Port of disembarkation
Jan. 11th, 2005 09:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
imomusA jet is not poetry
Shooting fire at the lands
Behind it, rejecting them
Violently.
But Japan, port of disembarkation,
Is poetry. By means of violence
I have arrived at poetry.
Electronic birdsong at the station,
Clear green tea.
British Airways lost my suitcase,
Typically.
The seatback map at departure showed hell:
Our position over Watford, Clacton-on-Sea
Rising through storm clouds, high wind.
Here, beyond turbulent Siberia
I'm 10,000 kilometers better off.
The sun shines. The suburban train is
Refined.
'Japan is green', I say,
Because Japan is yellow and I am blue.
'Japan is orange,' says red you.
Reading Sebald's 'Vertigo' I watch my fellow passengers
With the eye of Chris Marker, 'Sunless'.
An elegant ghostlike woman
Drifts towards a stranger's shoulder,
'Regains her composure.'
Tinytidy houses, sunshine on the superlegitimate
City, so endless, so modest.
The electric transmission whines.
The afternoon is restrained, delicate, delicious.
Tinytidy mountains, temples, crossings chime,
The chime bends, fades.
Businessmen austere, schoolkids scruffy-giggly,
The women graceful, or outrageously sexy,
The children indulged.
Advertising seems more self-consciously Japanese
Than I recall: more kimonos, bamboo, plasma screen TVs.
People click at flat tablets - a new model, swivel screen.
But an unemployed man asks me for money:
'I lost my work, even 100 yen...'
I take tea, a hot bath, an afternoon nap,
Far from home, and home.
Shooting fire at the lands
Behind it, rejecting them
Violently.
But Japan, port of disembarkation,
Is poetry. By means of violence
I have arrived at poetry.
Electronic birdsong at the station,
Clear green tea.
British Airways lost my suitcase,
Typically.
The seatback map at departure showed hell:
Our position over Watford, Clacton-on-Sea
Rising through storm clouds, high wind.
Here, beyond turbulent Siberia
I'm 10,000 kilometers better off.
The sun shines. The suburban train is
Refined.
'Japan is green', I say,
Because Japan is yellow and I am blue.
'Japan is orange,' says red you.
Reading Sebald's 'Vertigo' I watch my fellow passengers
With the eye of Chris Marker, 'Sunless'.
An elegant ghostlike woman
Drifts towards a stranger's shoulder,
'Regains her composure.'
Tinytidy houses, sunshine on the superlegitimate
City, so endless, so modest.
The electric transmission whines.
The afternoon is restrained, delicate, delicious.
Tinytidy mountains, temples, crossings chime,
The chime bends, fades.
Businessmen austere, schoolkids scruffy-giggly,
The women graceful, or outrageously sexy,
The children indulged.
Advertising seems more self-consciously Japanese
Than I recall: more kimonos, bamboo, plasma screen TVs.
People click at flat tablets - a new model, swivel screen.
But an unemployed man asks me for money:
'I lost my work, even 100 yen...'
I take tea, a hot bath, an afternoon nap,
Far from home, and home.
city artist vs small city artist
Date: 2005-01-11 02:31 pm (UTC)i also wanted to share & ask, if there's time.
What you though on city artist vs. small city/country artist?
this seems to be a silly question but i like looking at this, and i'm even deciding on a move based on it, somewhat.
a rough list - of city vs small city artists i'm listening to today:
city artist:
black dice
animal collective
momus
white magic
devendra banhart
boredoms
small city/town artist:
the microphones/ mt. eerie
lighting bolt
feathers
bonnie prince billy
joanna newsome
little wings
bobby birdman
Re: city artist vs small city artist
Date: 2005-01-11 04:44 pm (UTC)If you drew a graph connecting each to all you'd get groups but not, I think, a 'big city group' and a 'little city group.'
In your listings, there's more stylistic connections between a 'Fort Thunder group' and a 'new English Folk' group (and then a bunch who don't comfortably fit into either group (like our Momus)).
Re: city artist vs small city artist
Date: 2005-01-11 08:04 pm (UTC)- MIKE "L.A." FIELD
Re: city artist vs small city artist
Date: 2005-01-12 09:30 am (UTC)Always has been a quick way to decide who to take seriously. At least for me anyway.
Re: city artist vs small city artist
Date: 2005-01-12 05:15 am (UTC)-jon arno (NYC)
peace
ps momus japan is full of love.