This work uses part of my own family history, from the mid-forties, in Christchurch.
After being well-off during the Depression, we fell into hard times during the war,and had to live in sub-standard housing in a sea-side suburb out of the city. In the mid-forties we were able to obtain a State house In a new street, Auburn Avenue, in Upper Riccarton near Church Corner.
We were the first in the street.
My parents continued their decline, and eventually took their lives.
In this poem my parents are You, the children are We.
The dream-like recollection is set against the ideology of which state houses were part, and progress is provided by a ritual houseblessing, an alternative ideology, which moves the family group from room to room, part to part, of reality.
Most of the work is written in tristichs, and is to be read rapidly, with the emphasis on the first word of each line. Variations are placed for relief, and pauses.
Leicester Kyle
June, 1997
•
For my parents
For John and Sonia
And for lost Elaine
'Yes I know you're moving – in a circle, backward with boxes –'
of the WEIMAR BAUHAUS:
The complete building is the final aim of the
visual arts. Their noblest function was once the
decoration of buildings. Today they exist in iso-
lation, from which they can be rescued only
through the conscious, cooperative effort of all
craftsmen. Architects, painters and sculptors
must recognize anew the composite character
of a building as an entity. Only then will their
work be imbued with the architectonic spirit
which it has lost as "salon art."
Architects, sculptors, painters, we must all
turn to the crafts
Art is not a "profession." There is no essential
difference between the artist and the craftsman.
The artist is an exalted craftsman. In rare mo-
ments of inspiration, moments beyond the con-
trol of his will, the grace of heaven may cause
his work to blossom into art. But proficiency in
his craft is essential to every artist. Therein lies
a source of creative imagination.
Let us create a new guild of craftsmen, without
the class distinctions which raise an arrogant
barrier between craftsman and artist. Together
let us conceive and create the new building of
the future, which will embrace architecture and
sculpture and painting in one unity and which
will rise one day toward heaven from the hands
of a million workers like the crystal symbol of a
new faith.
carapacejourney to the Centre
aboveof the room
exoskeleton
the wall
reach out
and
Come with me
for one last walk
before you leave
Awake but keep
your eyes shut
your hand in
Mine so I can lead you
heavy on my arm
to places where we’ve
Stood before and seen
(centring) all those things
that one must
Know at your pace
to where we turn the T. V.
on and recollect the
Microwave over there
the clock you can hear
if you’re still a
Lot the book case
with the precious
books the
Chair where you sat to
rule the room con-
trol with flick and
Switch authority
remote and some
times actual the
Reading light the
desk for coffee
cups the stereo
Stay closed in
your faculties and
put your
Feet on the accustomed
places patterned on
the carpet worn by
Custom on those
places feet have
trod to the
Centre of the room on
the board that shakes
the table in the
Kitchen you can reach
to the taps all the
switches on the
Wall the spice tray
the notice board
and the door of the
Fridge when it
rattles now tell
me Consider
with both nostrils
shut both eyes and
your ears that with
Work and right
company life’s good
when made with
Pleasure in it
joy to ask
for talking with
Continuity if sense
enough in your
children if there’s
Anything else I’ll
ask you’re last alone
but not for
Long
There’s probably something good on telly
With information
and human interest
Time’s Out
and after us
Here
stand under the light
Let it be poltergeist
and zap things at you
during commercials
thin sounds
small change
recurrency
stay here
on the edge of breath
and be told
I know you will be happy
Out this doorout Again and on
with it
It’s long since
but you remember
down the passage
To the front
to start again
and go through
Now you’re empowered to
Order the past
in ways that will
help us all to
Plait those untied ends
you left entangled
and lying all over the
Place like weeds
like weeds to grow
rank in the mind
In order ranked
for vigour
Intruding on the
daily being
Staining from the
past the pure and
personal we’ll
Start again step
through the house
from front to back for
Recall and restruc
ture and for sep
arating out as new
Ore from a
parent lode that
holds the gold but
prevents
obscures
We’ll see if an
arrangement can
be made
for an elemental
freedom
in a vegetable
smell
The party proceeds around
the outside of the house
to the gate. The priest says:
Except the Lord build the
house their labour is but
lost that build it.
