EARTH ~

Simon Cutts

Miss Crick's Workshop


amidst drawers

of baubles

for repair,



the pear

or pearl -

drops



of crystal

candle

chandelier










Bryan Broom's Room


the tubular

candlewick

bedspread



used as

curtains

gains



the condensed

weight of

bathwater










Anything may, with strict propriety

be called perfect

which perfectly answers

the purpose for which

it was made:



a packet of seeds










Today

I built

a Book:



began

the butternut

shoes



in May










in the folds

of fabrics



satchels of

aromatics



as sweet

flag strewn

between

pews










desert


buoyant pears

float



in a glass

bowl



as water

quells



dust from

the road










perfume invades

the dry blue

hydrangea



sheltered and

tethered by

the rockery










another paisley


a packet

of parsley's

curliness










Cabourg


the fine grass

of these dunes



scented &

crested by



the sound

of the sea



in a casement

window










the camouflaged

magpie



whose white

parts are



sky










the poem's

weight



as the braid

of a bird's



footpath

in the snow









from the shelves of

the alternative bookshop



the plans for

a dexion wheelbarrow





selected from SEEPAGES
SIMON CUTTS
The Jargon Society (1988)

SIMON CUTTS ~ poet, artist, and editor, mastermind, with Erica Van Horn, at Coracle Press over the last four decades where their pursuit has been the book and its mechanisms as a manifestation of the poem itself. They live in Ireland.