A NEW RELIGION
Seventeen moments in a lifetime
Add up to a life fulfilled?
Or unfulfilled?
Which is better?
Which one the braver?
Which icy-adric storm room did you have your focus on?
Which blanket canvas compelled your idiosyncratic advance?
Into solitude, nothingness
And the escape from mystery.
Watched, we watched as the mystery was taken.
You on the seesaw armchair
And me on the table with no legs.
The bottomless cushions that kept us awake all night
As disease wracked our brains
Despair overtook our monuments
And desire rooted our pelvises.
I couldn’t come with you
So I came in you.
And that aesthetic brain-stench
Washed the walls and the windows
And we were free.
For a short while, yet it was enough.
Enough to be going on with,
Enough to be working towards…
Seventeen moments of happiness
Of love and solitude
And the cracking jaw of experience
As the flags are unfurled
And the headlines blazon:
‘We were once of this land;
Now we are forgotten.’
But the sun-song-bird has landed
And the trees awoken.
I loved you in that blue dress,
The mask of recompense
Tattooed on your shoulder.
A curl in your movement
As you walked across the station
With your eyes down trodden
And your feet unsure,
Unsure of the distance between now and tomorrow.
The space-gap that leaves time unaffected.
Change in a movement.
Change in a moment.
Collapse, collapse of all reason.
As I took you by the hand
And lifted your dress
And created a havoc-time line
All along your crotch.
Whispering: ‘You are not alone anymore
Even if you want to be.’
I am undone.
Annihilation has fabled me
Into the arms of tomorrow
And the wisdom of my true love:
Who washes me, as I sink beneath the water line;
Who cradles me, as I dance along the shoreline.
Her breath, an electric toothbrush
Ringing in my ears, my soul.
Penetrating the lips of the audience
Who come to witness our last embrace,
Our first embrace, our true embrace:
The seasons laid open,
Memories forsaken
For this moment, this moment of heaven,
Seventeen,
Seventeen;
The first number
Of our religion.
BITTER
You said you would stick by me
"Until the bitter end."
Well I'm bitter now,
Where are you?
****
THEATRE
A strange spiralling downwards
Into the heart of matter.
Heart Matters. Matters of the Heart.
The drawing back of red curtains
Reveals a stage lit from within.
Three dancers stand side by side
Retracing steps from an old dance.
Moving their bodies in surrendering glances;
Movement advances forward
As smoke rings from a scattered audience
Float softly through the air and caress the spotlight.
The circle fell out of your mouth then,
And I knew it was complete.
THE MERMAID SONG
As I was sailing in my boat this morning
I came across a girl.
She offered me a flower
And I offered back my world.
She said "don't you worry darling
Whatever you give, I will receive.
Your hopes and dreams and failures,
Whatever you want me to believe."
And as she swam around in the water
Her face looked so alive.
But I had no way to reach her,
If I wanted my feet to stay dry.
She said "why don't you come in here with me,
You, who are always so bold?
For although you don't know where I'm going to
I promise the water's not cold."
I sat down on the edge of my boat,
Not knowing what else to do.
Should I trust this lovely lady
Who seemed to be so true?
Or should I trust my memories,
Of how things turned out once before?
When I was left alone in the middle of a sad ocean
Three thousand miles from the shore.
But as I sat there thinking these thoughts,
The lovely lady began to disappear.
I knew then that this must be a moment
I'd been waiting for all those years.
So I dived into that ocean,
Not knowing how deep it was.
For this time I would catch that mermaid
No matter what the cost.
And as my face hit the water,
I felt so truly alive.
My heart exploded in wonder
And the woman, she just smiled.
SUMMER RAIN
Oh sadness you imbibe me!
You drink of my every move.
Taking me, raping me,
Lusting after me as I dance in the meadows
Of the secret Garden.
Where fertile whips of honey burst through
Cracked earth.
And the One who see's watches
The unravelling mystery of time.
You, naked and unwashed.
I, clean, but unabashed
Laying together awaiting the storm.
For therein lies our destiny:
Admist the rising steam of a twelve spent oceans.
Through the One Eye of the Crow
Jez Hughes
(Nightwriters Press £3.95, available from City Books, Hove)
Poetry is a much-overlooked art form, generally judged for its length and general complexity over its genuine emotive responses, a problem stemming for many from being forced to dissect The Wasteland line by line at school. Jez Hughes collection of songs and poems redresses the poetic balance, employing a gentle turn of phrase that is contemporary, accessible and yet feels classical. There is a passion behind the words, an honesty about love, life and the battles both bring, which is seductive to read and beautiful to listen to.
Jez Hughes is a local poet, which may be why he is so readable. Living in the same arena of influences, the great power of the sea at the end of the road and the pub drama on a Friday night, reading Hughes feels like you've discovered your own personal treasure-trove of poetry. One that you can feel smug about finding first.
Victoria Nangle
REVIEW FROM LATEST SEVEN MAGAZINE
To order a copy of
Through the One Eye of the Crow
please call 07915 082370 or email jezhughes@secondsighthealing.co.uk
