Javant Biarujia


from Plateaux of Sentience

                  “BARBETTE”

Accidental, acrobatic Barbette,
actor, adjectival Barbette, 
art-for-art’s-sake artiste Barbette, 

balletic, bathing Barbette,
bedding, betraying Barbette, 
bitter, bloody, blue Barbette,

bombshell, changeling Barbette,
chaotic, circusy Barbette,
clownish, conscious, crucified Barbette, 

Eagling, ecstatic Barbette,
Enigmatic Barbette (some would
say evil Barbette), exiled Barbette,

Genius, ideational Barbette,
Imaginal, imitative Barbette,
Impromptu, limpid Barbette, 

Masked, metaphorical Barbette,
mirroring, misconstruing Barbette,
monstrous, paradoxical Barbette,

Parisian, phosphorescent Barbette,
pink, poetic, portraying Barbette,
proving, punishing Barbette,

red, scandalous, secret Barbette,
shadowy, silent Barbette,
solitudinous Barbette,

statuesque, stormy Barbette,
stylish, symbolic Barbette,
taboo, tattooed, Texan Barbette,

tortured, true, unconscious Barbette,
unfaithful, virginal Barbette,
waspish, witty Barbette &

yin-‘n’-yang Barbette.



 “CAVAFY”               

Aborted, abstracted, accented,
acrostic, active/passive, algebraic,
ambassadorial, ambitious, anagrammatic,

anecdotal, angelic, animalistic, antique,
aristocratic, artistic, auctioned, autographed,
avant-garde, bankrupt, bastardised, bedded,

beggarly, betrayed, bitter, blackmailable,
blind, blonde, bodily, bookish, bored,
bourgeois, boyish, bronchitic, bullied — 

pertaining to cafés, cages, careers, castration,
cats, catharsis, cathedrals, champagne, chaos,
chess, choice, cigarettes, cities & class,

coincidental, confessed, cowardly, creative,
cremated, crépusculaire, cruel, dandified, 
deceived, dedicated, dédoublé, depressed,

despondent, dictionaried, diplomatic, disguised,
domestic, eccentric, élite, enigmatic, equational,
exiled, expatriate, experimented, eyed, failed,

favorite, fiery, first (book, memory, poem), flowered,
formed, forty — pertaining to fountains, frogs, fruit,
funerals, genius, ghosts, gloves, gold & gossip,

gymnastic, habitual, hallucinatory, happy, heavenly,
horoscopic, hot, hypocritical, imaginary, influenced,
inherited, inky, insectivorous, inspirational,

intellectual, interior, invented, journalistic — 
pertaining to kalos, kisses, laughter, libido,
libraries, life, lists, locusts, lotus, love, lucky,

manifestos, manuscripts, maps, masks,
mediocrity, the middle class, migrants, mirrors, money,
monstrous, musical, mysterious, neurotic, new —

pertaining to nightingales, nipples, noise, nudes, obscenity,
obituaries, obsessions, opening lines, opera, 
the Other, owls, paradoxes, parody, paronomasia,

passports, the past, pearls, the phallus, pink, poetic,
posthumous, powerful, prayerful, precocious, priestly,
proletarian, promiscuous, prophetic, puppet, quotidian,

reinvented, rejected, (rejection slips), repeated, ritual,
sailorly, salt, scandalous, schizophrenic, secret,
seductive, seventeen, shadowy, silent, sinful,

soldierly, solitudinous, soulful, stained (glass),
statuesque, stony, suicidal, syphilitic, taboo,
thundrous — pertaining to tongues, teeth, torture,

transcendence, transformation, trees, truth, typewriters,
the unconscious, unfaithful ones, unfinished work,
universities, unrequited love, witticism &

writer’s block.




