Questions

Questions is a collaboration by Lucy Kempton and Joe Hyam. Poems are based on questions drawn from an agreed starting question and formed by answers, which contain and inspire the next questions. In response to Lucy's first question, Joe kicks off. This follows our earlier work in Compasses, archived here, where Lucy's photographs illustrate Joe's series of 50 sonnets under the title Handbook for Explorers.

Sunday 11 November 2007

Handbook for Explorers 46 to 50

46.


Being wrong has formed your plans of travel

As often as being right. The unforeseen

Explains, in part, how hard it was to tell

Useful signs from those of superstition.

You could blame limited intelligence

For errors of judgement and perception;


Admit that when, at last you arrived, chance

Played its part; that what you claimed as reason

Was wild surmise; that the choir, that captured

Your ear, was the wind buffeting the wire

That follows the road; that what you'd endured

Was for nothing, a worm wriggling in the fire;


That what you took to be the Holy Grail

Turned out to be just rags and scrap metal.

47.

The screens that show you, point by point, the track

Of you time and trouble across the globe,

Tell you where you were right and wrong, and stack

Up all your hopes into a flashing strobe.

Yet, if you believe the technology

That enters into every corner

Of your experience and geography,

You will have nothing left to call your own.


Better to look for faults there, too, which race

To reach an unexpected conclusion;

Ambiguities, which suggest one face

For another, challenge beliefs and strain

To restore to a healthy, fractious state

The near chaos you movements generate.



48.



To sum it up neatly, is to close it down:

The story of your travels doesn't end,

And you can't be certain where it began.



The daft voices of your forebears, behind

Your striding shadow, chatter in your brain,

Say: "Keep on this way; one day you'll learn to fly;

The Pleiades will be your destination."

You have the gift of curiosity,

And nothing you meet on the road is less

Than significant; if you look close enough,

Written on each stone you pass is "press"

Or "open";...


...you hear "come in" in each puff

Of wind; a door's half open, always set

To halve the gap, halve that, and halve, half that.


49.

There were things you ahd to dig for on sites

By the road. ...

... No reason to excavate,

Except an inborn sympathy for rites

Practised long before your time, private,

Magical, no longer comprehensible,

But prompted by urges bred in desert,

Forest, cave - the birthplaces of evil,

And of what was good, also, from the start,

Original virtue; this collect too,

Should be Adam's banner, Eve's song of joy -

Not to neglect the animal in you.


The falcon on your gauntlet, thoughts of prey,

Memories of scales and fur, bones piled up,

Strike you with a rhythm that just won't stop.




50.


To look back at all the faults and failures,

Which have led you to this curious place,

Might keep you occupied for years;

Or else be worth a quick laugh, without trace

Of regret or homily, and no text

Drawn from stale notes, no sums or stately sermon.

At best, you can admit you were perplexed,

Still are, by the meagre spread of reason

In the country you know best. Facts are scarce,

Too, in these parts and hard to verify;

The noise of opinion is continuous.

You think, now you're back, it was worth a try;

You say, " I've moved, not far from where I was,

But enough to see how the distance grows."



13 comments:

jzr said...

Oh my, this is is wonderfully written. There is so much here to contemplate and that I feel in my core. Being with lots of family this week, it is all very relevant.

"The noise of opinion is continuous," not only in my mind but in those around me.

Thank you!!

jzr said...

Oh my, this is is wonderfully written. There is so much here to contemplate and that I feel in my core. Being with lots of family this week, it is all very relevant.

"The noise of opinion is continuous," not only in my mind but in those around me.

Thank you!!

robinstarfish said...

I've put off commenting in hopes that the compass will take another spin. Meanwhile, thank you, thank you for 50 incomparable sonnets.

The 'ouvert' trio is priceless, and the simple arcs and lines of the final photograph make the boldest possible exclamation point. Pow! What a way to exit the stage!

You've left us wanting more, Joe and Lucy, that's what you've done. Bravo! Encore!

Ephrem Antony Gray said...

Yes, these are nonpareil. Many thanks! 49 Especially.

Lucas said...

The concluding images and sonnets take the breath away. What a fantastic photograph to end on!

Lucy said...

Thank you on my part.(River C. welcome, thanks for visiting).

The last photo is, I think, the only one with a living person in it. I was taking pictures around the fishing lake,un unremarkable spot but one which has yielded up some interesting ones. The man in the picture, perhaps in his 70s, had been walking behind me a way. I usually feel a little self-conscious about being watched in the act of photographing, so I sat on a bench to wait for him to pass, but he stopped and started talking very thoughtfully about photography, about the place, the light, the best angles and reflections. In his quiet, observant, reflective manner, he somehow put me in mind of Joe, who, of course, I have never met. It was still quite early, the light and shade quite bright and deep, and I caught him just as he was walking off into the shadow.

Lucy said...

Afterthought: with regard to continuing. The 'Handbook for Explorers' is concluded, however, Joe has more poems and I have more pictures. We thought we might continue posting occasionally, after an interlude!

apprentice said...

Lovely and pithy as ever. I like 48and 50. Photographs are are great match too, I like the broken glass treatment

Anonymous said...

When I wrote these I didn't expect to have them published. Nor did I expect that they would appear alongside photographs, which extended and qualified their meaning so beautifully. Nor could I have guessed that so many people would view them with such sympathy. Thank you, Lucy. And thank you, everyone, for your comments.

Crafty Green Poet said...

lovely tone to your poetry here and the photos complement your words perfectly...

Dave King said...

Incomparable. I can't believe how well Lucy managed to match image to verse, but both are... well, incomparable!

Linda S. Socha said...

This leaves me breathless....really...such complementary work....This has made me cry and I will spend some time sorting that out. Thank you
Linda

Kathy said...

Lucy,
Your illustrated sonnets are fantastic! Your comment on my poem Befallen on qarrtsiluni led me to your blog (fortunately). Pleased to make your acquaintance.
Kathy (K. Alma) Peterson