Professional Documents
Culture Documents
O'Brien
OTHERS
Songs to
BY Mina Loy
Joannes
Published by OTHERS FRANK SHAY, Agent, 17 West 8th Street, New York City E. R. BROWN, Price 15 Cents Boston Agent, Cornhill 12 Issues, $1.50
MINA
LOY
I Spawn of Fantasies his rosy snout S i l t i n g the appraisable P i g Cupid R o o t i n g erotic garbage "Once upon a time" Pulls a weed white and star-topped sewn in mucous-membrane A m o n g wild oats I would an
E t e r n i t y in a sky-rocket Constellations in an ocean Whose rivers run no fresher T h a n a trickle of saliva These are suspect places
I must live in my lantern T r i m m i n g subliminal flicker Virginal to the bellows Coloured glass Of Experience
II T h e skin-sack I n which a wanton duality Packed All the completions of my infructuous impulses Something the shape of a man
4 MINA
LOY
T o the casual v u l g a r i t y of the merely M o r e of a clock-work mechanism R u n n i n g down against time T o which I am not paced My finger-tips
observant
are numb from fretting your hair On the threshold of your mind
A God's door-mat
III W e might have coupled In the bed-ridden monopoly of a moment Or broken flesh with one another A t the profane communion table Where wine is spill't on promiscuous lips W e might have given b i r t h to a butterfly W i t h the daily-news P r i n t e d in blood on its wings IV Once in a mezzanino The starry ceiling Vaulted an unimaginable family B i r d - l i k e abortions W i t h human throats A n d Wisdom's eyes W h o wore lamp-shade red dresses A n d woolen hair
MINA
LOY
One bore a baby I n a padded porte-enfant T i e d with a sarsanet ribbon T o her goose's wings B u t for the abominable shadows I would have lived A m o n g their fearful furniture T o teach them to tell me their secrets Before I guessed Sweeping the brood clean out
V
M i d n i g h t empties the street Of a l l but us Three I am undecided which way back T o the left a boy One wing has been washed i n the r a i n The other will never be clean any more P u l l i n g door-bells to remind Those that are snug T o the right a haloed ascetic T h r e a d i n g houses Probes wounds for souls T h e poor can't wash in hot water A n d I dont know which t u r n i n g to take Since you got home to yourselffirst
6 MINA
LOY
VI I know the W i r e - P u l l e r intimately A n d i f it were not for the people On whom you keep one eye Y o u could look straight at me A n d Time would be set back
VII M y p a i r of feet Smack the flag-stones T h a t are something left over from your walking The wind stuffs the scum of the white street Into my lungs and my nostrils E x h i l a r a t e d birds Prolonging flight into the night Never reaching
VIII I am the jealous store-house of the candle-ends T h a t l i t your adolescent Behind God's eyes There might Be other lights learning
MINA
LOY
IX W h e n we lifted Our eye-lids on Love A cosmos Of coloured voices A n d laughing honey And spermatazoa
XI Dear one Is only A colorless onion Y o u drobe Sheath by sheath Remaining A disheartening odour About your nervy hands at your mercy
Our Universe
8 MINA
LOY
XII Voices break on the confines of passion Desire Suspicion Man Woman Solve in the humid carnage Flesh from flesh D r a w s the inseparable delight K i s s i n g at gasps Is it true T h a t I have set you a p a r t Inviolate in an utter crystallization Of all the j o l t i n g of the crowd T a u g h t me willingly to live to share Or are you Only the other half Of an ego's necessity Scourging pride with compassion T o the shallow sound of dissonance A n d boom of escaping breath to catch it
MINA
LOY
Something taking shape Something that has a new name A new dimension A new use A new illusion It is ambient Something shiny A n d it is in your eyes Something only for you Something that I must not see
I t is in my ears Something very resonant Something that you must not hear Something only for me L e t us be very jealous V e r y suspicious V e r y conservative V e r y cruel Or we might make an end of the j o s t l i n g of aspirations Disorb inviolate egos Where two or three are welded together T h e y shall become god Oh that's right Keep away from me Please give me a push D o n ' t let me understand you D o n ' t realise me
10 M I N A L O Y
Or we might tumble together Depersonalized Identical Into the terrific N i r v a n a M e you you me
XIV Today Everlasting T o you I b r i n g the nascent v i r g i n i t y of Myself N o love for the moment or the other t h i n g passing apparent imperceptible
Only the impact of lighted bodies K n o c k i n g sparks off each other I n chaos XV Seldom T r y i n g for Love looked only human
F a n t a s y dealt them out as gods T w o or three men B u t you alone Superhuman apparently I had to be caught in the weak eddy Of your drivelling humanity T o love you most
