Pupil

Pupil

I could no more know
myself than this flame
seated in the air
one quarter of an inch
above its burnt root
- so self –contained a form
you’d think it held in ice –

no more know that flame
than one drop of rain
or a single leaf
let alone this draught
slicing across the sill
nudging the little
corpse-boat of a fly;

no more know you, fly
than this cat – the cat
perhaps but what about
the way it holds us
in a gaze so void
of an idea of self
our own can only fail.

Were we to return
that look we might learn
to take something from
nothing, might begin
to steady and see,
figure who we are
in that slit black flame.


Greta Stoddart

Memorizing

Memorizing:

1. Read the poem aloud.


2 Read the first line out loud. Take your eyes from the page and immediately say the line again. Check back to see if its right. If wrong, correct. Then do the same for the second line and all the others.

3. Now read the first two lines aloud, look away, repeat and check. Next two and so on.

4. Repeat with three lines at a time, then four, then five, and then six.

5. Now recite the whole poem and do so several times during the day, checking for errors.

The Pallace of Memoria

The Pallace of Memoria garnished with Perpetuall Shininge Glorious Lightes Innumerable

It's shut. And after such a climb!
A caustic drizzle slicks the deserted funicular railway
as the lights come on below in the abandoned weekend.
The distant band's just tuning up in the life you missed.
Your beloved dead are back there
getting dressed for their garden parties.
Yours was among the first families in Purgatory.

When you return now to your ancestral gardens
you hear always an orchestra distantly, carefully
mimicking the rain, or the sobbing of your national bird.
When you enter the deserted manor
you are often met by the police, who recognize you, bow
and torture you by weeping during their inquiries
as is the custom of your country.

Michael Donaghy