Tuesday poem #532 : Russell Carisse : from In The Margins

 

 

[left margin of The Penguin Book of French Poetry 1820-1950. trans W. Rees (Penguin Classics, 1990) pgs 514-5, 522, 552]

 

On the pavement
opaque,
advertisements
Someone invisible
of light
Apathy falls asleep
Uncomprehended
on the move
by the city wall
in the wasteground
and drags
ragged image of the
Inside sheds
Indistinct men
quivering glazed
laterns. Voltaic
staircases. . .The
waterspout. . .The
wound-riddled
twists and arches. . .

* * *

Hands in hands
The bridge of our
gazing

Let night come
remain

Love passes away
How slow life is

Let the night come
remain

Let the days pass
love comes back again
flows on

Let night come

* * *

I found myself under
plants, the clusters of
the secret
      flesh, facing
tomorrow
queyside all wet
sound of the sea.

 

 

 

 

Russell Carisse is currently living on unceded Wolastoqiyik territory in New Brunswick. Here they have resettled from Tkaronto into an off-grid trailer in the woods, with their family of people and animals, to grow food and practice other forms of underconsumption. Russell is the author of chapbooks, BRICKWORKS (Frog Hollow Press 2021), and English Garden Bondage (above/ground press 2022). A further above/ground press chapbook is forthcoming. Their work can be found online and in print.

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan