After fifty years of writing my archive of poems numbers in the hundreds. I’ve organized two full-length collections, Paper Black Leaf and Last Poems. I’ll publish selections here in small, chapbook-sized collections, one at a time. A new chapbook should appear, and an old one vanish, every couple of months. If you missed them, previous chapbooks can be read here.
“Creation: Ode” was written in the late 1980s. I took the challenge of Louis Dudek’s remark in Atlantis–which forms my epigraph–and imagined the world of the present day as the world of the first day, the immediate creation. The present day of the late 1980s, that is: the poem’s preoccupations with environmental damage and human violence befit that decade under Reagan, Thatcher, and Mulroney. How might we re-value our present world if it had the validity of having been created precisely in its current state?
For some readers the poem has a riddling quality: they read the lines to work out which buildings, persons, wildernesses are emerging in a given passage. I have chosen with this posting of the “Creation: Ode” to add brief identifiers to the right of most passages. These glosses were not part of the original poem and may be superfluous.
The first and last lines of the poem make it clear that I sought to rival the Biblical creation story. Such hubris. Nothing in the middle, however, admits a God.
Note to mobile readers: best to read the poems in landscape format, so longer lines don’t break in two.
Chapbook 8
Contents
Creation: Ode
Every detail perfect as on the day of creation
(which is now)
–Dudek, Atlantis
I
in the beginning was the word
nothing, expressing all
extension and intensity unfounded;
neither chaos nor the emptiness
of order yet to be fulfilled,
nor the junction of energy and gravity
where the dying peony will depend
in time;
sea without water, without illumination
light, wind without air, peace 10
without paradox, without
concept of peace
the one
perfect thing, nothing
pleasure of womb and coffin
the all in all spoken utterly, no
thing, and the work
of language confounded in purity
perfection cry change
as a grain of sand irritates 20
the lack of a grain of sand
implodes, and a pearl
of doubt glistens
between the word
and the thing nothing
the graceful nihil
granting the distinction
of pearl and nothing, surrenders
there from here, hesitation
from joy, death from process 30
the absolute love collapses into being
II
in silence, vacuity [ a planet
darkness, first motion
molecules flagrant crowding
clip one another, spill peripheral gases,
their orbiting tendrils lock; hostility
binding a sufficient sphere a brief nuclear heat
culture of lava and the gay acrid
flesh of rock smoking into the humid heavens
the fruitful waters break in darkness
the swallowing globe divided 40
land from sea
in the air and deep the noise of propagation;
the early stars blow
soft dust over the jet of heaven
slut’s wool of nebulae
drifting over dark stairs, silent
wind sweeps a vacuous planet
then at fissures where earth swallows earth [ high and low lands
snaking shorelines
swerve and collide 50
mountains sweat the smoke and rose of dawn;
soaring into lucent clouds
pinnacles, hoodoos
tablets of flat-land whelm upwards
for the armed generations, the no man’s land
of inferior valleys threaded by silver rain
and those rundled peaks beat white
against the livid snow of the sudden sky
the oceans spew detritus [ coasts
against impassive cliffs 60
slap from the mediate waste of the sea
mucous and sand
weed and the stench
of burst kelp-wombs
furious in their landings until grains
cluster, and abrade
the earth’s scalped edges
beaches,
and in the north
failures of erosion 70
the rocks and cliff rubble
dash into the gusted waves without surrender
at the flattened polar bulges the iron [ polar ice
hurricanes freeze the ocean-loaded clouds
ice showers lard the naked waves
snow ashes the hesitant sun
and crevasses of green light
bury the unsound floes and drift
closed the penetralia of the sea
III
clotted froth at the sea’s edges 80 [ flora
over the black earth a tundral calm
under the grey washes of an anonymous sky
grasses penetrate the loam
earth floating and sucking fresh weather
green pins of single fronds
fern, and in the north heather
the winds gather
spore and seed
cactus and the seas of wheat
flower and dry 90
fields slope away in bog mush
lined by the withering lumber
of hoist fences
