Monday 25 March 2013

Escape

The ordering of the first stanza's lines was the final change before going to press. The poem was cobbled together from notebook fragments. As you can see, it's all a bit of a Lucky Dip.

"legless man on a skateboard slurps a red lolly"

"rats dream of lab mazes"

"Into the privacy of snow comes Europe's rebellion"

"it will listen rapt, to the symphony of what it must do"

"blue eyes - in swimming pool couldn't see them"

The poem and the movie were made years before I visited Egypt, which is a poor excuse for the movie having pictures from Morocco and India. "The night sky listens in awe/ to the symphony of what it must do" is a popular phrase, as is "I .../hold an uncorked bottle to my mouth/ two-handed like a clarinet and play the blues". Escape from what? Routine? At the end the main character's expressively at one with the universe, but it's a universe of blues - eyes and temple domes, the domes painted with stars.

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