May 2002
Contributors in this issue are:
Allen Fisher
Active as a poet since 1967, Allen Fisher has worked as printer and painter (examples of his Fluxus work are in the Tate Gallery collection) and as editor of Spanner magazine and books. After a considerable period in London (the mainspring of his Place sequence 1974-1981), he moved to Hereford, where he teaches at Hereford College of Art. His work includes Brixton Fractals (Aloes 1985), Unpolished Mirrors (Reality studios 1986), Stepping Out (Pig Press) 1989), Dispossession and Cure (Reality Street 1994), and Breadboard (Spanner 1995).
Scott Thurston
Scott Thurston's publications include Poems Nov 89 - Jun 91 (1991),
Stateswalks (1994) (both Writers Forum) and Two Sequences (RWC, 1998). He also appeared in Sleight of Foot (Reality Street, 1996). He has just completed a Ph.D thesis on British Linguistically Innovative Poetry and Poetics. He currently edits the poetics journal The Radiator.
Colin Harris
Colin Harris was born and raised on the Wirral. He writes fiction and poetry, as well as tinkering with songwriting. He is currently studying his MA in writing studies at Edgehill.
Alan Halsey
Born in Croydon, Halsey ran The Poetry Bookshop in Hay-on-Wye 1979-97, a key source for British and American small press material. He runs West House Books, and has published papers on David Jones and Thomas Lovell Beddoes. He now lives in Sheffield. His books include Perspectives on the Reach (Galloping Dog 1981), Auto Dada Café (Five Seasons 1987), Five Years Out( Galloping Dog Press 1989), Reasonable Distance (Equipage 1992), and A Robin Hood Book (West House 1996).
Andrew Taylor
Andrew Taylor is poet-in-residence at Liverpool Architecture and Design Trust (www.ladt.org.uk) and is currently researching the role that locality
plays in poetry for his PhD. His work has appeared nationally and locally,
in print and on the air waves.
Contents
1. Allen Fisher- Vole (p.1)
2. Colin Harris- Father / Dead Language (p.8/p.9)
3. Alan Halsey- Visual Art
4. Scott Thurston- The Child’s Ear Place (p.10)
5. Andrew Taylor- Deoua- (p.22)
Allen Fisher
1.
There was once a town...
the intellectual reality
of a root-tree
where life seemed
a strange blight
in binary logic harmony
with its surroundings
a syntagmatic model
disrupted the idea of garden
a city street
criteria exacted as reportability
without coherent row
shred-multiplies assumption.
A burglar hastens to disorder,
a self-condemning look,
arrested at a touch dock.
Fugitive!
no baggage ... no friends accompany adieux
simply moths and rust
in the midst of Paradise, Good night
several times descended by way of a trap-door,
announces opening of
a pocket filled with gunpowder
charged with laudanum
“In no Paradise myself,
I am impatient of all misery
without madness, how does she do it
without the spin of a shroud out of herself?
Get these traps out of sight.
The meeting of hands, eyes fastened,
tears the glue,
a foolproof test to distinguish truth
from falsehood, probability is enough,
things have to get done.
Paradise becomes a
private area
beyond the control of law or public opinion.
Enjoyment of activity enslaves
but no action binds the self,
in its multiplicity its freedom.
Free will, like a plowing neighbour,
needs the distinction between
good and bad, a blacksmith maintains,
welds to the notion of cause
a because, in relation to moral action,
an acquired responsibility
that demands
accountable spacetime.
2.
The Blacksmith knows she must do something,
knows she can
because she comprehends her freedom
without need to cohere it.
She feels obliged from a law which she legislates.
“My need for dignity need not
derive from reason. I choose its being.”
She at least hopes for the possibility
of improvement, stands
in the garden and proposes a pond.
It is a moment of coherence and hiatus
that postulates connection
and change
where contract
between individual and common good
becomes necessity
in a knowledge of alternatives.
Her freedom signals a position to shape
the character of where she digs.
She brings compatibility without strain
to cohere or call forth an angel,
free to have the will she wants,
wants a civitas.
The demand is for reference
to the welfare of the community
merged in a joint stock company of
freedom and determinism.
A shrill of echoing distinctions
speed up
not completely under the control of another
able to care for each other and whose welfare
depends on each other’s freely chosen action
constitute a good before the door bangs.
The Blacksmith achieves freedom,
self-determination,
articulates her being as part of nature,
an enhanced self-understanding,
without reduction to sensible spontaneity.
She dredges her humanity to distinguish
the useful from the proven.
The duration wherein she acts
becomes a duration wherein her states
melt into each other.
The intimate nature of this action
becomes a discussion of human freedom,
oh yeah, hold on!
3.
The Moorman uses nonlinear analysis
to examine recorded succession
compares this with dynamics parameterised
with field data predicts an agitation that resembles
observation of boreal rodent populations.
This appparency of mutual chaos
consists with the results of
the analysis of directed succession.