MINA
LOY
11
XVI W e might have lived together In the lights of the A r n o Or gone apple stealing under the sea Or played H i d e and seek in love and cob-webs A n d a lullaby on a tin-pan And talked t i l l there were no more tongues T o talk with A n d never have known any better XVII I don't care Where the legs of the legs of the furniture are walking to Or what is hidden i n the shadows they stride Or what would look at me If the shutters were not shut Red a warm colour on the battle-field
H e a v y on my knees as a counterpane Count counter I counted the fringe of the towel T i l l two tassels clinging together L e t the square room fall away F r o m a round vacuum D i l a t i n g with my breath XVIII Out of the severing Of hill from hill
12 M I N A L O Y
T h e interim Of star from star The nascent Static Of night N o t h i n g so conserving A s cool cleaving Note of the Q H U Clear carving Breath-giving Pollen smelling Space W h i t e telling Of slaking Drinkable T h r o u g h fingers R u n n i n g water Grass haulms Grow to L e a d i n g astray Of fireflies A e r i a l quadrille Bouncing Off one another A g a i n conjoining I n recaptured pulses Of light XIX
MINA
LOY
13
Y o u too H a d something A t that time Of a green-lit glow-worm Y e t slowly drenched T o raylessness In rain X X L e t J o y go solace-winged T o flutter whom she may concern
XXI I store up nights against y o u H e a v y with shut-flower's nightmares Stack noons Curled to the solitaire Core of the Sun XXII Green things grow Salads For the cerebral Forager's revival
14 M I N A L O Y
U p o n bossed bellies Of mountains R o l l i n g i n the sun A n d flowered flummery Breaks T o my silly shoes I n ways without you I go Gracelessly A s things go XXIII L a u g h t e r i n solution Stars in a stare Irredeemable pledges Of pubescent consummations Rot T o the recurrent moon Bleach T o the pure white Wickedness of p a i n XXIV The procreative t r u t h of M e Petered out In pestilent T e a r drops L i t t l e lusts and lucidities A n d prayerful lies
MINA
LOY
15
Muddled with the heinous acerbity Of your street-corner smile XXV L i c k i n g the A r n o The little rosy Tongue of D a w n Interferes with our eyelashes W e twiddle to i t Round and round Faster A n d t u r n into machines T i l l the sun Subsides i n shining Melts some of us Into abysmal pigeon-holes Passion has bored In warmth Some few of us Grow to the level of cool plains C u t t i n g our foot-hold W i t h steel eyes XXVI Shedding our petty pruderies F r o m slit eyes
16 M I N A L O Y
Inconceivable concept Insentient repose The hands of races D r o p off from Immodifiable plastic T h e contents Of our ephemeral conjunction I n aloofness from M u c h Flowed to approachment of NOTHING There was a man and a woman In the way While the Irresolvable Rubbed with our daily deaths Impossible eyes XXVIII The steps go up for ever A n d they are white A n d the first step Forever is the last white
MINA
LOY
17
Coloured
conclusions
Smelt to synthetic Whiteness Of my Emergence A n d I am burnt quite white I n the climacteric W i t h d r a w a l of your sun A n d wills and words a l l white Suffuse Illimitable monotone White where there is nothing to see
B u t a white towel Wipes the cymophonous sweat M i s t rise of l i v i n g F r o m your Etiolate body A n d the white dawn Of your New D a y Shuts down on me Unthinkable that white over there
18 M I N A L O Y
U n n a t u r a l selection Breed such sons and daughters A s shall jibber at each other Uninterpretable cryptonyms Under the moon Give them some way of b r a y i n g brassily F o r carressive calling O r to homophonous hiccoughs Transpose the laugh L e t them suppose that tears A r e snowdrops or molasses O r anything T h a n human insufficiencies Begging dorsal vertebrae L e t meeting be the t u r n i n g T o the antipodean And Form Anything T h a n seduce them T o the one A s simple satisfaction F o r the other L e t them clash together F r o m their incognitoes I n seismic orgasm a blurr
MINA
LOY
19
F o r far
further
Differentiation R a t h e r than watch Own-self distortion Wince i n the alien ego X X X In some P r e n a t a l plagiarism Foetal buffoons Caught tricks
W h a t guaranty F o r the proto-form W e fumble Our souvenir ethics to XXXI Crucifixion Of a busy-body
20 M I N A
LOY
L o n g i n g to interfere so W i t h the intimacies Of your insolent isolation Crucifixion Of an illegal ego's Eclosion On your equilibrium Caryatid Crucifixion W r a c k e d arms Index extremities In vacuum T o the unbroken fall XXXII T h e moon is cold Joannes Where the Mediterranean XXXIII T h e p r i g of passion T o your professorial paucity Proto-plasm was r a v i n g mad E v o l v i n g us XXXIV Love the preeminent literateur of an idea