Wendy Mulford

from I CHINA AM

 

OVER THE HEART line from the Underworld A pair of wounded cats Where Is she speaking The sea-hawk places his blue mark It was China by the Laeisz route It may be 83 days Depending upon The DRAGON strays into our UNIVERSE Red blessings bring luck nine times TRANQUILLITY the pellucid sea Floating screens disguise military manoeuvres Give back the scholar poet shape science self- knowledge an incomplete reference to all you did not know Late in life the Shaman insists No more floating. To be anchored by the inkstone should permit monochrome drift Meanwhile there is the sea The poetís friend and the habit of perfect brightness II Three instructions to the jade(d) planet Inauspiciously beautiful summon the bamboo flute do you hear the cranes calling surround the five-clawed peach PROSPERITY spins a silken floss - they cannot see the bones they must eat sumptuous information rules only the BRONZE hound can restore movementís lost Restless the scholar hoards the poet lists assiduous rituals SO MANY SHADES OF SILENCE III Pearls Pearls Pearls Just No justice Chimes Asylum Tatters IV NUMBERS FOR SHOU - Long Life White pen numbers dreams Other pearl fishermen place incense Cormorants catch heart-images The tattered seal-script drops Lapis-lazuli in the Nine-walled city fabulous pomegranates fall Silence returns to virtue Palest blue, coral, lingzhi Each unknown presence instructs The ear Different satins Bodsivatta bells the Heavenly bodies A toe-hold awareness in the Four Treasures Deliver a garden across the world for broken souls Within the scrolls across the gaps His mind wanders timeless endeared Folded into SILENCE

 


Working Note

This poem was composed for performance at 'Swayed to the West' - an event held in conjunction with "Starting at Zero: Black Mountain College 1933-57", Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, 3.xii. 2005.

The piece was revised for CEWPF Sept 2006.


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