for Michael1
1
Your cover is the khaki-green of earth, a colour that
distills soils and hints at your vocation. It frames a landscape:
Pencarrow – bisected by a dark defining strip,
the land reclining on its hip, before narrowing to a tail.
Somewhere further off it will vanish, as you vanished, an otter,
into the sea. Clouds are streaked with guano, although the birds –
there must be birds – have been absorbed. The foreshore
is bleak, stripped of all but breeds of bush, which angle
themselves against the wind’s unbroken onslaught.
But the sand catches fire, there is a light coming off
the sea and even the sky looks ready to ignite,
were it not for those earth-coloured bands
that marry with the scene, holding the present steady.2
The question is not whether, but how it will come back,
the land, the winter afternoon. Will it return in its raw state,
as a plenitude of little bays, each joined to its horizon,
the primitive, the unconstructed moment? Or shrink,
the instant you start trying to recall, to a handful
of windswept crescents – each one of which tugs at you,
eyes, mind, heart, and demands of you language?
Remember how, expended, a shimmering spot will dwindle
like a star. Words that hatch in its place let in contrast,
other homes and habitations that wash alongside
in your bloodstream. Washing Pencarrow out?Someone will ask. Shaped by encounters with elsewhere,
you possess answers. No one more attuned to catch
the twang of solitude adjusting to the ancient, variously
grounded, call of home. But let them turn your cover over.
You were born to that backdrop, to rock-littered bays
where tussock grass is blown towards the shore. There,
puffs of pale colour transcribe the wind’s elation.
Ivory through yellow, they light this stretch of beach,
witness to a kind of rapture in this unpeopled landscape,
passed on to your daughter, resilient as a gene.
- 115: SPACE
with A Sometimes
114: NO THEME 13
with J Toledo & C Tse
113: INVISIBLE WALLS
with A Walker & D Disney
112: TREAT
with T Dearborn
111: BABY
with S Deo & L Ferney
110: POP!
with Z Frost & B Jessen
109: NO THEME 12
with C Maling & N Rhook
108: DEDICATION
with L Patterson & L Garcia-Dolnik
107: LIMINAL
with B Li
106: OPEN
with C Lowe & J Langdon
105: NO THEME 11
with E Grills & E Stewart
104: KIN
with E Shiosaki
103: AMBLE
with E Gomez and S Gory
102: GAME
with R Green and J Maxwell
101: NO THEME 10
with J Kinsella and J Leanne
100: BROWNFACE
with W S Dunn
99: SINGAPORE
with J Ip and A Pang
97 & 98: PROPAGANDA
with M Breeze and S Groth
96: NO THEME IX
with M Gill and J Thayil
95: EARTH
with M Takolander
94: BAYT
with Z Hashem Beck
93: PEACH
with L Van, G Mouratidis, L Toong
92: NO THEME VIII
with C Gaskin
91: MONSTER
with N Curnow
90: AFRICAN DIASPORA
with S Umar
89: DOMESTIC
with N Harkin
88: TRANSQUEER
with S Barnes and Q Eades
87: DIFFICULT
with O Schwartz & H Isemonger
86: NO THEME VII
with L Gorton
85: PHILIPPINES
with Mookie L and S Lua
84: SUBURBIA
with L Brown and N O'Reilly
83: MATHEMATICS
with F Hile
82: LAND
with J Stuart and J Gibian
81: NEW CARIBBEAN
with V Lucien
80: NO THEME VI
with J Beveridge
57.1: EKPHRASTIC
with C Atherton and P Hetherington
57: CONFESSION
with K Glastonbury
56: EXPLODE
with D Disney
55.1: DALIT / INDIGENOUS
with M Chakraborty and K MacCarter
55: FUTURE MACHINES
with Bella Li
54: NO THEME V
with F Wright and O Sakr
53.0: THE END
with P Brown
52.0: TOIL
with C Jenkins
51.1: UMAMI
with L Davies and Lifted Brow
51.0: TRANSTASMAN
with B Cassidy
50.0: NO THEME IV
with J Tranter
49.1: A BRITISH / IRISH
with M Hall and S Seita
49.0: OBSOLETE
with T Ryan
48.1: CANADA
with K MacCarter and S Rhodes
48.0: CONSTRAINT
with C Wakeling
47.0: COLLABORATION
with L Armand and H Lambert
46.1: MELBOURNE
with M Farrell
46.0: NO THEME III
with F Plunkett
45.0: SILENCE
with J Owen
44.0: GONDWANALAND
with D Motion
43.1: PUMPKIN
with K MacCarter
43.0: MASQUE
with A Vickery
42.0: NO THEME II
with G Ryan
41.1: RATBAGGERY
with D Hose
41.0: TRANSPACIFIC
with J Rowe and M Nardone
40.1: INDONESIA
with K MacCarter
40.0: INTERLOCUTOR
with L Hart
39.1: GIBBERBIRD
with S Gory
39.0: JACKPOT!
with S Wagan Watson
38.0: SYDNEY
with A Lorange
37.1: NEBRASKA
with S Whalen
37.0: NO THEME!
with A Wearne
36.0: ELECTRONICA
with J Jones