oh-zones ELIZABETH-JANE BURNETT
oh-zones Elizabeth-Jane Burnett
NEWTON-LE-WILLOWS
Published in the United Kingdom in 2012 by The Knives Forks And Spoons Press, 122 Birley Street, Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside, WA12 9UN. ISBN 978-1-907812-88-0 Copyright â“’ Elizabeth-Jane Burnett, 2012.
The right of Elizabeth-Jane Burnett to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents act of 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher.
Table of Contents
preface
5
available sky
7
villanelle in green
9
sharks, in their absence
11
refuge wear
13
bees
14
women “nature vs robo�
15
ex-pastoral
16
whords breath-chords
17
sun-chords
18
preface oh-zones are attempts to find forms of embodiment in environments and language under pressure. There is a progression through the sequence from the position of an observer of transitions between rural and urban spaces, through to a sense of selves acting out in the world (and the limitations of what can be achieved in times of natural disaster) and on to a more integrated embodiment of, and in, nature and writing that produces something other than “nature writing.” “Whords” – words experienced as chords – explore simultaneity in perception and identity. Breath-chords couple words of the same length in a breathing motif, while sun-chords integrate whords into the haibun form, with each word in the central section corresponding to a musical note. The expression of multiple simultaneous perceptions allows a figuring of the paradox of being at once part of nature and removed from it. There is potential here for living more organically through and with language and space. The heartache in stems, the resilience of pink and the necessity of sharks inhabit these sensory-zone-poems; inhaling, releasing and resonating through stress.
5
available sky -brockley to london bridge
funding cuts and corporate sluts sprayed platform colours are dumped pink salmon youth centre goldsmiths sainsburys the only sun bursting orange over dreams beds @ low prices 1/3 off hugs with your son if you see something suspicious press the sky sags with trees bedecked with plastic bags from costcutter jewels hang from cranes round this neck of sky as available business space leaves on line fast trending into spring colours blown through calves of air extending past the product placement gusting neon super market lights dispersing daylight filters through London is rooting every item to the earth discounting nature ducting
7
dew that falls electric over flower grass or spray tanning the air with glare of retail light clutter excessive quiet sun
8
villanelle in green -worcester park to waterloo
asda, with your green light I prefer you to lidl in that moment’s flight between glass and light I prefer you to lidl asda, with your green light what a feeling a delight is flashdance the musical sublime in the half-light of asda’s vast spot-light vertigo-like in middle of revolving kissed light embracing it like kim novak suicidal I take flight into sainsbury’s orange light reminds me of lidl but not quite sunlight is not like the light that lights lidl that light is a stiff light it irons the air bright yellow with red middle bricks of sick light this whole sky is a tricked light
9
seeing is reversible light flight light flight like all the light in sight is impossible unless viewed inside out Iight I look out of light it is april the sky is an apple
10
sharks, in their absence in an ocean healthy coral is first borne out by presence of sharks, in their absence, scientists determine the entire ecosystem is under(dressed duress house or hold kerosene with flowers arm the retro domestic for a modern spill through rubber) pinned by marigold skin sugar-coated spin of sea at 30 degrees these deeds seethe (look up controlled environment marigolds) as the soft collapse of coral barely registers as nudity washes backless over water freshening as one thing becoming other retrieving still something from some original in an ocean evidence of healthy oil is first borne out by drops into industrial splits the skin of it quaint to think of drink or touch an ocean broken I collected BP tokens got a mug and a glass and a nicam video recorder by sticking green shield stamps into an ocean of evidence of slip
11
if not reef then tongue if not gulf then stream actual physical evidence (CNN run curved fish rubber trust mis-crust or incorrectly sheathe with panoramic gold slick silk/smear stack/flat the names of everything: flora, fauna, Shell, sea through this transparency: who funds poets but poets who funds ethics but oil) who reads anything now that is incredible read: credible but poets, in their absence, sharks
12
refuge wear - after lucy orta
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in a life where everything is falling disturbance is routine unchecked as air unblueing I try to cleave the colour pull oxygen shrug tighter shouldering planet’s tension as my own undoing everything unbuttoning in the tear of matter my temporary refuge wear is part-kagool part-canoe part-sleeping bag I chafe across car parks searching for a blue fix just one to take the edge off there is too much I am trying to save and say nothing makes a dent I’m too soft a protest rests inside polyester a light fallout with each unfastening wave
13
bees breathing bees wild thyme navy and caramel are neutral territory a zip through the middle of everything vital is folding the head is antennae the body reducing the form of a sentence black atoms in a new unsolving
14
women “nature vs robo” original cotton robot wrap around ribcage for new twist on classic pink on branch or online women-nature pitch drones in the product detail of official store of urban leaves, trees etc buds in the vegas blush of palette #4982 you are at: home with flowers add to wishlist swallows above and beyond women “nature vs robo” wish bone t-shirts in store for another encasing
15
ex-pastoral I have gathered all this opening in the head gathered up like crocuses you took as proof of something public, out there, so I can’t take it back arched I gather up the parts you took as proof of our being there, warmed into postures the sun expects of us and language likewise lazily opening a shot, suddenly a wing in the head a pulse a flap of blue snapping pulse petals drain suddenly a blue breaks with responsibility owed bodily tuning one atop another blue blue arms with enough pluck to pop the swank of the pastoral a sudden refusal to lap or blossom regularly black blue
gun blue
shot through and through stems still warm from bed awakening through a red filter to the sun already moved on to another
16
breath-chords ID ebb
her
hill fall
soft risk
hand held
flung lungs
falls fills
lilac wager
heart curve
tender exhale
sucked inhale
chance exhale
velvet inhale
breath looped
browser sunfall
whether weather
flutter moments
shutter balance
scented beating
lavender downfall
unclench sunspent
coupling sequence
wireless exposure
uptouched rainprint
flattened riblocked
butterfly breathing
spectacle streaming
repetition technology
mechanised vulnerable butterflies downloading
courageous structures
outside sensory
attentive landlicks
intricate parallels
lungfill attempts
volatile branches
bothing breaths
17
transitory fingertips
sun-chords begin with inhale together breathing syntax we arrive at words
cut at the gap; lung-heart, shaft-light, dog-rose; living in cuts made in and out of language, the shallow end is populated by sunflowers above and below the city centre is no longer scarred by luxury, carrying warning hot shivers over barcodes, every exit radiates in spring chords throb hesitating to rent or own a high-rise blue nymphs open afternoon curtains onto traffic un-herded shepherd-boys shimmer in taxis over the river and lift greenbelts open housing pink sunset clouds unbuckling traffic cost low
low hot hot litter litter filter filter
hot litter
litter filter
litter filter
clouds sunflowers cost filter clouds traffic cost
traffic cost
low litter
litter
low litter
litter
clouds cost
warning hot shivers shimmer and lift open pink unbuckling clouds
18