i
(lentemente)
Hansel and Gretel wander lost in a wood.They should never have been there or here.
They should have resisted their step mother.
They should have berated their weak father.
They should have done this or that
and now they are lost, tired, hungry,
near a pretty candy house in which lives
a witch who waits to welcome children
then eat them.ii
(andante)
more purposeful perambulation, now in a strange forest filled with exotic birdsThe forest is lively with the sounds
of wild birds. They have names
but the children have never heard
these words, never seen such birds.
In the dark branches of fir trees
birds whistle or shriek or chortle.
They make this little known wood
which is already full of terrors
more fearful. Fear fills both children.x
(ridicolosmente)
an absurd clown or mechanical toyHow it has no soul
but is animated.
How it is driven
but there is no driver.
It moves this way then
stops, jerks to go
another way, hits
against a trunk, upsets
itself but its legs and arms
where it lies on the forest
floor, still twitch, still
operate. The children
watch, nearly laugh at the toy
but cannot make it stop.xiv
(feroce)
a savage chase around a country fairHe goes after him, past the merry go round
and past the strong man who could carry
the burden of the world on his shoulders.
Ah ha, the persistent and the dangerous
chase that threads through gaps,
between a couple about to embrace,
or a crowd round the coconut shy
behind a man who tries to throw
a ring over a shining foolish desirable
thing. Under awnings and behind the tents
a man runs, another chases with an axe.
Fearful and urgent, this flight.
Unceasing and determined, the pursuit
to see, to chase, to have, to hold,
and axe.xv
(inquieto)
a disturbed, obsessive expression, possibly of life in communist RussiaAs a filing cabinet shuts with a flat noise
so these days make a grey life and cheerless.
Here are the lives of prisoners who are innocent.
Here is snow and ice bound rivers.
Here are persistent police and correct
decisions and the typed reports
and a frozen ideology.
The churches locked, their maintenance
abandoned in these cold days
where there are bleak, short days and sunless.
Where a metal filing cabinet closes the gape
of its drawers, slides shut.xvi
(dolente)
a wailing peasant-like lament, recurringI don’t want to leave this far away country
for Ohawe Beach but dolente, the word.
pulls me to a bach and a lament next
door all through one summer night.
We did not know the word kuia.
An old lady had died we said.
The woman I stayed with, called
next door ‘to pay my respects’
she said. That sounded foreign,
a phrase you could italicise.
The night was short and the night
was still except for this improvised sound,
organised by customs I did not understand.
It was years ago this happened.
I was sixteen years old. I remember
that grief in Taranaki, the wailing
that excluded me.xx
(lento irrealemente)
surreal, releasing us finally from the microcosmic world Prokofiev has held us in.There and there and there,
two lost children,
one dark wood,
We too feel lost.
in the middle
and fearful.
The cries of birds
disturb us unnecessarily
or we watch a pursuit
at a fair, the chased
and the chaser fast
through crowds,
the chased man gained
upon but never caught.
What they did was watched
from a concrete office
observed, noted, filed
There and there and there
until we woke
or until we found
our way through the wood
or stopped.
We emptied the offices
and filing cabinets.
The mourners stopped wailing,
went back to ordinary lives.
Mary Ayre played nos i, ii, x, xiv, xv, xvi, xx from Prokofiev’s Visions Fugitives Opus 22
in the Nelson Cathedral on 29 November 2014. Her programme notes included her idea
about each vision. It is her notes I’ve italicised and used to start each section of this poem.
- 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