                “HD”

PERTAINING TO AIRPLANES, ANKHS, ARTISTS,
BEARDS, BIRDS, BIRTH, BODY & SOUL, CAGES,
CAUSE AND EFFECT, CIRCLES, CIVILISATION,

DÉDOUBLEMENT, DOLLS, EXILE, FAME, FATHERS &
DAUGHTERS, FIRE, FLOWERS, FOUNTAINS, FRAGMENTS,
THE FUTURE, GOD/GOODS, HOMAGES, HOMONYMS,

HORSES, HOUSES, IDEAS, LIBRARIES, LIFE, LOVE,
MAN & WOMAN, MOTHERS, THE PAST, PATTERNS,
PIANOS, POETS, THE PRESENT, PROSE, PSYCHIATRY,

REALITY, REPETITION, RITES, RIVERS, SECRETS,
SHADOWS, THE SOUL, STATUES, SYMBOLS, TABLES,
TEMPLES, TREES, TRUTH, THE UNCONSCIOUS & 

THE ZODIAC.



                “LYN HEJINIAN”

Pertaining to abstraction (rare), accents (rare), 
adjectives (rare), adolescents (rare), agoraphobia
(rare), airplanes (rare), algebra (rare), allusion

(rare), alphabets (rare), ambition (rare), amnesia
(rare), analogy (rare), anatomy (rare), angels
(rare), anger (common), animals (common), 

anonymity (rare), ants (rare), anxiety (rare),
aporia (rare), ashes (rare), assassinations (rare);
avant-garde (rare), banal (rare), bathed (rare); 

pertaining to the beach (rare), beds (common), bees
(rare), bells (rare), birds (common); black (rare),
blind (rare), blue (common); pertaining to boats (rare),

the body (common), body/mind (rare), bombs (rare),
bones (rare); books (rare); borders (rare), botany (rare),
bottles (rare), the bourgeoisie (rare), bread (rare),

breasts (rare), bridges (rare), buckets (rare), buttons (rare),
cages (rare), catharsis (rare); change (rare), charm (rare),
circles (rare), the city (rare), claustrophobia (rare),

clay (rare), clocks (rare), clouds (common), contradiction
(rare); concave (rare), convex (rare), creative (rare),
dark (common); pertaining to the dawn (rare),

deceit (rare), demons (rare), depression (rare),
desire (rare), destruction (rare), dogs (common),
domes (rare), doors (rare), doubling (dédoublement; rare),

drums (rare), dusk (rare), dust (rare), ecstasy (rare),
edges (rare), emptiness (common), eyes (common),
faces (common), family (rare), fate (rare), fire (rare),

flesh (rare), flowers (common), fog (rare), the
forest (common), form (common), fountains (rare),
fragments (rare), freedom (rare), fur (rare), the

future (rare), gardens (rare), gates (rare), genius (rare),
ghosts (common); glamorous (rare), gossipy (rare),
graffitied (rare); pertaining to grass (common), gravity

(rare); greedy (rare), green (common), grey (rare), 
guilty (rare), hallucinatory (rare), happy (rare),
heavenly (rare); pertaining to the horizon (common),

horses (common), houses (common), hunters (rare),
ice (rare), ideas (rare), illusions (rare); images (rare);
imaginary (rare); pertaining to the imagination (rare),

imitation (rare), immortality (rare), individualism (rare),
ink (rare), insomnia (rare); intellectual (rare); pertaining 
to kalos (rare), knives (rare), knowledge (rare), ladders

(rare), lakes (rare), lamps (rare), leaves (rare), libido
(rare), life (common), light (common), lines (rare), lips
(rare), love (common), man/woman (rare), maps (rare),

martyrs (rare), meditation (rare), metamorphosis (rare),
miracles (rare), money (common), the moon (rare),
the mother (common), mountains (rare), the mouth

(common), mystery (rare), naïve (rare), naked (rare),
night (common), nightingales (rare), noise (rare), nostalgia
(rare), obsessions, orchards (rare), orifices (rare), owls (rare),

pain (rare), paradise (rare), paradoxes (rare), the past (rare),
peaches (rare), pearls (rare), the phallus (rare), pianos (rare); 
pink (rare); pertaining to pleasure (common), poetry (common),

portraits (rare), prophecy (rare); purple (rare), quotidian (rare);
pertaining to rain (common), reality (common); red (common);
pertaining to repetition (common), reverie (common), rhyme

