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.
Wednesday 27.03.2019
‘on well-marked ways’
on well-marked ways like little religious stations
you bring me through gates and over rocks
skirting the insignificant gravel beaches
(though these are good places to picnic)
and I lay odds you are stumbling on tree roots
worn to a shine by the boots of others
worn perhaps by the passage of my walking
last year—or that was forty years ago—
and for once I don’t mind the bright-dressed people
(perhaps it’s their way of not getting lost
their way of signalling a companionship)
though today they are oblivious of me
so for me no more of that awkward nodding
or worse the awkward anticipation of a nod
that does not take place—do you remember
how the likelihood of acknowledgement
depends on altitude—the higher you climb
the more likely it is—this path is low and busy
as a city park—and so many bridges are down—
still you go on—you imagine a sure way round
Martyn Crucefix 