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stones from the beach, by J.B. Pick

 

cover illustration

 

 

Omen

 

A bird's path crosses mine.

X marks the spot.

I call this cross a sign.

The bird does not.

 

a line, (a blue one)

 

Shapes

 

Through these wild shapes

Does Shape shine forth:

An inner compass signs

The absolute North

 

a line, (a blue one)

 

Hidden nowhere

 

Dead water from a tap.

Live water from a spring.

Dead country on a map -

Sleep walking.

Unusual boulder speaks.

Hawk in polluted air.

Something the eye seeks,

Hidden nowhere.

 

a line, (a blue one)

 

The rule of law

 

Why should I fail the gods to satisfy

The expectation of the man next door?

Put off the impossible because

The Thing Committee's meeting on the tenth?

The gods of course know well I cannot do

Whatever they agree I must.

Such dull considerations aren't their business -

Nothing happens by the rule of law.

 

a line, (a blue one)

 

Accident

 

By accident the truth shines out -

And accident becomes design.

 

 

a line, (a blue one)

 

Clues

 

Whose voice is asking questions,

and whose eyes will hunt

For clues that no one scattered on the ground?

A definition proves the presence of a lack -

To know our lostness may mean we are found.

 

a line, (a blue one)

 

Boundaries

 

Life has no boundaries

Weather moves with us

Whether or not we move.

 

 

a line, (a blue one)

 

"Whaur's your Johnnie Walker noo"?

(A barman, seen from the top of a bus, pouring a nameless whisky into a row of variously branded bottles)


He pours with bored and sober hand

From nameless bottles into brand.

So God's dark fountain brightness pours

Into this dream of mine and yours.

 

a line, (a blue one)

 

Robin's song

 

An argument of telephones

By robin's intimate distance valued -

Sudden window of a lost mansion

Startled into light.

 

 

a line, (a blue one)

 

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