The amplitude of the Moorman’s observed
vole flucuations somewhat greater than,
stochasticly interrupted, that predicted.
Hold on!
Each object’s information demands
deaccession, broken egg shells
to analyse connection residues between
pesticides and eggshell thinning.
Regardless of the angle of incidence
a particle leaves in a vertical direction
slowed eventually turned down
by gravity above limited in motion
by a mirror beneath trapped
in stepped increases
jumped from a moment of austerity –
daisies on the lawn
illuminate a row
of new crocus shoots
wishing you the compliments
recovers a sense
of the coming season
Intelligible freedom versus forgery
to discard perfection
and account for responsibility
in place of composition
demands justice
spellbound at recollection
speaks of “equal rights”
an accessory of it
wants to get away
has not yet superiority
or numbness irresponsible and
no business
the menagerie a gravitational
privilege of not being
or an automaton centre within itself
demanding peripheral intelligence
that iron bars can be profitable
animal-trainers not afraid
of terrible means is presupposition
“freedom” at the risk of choosing wrongly
a picture of the world in which
a critique of morality
frees functions of first insight
juxtaposes multiplicity
a geographical relativity
of judgements against obligation,
eyes leaning on the tv whilst reading
against legality, against the compulsion to
happiness a consequence of rodent
fitness the result of self-direction
the drive called resistance the measure
of freedom as positive capital
the degree of power
that the one or the other should exercise
experiment in self-overcoming
emergence to exceptional actions
a positive hesitantly achieved, terrible as fake
to prevent a governed whole
And to what end
raised and trained?
The urge to self-sufficiency,
simplifies, distinguishes,
make unambiguous
a preference for surface beavers.
4.
Actions are partly indeterminate to
which becoming clings to distinct moments, condensed
matter digested into movements of
response passed through the meshes
of natural necessity, free from the particular
rhythm which grades the flow in such a
way that sensible qualities, in memory-perception,
particulate aspects of a successive reality.
You’d expect our willings were
“more
obstinate
by being oppos’d”
as if spacetime
dominated the proceeds
of search because
each occasion
is first of all
a search for truth, a
premeditated decision
in advance of the good
oblivious to
truth’s implicit nostalgia
Beneath a sewer
live kids discuss
potential of
matches of moving visual media
with performance of text
misread into their own gullibility
dismissal of community use
in a pretence of its celebration.
They watch the collision again
and watch account of is repetition
in a pie chart, a Boltzmann truth
a prediction of text before it is read
eyes glue balled in a rodent sharpness
quicker than fox call
with less smell and wile
in which self-destruct is
superceded or given narrative
intention, rows of calculated pronouns
and implicit actions, forward
or more cunning
surprised around the corner
by every spelling era
every swing of the camera
in mobile seat tracks
on the motorway on the
video belt off limits
voice of a stomach pump
dialectic coherence, bless them,
The marked distinction between light as substance
and degrees of freedom remains but he
does not remember this threshold opposition
of the inextended and extended notions
of freedom intimately organised with necessity.
What the Burglar takes from substance
the perceptions on which it feeds they become
movements flick in and away nietzsche’d
in revelations or mistakes steeped with
expectations of a future freedom.
Colin Harris
Father
new life
old life
i do what i need to survive
the phone
i loved her once
people change
i changed
and changed her
it’s all done now
children
I love
Whatever anyone thinks, I love
Colin Harris
January 2001
Dead Language
Scott Thurston
THE CHILD’S EAR PLACE
A writing-through of the novels Ambiguous Adventure (1962) by Cheikh Hamidou Kane and Weep Not Child (1964) by Ngugi Wa Thiong’o
I
the child’s ear place already healed
trying to recite my verse correctly
accurate in repeating the flashing
sentence this word was not like
mastering completely the smallest
measure instant eyes lowered
to tablet some steps rectified
my error gave me attentiveness
over and over the text restored
the morning at a sign now seen
in profile periodically edified
(10)
now refused pressure to commit
filing into the cabin for long
periods the chief rose at verse
topics caught at intervals
with my finger and said
in another year that road produces
a pause at the proper prepared
age taking classical possession
of me
this man who dominated obeyed
the directions of stature
with his own hands as if
pain were not visibly present
when the hour arrived at the
level of fashion the aroused mood
left me remaining serious
held back towards the east
my will is better completely
bound restored with recourse
on essential points once more
the solid ground of mutual
(11)
am I a landmark sufficiently
furrowed under my stable so
the authority trembles you
are that also
the absence of weight gives use
of arms to add another word
long drawn out tone changed
rose in the scale brief
something multiplies the beatings
composing themselves conquered
invisible and imperious disorder
organised appeased rebellion mornings
of resentment resound with songs
neither of them wants the other
imposing the necessity of sitting
where its necessity has landed
several seconds same movement
already acquainted with a motion
clear around streets of white marl
red sand milky euphorbia
(12)
lay straight ahead out flat at
nape neck seated setting dyed
passage basalt muscle riveted