The priest makes a bless
ing saying: May God’s care
surround this house,
and light and love shine
on it.
Wide wide sky withthe Front gate
weather on it Cirrus
white on orange tiles
(bugle on a hill last
post)
and letter box
no gate back to the
wide wide plains
with weather winding
white above our
Face to the peninsula
cap of lenticular mist
one chimney and a
Stony path to the sky
one front door and a
box by the porch for heliotrope
One flat deck truck
with our small things
for five new rooms
and the garden grounds
of a corner house
first in the street
to come alive
one hope virginal
from a sorry past
one cat
the party stands out
side the front door
the priest says:
Behold, I stand at
the door and knock
says the Lord
the priest knocks at
the door and says:
O god of hearth and
home, make this a
place where the family
may find strength.
Frisson at a doorthe Front door
of hammered glass
to veil the evil eye
(safer in a suburban street
than on a common way)
We wait for a pocket
to give the key
and wait to see you
Unlock a varnished place
to use for years and
years from now no
Scratches on the
lintel sill no
sticky stuff on
Steps too new for
reference pluperfect
no past printed
Smell of the need to
begin a curriculum
vitae cuneiform of
Toe-caps dropped
toys chairs a
Wallpaper scroll
of scuffs an
Inadvertent tapestry
in negative
the group goes in
the hall the priest says:
Good friends we enter
this house in the name
of God Enter with
thanksgiving in your
heart. Come into the
Presence with praise.
Oh the smell itthe Front hall
lasts for months in
the linen cup-
Board of a bad
mix in a plasterer’s
brew of something
Ulcerous long curing
long healing to
welcome friends and
Strangers in scarce
entered in the
inventory:
Fred who teaches
Mavis who is
Christian Science
Sees sickness as
Caritas & Caries
The Halls whose
Kitchen part
Comes apart from
Ginger beer in hot
Holidays
Black Greta from
Lancashire and
Wayne who uses
Loud radio when
He’s gardening &
Doing as she tells
Him
Hector and music
al Mary who know
Some interesting
People in town
Mrs Frew with big
Breasts that puzzle
Me for a while and
Migraines in nor
Westers
Come after past
the Azalea on the
lawn and children
To the door and
enter in to dis
guised pasts and
Hyperbolic hopes
and gardening plans
(your forte) then
Take fright as we
Take care to
note the others
living here but
Keep distance lest
we see our shadow
on a neighbour’s face
OTHER
HOUSES
1.
Fred and Mavis
He stutters
stilted slight
She’s eye
black spider eye
jurnps to catch
Kind to those obedient
to her will
(it’s best for all)
and lurks to prey
A carnivore
at tea
“Garden up the square brick front
back the alley on the west
bare neglected in the cheap near
half way down the street”
2.
Mona and Vic
Vic’s in the bank
They’ve a son
out of Gone
with the Wind
Her nerves
are shot-to-pieces
shattered
breaking up
sensitive
and over-the-top
for a laugh
as she knows
“The west end in the double
lengthwise on the other side
weather-board and cream and
not too much space spending”
3.
the Halls
Eric keeps it altogether
on a bike to work
never misses a day
Gladys is clean
in a basic-duty way
and does the lawns
Neighbours down the road
think that people like this
should be sterilised
But the girls can read and write
and they fight
in their house
of asbestos
“Slip and chip
and grey sky walls
with only doors
and sills that show
black-back
for a time”
4.
Wayne and Greta
Wayne’s in the air
and flies away
sometimes
Children come
boys
And they stay together
though she rows a lot
and throws him out
the door
with chairs
and language
that someone
must have taught her
in Stockport
“Double tough for the other end
of quiet
divided house on half-carved land
2 sheds facing
2 homes
2 backs
2 front lawns with paths”
5.
Hector and Mary
Have small pretensions
made of small concealments
of virtues that when revealed
are bigger than those concealed
and disclose
persons more important
than anyone Auburn knows
We’re confused
and embarrassed
Some say there’s malice
in deception
“Warm wooden near Middleton Road
on the sunny side of the street
sheltered by the shelter-belt shell white
around the berry farm back bright”
6.
