"iekariukedjutu" was a word coined by the Nambikwara, whose language was entirely oral, to describe writing when introduced to it by the anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss. I felt it described the flow of the hand in the act of writing -- the shape made by the partially curled fingers and closed palm -- and its staccato flow. But that is probably just me.

ALFRED HITCHCOCK

few dot zigzag
iekariukedjutu wavy

luggage label hands
left hip grabbed like a draw from a sideboard
the
urban birth of the universe

the
unassigned breath
assembled on site

tristes tropiques
segregated according to blood sugar counts

west wind like
Alfred Hitchcock

using the hinge articulations
he is
windscreen wiper flagellant

he is
Jack giant killer
actions prompted by
current actuarial tables

he has
welterweight boxers
suspended horizontally from old
municipal playground swings
at fixed intervals
punching fluid tarmac

he has
torpedo laced up like a shoe
its nose cone clipped to a Styrofoam kickboard
its wind-up paddles giving it the propulsion
of a kidney stone
slosh slosh the waves it makes have epicanthic folds
O
strange birds grunting in lieu

he has
Spinoza of Rijnsburg pulling focus
O
Alfred Hitchcock

Thank you so much, Sophie! I can honestly say that I don't intend to baffle. Entertain and beguile, yes. It's great that it almost feels like another language. Yes, huge thank yous to yous.

styrofoam kickboard


oh my god, where does it come from?


brill.

Just a question, really - what decides line endings for you? I'm baffled by the "the's" with a line to themselves.

Thanks Pete! Sadly, styrofoam kickboards exist -- sometimes they're called swimming floats -- those horrible swimming aids that help buoyancy and allow you to kick your legs and propel yourself forwards.
I gues I like Alfred Hitchcok's signature squiggle-portrait, the one that accompanied his film and TV work. It almost looks on its way to becoming an ideogram. It also has the puffed cheeks seen in illustrations of the West Wind, as weel as (sideways on) the appearance of someone swimming furiously. Well, there's all that, and then there's the rest. I maybe really should get out more! But the hand back and forth on the page -- tidal: the boxers: tidal. Oh it just goes on and on and on.....aieeeee!!!

Hi Steve --

I guess in my head I hear them as an extended pause. It echoes old film titles where the printed 'the' would be seperate and in small print -- or spoken 'differently' by an announcer than the rest of the title -- given a different emphasis -- all the pizzazz saved for what came after. That's how I hear it, anyway. It's also marking that moment when the 'the' stands alone as the brain shuffles its indexes.

I baffle myself all the time.

Thanks: I knew there had to be a reason. Of course, I don't know about you, but most of my reasons for doing something are ex post facto: at the time of writing, my real reason for doing something is "It feels right."

Yes, it felt right when I wrote it, and then I remembered why in retrospect, and left it like that. A definite article with a suspenseful pause.

"Epicanthic folds" - the idea of waves having an epicanthus (it's the fold of skin that gives a Mongoloid eye its distinctive shape, folks - I checked at dictionary.com) is a lovely idea, and phrases like hinge articulation - you're a poet who's interested in using technical language as well as ordinary language.

I'd love to know which poets you're reading.

One thing puzzled me, I think I knew Spinoza lived in Rijnsburg at some point but he was born in Amsterdam wasn't he of Portugese stock. I also recall I first came across him reading P G Wodehouse as Jeeves is always either reading or quoting from him.

Lovely use of language as always. I really enjoyed it. I would never have know what epicanthic was.

Thank you for the interest in this -- crickey! Well, I shall try to answer the many questions. Spinoza was born in Amsterdam of Portuguese parents -- Marranos -- Jews forced to convert to Christianity. Spinoza never learned to speak Dutch fluently and remained fervently devoted to Spanish mystical and Hassidic texts. He then spent his life wandering round the Netherlands -- I pinned him to one of his transcient domiciles because this is probably where he became fataly ill: his 'trade' of lens grinding is thought to have precipitated his death (through T.B.). The poem is a kind of meditation on Spinoza's Prposition 3: When things have nothing in common between themselves, the one cannot be the cause of the other.

