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It’s a pleasure and honour to present these lines of verse from the Irish poet Billy Mills. This is the second section from Four, a work-in-progress, a seasonal poem with elements of the four seasons, the four cardinal directions, the four dimensions and the Pythagorean tetractys — a mysterious triangular figure made up of four rows of dots increasing from one at the top to four at the bottom (all sorts of marvelous hermetic and mathematical wisdom attached thereto).
As Four follows the old Irish year, this is the spring section. Four is a collaboration with the composer David Bremner, who will set the complete cycle for soprano and instruments. To give you an idea of how such a collaboration works, here is video excerpt from an earlier Mills-Bremner piece, Logical Fallacies. The performers are Andreea Banciu (viola) and Elizabeth Hilliard (soprano).
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one small bird
whose note’s heard
sharply pointed
………….yellowbill
whose notes fly
on Loch Laig
blackbird’s branch
…………..yellowfilled
.…..
…….. *
the buds signal
& sugars rise
plane of each leaf
opens slowly
unfolding its curved
surface to air
& dawn
ever earlier
& vivid with
life erupting
listen: it is
sun on the grass
crisp & flat
‘with all her hues’
that moment between
shower & shower
when nothing happens
but life itself
stirring the green
this sudden spring
sap flows
answer ascending
ask what it is
light eases through
the surface of things
as they awaken
as they arise
imperceptible heat
not heat but not
its absence
a softening
slowly thawing
earth.. water.. air
of which it is
the time not yet
the third is this
new surface stirring
tentative & alive
a mould supports
air’s burden
which is one
& many streams
converge the oak
draws in
that which it needs
is what it will
an aura defined
by light embodied
this morning low
glow cloud around
the far plane
glimmers everything
breathes again
blackbird sings
high in the trees
each to its
other catch then
now wind from
the east chills
incipient life
itself becomes
& is contra-
distinction skim
the skin of things
stretched fine
& breathing light
suffused flat just
as day breaks again
face it feel
the grain of air
refract the early
beam of life
ascending spring
it is now
softly smooth
it spreads itself
pushing through
earth’s meniscus
breaking green
the vivid air
—Billy Mills
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Billy Mills was born in Dublin in 1954. He has lived and worked in Spain and the UK, and is now living in Limerick. He’s the founder and co-editor (with Catherine Walsh) of hardPressed poetry and the Journal. His books include Lares/Manes: Collected Poems (Shearsman, 2009), Imaginary Gardens (hardPressed poetry, 2012), Loop Walks (with David Bremner) (hardPressed poetry, 2013), and from Pensato (Smithereens Press e-book, 2013).
Since 2007, Billy Mills been a regular contributor to the books section of The Guardian website, including the popular Poster Poems series http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/billymills. He blogs at https://ellipticalmovements.wordpress.com/.
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Here in the midst of a frigid Saskatchewan winter I felt the green stirring in me as I read Billy Mills’ poem.
Thanks fort this.
Thank you, Robert. I appreciate your kind words. From a cool, damp Ireland.