(rare), rhythm (rare), rivers (rare), roses (rare), sand (rare),
the sea (common), secrets (rare), seduction (rare), sex
(common), shadows (common), ships (rare), shoes (rare),

silence (common), the skin (common), the skull (common),
the sky (common), snow (rare), solitude (common), song (rare),
the soul (rare), sound (common), space (common), stars (rare),

stones (common), storms (rare); strange (common); pertaining to
the sun (common), symmetry (rare), tattoos (rare), theft (rare),
tongues (common), torture (rare), towers (rare), traces (rare),

transformation (common), trees (common); triangles (rare),
the truth (rare), twilight (rare), typewriters (rare), the
unconscious (rare); unfinished (rare), vocal (rare), voluptuous

(rare); pertaining to walks (common), water (common), waves
(rare), the wind (common), windmills (rare), windows (common),
wings (rare), words (common); yellow (common) &

zero (rare).

                “MAX JACOB”

Abducted, abstracted, angelic, artichoked, artistic, automatic (writing), bovine, butterflown, cavernous, circular, civil (war), collaged & danced (danse macabre).

•

Dictionaried, enigmatic, exiled, experimental, eyed, feathered, first, formal, ghostly, intuited, invented, kidnapped, labyrinthine & landscaped.

•

Last, lined, lunar, manifestoed, marginal, meditated, monstrous, nocturnal, oval, owl-like, parachuted, pianoed, pleasurable, progressed & propagandised.

•

Rained (Europe after the Rain), revolutionary, seeded, shoed, suicidal, sunny, taroted, transcendent, transformed, transparent, treed, true, unfinished, violet, vocal &

yellow.

                “VIOLETTE LEDUC”

Literature leads to love, love leads to literature
— Violette Leduc, La Bâtarde
Pertaining to abortion, absence, abstraction, accent,
the alphabet, altars, altruism, ambition, angels,
anger, animals, antimetabole, apples, aristocracy,

arrows, artists, baptism, bars, bathing, beds, bees,
beggars, bells, betrayal, birds, birth, bitterness, blackness,
blood, blueness, the body, bones, books, boredom,

bread, breasts, breathing, buttons, cabbage, cafés,
cages, camellias, candles, chaos, choice, the Church,
cigarettes, the city, clocks, clouds, confessions, confetti,

the convent, conversations, coquettishness, the countryside,
courage, cows, crucifixion, cruelty, curses, cypresses,
darkness, the dawn, deceit, desire, despair, the diary as novel,

the dormitory, drums, dust, ecstasy, eggs, ends, errors,
evil, exile, eyes, faces, failure, fame, the father, favorite
places, feathers, fingers, fire, first love, first memory, 

flesh, flowers, flutes, freedom, fugues, funerals, fur,
the future, gardens, gold, gossip, greenness, grief, guilt,
hair, hands, happiness, hats, the heart, heaven, hell,

honey, horses, hypocrisy, identity, illegitimacy, imaginariness,
incest, insects, insomnia, invasion, invention, islands,
jealousy, jouissance, joy, justice, kalos, keys, kisses,

knives, laughter, life, light, lips, love, lust, machines,
man/woman, manuscripts, maps, martyrs, masks, mediocrity,
metamorphosis, the métro, milk, mirrors, monsters, the moon,

the mother, the mouth, mystery, nakedness, newness, night,
nostalgia, nuns, obsession, opera, orchards, orgasm, orphans,
pain, parody, passion, the past, pearls, pencils, phantasmagoria,

pianos, pillows, pinkness, pleasure, potatoes, power, prayer,
punishment, rabbits, the radio, reality, redness, revenge,
reverie, ritual, rivers, roses, sand, scandal, the sea, secrets,

seduction, shadows, shells, shoes, silence, silk, sin,
skin, smell, solitude, spires, statues, stones, storms,
swans, synaesthesia, tables, talismans, tears, theft,

tongues, transformation, traps, treasure (Trésors à prendre),
trees, tuberculosis, twilight, virtue, the voice, whiteness
windows, words, wounds, the writer, yellowness & 

zero. 

