WANDA O’CONNOR: Drawing Hour

Drawing hour

 

i.
Halting             halting              halting

the room is in and out of it

hesitation come        stirring longer than the plan of hesitation        how quickly plans are laid –

           no,                  opportune the kind of darkness that wagers upon itself
bring forward the debris field
          a MASS          of new directions        no, candidate for direction        an omen
positioned and loyal to the mount

          a mark in any way
foreign
forging
foraging

         be certain in this knowledge
be sure of what you see
carry your suspicion in your right hand

 

ii.
Correct me if I’ve missed the way,
the chords of my thudding accumulate
move through charting          monitoring          a tourist in this postlude

led by variance variations vignettes
if only the surface could open more fully          shades          stand up to be seen
          of their shabby works are splendor
                                             I missed

an ink trail,
uncarefully trained,        and ends

                                                                                   I feel the cold dogs barking in the night
                                                                                   or I hear the night going cold

 

iii.
All earthly yearning
it is better to be acquainted with
artfully dressed           parading

long has dissent laid in tension
long has otherness
long, the machine ghost
deferred by its own lack
         hollows in the echo        the celestial table showing its positions, regular,        bodies in
 regular sequence:
      overlong, startling, syncope
          a term knows a cistern when it sees it
                (caressing is another unknowing – dark matter is dark matter)

What are you seeking, are you seeking anything at all, what is this original view

or why

                         halting               halting               halting

 

 

Wanda O’Connor is a doctoral candidate in Critical and Creative Writing at Cardiff University. Recent work is available or forthcoming in Asymptote, Magma, Poetry Wales and “The Best Canadian Poetry 2014” (Tightrope Books). Her chapbook, “damascene road passaggio” is available to order through Above/Ground Press.

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