Monday, April 22, 2013

LAWRENCE UPTON


FOUR SQUARE IN A GARDEN   Lawrence Upton

          for two voices      slow throughout


         
senses


senses
scents


senses




self


selves
self



self






sense of



sense of
 sense off --


sense of




selves --


sent off
selves






a sense of my




self






a section of my




selves --


self



standing
standing self



off the scent






alone self
sense of






no sense of



no sense in




scents --


self

no self




sense

no sense --


non-self







selfishly



non self --
standing --


violent
inviolable



violect --


no sense of
no sense in --


labelled thus
unable


and voluble
viable



voluminous


human




self upon



self


up on




selves upon


standing
left out


¿left out?




left out


thieving its



own space
leaving


no doubt
no space






blue light




whole of the --


sky of the




sun in the --


head over




stone


over head




sun in the sky


lick of blue
flash of --


light --
green


irregular




indentations


cross over




regularity --


regularity







singularly
singularly


open




ha!


¿did you?




see


see!




¿sea shells?

¿and butterflies?



delicacy


as boulders rolling




stilly


mountain




and crashing --


in stillness



thinness
fastness


see through



perpendicularity

whether




clarity --


weathering



in
ring in the --


time to




natural


change


trained to

chained to --


hands together




linked



linking



clang of --


silence!







silence







green burst out



profusion



starred sine




sawn


upright




against


wind




bowed


cello shaped




tipped up --


into the cavity




it makes a



cavity in an



is singing --


square and




round it


growing



clamour




of planted


ideas




eye steers


the see of green




a succoured space


upright
a bright


dull
stone


upon
stone






interlacing







spaces




space is


space is








upon itself






maintaining



eyes circle







squared
circularity






clear
in a queer






perspective








perspective










the nearer it seems








the more


it




tilts


away
weighing


the question
the question


its texture
its manner


of moving
of eye and mind


physically




hand



touching


perhaps



what one wants to say



is
dynamic and


dignity a gaiety of stone
cast
cast





Optional note. This poem refers to or strikes off from FOUR SQUARE (WALK THROUGH) & OTHER SCULPTURES BY BARBARA HEPWORTH IN THE BARBARA HEPWORTH MUSEUM AND SCULPTURE GARDEN, ST IVES, CORNWALL. It was written in 1998, in a period when I often visited that garden and sometimes stayed there hours; it was web published at that time but that page has long since disappeared. This is a reworking, largely matching the notation developed in my performances with Tina Bass and used in my book Memory Fictions


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