spoken for the sake of saying
I had begun at once to think
of rising to envisage cruelties
of the same order these reasons
pulled the fold over my finger
to draw the measure on hearth
mimicry of original colours
to associate itself with
delicate weight evidence
but at the same time it exiles
you here more and more slow
invasion of garment decisions
the hand which acts the succession
(13)
of numbers in all senses without
limits is short and plain nothing
more easily can be said no more
reason to say this
preserve it hence work is strict
full littleness compelled to part
between the inverted assurance of
banner and wind
everything will depend on a
courier captured at the end of
the itinerary reef reference
at disposal had this choice
(14)
II
on my body for the first time
I am being trained to be a modern
white man to go and disturb
the other young men and women
they wanted to hear stories
together in the same place
showing their new clothes
starting to read and write
you had been there out
in the courtyard a number of times
around the whole compound always
curious to know what the inside looked like
that was used for all the forming
part of the day’s proceedings
which in turn caused the long grace
to be cut short
(15)
I very rarely alluded to the
actual fighting very much we
all behaved as if it were a very
popular place
the habit was observed and accepted
by all but sometimes just
taking anything you’re given not
wishing to appear ignorant
why don’t you start to
retaliate you always asked
you thought the end of all living
was the very best a boy could have
don’t pretend you don’t know the
answer can’t you see
what I am doing is important
I could be rich
(16)
annoyed with myself at my poor showing
I could now be heard trying to
re-establish myself by telling them
what they ought to have answered
why didn’t I speak up when
she was here singing the answer
what would I feel if I touched
her when she entered
sometimes men came to see my father
as the centre of everything as long
as he lived nothing could go wrong
putting implicit faith in him
they talked about affairs of the talks
felt intimate with this man
sure that they had read him
it was obvious
I wanted an assurance a foretaste
of the future before it came I
could do the same thing now
seriously and quietly
(17)
I was still listening when I
fell asleep from defeat and exhaustion
the people gathered there
could not applaud
it fixed me to the ground
the images around transformed
from something grey to blue
and then to total black
I cleared my eyes the black
remained there now approaching
and then I saw I was now
speaking in a loud voice
everyone listened to me in silence
but something unusual happened
to me for one single moment
I crystallized into a concrete
(18)
physical personification of the platform
while everyone watched
wondering what was happening
I kept on looking at the ground
and then rose up unsteadily
I almost fell down into the
surprised audience
but first I laughed
they took us to the field
then when you escaped we were put
into trucks the truck in which I was
slowed down to look at my knee
but what could I have done
what had gone before me gave
me vitality I had to go on
sorely tried alienated further
by the something that had urged me
I wondered if I had really done well
if I had failed I was ready
to suffer for it
(19)
but whatever I had been prepared
to do to redeem myself would not
be ordered even if I had been to
many places and knew many things
I had no right to reverse custom
I stopped and stared at all the people
who had fallen into the building
I could have stopped it if I thought
all this would work out well in the end
the gun and the pistol I carry
make me a stranger
everywhere
I was not really attending when I
heard some people talking of my own
death people are always avoiding me
I think the country really needs me
(20)
I was not too happy in the morning
I did not like the last observation
so much that I have been unable
to write
in the post of pain I was called
into a small room
one of the guards outside
shouted
I sat in the corner seeing the
emergency in a new light
as I could not lift my hand
I turned my eyes fell
there was a cold security
in command of another
presence in the room
standing at the door
away from the light
he seemed to hesitate
(21)
Andrew Taylor
Deoua
Florescent lights stripped
Explosives drilled concrete struts naked
‘The light pours out of me’
Altered horizons one way Thornton Road
Launderette lit beacon like an early warning station
‘A person isn’t safe anywhere these days’
River mind metallic sounds gaping holes
Cut through security passes idle in grids
‘Into the arms of Venus de Milo’
Washing drying on landings boxed in banisters
Lilac angled bedroom ceiling
‘It takes guts to be gentle and kind’
Temporary roosting place between floors
Shelter in lift shafts disturbed emptiness
Snow gathers on ledges
‘See you at the barricades’
(with thanks to Ursula Hurley)
(22)
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Morning Light: Lee Harwood , Slow Dancer Press. London. 1871033411. £6.99
The end of the twentieth century: a text for readers and writers. Robert Sheppard. Ship of Fools, 2002
The Radiator: A Journal of Contemporary Poetics, edited by Scott Thurston. The Radiator publishes essays on poetics by contemporary writers.
The Text Of Shelley’s Death. (First trade edition. Prose Poem) by Alan Halsey. 0904052002. £8.95
Your thinking Tracts Or Nations. 14 pictures by Alan Halsey with 14 poems/sequences by Kevin Corcoran. 1904052029. £7.95
NOCTIVAGATIONS. Geraldine Monk. New poems & performance pieces, her first substantial collection since Interregnum (1993). 0953150992. £10.95
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