Mark Pirie


Butterfly
                                        (For Kendrick Lamar)


 




Nikola Tesla

Tesla described the creative process
of invention as “flashes of light” or lightning striking,
inspiring his imagination and visions.

                              		We can think
                              		                       f 
                                         		    o   i
                                         		       t
                              		as a bulb or halo 
                                             			emitting words, pictures
                                             			transmitting thought
                                             			automatons of our being
                                             			producing poetry of invention
                              		the art of telautomatics…

In fact Tesla conceived an image
of a design once walking in a park 
with a friend recalling words from
Goethe’s Faust, this inexplicable genius
that underpins our world and achievements,
receiving, like a coil, sharp and clear, the future.



Some poems

(For Alan Loney)

Some poems
               	don’t seem
                              		to work

But don’t
         take their 
                              		W
                              		   O
                              		      R
                              		         D
                                             			for it.

Look for

                                             			missing parts.



Speechless: A Word Painting


today my mother would be eighty if she hadn’t died

today my mother would be eighty if she hadn’t 

today my mother would be eighty if she 

today my mother would be eighty if

today my mother would be eighty 

today my mother would be 

today my mother would 

today my mother 

today my

today


6 August 2021



Metallica Vs Cicada Lizzy

Cicada Lizzy plays live and unplugged
outside my flat; no amplifiers and wires,
they have a rasping tilt and crescendo
with not much harmony: all rattle and shake.

When I play Metallica on my stereo,
with the San Fran symphony orchestra,
the announcer states, unwittingly,
“Let’s see how loud things can get.”

I compare the cicadas’ synchronised din
with the live recording I’m hearing.
Cicadas certainly hold their own
with Metallica and the orchestra in full flight.

The cicadas’ performance goes on after the concert
into the night, free-spirited and riotous.
Even when I sleep they patter the window with
jailbreak beat, morse code: “Cicada Lizzy are back in town.”

Mark Pirie (b.1974) is an internationally published New Zealand poet, editor, publisher and archivist for PANZA (Poetry Archive of NZ Aotearoa). In 2016, his selected poems, Rock & Roll, was published by Bareknuckle Books, Australia (available from the publisher). Other books include a biography, Tom Lawn, Mystery Forward (ESAW, 2018), an artbook Folk Punk (2020) and Gallery (poetry) published by Salt, England, 2003. He is a former founder/editor of JAAM, 1995-2005, publisher for HeadworX 1998-, and currently edits broadsheet: new new zealand poetry, 2008-. Website: www.markpirie.com.

 
 

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