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John Wilkinson quoted
Beating
in their arms
What the white dazzle knew collect
solid, trembling murk.
Clear these integers of time!
Embroider them on a sweater
scar
divination fails to count,
air coils on routine disinterest:
eyes of snap
frostiness, pinprick
staggering signs are whittled away,
their residues burnt off in vapour.
Up the spine unreel
blue ghostly connoisseurs,
run-only cannot turn this
raped soil, the congealed earth
or sky her heart attempts to scan.
Raindrops
fizz beside a pylon
diligent in
raising the dead,
spindle of a dislocated arm,
pouring oil on distresses earth,
cards a puffy quilt to refulgency.
from Effigies against the light by John Wilkinson (Salt Publishing, 2001)
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The fun part here is how Wilkinson approaches "light"-specifically whiteness-exploring it, weighing it, sieving it thru cells and organs and political biofeedback that trembles not just against a surface, but teasing out vivid images. And sometimes, in the midst of all the aural & visual delights you get these muddy portions that stick nevertheless-
"Every humble soul
sinks
into its eyes' joint,
manufactured
deep in its White Only mirror."
along similar lines we are intermittently reminded of the Ustashi State,refugees, sullied light, light gone bad, light gone heavy, earthy, lustful , but never lifted in storm. all the orbits crawl back to the same ant state.
the best bit about Wilkinson here, unlike hisContrivances, is the level of attention he gives to sustaining his poetry.
"If you rub shoulders with that rock
long enough, it slowly takes over."
aleatory processes, if they are there, are bound into an organic whole-as Andrea Brady eloquently explains "the text is starfish." there is pain & there is a search for a human consciousness,& sometimes that means reassembling the broken parts of what it means to be human.
arka
Last edited by culdesac101, Sep/17/2011, 8:20 pm
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Sep/17/2011, 11:10 am
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Re: John Wilkinson quoted
Thanks, Arka. I enjoy your textual comments as much as I enjoy the poem passage.
Tere
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Sep/17/2011, 2:06 pm
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