Trevor Joyce

Data Shadows

O soul, come back! Why have you left your old abode and fled to the earth's dark corners,
Deserting the place of your delight to meet all those things of evil omen?
                                                                                         Summons of the Soul

I      ahead vast systems hunger
        behind disquietude slides to the edge
        afflicted by blank ants lurching
        its onset sudden treatment difficult
        since that which they consume consumes
        for time for us we are the names
        of time where immense conflagrations flare
        the most concentrated residues will fizzle out
        and all the course impassioned
        like estuaries wasps hollow and big
        that side rise dense
        as gourds no food but straw
        losers keepers finders weepers
        these bodies our dear instruments dislimn
        this side the swarming vermin that

        disarticulate the fast frame
        unsure though the final outcome be
        their delicate identities the diamond bends
        when the immeasurable comminutes the clock
        here there is small nourishment
        no drink but blazing sand for sure
        impedimenta so much junk
        sheer frozen strata

        life lived face fixed
        nothing now certain but the unforeseen
        in schedules and intents
        destroy the nest the birds will fly
        our fruit is bitter in the shade
        unpick the foot falls there
        they flicker dart encroach we bleed
        against the streaming

        winds and rivers similarly set
        under all and marred in darkness
        above deep laceration purrs
        time as we walk we sleep
        as does the gemstone worm and wind
        prowling the flimsy housings fray
        waits earth with bloody thumbs
        for fast and loose is no possession

        • • •

        ahead vast systems hunger
        for time for us we are the names
        of time where immense conflagrations flare
        these bodies our dear instruments dislimn
        their delicate identities the diamond bends
        our fruit is bitter in the shade
        •
        ahead vast systems hunger
        since that which they consume consumes
        the most concentrated residues will fizzle out
        losers keepers finders weepers
        •
        behind disquietude slides to the edge
        its onset sudden treatment difficult
        and all the course impassioned
        losers keepers finders weepers
        •
        behind disquietude slides to the edge
        afflicted by blank ants lurching
        like estuaries wasps hollow and big
        as gourds no food but straw
        no drink but blazing sand for sure
        nothing now certain but the unforeseen
        •
        this side the swarming vermin that
        disarticulate the fast frame
        unpick the foot falls there
        they flicker dart encroach we bleed
        time as we walk we sleep
        as does the gemstone worm and wind
        •
        this side the swarming vermin that
        unsure though the final outcome be
        our fruit is bitter in the shade
        •
        these bodies our dear instruments dislimn
        when the immeasurable comminutes the clock
        destroy the nest the birds will fly
        •
        as gourds no food but straw
        here there is small nourishment
        in schedules and intents
        •
        that side rise dense
        impedimenta so much junk
        nothing now certain but the unforeseen
        •
        that side rise dense
        sheer frozen strata
        life lived face fixed
        against the streaming
        winds and rivers similarly set
        for fast and loose is no possession
        •
        they flicker dart encroach we bleed
        above deep laceration purrs
        prowling the flimsy housings fray
        •
        winds and rivers similarly set
        under all and marred in darkness
        waits earth with bloody thumbs
 
 

The life of the spirit is displayed, by 99 percent of people, through actions that are
measurable to the highest degree, and it would be a mistake to assume high-mindedly
that psychopaths, murderers, and pimps have any less psyche than water-carriers,
merchants, and weavers.                                                    Stanislaw Lem

II     without ancient chains and gaps
        to explore gradually
        without managed rivers or cultivated fields
        lacking the least settlements along the deeply worn corridors
        this is a survey of extreme inhospitable gradients
        only human bodies massed in their billions
        these systematic breakdowns of acts and upshots
        those happy manners of the table of contents

        to examine such meticulous heads is to learn
        to understand how through apparently the freest agency
        will flash before you here
        populations distributed to satisfy abstracted plots
        the way through darkness
        of things that will take your breath away

        we have data bases that are continuously updated and parsed
        a suddenly familiar landscape is revealed
        when in a single stroke lightning opens
        to yield in an unprecedented level of detail
        your range of choice by these

        multiplied beyond your wildest dreams
        the universe
        you glimpse instantaneously
        sundry bits accumulate in behaviour banks that constitute
        a vastness stretching toward all horizons

