THREE Poems/
THREE Dances;
Ritual / Bacchic /
& PYRRHIC
Jazmine LINKLATER
If you are reading on a telephone, we recommend these poems be read LANDSCAPE so as not to disrupt linebreaks.
RITUAL DANCE
i.
The Gesture of Salutation rises diagonal
easy eyebrow line begins from nostril edge
opens the face: I come in peace I carry no weapons
Presencing that, presencing this no confrontation
acquiescence/invitation, even.
We are plastic arts: viewer, sculptor, painter, piece
bridge gaps ‘tween worlds: even when they’re spelled.
ii.
The Gesture of Supplication has arms raised
hands plead, as if for rain
as if to lift, separate the lashes.
iii.
The Position of the Dedication of the Spiritual Being
should reflect total commitment of body & soul.
The soul we never speak, could not locate
colonised, cut off, prohibited
sold back somehow some facsimile.
In shops & salons now we make our praise.
In discount Radox bathwater make offering
sacrifice hair coolly blade the skin.
Imitate
incite desire, embody ideal.
iv.
At temple we soak
bleach-white cotton pads in products pure:
opaque transparence it’s the lies that sell.
We want & so accept the surface
not in ignorance, ignore the damaged truths
Latin-cloaked ingredients impermeable language medical
trusted source, amen.
v.
Hierodules we exist in
links ‘twixt objects
(observable/seen).
What if glass were mirror?
Vanity, your anger is not pure
it’s neither heat nor smell nor aura.
BACCHIC DANCE
Flay the one
you want to wear.
Flay truth. Your ribbons cut through history
like wind cuts through
small spaces pushing leaves aside.
Aural residue
embalms this present
/past (appearance)
abandonment
(apparent). Take tambour’s beat
you back arch
bacchic spine
a curlicue just like
his pards just like
& like & like:
flex & veil
taut in feline flow.
The
shoulders
roll
like waves
blades blunt
in prowl & leap
like gently discombobulating dreams
contortionist, contort panthēra to pandura song
its padded velvet
purr pulls shallow
in mimetic present dislocate
& you in all your music & dexterity
how does it feel
to never truly know?
Night’s rhythm
knots knees
the working leg
extends a new religion in technique:
fool viewer
to belief
)
komats
punctuate like kymbalon their two
truncated spheres
stroke time
(
count dotted roebuck skips & land
with skins between
your toes: hard wet red satin bulbs explode
Aphrodite’s toss
wins, O loving~knuckle~bones
the game is hard to play
harder still:
catch the prize
so all in name & lyric
so all & all unknown
like this like this
& this & this
PYRRHIC DANCE
The beginning and the end is breath
& aspartame stagnates a suffocating twilight.
Attention to a life leads one
out to something larger:
petition for the 49,000
cover ground firm step strong
(strike fear in the enemy).
Motion takes on meaning’s weight
weight increase momentum -
where going is unclear
until you start to get there
(the pace of flowing into war).
Movement is primary
& out of movement: approach / withdrawal.
It revolves one long moment
circle round one centre
(exceeding that circle, breaking
line / limit / laws (natural geometry)
& sticky crystals clamp the breathless twilight.
Sing a song: you’ve been within
the other person's skin, or mind, or body
finding a degree of latitude for self-expression
too oblique—too danger—
They are seen to employ ‘relaxation’
(the coming away from a position).
[this is not progression]
Deserts don’t blossom rose
light tricks, lends form
to formlessness (oasis).
Selective imitation what’s petitioned for.
[[forgiveness]]
& it is twilight still.
What can't move, can't think / feel
—no malice, venom; cowardice no sneer.
Embalm innocence by signature’s sweet myrrh
& cassia; furtive animals eternally disgraced,
name’s sin embalmed by document & history.
The kinetics of the thing off-
beat, the stance off-balance
we are no longer dancing.
The moment: repentance » initiation
absolution spinning boundless, this
outward form conceals, reveals
a hope & proffers twilight’s darkening
solidity (in new line drawn
its jarring end a masquerading
cadence suffocate, imagining that they
could give permission, for being as it is.
Notes
These poems write through Cynthia Carr’s short text, Classical Greek Dance in Festivals, All England Dance (2008), and collage or paraphrase a series of source texts
RITUAL DANCE—
‘even when they’re spelled’ borrowed from Amy De’Ath, ‘Vertigo Valley’; ‘neither heat nor smell nor aura’ paraphrased from John Berger, Ways of Seeing. BACCHIC DANCE—
‘like gently discombobulating dreams’borrowed from Lila Matsumoto, ‘I Saw Her Know (ii)’; ‘hard red wet satin bulbs explode’ paraphrased from Anne Carson, The Beauty of the Husband; ‘like this & this & this’ borrowed from Emily Critchley, ‘You jerk you didn’t write me back’.
PYRRHIC DANCE—
In 2013, Alan Turing was posthumously pardoned for the ‘crimes’ he had been punished for under homophobic laws. In February 2017 49,000 men were subsequently pardoned posthumously; those still living were given the option to apply for a pardon, should they wish. Lines borrowed variously from: Scott Thurston, Reverses Heart’s Reassembly, Veer Books (2011); Daniel Stern, ‘The Issue of Vitality’ in Nordic Journal of Music Therapy (2010); Oscar Wilde, De Profundis (1913 edition).
In 2013, Alan Turing was posthumously pardoned for the ‘crimes’ he had been punished for under homophobic laws. In February 2017 49,000 men were subsequently pardoned posthumously; those still living were given the option to apply for a pardon, should they wish. Lines borrowed variously from: Scott Thurston, Reverses Heart’s Reassembly, Veer Books (2011); Daniel Stern, ‘The Issue of Vitality’ in Nordic Journal of Music Therapy (2010); Oscar Wilde, De Profundis (1913 edition).
Jazmine LINKLATER is a poet
& writer based in Manchester.
Her work can be found in Datableed, The Literateur, Zarf, Paratext; her first pamphlet is
forthcoming from Dock Road Press, Liverpool.