Issue 18: Ed Luker
(Tom Raworth Memorial)
FOUR POEMS IN MEMORY OF TOM RAWORTH
Under a bower
the head rests on moist earth
wetted folds in the neck evading sky
light flashes through blades
the blaze of warming heat in haze
a jubilancy, a shimmer,
a tremblant stress
of this rest drawn from the fresh dawn
as the sounds of words prick the ear
the clearing of light
pulled from the din
Ruminant,
in the midday sun
merrily I squander myself
drunk on borrowed time
as sheets of pollen lodge
in nostrils and on tips
across planes of separate interest
the twitch and sniffle
of seasonal joy
each sneezes their own regard
At the close
of the day
numbers
fall
from the sky
exit currency
burning a decimal point
through the solid earth
you know this
have seen it
sinkholes
thirty feet deep
what we call collapse
This ground beneath us
shifts in its constant
as we traverse the rise and fall
calling out the names
for those who have escaped us
we bring our flesh to our memories
press our memories into flesh
tied to a tiring expenditure
but still, effervescent in the crest of life
it’s the curvature of this skin
lost again in that slippage
a heart’s flutter at finger tips
a tripping spectral flash within
Ed Luker is a poet and a writer. He is the author of Peak Return (Shit Valley Press, 2014), Headlost (RIVET. Press, 2014) and The Sea Together (Materials Press, 2016). He is currently working on a long prose-poem on detainment and attainment called Universal Attainment Centre.