        • • •

        without ancient chains and gaps
        lacking the least settlements along the deeply worn corridors
        this is a survey of extreme inhospitable gradients
        populations distributed to satisfy abstracted plots
        •
        without ancient chains and gaps
        without managed rivers or cultivated fields
        only human bodies massed in their billions
        will flash before you here
        the way through darkness
        a suddenly familiar landscape is revealed
        when in a single stroke lightning opens
        the universe
        you glimpse instantaneously
        a vastness stretching toward all horizons
        •
        to explore gradually
        these systematic breakdowns of acts and upshots
        to understand how through apparently the freest agency
        a suddenly familiar landscape is revealed
        •
        to explore gradually
        those happy manners of the table of contents
        to examine such meticulous heads is to learn
        of things that will take your breath away
        •
        of things that will take your breath away
        we have data bases that are continuously updated and parsed
        to yield in an unprecedented level of detail
        the universe
        •
        we have data bases that are continuously updated and parsed
        your range of choice by these
        multiplied beyond your wildest dreams
        •
        multiplied beyond your wildest dreams
        sundry bits accumulate in behaviour banks that constitute
        a vastness stretching toward all horizons
 
 

Joinery
with & for Michael Smith

through no imperial portals but rusty bars on broken hinges
                iron epochs spans past understanding

                fold back on themselves doubling their ghosts twice dying
        past locks rain seized while the sleepers dreamt

                and bore into the catchment wearing further down
                across the long constructed courses indeliberate lives

        the vegetative agents work their slow approach
                ages remembered in the ratchet of a thorn

                now against gravity they lift and hold rest and again advance
to this kingdom of black earth like dampened dust

                                                        •

where my green knight evades the black shawled witch's eye
                the covert grows encompassing

                retainers dreaming round their table of contents
        too much attached can forfeit grip

                water spills from the cup
                again flame starts from the fire

        from what was lost never delivered
                when this spell of silence ends

                in rage abandon grief and love resumed
the dragon's teeth and the sly pervasive worm

                                                        •

bells beyond the kingdom toll the significant hour
                abridging others which therefore augment

                their weakness with a going back a gathering whose returns
        diminish with their distance from that source

                yet they engross and are not waste
                these ages picking over the midden of words

        the news results and forecast take their toll
                effective against accident elsewhere not here

                through which all paths are critical
and the streets are silent the squares empty

                                                        •

in his gaslit room of the golden birds
                soft shadow and the glinting song compel

                attention and all utterly absorbed
        that flight of colour from the hard matter

                lifts to compose itself in such startling light
                whistling unconstrained by bars

        property removed from ground and here
                selects this its imponderable element

                nested within boundaries of breath
roosting quiet as the small rain of summer

                                                        •

the old man receives the boy's green gift
                the secret bears itself and dies

                and neighbourhood of speech transforms
        as late return from something long since lost

                the beam strikes root the shaft grows ripe
                low ceiling vaults to sky

        he reaches through the element of birds
                against the gravity the golden drift of dust

                breathes past all passage in this present now
and the green knight hears his golden song in wonder
 
 

Let Happen
Toccata with & for Randolph Healy

tangents swarm
   shuttling their sweet drift
   hum between the surface and the hand
   busy before night falls
along the ground

body after body belting out the tune
   though things were simpler once
   semen existed as milk for six days
   turned blood within a further three
rolling down the terraces

on their unfinished surfaces
   became flesh in the following twelve
   and in the next eighteen
   this flesh assumed limbs
darkness shaped in the attitudes of flight

the am of me and the who you are
   grows family abrupt extended ancestry about it
   and we don't find it strange
   this worlding that suddenly occurs
swoops gaily past our feet

body after body belting out the tune
   and often touched
   you're flummoxed by
some of them without even arms legs or a head
   their world dislimned
   by our simplicity
swoops gaily past our feet

 the am of me and the who you are
   phylogeny ontogeny
   recursively
   let happen
darkness shaped in the attitudes of flight

rolling down the terraces
   this flowing not like the wind and rain
   moving from east to west
   contending fronts
on their unfinished surfaces

tangents swarm
   busy before night falls
   the entire world is shuddering
   haphazard flows
along the ground

into a sea of voices
   outbound
   in a bottomless ship

<^>