B.V.M.
Homage to Dziga Vertov
scattered spots of blood; an exploded snake; a rabbit jumping
out of a hat; a departing train; a single note on a trumpet or is it a
synthesizer? a tangled web; a hand-operated meat mincer; a man threatening to
turn into an icy pond; a pair of tights; an upside down exclamation mark; a
dramatic pose; a squiggle on the floor; a poetic theory; a line of chat; a
winning smile; a little boy lost; a dinner for two; a girl and a boy; a picture
of domestic bliss; screws driven into the floor with a hammer; unpardonable
tension; a man playing a xylophone; a chrysanthemum; cascade of
characterisation in the middle of the pub, spot on; creature of habitual hatred
gambolling...
a pyjama top; the man in this picture looks terribly Jewish; a
pair of sneakers; a nail driven through a broken floorboard; a woman on the
phone screaming; a stretch of salt marsh protected by international agreement;
a barrister talking bollocks; a sweaty sock; a chequered flag; an Australian twang;
a shopping arcade; if you see fire or smoke...
do not take any risks; a speck of dust on a broken window; I am
so tired, darling; your smiling face; my smiling face; a railroad line up the
side of the hill from Jericho Valley; Duty Free is even freer in the air; an
ink stain on my inner thigh; a fat man in a suit; an ice cream cone; all the
pebbles which are blue upon this beach; a fish: a herring, a mackerel sky; a
man smoking a pipe...
you can drive round and round for hours without ever finding a parking
meter; a gale, an open door, two eyes in a winter month; a mass of
turpentine...
screwdrivers fanned out on a coffee table; a man playing chess
against a computer against a tree; the kind of move a tree makes in a wind; the
populace in general; polite conversation; steel girders; patricide; pastry
cutters; a man getting off a moving train; water splashing into a handsome jug;
a pea souper; the chef of the day; a dead cicada being eaten by ants; a dead
cicada exploding; a dead cicada being washed ashore; a dead cicada falling like
snow; a dead cicada reading braille; a dead cicada pushing open the curtains; a
pack of brewer's yeast; an assignation with a whimpering man; comb binders;
salt spray; steep hills; ten past twelve; grass; wind; metabolic disturbance; a
field full of ampersands; a cat killed, stuffed and set up to look like a
galleon in full sail; a bird-cage going cheap; a drowned valley; my oldest
friend; packets of flower seeds; all the kings horses and all the kings men;
you'd better bet your life; this is the most important thing I've ever said;
it's gone; tenacious precision; a smiling face, a serious face; I love you, I
really do; I can't, I can't, an open door; a ruling verb; a phallocentric
forest; an enlightened clearing; an unassuming echo of the assumption of the
Virgin Mary on a hillside outside Sarajevo; a train stopping between stations;
a man with a dustbin; a runabout van; an inexplicable stoppage; release of air
brakes; capture of the chief accountant; a bullshit directive; a fool; a tumble
in the hay; a poem on the hob; a kettle in the ear; skittishness, tares before
bedtime; kisses in particular...
two groups of four and a plenary discussion; catty discourse;
splinters of glass; repetition of a mantra; kaleidoscope of dolours; reality;
precision engineering; exactitude engineering; plenitude engineering; hand
cream and ear wax; pointless ambition; polities of essence; Oil of Ulay;
extremes of caution; clarity of fever; edges of caution; The Sunday Times;
Treasure Island; Old Coulsdon; Purley train crash; a windy field; the sight of
a windmill; a balloon burning; a finicky boy; Barrack Room Ballads; bobbles;
parrot cages; allegiance to the flag; a squadron of ideals; bogus salespersons;
flagships, precis, houses, curtains, pages, pains; planks of wood; going home;
give me your hand; a hot breath in my right ear blown hard and then your tongue
inserted; how do you do? a mission of mercy; a career; human skin covered in
mud that's been scraped at; beer; barrels of oil; crisis in the city; the edge
of the country; I have no nationality; artificial divisiveness; incremental
sinning; baring concepts; formulaic response; a change in potential you; can do
it; an ant upon a leaf; green thoughts in a dining room; menage a trois; the
Peruvian government; some hope; faith and charity; games and jokes; a sign of
the times; five o clock shadow; an eclipse of the sun; Quaker Meeting House,
Brigg Flats; fourth wall convention, the shape of things to come; a menu, a
recipe, a recipe for disaster; a frustration that we all share; the cost of
housing; ball bearings; Highway Sixty One Revisited; silver tongue in a wobbly
mouth; a loose tooth; a false move; a wooden leg; a dry lake; a pinch of salt;
a tuck in time; Steve Biko; trespassers ought to be prosecuted; Sunset over
Battersea; the way down; Come all ye faithful; prolong the agony; an ear of
hate; glass fibre; practical tuition; solo gazelles; fiction and friction in
Viennese society in the late 1850s; positive recrimination; slower, slower; don't
come yet I'm not ready; I'm not even dressed; the mirror is clouded; looks like
rain; leaves of a rare tree; fat in the fire; heart in the mouth; bowels in a
trough; applause; make away; anchors; cotter pin; pottery classes; chinks in
the armour; chinks in the amor; my love is like a reddened rose; full speed a
head; can you hear me; read the bulletin; don't you touch me; all I can say is;
all I can say; what do I care; I care; I care no less than you care; the brink
of the abyss; a bit of moss; twenty starlings in a bush
Author's note: This piece was written September -
November 1992, revised February 1994 and read at Sub Voicive Poetry that
month. It was published with very slight adjustments by Call this poetry in
1996 in a pamphlet which has been out of print for years. I put it on my web
site around 1998 with some slight changes to layout. It was still not right,
but I gave it the cold shoulder. In June 2013, I revised the punctuation and
layout, using approaches I have used in recent years; I removed the older
version from my website. This version is nearer to a notation than was the
earlier version; in the earlier version one performed somewhat against the
layout.
The dedication to Vertov was always part of it and is usually
mentioned in readings; but it has not appeared in print before due to an
oversight.
I should say that the final phrase was stolen from Peter Riley
Copyright © Lawrence Upton 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2013!
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