bare trees heads up in the dripping sky
in their lee a collapsed cabin
closes its sodden doors
and relieves its shutters
into the earth
rain forests’ high leaves
glisten for an inch of sky 100
humus and dropped vines
tamp and twine at the boles of trees;
from the slashed gourds
cancered out of the weak bark
water splashes
rounded and bitten
by acres of stumps and smoking ground
idling vehicles snout the dark grottoes
pylons march from the source of rivers
their wires taut, quiet 110
from the blade of grass [ fauna
the clinging raindrop
to the unnamed winds
of the new Everest
the loose pages of the lexicon blow open
and beasts appear:
out of ferocity, wild dog
survival, cockroach
out of gauds, peacock
on savannah, swamp, in woodland 120
sunlight filters through the leaves, there is
darkness and light, and moving
beings belong to these
on the grasslands wildebeest
blunder blinking into the storm
their littered calves
sprawling into a dead run
at the odour of thunder
in the low grasses lionesses
look away and yawn at the rain 130
a handful of wolves in the northern continents
shudder together in the deep snow
without prey
out of the northern oceans [ the pollution of waters
seals drag themselves to die
the foam-swamped beach chairs
drift in the consumptive algae
the steel rain finds no clear wave
fish toss in their thousands
in the smeared fjords 140
unable to procreate
the grey waters howl without wind
inland, the silent lakes
stroke the pine-rooted sand
like a new bell their clarity
where no salmon spawn
where the smeared aquiflora
have passed extinct
from the insistent acidity
of the small rain 150
as in their early flourishing
content in their decimation
the scent in the wind of imminent slaughter
charges no light
in the eyes of herbivores
predator mammals stray into the gapping hills
the shoals of tuna shimmer in unison
into farther waters
as the bleak shore falls silent
the loam turns over 160
and the grey sun struggles
with the grandeur of noon
IV
the footfalls of their passing
map the available ground
shores of navigable rivers
flood plains
the slopes of volcanic islands
coasts of the sea
squirrels and small birds linger;
unfed snakes hesitate, before fleeing 170
the asphalt showers
the civic rain
instinctive animal silence
passes with their dominion
shrieking out of the earth’s bowels [ the city
the snouting interchanges
their concrete flanks loose with placental dew;
nearer new harbours
erupt from coastal rock
commercial towers, geysers of slag 180
cooling into blue glass
lined by the hairs of girders;
plazas exhaled out of marble eddies fall still
squared by the architecture of contending winds
and the four-lane boulevards
tree-medianed and noiseless
lay down their arms
between the curtains of the rain appear [ suburbs
benign suburbs, stucco washed in white
quiet crescents curbed from alluvial slear 190
abandoned tricycle and garden hose
littering their birth places, and in the windows
venetian blinds troping for the sun;
in the back yards inflatable pools half blown
the rain falls in the folds like a broken ocean
narrow and weaker [ slums
pavements slur
under elled throughways
between low houses
sucking the odour of rivers; 200
winding stairs
rear up from the earth
deflower the second-floor
entrances of tenements
from whose unsealed doors
and open windows
tossing tacked sheets
dank breezes seep out
over the leafless asphalt
iron fences wreathe, 210
their dampness
blisters into rust
dented garbage cans
banged by the monoxide wind
shudder into corners with rags knotted to their lids
fire escapes with nylon lines
unfurl old clothes
vivid colours;
in the paneless frame
of a single window 220
a small geranium blossoms on a table
a ruptured ball bounces those cracked foundations
once, twice, and lies still
against a broken pail
plains without rainfall [ deserts
scorched over by an intimate sun
dissipate into wind and sand
and the dunes blow open;
corrugated metal, rusted uneven
slashes the white air 230
spilt lumber and green tarps
batter together
a dead truck tumbles down from
the lip of a hill and poises on one side
loose burlap flaps from the absent doors
a mattress torn in the cavity
springs a few bleached sprigs
of spike-grass
shanties littering crazy over the soundless desert
where one is created 240
three more whelp
in the new weak street the ashes of a tractor wheel
smoke and whiten
still in wet forests a chemical wind
