Frances Presley

OCTOBER
ON NORTH HILL

bless test
mess of leaves
wings will not make
serious
back pack
stride
fern returns
leaf crisps
clenched
hear
here

~ ~
break stop wave
make it return
a flick of the wrist
she hasn't got
yet


who has not built
a house
will now no longer
will not build

no nay never
or some version
on the march
against
war


no more
builds now
who has not yet
who has not built
yet builds now
bilds


(this is the dialogue of memory)


bird rattle
sun slats
through dry leaves

like the turning
segments
of glass
at Foreland Point
occulting the optic



white outriders

over ride the line
...

Prone veering
Bell sign
Enters Fuji
Bell sing

Grasp maws
Programmed claws
Dance over pyr ric

Features focused
Eye tongues
Prest glass
Dance over lights

Less than thin
Steps away
Test bed
Of
Filed
Filings

Be a part of it
I want to

Blow your horn
Fit the battle of

Sally sally sally's army
Find us now and at the hour

Skies over
Heavens over
Fuji

Arterial tree
Gird her soft toys

Calm/
Ing piano
Issime
...

it's three bells
amplified
at the Arts & Media School

someone is breaking up
axing out
paving stones
in the quarry
malet bangs

the crocodile moves in
and spills the nuclear family
easing out the corners

I speak to people
They stop me on the street
They say, Betty, Betty,
This isn't right
He must come and speak to us
In the event of any war

there's a red curve on my cornea
a strange sickle
from the street's dust
which allows me to see everything
with my customary myopia

the archbishop designate
is worried that we see everything long range
and only God sees close to
he must be thinking of sparrows
which no longer fall
due to double glazing

2

few people at work
emails for absence
notes from a small office
messages from the Transition Advisory Board
we are in the process of being abolished
for the last two years

It's been endless all morning
Angeline complains
Nothing but personal accounts
or George Bush
or stuff on Iraq

no transition without abolition
messages from the
Modernisation Action Board
modernise
moder
mode
mod
mo mo

mooder mooder
...

And there appeared a great wonder in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars
(Revelations 12:1)
Who's that a-sewing?
Ann the restorator
What's she a-sewing?
Ask the restorator
A cope of the (indecipherable) sun

She was clothed with cords
and t ties
twisting out the sweating
minor volcanic
in the sewers of the ruins
the daughter-house
of the rere dorter
harebells in the runis

Who's that a-sewing?
Ann the restorator
What's she a-sewing?
Ask the restorator
A cloak of the (indecipherable) son

She was clothed with the sun
Mary the Virgin, Mary the engine
Origin and trenchant
More guy ses than sh®ines

she is the plasmic centre stitches a-bursting
closed with the one pome
granate

Who made the patches?
Who defines _______ the outlines?
Ann the restorator
Split between cope and car



2

Window through window
Push over Dis/
Solution
In the blue sky Scriptorum

Lady Justice said to me
She said, Christine
Tell me the truth
She said Tell me the truth

Show me the City
Show me the City
Of Ladies that you've built

Then Lady Justice
Led the Queen of Heaven
Into the highest tower
To greet all of us

She is clothed with a book
leaves dangling from her ear lobes
doubling her chin
folding on her belly
dancing on her navel
tasted with her seeds
pages gripped prehensile
letters on her (indecipherable)
scroll


CHORUS
...

Friday. Good

these black shards
scattered on the field
where sheep and walkers go

piecing together
piece work

R e p u b l i c
C h R e p u b l i c

Czech Republic

O r
n e t s ?
A r
n e t s ?

