Tag Archives: poems

(these moments gifted)

twilight hours
two green fishermen check their watches and
nod in agreement

as young thugs on bikes
scoot about nosing
for action

and an aeroplane passes
slowly over

i can see my brown
sweater, black jeans and
crossed legs stretched out
on the grassy bank of
the canal

I’m locked out and
have nothing to do

[May 31st, 2000 on the banks of the canal, Bethnal Green, London, near Rohan Stanley and Bec Neill’s STUFF Gallery warehouse]

BANALITIES FOR NAPOLEON (by Ruark Lewis)

3. Arbitration makes great sense

9. Mending the parts of holes that leave nothing till the end

10. To send the food to friends

11. A van unbeknown

13. And enter in the swim of things

16. The nature of the rock

19. Film is shot at angles

20. And speaking all the time

21. United let us fly

22. The key is in the trees where books are concerned

25. Dissolves her lips against the glass

27. Nothing higher nothing lower

29. Forms four times exactly what they are

31. They bathe and leave the trees undressed

32. The animal is criminal

35. A broken zodiac

37. To mediate to mediate

39. In time the memory of a child returns

40. The egyptian is a bird

43. The book is nong

46. The sting is kunt

48. Because of greed the worker is condemned

49. Flick flack swings song tools the cause of motion

50. Deep ends of oil smooths out phenomena

51. In comfort and distress

BANALITIES FOR THE PERFECT HOUSE (by Ruark Lewis)

1. Arbitration makes slim pickings

2. The best parts are mostly left to last

3. Stodge belittles starchy foods

4. A van below the motorway wears you down

5. To swim around

6. One, two, three, four, five, six are convincing cracks between the rocks

7. Angular sightings deliver films

8. A female of the species

9. Your letter to bananas

10a. Trees conceal small books

10b. Her extended lips against the glass

11. A pedant nut is formed by fourths

12. Well dressed and bathed he leaves the house

13. Excited like an animal

14a. The wicked smashing of the trees

14b. To mediate against philosophers

14c. Is the source of stories

15a. Nong

15b. Kunt

15c. Without the tools of negotiation the workers are condemned

16. The nature of the swing has caused the motion

17. A phenomena is massaged by oil

18. Is a comfort in distress

19. The principle of universities is formed with money

20. The left hand and the dumb

21. He has nous for rooms

22. She had nous for knitting

23. United in the union of the students

24. A crossing of the floor is no longer possible

BANALITIES for Babel (by Ruark Lewis)

BANALITIES for Babel

1. a still road is littered with the bodies of a hundred

2. was burdened with the weight of down

3. his drunken joy was volatile

4. the winds sift through the grasses on the dunes

5. a foul air penetrates the soul

6. he steers his punt against the lyric poets

7. it sped and jumped the tracks to cross the distance very fast

8. fancy-free he disappeared in thin air

9. across the city's frozen water he could hear the voices

10. where the folded ribbons remain a warning

11. a snake is mostly mis-understood

12. in their music the sound of water is almost audible

13. he was stationed in the army of the senses

14. why gather momentum?

15. the rat has solved the problem of the hole

16. to find a dollar it is sometimes harder than we think

17. perfume is a sense of place

18. S-shaped for an hour from one place to another

19. the brown bird built a temple in the nest

20. a sport of water

21. the waxy substances that form a soap make bubbles

22. the meeting of the battled unions generates more than noise

23. orchestras are not cricket teams

24. when the corpse speaks from his bed the grave is empty

……
…for more Ruark Lewis please visit
http://groups.msn.com/TheSilhouettes/shoebox.msnw?Page=1
http://www.cottier.com.au/justfornothing
http://www.rainerlinz.net/NMA/

BANALITIES for the East Cape (by Ruark Lewis)

BANALITIES for the East Cape

1. she flies over the molten lava and looks out to sea

2. the bird is accustomed to headaches, yet no one acts naturally. when the car rounds the corner expecting collision. heartaches, clenching teeth, shortness of breath or far-off something that sounds like a skidding snake

3. when the fire burns it follows orders. it makes no mistake by diverting attention or lowering its heat

4. where food is beside sleep nothing is resolved, nothing except a fart

5. movements open the door to the face without translation. kiss my teeth to whisper . . . . . I say nothing then I ask, would you leave and you don't

6. the soup is customary, like tidal lagoons it has something to say to the sun

7. the trees disappear, they simply leave a gap of broken teeth

8. this surface makes a trace, a space between rivers, between land plates for grazing cattle and tracks for explorers. it is about proximity, about length and breadth, over time and space hillock and mound are turned to acres then to shires their measure of weight and height we sell abstractly full of weeds

9. in the course of the day, eros and desire, urgency and gaze pushes me ‘til I sleep

10. nothing follows, things follow things where a thing seems to move round and round and is followed around then turns and having followed it again when they have followed all day long looking for a voice that persists – in time these things come and go and then they turn. their beauty has no order. their being has no movement outside where a bird is literally caught in flight – and squeezed to death

11. sound. my ears are made of deafness in the roar of reckless care

12. beside this measure where else is the edge or morsel beside taste and food?

13. the application in itself goes against the tide, and that line yawns absentmindedly, that's how conversations circle one another, in time and after, a beautiful intelligence with nothing to say, that things end sometimes before the next phase of time exists at all, or perhaps way after it should – given time I think I would settle for charming you

14. but trees are like that – they rarely risk attack

15. the uneasy condition sore and broken has fallen from a mighty height

16. to get it on. to lose the plot. to never reach the end. to drown here where it is shallow

17. size sets elements to organise old Greeks and Egyptians, but now in the age of everything things are elementary, they are full of principles and coordinates

18. around and around sent off spare the wool drawn up against your hair

19. in crime as in freedom honesty is pretty universal

20. in sea myths storms are synonymous

2003

……
…for more Ruark Lewis please visit:
http://groups.msn.com/TheSilhouettes/shoebox.msnw?Page=1
http://www.cottier.com.au/justfornothing
http://www.rainerlinz.net/NMA/