the amniotic earth
bleaches dry
over the treetops a concussion of violet light [ missile silos
glasses the quivering leaves
explosions blown low in the earth
and the near air hideous thunder 250
stunned pure white
the reeling oaks
burn in level spaces
circles of dead matter
under which howl projectile diarrhoea
knots in the faults of the inoperable land
concrete towers hollow and snouted
plumb into bitter rock
their smooth dark wombs; nuclear adolescents
long for the pink canals of the cool sky 260
stillness then
to the small forest
the clouds are seeded and rain returns
fresh grass delicate to the round meadows
V
in the shelter of poplars [ the richest homes
mansions hidden from the road’s congress
with fouler neighbourhoods
their vaulted halls stain in gentle colours
doors open rooms onto other rooms
whose far doors shut 270
on dark hallways plush to absorb
absences of sound
the lawn grass sprouts dense
in contrasting rows
from the ivy-laden front doors
to the black fountain breaking the hedges
its tilted amphora dry
and smiling cherub
as long-neck buttresses [ cathedrals
craning upward 280
lock to an exterior, cruciform
stones pave cool
the meadow within
the gauded columns thicken into the clouds
smears of stained glass hang in the sunlight
till walls flex and surround them
fretted gold-leaf
gathers and blows
the hollow tombs
fallen trees briefly eroded 290
kneel down in the choir and are gently polished
by the polluted wind
as the sand sweeps up into statuary;
from buds of colour
that stroke and stain the mute walls
frescoes blossom
bosses break out on the vaulted roof
and new paint whitens and crumbles
from the bare stone
at first farmland 300 [ colleges
the banks of a trouted stream, shore
of a lake, the birches
querulous and shade-offering;
masses of warm wind
hurl into sheaves
rind and papyrus
pale bark into dove bindings
shelved profuse in the oaken rooms;
copper-domed, the colleges
rise upward out of indifferent stone 310
dark arches shelter the walkways
of cobble
high gates out of shivered trees
meet to a portcullis
quads preserving
the meadow’s first grass
dark drapes flutter outward
from leaded windows
libraries closed to the lake air
the wind retires 320
dust lowers the light
on rows of desks
and the meadow is dotted with quiet places
buried in vegetable rubble [ cemeteries
the upright stones
align and sculpt
rows and plots
the mouldering lichen
eat into their mineral pages
words of prayer 330
and signs of birth and death
in oversea gardens
mown lawns where sprinklers
sprout from the parted grass
white lumber broken from the shrubbery
nailed at right angles
crosses the extended ground
red flowers shoot from particular graves
and the closed satin air
sweetens the roomy caskets 340
while unmarked fields
scarred with wide ditches
wait for a hundred faces
dropped in the clay
and two shovels of hurried lime
bruising the hale air [ combustion engines
a held tone of thunder
reverberates in the parkades
in driveways, double garages
the bellies of docked ferries 350
the highways and the opaque
cars symphonic
open their engines
the roar of their multitudes idling
a dull moan in the womb of cities
exhaust rises from dripping pipes
and gathers in fume curtains
across the popular air;
crowding the access to rivers [ factory chimneys
lining the perpetual mouth of the sea 360
the factories ascend
burning waste into the heavens
their fire-stacks lowered upon
by the labia of the poisoned clouds
now from the west
the patterned winds
sweep together all elements
bitter and seminal carbon
into new weather for the hemispheres
unbreathable zephyrs rise through the air-floors 370
forming spectral panes
for the dissolution of the benevolent sun
from the degeneration of horse flesh [ a concentration camp
levelled at the gallop in their thousands
and squirted into the brackish earth,
from the corpses of birds
nailed in the open sky, the collapse
of flowers and ferns, an extinction
of gases; the wet rot
soaking the persistent manes and feathers 380
seeps upward and effervesces in the north wind
the stench coalescing in humid tornadoes
precipitates in solid form
the silver lumber of barracks, the placement
of guard towers marked with memorial stone
barbed wire laces the suppurated sky
and coils downward to close compounds
while behind a small grove
smoke stacks rise from the haired earth
and begin to suck in the last clouds 390