Hornets

black saucers
must be clay pigeons
tap they
clay
not plastic

come blow your horn

*
remembering semtex
the shifting sense
the shifting S

*

Site of Special Scientific Interest
see today
sea pitched
sea level
subsequent storms

the new salt marsh
no more freshwater
the salt line
grey grass
bleached trees
byre useless

sea birds
come skeeting home

walking back past lambs
he was talking ahead of me
about the Sibylline
lore and the ambiguity of
Sibylline law
...

the sound of the hoover:
(burrs catches on skin
furs throat lining
sounds like
the line under
the dead straight way)

turn around sound
catches its breath
bones and tiptones
the lining of my throat
the dust still vocal

above
her hoover movement
she is hovering
the altar
sun on green carpet

2

he was holding the kettle
above the birdbath
melting the ice

gold tipped wings
and straight back
against the low tree
holding their
(apple)
onyx

such an one and
such an one

beware the bullfinch
flat caps go flatter

3

pull
strike
pull

light lines across
the spiral steps

no
admittance


no trespass

step

across
...

thicker girth
not biodegradable
no need for secateurs

stay here
less than three
headland

ten years
taken out
stemming primate

It's funny that the leaves haven't fallen off

ever bronze
clinging acorns
fruit fruit fruit

new stems
new growth
these leaf formations

••
•

here the rings end
no further
to reason

expert cut
clear incision
-

new sidestem
is it too thin
will it continue?

how to prune
what remains
-

can a replacement
be a re placement?
too much competition

to rise above
or simply to leave
and let her go

••
•

arranged stone
triangle
her boots

any self respecting deer could have its feet in

the stone that is only a stone
at the base of brambles
between two beech trees

anxiety for the oak
which must either thrive
or

nettled frenzy
these laurels we do not want
though less invasive

mind shift
gear change
text expected
cyclist





the oaks planted in memory of my mother, Selworthy woods
17 Feb 2007
...

1

nest more
perforce
range up

naked boy
nay nay ced
head truculent cede

it has its spine
like a boy leaning
like a boy stripped bare

a green coat for the quartz
a pelt
let us pelt



2

the naked boy
rests into the stone
put him up against

what did he say

he's disappearing
he's going to turn right
he's climbing over the gate

two bodies that prop each other up
one animal one human



3

fossilised face
worn down
ossified
turn away

we have gone down
we have gathered
we have emerged

watching the wind farm

leave
drink
protest

high flown pheasant



4

he holds a lap
it shapes a lap

shIPS that we need?

SHAPES

shiplap
just the common name for over
lapping
slates and plates

we have overlapped





Naked Boy, a Neolithic standing stone on Exmoor
12 April 2007
...

here ti(l) la
my deepest breath
startling deer

stertling roil
on the ridge

she's here at last
the ‘veiled lady'

shepherde of the stream
no strange or rambling

look after each other
each
all one

with a plantering bosom
my own things get done last

patched patchouli
absterrent hardering

made hepworth
veiled but more expressive
than a gormley

look there's a small orange

the anatomy of sandstone
will not pister

‘d'où viens-tu bergère'?
not from the tour eiffel
or the mobile mast

tired of that ancient world
her masts are flowing familial
her masts
...

‘failure is not an option'



I

leans sideways
at an awkward angle
this is not the way to strain

gradual ceding
call it quits
double or quits

my double trouble
character gouged
smooth mouthed

leaning tower
kept leaning
lean times

monitored always
identify me with N
for nepus


C
A
R

Ā
A
C

I



chipped off
the block
pasted back
with pale pink gum


E
P
U
S





24 June 2007



II



‘The stone is so remote from railways, and the ways of Latinists, that it has hardly ever been seen by an epigraphist'

It is impossible to clearly show the inscription by means of an untouched photograph. So that the sizes and shapes of the letters, and the spacing of the inscription, can be readily seen, they have been outlined at the expense of naturalness

CARĀACI or Caratacus - Welsh national hero of early Roman days, taken in chains to Rome, where, according to Roman historians, he was given his liberty because they were impressed by his fearless bearing

NEPUS = Nepos (Romano-British reading) Sister's son, descendent, kinsman, son, grandson, nephew

One of the pieces was distinctly inscribed with and exactly fitted the fracture immediately preceding the EPVS. The N was cut reversed - a not uncommon error even nowadays

It is to a local hillman, unversed in archaeology, we must turn for the key to the re-discovery of the missing , for its jealous protection during many months, and for its fixing to the inscription in the exact position and with commendable skill

Carat - represents the passive participle of the verb, which is in Welsh car-u, to love





from Alfred Vowles ‘The history of the Caratacus stone' (1939)

Frances Presley
...