Mrs. Frew
Is mother of Gus
who I must
like
In hot weather she wears
small clothes
Her husband was killed in the war
and Gus is the man
She has poplars behind her house
that smell good in May
after rain
and hide
another world of work
on the other side
“A square
near the front
bedrooms up
live below
2-level box
sunporch live
and leafy”
the group moves
into the sitting room
the priest says:
How good and pleasant
it is when God’s people
live together in unity.
The priest makes a
blessing and says:
God, you have made
us to need each other:
bless those who live here.
May they grow in yr love.
A use from Greymouththe Sitting room
or Boggart-Hole-Clough
Jewry or Australia
We’re Polynesian
now we sit
for generations and
From these windows
see the world the
mysteries of south and
West where change
first shows spines and
cadavers of cottage
Frames settlement made
up and down the street
the garden trellised
First fenced hedged
and asphalt paths
that last a while but
Crumble like us all
in frost we sit
at wet day interests and
Plot Livingstone
daisies down the front
to the letter box for
Sun and dry weather
artichokes by the
compost heap for soup and
Vitamin C and wind
that doesn’t matter
in the family you
Plan your turnip
trick put yellow and
red after white to
Make the season
longer pink yams
Captain Cookers and
Interesting greens by the
fire always a fire
for cheerfulness as
Always a roast on
Sundays sitting round
the fire living quietly
not looking at you
the priest says:
You shall eat in
plenty and be satisfied
the priest makes a
blessing saying:
Bless the hands that
work in this place
and give us clean hands
for daily bread.
Strive struggle fightthe Kitchen
to keep this your way
and on the whole win the
Way of a house
to be pushed out of
shape into a round of
Love a museum
of a cupboard with
season shows of
Bird nest eggs
and jam-jars used
to precipitate clay for
Marbles quartz
river-stones worn
greywacke and jasper
window sills for seedling trays
and ripening fruit
borrowed knives
lost boards and
On the table
homework incomplete
deferred yet here
Your metaphysic makes
cook’s alchemy the
worthless turn to gold
Filters through this
room our world for
nourishment from nothing
the group moves to
each bedroom in
turn the priest says:
Guide us waking, O God
and guard us sleeping
that awake we may
watch with Christ
and asleep we may
rest in your peace.
Look east to the seaour Bedrooms
we’ve left behind
and the hills
With their residuals
of time unused to
make or build or
Grow down the road
of houses in tar
paper skin like chitin
draught
damp-
stop
No-one moved in
down that end by
Bathroom lavatory
doors of our own
and windows for
Various personal uses
a light for each bed
our refuge when
You’re taken by the
aches of age inartic
ulate and in yourself
Rage against the
going of those too
few things you love
You’ve lost the lead
the handle-fast the
knowledge of respect
We hide and read
comics that seem
more real and
Wiser or more
worldly-wise for
sleep and next day
the priest says: the
Lord watch over yr
going out & coming in
The priest makes a
blessing saying:
Blessed be Christ
the Prince of peace,
who breaks down
the walls that divide.
One morning Auntthe Passage
Daisy tells of the
sun in her corridors of
Power but only
because we listen
low in our room she’s
Coarse you say
common and so
it does up ours
When our doors are
open past the smell
from the linen shelves
(Ghost of a man
walled up you hint
to tease we half
Believe) lighting up
lovely and long this
small length of
Shadows where small
signs hide to jump
out bad Surprise and
Grow jump out
again on Christmas
Eve when you’re
Putting up the wassail
globes drinking after
work so bad about
Money what you do
with it and how
you like to get it
There’s nothing left
for Christmas or a
holiday or school
the priest makes a
blessing saying: God
of the night, make
this a holy and a
blessed place for all
who sleep here.
May your holy angels
guard them and your
blessing strengthen
A big room withyour Bedroom
furniture for when
you’re sick and the
Doctor calls for worry
in various subtle
forms the things you
Lack like money
good answers skin
on old sores and
Words for the
proper expression
of love so
Sore but it’s warm
new clean the sun
shines in and on some
Days it almost seems
that life in this
bruised bed is
Acceptable but it
makes you sick and
the doctor says you’re
Ill and need a
holiday in Fiji
you cry at the gulf that
Divides and the
vicar visits Dog Box
Lane hoping this new
Street won’t wear
him down and out
but if the
Answers you seek
are transcendent
they can’t fit the
Questions you ask
each day
after dishes or
Biking down
Waimairi Road
to work
the priest says:
Blessed are you God
of the rain, the rivers,
and the lakes.
