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"i got a letter this morning
what do you reckon it read?"

the foetus' lungs are full of amniotic fluid
in utero it only hears bass notes
and sounds in proximity, mainly the mother's

"hanging in warm blank nothing"
rhythms of speech, heart
beats
mother's walking
walking blues
long mesmeric rhythms

"it said the girl you love is dead.
i got a letter this morning"

the foetus lungs are full of amniotic fluid
tho there's no air it hiccups
heart beats
walking rhythms
the foetus kicks
reacting to something against
the soles of it's feet
learning to breathe, learning to walk

"what do you reckon it read?
it said the girl you love is dead"

"the pressure is gentle"
in utero the foetus only hears bass notes
and sounds in proximity, mainly the mother's
it's already learning
but not the concentrated energetic
learning of the toddler

"just hugging the pillow
my baby used to lay"

"the intrepid emptiness"
the foetus' lungs are full of amniotic fluid
it kicks at something
against the soles of it's feet
it hiccups
it's learning to walk and sing
call the world to life
songlines
walking blues
"contact is never broken"

"hanging in warm blank nothing"
long mesmeric rhythms of song
slow pulse of Son House' blues
"i got a letter this morning
what do you reckon it read?
it said the girl you love is dead.
i got a letter this morning
what do you reckon it read?
...i didn't know that i loved her
till they began to let her down"

"you begin, once again, to test it's properties"
rhythms of speech, heart
beats,
long mesmeric rhythms
it's easier to react creatively by accident, as it were
here would be photos of faces
with surprised or puzzled expressions,
objects upside down or suspended
objects in water
objects and people isolated against large
featureless, single fields
"the intrepid emptiness"
"contact is never broken"
walking rhythms
the foetus kicks

"just hugging the pillow
my baby used to lay...
looked like 10, 000 people
standing in the burying-ground"

"a mercurial silver ... it covers your ... arms"
the perfect poem would be a scream
or as Beckett
"Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness"
exaggerate
uncover desireable characteristics
the foetus hiccups.
speech.
the zigzag path
cut up a hill
for Kiarostami's film
to slow the eye,
herring-gull chicks
peck at a stick
with three red stripes
better than mother's
single mark
the foetus' lungs are full of amniotic fluid

"i didn't know that i loved her
till they began to let her down.
looked like 10, 000 people"

rhythms of speech, heart
beats
mother's walking
walking
"this new stuff has filled you now
beyond the point of feeling"
learning
the concentrated energetic
learning of the toddler
pick up and concentrate on a coloured block
drop and forget it run next door, a recorder
drop and forget it, the coloured block, back again
learning everything
colour shape size material properties
all at once
"you begin, once again, to test..."
mother's walking
walking blues

"standing in the burying-ground"

the foetus' lungs are full of amniotic fluid
"floating, weightless and pending"
art can't be real
each practice
favours a sense, and
one way to experience
concentrated energetic
but not learning
not in that way
more like tapping
a beak.
heart beats
walking
long mesmeric rhythms of song
walking blues
"contact is never broken"
in utero the foetus only hears bass notes
and sounds in proximity, mainly the mother's

i learned your body
your movements at night
"just hugging the pillow
my baby used to lay"

©mattdalby2005

You can see the poem in it's orginal context and find out what is what in this here blog post by mattD.