                “DAVID MCDIARMID”

Pertaining to Assorted closet drag queens; Australia (My country); Blood test; Body language; Darling why do we remember the past but not the future; Day of the dead skeleton for the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras; Dear death; Discard after use; Disco kwilt; Don’t forget to remember; Don’t make me wear frilly panties; Don’t worry, die young, be happy, make a will; [Fear & hate]; Fierce bitch seeks future ex-husband; Flippancy sentimentality sarcasm camp slut; Furniture sketches for Australian Dream Lounge; Hairy dyke seeks cunt boy for pussy worship; Hand and heart; Honey, have you got it?; I want a future that lives up to my past; I’m too sexy for my T-cells; Inquisition; It’s my party, and I’ll die if I want to, Sugar; Juicy fruit; Kiss of light; Man quilt; Mardi Gras; Method acting; Mighty real; Motorsexual homocycle slut needs service; O Tympanum; [Opposites]; Portraits of Hollywood; Real confessions; Q; Self-portrait; Stormy leather; Plague boy; Plato’s end; Secret love; So many pills so little time sweetie; Some of us are in love, some of us are in lust. All of us fuck with condoms — every time!; Some of us inject, some of us don’t; Standard bold Condensed (“ACTOR –70 DIES OF AIDS”/“AIDS VICTIM DIES ALONE”/ “CLOSET CHOKES NORMAN BATES”/ “DEAD SEX FEVER”/ “DEMENTED QUEEN REMEMBERS HER NAME”/ “8 TEENS KILL POOFTER”/“FUNERAL RITES NOW”/ “NOLAN FUCKS DEAD SAINT”/“POSITIVE QUEEN FEELS NEGATIVE”/“QUEER RITES NOW”/ “SICK FAG SPITS ON SISTER”/ “WHITE PRIEST BLOWS COP”); Sydney curtain; Sydney quilt; That’s Miss Poofter to you asshole; Thinking of you; Tired and bitchy; Tube of joy; “Untitled” (from Trade Enquiries); Up and down; What can I do for you; Yes; Yes and no &

You only hurt the ones you love.               



                “THOMAS MANN”

The fruit of solitude is originality, something daringly and disconcertingly beautiful, the poetic creation.[…] It is as well the world knows only a fine piece of work and not also its origins, the conditions under which it came into being; for knowledge of the sources of an artist’s inspiration would often confuse readers and shock them, and the excellence of the writing would be of no avail.[…] [L]anguage can only praise sensuous beauty, but not reproduce it
— Thomas Mann (Death in Venice)

Pertaining to absinthe […] the abyss […] anaemia […] analysis
[…] anxiety […] aristocracy […] art versus commerce […] art
versus life […] the artist as Other […] bad faith […] bad 

writing […] beggars […] betrayal […] birds […] blackness
[…] blasphemy […] blood […] blueness […] the body
[…] books […] boredom […] the bourgeoisie […] bridges

[…] bulls […] the burden of the writer […] cafés […] cages
[…] candles […] carnality […] the cemetery […] change
[…] chaos […] charm […] cholera […] the city […]

clowns […] confessions […] conformity […] conscience
[…] contradiction […] cowardice […] crucifixions […] curses
[…] dandyism […] deceit […] degeneracy […] depression

[…] desire […] discipline […] disguise […] disgust […]
dream versus reality […] dying young […] eagles […]
ecstasy […] the edge of the world […] the end of history

