shadowgraph 94: beneath the iron skin
(poetry detected in antony hewish’s nobel physics lecture, 1974)

i

flash! – windblown, the

solar temples… (special speeds child-

ren.) nightlong: light chatter. (nebula; crab

apples.) shelters; the radio

calling for

rain

ii

‘different planets’ – cam-

bridge, manchester… (drugs; high

walls.) the knot before time? excavation: iron

soul. ashes – england collaps-

ing

    

iii

                                                                                    scattered: the astonished

dead. (‘within reach’? the wind out-

                                       side the plane…) math – father

                                                      figures. the scanned

                   

                                                                    of god. (inun-

                                                      data.) the floor un-

                                                                   der our

                                                                                                                    feet?

 

iv

               

                        clock: flat

            earth. (the world turned

        on our head.) concepts? crust-

            cake. bolted – iron

                           horse

               

v

                                                                                            hmm – ‘the uni-

                                                                             polar globe.’ (ah, the old

                                                              midas convertible!) ‘sorry?’: do unto

                                                   atoms… light; thought’s strain. a weird feeling

                                                                  of eavesdropping... stars – silence,

                                                                                                                small

                                                                                                talk

shadowgraph 111: profile in flames

(poetry detected in nicolaas bloembergen’s nobel physics lecture, 1981)

i

doctors tending to

wound. (saturn in the

sack, trying to maintain

his position…) freud cho-

king: ‘now the hole can

be eaten!’ the man well

on top of himself? ‘no

place to be’ – when

energy levels the

world

ii

controlled valence. (tera-

ism.) audiovisceral. the f-

lay & the light; ‘electrons

literally pulled out of their s-

kins!’ (the manner of fact?) in-

sidious; the effect that doubles

each individual… rising on

the backs of women. happy

ending? the ugly coup-

ling

iii

einstein & russell: ‘re-

member, another world is

impossible!’ (fallout? shame

on us…) the abandoned gates

of hell. vegas – caesar’s phallus.

(the proliferating profile; midas

coining himself...) the blind da-

ting history. nero’s defence, ‘

rome at stake!’ men firing

god 

iv

afterglow: the light-of-heart-

ness… (seriously pondering

the geometry of fog.) under-

standing? ‘beams collapsing…’

(nevada, one damned thing

after another!) lab; methane,

lamps flicker… deathbed,

‘time’s conversion’. new

genre: goddess-ripp-

ers  

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