2-v- Pour quoi est la portable? 'Is cén fáth a bhaineann leo?

On mobile phones, 26th November 2007



I carry this conduit

Round in my hands

Just a-waitin' for the words

That you'll send to me.

When the shifts in the ether

Become understand-

-ing of our vague connection:

Yeah, words are the key.



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ether - an outdated scientific idea about the medium
electromagnetic waves, like radio, light and microwaves might move
through. It was postulated to permeate all things. We now believe there
is no such medium and EM waves self-propagate because the electric part
induces the magnetic part and vice-versa. Before my aside eclipses the
poetry (indeed a vice versa - danger to the verse...) I'll stop. Fascinating stuff that science, really.

1-v- On a Damp Evening

I'll start with my most recent delving into the world of verse. Written 3rd of March 2008, based on late-night thoughts in a damp carpark

On a damp evening

The carpark tarmac black, near white with sheen:
To say it had been raining all day would be a lie,
It had been damping.
The thick suspended damp that works into your skull,
Leaving the yellow halos of the sodium suns dull
Blotches in the sky
—Far from the phare of Alexandria's fame, though
Small wonders they would show
to the Physick Greeks or Alchemic seek-
-ers of the Middle Ages' secrets—.
Tightening the joints and winning points
For the scarf wrapped tightly about me.
Each breath draws the slow, heavy damp into my waiting lungs.
Water hanging on each particle swimming in this atmospheric sea.
Threatening in its dim beauty
—the eye of an Impressionist—
a day or two in bed ahead
When moisture charges his rent.

Not a drop fallen all day,
Yet the evidence lays clear:
The road swollen with the even surface-puddle of damp.

Denying the drama of the advancing
Wall of hail that, dancing
Across the green square at me,
Forced me to shelter,
The result is the same.
Slow or fast, gentle or harsh, damp or rain
It reduces to the slick black tarmac near white with sheen.

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Linguistics and History note
phare - [fr]: Lighthouse. Alexandria, Egypt was famed for her giant lighthouse: the Pharos. It was deemed one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.