marsden moor - new poem

One of the many things that Poetry Emergency inspired was a new series of poems. So far there are two, the one below and the one in the next post.

I started writing this after one set of readings on the Saturday and finished it yesterday. The political content may be a little more opaque than I'd like it to be, but I hope as the sequence builds it'll become clearer.

Anyway, y'know, let me know what you think.

Marsden Moor

Stride completes. Stride completes breath. Breath. Breath completes vision. Shake on impact. Eyes jump. Eyes on impact. Breath on impact. Vision shake. Impact on stride. Shake on stride. Stride on stride. The yellow gathering. The black gathering. The purple gathering. Glittering. Fleet and disperse. Impact disperse. Small. Forgotten. Seen but unseen. Project into space. Impact on space. Listen. Impact. Stride completes impact. Breath begins. Impact. I can only hear wind. Wind is white noise. Breath is impact. Wind completes stride. Wind on eyes. The yellow gathering. The black gathering. The purple gathering. The wind gathering. Stride gathering. Impact gathering. Glitter. This is place. This is hotel, hardware store, Turkish barber, vape shop, church, four-week firework sale in empty unit, people. This is respite. This is patch of moorland between places. This is social capital. This is absent of content. The content is irrelevant. The stride is irrelevant. The wind is irrelevant. The yellow and black and purple gathering is irrelevant. The periphery is irrelevant. Nameless. The name is irrelevant. Marketplace of ideas. Social capital. If it isn’t named it doesn’t exist. It has no capital. Capital is accrued for itself. Capital is relevant. Houses are relevant. Place is relevant. Place is valuable. Self invisible. Invisible impact. Dispersed. Dispersed behind. Unseen behind. Impact behind. An urgent need to piss. An urgent need to stride. An urgent need to make time. To speed up. To see less. An urgent need to stop and piss. To not be seen. To be seen and understood. To not be seen. To be place. Place where self vanishes. Where self becomes part of place. Outside of time. Subject to time. Outside of capital. Subject to capital. Self is not capital. Self is accident. Self is collision. Self is collision and awareness. Is collision and awareness. Mouth fills with colours. Colours melt on arms. Sink in with a breathless high. Whole body prickles. The darkening gathers. Skin is permeable. Moor is permeable. There are cracks. Eyes crawl in the cracks. Yellow crawls in the cracks. Black crawls in the cracks. Purple crawls in the cracks. Teeth crawl in the cracks. Teeth slide into the moors. Teeth rattle in the water pipes. Teeth rattle in the kettles. Teeth dissolve in coffee. Self cracks. Teeth freeze and expand in veins. Teeth pop through skin. Capital smears. Arms sticky. Colours melt. Blood. Teeth pop from veins and slide down arm. Capital seeps out. Colours, blood and capital. Teeth drop to the carpet. Teeth drop to the moor. Stride continues. Dumb. Capital says visible. Capital says tomorrow. Capital says remember and forget. Capital says stride.

A box labelled Indonesia. A parakeet labelled dog. A diary labelled tangerine. A key labelled that fleeting moment of panic on waking when you can’t remember who you are, what day it is or where you are, much less what to do now. A cup of coffee labelled effort. A book of plays labelled parakeet. A feeling of defeat labelled banana. A box labelled box.

Colours sink into the moor. Teeth sink into the moor. Caisson sinks into the moor. Floating caisson. Floating ideas. Floating currency. Teeth ache with pressure. Caisson. Capital. The content is irrelevant. Lead from there to crisis. Lead from crisis to here. To here. To capital. To storm and seige. To sink into the moor. To fight the moor. To fight a box labelled Indonesia. To fight a parakeet labelled dog. To sink and fight. Teeth drop into shoes. Teeth grind against feet. Names sink into the moor. Self is collusion. Piss on the moor. Piss behind a small bridge across a stream on the moor. Piss on the sunken teeth. Piss on sunken capital. Piss on sunken box labelled box. Piss on your own feet. White, orange and green. Negatives. The moor arches its back. The city arches its back. Cracks rush and moan. Capital shifts and groans. The moor yawns. The moor is hollow. Yawn echoes. Felt through feet. Felt in throat and genitals. The moor is hollow. The moor is hollow, deep and ancient. Capital is hollow. Capital groans. Shifts and groans. Shifts and scrapes. The scrape and groan transmitted. Feet tickle. The wind sounds hollow. The sky is hollow, vertiginous. The hollow moor resonates. Felt not heard. Hollow mud accumulates. Roadsides. Traffic islands. Street furniture. Hollow islands. Snake's back road and encrustations. Everything simplified to transactional. Hollaback. Caisson. Tilts and cracks. Steep. Stride is transactional. Stride is not transactional. The moor is not transactional. The hollow yawn resonating in throat and genitals is not transactional. Capital is transactional. Collusion is capital. Throat is hollow. Throat is white, orange and green. Throat is crop. Throat is full of stones. Throat is stones. Throat is milk. Teeth and stones spill from mouth. Milk spills from mouth. The white gathering. The orange gathering. The green gathering. Milk thickens. The crop curdles. The crop congeals. Teeth and stones crush coins. Swallow coins. Swallow milk. Swallow blood. Pelican pricks breast to feed its young with blood. Pelican swallows coins. Coins crush seeds. Coins worn down to nubs. Vomited back up. Transactional. Pelican is labour. Pelican silvered and sickly. Blood congeals. Blood in feathers. Hungry young. Hungry young swallow coin nubs. Hungry young swallow stones. Crop settles. Crop settles and grows. The negative.

Rubbish removals. Garden clearing. Scrap metal. First question, what is your fashion style: a) sporty chick. Keep clear. Be slim for life. b) garden clearing. Circle of stones. House clearing. Gathered bags of leaves. c) winter sun when sky clears after rain. City edge apartments. Litter bugs us. Office space available. Single file traffic. or d) well-groomed, sophisticated and organized? Ground Floor. First Floor. Did you see anything?

Pelican pricks blood from the moor. Stride pricks blood from the moor. Crop full of peat. Crop full of spider milk. Crop white, orange and green. Crop full of coins. Moss is hollow. Moss grows on hollow mud. Moss grows on fallen teeth. Moss grows between teeth. Moss grows between cobbles. Moss drops to moor. Stride sinks in hollow moss. Capital sinks in hollow moss and hollow mud. Dressed in moss and teeth. Dressed in coins. Dressed in dead pigeons gathered from the road. Dead pigeon feathers drop to the moor. Pigeon crop milk drips to the moor. Spiders hide in moss. Spiders suckle on pigeon crop milk. Spiders suckle on sundew. Spiders catch on sundew. Spiders stick. Spiders sink. Spiders hide in pigeon feathers. Spiders suckle on pelican blood. Sundew. Caisson booms. Spiders are well-groomed, sophisticated and organized. Take the light: walk back. Take the hollow boom: walk back. Take the pigeon crop milk: walk back. Walk back. Walk back the moss and stones. Walk back. Walk back capital. Walk back stride. Take the hollow moss and mud: walk back. What is your fashion style? What is your social capital? Take the swallowed coins: walk back. Spit up the spider milk. Spit up the pigeon crop milk. Spit up the sundew.