Andrew Taylor
from Ladies and Gentlemen: Mogwai
Write an endless poem about your life on earth or elsewhere – Lawrence Ferlinghetti
I
Up the Down Escalator chimes through Christmas cold
Heaven Up Here tour 1981
cut-off twelve foot snowdrifts
no trains from Kirkby no 345 bus no way out
Building igloos in the old village school with Evo
jumping into drifts off the sandstone bus shelter
built by Jimmy and Dad
knitwear sodden clear blue sky
Back through dusted lanes
carrying news
to the outskirts of the village
streets shared with Birch's milk-float
Bedroom listening John Peel
10 - 12
copying tape plastic companions
TDK D60 AD60 SA90 SX60
When something slips through your fingers you
know how precious it is…
Winters of discontent
cling to iced tracks television ending at midnight
three channels to four Breakfast Time
NME Wednesdays
Here her head she lay until she'd rise and say
I'm starved of mirth
Airing cupboard school sized clock
a palm cross pale blue walls
the second biggest bedroom
stereo lifeline bought second-hand reading run-out grooves
Kiss My Shades Smiths presumably ill forever
lyric sheet poetry
tracing paper sleeves Desperate Dan's Saturday
Probe Backtracks with Paul the Postman
The World Downstairs corner stage
coats left on to beat the cold
Cold only known after a night in The Royal Court
The Third Room introductions Mac in the back bar of the Phil
with Broudie
Dusted tracks rail-yard parallel racecourse
iced canal misted
walks from the second to last train station
to sober up
city edge
Bootle Arms the Delph St Thomas's
Porcupine release date put back anticipation
Tithebarn Lane view to the village fields hedgerow the pads
crop rotation discos in the old school
30 minute walk to dance to The Cutter through darkened lanes
Sefton Park: The theme from Star Trek as the evening light dropped
banked audience down to the smelly lake Fuel Pete on xylophone
TV channels close down at midnight
walk because of insomnia
lanes quiet in search of a fox and I've still not seen one there
TV channels expand to four 2nd November 1982
rails to Kirkdale
corner standing
a wait for the green flash
whisked through the streets
to the corner laundrette
the cleanliness the education
Lunchtime screenings
'Taras Schevchenko'
and the place I first set eyes on her
falling in love for the first time
from Hatful of Hollow to Meat is Murder a dietary change a continuance
November 1984 to February 1985
Vinyl viewpoint window shouting
posters a college clock
Melody Maker Sounds New Musical Express
Vulcan Street rehearsals
Half Man Half Biscuit
the dock wall black the smell of the sea
ships and warehouses the three ugly sisters before conversion
of the front
Lane sitting after learning to drive
drinking and being driven
prior to a summer of separation
trekking around Europe while
I holed up in Ieper visiting cemeteries
and sitting in town squares
wearing the Pisang Ambon t-shirt exchanged for a Smiths t-shirt
September reunited the evenings seem long
the hedgerows stay green
the nights seem warm
II
'In his Autumn 'fore
the Winter comes man's last mad surge of youth'
Tonight I listened patiently
to broadcast silence
on the radio
Just like viewing foreign static
in room 20 hotel engeland
Apple bottom
snow bunnies
Dovey slut remains an enigma
before Bluetooth exists in mind
alone
Do you know where you where
12th September 1986?
Slow down it creeps along
coast like down the exit
slipway
until the roundabout
Questions of love trumpet solos
a different route through slightly familiar
lanes past Cunscough wood and Brides Garage
tell me what you see
friend
family unit gathered before the storm
welcomed in despite differing city colours
allowed to evolve share poetry be published
nationally
Give what you take
allowed to shelter
chop the wood familiarize with turf fields
Mojave 3 said differently mojave
Old Hall Street before hotels
before change
meeting in reception
drinking in a station bar cinema
laughter at people falling
onto propellers
some kinda angel no doubt
I'll make you feel better
now it's about books about 8th Avenue
eight weeks then boarding a flight
rooming above the San Remo
buying vintage in Brooklyn
designer on 5th Avenue
writing poems about the East and West Villages
phoning home from the Empire State
ghosts of heroes below shuffling through
streets
feeling secure after abandonment
five years previous
starlight guiding home from Zinc
Fruits at breakfast
rarity alone
coffee for me juice for you
tentative behind there was always a shadow
forcing
questioning
Shared trains shared bed
confidence to show and work
Breath taken acupuncture a year of illness
a slow down not quite ready lavender goddess
the poem was directed
it could not have been written without you
the journey was possible
gathering from hedges
leaving money for flowers
watching the deer at dusk sleep for you
writing for me
carving into out of season sand the beach was deserted
tea at Jamaica Inn a unique aloneness
swaying in slowtime New Paths To Helicon 1
the sound of drums getting louder
the sound of angels at the parting of the clouds
feather light introduction
motif a heart shaped owl's face
light replication crescendo
overpowering strobe
I don't want it to end like this
In my dreams I tell you that I love you
Brian: Bring Trouble (Setanta Records SETCD060)
thanked alongside Ardal O’Hanlon
Ian Catt
FM Cornog
reading the review after Sunday working
III
drift back to under the coffee table
horizontal angled fireplace comforter
Winter chipping at the window
hunger bladder wrack a deserved pain