of the dead in their evolution
leaving the fresh sky
concentrated in blue
VI
it is finished [ a pause, before…
labour is stilled
wind and rain cease their making
and retire into
the flow of mere weather
gardens whose ranked flowers
have known no gardener 400
know no sound
but the tamping raindrops;
in the barred halls of prisons
the electric doors
open and close
as the street rain washes the panes
of the towers above the yard
the earth is a given
the epic stars are arranged
to pin forth narratives 410
not yet enacted in the nations
the planet hangs among them unnamed
world without beginning
whose variety touches
the hem of exhaustion
whose hymnless sunlight pours its spectrum
over all things
from the red of spartan fruit
to the violet dusk
the terror of whose ecosystems 420
balances the germination
of plankton in the upper waves
with the rending of gazelles
whose desolate cities
wait with their silent slums
and cool rooms
where winged god and submissive psyche
kiss in a second of marble
the horrors of whose dark architecture
echo no testimony 430
and the generous coffins
close to no one
woman and man [ human beings
for whom the creation
will be the only paradise
deserving and deserved
the motion of a hand
reaching up to the dusted leaves
an act of love
the first human breath 440
exhaled that was not inhaled
offering grace to the purposeful air
each word spoken
parsed into the syllables
of entire language
shall resound
VII
the hand’s fretwork [ miraculous bodies
sparrows of muscle
and the small bone shells
threaded by fine brain-ends 450
and the flooded veins
salt-dark
with the trademark thumb
reaching for pens, guns
hands
organs of vision
themselves soft globes
in praise and imitation
of their duty to the world
whose inner seas 460
swallow the phosphors of daylight
lancing the cornea
the loose floating brain
hushed in the dark
of the sealed skull
searches the whole of the flesh
with electric tissue
for proof of the world
and purpose
on the lips and tongue 470
muscles of sculpted
aggression and surrender
hang all the fates
possible, in the smile
perfected in the mirror, in the tongue
declaring and practising love
responding to the sound of others
in the warm dark room
the plummed genitalia
source of the belief in god 480
that they may procreate
out of the carbon of the grave earth
and the warm air’s seeded oxygen
from fire and water
the nitrous passions
and hydrogen for the chemical tears,
flesh; the billions
VIII
hovering always in flickering light [ despite temples
the clerics to intone
in their saffron gowns 490
one of the names of old
gods or demi-gods or man-gods
whose impassive statues twine in their many hands
the dance of the world
the young to do violence [ the violent
neither for ease of starvation
nor insistence of liberty
rather for the free play of unearned muscle
joy in the ease of action
passion in the watching eyes 500
of a girl who remains
in the dusked car
women subject for all time
to the force of hands
whose bodies will swell the farmer’s fields
whose torn clothing tangles
their banged limbs, and whose eyes
close in the only possible benevolence
these are divided from the forms
of flesh, walk into the columns of light 510
pause there in blindness, then
obscure themselves in the visible world
in details taken to the evening fields
soldiers array themselves in green
that the trees may not witness
their passage into the grass
suburban doors open and close [ despite mothers
on the eternal faces of women
they move with pleasure room to room
pick, here, a toy from the stair 520
there alter the louvre of the blinds
in the violet summer
opening front and rear windows
for the faintest breeze
and wait in the street for the call
of children
they are the created legions [ the murdered
their bones will be without number
the pavement is strewn
with the teeth of hounds 530
and leap up in their places
the slaughtered
the tortured, desolate
the naked man dropped in his own embrace
from the side of a car
his limbs and torso spotless
a late sun tanning the dead skin
the bereft mothers of all dead
whose children are distributed
in the sacked playground 540
and burned at a highland siding
blood-rinsed pullmans
nude forearms stump at the broken windows
girls and women forced, a reprieve
from swordsmen
the interviewer spilled down
in the dust by his microphone
the bones of his head register in decibels
the child reaching
