Ciaran Carson

Gallery Books Collected Poems Contents was first published simultaneously in paperback from The New Estate and Other Poems and in a clothbound edition The Insular Celts page 21 on 9 October 2008 . St Ciaran’s Island 23 O’Carolan’s Complaint 25 The Gallery Press Casting the Bell 26 Loughcrew Interior with Weaver 27 Oldcastle Linen 28 County Meath 29 Ireland An Early Bed Twine 31 32 www.gallerypress.com The Incredible Shrinking Man Rubbish 34 All rights reserved. For permission Engraving from a Child’s Encyclopaedia 35 to reprint or broadcast these poems King’s Lynn 36 write to The Gallery Press. The Half-Moon Lake 37 The Excursion 38 © Ciaran Carson 2008 The Holiday 39 The Bomb Disposal 40 isbn 978 1 85235 432 9 paperbac k 41 9 1 85235 433 6 Dunne 78 clothboun d Fishes in a Chinese Restaurant 43 978 1 85235 459 6 limited, signed edition At the Windy Gap, 1910 44 Excerpts from a Tourist Handbook 45 A CIP catalogue record for this book 46 is available from the British Library East of Cairo The Rosary Rally 47 The Alhambra 48 To Margaret 49 Visiting the Dead 50 Eaves 51 Moving In 52 Our Country Cousins 53 Céilí 54 Blues 55 Great-Grandmother 56 Grandfather 57 Stitch 58 Post 60 To a Married Sister 62 The Moon Parlour 63 Tuaim Inbir 64 Belfast Confetti Belleek 65 Turn Again 125 House Painting 66 part one Smithfield 67 Loaf 127 Soot 68 ‘Plains and mountains, skies . . . ’ 130 Epitaph 69 Snow 131 The Lost Girl 70 ‘As a scarecrow blows . . . ’ 133 The New Estate 71 All the Better to See You With 134 The Patchwork Quilt 72 ‘I know the wild geese . . . ’ 137 Ambition 138 The Irish for No ‘To Lord Toba’s hall . . . ’ 143 part one Queen’s Gambit 144 Dresden 77 ‘These are wild slow days . . . ’ 151 Judgement 82 part two Calvin Klein’s Obsession 85 Gate 153 Whatever Sleep It Is 89 Last Orders 154 part two Farset 155 Belfast Confetti 93 Hairline Crack 158 Clearance 94 Bloody Hand 159 Linear B 95 Schoolboys and Idlers of Pompeii 160 Night Patrol 96 Barfly 163 August 1969 97 Jump Leads 164 Campaign 98 Question Time 165 Smithfield Market 99 Punctuation 171 Army 100 Yes 172 33333 101 Revised Version 173 Two Winos 102 The Mouth 177 Cocktails 103 The Knee 178 Travellers 104 Brick 179 Box 105 Apparition 182 Snowball 106 Night Out 183 The Exiles’ Club 107 Intelligence 184 Slate Street School 108 part three part three ‘I’ve just put on this . . . ’ 189 The Irish for No 110 Bed-time Story 190 Serial 112 ‘In Kyoto, still . . . ’ 192 Asylum 114 Jawbox 193 Patchwork 119 ‘Darkness never flows . . . ’ 198 John Ruskin in Belfast 199 ‘Eleven horsemen . . . ’ 202 et cetera 203 Narrative in Black and White Auditque Vocatus Apollo 311 206 ‘Wild rough seas tonight . . . ’ Solvitur Ambulando 312 207 Hamlet Vox et Praeterea Nihil 313 Graecum Est: Non Legitur 314 First Language Par Nobile Fratrum 315 213 La Je-Ne-Sais-Quoi Jacta Est Alea 316 214 Second Language Aquila Non Capit Muscas 317 218 A Date Called Eat Me Cave Quid Dicis, Quando, et Cui 318 220 Grass Labuntur et Imputantur 319 222 Two to Tango Quod Erat Demonstrandum 320 225 Ovid: Metamorphoses , V, 529-550 Omne Vivum ex Ovo 321 Four Sonnets 226 opera 323 On Not Remembering Some Lines of a Song 231 233 Apparat The Twelfth of Never 234 The Brain of Edward Carson Tib’s Eve 351 235 Opus 14 The Poppy Battle 352 238 Drunk Boat The Tobacco and Salt Museum 353 242 Second Nature Adelaide Halt 354 243 Correspondances Salt of the Earth 355 244 All Souls Nine Hostages 356 246 From the Welsh The Rising of the Moon 357 248 Sonnet The Rising Sun 358 250 Ovid: Metamorphoses , XIII, 