Toil
‘When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength;
a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.'
GENESIS, 4:12
Plough salt. Tomorrow: manna. Today: the usual. The not-quite-open field. The earth. Plants. Six
sentences makes seven. Any size beyond us may as well be infinite. A fountain at the heart (there
always is). Nine sentences makes ten (a maze). Foundations. Working in Demeter's grain. Already a
repetition. Itselfing. A multifaceted word, desire. Worked up. A notch on it. Stack. ‘Prodigal, nova,
nuptial.' ‘We died as we'd lived: thinking, talking, fighting.' Sight, that most developed of human
senses. Savage the ‘other' other. ‘You're gonna need a damn big pair of wings to get up there.' ‘My
halo's slipped, but it's still there.' ‘I get excited.' Tell a better joke. The principles of spring. Spoken or
unspoken of. You need some words of truth. One of two strife-broods: the good. The bad: makes war
and torments. Steer clear. (Their tempers are distinct.) Meaningless motivation: out of envy. Write this
in an inner place. A listener at debates. Keeping food concealed, concealing fire. Wealth as
leverage. ‘An affliction in which they will all delight.' Go-between. Sport as thunder. All the fun
of the fair. Go-between, god-killer. Bass and shouting, singing. Near & not. Words make noise. ‘We'
should follow suit. Intentional dissonance. Feel useful (kept marginal). Teapot on a tower's top. Wept
virginal market futures. Film plus book. The sheep abscond. Abound. Away (with words)! Our joy
in scale. Reaching for the wrong word/letter. Unnatural history (the origin of the specious – spacious
specious). The blood pressure machine. Crucified pen on a notebook cross. Plant poppies in the
winter. Comet falls at school in dream. Just nose in. 69 as ideogram. Half-cathedral. ‘Darker aspects of
walking the earth.' Return of nails. Sour biscuit-y smell of John Smith's brewery. Taking notes sets
you apart. Wordwatching. World watching. ‘Lucky Stars' Chinese takeaway has closed down. Bulbous
phallus. Implementing the Lexical Approach. Putting some welly into the whole endeavour. ‘This
poem might just transcribe you, but where does it leave you, actually?' Choose. Work is a four-letter
word, red letter day. ‘The timing evoked Greek tragedy: triumph followed by disaster.' Stevens is
kind of/kind to poetry. What is seen? Stand back & look. Stand still. Gotta work. Lackawanna. Force
of civilization. Listening a spiritual exercise. For ‘gleam' read ‘glean'. Is love of nature hardwired?
Sentimental gush? Give an arm and a leg. Owls cause insomnia. A warding off. Weather exists in
days. Notes at inopportune moments. Bedside lamp's easy glow. New girl. Uphill. Exhilaration.
Sphinx in the centre of town. Comfort of another day – tomorrow – another shot at redemption. Fat
chance (thinner now). A ‘complete plays' projected. A stipulation. Shot. Ducklings paddle hard
against the flow. Adding few things. Post-temporal doctrine. Read footnotes backwards. Entirely
balanced person. ‘It's your job to listen, punk.' Our species suicide. Easy to do wrong. Is He a-
wake? Keep that line fed. Hell-o lover. Drain. Inventories of ivory. Body of the text. One word has
power over you. How come? Nimby. Nimble. Nibble. Not for her: remember. Narrative that emerges
is a form of fall. Impious and infuriate question! Insane deliverer! Temperance Hall and Mechanics
Institute (Erected 1850). ‘SMASH THE ELITES'. ‘FUCK THE POLICE'. ‘COME IN'. ‘CITIZENS
OF LEEDS, WAKE UP'. ‘SPECTA'. More intelligible scribble. Be in doubt, dwell in doubt, live it
all out. Put this to use. Let it happen. Work it apart. ‘I missed yr birthday.' There is a gap here. Whiz
through this. ‘Little hoover.' Babies making babies. Blurts to that effect. Red-brick horizon. Two-
tone: hazy and vain. Advertising something that is gone. Under the hill. One asks why. Crush that
nonexistent, slightly brighter hall. ‘Potentially contaminated protective clothing should not be worn
at the servery.' By order. Entropy as native state. ‘I'm just not selling this, am I?' Uphill. Factory in
a factory. ‘Don't trust them a mile.' Cue donor, tepid, dumb: too arid a model. Engine revs like purring
cat. Wood saw a woman's screams. Trees gone: road visible (from window). Pass. For life, not just
for Christmas. Worker (and working). Succumb, readily, to Torschlusspanik. ‘Sweet toil.' Head of
speed. Ahead of schedule. A true independent. Green fuses. Abode. Looking on another, singing
sings of love. ‘Song-gratifying' days of work. Mentioned or unmentioned or. Thundering on high, as
ever. See and hear in order to make judgement. Two broods on earth. ‘You, foolish, listen.' Set in
the roots of the world, rousing up even the shiftless. Making strong oppresses strength. You, foolish,
‘want'. You ‘want' all this. Adaptation to another frame. Hastens to plough and plant and manage.
