that which has passed is big enough to be going on with


it was our last stop before modernism

we had criss-crossed the eastern

side of the western part of the

nothern sector in search of fresh corruption



in a leather folder folded on my fiddled lap

an aesthetic in a marble-edged manila envelope of gold

it was called "those days are gone...

here come some more: better, brighter, never!"



for the future I have given up

associative thought process and all con-

junctions you gave up the failing chintz of love

all around us our paisley enemies silently fumed in spots



when the trains come in the form of your dreams

then the dreams come joyfully off their rails

you see I told you the chequered future should be

huge enough to swallow up even the past



and that which has passed is big enough

enough big is passed has which that and







beyond the grove


oh seth I am broken

you see? my first and only false love my first and my

only false love mapped out a love of falseness ever since with my

that extra word special relish intact chutney

investments slowly crumbled or slowly crumbling

cut to the poets in their tower troping o'er the insects

hard is the sill of talent I know I'm kneeling on it!

fear of a bland planet, beyond the thorn-grove

has pent them see the apples the smell of

decomposed on the grounds of the untended orchard of allegory

drop in consumer demand or perhaps a great house fallen on hard times

only select the story will then conduct its own business unapprehended mostly

it's easy, you just let them grow then at the end you pick 'em

switch over to "she believes she can reason it out with words"

talk them back into the passion of all beginnings back and

forth back and forth a loom or shuttle-cock of

over the unhooked and therefore drooping net you'll never get out of here

a way of complimenting through slander was my first great work

forays into induced attachments of my own to things I knew meant

nothing fall

from the gantry onto a hard concrete sound stage a

post-method actor smoking and reciting our words for us what we pay him for

you were meant to be my hero but lo are now me very undoing

you need to get out, lair your hair down a little

poems beyond the grove might







grievance deficiency syndrome


1. loosened the hatch with that thing you brought about

2. came rushing in

3. and

4. all but overwhelms one

5. with the result that I just couldn't get over it

6. even though it was not an actual obstacle

7. or get it out of my mind

8. and yes I know that it was never in there as such

9. they say what doesn't kill you will cure you and a lot of other clichéd crap

10. found curled up in a kitchen cupboard

11. and I supposed we were all looking for an easy grace

12. the motion of athletes strolling in early evening sun

13. so many hurdles make you slower if you try to clear them

15. why not run straight on through they were expecting you

16. now they are dismissing you

18. fell off into nostalgia for a world of restrictions

19. shorthand for order short straw philosophies abounding at this time

20. I believe you have a good case

21. together we can cook something up

22. you said you wanted to get back at them but

23. that always means to just get back to them

24. and when she asked what's wrong nothing was his automatic response

25. meanwhile things will get better before that was much worse


© William Watkin 2005