flowers to her father’s grave 550
her green coat’s skirts
shuttering the earth
kneels, glimpses the cylinders
wired to the belly of the waiting car
the door left open
others are for the dark cells
under the earth
the night cries of rodents
and for the yellow room along the hall
where the single wooden chair 560
opens its chains for a female embrace
of soaked loins
the wires linking anus and testicle
to urethra and the white
outlet in the rear wall
others in their approach to London
Seoul and Dubai
to be slammed out of the air
in their quick hundreds
their bodies will be gathered in the nets 570
of placid fishermen who crow in the sun
or will not be gathered
and in the dark night which will sanctify
each moment another portion of the earth
for the balance of creation
there will be among the anger of cicadas
the violated perfumes of hibiscus,
the muffled screams of desaparecidos
and laughter in inns
these are divided from the forms of flesh 580
rinsed in the open sea and the prison skin
locked between them
workers under others [ the exploited
whose rights in the prosperous countries
guarantee and dull
the pleasure of their wage
these to do morning
devotion to the cramped drawers
of filing cabinets, assemble the entrails
of engines on belts 590
that snake and pass on
beyond them, gaze
at venom-green screens
that will not reflect lights
or staring faces;
and in the lower world
base funds of the one economy
the same labourers
their stoned faces
gazing steady into the cameras 600
the lamps on their helmets eerie
on dark skin
and the lime-soaked walls of the mine of gold
damp around and over them
or for coca they bend in the coastal sun
their hot subsistence
and the glasses of the law
look away:
many are whipped
and their muscles forced 610
others arrive daily
not as individuals
entirely unhappy
in the afternoon and evening
when the dry pavement has been dusted
and the drug stores lock their doors
when the remaining cars straggle with purpose
there will be women for all curbs
while day survives they pluck
the hem of their shorts 620
to conceal vivid panties
by nightfall they bend freely
their sweat powdered breasts cupped
or buttoned high in thin fabric
school-girl small
their lips will taste oddly familiar
and scent linger in churches
the dark sopranos swoon [ for all the arts
in the arms of princes
let there be passionate subscribers 630
to the velvet chairs in the dark
the composers gather their possessions
and enter new and fouler apartments
there will be lovers of symphony
to praise them in their last residence
drawn tight at the cheek bone [ so many addicted
yellow as if dusted with insecticide
the skin of damned men and women
will be entered and re-entered
at the inner pale forearm 640
by the common needle
in search of veins
for that thin orgasm
the room mildews in slatted light
the camp cot with a crusted sheet for pillow
they are all friends, they share laughter
IX
these shall without ceasing [ grief eternal
propagate themselves in their own kind
none shall know other without exchange
of blood, nor 650
shall any among men and women
tell solace to the new earth
that her clung forests and bare oceans
will never be passed
for property among honourable men;
as a commodity to be bettered or cheapened
by change in the motive of production
language and the written word
shall have no sanctity
shall create nothing to humankind’s purpose 660
the whore and her purchaser
have dividends in every kiss of skin
and the children continue
with their lot of tears
these will return in the infinite
cycle of the globed continents
through the heavens
no cruelty to be stinted them
until their blood [ until reverence
is spoken for a miracle 670
until in their ignorance the heavy brain
is sung
no outrage for the severed hand
flung among the beetles in the roadside grass
none for the child who holds
her tangled gaze
steady on the ground
and one arm
in the folds of her smudged dress
without first seeing 680
in the soft works of the wrist’s
concert of cells
as the fingers pivot and open
against the indifferent and all-giving sun
praise in creation
and this gift
sculptor of monuments
destroyer of species
to love before dying [ and until love
the creatures of the world 690
to walk in the cool limes of the first night
breathing, saying
dawn is dawn
blood is blood
to weep in the violent
gardens of humankind [ no succour
so to witness
power and need
that it is good 699