Delph's back

[Mike M]

These are so visual, so immediate. Miner's wife is lit like a Dutch painting. Some of the most vivid images are hard to stomach - I like "the seepage, the slow growth of toenails," and the Clerke is just brutal, spitting and bubbling like porridge. But so much is tender and human and also visual and immediate, "twig reflections / shimmer and fracture, / branches re-form" is particularly good, and I also liked the beard like Fidel's, and this: "I reach up and touch, sap rising."
Great stuff. Painterly, vivid, and such a breadth - thank you for these.

[kristalynn]

I really like Miner's Wife, especially the last stanza. The detail of the face lit from the side especially.

[PClem]

Miner's Wife is chockful of all kinds of conflict - the relationship, competing focus, the grimness versus beauty. So well captured.
Careering - I enjoyed this unraveling of a man, but don't think the profession matters to the tale.
Clerke - grimly fascinating.

[delph_ambi]

Thanks everyone! Comments all greatly appreciated. I must make more myself. So many wonderful threads of poems appearing at the moment.

[delph_ambi]

I Did Not Sleep With Your Wife

You’re late –
I fear the middle river has claimed you,
your fate now lies on its island
where dead men are said to burrow through tunnels
emerging at twilight to ask your name.
If you see them, make no answer.
Look to one side, call to the stoker
to fire up the furnace,
cry “Full steam ahead! Tally ho!”

Let paddles turn, let the grind of the engines
bear you far, far away,
but be sure your canoes are unbound,
may be dropped if need be,
for if you founder on sandbanks (you will)
you’ll need swift craft to bear you away
from the tall stones, the fetishes.

One last thing. I warn you – one touch
with curious hands is enough
to turn the peaceable into a warrior,
one glance, through spy glasses trained on the trees,
will persuade the ghosts of your compliance –
they’ll come, clad in brass, they’ll clank,
they’ll paint ochre symbols
on your wife’s face,
she’ll be lost.

[cookala]

heya Catherine! back for more - you're still going strong! you've got one hell of a thread going here!

A Clerke in Holy Orders - this is disturbing on several levels. strong writing and images. visceral. good pacing/flow.
Last Word - this captures a tumult of feelings - an echo of feelings that surface during any break up - so it works well
We're In the Orchard - this captures a moment very nicely - good use of sensory stimuli, vivid and evocative
I Did Not Sleep With Your Wife - interesting piece. awesome imagery and pacing in this. will have to read a few time to decipher though, and to tie in the title.

[delph_ambi]

Yes, I wondered if that last one was a bit obscure. My intention was that the narrator of the poem actually did sleep with the other guy's wife, and now he's hoping the guy will come to a nasty end, ie just about everything he says is the reverse of what he means.

[delph_ambi]

in the grey of the morning

the canvas slaps, flaps,
the yacht lurches
rights itself

you’re in the galley
making coffee

I decide to help
you don’t need help
you’re a chef for god’s sake

a stubbed toe
short-lived cuddle
you push me away

your breath stinks
yesterday, drunk
I pushed my tongue deep into your mouth
learned the shape ignored the taste
clawed at the back of your head
insisted

this morning
my scalp crawls

you pour sour milk into the coffee
I wanted it black
but it’s done now
you can’t take it out

[cookala]

hi Catherine! ah, sweet regrets the morning after. if I had a dime for every time I'd be rich... that final line is priceless, double-entendre and all. nice breaks in this, good pacing and images, too.

[delph_ambi]

Thanks cookala!

On we go...

[delph_ambi]

fall from grace

we’re not renewing
our English Heritage cards
later this month

we’re done with
bloody Fountains Abbey
(it’s falling down anyway)

Aydon Castle
yeah
whatever

we’re tired
so EH is going the way
of the National Trust

no more Gibside
(up yours
Capability Brown)

we’ll contract
our visions
stay at home

knit cathedrals
from varicose veins
stripped from our calves

dig ha-has in our back yard
till our hernias
give us gyp

Belsay’s rhododendrons
will blush unseen
in the way of full many a flower

we don’t care
now our putrid lungs
gag on fresh air

we hope
the government fracks the lot
to perdition

we’re old
we hate
we forget

grottoes
ruins
life

[5th column]

In the Grey and Fall - all I can say is 'ouch' - bleakitude, all is bleakitude

[Jee Leong]

I admire the ease with which the accumulation of details packs a punch.

[BrianIsSmilingAtYou]

A Clerke in Holy Orders


"extreme sexual congress"--now there's a turn of phrase I never heard before.

I am trying to imagine my Senators and Representatives engaging in "extreme sexual congress" and then voting on something called "The Family Values Act" and then adjourning after a couple of filibusters.

But seriously, "A Clerke in Holy Orders" is disturbing stuff. Just when I thought that the black hole, missing eye and fissures had disturbed me enough, I find myself being regaled with pulling entrails from a chicken's arse. Very strange imagery but it all hangs together. But you have your chicken poem.

I knew I was wrong to expect a happy ending, and you proved me right. Keep disturbing me.

BrianIs AtYou

[Hare]

Serious chuckle to 'fall from grace'. Love it.