You give water for
life and health and
to cleanse all creatures.
The priest makes a
blessing, saying:
Blessed are you
O God, our spring
of life and health.
New linoleum nothe Bathroom
drip damp patch
iodine stain no mould
Bath white
fit box
no legs
There’s a mirror
and a toilet
but no chain
(Though you still say
remember to pull
the chain)
In a room of its
own a big step up
to the benefits
Technology can offer
domesticated elements
water as we wish the
Electric tamed
to need windows
hold the wind
Roof the rain
power indeed
security in tap and
Switch to wash
enlighten stop
the dirt brought in
Which seeps and strays
and makes its way
despite the modern mind
the priest says:
The fruit of righteousness
is peace, tranquility
and trust for ever.
the priest makes a blessing:
Enfold this home with love;
indwell this home with joy;
build it in peace.
From the kitchenthe Back door
to the back
porch our usual
Means for in and
out directness
here immediate
Link with the
business end of
the house one
Door between it
and the world white
glass top to show
Shape and substance
of the caller go
to the front if
Formality is part
of the visit
like a tie clean
Shoes trousers crisp
to keep nonsense
from intruding
To the back
for modesty
or welcome
One quiet being
to another or if
threat to modify
The policeman
when he knocks
you’re out
We say while
you stay quiet
in the passage
That or be whirled
out of this aether
altogether
the priest says:
‘And they washed
in the Jordan
and were cleansed.’
the priest makes a blessing:
Blessed are you O god;
you give water for life,
to refresh and renew.
A trace in thisthe Wash-house
of bush and tent
and chimney tin
Over the porch
step up with a
copper and two
Tubs for Saturday boiling
by the paper (daily)
of the week
Rampage against
the ringworm scab
and other germs we
Stoke you stir
to keep it
in the suds on
Other days we
stack the papers
put the shoes
Cleaners on a
high shelf
frogs in the
Tub for a day
a good room to
keep the south
Out and the noise
of next door
and adding to the
Influence of
the business end
of the house
and recreation
the priest says:
Prosper O God the work
of our hands that we
may have joy in life.
the priest makes a blessing:
Be with those who work
in this house; give life
till their work is done.
With bicyclesthe Shed
and garden tools
a costly place
That you equip
from house sales
church fairs
Work mates
(those who talk)
and the pub a
Barrel for the
tools a mower
hose blades to
clip the hedges
and the edges
Something old that
might make good
compact stacked
and a wood-box
out behind
Five bikes for
escape to the road
(one on the
Bar) and the
river each one
out behind the
Farms along the top
of the stop-banks
for berries and a
Swim and those
matting plants
you say come
Down from the
mountains where
on the other side
(you still live )
the priest says:
The earth brings forth
vegetation plants yielding
seed and trees fruit.
the priest makes a blessing:
May the Lord God make
righteousness and praise
blossom here in beauty.
Your chance (thethe Garden
last) at order pattern
in a fogged-up
Life you can’t see
for growth rank green
of youth new soil
Cut the pasture
stack the turf
burn it into
Brick and black
spread then dig
colonially in path and
Bed
trench
sift
sow
spading raking
seeding aching
Flowers down the
front path irises
for an establishment
Flag poppies and
portulaca orache
high as the trellis
Puce beans and
scarlet running
up the fence you
Made for things
that climb out of
control and fright the
Street like your
cabbages and silver
beet and pumpkins
Dibbling in cabbage or
cauliflower plants.
Broad beans and
lettuce leeks kohl
rabbi radish white
peas
corn
cucumber and salsify
potatoes kidney red
Tomato plant recklessly
defoliated.
Russian red
tomatoes grape
and gold
Espaliered fruit
sweet peas and
trees for snow
to fall against
green trees
until
the seasons drag to drought
you grow slow
linger
lie
then die
limp
upon your own untended bed
I think
we had better see
if there’s someone who
can
come
Sow marrow seed as
shown.
