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“Cronin Culture: Notes Towards A Definition.” MTC Cronin’s BESTSELLER (Vagabond 2001) Michael Farrell |
SECOND
Was a name under which I wrote no poems
A fond secrecy kept or meant
On such a scarlet day
Red gramophones red walls red canvasses
Sedition in the smallest rooms of the houses
Food at every meal
And men smiling
At simply any of the women
A total shadow cast to ground
By their lust
Only the dreamers still gambling with light
Flushed and unsettled
Crouching like bushes in the busy portals
Out in the yard
What more symbolic
Than a young cow
And less than an heir apparent
Though this was the native land of none
The grasses honest with each other
Swaying by the ears of judges
The dirt black
And mountains meaning something else
Than mountains
On such a scarlet day
Red closed up inside of books
Designed to cause fires
And love comes second
In the hole of the least animal
In which this shattering lies
A name heavier-than-air
MTC Cronin
cover
red (blank?)
if im the reader where am i from
every lie a statement. (each p. blank?)
getting things down / not self-expression, world expression
mtc
bestseller
are these not poems but texts a new kind of poem
is it bad taste to ask such questions
‘We have managed to compare a leg with a bowl of
noodles ... And still not panic’
an outrageous statement?
dialogue of self
counterculture (not steak & chips)
there are ways for readers to create rhythms
by p10 getting it
so used to shakespeare ... no... myself
the distance is important
who are
murmurs / chorus
unprose — torn
a new remains
what interests me is the task
affirmation ...
thoughts of rupert brooke — ‘Second’ could be a poem
of WWI & suggests the book in hand will catch alight
the trench ant: this is uncertainly living
(i haven’t read pat barker)
lines stuck together that are apart
the character from David Lynch, infused since
their reading birth —
the tension of the concrete v the dramatic: let’s
stop the road & have a play
red & white ‘Long live the new eyes..!’ bread,
potatoes ‘into’.
the post-lyric, the broken flow
B.C.A.O.
...language is...writers are
...
is it red — though
the poetry ‘lover’
the mixture of ic & the aic
the “welcome” ‘element’s’ nest
i wonder what words evoke
but the distance
?
, , , , , ung ung , , , ;
un — perfect spanish, much translation?
assertion over ode
if it’s personal enough
the bits that were wanted, & only
a space that can scream prose
a story & a thought
tunnels after maiden
what do they want
to the pillow
like a bone in an armchair
look to the sides of your surprise
red logic
am i
little elegy or
breezy philosophy
reading v bleeding
stronger than fullstops
the desire to reformulate
shattering all reading glasses ...
a hull, refusenik?
/ , /
can sexton be free
words as pictures
beckettian memory
o monologues
thanks more words!
rolling stones somewhere
the lack of superstition
building ...
inject —
(you want to)
hmm hmm hmm
whys there, division
happyunness
crockery
currency, layers
moving up (on)
necessary assumption
what are they here for
this idea
i be 4’11”
the uncomplacent
the practically timeless
hey?
pain creates formality, like late abba
it doesnt
you have
is it
there is one about an unknown man, what are they? what can the
world think? language supports? let them know about —
that cant be... so easily, each hue, the drama(s) (there’s a reason); old
but must be written, bombs or no jets, (they fuck it up, the mums & dads?),
unlikely emphasis; hitchcock-existential; because thats whats reading! (not
an object, a constitiution); the circuit ... merry-go-round: what
colour my horse? what, etc... ‘while I, sitting in the long
grass can like a / foetus, uniquely situated.’ (‘Mischief Birds’), can
i just run this by, the sound of an epic, joke, for young
europeans, sorry no turtles, talking to the writing, dear poem ...
back
[the toad car haha]
dont tell me ive gone too far, blancmange, living on the ceiling
(dont) kneel to the new
(‘eat it, just eat it’) (WAY!)
a normal swelling
without comparison
fade to ribbon
eyes out
Bio: Michael Farrell is the Australian editor of Slope (http://www.slope.org). His critical writing can be read in issues 5,10 and 14; also in Cordite 8 & 9 (http://www.cordite.org.au), Jacket 12 (http://jacketmagazine.com) and La Petite Zine #8 (http://www.lapetitezine.org). He lives in Melbourne.
To obtain copies of Bestseller please contact elizabethallen@start.com.au, margie_cronin@hotmail.com or Vagabond Press at PO Box 80, Newtown NSW 2042, Australia.