0 THE PRELUDIUM

1
Believe in nothing
                                      only this:
                believe less, be
               clouds, be anything so changeable
               ionisation, anything so daft
               rain, pores in the skin, stumbles
               a list of words
               a change, an unawakening.
               Aim yourself at centres:
               not when they can see clearly but
               dear friend, take care.
               Yours is the unhappy fate.

Believe mostly it is the dumb game. La
la! It's like a pretty useless music.
Oh poem, poet, drunken or asleep
poem you keep on coming back at me —

I — now that's one to watch
I warn you don't trust
                                              — big, harmless, friendly little fellow, why
out there in the rain he's killed.
Ridiculous? Sweetheart
it's your life. I merely warn.

& signing off, to say
flesh, say fruit
ah the scent of it.
Mouth. It's the entrance
that's hard, not
not ever the utterance.


2
Swept over by sudden clouds
darkening, the tree was white
& white birds wheeling, then
on the other side
where the sky was blue
watered with pink a black
bird, a rook perhaps
vanishing behind houses
& the clouds are over
& there's a sudden rain
& hail.


3
Swept past it into anger
darkening between the lobes
& not discharging: held up
on just above the eye, heavy
where there is nothing: pain only
watered always out of some stain, ferrugic
bird comes in: bloodmetal drops
vanishing unclearness part: no continuum
& just the sky
                             half-empty
& out there, indefinite, the clearness of light
& short.