Collected Poems in English and French Read Free Page B

Pool Beg that will never meet
    not in this world

    whereas dart away through the cavorting scapes
    bucket o'er Victoria Bridge that's the idea
    slow down slink down the Ringsend Road
    Irishtown Sandymount puzzle find the Hell Fire
    the Merrion Flats scored with a thrillion sigmas
    Jesus Christ Son of God Saviour His Finger
    girls taken strippin that's the idea
    on the Bootersgrad breakwind and water
    the tide making the dun gulls in a panic
    the sands quicken in your hot heart
    hide yourself not in the Rock keep on the move
    keep on the move

Malacoda
    thrice he came
    the undertaker's man
    impassible behind his scutal bowler
    to measure
    is he not paid to measure
    this incorruptible in the vestibule
    this malebranca knee-deep in the lilies
    Malacoda knee-deep in the lilies
    Malacoda for all the expert awe
    that felts his perineum mutes his signal
    sighing up through the heavy air
    must it be it must be it must be
    find the weeds engage them in the garden
    hear she may see she need not

    to coffin
    with assistant ungulata
    find the weeds engage their attention
    hear she must see she need not

    to cover
    to be sure cover cover all over
    your targe allow me hold your sulphur
    divine dogday glass set fair
    stay Scarmilion stay stay
    lay this Huysum on the box
    mind the imago it is he
    hear she must see she must
    all aboard all souls
    half-mast aye aye

    nay

Da Tagte Es
    redeem the surrogate goodbyes
    the sheet astream in your hand
    who have no more for the land
    and the glass unmisted above your eyes

Echo's Bones
    asylum under my tread all this day
    their muffled revels as the flesh falls
    breaking without fear or favour wind
    the gantelope of sense and nonsense run
    taken by the maggots for what they are
    1935

5. SIX POEMS
Cascando
    1
    why not merely the despaired of
    occasion of
    wordshed

    is it not better abort than be barren

    the hours after you are gone are so leaden
    they will always start dragging too soon
    the grapples clawing blindly the bed of want
    bringing up the bones the old loves
    sockets filled once with eyes like yours
    all always is it better too soon than never
    the black want splashing their faces
    saying again nine days never floated the loved
    nor nine months
    nor nine lives

    2
    saying again
    if you do not teach me I shall not learn
    saying again there is a last
    even of last times
    last times of begging
    last times of loving
    of knowing not knowing pretending
    a last even of last times of saying
    if you do not love me I shall not be loved
    if I do not love you I shall not love

    the churn of stale words in the heart again
    love love love thud of the old plunger
    pestling the unalterable
    whey of words

    terrified again
    of not loving
    of loving and not you
    of being loved and not by you
    of knowing not knowing pretending
    pretending

    I and all the others that will love you
    if they love you
    3
    unless they love you
    1936

Ooftish
    offer it up plank it down
    Golgotha was only the potegg
    cancer angina it is all one to us
    cough up your T.B. don't be stingy
    no trifle is too trifling not even a thrombus
    anything venereal is especially welcome
    that old toga in the mothballs
    don't be sentimental you won't be wanting it again
    send it along we'll put it in the pot with the rest
    with your love requited and unrequited
    the things taken too late the things taken too soon
    the spirit aching bullock's scrotum
    you won't cure it you won't endure it
    it is you it equals you any fool has to pity you
    so parcel up the whole issue and send it along
    the whole misery diagnosed undiagnosed misdiagnosed
    get your friends to do the same we'll make use of it
    we'll make sense of it we'll put it in the pot with the rest
    it all boils down to blood of lamb
    1938

Saint-Lô
    Vire will wind in other shadows
    unborn through the bright ways tremble
    and the old mind ghost-forsaken
    sink into its havoc
    1946

dread nay
    head fast
    in out as dead
    till rending
    long still
    faint stir
    unseal the eye
    till still again
    seal