Jack Carey
Quest
They are doing algebraic equations.
Or trying to. Trying to snare
The elusive identity of X, track
Down the mystery value with the strict
Tactic of logic. In these dry scales,
They are told, plus times minus
Is always minus. They hear the rules
Vacuum-sealed, do not connect
With their own lives. They are
Nonplussed by algebra. Outside,
Under the woolly-wooded hills, the blurred
Blue, their identical houses
Are brutal in clarity meaningless
As stale dogma. Perhaps they suspect
That an X that can be precisely
Weighed in mechanical balances
Has no value. They want the mystery X
That knowledge won't stale, this blur
Of understanding their most effective
Counter to the planned, brutal
Logic of the ultimate minus.
poetry magazines' note: Reproduced with permission of Yvonne Carey.
Page(s) 265
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The