Matthew Caley will be reading at the Royal Wells Hotel, Tunbridge Wells on Tues 15 October. Joint online event for To Abandon Wizardry is on YouTube; new film poem...
on the arm of this great spindle-shanks, surveying her injuries
imagining a pride
or at least being able to recognise
a profligate soul of the side roads –
a footman who changes into chambermaid’s chic
then reads Crébillon fils’ licentious novel Le Sopha
how perfectly suited to being a lover!
we had six hours together
folded but unsealed in a trough of sleep or panegyric
O Mademoiselle… knowledge of your weakness is my leisure.
*
Absolute Gospel
As she breathes, breathes honey into rock
or the fragrance of magnolia petals
onto a Southern wind, what gets blown back
are the husky, salient details
that make any atheist talk
as if all four gospels
were burnt onto their tongue, horde a wondrous lack
as the track ends and the train pulls
out of that slow, licentious summer,
has them instantly comprehend
why this gilt, skinny white boy stands
armed only with a tack hammer
ready to take on thousands
for a single note from Blind Mamie Forehand.
*
Walnuts
Then the heatwave flinched
and trees arched upward as if
replenished when your
brown eyes tried so haltingly
to withhold a withhold a
tear and their surface
-s pearled darkly for about
one microsecond,
then dried. You told me about
your grandfather, walnut groves,
graves. My duty to
cave in to need, cave into
beauty at any
opportunity, but you,
you flirted with the waiter
and the five tines of
your fork lit up the rood. Then
the tear retreated
– your half wipe could not have been
lighter – but inside you were
irrigated as
after a long drought by a
dew so wet it would straighten
out the wrinkles on a wal-
nut to a tabletop. I
would have you in a
white vest, ravish you on that
table covered in
walnuts. Excuse me. I would
be dishonest with you but
for this shimmering
night and all propriety
outlawed. There, that’s said.
Contents List
11 Us
12 The Confluence of the Elbe and the Upa
14 Skinny-dipper
15 Man-hole
16 My Hypothetical Lovers
17 Foregone Conclusions
20 Bling
22 The Giantess
23 Hither Green
24 Thursday and Bladerunner from the Rental
25 My Mistress Doesn’t Like It When I Make Love with My Wife
27 The Kiss
28 Hat
30 Chamber Piece
31 Misery Memoir
32 Written Immediately on Waking
33 Eridanus
34 Her Sleepy Egypt
36 Archaeology
37 Acute Hot Knee
38 No
39 Buffalo Skinners
41 Absolute Gospel
42 The Sleeper
43 Los Angeles
44 Octopussy, 1983
45 Low Expectation Threshold
46 Quaaludes
48 Dry Land
49 If for You It’s Tuesday, for Me It’s Thursday
50 Immortality
52 Gursky
53 The Funicular
55 The Boulevardiers
56 Ice
57 Buds
58 Walnuts
60 Cloud-catcher
61 Plane Tree Outside the Ritzy
63 Laundrettes at Night
64 notes for The Plateaux
66 And the Horse in Each Movement
69 Equanimity
70 Arboretum
74 The Young Hegelians
76 The Salamander
77 Afterglow
78 Alacrity
79 The Hammock
Related Reviews
‘Gleeful cultural cannibalism. Hauntingly lovely, immaculately constructed. Apparently is one of those collections which makes you see the world as suddenly more complex, strange and fascinating.’ – Imogen Robertson, Poetry Book Society Online
‘Satirically playful, self-parodic, yes, but unable to conceal an emotional intelligence that lends depth and vulnerability to Caley’s voice even at moments of humour.’ – Jane Holland, Poetry Review
‘The most inventive user of the sonnet form currently writing.' – Laurie Smith, Magma