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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