Robert Stanton

Tone


(for Tom Raworth)



Sea saw. Blooded. Doors open to. In an aside. The swan-dive reels back up as tape rewinds. Bury
   the sight. (Experimental arrangement: sensible shoes, pounding the pavement in tandem; playing
the fool in public, decibels above the yuletide norm — though it is spring.) Castling. Desirous. Odd
   but false. Watch running water. For an age. 'Consistency' was thought to be a virtue. Unable to
awake. In dream, the drum-roll in the (imagined) Hayden symphony heralded bombing in your Leeds
   district, fire-twisters, and (eventually) a nuclear strike, the TV turned inside out. (You had said, in
the dream, 'Listen to that drum-roll and you know what's coming.') Outside cockerels and caffeine-
   induced rumblings likely aural matrix for all that. Nanotech. Memo-ray. That kid will now be acutely
embarrassed, forever doubting her parent's authority. 'Refuse to be put in this bin.' U Saw. Empty
   rooms in the house at night (it's dark outside) resemble the inside of your head: physical mapping

to mental mapping, mental to physical, physical to mental; layer on layer: habit. Flow chart, chart
   flow. Follow. See 'AMBULANCE' correct in rear-view mirror. I is the 'other' other. Ambiguity
invites interpretation ('Don't be shy'). In the photograph, Nicole Kidman playfully berates her
   photographer — he has distracted her from her kneeling, single-minded devotion to the star. Bass
of voices on TV downstairs. Not just sunny day distortion: a permanent dust-cloud from the building
   work. Slight, but definite pleasure of feeling bite's indent into a wooden pencil. Pronouns verb the
noun. Our obscene leader. Ergo, mal. Monitor. Tell that to the dead people. Guilty laugh at dirty joke —
   alone, but still felt guilty. Imitate the precision of a scientist. Sudden breath like a) dying wasps or
b) backwards guitars. Sink heavily, muse. Comma as a claw, bearing meaning in. Dead coke bottles
   upside down, in bin. Stone plus fossil. Earz opund. Adult I. 'PEACE' written on the walls of an

abandoned church — someone murdered dumped in the churchyard there last winter. 'Ant-war' for
   'anti-war' (shades of Thoreau?). Progress by seize and seizure. 'Terrible/aboriginal/calamity.' Jayne
in cheery mood. A 'global footprint'. Hey, you were nine days away from your first birthday then. 'He
   needs enemies.' Start counselling/constellating. Where are your books? Annoying little dogs bark in
stereo. Adapted, in part, from life. Oh, 3 days (guess) before the war: IslAMic AWAREness Week: holy
   foregone conclusion or pleasingly optimistic? (In retrospect [partial — 5 days into war], that last
sentence looks pretty f**king dumb.) Police sirens sound like America. 'Bear across.' All team sports
   are basically fascistic. All team sports are basically democratic. All team sports are meaningless. All
team sports are a microcosm of human life — the hunt, community, kill, the celebration — at its
   most basic level. Vicious pruning lies ahead. Ego as survival trait. Enter the mirror-trap, Alice

or Orpheus. 'Lose identity so you might stand forth.' Sort of obscenely, the war is, yet isn't
   everything. 'Psyche's solitude resembles Pound's at Pisa.' Anywhen. Elsewhy. Serving one another
in love. 'Ah, sleepy' — response to embarrassment/pressure (desire for narcolepsy?). Exhilaration is
   acceleration. Sick at act of war. 'Specific hermeneutic acts.' Writing on the back of progress. 'No
one has ever written me sentences before.' Reiterate again/Be attitude. The (elitist) sense that 'high
   culture' must be protected in this time, smuggled through into the (hopefully) coming age, as though
under a coat. We live in fire (Calvino's fire). We are like monks. Skip, edit; edit, skip; jump; montage/
   montage/montage. The statement surrounds you. Every word a lie. Burn track. Burn toast. So they
did eat and drink. For to get out of the rain. The prank generation. Looking forward to explaining the
   narrative twist. Bee attitude. Surrounded by your plants. 'I know where it is, but where is it? You

know what I mean.' Watch running water. Sitting amongst others. 'SCOUSE'. The revolution will not
   be American. What happens next? Writing leads to sleep. This offers that. The ridge effect of writing
with a biro. As he retches, paw comes out of his mouth. Ambitious regression. Three people in a room
   are a mob. Words are, too often, dangerous. Haphazardous. Shadow equals sun's writing. Ambient
language. Mere sentience. 'A traditional business devoted to traditional service.' In that dream, Rilke
   gave a reading in the chemistry department — then lectured, smartly, on poetry. Sirens still sound
like America. Religion as rec-ollection (bumping up the facts). Medieval Display Room. You're it (get
   clean). Pretty much pear-shaped. Words pour out. Water distortion unplugs plug. Metaphor is carried
over. 'Bear across.' 'I have more to say!' (in plaintive tones). 'Your slogan here.' Literally true at each
   point of the circle. We will bury you. Opposable thumb vs. genocide. Urgent desire to play Iannis

