Saturday 29 May 2010

Hart Crane Homeward Bound XII


The mariners that we are, marinated

in the juices of the poets before, not a nice

image mind you Hart, though good for the pan

handler looking for a gem or gold in the course

of reading, like the excavation of the Mary Rose,

a fruity ship, like Peter the Pomegranate,

a shipwreck like carrack, done my homework,

they had hand held weapons and canons

no titters there boys, this is not your M or Loaded

Fire at will! Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesh

Kebab, I could not resist that one Hart!

But seriously, on deck of the junk, we spot

anchored off shore, Herman Melville once more

In a tomb he is, probably written up in copy,

That is in shorthand, a poem by the Crane boy!

Floral tribute, we throw, anatomy of a flower,

sepals, stalks, calyxes, and the male parts,

Into the Sea, where the whale sports

with the love of Hawthorne, good old Nat,

A romance of unrequited passion, fruit

The whale, we have resurrected, it spouts

Defiance, fak you Ahab, fak you, fak you

It gulls us into remembrance of earlier reverance

Our Whitman bird, the Chekhov bird, mews

In our self reflexive mode, the funeral of a feed-back,

R.I.P. our anchovies, our sardines, our sea food,

the noise and clutter, time to get on board

the narrative, to move beyond the Twelve

at dinner, to the number of our reluctance

To the terra incognito,

Fire at will -

Jesus

Christ

Judas

Priest

1 comment:

  1. Stephen,

    Your poetry definitely has an ironic, post-modern feel . . . which is nearly the opposite of what I write, but I enjoy it nonetheless and Hart Crane is a wonderful poet and model.

    Lethe

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