Works and Days of Division – 29 poems by Martyn Crucefix
Drawing on two disparate sources, this sequence of mongrel-bred poems has been written to respond to the historical moment in this most disunited kingdom. Hesiod’s Works and Days – probably the oldest poem in the Western canon – is a poem driven by a dispute between brothers. The so-called vacana poems originate in the bhakti religious protest movements in 10-12th century India. Through plain language, repetition and refrain, they offer praise to the god, Siva, though they also express personal anger, puzzlement, even despair. Dear reader – if you like what you find here, please share the poems as widely as you can (no copyright restrictions). Or follow this blog for future postings. Bridges need building.
Sunday 10.03.2019
‘when I say’
when I say I smell mud
under your uncut fingernails
the stench of mud in your mouth
the sweet rot rising from the understairs cupboard
smelling becomes a veil
the moment I tell you I hear the car alarm
beneath the announcer’s voice
I hear ice cracking in a blue crevasse
the drilling in a neighbour’s wall
hearing becomes a veil
if I say I have tasted
the remnants of salt on the rim of a glass
taste salt in the small of your back
licking honey from the thumb
of a clover floret taste becomes a veil
if I say I touch the most recent bruise
on my mother’s forehead
blue in the light of the late ambulance
or the raised rash of eczema on her arm
touch becomes a veil
when I set it down here that I see
a mother and child that I find webs and traps
beset the late-flowering roses
I see the slug’s gluttonous moneyed trail
even sight becomes a veil
and I snatch up the salt shaker from the table
I start babbling of corruption
all the bridges down
Martyn Crucefix 