Xenakis's music to Charles Olson. borderline idiocy. Projecting a future Arcadia. Feeding ducks leads
   to green bills, death. Narrow, feint, ruled. 'Essential' is not an essential word. Neither is 'is'. Mere
revision ain't enough to raise a smile. Anti-model. Public burning. Extended foetal imbalance. Clean
   war. Crown shyness. Lived-in modernity. God-given chord-change. Assumption: long legs equals
short attention span. (First time you doubted God? First time you saw the sea? First time you knew
   you would die? You don't recall.) Jet sounds like directional (?), man-made thunder. Is thunder the
'sound' of lightning? Is lightning the 'shape' of thunder? Hmm, temporal discrepancy equals dumb
   questions and category mistakes. Many jobs today are about structuring the void. 'Hallo, Me!' Re-
state your desire for vatic privilege. Words that I came up with. Taking you forever to read. 'Let's
make a name for ourselves.' Join the party/dots. Claim another victim. Say 'conversation' not

'dialogue'. Say 'boss' rather than 'main man'. In sport, the body approximates itself to outside rules: a
   microcosm. Tennis as physical chess. Phonetic and/or frenetic activity. Life-as-race. Ad-vice. Neat
lines divide. Chord-change-from-God (who must exist). The chord exists. Ad-vice versa. All those t-
   shirts? Made man? Main man? Maid Marion. Bull & jet & greyish stone. Serendipity: 'A lovely
discovery made by accident'. Find the whole thing stupendously exciting. Answer equals yes. Beautiful
   Fireplaces. 'Sofa so good.' 'It's sold by Jump.' Hole in the wall. What happens next? Your logo is
logocentric. Lococentric. 'Me, a sentence?' Incongruence makes for art. Coat hanger hangs from a
   coat hanger. Train the eye. Seal sticky. How to have flings with words. 'I don't trust myself.' Dis-
combobulated, you fled. Prominent, conspicuous, salient. Idealised corn-fed maiden. Enjoy. Out-
   standing. White & Haggard. Book: God's natural emblem. Find this information sort of grim. Please

turn over. Enjoin. Be serious for a second. Viva meadows. Fatigues. Fatigue. Four people in a room
   are a cell. If you remember correctly, Rilke's poem about the birth of Venus concludes with a torn
and bloody dolphin. There's a sickening discrepancy between male 'circumcision' and female 'cir-
   cumcision', so why use the same word? Mouthful workshop. Hunting is freedom. Poem containing
whatever. Sheep almost saying 'moo'. Isolated BT phone-box equidistant from four farms. 'Urban
   Spirit' replaces 'Antiques Market'. York station is very cold. Most modern art equals adverts for
a worldview. 'He felt something inside him, possibly his heart, liquefy, rise up, and pass out through
   his eyes, as tears. He thought he might never stop.' A poet's jurisdiction. The representation of space
through space. When I go / out I'm gonna go / out shootin' / not when I die / when I go / to the club
   stupid. The obliteration of sound via sound. Dildo rodeo. Unstate the fact. 'Off the wall' and 'in

your face'. Everyone in this room is someone you could have sex with. Ever since mentioning 'sea-
   cows' to David, umpteen cows turn up in Maximus. Unidentifiable shards of music amidst the general hubbub.
Let it go. Sound experience. 'Is it possible to die?' It is? Somewhere between 'engulf' and
   'englyph'. Kept in motion. Kind intentions modulate. Sentence tennis. Everything rust. Unfathomable
hole in your face. The countryside against. Made her laugh once. Man means. '100s of room-sized
   remnants.' 'New tubes fitted to every bed.' Acne on otherwise beautiful face. Cylon car. Nick of light
on corner of book. Anticipate/participate. Poor pickings (rich, coming from him). Tch-Tch-Tch-
   Tch-Tch — the indicator's on. Phone's little prelude is still unnerving. Sight line. So beautiful as to be
nondescript. Enshrine the howling example. News on the hop. Newsprint zen. Speechless. Break a
   mental leg. Jack shall have a new master. 'Quietly' racist (which suggests, of course, occasional

bouts of hectic violence). A poem is a place for doubt (contra sermon). There, there, then. Nectar is
   here. The Hamiltons' spoils. Helen — beetroot — playdoh — dishpan. Losing both parents — or arms — is
careless. Organising intelligence. Hell for leather. Balance? 'NO PARKING AT ANYTIME'. How
   to read. Explicitly Canadian. Everyone hesitates first. Work's list to justify. Win an argument by mis-
direction and/or misadventure. Hey, that was 6 days after Julia was born. Character witless. Money no
   object. Flowers-as-sex. Does not prove — in itself — self-centric argument. That's the point. Social
ritual. You simply cannot understand. Traditional precept: fluid, hurt. Stroll along / whistle song / pack
   a piece. Acres of boring stuff. Amuse yourself in the lower files. Worn light. Five people in a cell
are the government. Which came first: the egg or the parody? Eyes. Watch running water. Doors open
   to. None of these things was the case. What happens next so next can happen. You refuse. (Saucy.)