amber liquid clings to glass
alcohol
the yard rubble where Jonny
angled the tv out of the back bedroom window
Diane in pink shirt and an old pair of my jeans
holding electronic circuitry
in summer honeysuckle
in winter snow
cat company you never visited
I wouldn't want you to have
I’m losing touch with all the things that were so close to me
fever medication
driven to an emergency doctor
bedbound losing half a stone
sweats vomiting
M25 Master Robert taking ill
pleased to see a kindly face
bed sitting feeling a togetherness
taking tea
football scores
paged through swear words
and cake
just like the smoke
from the chimneys
a comfort
as is the sound of autumn
repairs the sound of hammers hitting nails
and the sight of fields
cropped then turned
reminders of Raymond Carver
candle slowly burns
the lavender turns to dust
night folds
clear and cusp like
Wherever we’re going
this night is yours
the warmth of that first smile
burns into a ten year old image
Off licence visits and football tournaments
beamed in from Europe
newspaper dissection
Saturday tea and sandwiches
Quirks for bargains
Father Ted for entertainment
that lad doing his thing
you doing yours
similar yet not
Hospice visits
Foil bunnies red collars
sitting under the chestnut tree
in the sun
the smell of death in the house
imprinted on the window
the docks from the JM Centre
enticing
the MA Poems
consuming without the thought of Poetics
turbines angled catch the breeze
boats leave for Ireland and Man
from certain floors the tunnel under Leeds Street
visible our route our entrance our exit
the fields walked between
refreshment in the Bootle Arms
watching men watching football
the church just there
'take me somewhere nice'
In my dreams I tell you that I love you
'In yer dreams knobhead' while girls
urinate in city centres
I ponder the level of distortion used in certain tracks
by Mogwai
Andrew Taylor is a Liverpool poet and co-editor of erbacce and erbacce-press. Poetry has recently appeared in The Balloon, MUST, Durable Goods and Heavy Hands Ink. His latest collection comes from The Knives, Forks and Spoons Press. He has a PhD in poetry and poetics.
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from Ladies and Gentlemen: Mogwai
Write an endless poem about your life on earth or elsewhere – Lawrence Ferlinghetti
I
Up the Down Escalator chimes through Christmas cold
Heaven Up Here tour 1981
cut-off twelve foot snowdrifts
no trains from Kirkby no 345 bus no way out
Building igloos in the old village school with Evo
jumping into drifts off the sandstone bus shelter
built by Jimmy and Dad
knitwear sodden clear blue sky
Back through dusted lanes
carrying news
to the outskirts of the village
streets shared with Birch's milk-float
Bedroom listening John Peel
10 - 12
copying tape plastic companions
TDK D60 AD60 SA90 SX60
When something slips through your fingers you
know how precious it is…
Winters of discontent
cling to iced tracks television ending at midnight
three channels to four Breakfast Time
NME Wednesdays
Here her head she lay until she'd rise and say
I'm starved of mirth
Airing cupboard school sized clock
a palm cross pale blue walls
the second biggest bedroom
stereo lifeline bought second-hand reading run-out grooves
Kiss My Shades Smiths presumably ill forever
lyric sheet poetry
tracing paper sleeves Desperate Dan's Saturday
Probe Backtracks with Paul the Postman
The World Downstairs corner stage
coats left on to beat the cold
Cold only known after a night in The Royal Court
The Third Room introductions Mac in the back bar of the Phil
with Broudie
Dusted tracks rail-yard parallel racecourse
iced canal misted
walks from the second to last train station
to sober up
city edge
Bootle Arms the Delph St Thomas's
Porcupine release date put back anticipation
Tithebarn Lane view to the village fields hedgerow the pads
crop rotation discos in the old school
30 minute walk to dance to The Cutter through darkened lanes
Sefton Park: The theme from Star Trek as the evening light dropped
banked audience down to the smelly lake Fuel Pete on xylophone
TV channels close down at midnight
walk because of insomnia
lanes quiet in search of a fox and I've still not seen one there
TV channels expand to four 2nd November 1982
rails to Kirkdale
corner standing
a wait for the green flash
whisked through the streets
to the corner laundrette
the cleanliness the education
Lunchtime screenings
'Taras Schevchenko'
and the place I first set eyes on her
falling in love for the first time
from Hatful of Hollow to Meat is Murder a dietary change a continuance
November 1984 to February 1985
Vinyl viewpoint window shouting
posters a college clock
Melody Maker Sounds New Musical Express
Vulcan Street rehearsals
Half Man Half Biscuit
the dock wall black the smell of the sea
ships and warehouses the three ugly sisters before conversion
of the front
Lane sitting after learning to drive
drinking and being driven
prior to a summer of separation
trekking around Europe while
I holed up in Ieper visiting cemeteries
and sitting in town squares
wearing the Pisang Ambon t-shirt exchanged for a Smiths t-shirt
September reunited the evenings seem long
the hedgerows stay green
the nights seem warm
II
'In his Autumn 'fore
the Winter comes man's last mad surge of youth'
Tonight I listened patiently
to broadcast silence
on the radio
Just like viewing foreign static
in room 20 hotel engeland
Apple bottom
snow bunnies
Dovey slut remains an enigma
before Bluetooth exists in mind
alone
Do you know where you where
12th September 1986?