439-575 Fairground Music 359 253 Contract Green Tea 360 254 Bagpipe Music Sod of Death 361 257 58 Lir 362 258 Ark of the Covenant Wolf Hill 363 262 Ovid: Metamorphoses , XIII, 576-619 Belladonna 364 263 Opus Operandi Wallop the Spot 365 267 Tak,Tak The Lily Rally 366 269 Latitude 38° S The Irish Exile Michael Hinds 367 273 The Albatross Wrap the Green Flag Round Me 368 274 The Ballad of HMS Belfast Dark Rosaleen 369 The Wind that Shakes the Barley 370 from Opera Et Cetera The Tailor’s Twist 371 281 Eesti Catmint Tea 372 letters from the alphabet 284 Spot the Wallop 373 Let Erin Remember 374 Planxty Miss Dickinson 375 Hippocrene 414 The White Devil 376 The Arterial Route 415 1798 377 The Groves of Blarney 416 1998 378 Finding the Ox 417 Drops of Brandy 379 Eau de Nil 418 Mountain Dew 380 Trooping the Colours 419 Saké 381 The Year of the French 420 Who Ploughed the Lowlands Low 382 Legions of the Dead 421 The Hag with the Money 383 Banners 422 Digitalis 384 Spraying the Potatoes 423 Lord Gregory 385 Paddy’s Knapsack 424 The Blue Shamrock 386 The Ambassadors 425 Sayers, or, Both Saw Wonders 387 Heart of Oak 426 Dancers 388 Envoy 427 Clonmel Jail 389 Milk of Paradise 390 Breaking News Planxty Patrick Connors 391 Belfast 431 Crack 392 Home 432 Jarrow 393 The Gladstone Bar circa 1954 433 Yellow 394 Trap 434 Twelfth Day 395 Breaking 435 The Ay O’Haitch 396 News 436 Centaur 397 Horse at Balaklava, 1854 437 The Londonderry Air 398 Russia 438 No Tengo Mas Que Dar Te 399 Shop Fronts 439 Found 400 Wire 440 Manifest 401 Breath 441 The Horse’s Mouth 402 Blink 442 Fear 403 War 444 Fuji Film 404 The Indian Mutiny 445 Con Script 405 Some Uses of a Dead Horse 449 Picador 406 Detail 450 Mustard 407 Waste Not 451 Banana Tree 408 In St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin 452 1795 409 Skip 453 Spenser’s Ireland 410 Fragment 454 Sunderland and Spencer 411 Campaign 455 The Display Case 412 Spin Cycle 456 February Fourteen 413 Spin Cycle 2 457 Harvest 458 Never Never 516 Théodore Géricault: Farrier’s Signboard , 1814 459 Birthright 518 The Forgotten City 461 Collaboration 519 Minus 462 From Your Notebook 520 Francisco Goya: The Third of May 1808, 1814 463 Prelude and Fugue 521 Last Effect 464 The Story of the Chevalier 522 Siege 465 To 523 Exile 466 Rue Daguerre 525 Wake 467 The Story of Madame Chevalier 526 Edward Hopper: Early Sunday Morning , 1930 468 Before 527 The War Correspondent The Present 529 1 Gallipoli 470 The Anniversary 531 2 Varna 472 Filling the Blank 532 3 Dvno 474 Peace 533 4 Balaklava 476 In the Dark 534 5 Kertch 478 Je Reviens 535 6 Tchernaya 481 Zugzwang 537 7 Sedan 483 part two Second Time Round 539 For All We Know Hotel del Mar 541 part one On the Contrary 542 Second Time Round 493 Treaty 544 Hotel del Mar 495 Redoubt 545 On the Contrary 496 The Assignation 547 Treaty 497 Revolution 549 Redoubt 498 Through 550 The Assignation 500 Pas de Deux 551 Revolution 501 Second Hand 552 Through 502 Le Mot Juste 553 Pas de Deux 503 Proposal 554 Second Hand 505 The Shadow 555 Le Mot Juste 506 The Fetch 558 Proposal 507 Second Take 559 The Shadow 508 Corrigendum 560 The Fetch 510 Fall 561 Second Take 511 L’Air du Temps 563 Corrigendum 512 Never Never 565 Fall 513 Birthright 566 L’Air du Temps 514 Collaboration 567 From Your Notebook 568 Prelude and Fugue 569 The Story of the Chevalier 570 To 571 Rue Daguerre 573 c o l l e c t e d p o e m s The Story of Madame Chevalier 574 Before 575 The Present 577 The Anniversary 579 Filling the Blank 580 Peace 581 In the Dark 583 Je Reviens 585 Zugzwang 587