SOME
THINGS
1.
a gramophone
of oak
comfortable acrid english oak
and records
in red and blue
imperial
for when the wind blows
from the south
on weekends
shut in
you spin and wind
for us
the Rheingold
blue rain falls still
past the hoherias
Schubert
is a song
Chopin
dark in our heads
you bless wet days
we want rain
for that we give back
all you are
with love
2.
Piled
behind the curtain
stacked
in the recess
by the front door
hall
sometimes spill
over and out
like a felled tower block
books
we read
with or without
your consent
with or
without
our own
no shame
like life
to be done
until we hold
volumes in a muesli milled
in our minds
melted in like chromosomes
to be part of us
in use to come
with life
3.
moss
on damp places
cold
where rare snow
lies
where winter browns
and frost
builds up crystals
with mud at the roots
together
so intricate
it’s everywhere
like moss
frozen
green
with lichen
on the tiles
and now back paths
and steps unscrubbed
a sign of eventual
success
of the earth and
welcome
that
green things and growth
need only rain
and a touch of sun
to turn a waste
to life
that
in a land like this
there’s no place
nothing
grows
even
on
houses
[There are some daysone Day brown
that music cannot clear
too dark to read by
too thick for light
soundless days
of brittle pattern fixed
like coloured windows shattered
by one stone will scatter
one easy stone
beyond repair
brown days of sulphur
fog days trapped
then you are unreachable
eyes stripped
to see self with no soul
your life’s run out
trickled after lunch
like something lost
off a floppy disc
and you’re by rote
touched only by request a ghost
so close you are to another side
clouds low
the stink of life unstirred
to end it seems a proper course
a logic natural
to realistic mind
stopped by duty habit
and back desire not to hurt
walk out
One step to end
the play
one day anticipated
for no cause
then gone
you are yourself again
when dark
you’re someone else
as we say of truth
when it must be deferred]
the priest says:
your spirit is given
as light to guide
and a sign to those
who find doors closed
Nowout the Door and
theredown the Path
you’re in the sun
Stay still
be warmed
don’t move
Lest you mis-step
after all this work
to bring you here
You’re so retiring
and we understand
but before you go
One last thing –
don’t leave as lightly
as you last did
You’re so caught
up in lichen and
moss the ferns that
Grow on them
with big plants in
a wild patch so
You can’t just
walk out of
work you’ve done
One house
doesn’t make
a village
Nor more
one plot
a park
You understand
so simple once
so plain basic
Advanced now
into a crowd
with advantages
Technology supplies
into a growing
glare of publicity
Which must have
made you uneasy
and a tendency to
Flee so marked
in those days but
(as you’ve seen) of
Necessity to call
you back on a
number of occasions
to keep you informed
In the future
for your peace
we can show you
On the screen
with microwaves
and cordless phones
and others likewise
that Jesus is a thin man
It’s no use trying
to pull yourself
together
It’s too late now
to even make the
suggestion
On the rooflater, at the Pass
of our world
at the Apex
and before abseiling down
we burn these words
to dust to
cast into the gorge
that you, a child
passed on this way
from coast to coast
as you instructed
Mother/Father
who warred among yourselves
the priest makes a blessing:
We commit the ashes
of his/her mortal body
to their resting place
We lay them on your eyelids
breathe them in your mouth
Words that let you live
pillowed you
gave air and speech
a common tongue
that laps the land
Let this creek interpret
in a running word
let it be
an open brook
a trickling truth
distilled
that you and we
are of these stones
as penetrable
issue from a crack in them
run common course
then fade upon the bed
face up
take to the end
detritus from the tributaries
leached from above
eroding and building
to burgeon and flower
Edelweiss cool
caladenia bright
light fell tarn
Brown orchid in
the brown bush
kea and celmisia
Vegetable sheep
chickweed on the scree
and all those
Freedoms you were
not allowed in a
civilised world
but took
•
Further Copies of this Work
may be obtained from:
Heteropholis Press
8/1 Ruapehu St.
Mt. Eden
630 9434
•
© Leicester Kyle, June 1997
•
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