as if complete desire was
unerringly boxed set stilted
agendas sifted validity
recomposition detritus
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§
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roman wall in the evening
gloom Ibero-Grec reinforcement
arches dug in
natural alignment
hill side which
escarped and cutaway
tails the formality black
tarmac concrete road
curves shoulders lower
slopes from where I
could breathe just
remember it when
bludgeoning
hate in fear those
eager counting
injury grief as right
indignant lack
indigency
unappeased anger
pained forlorn its
dishonesty which cannot
cherish
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§
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I am interested in your precepts
does not mean I have to either
agree or disagree with them
perfect development
all it could be unless
it were imperfect
is it worth it?
not just that so many
concerns hang round that
hackneyed phrase
for centuries
it’s that inestimable
evaluation in the face
of realities
actualities
precedents
norms
the normative influence at
the conjunction of any
such confluences
taken conjunctively with the
actuality of the precedents
set in relation to
past or known realities
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§
x
xthis is it
xxis it worth it?
xxthe past
xximperfect
xxfuture
xxperfect
xxpresent
xxcontinuous
xxpast
xxsimple
xxfuture
xxcontinuous
xxconditional
xxto present
xxsimple
xxpast
xx∴ perfect
xx…
xI could go on endlessly
xxexcept it would probably
xxbore you needlessly
yes I’m sure you would
find it boring were
I to keep on trying
to extemporise on the
same point
least you forget it would
prove useful to maintain
the ability to distinguish
such structures if you
were to come across
them in your reading
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§
x
times
of mind
adjusta-clocks
expanda-frames
allowing abstractions
reside unmolested
uncontested at-the-ready
in our heads
on the T-Rex footprint scale
it doesn’t seem like
much of an imprint
granular sand particles
defunct mineral
dehydrated life
embrasured on strand
opinions vary while
the composite components
structuring bone mass
don’t much
sea come go
pull away there
carried fro’
any where push
in here mast up
cell carried to
some fruit pull
away
it surprised her what had been
written dehiscence of
time pah like that
they said this would be a good
title some said something
else arbitrary nature
of the ordinary turn it
over pah nothing you
see surprised her in this
way each day could be
seen to fragment
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(itself) miscellaneous
phonic locutions and a
monologic episode your
play she said is if
I may say so she
said episodic
wow imagine
time past before my eyes
ears before my ears
blood beat we are
carried so many
wrapt environs immaculate
xpresence of doubt
xxthen we are
here where rivers run
time holds in stone
xsoil sand
xxkept transient
fitful glancing
—Catherine Walsh
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Catherine Walsh was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1964, has spent some time living and working abroad, and currently lives in Limerick. She co-edits hardPressed Poetry with Billy Mills. Her books include: Macula (Red Wheelbarrow Press, Dublin: 1986); The Ca Pater Pillar Thing and More Besides (hardPressed Poetry, Dublin, 1986); Making Tents (hardPressed Poetry, Dublin, 1987); Short Stories (North & South, Twickenham and Wakefield, 1989); Pitch (Pig Press, Durham, 1994); Idir Eatortha & Making Tents (Invisible Books, London, 1996); City West (Shearsman, Exeter, 2005); Optic Verve A Commentary (Shearsman, Exeter, 2009) and Astonished Birds; Carla, Jane, Bob and James (hardPressed Poetry, Limerick 2012).
Her work is included in a number of anthologies, including the Anthology of Twentieth-Century British & Irish Poetry (Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford, 2001) and No Soy Tu Musa (Ediciones Torremozas, Madrid, 2008), a bilingual Spanish/English anthology of Irish women poets. A section from Barbaric Tales appears in the spring/summer 2016 edition of the Irish University Review.
She was Holloway Lecturer on the Practice of Poetry at the University of California, Berkeley for 2012/13 and was a research fellow with the Digital Humanities cluster at An Foras Feasa, Maynooth University during 2014/2015. Her books Barbaric Tales and The beautiful Untogether are forthcoming.
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This is a truly remarkable piece.