I: CORAL
I went and came
of each thing asking
the name
II: SIGN
My sign is Death: I, however, bear
an inner balance, an alliance
of solitude with outerworldly things.
III: HANDS
Hollow with having
Stretched with desire
Fresh with abandonment
Rapt with surprise
Restless with touching and not taking
IV: ON THE LOVE OF ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
With your span I measured out the world
And in the just balance of your shoulders
Hung the sun’s gold, the pallor of the moon
V: CANTE JONDO
Moonless the night whereon my love departed
Nameless those who will carry through the streets
The bare now lifeless body that was mine
VI: PENELOPE
It is in the dark that I unpick my way.
All of this weaving, none of it is true
but merely time spent killing time.
Each day how far, each night how very close indeed.
VII: BARE FACE
Bare face in direct light
Left face, suspended, permeable
In slow osmosis
Mouth open as if for drinking
Attentive head
Unmade face
Unrefusing face wherein nothing is justified
Face given to the agony of command
Face that voices penetrate
Sluggish face
Presentiment that orchards might secrete
Abandoned and transparent face
As greeted by the blackest nights of love
Long shafts of coldness dart upon the sea
In silence the landscapes are exalted
And solitude is stony to the touch
Lost face
Buried there by the bitter winds of thirst
Lamented by the purest ocean waves
VII: MORNING
As the fruit displays
if cut in two
the freshness of its heart
so does the morning
I am about to start.
IX: L’AGE D’AIRAIN
Slowly, slowly, before the light
charged with shadows and with weight
your body, shuddering to its root.
The tips of your fingers bear a flight
in the wind’s vertex, and at first light
lost to your fingers, there a wing beats.
Second Nature: James Lindesay’s Poetry 