The Art of Genes

What riddle may be solved
by the expression of a gene,
or a problem be resolved
through an existential scene?

Conditions existential
are the metaphors of chance,
and natural selection
an analogy for dance.

For every time a child is born,
or seed grows into plant,
the trick that lies behind your eyes,
elusive as an ant

becomes an abstract metaphor
for nature's vital force
the software of the embryo
takes evolution's course -

a seed in tiny miniature
- the miracle of man -
and tightly packed within the egg -
life's grand genetic plan!
Should I be here?

Wide, shelving sands,
pale mounds.
Yellow horned poppies
fringe the edges.
Do not pick them.

The beach, tractor-cleared,
boasts a row of rainbow-
coloured beach-huts,
hard, rippled ribs of sand -
a surfer's beach.
If you collect the shells, first
make sure they are dead.

A narrow strip of
marram-covered dunes
backs the sand shelves
facing the Atlantic rollers.
Replace large stones
where you find them. Do not interfere
with intertidal plants.

Go barefoot if you must
but be wary of broken glass.

Obey the bathing-
water monitoring notice.

Do not deface the poster:
'No dredging for scallops'

Do not use the rocks as a playground.

Take your rubbish home with you.

Leave as few marks
of your presence as you can.

Film Noir

A story linked by flashbacks
endless breaks in continuity
shadowy half-flickering shapes
sharp angles of light
piercing together of action
in dark, filmic sequences.

Fragmentary frames
cuts of coincidence
shots of menace
linked by a laconic
offscreen voice.

Femme fatale
cynical detective
desperate war veteran
bound together in a captious cast
each wearing its own sublunar
prison mask
sinister shadow-face
moulded in moments
like a blue dahlia
by the suspension of disbelief.
The Film Show

They filed in: mostly older people,
a few youngsters.
Some had lost sense of dolly grip
or exciter lamp, but they came.
Edward debated over
chase movie, Chaplins or cliffhanger -
finally settling for archives

newsreel, then Buster Keaton.
He had got the films by
mail order - Columbia, Paramount
wouldn't touch him. At eighteen
frames per sec the projector rattled,
black-and-white images flickered
with illusory motion. Preferred to colour -

authentic texture, period flavour.
Patrons sat through silent serials
in specially converted barn
next to his rambling country house.
Costume props, cane and derby
rejuvenated memories of the greats,
old stars of the penny gaffe.

When an old steam train
came rushing straight out of the screen
in anamorphic vision, Edward was thrilled
to see someone jump from their seat
startled. The magic factory
had worked its wonder.
There were a few technical hitches:

hank of hair stuck
in projector gate, buckle switch
shutdown when fim became loose -
it all added to the atmosphere.
This was the real thing. Vintage movies.
He had his captive audience and, in real time,
he would collect the grannies.
Painting the Warmth of the Sun*

Warmth of St Ives harbour.
The lip of the night-tide
has slipped its moonlit moorings.
Painters and hawsers dance
in patterns of sunlight on water.
Little white houses, granite cliffs
wrinkle with texture.
Iconic modernism:
Hepworth, Hilton, Lanyon - art
glitter like chevrons.
Crescents oblate 'like the white sun's
spinning on the top of a copse'
Paintings are variegated mappings
whose sensuous rythms
swirl
with coalescent movement.
Exposed to sea-currents,
calligraphic, mobile
tides of memory.

* Title of a book by Tom Cross
Flavour of Provence:

Bottle of Bordeaux
Pungent smell of onions
Local, lush tomatoes
Rustic loaves
Convienient knife
From this tableau-vivant
Still life
Sunlight of Provence
Cascading on
Ripe, red tomatoes.
Cycling Days

Get out that cycle - let's have some fun
as 'Easy Fun Rides' kick off in the sun
dust off that bike you left in the shed
get out your cycle - you sleepy head!

There's 'Picnic 'n' Park', 'Special Needs Day'
'Human Powered Festival' - that sounds okay
Meet fellow cyclists - try out new tricks
but follow the safety code - don't be too slick

The Duchess of Rutland takes kids for a spin -
if you've a Brox Compact then you're really in
Then there's 'Castle Capers' - such modern designs
but always be careful to watch cycle signs

And in Abbey Park there'll be 'Come and Try'
In Tandem with Loughborough - hope it keeps dry
the fun-factors great and the gearing is too
Our summer of cycling should last all year through!
For Patrick Heron

Like Cy Twombly
wobbling
in lemon lamplight
sea-hawk
on lichen-covered stones.
Algaed patios
cornflower-blue
verandahs
and mottled effects.
In empyrean silence
cobalt violets reflect
Celtic citrons
impure
turning to green.
A touch of black
contaminates yellow.
The image
is an irony of violets
and vermilion.
Wobbly hard edge
abstract figuration.
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