And the poets I am currently reading -- they're a proper, glorious jumble. On this table as I type I have Milton's Paradise Lost, The Secret Heart of the Clock by Elias Canetti, Webster's The White Devil, In The Shadow of the Silent Majorities by Jean Baudrillard -- okay, not poetry, but I like his linguistic playfulness, several Peter Redgroves, and Harrold McGee's Food and Cooking -- supposedly the foundation of molecular gastronomy -- I think of it as the poetry of taste. And Vasko Popa's Selected Poems. And then there's some writngs by John Cage whose prose, in my opinion, tips into poetry. Eclectic. And all recommendations for further reading would be greatly appreciated. Oh and the book I'd mentioned earlier to Keith, the Evclopadie Anatomica, all filled with the most exquisite and revolting wax models of human anatomy. Excuse any typos I've lost my specs again.

'Epicanthic' seemed the right image and the right sound. I'm a bit of a word-hoarder. Thank you Malcolm!

Sorry to go on: I hadn't answered Steve's question properly. I use technical terms for their precision and their intrinsic lack of emotional content and their sound. In the conext of Spinoza (and to some degree, Hitchcock) this seemed appopriate.

Well, it wasn't really a question, more a comment. I like that aspect of your poetry.

There are some contemporary innovative poets like Tony Trehy, Phil Davenport & Scot Thrurston that I've been reading recently. Trehy's 50 Heads book was, to say the least, mind-expandingly difficult.

Also been reading extracts of Charles Darwin, Paul Tillich, a novel Margaret Forster called Over, poetry by David Morley, John Ash and Geraldine Monk. Oh, and Alice Notley's amazing Selected Poems.

I'm familiar with Tony Trehy and Geraldine Monk -- and very taken with their work. To be honest, I do write what are probably more complex, head-bending pieces, but haven't posted any. Like you, I am drawn to the experimental and rate my more peculiar pieces more for the things they do to my thought patterns. I may well post one here to see if people flee screaming, or stay to pat.

Bloody hell Moxy - more difficult pieces? You'll have to give me at least two auxiliary brains if it's getting that much harder.

I've been writing some pieces for a while: about 'time' -- I even got to a point where I was almost certain I'd been able to write inside medieval time -- a definite not now --- if that makes sense. Heck, I'll sort out something and post. It might not be tomorrow since it's my birthday and I may just spend the day going berserk with balloons and cake.

Happy Birthday Moxy.

Happy Birthday Moxy!

THANK YOU! Balloons all round! I have a book about clouds and a birthday cake for later. See you all tomorrow.

Hippy bird day two ewes

and apologies for not being able to make the launch of Foreward next week - I'll be in Welsh Borders being inducted for the Writers In Prison Network.

'a pea bearth dai mox' John Virgo.

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I
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Here, have some balloons.

O
O 0
O O O

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Thank you everyone! I had a terrific day and some thoroughly odd presents. Last birthday my son bought me a second-hand wedding dress from a charity shop. This time he bought me a 'bald-head wig' ie it has a bit of hair towards the nape bit, and he also bought me an American G.I. style dog tag which was produced to accompany an anime film. He said both had to be worn with the wedding dress. So I did. Birthdays, eh?

Hi Moxy, belated birthday wishes, lots of smoochy hugs and kisses. My coms are really playing up so may not get on again - so if not will see you next Tuesday can't wait to meet you.
Hope you got lots of pressies.

Hugs n mush

xxxxxxxxxxxx

Thanks very much, Maggie. Mush is great -- I am having mushy peas and baked spuds for dinner so scrumptuous mush it is. See you on Tuesday, it will be lovely to meet you and the girls. I think there will be refreshments -- even biscuits, which will be nice. I will ask everyone to crunch loudly all through my poem. The other poets and poems are wonderfully and richly varied. I am the group weirdy/nerd.

And Steve, good look with the prison work. I'm sure you'll enjoy it, and the inmates will certainly look forward to your visits. You're very fortunate to have a formal induction. I was just dropped straight into working on Rule 43 since my placement was via BBC Radio 4. It was a terrific experience, though: and I went on to work on normal location as well, and at other prisons, and as writer in residence with a theatre company specializing in working with women prisoners and ex-prisoners and women within the criminal justice system.

We are very much looking forward to seeing the wonderful performances which no doubt they will be!

Sounds like you've had some wonderful experiences as a writer, I hope to work in prisons one day. I have worked in secure units with young people - it's incredible the amount of talent which these kids have, which few people pay any attention to