[…] the end of the world […] epidemics […] evil […] exile
[…] failure […] fame […] family […] fate […] fire […]
flânerie […] flirting […] flowers […] form […] fountains

gardens […] genius […] goats […] gondolas […] grass
[…] grief […] guitars […] happiness […] hats […] horses
[…] ideas […] identity (mistaken identity) […] imagination […]

incense […] inhibitions […] inspiration […] intellect […]
invention […] irony […] islands […] jealousy […] jeunesse 
dorée […] jewellery […] kalos […] kissing […] knowledge

(the nausea of knowledge) […] labyrinths […] laughter […] 
libraries […] life versus death […] lips […] lobsters […]
love […] mandolines […] the mandrake plant […] manuscripts

[…] maps […] marble […] masks […] mimesis […] the mind
versus body […] mirrors […] monsters […] the moon […] mountains
[…] mouths […] murder […] mussels […] naïveté […] nakedness

[…] nocturnes […] nostalgia […] nothingness […] the novel […]
opera […] origins […] owls […] oysters […] pain […] paradoxy
[…] paronomasia […] passion […] passivity […] passports

[…] peace […] pearls […] perfume […] pianos […] pleasure
[…] poets […] poison […] the police […] pomegranates
[…] portraiture […] praise […] prisons […] punishment

[…] puppetry […] purges […] quintessence […] the quotidian
[…] rapture […] reality […] rebirth […] repetition […] revenge
[…] reverie […] ridicule […] roses […] sailors […] the sea […]

secrets […] ships […] shoes […] sin […] snow […] soldiers
[…] solitude […] stars […] statues […] storms […] suicide
[…]  the sun […] sweat […] tact […] tears […] tennis […] 

trees […] the truth […] tuberculosis […] understanding […] 
being unfinished […] being in uniform […] unrequited 
love […] vanity […] vice […] violins […] virtue […] words &

writers 



“SAPPHO”

Ambiguous
Anecdotal
Anxious

Aristocratic 
Bittersweet 
Breathing 

Choral
Contradictory
Dark

Dictionary-like
Echoic
Egg-like

Empty 
Epigrammatic 
Exiled 

Festive 
Fire-like 
Fleshy 

Flute-like 
Free 
Gazing 

Goat-like 
Grave 
Hand-like 

Heart-like 
Hirsute 
Horse-like 

Huntress-like
Imaginative
Insomniac

Ironical
Knowledgeable
Loving

Map-like
Moon-like
Nectareal

Nocturnal
Nympholeptic
Papyraceous

Past
Perfumed
Pleasant
 
Praiseworthy
Present
Prosodical

Purple
Repetitious
Rhythmic

Rosy
Sarcastic
Sea-like

Similative
Song-like
Stained

Starry
Strange
Sunny

Tearful
Three
tree-like

Veiled
Violet
Vocal

Watery
Wheel-like
Wise





]ambrosial
]angry
]aphrodisiac  

]birdlike
]blue
]chaotic

]civilised
]cultish
]desirous

]diphthongal
]edgy
]eliding

]ending
]evil
]facial

]finger-like
]first
]flowery

]fragmentary
]future
]ghostly

]golden
]grievous
]happy

]hiatus-like
]honey
]hubristic

]imagistic
]immortal
]inventive

]kalos-like
]leafy
]lyrical

]milky
]mountainous
]new

]nothing
]ocular
]passionate

]peaceful
]phallic
]posthumous
 
]prayerful
]pronominal
]punished

]red
]reveristical
]ritualistic

]salty
]satirical
]silver

]skyish
]soulful
]stanzaic

]stony
]stylish
]syntactical

]templar
]transformational
]universal

]vesselled weak
]virginal
]vocalic

]wheat-like
]white
]wreathed &

]yellow.

Javant Biarujia is a poet and playwright, widely published in Australia and abroad. He has published eight chapbooks here (one in USA) and seven books here, with Pointcounterpoint: Selected and new poems brought out by Salt Publishing in England.

 
 

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