Notes and Acknowledgements 589 The Alhambra To Margaret

The picture-house was next door When we stop To the laundry. I passed through clouds Wishing you an easy death Of boiling steam to a foyer Your pain will be forgotten. Marbled like the palaces of Pompeii. I will remember There is a smoky avenue Honey, snuff and whiskey, Of light that leads to history — the Fall of Rome, The copper bracelet on your wrist, The death of Al Capone; the instant Where the chariot wheels collide. The clarity Of the tainted water It is here I will kiss You had sent from Lourdes. A girl who will never be my wife, watching The Titanic founder for the second time Will it be like this, Through cascades of broken ice. A cold, sour taste, reminding me Of disappointed cures? I am washed back into daylight, To the laundry — sea-foam on the lens, Even the pearl Shirts and underwear revolving Forgets the suffering that made it In my struggle to escape the glass. And acquires an unintended beauty.

48 49 The Poppy Battle The Tobacco and Salt Museum

She wore the bit of the poppy between her teeth The Professor drove me into smoggy Tokyo Like a wound or a salve, while the ritual salt From the far-off airport in her unmarked Datsun car. Was spilled. The Civic Guards performed a somersault, Acid rain hissed down. She wore a green kimono. Then cleared their throats in salvo as she laid the wreath. Coded neon glimmered in a game of rouge et noir.

The former puppet languished in an unmarked grave. You took a certain exit out of Shinjuku, I’d read about it in a powder magazine. And found the Russian Bar the smallest in the world. Light glittered on a detail of the architrave You filled the seven seats and stuck to them like glue, In military hospitals that reeked of gangrene. And drank a measured amplitude of vodka, swirled

Red crepe fake felt paper poppy petals with their dot In momentary clarity. I smoked the Peace Of laudanum in everybody’s buttonhole You’d given me as broken token of the city. Exuded empty perfumes of Forget-me-not. Tobacco leaved and tumbled like a Golden Fleece,

I dreamed they had inhabited the planet Mars I peered into a microscope to see the salt With shell-shocked, pockmarked soldiers on a long parole: In pyramids of Ptolemaic eternity, Poppy the emblem of Peace and the Opium Wars. Whereupon we stopped at this short, temporary halt.

352 353 On the Contrary Treaty

It’s because we were brought up to lead double lives, you said. It’s like putting yourself in someone else’s shoes, you said, You were lying next to me, both of us verging on sleep. or checking into a hotel under another name

We always had to withhold ourselves from the other side, except back home you need them to believe in the fiction. guarding our tongues lest we answer to their outspoken laws. For this is not a strange country where you are free to be

And so we lost ourselves in the dark forest of language whosoever you like, to bask in the equable sun believing in nothing which might not be governed by touch in happy ignorance of the language. There you are not. or taste, the apple bursting indescribably with juice Remember those radiating pathways of Versailles where against the roof of the mouth, or the clean cold smell of skin. you confessed yourself happy to be known to none but me?

As our promise was never to be betrayed by our words Whereas here the insignia are all too familiar so we became our own shadowy police watching us, and country roads are walked in circumspection to music as loaded the long goods train clanks slowly towards Dublin, in order to encompass the other’s territory — we hear the shriek in the night from across the trip-wired this story we’ve been over so many times, inventing fields, that which we might have been had we been born as another, as the searchlight trawls across the bedroom window you turn as truly we tell them a name that sounds like one of theirs. towards me speechlessly and we look into each other’s eyes.

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