Preserve it when not in use. Height declension. Keep your head down. Keep the gods sweet. Took a
good while to recognise rain. Saint. Start at the beginning. Begin building narrow. This is the worst
season. Morning, the instigator. A bad time. Doomless days, nothing to offer. Work upon work. Work
without hope. Semi-culture (serried-culture). Days of great benefit for men on earth. Few know it is
best and what is its name. Coin. Song without limits. Rumour too is somehow a goddess. It is better
so. Best after sunrise; worse towards evening. Few again know it is best. Much thwarted, swift ship.
Harmless towards evening. Progress as ‘movement through' rather than as ‘progress'. The invincible
weather. Holy grain well-rolled on the threshing-floor. A kindly day for making a sheep-pen. Good
for planting and for being born. Singeing foodskulk. Grown close in thought. Bellowing bulls and
toiling mules. Excellent for mortal tasks, such as gathering glad grain. Do not offer false tongue. The
birth of oath, bane of perjurers. Property is as life. ‘As soon as size of the crow's footprint is matched
by the aspect of the leaves on the end of the fig-branch, then the sea is suitable.' Ship the lesser and
bolder. Indicate them in your labours. ‘Been keeping account of ‘account', just as you suggested.' A
friend on a par. Many guests or none. Tongue's best treasure. Look askance at them all. Remember:
good brings good. Or not. Kick & keep kicking. Avoid this strictly. Its inauspicious cries. Time a
warning. Carry this with you, as you would your. A high-floating spider spins its spans. Path of fine
singing. A dire fate is attached to that. Penalty for a time. Haste for home. Carry this on. You, foolish,
attend. Turn yr blight-witted heart to trade. Get a raucous crow. Bigger vessels. Expose them to the
sun, think of ploughing, lodge firmly. Take out plug. The donkey a saint. Dry days beware. Rest yr
poor legs. Spur them to thresh. Hay and rubbish. Level on level of manufacture. ‘A lot going on
overseas.' How would they go as they try to avoid the white snow. He falls among them. Even those
with fur a-cold. Blowing through, not round. ‘He makes an old man bowl along.' Horned and horn-
less alike gnash wretchedly. Binding opposite ways. Dust-blown. None too cheerful. Flowers & lambs
& bombs. Take heed when you hear the voice of the crane from on high. Stings the heart of man &
ox. Go at it. Get it done. At home, beforehand. Stay inside. Banish cobwebs. Crop his foot in his fireless
dwelling. Toward community/territory. Little in the crook of yr arm. Rage being calmed. Confident
you will be happy as you draw. Ears may nod toward earth. Listen, you. A bass note: the tonic. A
young man a-flutter after his fellows. Language, grammar, of enclosure. Carryhouse climbs the plant
to escape. Comes forth into sight. On scant warp wind woof in. And a proper hat too. Envelops you
and wets. You, foolish, attend. Bad days: ox-flayers all. Boundless woes. It smacks of levity. It
tastes of transgression. A fountain. An offering. A bass note: the tonic. Unempty the empty De Chirico
plazas. Everything manifesto. Guide book guide. Pacific fed through a nozzle. Light is thought. Past
is past, is past. Offend reality. Identity is maintained. Move oceans. Imagine how our (corp-
orate) blood might gush so. Arrange it so. A bass note: the tonic. ‘Fête and refreshment.' Fate and
resentment. Urban pour. Poor doubt. Fed in cycles. Relaxed in public. Drink from this. Jet forth. ‘Farm
the notion of obsolescence.' Useless joy. The cool hard joy of the utterly superfluous. U top I. A
bass note: the tonic. All perceived. A canter up the hill into the market. Brummie sky. Cameras
catch minds. Popular specs. Wax surface. Echo of echo. Echo of a bass note: the tonic. Eyes
catch hell. Flak. Traced over limits. Borders in no sense. We are water. We need glitter. A Big Top
tent. Everything in war is war. Shopping trolley dodgems. Fountains' looped ejaculate. Go to bed
the citizens. Thought is not patient, it is rough and of the earth. Butter wouldn't melt. Polis is shaped.
Fire music. Water music. A bass note: the tonic. Earth music. Air music. Aired opinions. Earthed
opinions. Grounded. Grungy. Grim. Fountains I have loved. Glee-gymkhana. Happy to fly. Buy
affront. Mobile skin of thinly passing liquid. Water features face. And its affiliates. Collide with
leaves. Baroque sediment (domesticated volcanoes). A bass note: the tonic. Mirrors see mirrors. Made
environment. Little resistances. Fluent exchange. Watering place. Rhythmical slip. Mobility
down. Eidometropolis. Seek rerouted Chandos letter. Apt to hurt. Denizens ‘of the City.' Ruin
building. Bass note: the tonic. Forget much. Remember more. Remember much. Forget more. And
then: a move away. Tomorrow: manna. Today: the usual. Plough salt. Were these notes of any
use to you? The ends. The dregs. Crazed dog in search of food. Can sew can sing can sieve can
contemplate / Its muddy place in time, in thought; can cleft / To its original. You, winsome, left / An
elegant construction, second-rate. Worst towards evening: ends . . . dregs . . . all these gifts . . . .
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