Brian Morse
Against Intellectuality
Monday
, I sunbathed by the riverattempting an early summer tan,
fat, diffident in the sixties,
soon gaining confidence to absorb
the light framed sun: walked
and watched in clear pure ripples
the trout stand mouthing up the stream.
Today, at night, it hails and thunders,
a plane, high, further stirs the air,
rephrasing a further dozen relevancies,
worries, confidences, tasks and fears.
Uneven tatter of rain against the window
extends the day's uneven pressure.
Watch my body in a hostile mirror,
the wind growls, self-conscious, disbelieving
beat of a ragging drum. Shielding my eyes
from the light, I continue
Celine's 'Voyage au bout de la Nuit'.
Written in bed on Wednesday night.
Friday. The moon was shining at the window.
When I came back to watch it,
I was unlucky. It had drifted through clouds.
Saturday. Greece has a coup, in France
two deputies duelling. Smoke too much.
Finished the book
and began one by Stendhal, this time in French.
Walked four miles, the weather is warmer.
Birds leaped on the river, swooping
with a faint touch of beak or belly,
or idled through current or eddy.
Found a dead trout on the second bend from Fairford,
my only catch to date. Observed a girl in a polo-necked jersey,
observing me. I kept my pose.
Sunday. Success. Have lost three pounds.
Page(s) 274
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