DAVID HOWARD - PART THREE

 TO SING THROUGH STONE: work in progress


3    Wu Gang & Ah Sing

Wu Gang:
Saw wood light fire boil water steam rice stop
    Thinking that this list is order –
Sequence is change, order is eternal.
    When nesting, magpies break from trees
To chase away the storm. There is no nest,
        Only the storm

And the order behind it. Everything
    Unfinished, everything finite
Except for an informing principle –
    love. Open like a Sichuan
Fan, the universe expands as it cools
        The remote mind.

A fallen tower does not deserve its name.
    A man who lies down without thought
For the right course of action – he can’t dream
    Virtue into being. You must hunt.
The sea hawk flies a thousand miles to seize
        The cursive swan.

Annotated in cinnabar-lead ink
    The floating world is marginal.
Ah Sing, to win back Tiriata, sing
      Songs to Hine-nui-te-po
In your sleep; earn your name and your lover
        With poetry.


Ah Sing:

You could sing once? I never knew the use
    Of stone; in my throat there is schist
Crumbling into syllables, those echoes
    Of the ineffable zero
Before the universe heaved me out
        To bear witness.


Wu Gang:

I see more than you: soldiers with helmets
    Made of paper, heroes who tremble
When envoys arrive, silent mendicants
    Staring at washerwomen’s breasts.
I see clearly like the gods who condemn
        And then pardon.