Slow down it creeps along
coast like down the exit
slipway
until the roundabout
Questions of love trumpet solos
a different route through slightly familiar
lanes past Cunscough wood and Brides Garage
tell me what you see
friend
family unit gathered before the storm
welcomed in despite differing city colours
allowed to evolve share poetry be published
nationally
Give what you take
allowed to shelter
chop the wood familiarize with turf fields
Mojave 3 said differently mojave
Old Hall Street before hotels
before change
meeting in reception
drinking in a station bar cinema
laughter at people falling
onto propellers
some kinda angel no doubt
I'll make you feel better
now it's about books about 8th Avenue
eight weeks then boarding a flight
rooming above the San Remo
buying vintage in Brooklyn
designer on 5th Avenue
writing poems about the East and West Villages
phoning home from the Empire State
ghosts of heroes below shuffling through
streets
feeling secure after abandonment
five years previous
starlight guiding home from Zinc
Fruits at breakfast
rarity alone
coffee for me juice for you
tentative behind there was always a shadow
forcing
questioning
Shared trains shared bed
confidence to show and work
Breath taken acupuncture a year of illness
a slow down not quite ready lavender goddess
the poem was directed
it could not have been written without you
the journey was possible
gathering from hedges
leaving money for flowers
watching the deer at dusk sleep for you
writing for me
carving into out of season sand the beach was deserted
tea at Jamaica Inn a unique aloneness
swaying in slowtime New Paths To Helicon 1
the sound of drums getting louder
the sound of angels at the parting of the clouds
feather light introduction
motif a heart shaped owl's face
light replication crescendo
overpowering strobe
I don't want it to end like this
In my dreams I tell you that I love you
Brian: Bring Trouble (Setanta Records SETCD060)
thanked alongside Ardal O’Hanlon
Ian Catt
FM Cornog
reading the review after Sunday working
III
drift back to under the coffee table
horizontal angled fireplace comforter
Winter chipping at the window
hunger bladder wrack a deserved pain
amber liquid clings to glass
alcohol
the yard rubble where Jonny
angled the tv out of the back bedroom window
Diane in pink shirt and an old pair of my jeans
holding electronic circuitry
in summer honeysuckle
in winter snow
cat company you never visited
I wouldn't want you to have
I’m losing touch with all the things that were so close to me
fever medication
driven to an emergency doctor
bedbound losing half a stone
sweats vomiting
M25 Master Robert taking ill
pleased to see a kindly face
bed sitting feeling a togetherness
taking tea
football scores
paged through swear words
and cake
just like the smoke
from the chimneys
a comfort
as is the sound of autumn
repairs the sound of hammers hitting nails
and the sight of fields
cropped then turned
reminders of Raymond Carver
candle slowly burns
the lavender turns to dust
night folds
clear and cusp like
Wherever we’re going
this night is yours
the warmth of that first smile
burns into a ten year old image
Off licence visits and football tournaments
beamed in from Europe
newspaper dissection
Saturday tea and sandwiches
Quirks for bargains
Father Ted for entertainment
that lad doing his thing
you doing yours
similar yet not
Hospice visits
Foil bunnies red collars
sitting under the chestnut tree
in the sun
the smell of death in the house
imprinted on the window
the docks from the JM Centre
enticing
the MA Poems
consuming without the thought of Poetics
turbines angled catch the breeze
boats leave for Ireland and Man
from certain floors the tunnel under Leeds Street
visible our route our entrance our exit
the fields walked between
refreshment in the Bootle Arms
watching men watching football
the church just there
'take me somewhere nice'
In my dreams I tell you that I love you
'In yer dreams knobhead' while girls
urinate in city centres
I ponder the level of distortion used in certain tracks
by Mogwai
Andrew Taylor is a Liverpool poet and co-editor of erbacce and erbacce-press. Poetry has recently appeared in The Balloon, MUST, Durable Goods and Heavy Hands Ink. His latest collection comes from The Knives, Forks and Spoons Press. He has a PhD in poetry and poetics.
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